Congressman Dunn on the Debt Ceiling Deal and the Threat of China

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we are honored to be joined by Congressman Neal Dunn and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, both Republicans from Florida. Later in the program, sports journalist Ron Futrell calls in with his take on the A's proposed move to Las Vegas.

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Dr. Neal Dunn grew up in an Army family and was stationed at over 20 places before college including in Vietnam during middle school. He was an Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar before matriculating at Washington and Lee University. After medical school at George Washington, he joined the US Army as a surgeon completing his residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and Surgical Fellowship at Duke University. He continued his surgical career in many stations around the world before settling in Bay County, Florida in 1990. It was during his service at WRAMC in Washington that he met and married his wife Leah, of over 30 years.Dr. Dunn was a surgeon in Panama City for 25 years and was the founding president of the Advanced Urology Institute, a 45-physician practice with over 400 employees. He also founded the Bay Regional Cancer Center and pursued a special interest in advanced Prostate Cancer. He sat on the Governor's Prostate Cancer Advisory Council and the Florida Blue Physician Advisory Board. Prior to being elected to Congress, Dr. Dunn served on the Board of Governors of the Florida Medical Association, and as President of his County Medical Society, Chief of Staff of Gulf Coast Hospital, and Director of the Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Joint Venture. He was recognized as a Healthcare Hero by the Florida Department of Health for his chairmanship of Bay Cares, a medical charity headquartered in Panama City that provided about $30 million of completely free medical care annually to the working poor in Bay and 8 surrounding counties.Dr. Dunn was also the founding Chairman of Summit Bank, a rapidly growing 5-star community bank headquartered in Panama City. He was honored to be named to the Board of Directors of Space Florida which operates the space launch complexes and numerous research, assembly, and support facilities on Cape Canaveral. He also served as a Director of Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development agency.Dr. Dunn lives in Panama City, Florida with his wife Leah. In his free time, he enjoys quail hunting and spending time on the water. They are the proud parents of 3 sons (Alexander, Patrick, and David) and 3 grandchildren.

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Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart is currently fulfilling his 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Florida's 26th congressional district. Diaz-Balart is a senior member of the House Committee on Appropriations, and he is the Chairman of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) Subcommittee, in addition to serving on the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) and Defense Subcommittees.

Diaz-Balart passionately serves his constituents, acting tirelessly in defense of individual rights and liberties, promoting economic prosperity, and supporting a robust national defense. He is well-known for his advocacy of human rights and democracy around the world, as well as for his staunch support of our global allies. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, making him the Dean of the Florida Delegation and Deputy Whip in Congress. Prior to his time in Congress, Diaz-Balart served in the Florida State Legislature in both the House and Senate chambers. He chaired several committees, including the Combined Appropriations/Ways and Means/Finance and Tax Committee.

Diaz-Balart was born on September 25, 1961, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to Rafael and Hilda Diaz-Balart and is the youngest of four brothers (Rafael, Lincoln, and Jose). He studied Political Science at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Diaz-Balart currently resides in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Tia, and son, Cristian Rafael.

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Ron Futrell is a longtime journalist who has worked at a number of local TV/radio stations throughout the western United States. He has covered sports in Las Vegas since 1984.

Ron began his broadcasting career in the early '80s in Salt Lake City at KSXX radio and KTVX TV. From there, he covered sports and news at KNDO TV in Yakima, WA.

Ron has covered Stanley Cup Finals, Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals and NCAA Championships. He has reported on virtually every major sporting event in Las Vegas over the past three decades, including major boxing and MMA events, NASCAR races, the rise and fall of UNLV basketball, the careers of local athletes like Greg Maddux, Andre Agassi, Randall Cunningham and Mike Tyson, along with many others. Ron is also well known for covering local high school and club sports in Las Vegas.

Ron is perhaps best known in Las Vegas for his work covering UNLV basketball throughout its glory days. As host of the Jerry Tarkanian TV show for 10 years, Ron was able to get the inside story on one of most remarkable teams in college basketball history.

Ron is also a journalism professor at University of Nevada Las Vegas and was the first to teach Sports Broadcasting classes at UNLV.

Ron says some of his greatest moments covering sports have been sitting ringside at the Hagler/Hearns fight in 1985 at Caesars Palace, watching the UNLV Runnin' Rebels win the basketball National Championship in 1990 and witnessing the tremendous success of the inaugural season of the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18.

