Senate Funds DHS But Who Actually Caved?

0:00So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of the Three Mar Teeny Lunch and Jim, whenever it comes to legislation, you always are a little leery when you wake up to news of, in the middle of the night last night, the US Senate dot dot dot. But what the US Senate did last night was by a voice vote approved funding for the Department of Homeland Security minus ice and minus customs and border protection, which seems like a win for the left. And there's an argument that it is. There's also an argument that it's a win for the right since the Democrats didn't get their radical ice reforms that they wanted, including judicial warrants and, you know, no more masks and stuff like that. And so there's a couple different takes here. There's Ed Morrissey

1:00over at hot air saying this is a huge win for Republicans. Yes, ice and CPB are not part of this, but they're already funded by the big beautiful bill. And they'll also be addressed probably in a new reconciliation bill this year, which is now far more likely because of how the Democrats have acted here. And we'll probably get a lot more good things as a result of democratic contraction here. And ultimately, they're going to get none of what they want. Meanwhile, Byron York is out there and others saying, you basically gave the Democrats what they wanted in terms of the funding. And you negotiated in the first place, which you shouldn't have done. You just should have said, it's time to fund the government. We're not making any deals. So Jim, break the tie. What's the result here? Put me down as closer to Ed than to Byron. I see where Byron's coming from. And there's a lot of people who would say, look, you know, Republicans have the House, have the Senate, why can't they just do what they want to do? Well, you can do a lot through reconciliation. And you and I talked about this on this podcast a little while ago that like you have, but roughly once a year, can only do fiscal things. It's you can't do any extraneous social policy or stuff

2:04like that, but you can get a lot done under fiscal policy if you if you word it the right way and if you if you're creative legislatively. And so, you know, they did one, which is how they passed the big beautiful bill. And there was an open question about whether they were going to do another one. And kind of surprisingly, President Trump was not didn't seem well. It certainly didn't seem like a priority to him. And there was a sense that Republicans are like, you know, if we do it, what do we want to do it? What we have enough votes for and all that stuff? Well, now it looks like you almost have to realize you this is the best way to resolve this funding issue. I heard some Republicans talk about let's fund it for the next 10 years through reconciliation. And I'm not a hundred percent sure you can bind future Congresses to certain spending decisions and things like that. But it also by the way of the moment you lose control of the Senate, which I don't think is going to happen in the midterms, but isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. You know, at some point Democrats will have control of government and they could then use reconciliation to force through the funding changes that they want to make. So, but that's a problem for another day. Again, would you have preferred to not do this, you know, to have to do it this way? Yeah.

3:07Would you have, you know, but this does end the crazy long lines at the airports. And I'm traveling next month. So I think I'm really glad to hear that. It does get everybody paid who's, you know, been working without pay, which I think was absolutely ridiculous at any time, particularly ridiculous when we're in a war against the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism. There are a lot of bad things that end because of this decision. And so for that sense, I see this as a step in the right direction. And yeah, and if you're going to do this second reconciliation, since we don't know what the outlook for the House is, but it's very tight and midterm elections traditionally go badly for the president's party. Yeah, smoke up if you got him. This is the time to put in anything you want to do because you don't know if you're going to be able to do this starting in January of next year. And like Jim said, you have to put in tax or fiscal related issues. For those who don't know, reconciliation only requires a simple majority to advance and pass the legislation. There is no filibuster possible in that particular legislation. However, this Senate bill that was approved by voice vote does not match the House legislation. So now the House has to approve what the Senate did. We'll see if there are some Republican defections because CPB and ICE

4:11isn't in there. But I would also imagine some Democrats will vote for it because it's not in there. So my guess is it'll work. But Jim, it basically took, we want to go home for Easter for this to get done after 40 some days. Well, miracles happen at Easter. And a couple of other things here, you know, ICE has only been helping out for a few days. But so far, they've gotten glowing reviews. They're holding people's place in line while they run to the bathroom because they're in line for small bottles and handing out water. They saved a choking toddler at one airport. I mean, pretty good PR for just a few days helping out there. Not uniformly, but at a considerable number of airports, the lines did get shorter and things were moving faster. So to that and again, like I don't like TSA employees doing a sick out as a form of protest for not getting paid. But I also can't really begrudge them that particularly as it goes into one missed paycheck, two missed paycheck, three missed paycheck. Government shutdowns are a terrible way to do. It's hostage taking as you know, we always hate it when everybody loves. It's hostage taking would Republicans do it. It's reasonably using the only leverage they have when Democrats do it.

