Skip to content 4/8/2025 The Latest on the House and Senate Budget Blueprints, Parental Rights, and the Middle East Apr 9 · 59 min ...more
4/8/2025 The Latest on the House and Senate Budget Blueprints, Parental Rights, and the Middle East
April 9, 2025 · 59 min
Tony Perkins and guests detail the House and Senate budget blueprints, a Colorado bill classifying "misgendering" children as "child abuse,' U.S. military build-up in the Middle East, and Israel.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
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April 9, 2025 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Tony Perkins and guests detail the House and Senate budget blueprints, a Colorado bill classifying "misgendering" children as "child abuse,' U.S. military build-up in the Middle East, and Israel. ...more Show the full description Show less Tony Perkins and guests detail the House and Senate budget blueprints, a Colorado bill classifying "misgendering" children as "child abuse,' U.S. military build-up in the Middle East, and Israel.
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In this video 0:00 Supreme Court Rulings and International Relations4:34 Domestic Policy and Legislative Challenges18:48 Religious Freedom and Global Concerns29:15 Middle East Tensions and Nuclear Talks38:49 Geopolitical Dynamics and Future Outlook1:29
1:40 We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States. We intend to do it very quickly. We think it's the right thing to do, and we're going to also eliminate, trade barriers,
1:52 a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily. And I think Israel can serve as a model for many countries who, ought to do the same.
2:02 Despite Netanyahu's pledge, Trump told reporters that he had not decided whether to reduce the 17 percent tariff on Israel he imposed last week. Also during Netanyahu's visit, Trump announced
2:14 that the US had started direct talks with Iran about dismantling its nuclear program.
2:20 We're having direct talks with Iran, and, they've started it'll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we'll see what can happen. And I think everybody
2:32 agrees that, doing a deal would be preferable, to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I wanna be involved with or frankly
2:43 that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it.
2:46 President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, will lead the US delegation for nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman. Netanyahu thinks the chances of a US Iran nuclear deal are
2:58 extremely low. After the Oval Office meeting, he released a video statement saying a military option against Iran is inevitable if nuclear talks with the US drag on. And the trade
3:10 war with China continues. Today, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt announced President Trump is set on imposing an additional 84 percent tariff on all Chinese imports
3:22 starting tomorrow. This is because China did not back off its promise to impose a 34 percent retaliatory tariffs on US goods today at noon. That means that all goods coming from
3:34 China will be subject to a tariff of at least a hundred and 4 percent. Levitt says Trump is still willing to negotiate with China.
3:42 Under what conditions at this point would president Trump talk to president Xi about tariffs?
3:47 Look. I just spoke to the president about this, and he believes that China wants to make a deal with the United States. He believes China has to make a deal with the United States. It was a mistake for China to
3:56 retaliate. The president, when when America is punched, he punches back harder. That's why there will be 104 percent tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight. But the president
4:08 believes that Xi and China want to make a deal. They just don't know how to get that started. And the president also wanted me to tell all of you that if China reaches out to make a deal, he'll be incredibly gracious,
4:17 but he's going to do what's best for the American people.
4:20 Levitt also said that since President Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs last week, nearly 70 countries have contacted him to begin negotiations to lower trade barriers against the
4:32 US. And those are today's headlines. I'm Victoria Marshall. Up next is Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. We'll see you tomorrow.
Domestic Policy and Legislative Challenges
4:51 From the heart of
4:51 our nation's capital in Washington DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all
5:03 from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
5:10 We're having direct talks with Iran, and, they've started it'll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we'll see what can happen. And I think everybody
5:21 agrees that, doing a deal would be preferable, to doing the obvious.
5:28 That was president Donald Trump yesterday during his meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Welcome to this April eighth edition of Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in and making us part of your day.
