This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling. Senator Joni Earns joins us now. Senator, can you believe seven years later we're in another lockdown? I cannot. I cannot, Brian.
And it is shameful on the part of the Democrats that did not join us to keep the government open. We know that this was a clean funding bill. This was a short-term extension. And what is really unreasonable is the fact that Democrats voted against a continuing resolution which is based on President Biden's numbers.
So we're still in the Biden fiscal year from last year. And yet they couldn't bring themselves to support it. Why? Because Donald Trump is now the President. And do you think because so much blowback from Schumer personally last time, because he said the responsible thing to do would be to not fight this battle in March and continuing to fund the government?
And do you think now he's overcompensating for it? Yeah, I think you're absolutely correct, Brian. He is very afraid of a primary from the far left. He's afraid of that group of his base. And so now he has to overplay it.
And the unfortunate thing is, of course, there will be members of his party that suffer because of that. But most importantly, it's the people of the United States that are going to suffer during a shutdown. And this is a Schumer shutdown. Let's not forget that, Brian. Here is what he said yesterday, Cut 12.
Their bill, they call it clean, we call it totally partisan. There was no input from Democrats. Not a single line in their bill had input from Democrats. They never consulted us. Thun didn't consult me.
Johnson didn't consult Hakeem. And the bottom line is that we had a partisan bill. For number one, what's he talking about? What Billy? Continuing to resolute get the appropriations bills done and then we fund the government.
What does that even make any sense? It makes no sense at all because again, Brian, it's so laughable. He's talking about how this was partisan and there was no input from Democrats in this bill. Again, I'll remind everyone: this is their funding bill from this fiscal year. It was done under President Biden and the Democrats.
This is their spending. And they decided not to renew it.
So, again, it is laughable. It makes no sense at all. They're trying to confuse the American people. This was an extension of Biden's appropriations and Biden's budget. And they didn't do it.
Again, I'm going to go back to it is because we have President Trump in office right now. You are absolutely correct that he will be hit from the far left. He's got to fight this, fight this, fight this. But again, who's in the crosshairs? It's the American people.
It is all of the government workers that try and do their jobs.
So this is really, really unfortunate for everyone. Schumer will try and mislead people, but we know what's going on. It is a Schumer shutdown.
So what I understand is, talking to our sources on Capitol Hill, is that Democrats have looked at everything, and they believe health care is the thing they want to run on in 26.
So they want to point out the subsidies that were in there for Medicaid during the pandemic. They want to point out the illegal immigrants that were getting health care. And they want to make sure the people working, the able-bodied, were not getting Medicaid when they shouldn't be eligible. They want to address all those things and say, when you cut those programs, you're cutting health care for Americans. And that's what they were bringing up.
Listen to what Senator Thune said. It's a little long, but I think it's important. Cut 17. I know you disagree with the premise of the ACA subsidies, how they were enacted, how they were extended, but the reality is you do have members whose constituents will suffer when those premiums spike.
So what are you going to do about it as leader?
Well, we're having the we want to have that conversation. And I've made that very clear. I made it clear yesterday at the White House to both Schumer and Jeffries. And so, and we've got members, obviously they have members on their side, but we have members on our side too who are interested in the subject. I think the thing is, the one thing that we have to have is reforms, because there are.
issues related to those to that program that are just rife with broad waste and abuse.
So he's open to having those talks. But you two-thirds of the budget go to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
So you are trying to rein in those programs, but the problem is that's a tough thing for politicians who want to get reelected when you cut back a program. That's fundamentally why our budget keeps growing, and we have a $37 trillion debt. Yes, and this is a really difficult area. It is very sensitive, Brian, but I do think it is something that we as leaders in Congress need to take a very, very close look at and really modernize our systems. We know that when we look at Medicare, just for example, Iowa, my home state, a very rural state, we get one of the lowest reimbursement rates when it comes to Medicare.
And this is really unfortunate because we end up paying our doctors the same as they're paying doctors in California because we have to lure them to our rural areas. But that's not accounted for in our Medicare reimbursements.
So we have to modernize these systems. But it will take leaders that are willing to take the slings and arrows because you're going to have people like Jeffries and Schumer. you know, saying that we're going to push grandma off of a cliff. Not so. We want to make sure that we're getting it right for our state, that the vulnerable people and our elderly are being cared for.
It is going to take a very thoughtful approach. It's not going to be something that is solved By funding activities for illegal aliens. It's not going to be solved by funding at COVID levels when we're no longer in COVID. We need to take a look at the entirety of these systems and get it right. A couple of things I still want to talk to you about.