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Transcription

Sam Stone: [00:00:24] Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone. My co-host Chuck Warren, is out and traveling today. But some big news in the country and we are very excited to have Congressman Neal Dunn of Florida's second Congressional District. Congressman Dunn grew up in an Army family, was stationed in over 20 different locations, including in Vietnam. During middle school, he was an Eagle Scout National Merit Scholar, then went to Washington and Lee University, went to medical school at George Washington, joined the US Army as a surgeon, completed his residency at Walter Reed Medical Center. Folks, I'm going on and on and on because this is the kind of resume, frankly, we need a lot more of in Congress. People who have real accomplishments. You're too kind. Well, you know what, Congressman? I mean, how many people in Congress right now have an actual medical background?

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:01:20] Well, there are 17 doctors.

Sam Stone: [00:01:23] Honestly. Okay. I'm actually shocked. That's more than I thought. And there were only.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:01:27] Nine when I got here, but we're adding so.

Sam Stone: [00:01:30] Good. Well, see, I mean, frankly, I think that's pretty valuable given how much of the medical industry comes under the purview of Congress these days.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:01:39] It's very important.

Sam Stone: [00:01:41] So before we get into more of that and and I do want to talk a little bit about your background, but obviously the big conversation that's lighting up the country right now is the agreement over the debt ceiling. Yes, Speaker McCarthy put together an agreement and despite the best efforts of the national press to pretend that never happened, uh, negotiations did conclude very recently an agreement was signed. Now, you did vote for it. I did. And as Chuck and I have said here many times, we would also and tell folks why.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:02:17] Well, so this, you know, is certainly one of those tough calls that we face in Congress. It's it's why the job can be difficult. You know, this this first off, we should say this bill really does cut the spending. So President Biden had come forth with a budget and we went after that budget to say we got a this is way too much. It's it's the kind of budget that caused the inflation that we're suffering with. And so we managed to I say we, you know, and actually the credit should go to Speaker McCarthy and the negotiation team led by Garret Graves and they just did a brilliant job getting the getting that number down by 4.8 trillion with a T trillion dollars over the the ten year window. And so that that's a big savings. There's never been a cut on the president's budget, anything like that big in history.

Sam Stone: [00:03:13] A trillion here, a trillion there. Pretty soon you're talking real money.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:03:17] Yeah and you know, we used to say a million and a million here. Now it's trillions. You're right. It's it's it is. It is real money. Now let's let's don't kid ourselves. This is just a first step because the debt is still going to glide somewhat higher over the next ten years. There's going to be increased. There's still we're still going to be borrowing money. We're still going to be facing, you know, the situation where we're spending more than we're bringing in. And we have to go after that, too. But we really got some good wins on this bill. One of the things that should appeal to everybody was we we kept the IRS from getting any more new agents this year or next. And then, of course, we'll have to fight that in the 20 in the 25 appropriations process again. But bearing in mind we only control one House, the House and.

Sam Stone: [00:04:12] Senate control one House.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:04:13] Yeah, very with a narrow majority. This is really a remarkable bill given the the sort of weak hand that we had to play. And so I was actually, you know, you could always wish for more. My God, yes, you could wish for more. But we did manage to protect the the defense budget entirely. So we plussed it up from the president. And and we get we this is no time to cut on the military. We got too many threats around the world right now. And we also kept the veterans intact. But everybody else took a little bath.

Sam Stone: [00:04:47] Well, as they had to. I mean, the run up in spending in the last few years has been extraordinary. It has. This is the first step in starting to rein that back in it. How important was it not to default? Because I think a lot of people out there were expecting you know, there's some folks in the Republican Party saying they expected more. They wanted a more, you know, more drastic.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:05:12] It's really irresponsible to default on on debt. Let let let me see if I can underline that. So the the importance of a strong dollar, the fact that the global economy is dollarized is as important as having a strong military. It's that important. So a strong US dollar is fundamental to the national security and frankly, to the stability of the world system.

Sam Stone: [00:05:39] And so and and from what I understand and different economists have slightly different takes. But if the US were to lose our status, which is is clearly there are countries trying to take it away as the as the world reserve currency that would be something like an instant 15% tax increase on every single American.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:05:58] That's right. And you would be far less safe as well.

Sam Stone: [00:06:03] Absolutely. And you have an interesting background. We got into it a little bit earlier. You know, obviously amazing background with the military surgical fellowship at Duke University. Um, but you also have a background in banking and in finance.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:06:21] Yeah, I do. So, you know, what happened is I got out of the military. I'd always been getting a paycheck all my life, and I'm in private practice, and all of a sudden I'm running a private practice. And I didn't really know how to run a business at all. So I approached it like a, you know, another school course. Okay, we got to study this thing and figure out how how businesses work and and how to report and how to account for the money. And I had a great deal of help, frankly, in my I moved into a town I live in Panama City, Florida. And my patience, I'm in a surgical specialty that tends to have these older guys as patients. And so they were a lot of businessmen and they mentored me all the way through this. And among my mentors was a banker. And he he graciously spent some years teaching me about banking. And and eventually I got the bug bit and we started a bank of our own. So and it did very well. I was very pleased with it. We kept it for about a dozen years.

