Mandy Connell Show, Ken Buck, April 23, 2020
Station: KOA, 850 am
Show: Mandy Connell Show
Guests: Gardner, Cory
Date: April 23, 2020
Topics: Debt, Deficit, Sad Day in America, Disinfect, the Swamp, House floor, Masks, Microphone, Pork, Pet Projects, multinational corporations, Mom and Pop Shop, Restaurants, Nonprofit
LL [00:00:01] When we get back, we have Congressman Ken Buck scheduled to come on at 12:30. However, the House is voting on the next relief bill, so we’re not sure if he’s going to be here or not. We’ll find out after this. But I know Susan Witkin is in the newsroom to tell us what’s coming up in the news. We have Susan.
NEWS ANCHOR SUSAN WITKIN [00:00:16] Yeah, and how they’re doing it, Mandy, is they’re letting in groups of Congresspeople so that they can vote and, you know, still keep the social distancing thing going on. They leave and then the other group goes in. And so we don’t know where Congressman Buck is in those groups of Congresspeople going in and voting.
CONNELL [00:00:34] Gosh knows — yeah, we have some elderly members of Congress that probably need to take special precautions.
[00:00:44] [commercial break]
CONNELL [00:00:44] Welcome back! In just a moment, we’re going to be talking to Congressman Ken Buck. Congress is getting ready to vote on another ginormous bill — spending bill — that is designed to help people and –. [To the show’s producer] Is he there, Angie? All right, Congressman, welcome to the show!
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM COLORADO’S FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, AND CHARIMAN OF THE COLORADO GOP, KEN BUCK [00:00:59] Thank you very much. Thank you, Mandy.
CONNELL [00:01:01] So, tell me what’s happening in D.C. right now.
BUCK [00:01:05] It is absolutely crazy. We are voting on a $500 billion bill, after the president asked for $250 billion. We have a vote — the first vote we have will be on a committee to investigate the whole coronavirus situation. And obviously, we’ll be — there will be partisan findings that come out of this. Then they will disinfect the United States House floor, and an hour later [they will] call a second vote to pass a $500 billion spending bill, when the president asked for $250 billion. So, we are going to disinfect the swamp before we go back and put a bunch of pork into a bill that is — and some parts of it [are] absolutely necessary. But this is an opportunity for people to get their pet projects. And it’s just, I think, an unbelievably sad day in American history that we continue to waste money because there is a crisis.
CONNELL [00:02:08] Here’s the thing that gets me, Ken. We’ve been hearing story after story about Fortune 500 companies getting PPP [Payroll Protection Program] loans. And I just got an e-mail that apparently a very large nonprofit — and I dont know which one, here in Denver — also got PPP money. Obviously, this money was intended for small businesses, for mom and pop shops, for people that are trying to keep their people employed. And yet it’s already been shown to be ripe for the picking If you are connected with the right banker. And are we going to do more of that?Are there any protections to maybe stop that from happening, maybe new parameters of what a business can and can’t have before they can apply for this stuff?
BUCK [00:02:52] No, and Mandy, it gets even worse. The reality is that the tax cuts gave big business an opportunity to buy back stock–
CONNELL [00:03:01] Sure.
BUCK [00:03:01] –so that in the event there was a catastrophe or a problem in their business model or anything else, they could issue more stock and recapitalize. Instead of issuing more stock and recapitalizing, they’ve taken advantage of the situation with loopholes — with unintended provisions in this bill — and are benefiting in a way that was only meant for small businesses, for the mom and pop restaurant that was put out of business. Those are the folks that were intended to benefit from these bills, not the major multinational corporations.
CONNELL [00:03:41] The other problem that I’m already seeing — and I’ve gotten emails from several people — I got an e-mail from a small business owner who said, “I called my employees and told them that I got PPP money and none of them wanted to come back to work because they’re making more money on unemployment.” What do we do with that?
BUCK [00:03:56] And we learned that lesson during the Obama years and we have repeated that mistake. We are paying people more money to stay out of work and to go back to work. We are incentivizing the kind of behavior that Republicans criticize the Obama administration for, for years after the Great Recession, as the Obama administration called it. We cannot incentivize bad behavior. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with these pieces of legislation.