When it comes to farmers, which you know everything about in Iowa, evidently they're really hurting. I had a great crop this year, but China is just refusing to buy our soybeans. Does that affect the people of Iowa? And why were they willing to pay more to go to other countries? While we're in the middle of negotiations with them, could you enlighten me on this?
Well, this is really difficult because China is choosing to do contracts with Brazil and a number of other countries. They are paying more. They are pushing back and they are sticking it to the American farmer. Of course, we're in a trade showdown over tariffs and trade with China. China is trying to stick it to America.
And this is really unfortunate. This is the third year in a row we've seen declining farm revenue. and the subsidies that are brought in through the tariffs, that will be able to support our farmers for a while. But Iowans, and I know other farmers across the nation feel the same way that we do. We want trade, not aid.
We do not want welfare checks. We want markets.
So, we have to find a way forward so our products, our commodities. Can get into the hands of people in other countries or expand our network domestically, the consumption domestically. But I will say right now. Farmers are hurting. It is not good.
When I am traveling across the state of Iowa, there is a lot of despair right now because we have nowhere for our goods to go.
So I'll be working with the President on this issue. We spoke not that long ago about expanding markets here in the United States with our types of goods and products. We need to look to one another and solve this issue. China is refusing to play right now. We've got to find a way forward.
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So, have you expressed this to the President? Did he let you know where it's at? Because I know every two weeks we seem to be meeting with them. That would be something easy to sign off on. They need it, and we have it.
Do you see that they give you an idea of what the reluctance is as opposed to the rare earth, which kicked back in and some of the other things kicked back in? Right. Right now I think this is China just trying to flex their muscles. But they need our goods. They need our corn.
They need our soybeans. They need our beef. They need to feed their people. They cannot do that. I heard Australia is now supplying their beef.
Yes, and so we are losing these markets.
So we need to come to a consensus very soon. We saw this in the first Trump Presidency with the tariffs. We lost some of our soybean market to China. We never gained that back. Other countries filled that need for China.
And so my farmers right now are very, very worried that if we don't secure those contracts, we will lose that market forever.
So I know that there's ongoing negotiations. We hope they wrap very soon.
So I understand that Marco Rubio and others, because we've been very aggressive with Venezuela, are looking for some type of regime change, which this President has really tried to avoid for obvious reasons. But Maduro is causing so many problems in the region as alliances with China as well as Russia and Iran. We know about the drug trade TDA that's come through our border.
So Rubio will raise the bounty on Maduro for arrest and conviction to $50 million. They say Stephen Miller and Radcliffe are pushing for escalating military presence there. You're on the Armed Services Committee. Senator Joni Ernst, what do you think about this? What could you tell us?
Well, I do think that the drugs that are flowing, not just from Venezuela, but from a number of these other South American countries and elsewhere, a lot of that will be funneled in from China as well. I think it does pose a threat to the United States of America. And so I'm glad that the President and Secretary Rubio are really escalating that level of discussion. They are forcing the issue, which has not been forced in a very long time.
So I'm glad that we are paying attention to the Western Hemisphere when it comes to threats against the United States of America, but we must never take our eye off of other regions. We know that China is our pacing threat. We need to make sure that we are building a military of tomorrow focused on the threat of China. We also need to realize that there are terrorist organizations. Organizations that will always reconstitute out there that pose a threat to the United States as well.
So while we are focusing on our southern hemisphere, western hemisphere, we also need to recognize we can't take the focus off of our pacing threat. China and those other terrorist organizations that pose a threat to the United States.
So do have we done anything yet to expand our industrial base to build missiles, rockets or defense systems quicker? We are, and I've had some interesting conversations even just in the last couple of days with various manufacturers that are heavily engaged in the defense industrial base. And what they are doing to ramp up production in the United States. We've identified a number of challenges. Poke points in the supply chain that we need to loosen up a little bit, but we are looking for ways that we can manufacture domestically and produce the inputs here domestically.
As we're looking at rare earths, We need to do more of the mining and refining. Here in the United States. And if we don't have the capacity to do that, or the rare earths or minerals here in the United States, we need to be able to seek those from friends and allies, not from China. Yeah, we got the raw material, but we don't know that the refinery capacity and the environmental regulations really hinder us when it comes to the mining part of it.
So hopefully we'll loosen that up with this administration and EPA director in place. Senator, thanks. Thanks so much, Senator. A lot to talk about. And so far, the shutdown continues.
Absolutely. And let's get it solved, Brian. Let's get some more Democrats that are reasonable human beings that actually want to work for our citizens. Yes. Let's see if you can get some more.
They're all your friends. Senator Joni Earns, thanks so much. I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on Politics, I am joined by Executive Vice President at Targeted Victory, Matt Gorman. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
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