Sam Stone: [00:07:21] Well, and that's an amazing story too, because, you know, not only do you have the experience in the medical industry, but also the financial industry. So when you go to Congress, you're coming in with a great deal to contribute right off the top based on those experiences, right?

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:07:39] Yes. And I think, by the way, the business and the banking experience was very helpful. When we come up here and we start throwing around numbers like trillions of dollars, you know, that's a scary number to throw at a banker. You know, people start talking about defaulting on that and you go, boy. Put the gun down and back away. This is dangerous stuff you're talking about.

Sam Stone: [00:08:01] Oh, absolutely. Now I'm laughing and joking about this a little bit, but this is really deadly serious stuff. It is.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:08:10] It's deadly serious.

Sam Stone: [00:08:11] And the the consequences of the default would have been so dramatic that I want to say thank you to you and your colleagues who had the courage to see this process through.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:08:23] Well, thank you. And I'll tell you what, I hope that we get back together in a year and we find out that we've also fought the fought the the people want to spend all this money to have standstill yet again on the appropriations next year, too.

Sam Stone: [00:08:36] So that's actually one of the things I was about to get to. And I'm glad you went there first, is this isn't the hill to die on. The the full faith and credit of the United States is not the hill to go out there and die on and say we're going to hold our ground no matter what.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:08:51] Yeah, this is not the place to throw a hissy fit. I mean, we we absolutely have to, you know, meet our debt. This is why the world depends on the United States. If we default on our debt, you know, all of a sudden we become a lot less important to everybody.

Sam Stone: [00:09:09] Yeah, absolutely. But there is a place to do that, to have that fight. Right. And that's absolutely in the future here in the next couple of years with the various budget processes.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:09:21] There's a lot of places to have that fight. One of them would be in November at the ballot box. But, you know, if you really feel strongly about the debt, then don't elect a bunch of people and don't nominate a bunch of people who can't get elected to office that are that are going to be irresponsible with with the dollar. You know, this stuff really matters to our children and our grandchildren. I have grandchildren, so I tend to have a longer horizon. But, you know, it's important that we don't we don't hurt them.

Sam Stone: [00:09:55] Yeah, you can. You can make mistakes. Now that will take away so much of the opportunities in their future. That's right.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:10:03] And there's another side to this. And I get this, too, when people say that, you know, well, we're we're swimming in debt. We are right now. The every man, woman and child in America has about $4 million in federal debt. $4 million.

Sam Stone: [00:10:18] I don't have $4 million to give you, Congressman.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:10:21] Well, I was going to ask you for that later in the show.

Sam Stone: [00:10:25] Well, I don't know. Maybe the ratings from this show will go through the roof. And, you know, next year you'll be able to collect. I don't know. But, you know, but in the meantime, one of the you made a great point there. I thought about not nominating people who can't get elected. Um, I always love the Reagan maxim. I want to nominate the most conservative person I can get elected. Right.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:10:51] That was, you know, that was really pretty simple truth that he that he used to say he had a lot of quick little aphorisms like that that really cut right down to the bottom line.

Sam Stone: [00:11:01] He he was so good at that and so good at narrowing things down for the public in a way that they could understand and taking complex issues and making them accessible. Uh, I think great.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:11:15] Communicator.

Sam Stone: [00:11:16] Yeah, we miss that too often. Um, so we only have about two minutes left in this segment. We're going to be coming back here with more from Congressman Neal Dunn of Florida's second Congressional District shortly. Um, we want to talk a little bit, too, about your Bacares medical charity there in Panama City, because I think I think a lot of times people don't, um, people think of Congress, members of Congress, only in that one role.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:11:46] Yeah, I think you're right. They do think he's a congressman. What did he do in real life? Yeah.

Sam Stone: [00:11:51] Yeah. I think too often that's the case. And you've done a ton in real life. So I want to touch a little bit more about that. Also, when we come back here and we're going to have a little bit of discussion on what what we're going to be doing, what you're going to be doing in Congress going forward the next few months. I want to, you know, what should the American people be watching out for? Okay. So when breaking battlegrounds comes back in just a moment, we'll hit on more of that. Folks, thank you for tuning in. Be sure to download our podcast, go to breaking battlegrounds dot vote. You can get all of our past episodes. There we are on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Anywhere you get your podcasts, breaking battlegrounds is there. We will be back with more from Congressman Dunn in just a moment. All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone. Chuck Warren out of studio today. On the line with us, Congressman Neal Dunn of Florida's second Congressional District. We've been talking about the debt ceiling. We've been talking about some of his background, which is just amazing. But right now, we want to talk about what is coming up in Congress. What are the next issues that are going to be on your plate there?