CONNELL [00:04:27] So what kind of hot garbage can we expect in this spending bill?
BUCK [00:04:31] More of the same. It just gives further funding — part of it, about $250 billion of it — gives further funding to the programs that are being abused in many situations. And then there are a number of pet pork projects that add up to the other $200 billion or $250 billion. So, you know, this is a perfect situation for lobbyists. Members are out of town. They don’t have time to read these bills. The bills are being negotiated by — really — five individuals: one from the administration, the leaders of the Senate, the leaders of the House. And then members are presented with something at the last minute. And most members will vote for this because, they have businesses in their communities who are desperate to get these benefits. And some of us will not vote for this because it is really something that we can’t afford in the way that they’re doing it. We could act responsibly and help our small businesses, which I’m in favor of. Unfortunately, asking Congress to act responsibly is just beyond the pale right now.
CONNELL [00:05:37] So let me ask, since we’re going to — you guys are going to have a vote on investigating the coronavirus response while we’re still in the middle of it — by the way that’s, “Stay classy, Nancy Pelosi,” on that one — are we also going to investigate China’s role in not being forthcoming and spreading this virus around the world and lying about it?
BUCK [00:05:55] I think that we would be called racist if we did that, Mandy.
CONNELL [00:05:58] Ah! Oh, yeah.
BUCK [00:05:58] You know, the terms that are thrown around, when you call something the Wuhan virus, or the Chinese virus — just like it was the Spanish flu years ago — you can’t use that language anymore or you’re going to face a slew of commercials come election time. And people are shying away from that. So my guess is that we will not. I have signed on to a number of pieces of legislation that de-fund the World Health Organization, as well as ask for sanctions on China for really not acting responsibly. If we had known that this was passed human to human, there would have been a much different response from America then than what we were told by China, which was just that this was an animal-to-human virus.
CONNELL [00:06:49] You know, it’s very frustrating for someone like me — and we’ve had long talks about this, Ken, so you know how I feel about it. Our deficit, it’s like, it’s a joke, at this point. Our national debt is a joke at this point. And yet, I firmly believe that that’s what is going to eventually bring us down. I mean, that’s what’s going to actually bring down the United States as an empire, is that we’re not going to be able to pay for anything. Aside from you and a handful of other people that I’m fans of, is anybody else in D.C. even remotely talking about, “Okay, when this pandemic passes, how do we claw back some of the spending that we’re doing right now?”
BUCK [00:07:24] And that’s the question, Mandy, that we should be asking. And by the way, the death toll when this country goes over the cliff — when we are no longer fiscally sound, when we can’t expect multinational corporations from foreign countries to buy our debt — the death toll at that point will be much, much larger than any death toll that was predicted as a result of this pandemic. It will–we will not have the resources to defend ourselves in a very unstable world, at that point. And we will not have the resources to give the people of this country the basic needs that they need and expect. And so, yes, we will have a serious problem then. But that’s the question we should be asking. And that’s really what a lot of us — I shouldn’t say a lot of us — some of us are pushing for right now is, how do we get to the point where we balance our budget in the future so we can start repaying this debt? How do we get to the point where we have a plan in place to cap spending in federal agencies, or to say, “You know what? We shouldn’t be in this education business,” or, “We shouldn’t be in some of these other areas as much as we are.” We know there are going to be hurricanes in the future. We know there are going to be natural disasters. We know there are going to be pandemics. And yet we never prepare for those. We act surprised and it cripples us in terms of our spending. And that’s exactly the question we should be asking.
CONNELL [00:08:47] So I’m assuming you’re voting ‘no’ on the spending bill?
BUCK [00:08:50] I am.
CONNELL [00:08:51] Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. And people are going to use that as a bludgeon in the next election cycle. I have a feeling, though, that the people in your district are going to be okay with it.
BUCK [00:09:00] People in my district — many of the people in my district who I talk to and listen to are very upset with the overreach that’s happened.