5:40 The US has moved significant military assets into the Middle East in advance of those direct talks with Iran. We'll discuss what this may mean with FRC's executive vice president, retired lieutenant general Jerry Boykin,
5:52 former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence. And while president Trump has a knack for negotiations, can you negotiate with the Iranian mullahs? We're gonna talk with doctor Eric
6:04 Bordenkircher, research fellow at the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. On the domestic front, House leadership is pressing forward on the next steps for the budget.
6:16 We cannot delay the country. Can't afford for us to delay a month or longer, to wait on the senate getting where we are. We've gotta continue to move forward, and the bill
6:27 that we have before us allows us to do that.
6:30 That was house majority leader Steve Scalise earlier today. Suzanne Bauty, editorial director at the Washington stand, joins me with the latest on the budget battle and this alarming development in
6:42 Colorado.
6:44 This is the most egregious bill I have seen this entire session. The idea that misgendering your own child is considered course of control, which is
6:56 another word for abuse, child abuse, because you wanna get your child help instead of affirming their delusions, and you can lose custody over your child over that.
7:09 This is the most disgusting bill I've seen so far.
7:12 That was Colorado State Representative Jarvis Caldwell arguing against House Bill 13 12, which could affect child custody if you misgender your child. That passed the house and
7:24 is now in the Colorado senate. FRC's Meg Kilgannon will join me join me with more details. And it's out episode 8 of FRC's God in Government. In episode 8, I explore
7:36 what the Bible says about economics, wealth, inflation, and the proper role of civil government in the economy. This is, given what's happening right now, a very timely discussion, but you can
7:48 only find it exclusively on the Stand Firm app. The God in Government course is at Stand Firm at the Stand Firm app. If you don't have the app, you can text the word course to 6 7 7 4
8:00 2. 6 7 7 4 2, the word course, and I'll send you a link. Alright. House speaker Mike Johnson says he's moving ahead with a plan to vote this week on the senate approved budget resolution
8:11 despite reports of opposition from some of Republicans in the house. In fact, yesterday, we had the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Andy Harris, saying he's not for it, which I think is representative
8:23 of many in the Freedom Caucus. He can only spare the house speaker can only spare 3 votes. How will he be able to move this forward for a vote tomorrow, or could it take longer? Here
8:35 to discuss the latest is Suzanne Bauty, editorial director and senior writer for The Washington Stand. Suzanne, welcome back to Washington Watch.
8:43 Thanks, Tony.
8:44 Alright. Give us the latest.
8:46 Well, if anybody tuned in yesterday, I hope you did. You heard from Andy Harris about the senate, which over the weekend passed, its version of budget reconciliation framework. Now if you've been listening to the show,
8:58 then you know that both both chambers of the capital right now are trying to come up with a plan, which it's really like they're trying to write the rules for a game they haven't played yet. And the big game is how do we
9:09 do the federal budget? How do we do tax cuts? What are the floors for spending offsets, the debt ceiling, Trump's tax extensions? They're trying to come up with a plan to go at this to see what they can do, and the
9:21 2 chambers have very different ideas about what should be done. On the senate side, what they passed is objectionable to a lot of the house members largely because the floor for spending cuts is so low.
9:33 If you heard Andy Harris yesterday, he said we're coming at it from a floor of 2000000000000 dollars worth of spending cuts, and you hear the senate saying 4000000000 with a b, which is a drop in the bucket, many house
9:44 conservatives think, into what they should be doing
9:47 with the president. Rounding error when you consider the the size of the budget. So, house speaker Mike Johnson, as repeatedly, we've seen him when he's got when when he's been at these
9:59 tight points, he's kind of pulled out the Trump card. And today, he did the same. He had the, president Trump met with, the House Freedom Caucus and some others. How did that go?
