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Brian talks to Senator Jon Husted · Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: Hey's Brian Thomas. Welcoming back to the fifty five Casey
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Speaker 1: Morning Show. And what a great idea he's got Senator
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Speaker 1: John Houston, who has introduced, Oh my god, I've been
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Speaker 1: dreaming about this my entire political life, a balanced budget amendment.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Senator Houston. It's great having you on.
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Speaker 1: I had a conversation the other day with think it
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Speaker 1: was vv Ramaswamy or I can't remember specifically who I know,
0:23
Speaker 1: Donovan and Neil from Americans for Prosperity, And I said,
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Speaker 1: you know, Donovan, I my entire political life, which began
0:30
Speaker 1: maybe when I was around a junior in high school
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Speaker 1: or something, I've been dreaming of a balanced budget amendment.
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Speaker 1: It sounds so common sense. We have to run our
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Speaker 1: households on a balanced budget, at least most of us
0:39
Speaker 1: who were financially prudent. Anyway, How can you argue with this?
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Speaker 1: How could this possibly bear a political stripe? It sound finance?
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Speaker 1: Does this one have any hope? Because this kind of
0:49
Speaker 1: thing's been tried over and over again, So.
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Speaker 2: I think so? Like I think so? Because so so
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Speaker 2: let me just set the stage here, right, because this
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Speaker 2: is this is my you know, I worked in state government.
1:01
Speaker 2: In state government, we had to balance the budget. So
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Speaker 2: your mentality going into the budget process when you work
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Speaker 2: in state government is Okay, it's got to add up,
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Speaker 2: it's got to balance right like that. You just you
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Speaker 2: don't have the concept that that's not going to happen.
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Speaker 2: But at the federal level, because it doesn't have to happen,
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Speaker 2: no one even thinks about what the consequences are of
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Speaker 2: overspending because it's just what they do. And after spending
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Speaker 2: a little time here now, I realized that that it's
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Speaker 2: not going to get fixed until we force a solution.
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Speaker 2: And so the balanced budget amendment that I'm working on
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Speaker 2: proposed is not something where it says, hey, you passed
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Speaker 2: this and then the next year it's going to be
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Speaker 2: balanced and we're going to We're gonna have ten years
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Speaker 2: to get there, right. You got to get there over time,
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Speaker 2: because there's no way you can get the votes for
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Speaker 2: this if you don't phase it in. But I also
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Speaker 2: know this that I've talked to many people in my
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Speaker 2: life who have said I'm willing to do with I'm
2:00
Speaker 2: willing to take less from the government, I'm willing to
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Speaker 2: give more to the government. But they don't trust the
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Speaker 2: fact that it will actually do anything, because we're not
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Speaker 2: forced to have a balanced budget. So if you want
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Speaker 2: to get people to make the sacrifices necessary, you have
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Speaker 2: to prove to them that you will do you will
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Speaker 2: act responsibly, and the only way you can prove it
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Speaker 2: is with a constitutional amendment.
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Speaker 1: Well, it's save me from myself, because you know all
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Speaker 1: the promises of fiscal responsibility. We've been hearing that for
2:31
Speaker 1: years and on both sides of the Ledger, more so from
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Speaker 1: the Republican side, because it's been typically been part of
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Speaker 1: the Republican platform to engage in fiscal responsibility, and yet
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Speaker 1: we get stabbed in the back by the very Republicans
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Speaker 1: who articulate and argue about fiscal responsibility when they bring
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Speaker 1: back the projects to their state when they get an
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Speaker 1: opportunity to do so, which is not necessarily fiscally responsible.
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Speaker 2: It is exactly right, but nobody is forced to do it.
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Speaker 2: Like if you if you could eat as much as
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Speaker 2: you want, and you know, then you eat as much
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Speaker 2: as you want, if you would never act, if you
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Speaker 2: didn't have to exercise to be healthy. If you can
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Speaker 2: eat as much as you want, you do it. But
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Speaker 2: in government at the federal level, that there's no discipline,
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Speaker 2: there's no mechanism to force the discipline, and without it,
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Speaker 2: eventually the discipline will come when people will no longer
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Speaker 2: allow us to borrow money, or they'll jack up the
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Speaker 2: rates that you have to that you're going to have
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Speaker 2: to pay to borrow money, and that'll be a catastrophe.