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:13:33] Well, so we do tend to give everybody sort of subspecialized. And I sit on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is also home to the big health care committee. So we do health care policy, but we also do energy and and all the foreign and domestic trade policy. So I don't have to tell you that energy's been a big, big subject lately. We want to reestablish energy independence. We know how to do this. We did it very nicely in the last administration, and we did in that same debt ceiling bill. We included a whole bunch of streamlining for energy projects, in fact, for all large building projects. So we took that environmental permitting process and capped it at two years and actually made the the regulatory agencies liable to be sued if they don't make those environmental statements and rulings within two years. And I offer as an example, the Atlanta airport where they just added a runway after nine years working on it. And the first seven of those nine years were just permitting, didn't move a shovel full of earth, and then they built it in two years. So we need to get that permitting process down a lot. It takes about 20 years to permit a mine for anything you want to mine in this country. And that's that's just an impossible obstacle to overcome in any kind of affordable way. Yeah.

Sam Stone: [00:15:02] Well, we our broadcast studio is I think most people know is in Arizona. There has been a project here called the Rosemont Mine. I think the names have changed on it a few dozen times now. I know personally because I've been dealing with it, that process has gone on close to 20 years now. It could be one of the largest copper mines in the world. Copper is desperately needed for all of these electric vehicles, for the phones, for the computers and and the opposition to it. This this baffles me, Congressman, the opposition to it, we're told by the environmental movement and I agree with them in this, that we have one planet, that this.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:15:39] Is one same people who want everything to go electric will prevent you from mining or refining any of the things you need to make electricity and batteries and all this stuff. It's really it's it's almost childishly foolish.

Sam Stone: [00:15:53] Well, I think it's worse than that, Congressman, because not only do they do all that here, but then they turn a blind eye to China to all these.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:16:01] Glad you said that, because all the.

Sam Stone: [00:16:02] Countries around the world that do this with the worst environmental controls imaginable.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:16:07] Unbelievably bad. You're right. They have no environmental controls, whatever. China is another subject we're going to be spending a lot of time on. I sit on the China Select Committee. And so this is a select committee that looking at China as a as an adversary in terms of competing in everything, including militarily speaking. And we're peeling back the layers of of of how deep China is embedded into our economy and our lives. And let me tell you, it's awful. It's just awful. They have they have really stolen a lot of marches on us. They're making headway in South America. They're making headway across the Pacific, in Asia, in Africa. And and everybody is is very dependent on their production.

Sam Stone: [00:16:51] Well, one of the one of our very recent guests was former Afghan Special Forces General Sami Sadat, who detailed how much China has moved into Afghanistan, taking over the mining and the industry there. As soon as we stepped out that there.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:17:08] It turns out that Afghanistan has a lot of rich mining of minerals in it and the Chinese aren't hesitant to go after it. They're also running Bagram Air Base, the one we we abandoned there the one night. No.

Sam Stone: [00:17:21] It's it's every time I hear you more about what we did in Afghanistan on our way out the door, the more embarrassing that whole episode becomes. I mean, we really put ourselves in a difficult position internationally with that move.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:17:35] I can't say enough bad about that. I was on active duty when the Saigon fell. And and I have to tell you, I thought that was the most humiliating moment of my life for the military, for our country. And I didn't think it would ever happen again in Afghanistan actually was worse. I couldn't believe I was stunned. And of course, the really bad news here is Russia saw that, Putin saw that. And he said, oh, I know what they'll do if I invade Ukraine. Nothing. And so he was. Began massing troops on the border of Ukraine while we were still evacuating people out of that humiliating mess. And of course, China's looked at it and saw the same thing. He said, Ah, Taiwan is next. Honestly, I think if Putin had managed to roll up Ukraine the way he thought he was going to, JI would have been in Taiwan the next week. So you put it that way. You realize the Ukrainians are not just defending Eastern Europe, they're defending Taiwan, the whole Indo pack.

Sam Stone: [00:18:37] Well, and and the rest of their region. Right. All those Baltic states are are at enormous risk. And Russia has said Putin has said they want to recreate the Iron Curtain. They want to rebuild the Soviet empire.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:18:51] They absolutely do. And you know this people think this is just like a one off aggression. This is the ninth invasion. Putin has stated started ninth. So this is just one in a long string. You know, you're going to fight this war in Ukraine or you're going to fight with Americans in Poland.