10:11 Well, I think they hoped it had gone better than it did. After the meeting, there was a readout that said a lot of the more hard line conservatives were still not in favor of the senate plan. They don't think that it
10:20 cuts deep enough. I know that Ralph Norman had concerns Chip Roy as well. And as you said, the house can only afford to lose 3 votes. And I think Mike Johnson has a really tough job here because
10:32 what happens in reconciliation is the 2 sides have to come to an agreement on a plan. And and that plan is how they go about unlocking this process to actually do the work. So we're at the very beginning
10:44 of this process right now.
10:46 So let let's unpack that for just a moment, Suzanne. So the the the senate only has, 4000000000 in in in in cuts. The house
10:58 had 1500000000000.0 with a a
11:01 With hopes for more.
11:02 With hopes for more. So how can they work within that framework? I mean, are they limited then within that framework for only 4000000000 if they take the senate?
11:11 No. And I think that's 1 of the points that Mike Johnson is trying to make. Look. This is just a shell. It's a skeleton. So if the 2 sides come together, if we agree on this this skeleton moving forward, then we can make
11:22 it whatever we want.
11:23 At the end. So this is just kinda like the start, what we end up at the and this is the point the speaker made, earlier or over the weekend in the conference, as he was at the conference call with the members on
11:35 Sunday, is that this is where we start, but it doesn't mean this is where we have to end up.
11:39 Absolutely not. And I think that's what Trump emphasized today in those meetings, which is the that look, I can bear down on the senate to get more cuts. In fact, a lot of the people that left the meeting said Trump
11:48 assured us that we could get more than 4000000000. I think a lot of of members' concerns are, well, yeah, you say you're gonna cut 4000000000, but we have absolutely no assurance of that if this is the plan that's at the
11:58 table.
11:59 But wouldn't the flip side be true as well that even if they adopted the house version that calls for the 1.5 or more trillion in cuts, that that doesn't guarantee that's where they end
12:11 up.
12:11 No. And I think that the house conservatives in particular would like that to see as be as much as 5000000000000. I mean, this But
12:18 they're not locked into that by by this framework. So it's just a starting point, a reference point. What they end up with is based on what they can get agreement to at the end of the process. Right.
12:29 And you can see both sides point of view. Obviously, there's a lot of wiggle room in this process to do more than what's being laid out right now. As as a lot of people have said, the real work starts now. We're really
12:41 just getting on the train. We haven't even left the station yet. So but you can also see the side of the conservatives who think that, well, that's great. You're making all these promises. How do we hold your feet to the
12:52 fire when it really comes down to making these reductions? And you add to that the debt ceiling. You add to that whether the tax cuts are permanent or just an extension. There there's just an incredible amount of
13:02 controversial issues that at some point, both sides are gonna have to sit down and really hammer through, whether that's now or whether that's you pass the shell of a plan and then you come to the table later.
13:12 Regardless, there's gonna be hard work in negotiating on both sides. This is not where either side is gonna end up. It's gonna be a process.
13:20 What about, congressman Andy Harris's point yesterday on the program that alright. We we we really don't need this budget resolution right now to start the process. We can go ahead and our
13:32 committees can start doing this work now while we're still having a conversation about what the framework looks like.
13:38 And that's what they did in 20 17. The last time the Republicans tried to do a reconciliation bill, they said, okay. We're gonna punt on this issue of the resolution, the plan, the framework, which ultimately they will
13:47 have to do. You can't unlock the process without it. But they went ahead and negotiated, went to their appropriators and said, hey. Let's get together. Let's huddle. Let's see where we can make cuts. There's been
13:57 suggestions of going I think Ron Johnson was on the show last week saying we can go line by line by line, and the appropriators can cut. We can talk about it. So there are many avenues with which to take with this.
14:09 I don't see, at this point a way forward for for this bill for this budget resolution that came over from the senate to pass the house this week.
14:18 No. And complicating matters is and this is, you know, a little inside baseball, rule committee? They are these very
14:30 hard line conservatives who are not gonna say, okay. Sure. Let's vote on this rule, and then it's open season on the budget resolution if if they sincerely have problems and don't believe that the senate is gonna make
14:40 further cuts.
