FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Congressman Gary Palmer - Jeff Poor Show - Tuesday 10-08-24
(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the JetPours Show. What if I talk about 065? Thanks for sticking around. On this Tuesday morning, 2513-4-30106. We use the text line here. That's how you can get in touch with me. Tell me I'm right wrong or whatever. Still don't think the government's controlling the weather. Still to come on the program from the Alabama Republican Party. Chairman John Wall about an hour from now. He's our Tuesday regular, so stay tuned for that. But joining us now, always a pleasure. Always makes time for this program, even though we're far, far away from his congressional district. Congressman Gary Palmer from the 6th congressional district. Dear Birmingham, Congressman, good morning, are you? - I'm good, Jeff, how are you? - Doing well, doing well. Thank you for making time for us. Well, when I asked to get you on last week, it was really with this in mind, but now we have another storm coming. Now, now you have a role in the House Oversight Committee and watching what's going on with the response to these hurricanes. And I think this is applicable to this potential problem with Hurricane Milton, but there just seems to be, it's either kind of a confusion about resources and what's going on and a jumbled up mess. What role are, what are you hearing? What do you think needs to be done? I mean, don't you, your committee, you guys, the Republican side, probably are gonna be looking for answers on some of this disaster relief. - I'm already looking for answers. I sent a message this morning to Speaker Johnson to the chairman of the oversight and Homeland Security Committee, Barry Hurdback from Mark Green, that we need to call in officials from FEMA and ask some very straightforward questions. We also need to call in people from the Inspector General's office because he's put out a report that indicates that FEMA's sitting on over $8 billion left over from Hurricane Sandy, which was 12 years ago. And apparently, the problem is, is that funds get earmarked and they can't be used for anything else. So I've got my staff working on a bill right now that will release all those earmarks. And if it turns out that they need that money at some point down the road, we can do a supplemental or put it in appropriations, but we shouldn't be sitting on $8 billion when there are people suffering like they are in Western North Carolina. The other thing, Jeff, and this is one of the things that really hacks me off, is they're still sending out money for COVID pandemic relief. They're paying for funerals. Well, the pandemic was declared over back in May of '23. And even then, that was, they postponed to declaring the pandemic over. It should have been declared over probably a year before that. And they're looking to spend another $170+ billion on COVID. So I've got my DC staff working on this right now. And like I say, I've already heard from Mark Green, he's gonna be holding during a side visit in Western North Carolina and holding hearings as early as next week. And I've also reached out to Samaritan's Purse and told him that they have any issues with FEMA. They have my personal cell number to give me a call. - Well, I mean, it seems, they gave the Congressman, I mean, you and I are old out to remember 2000 and well, what was it? Five and George W. Bush, you could train on Kanye. That's why it's changed. Like Kanye West saying that George Bush doesn't care about black people and then the crowd kind of cheering and giggling and like this, to me now, granted it's not a major metropolitan area like New Orleans was and it did feel a little lackluster. But if we're gonna apply that same standard here nearly 20 years later, I mean, people ought to be lighting a hair on fire about this. And then I just don't, I don't see a sense of urgency at all. - Well, I hate to make it sound like politics, but I think it's politics. And if it hit Charlotte, you know, one of their strongholds or Philadelphia are the New Jersey coast like it did in 2012, they would have been all over it. There are other things going on that just demand an explanation. And that's why I've urged the chairman to bring in these people from FEMA, to bring in people from the government accountability office. There's one of the things about holding money the way they're holding money as it just is white for fraud and misuse. And we're already sending out over almost $250 billion a year in improper payments. And we can't come up with the money. And like I said, I don't know if I'm missing this, but Biden, Harris, Harris, Biden, whatever you wanna call it, administration is sending $153 million, the Lebanon. That's ridiculous. And they're only sending $100 million into the Western North Carolina. We ought to be mobilizing troops. We need engineering companies, I don't mean private companies, I'm talking about using our military engineers to get in there and start repairing the infrastructure. They're only maybe an hour away from Fort Liberty, what used to be Fort Bragg. So I think this demands some serious questions and we need to get some answers. - But there's sort of this culture. And I think this has a lot to do with it. You tell me what you think of this. I mean, it's become cliche, but Ronald Emanuel saying never let a crisis go to waste. And that's the way they view these circumstances or these, you know, whatever it is, be it a hurricane or a pandemic, it's an opportunity for the government to do big things. And you gotta break that mentality because right now that opportunity to do big things seems like it is now finally kind of getting in the way of the primary objective, which is responding to the crisis directly. It's just there's a like a Washington DC mindset when there's a storm approaching, people get these dollar signs in their eyes and they think this is a chance to bring in more money from the federal government. The federal government's gonna have this sort of, you know, the credit card and they're gonna get to go on a shopping spree here. And that seems to me to be a lot of the problem right now. - Well, it's also insulting that they, so they attend people $750 when they're basically providing a credit card to people who are here illegally, free healthcare, housing. I mean, if this doesn't wake up the American people up, it's just unbelievable how abusive they are of the American public. And yet so many in the American public still follow 'em like women, something. They're gonna go right over the cliff with 'em. It's just I would like to find out what's going on with FEMA and as opposed to how efficient and effective these other groups like Samaritan's Purse have been. You remember back in 2011 when the tornadoes swept through Alabama, one of them wiped out my hometown of Hackleburg, Alabama, up in Northwest Alabama. I was, I wasn't in Congress, I was still running the Alabama policy seat and I grew up with this one up there. And first thing that we ran to this was FEMA wanted us to have helmets, goggles and chainsaw chaps. Or they wouldn't go less work. So we just reminded them that they didn't have authority over us and we went to a place where we started cutting up trees and getting, removing debris. They, I understand the need for