Sam Stone: [00:19:08] Mhm. Yeah. And Poland certainly all, you know, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, all of those is.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:19:16] Probably even before Poland.

Sam Stone: [00:19:17] Yeah. And those states are, are fantastic growing economies that are contributing to the world and Yeah. And hugely democratic, hugely capitalist and.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:19:28] They're Article five nations in NATO which means we're we are tied to them.

Sam Stone: [00:19:32] Absolutely. We have just about two minutes before we have to go here. But I did want to touch on something else you've done, which is Bacares, a medical charity headquartered in Panama City. Um, tell us what what you've done there, because that's a really amazing story.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:19:48] You know, I was really gratified to do that. So Florida has a system where we call it's the we Care system where if doctors or hospitals, clinics, labs, whatever, will donate free medical care, they get sovereign immunity from the state. So they can't be sued. No liability. And and so we find that medical personnel are very much more willing to to deliver care for free if it's accompanied by sovereign immunity. And so I was able to recruit in my relatively small area. We had nine counties we were serving. But so it was probably a total population of 400,000, not not a giant city. We were able to get $30 million a year in free, utterly free medical care, just people willing to donate, doctors, you know, hospitals and and clinics of all types, diagnostic centers, pharmacies, $30 million a year in that little town.

Sam Stone: [00:20:47] That's a huge amount of quality medical care that your residents are getting for free, because.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:20:52] I ran it for a number of years, but I had to give it up when I came to Congress. And it's still in good hands back in Panama City. So if anybody in Panama City or anywhere around Panama City is watching this, you can you can donate your services to Bacares.

Sam Stone: [00:21:06] Fantastic. Congressman, before we wrap up here, how do folks follow you and your work and stay in touch with everything you're doing?

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:21:12] Thank you so much for letting me share that. So on Twitter, it's at Dr. Neal Dunn Fl2 and I spell Neal n e a l. Dr. Neal Dunn, Florida two. And on Facebook, it's Congressman Neal Dunn, MD.

Sam Stone: [00:21:28] Perfect. Thank you so much, Congressman. We really appreciate having you on the program. We'll look forward to having you back on again in the future.

Congressmen Neal Dunn: [00:21:35] Thanks so much. I hope we have as much good news. Next time.

Sam Stone: [00:21:38] Cross your fingers, folks. Are you concerned with stock market volatility, especially with Joe Biden in office? If you are, go to investyrefy.com, you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return that's investyrefy.com or call them at 888Y, refi 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. Welcome back to Breaking battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Chuck Next up on the line with us right now, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart fulfilling his 11th term in the US House of Representatives, serving Florida's 26th Congressional District. He is a member a senior member of the House Committee on Appropriations, chairman of the State Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee, and also serves on some other key committees Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Defense. So, Congressman, you are you are covering the spectrum on policy there in Washington right now. That's actually pretty darn impressive.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:22:46] Look, I'm a blessed person to be able to be in a situation, in a position to be able to fight for things that I think are important for our country. And obviously, whether it's defense, whether it's foreign policy, whether it's infrastructure, those are issues that I spend a lot of my time on. But as well as, you know, I, I was the main sponsor of the of the, you know, border security bill. So there are a lot of things that I've been able to because of first, the folks who sent me to D.C. and then the confidence in my colleagues I've been able to to get involved in a lot of different issues. You're absolutely right.

Chuck Warren: [00:23:21] So you are a sponsor of H.R. two. Yes, And it has. So we tell us a little bit about the the details regarding border security on that and then take some time and tell us how does this help people bring in with work visas? One thing I think people misrepresent Republicans about is we still allow about 1.2 million people to come into the country legally every year. I mean, that's not a minor number.

Sam Stone: [00:23:47] Right. And I've never met a Republican who wasn't willing to have a conversation about legal immigration.

Chuck Warren: [00:23:52] And I've never met a Republican who says cut that number. Right. So first of all, tell us about the border security details of H.R., H.R. two, please, and then let's discuss the other items.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:24:02] Yeah, look, HR.2 first, you know, we before the elections, Kevin McCarthy, again, he wasn't speaker. He put together the Republicans and said, let's come up with a commitment to America. What is our agenda going to be? One of those was securing the border. And, you know, I was fortunate to be one of the people that helped draft that component of it. We won by a very slim margin, but we won the majority in the House, only in the House, unfortunately. And then we wanted to make sure that we deliver on the commitment, on the promise that we made to the American people. So H.R.1 dealt with energy energy independence. H.R.2 is border security. So there were a lot of Republican bills filed out there to deal with the bleeding that we are experiencing on the southern border. And I say bleeding. This administration has literally given the control, has totally just who decides now who comes across the southern border to the United States are the drug cartels and not to mention the fence and all that's coming across the southern border, the terrorists that we know are coming across the southern border. And then, by the way, a lot of victims that are being used by the cartels and are being brought across.