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Speaker 2: Then that will be a crisis. Actually, the balanced budget
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Speaker 2: amendment I'm proposing is the easy way. The hard way
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Speaker 2: will come when we eventually can no longer borrow money,
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Speaker 2: and then it will be catastrophic. The change, the rate
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Speaker 2: of change will be catastrophic to people. They won't be
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Speaker 2: able to adjust it. What I'm proposing as a phase in.
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Speaker 1: Well, that phase in that glide path, as it's quite
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Speaker 1: often referred to, is not tearing the band aid off.
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Speaker 1: You don't have to experience the media pain. But you're
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Speaker 1: exactly right. Their failure to engage in fiscal responsibility is
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Speaker 1: bringing about that very crisis. We won't have creditors anymore.
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Speaker 1: The Fiat currency, it runs in jeopardy of becoming worthless
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Speaker 1: and valueless, like it has in so many other countries
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Speaker 1: that have run down this road and just run the
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Speaker 1: printing press thinking it's gonna work out and everybody's gonna
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Speaker 1: be fine. No, you need a wheelbarrow full of money
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Speaker 1: to buy a loaf of bread. How many times does
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Speaker 1: that happen? And yet it seems that everybody just ignores
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Speaker 1: that painful, obvious reality. I mean, we do not have
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Speaker 1: a lock on the default currency, with crypto out there
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Speaker 1: and other currencies maybe perhaps more financially managed better, maybe
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Speaker 1: backed by something by goal like gold or something. I
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Speaker 1: don't know, but we've just been blindly relying on that
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Speaker 1: this is going to go on into perpetuity when it
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Speaker 1: clearly cannot.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, as in preparation for this, I've
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Speaker 2: looked at how hard this will be to do. Do
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Speaker 2: you know that they're other than China? There's not another
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Speaker 2: So let me back up. We have over a trillion
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Speaker 2: dollars in interest payments a year in the United States
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Speaker 2: on our national debt thirty eight trillion. A trillion dollars
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Speaker 2: a year more than that go to interest in the
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Speaker 2: national debt. You know, there are only two countries in
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Speaker 2: the world who have a budget over trillion dollars, that's
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Speaker 2: the United States in China. But in context, the size
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Speaker 2: of the problem that we have. And you know, people
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Speaker 2: on the left have said, well, we just need to
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Speaker 2: tax the billionaires. Right. Do you know if you confiscated
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Speaker 2: all the money of every billionaire in America, you still
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Speaker 2: have a national debt that's over thirty trillion dollars and
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Speaker 2: then nobody to tax for your free grocery stores. I mean, seriously,
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Speaker 2: this is a problem that we have to treat with
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Speaker 2: the urgency it deserves.
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Speaker 1: Well, you get one bite at the apple with a
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Speaker 1: confiscatory there with a tax like that, because if you
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Speaker 1: acquire and take all of the billionaire's assets one year,
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Speaker 1: they're not going to be around next year to make
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Speaker 1: any more money.
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Speaker 2: But I'm just trying to use it as an it's
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Speaker 2: a well taken this is not going to You're not
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Speaker 2: going to get there just by taxing the rich. You
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Speaker 2: can't even come close to paying off the debt by
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Speaker 2: taxing them by confensating all their money. So it's it's
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Speaker 2: just it's just it's time we got to do this.
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Speaker 1: And as so many other Western nations are learning, you
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Speaker 1: go ahead and go down that path. The rich figure
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Speaker 1: out a way to leave the jurisdiction and take their
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Speaker 1: money and go elsewhere. Now, the one component of this,
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Speaker 1: it's balance the budget check, no problem, reasonable glide path
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Speaker 1: to reach the balance check. We've talked about that a
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Speaker 1: little bit concern I have, and I think you can
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Speaker 1: understand why I have. It is the accept in emergencies part.
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Speaker 1: And I can see, you know, our elected officials figuring
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Speaker 1: out ninety zillion ways why every year we find ourselves
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Speaker 1: in an emergency. What's the check on that political concern?