CONNELL [00:09:07] Yeah.
BUCK [00:09:07] We have counties in my district, Mandy, that haven’t had a group of 10 or more get together in a decade. So the idea that somehow, you know, this is — and don’t have a single case of coronavirus in the county at all during this time period — so the idea that somehow we need to treat every county in Colorado like it’s Denver, is wrong! And we need to start making sure that we take care of the people who are feeding us and providing us with energy. And that’s a huge concern for those folks.
CONNELL [00:09:46] So what do we do here? I mean, you know, we’re in a situation — and you know, I do think that we’re getting to the point now with the lockdown, specifically, where people are starting to ask if this is the right decision. You know? Because we’ve been making a lot of decisions or our government has been making a lot of decisions based on speculation, based on projections, based on modeling, and now we’re starting to get some hard data in. And I shared a story on my blog today that said, you know, if you compare states that have had a lockdown order with states who haven’t, the death toll — excluding New York, because New York is the giant outlier right now, okay? — but excluding New York, the death toll is the same for both places. It’s going to get harder to argue that it’s a good policy when — you know — we have how-many thousands and thousands of people applying for unemployment, here in the state of Colorado, right now. You know? There’s got to be some balance. And I do think that we’re starting to see significant– the beginning of pushback on this stuff.
BUCK [00:10:48] I do, too, and first, why I think New York is always an outlier. It doesn’t matter whether you take– New York is an outlier.
CONNELL [00:10:54] [laughs].
BUCK [00:10:54] But secondly, I think people need to start stepping up and saying, you know what? We need to open churches May 3. It’s not good enough to say at some point in the future we’re going to open churches. The National Day of Prayer is the following week. It is time that — I don’t care if I have to wear a SCUBA outfit to my church. I’m going to church on May 3. And folks in Colorado, folks in America need to be able to stand up and say this is a fundamental right. We don’t get through this without prayer. And that’s something I think a lot of our leaders miss, that we can have the best medical technology possible, but without the blessing of God,we will not get through this mess. And we need to get back to our churches and make sure that we pray as a group. And I think also it is time that we — the protest the other day at the capitol was great. It was an important first step to say to our leaders, “Listen, we understand what you’re saying with the medical model. But there’s also economic modeling that [indicates] the longer this goes on, the less chance we have of recovering as an economy — to the robust economy — that we had in the past.” And so, I think it is time that we start exercising our political rights and making sure that our leaders know about how we feel.
CONNELL [00:12:07] Well, Congressman, I appreciate you coming on the show today. I hope you survive after they disinfect the House. I’m sure some will make it. [laughs]
BUCK [00:12:17] [laughs[ It will be nip and tuck! I’m wearing at least a triple mask onto the floor, don’t worry!
CONNELL [00:12:22] Is everyone masked on the floor? Are they wearing masks?
BUCK [00:12:26] They’re wearing masks, and when they go to the microphone they take their masks off. Yeah, it’s — it’s — it’s surreal. It’s absolutely surreal.
CONNELL [00:12:31] Oh! [gasps] So, wait, wait, wait! Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute! So, they’re wearing masks while they’re standing apart. But then when they walk up to the microphone that everybody else has spit on, then they’re taking their mask off. Am I to understand what you just said?
BUCK [00:12:50] You are absolutely correct.
CONNELL [00:12:51] All right.
BUCK [00:12:52] Yes, and it makes no sense. And what happens is everybody gets off the floor and they mingle with each other. So it’s not like the mask makes any difference.
CONNELL [00:12:59] [sighs] Well, Ken, here’s the thing: radio people, we all have our own mic socks for a reason. Because microphones are disgusting cesspools of germs. So I’m gonna give you a little tip: wear your mask when you walk up to the microphone! Just do it, because that is gonna be the thing in the House that spreads those germs.
BUCK [00:13:17] All right. Thank you, Mandy.
CONNELL [00:13:18] That’s Congressman Ken Buck. I appreciate your time, sir. Get back and go cast a vote against this monstrosity. There you go.