Sam Stone: [00:25:07] Can I stop and ask for for some clarification? I'm certainly not asking you to throw your colleagues under the bus, but do a lot of the Democrats who have kind of resisted this border security, do they understand how much the control has been ceded to the cartels? And and what you just said that you do not cross that border without the permission of the cartels at this point?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:25:28] Well, but I'll answer your question. But to your point, if anybody thinks that an individual can come from a country and, you know, somehow get us to the southern border and walk across, that's not possible. The cartels will kill you. The this is a monopoly controlled by these narco terrorist cartels. Different cartels have different part of the southern border. That's who determines who comes across 100%. And so and do my Democratic colleagues understand that? Some do You know, you have folks like Henry Cuellar who who has been one of the most outspoken people in telling the administration this has to stop. We have a problem here. But it seems that many are just okay with that or and the administration seems to be okay with that. The secretary of Homeland security continues to say that the southern border is secure, which is insanity, because he wants us to believe him and not our very own eyes.

Chuck Warren: [00:26:21] So we have about 90s to a break. Congressman, why do you think they feel that way? That it's just okay? I mean, there has to be a reason you've talked to them enough. Is there have you ever heard a good justification or reasoning why they think this is just okay?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:26:34] No, I haven't I haven't heard any good explanation from the administration or anybody else as to why this is okay. Why handing over to the cartels the southern border is okay. Why 300 Americans dying every single day? Because of of of of of a product that's coming across the southern border is okay. While you know why hundreds of 900 migrants dying just last year is humane, there is no good explanation. That's why I'm so proud of H.R. 2. And the colleagues, the Republican colleagues have put this together.

Sam Stone: [00:27:03] Fantastic. Congressman, when we. Come back. We're going to have more from Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida. Congressman, before we we go there, I want to give folks your Twitter handle because I think it's very important they stay up with the work you're doing. Folks, you can follow him at at Mario DB on Twitter there. Great opportunity to stay in touch with his work. Breaking battlegrounds is going to be coming back with more from the congressman in just a moment. We want to get into some of the specific provisions that are in this bill, but also we want to touch on some of the other work you're doing, including the Parents Bill of Rights and the recent trip you made to the Dominican Republic. All that and more when breaking battlegrounds comes back. Welcome back to Breaking battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Moran. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, are you concerned with stock market volatility, especially with Joe Biden in office? What if you can invest in a portfolio with a high fixed rate of return that's not correlated to the stock market? You can make up to 10.25% fixed rate of return. And when you invest with a refi, you're actually helping people get their private student loans paid off sooner, helping them restore their credit. And you make a fantastic return on your money. This is the this is the definition of capitalism, folks. This is people helping people. So give them a call today at eight, eight, eight, 8524 or go online at investing. Com that's invest the letter Y then Syfy.com and let them know Chuck and Sam sent you. Okay. Coming back with more from Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. When we went to break, we were talking about the immigration bill, H.R. two. Congressman, what are some of the specific provisions in there, both relating to border security and to legal immigration that people should be aware of?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:29:05] Well, look, first, it secures the border. It finishes the construction of the wall. It provides more personnel and increases the salary of those heroes who are struggling to protect our border. So, again, a lot of common sense border security, things like that. But to your point, one of the things that should also be upsetting and, you know, you wonder why to your question before we we broke. Right. What are the Democrats say about this? Nothing good. But but if the others who are suffering, it's not only our national security interests, it's not only the rule of law, it's also those who are actually who potentially have legitimate asylum claims because they can't get their legitimate claims heard. So among the things that this bill also does is it it frankly modernizes it streamlines the actual real process for those who have legitimate asylum claims so that they can have their claims actually adjudicated. And it also even has a particular area there for folks who come, for example, from this hemisphere, from Venezuela or Cuba or Nicaragua that you would think have the likeliest chance of having legitimate claims. Well, they can't get their claims heard because of the disaster created by the Biden administration. So this deals with that as well. It's not only border security that's the main issue. It's the secure the border, but it also makes the legal system a little bit better. Does it solve every problem? No, it secures the border. It stops this horrific situation that is inhumane, that is a threat to our national security and also provides some avenues for those who have legitimate claims, for example, legitimate asylum claims.