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Speaker 2: Well, it's it's a it's a two thirds majority, which means,
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Speaker 2: you know, that's a huge number to get to to break.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you would have to be a true emergence
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Speaker 2: to be able to get something like that done, meaning
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Speaker 2: like we were in a world war or something along
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Speaker 2: those lines. But you know, look, there has to be
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Speaker 2: some mechanism, sure, because I'm I'm trying to live in
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Speaker 2: the world of pragmatism, right of like what can I do?
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Speaker 2: How can I how can I be behind a balanced
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Speaker 2: budgetmendment that I have a chance of actually getting passed?
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Speaker 2: And so that's why the glide passed. That's why. That's
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Speaker 2: why because you know what someone will say, well, what
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Speaker 2: about what about if we go to war? What about
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Speaker 2: if there's a you know, a huge natural disaster, and
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Speaker 2: we need to have more money, you know, and we
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Speaker 2: have to borrow temporarily. Well, then that you have a
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Speaker 2: trigger mechanism to do that. But it's a two thirds majority.
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Speaker 2: It's a huge number to try to get to.
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Speaker 1: And of course, since we're talking about a constitutional amendment here,
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Speaker 1: which will give it the strength and the teeth that
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Speaker 1: would need absence some subsequent Supreme Court finding otherwise. But anyway,
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Speaker 1: let's assume it gets passed, you have to have it
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Speaker 1: ratified by the states. Is there enough will out there
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Speaker 1: among the states? Because when I view this whole concept,
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Speaker 1: you've dealt with the concerns about the band Aid, ripping
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Speaker 1: off of the glidepath and all that, it sounds logical,
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Speaker 1: it sounds reasonable, and I can't believe fiscal responsibility at
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Speaker 1: least taking only spending what you take in has a
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Speaker 1: political stripe. So what do you anticipate being the biggest
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Speaker 1: argument you're going to face in terms of selling this
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Speaker 1: to everyone? Are let me just say, what are the
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Speaker 1: Democrats going to say in opposition to this, assuming it
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Speaker 1: goes down the traditional political course.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know, they'll have a lot of different things
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Speaker 2: that they'll say about it. But what I believe. Look,
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Speaker 2: I don't you made a really good point, like this
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Speaker 2: has been tried, it's not happened, But I do I
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Speaker 2: do believe that that now we're getting close. Like I
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Speaker 2: don't know when it's going to be, Brian, I don't
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Speaker 2: know if it's going to be in two years, five years,
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Speaker 2: ten years, But if we don't change our spending habits,
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Speaker 2: like there is a day not too and then not
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Speaker 2: too distant future where people won't loan us money anymore, right,
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Speaker 2: Like they won't buy our debt because they can't trust
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Speaker 2: that we'll actually be able to pay it off. So
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Speaker 2: I think that the convergence of those events, because nobody's
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Speaker 2: going to trust to the government to if you ask
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Speaker 2: them to make a sacrifice, and you don't have a
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Speaker 2: mechanism like a constitutional amendment forcing the discipline, I don't
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Speaker 2: think that you'll get people to make those sacrifices. So
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Speaker 2: I think that there's a chance that the States will
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Speaker 2: recognize this day of reckoning and the voters of this
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Speaker 2: country will vote to approve it. I just believe that
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Speaker 2: the convergence of events are going to allow for something
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Speaker 2: like that to happen in the next in the next
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Speaker 2: few years.
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Speaker 1: Well, when asked as an isolated question, do you believe
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Speaker 1: in the concept of a balanced budget amendment or mandating
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Speaker 1: office corresponsibility? I think most people agree percentage wise, sixty
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Speaker 1: seventy percent of American so it's a sellable point. It's
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Speaker 1: the responsible thing to do. I can only pray that
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Speaker 1: this goes forward. And I want to thank you on
9:55
Speaker 1: behalf of the listeners and everybody else who is concerned
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Speaker 1: about what you're concerned about, for bringing forward the balance
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Speaker 1: budget and a MENMS. We'll talk about it again in
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Speaker 1: the future and I'll look forward to having you on
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Speaker 1: throughout the calendar. Your twenty twenty sixth Senator Houston, and
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Speaker 1: I also want to thank you for joining the show
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Speaker 1: today and I wish you and your entire family a very,
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Speaker 1: very merry Christmas and happy Holidays