people to be organized, but I think the people who do the best job is the Baptist group that provides disaster relief and Samaritan's Purse. They're the ones that are, they get to the sites and get to work. They don't have all the bureaucratic red tape or the politics. - What are the things? And I, you know, is it valid to be concerned that FEMA money was used on migrant resettlement versus disaster relief? And that's why Bayork has said what he said that there really was, there really is a depletion there. I mean, do you have any insight into what that, the truth is on that? - Yeah, that's why I've got my staff working on this. That's a separate account that's earmarked for that. I don't remember frankly approving it, but apparently it was approved in something that if it's earmarked and that's the issue, how about those funds? This isn't, this is truly an emergence. This is not a time to sit around and say, talk about, well, we can do this here, but we can't do this there, and Congress needs to do this. Okay, we'll just on their market stuff, let's meet the needs right now, the immediate need. And there's a, hopefully this storm that's in the Gulf right now is gonna weaken. It won't be quite as destructive as Helene has been, that we don't have time to sit around pulling fingers. We need to get resources where they need them, and they need them in Western North Carolina right now. - Well, it's like the perception is that there's a bunch of FEMA trailers being moved around and they're putting Haitian or Venezuelan migrants in them, and they're using these resources to feed them, to give them government benefits. And all while we didn't anticipate a hurricane, now we're called short-handed because we used all these resources here. I mean, that's at least sort of the perception. Do you think there's any truth to that? - Well, they have a fund that they've been using for them, but that goes back to what I said earlier about these earmarks or different funds at FEMA. They're supposedly by law, can't spend that money on anything else, but that. Same thing with the $8 billion lift over from Sandy. Supposedly, they can only spend it on that or on COVID. I'm saying get rid of the earmarks. Use those funds where they're needed immediately, and they're needed immediately in North Carolina. - Well, let me ask you, do you think that's, I mean, let's talk about what FEMA's mandate is, what it ought to be doing, 'cause when you hear FEMA, you think storm earthquake, you think natural disaster, fire, or whatever, you don't think about migrant or immigration or anything like that, and that seems to me to be like, oh, well, we got this agency over here, they're not busy right now, let's deploy them here, and that's not really what their purpose is. I mean, is that something that goes on regularly, or is this kind of new to the Biden administration? - It's new, I think it's new to the Biden administration, and I think it was, to a certain degree, some of that was being done at the border, but nowhere near what's going on right now, I mean, during the Obama administration down at the border, but nowhere near what's going on right now. And this is, I think, I pray to God that Trump gets elected, we hold our majority in the House and get it in the Senate, because when we do, I think we need to have a deep dive into the Homeland Security Agency, and look at what they've done through FEMA, look at what's going on with the Secret Service. If you look across the board at Homeland Security, the whole thing, that's a disaster in and of itself, under the leadership of the anarchists. - Well, you know, you're right. And here's the other thing Congress will move on. We're, there's a lot of vulnerabilities being exposed in some of our government agencies, some very vital government agencies. And right now, I mean, the Secret Service has led us down, FEMA, I think, has led us down in North Carolina, at least, but do you feel like-- - Let's down at the border. - Yeah, but do you feel like-- - Think about everything that Homeland Security has under its jurisdiction, and tell me one area they haven't screwed up. - Faradah, do you think that's like a problem that is like isolated, the whole by security? Do you think it's just like rampant throughout the federal government, and we're just sort of now getting a dose of it, that there's a lot of ineptitude and competence throughout your federal government? - It's an absolute incompetence is one thing, but intentional politicizing everything, look at the EPA, look at the Department of Energy, look at the Department of Labor, look at the Department of Education, I mean, we're witnessing an assault on the American public at every level through a lot of mismanagement and intentional mismanagement for federal agencies. So like I said, you just tell me one area of where you can put some outside of our military, and the Biden administration's policies have been so destructive of our military, particularly the morale, and our ability to recruit new soldiers and sailors and airmen, I just don't know that I can find a single area in the Biden administration, where I can say they did a good job. - Yeah, I mean, you think about that, that's a incredible statement, like, well, there must be something they did, right? But it's hard to come up with that, and I mean, I don't know what to make of that, but anyway, we'll move on real quick, because I want to get you, at least while you're in the, we're in that month window, election November 5th, how you feeling out there? - Well, I spoke to Trump, he feels good about where he is, I think he's, I think he's going to win. I'm encouraged about where we're heading on the Senate side. Tim Chihi is ahead of Chester in Montana, and Trump's going to win Montana big, I think the Democrats are starting to realize that they're going to lose that seat, we're going to win West Virginia. So Montana would be our 51st Republican senator, but I think you've also got to look at, and a couple of other races, Trump has a pretty substantial lead in Ohio, and I think Marina has got a real chance of defeating shared Brown with S in the seat, and then if Trump does well in Pennsylvania, I think McCormick could win. Wisconsin could be another one, where Topi has it, Eric Topi has a chance, if Trump does well in Wisconsin, so I think things are looking pretty good on the Senate side, I think they look, I think they look pretty good for Trump on the House side, if we have a good night, we'll pick up four to five seats, if we have a great night, we'll pick up eight to 10, and that's huge. So the key is everybody listening to my voice right now, to your voice, the rest of this next four weeks, need to make sure that they are registered, and that they turn out in both. And if they've got friends in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, they need to be on the phone telling them to make sure they're registered to vote, they go vote. - Carson, get to leave it there. Appreciate your time, let's do this again soon. - Thanks for having me on, Jeff. - Thank you, Congressman. Congressman Palmer there from the sixth congressional district. We will be right back, this is F.K.B. Talk, 106.5. ♪ I've been coming to his time ♪ ♪ Been put his hands on my shoulders ♪ ♪ And his tears, he said he said patches ♪ ♪ I'm depending ♪