Chuck Warren: [00:30:41] Where the congressman, Mario Diaz-Balart, if you're in the Miami area, you can catch this interview on Newsradio 6:10 a.m. So you live in Miami Dade and it's it's a it's a county, Sam, and I've been to many times it's full of immigrants. What do they think your Venezuelan Colombians, your Cubans, what do they think about the border crisis? What are your constituents tell you about this?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:31:04] You know, they understand that one of the reasons that one of the reasons that immigrants have always come to this country, I don't care if you get you came here, you know, five generations ago or if you're coming now, it's because of the rule of law. The rule of law is what makes everything else possible and that you have to adhere to the rule of law. And so immigrants who are in this country and I represent a heck of a lot of of of, you know, Americans who are, again, first generations or or foreign born Americans. They understand that you have to adhere to the rule of law. That is the reason that everybody wants to come to the United States. That's the reason this is the country of opportunity. It's the rule of law. It's the free market system. But you can't have a free market system or you can't have anything. You can't have security without adhering to the rule of law. And that's why, again, this bill is very strong on that adhering bringing back the rule of law to the southern border and to those communities in the southern border that are struggling because of the policies of the Biden administration.

Sam Stone: [00:32:10] Congressman, here in Arizona, I've found in talking to first generation immigrants and a lot of people in that, you know, obviously predominantly Mexican American community here, they have a much better understanding than a lot of folks out there of how the cartels, you know, really abuse the people that are coming across the predations that they inflict upon them. Do you do you get that? And, you know, I my experience in Florida is you get that plus people who have maybe a little bit better understanding of communism than we often do here. Does the Republican Party need to do a better job of emphasizing those voices?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:32:46] I mean, I think we can always do better. I know that in Florida, by the way, and, you know, look at look at the election and the re-election of Governor Ron DeSantis. Right. Remember, Ron DeSantis got a group of immigrants who got here across the southern border and he sent them to a sanctuary community. That publicly expressed that they are a sanctuary place and that they have they want, you know, folks, even if they're here unlawfully, to to go to Martha's Vineyard. So this governor sent people over there not to be punitive, but to actually say, look, if you've got opportunities for them, you want them there. Here we go. And then what happened that immediately. Martha's Vineyard, by the way, put them on buses and they put them in a military base. So the sanctuary committee there in New York is another sanctuary, right, city. They're sanctuary cities until anybody shows up and then they immediately want them out of there.

Sam Stone: [00:33:40] They're fine. Sticking them on border towns in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, all the way into Florida. They just don't want them in their community no matter what they say. Talk is.

Chuck Warren: [00:33:50] Cheap.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:33:51] Yeah, look, it's. It's like socialist. Socialist or socialist for everybody else, not for me. Right. And and, you know, you want everybody to drive bicycles, but want to be able to have my car. Right. That's socialism 101.

Sam Stone: [00:34:02] They. They all envision themselves like the Soviet leadership driving down their exclusive lane on the middle of Nevsky Prospekt.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:34:10] Correct. That's exactly right. Socialism. Socialism is really good for everybody else, but not for them. Right. And and, you know, government control is they want to be able to impose their views on everybody else but don't not on them. Right. And and which is why, again, look, this country is based on individual freedom, on the rule of law, on opportunity. And the reason this country has been and continues to be the wealthiest, the most generous, the greatest country in the history of humanity is because of individual freedom and opportunity and the rule of law. And, you know, you mentioned folks who have come here by choice. They get that. They understand that. And one sympathizes with these victims, by the way, that the cartels are using and abusing. But the reality is that you have to adhere to the law and the rule of law. Otherwise, nothing else is.

Chuck Warren: [00:35:00] Possible with Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. He's in Miami Dade County. You can catch him on Twitter at Mario DB. All right. We're going to give you the softball question. You're introducing a new bill here in two weeks. Tell our audience a little bit about it.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:35:14] Yeah, well, I chair the subcommittee. I'm my privilege that my colleagues have put me to chair the subcommittee, that the House subcommittee of Appropriations Subcommittee that funds everything have to do with foreign policy. That includes, by the way, funding for the UN. That includes funding for our allies like Israel, that includes funding for the State Department and so much more. And so a couple of things. Number one is we're going to be spending a heck of a lot less money than the Democrats have been spending because they've been wasting money and we're going to be responsible. So we're going to be spending a hell of a lot less money, number one. Number two is, to me, it's very simple. If you're an ally of the United States and if you're helping our national security interests, I think this bill will recognize that in a positive way. But if you're in cahoots with our enemies, if you are targeting our allies, this bill is also going to recognize that in a way that they're not going to like. Foreign policy has to be dictated on one thing and one thing alone. The national security interests of the United States.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:36:09] After that, you have a lot of things that are important, human rights, etcetera. But it's all based on one thing the national security interest of the United States. So we're going back to some pretty basic things that the Democrats have totally forgotten about. Democrats love to, you know, fund things that have nothing to do with our national security interests. We're cutting all that. They like to fund folks and entities that are frankly not helping us are not on our side. I'm not willing to look the other way. I'm not willing to look the other way. If you have international organizations that are targeting Israel or that are targeting the United States, I'm not willing to look the other way. It's going to be a there's going to be all sorts of criticism when I drop that bill, when I file that bill. But I will tell you, I'm very proud because we're going back to basics. If you're pro-American, then we're going to be trying to help you. And if you're in cahoots with our adversaries, you're going to suffer the consequences in my bill.