14:41 And and and in their defense, in the defense of of conservatives, rarely does something turn out more conservative than it starts in
14:49 this city. Right.
14:51 So, I mean, they they have a long history of being, of promises being made, and not kept. And usually, things turned out turned out bigger, not smaller
15:02 in, in this city. However, that's it. Let me let me let me let me let me, be the other side of that coin as well. We're in the a the era of Trump where things are
15:14 different, much different than what they've been before.
15:17 And Mike Johnson has really benefited from having Trump to come in behind him and alongside him and say, hey. This is what I want done. You 2 need to work it out. Both sides need to come to the table and unify. In this
15:28 situation, I really do think that Trump is the Trump card. I mean, I do think that he will come in and strong arm senators if he needs to to get a little bit more just to bring the house to the table.
15:38 But that's but that is a big difference.
15:41 Oh, absolute trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars worth of difference. Yeah.
15:45 I mean, that that I would have to agree with the house that, the house leadership well, the the the budget chairman, Chairman Smith. This is not even
15:57 this doesn't even look reasonable. This is not a reasonable counteroffer of 4000000000 dollars.
16:03 No. And earlier today, Thune said we're speaking in completely different languages. I think he's right. Now the senate does have to deal with, the reconciliation process itself. It does have a very complicated mechanism
16:15 for getting this bill to the floor. Ultimately, it has to originate in the senate. But at the end of the day, there's going to be no bill if they don't make some concessions.
16:24 Now the the the Freedom Caucus met with the president today. The president's meeting in fact, right now, the Republicans are gathered, for an event here in DC.
16:34 Right. And Mike Johnson was saying, look, I really hope we can get to a rule vote later tonight. I don't know if that's the case. If if they can punt it to tomorrow, maybe they'll have more success in bringing members
16:44 together overnight. But it it is looking a little bleak to get something through in the next couple of days.
16:50 So what does that do with the rest of the agenda items that kind of got derailed last week?
16:55 Over the proxy voting.
16:57 Voting issue last week. That was a rule. That was actually a rule that that brought everything to a halt, that was taken down, when I think 9 Republicans get joined with the Democrats to
17:09 defeat that rule, which as you said, it's, you know, there's a lot of in the weeds stuff that happens here. But in order to have a floor vote, you have to adopt a rule first. That rule went down. Chances
17:21 are the same thing could happen here.
17:23 Well, exactly. And you have all these bills that are waiting in the wings. I mean, the Save Act is on ice, which is an election integrity bill that we care very much about. A lot of things are being held up because they
17:33 need to make moves, very soon to get the reconciliation bill on the president's desk by Memorial Day, which is Johnson's goal. Whether that can actually happen is another conversation.
17:43 I I do think the urgency is is there given what has happened to the economy based on the tariffs. The certainty of the tax cuts being extended or being made permanent, I
17:55 think, is essential.
17:57 Well, and businesses right now are just waiting to see what is gonna happen with the tariffs, what's gonna happen with the tax cuts. They need to plan in advance. So I think you see the volatility in the market right
18:07 now, and a lot of people are just skittish waiting to find out what any of this means for their future.
18:12 Alright. 30 seconds left. We gotta go to a break. But, Suzanne Badi, how can people keep up with this via the Washington Stand?
18:19 Sure. Yes. Go to washington stand dot com. We got a lot of analysis on this and other issues.
18:23 Or better yet, download the Stand Firm app, and you'll have that feed right there on the Stand Firm app. Suzanne Bauti, always great to see you. Thanks for joining us.
18:32 Thanks, Tony.
18:32 Alright. Alright, folks. Do go to the app store and get the Stand Firm app. In that way, you'll have the steady flow of information from the Family Research Council news and commentary from a biblical perspective, the
18:44 Washington stand. Alright. Don't go away. When we come back, more Washington Watch.Show more
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