Mike Waltz talks Democrats irresponsible COVID spending

Let's welcome back to the show Florida Congressman Michael Waltz. It's great to have you on, sir. Okay, breaking news out of the Associated Press. States and cities are blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of pandemic relief money, not on COVID, not on badly needed drugs or vaccines or hospital workers, but on dozens of pork projects. We're talking golf courses, ski slopes, tourism, a baseball park, the Ted Kennedy Institute in Boston, nothing to do with pandemic. So time and again, the American people see how D.C. puts no strings on this money and it just gets thrown out the door. Yeah, you're absolutely right. When the Biden administration came in the door, there was a trillion dollars left unspent from the COVID packages that we had passed the year before in 2020. And Biden still insisted on another two trillion dollars on top of the So these localities and states are completely flush with cash. The legislation was rushed, so you're right, there's not a lot of strings to it. But still, just in the last few weeks, the Democrats want to pass even another $16 billion to get after tests and therapeutics and other things. What Republicans came back with was fine, let's claw back some of that money that's just sitting out there unspent or sitting out there with localities. And the progressives had a fit. And that's why it didn't pass with the budget. And they're still trying to work that out. So, yeah, we're going to continue to push to pull that money back, either put it back in the Treasury, pay off the debt or use it where it's actually needed, which would be for the national stockpile to get ready if there's another pandemic. You know, people are sick of Congress treating taxpayers like their own ATM, right? And then you have Senator Sanders, you know, complaining about oil companies buying back $88 billion worth of stock or whatever it is when they're blowing out the door, trillions of dollars in money that's being wasted at the state level. And now we've got the new White House COVID czar. He's one of the most vocal advocates of shutdowns. And they have Dr. Fauci talking about wearing masks inside again. Watch this. Well, I would not be surprised at all if we do see somewhat of an uptick. The extent of it and the degree to which it impacts seriousness of disease like hospitalizations and death remains to be seen. The reason why I say I would not be surprised to see an uptick in infections is because the same conditions that are responsible for the upticks that you're seeing in other countries, there's been a relaxation of restrictions, particularly the requirements for masks in indoor congregate settings. He's saying that could come back. Does that surprise anyone? Look, what happened to if you get vaccinated, it stops the spread and that vaccines would solve this problem. Now they're saying that that doesn't necessarily solve the problem. It's masks and masking indoors that we may have to go to. And what I can't for the life of me figure out all this time is why the NIH, the Democrats, and our federal health officials won't take into account natural immunity and won't have an Operation Warp Speed for therapeutics and focus on therapeutics. And then finally, why they are still to this day, and Fauci just did it in that clip, is talking about cases, even though he says, I have no idea who's actually hospitalized or who's actually going to be seriously ill. And to your point, the New York Times reported the CDC is not publishing, not putting out large portions of the COVID data it has, notably on boosters. It left out the data for 18 to 49 year olds, the group least likely maybe to benefit from extra shots because they left it out. They were worried they might be misinterpreted as, you know, being ineffective and that would contradict the White House's political goals. We still don't have that data about COVID risks by specific age group. So we don't have the full picture of vaccine effectiveness after many Americans were fired from their jobs and suffered from serious adverse events. So it just seems like we're being railroaded time and again by this White House, this administration, this CDC, and this NIH and NIAID director. America has known for about two years, the government has not been honest with the American people. They understand vaccine effectiveness. They want the information and they're not getting it. Well, you're absolutely right. There's been a lack of transparency. There's been a lack of data, even though we hear those in the left with the follow the science mantra. At the end of the day, it's because it undercut their narrative. And study after study is coming out now showing that the lockdowns didn't work. Look, I represent Florida. We had schools open five days a week in person in August of 2020. And we didn't have mass deaths amongst our teachers and students. But all of those others who refused to go down that route now are in real trouble with what data is coming out. But my real fear, Liz, and this is just tragic for our future, is that the confidence in public health and the confidence in what these officials say is completely shattered and eroded. The last three pandemics have come from China, and I see nothing that's going to stop the next one that can be even more deadly. But yet we have this erosion and what they're telling us. Congressman Walz, it's good to have you on. Come back soon.