Sam Stone: [00:37:00] I love that, Congressman Chuck, because frankly, what other country on earth does their government not work to protect their own people? We there's there's this push on the left that seems like our job in our government is to protect everybody but Americans.

Chuck Warren: [00:37:13] So you are the dean of the Florida delegation. You've been around the block a couple times now.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:37:18] You're calling me old. Yeah.

Chuck Warren: [00:37:19] I'm calling it. I'm old, Sam. We're all his old people are old guys. Rule. Okay. My question is, what keeps you up at night? I mean, what is the one thing that you know, because you see very sensitive documents that we don't have access to. What keeps you up that you fret about? I mean, obviously, you know, a lot of things seem to work themselves out. I always feel America will end up doing the right thing long term. But what keeps you up at night? Like, holy moly, this is bad.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:37:46] Yeah. You know, I don't know if I've been asked that question, but I think I can answer it relatively simply. Number one is obviously our fiscal situation, our debt, and that we waste so much money on things that we shouldn't be doing. And then and then the other thing that keeps me. Is China, which is the existential threat, and they're both tied together. We waste money on things that frankly do nothing or actually do us harm. And then we don't spend enough resources, enough money on, frankly, confronting the existential threat today, tomorrow, and for the decades in the future. And that's China. We have to have the strongest defense. We're not doing enough there. And we have to have a strong economy, which means we have to stop misspending money.

Sam Stone: [00:38:30] That is one thing. Chuck, I was a little dismayed about in this budget that is being discussed in the debt ceiling deal is a reduction again in the number of naval vessels that are under the US flag. I mean, we.

Chuck Warren: [00:38:42] Should be at 350. That's that's what our strategy is, 350 ships and we're at what, 280?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:38:47] Yeah. And China is building them. You know, like by the time we finish this podcast, they probably have built already another ship, right? So China is is a real danger. Look, we we have to confront we have this issue of our debt and that's because we are mis spending so much money and we need to be much better stewards of the people's money. And obviously, the Democrats have been on the spending spree. But it's not only the Democrats in the past. Let's be very clear. We have to do a better job. But on the other hand, we cannot deal with defense as a number. Ronald Reagan used it, to paraphrase him, used to say defense is not a budgetary issue. We have to avoid war at all costs. The way to do that is to have the toughest, the strongest military in the entire planet. China is a real threat. So we can we spend more on defense while still dealing with our debt. Yes, we can, because defense is still something that we have to do. We have to, by the way, reform the programs that are causing the debt. A lot of that. For example, Social Security and Medicare, we have to defend and protect those, but we also have to reform them, reform them to make sure that we have those for future generations so we can do both things, spend more and spend more wisely on defense to confront China while we deal with the other big threat, which is our escalating national debt.

Chuck Warren: [00:40:07] Congressman, do you feel there's a danger within the Republican Party of this strident, isolationist wing that they just seem to want to ignore the world and don't realize when we ignore it, the world is in trouble, which means we're in trouble?

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart: [00:40:21] Well, look, you know, I don't want to be critical of I try to adhere to the again, once again talking about Ronald Reagan. Right. He talked about the 11th commandment. Right. Which is not to ever say negative things about other Republicans. And so I won't do that. And I wish all Republicans had that same attitude because there's a lot of things that we need to talk about that the Democrats are doing wrong and they're helping to destroy this country. Right. So but but I will tell you that we have to treat defense not as a number. We have to look at defenses. What do we need to confront China? Whatever it costs, then we have to deal with everything else. Because if we do not get defense right, nothing else will matter. And the way to avoid war is to which is really obviously the number one goal. Number one goal is to have the toughest, the strongest, the most agile, the most lethal defense in the planet so that China and others do not dare confront the United States. Are we there now? No, we are not. We can do better, but we also have to deal with the debt. Those are not mutually exclusive if we're smart about how we spend our money.

Sam Stone: [00:41:25] Yeah, absolutely. Great point. Before we go, Congressman, we have just about one minute left here on the program, and we thank you