5:14Or at least that's the message you get from the mainstream media. The Republicans running for Senate and Georgia trying to tie John Ossoff to the terrible TSA lines at Hartfield Jackson International Airport there. Voters memories are pretty short. So I don't know if this is going to work, but I hope it does. I hope he has to pay a price for that for voting no time and time and time again on that. But again, folks will be getting paychecks and hopefully your visit to the airport will get much smoother soon, assuming there's not a major hiccup in the house. But the debate over whether this was the right thing for the Republicans to do, I'm sure will continue for some time. Well, thanks to home serve for sponsoring this episode. And like Jim said earlier in the week, home ownership is great. The cost of maintaining that home in a quality way can get very expensive sometimes, but there are ways to make sure that you don't pay an arm in a leg if something goes wrong unexpectedly. And if it's not covered by your homeowner's insurance, there's a good chance it's covered by home serve, whether it's major systems inside your house, those water and sewer lines going from your house to the street, don't get caught if those rupture or things go

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7:23headed towards this moment for quite a while now, even if it hasn't been said explicitly. But we're now more than three weeks, closing in on four weeks since the start of combat operations against Iran. And now the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give President Trump more military options, even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran. The force, which would likely include infantry and armored vehicles, would be added to the roughly 5,000 Marines and the thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division who have already been ordered to the region. It's unclear where precisely the forces will go, but they will likely be within striking distance of Iran and Carg Island, a crucial oil export hub off Iran's coast, which has been in the headlines a lot. Trump repeatedly has said he will open the Straits of Hormuz with or without the help of U.S. allies. And so Jim, this has been one of the big questions since the start of operations. And even when the rumblings before that and we saw the the massing of all the ships there is if you're going for regime change and in some way we are, whether it's somebody

8:25completely outside of it or somebody we can actually work with that's left inside of it, it's hard to accomplish that just with air strikes. So I don't know exactly what this looks like. Is it a light footprint to take over Carg Island to really force the Iranians hand or is it something bigger than that? But going on ground troops is going to really up not only the debate in this country, but the stakes in this conflict. Yeah. So Greg, since the start of the war in February 28th, pretty much every weekday, I've written at least one item, if not the morning jolt, then a corner post or a couple post columns about the war. And what's fascinating is that I've seen people debating what my position is, which probably suggests, either my position is very nuanced or I'm a really crappy writer that people can't get it. So let's let's there be any doubt. I support the objectives of the war. I want to see the Iranian regime tossed onto the ash heap of history as Reagan had put it. I want to see this mission succeed. I think the performance of the U.S.

9:26military has been absolutely superlative at pretty much every step of the way. Militarily, we are winning this war because of the closure of the straight-of-formues or the near closure or the defacto Iranian control and charging of a toll over the straight-of-formues. That part of the war is not going so great. I also have some deep frustrations with the way the president is communicating this. Now, when Hegseth speaks, he's fine. When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kane speaks, I think he's being very as illuminating as he can be without disclosing anything inappropriate. And I think the problem is, is that we know there have been several objectives in this war. And that's where I think the confusion. Is regime change our red line, our measuring stick of, is this a successful operation? Because if that's it, we're still some considerable distance away. And if you're going to say the objective is short of regime change, you should not, the president of the United States should not jump on Twitter on true social and say, unconditional surrender is our regret. I think don't say things you don't mean. Don't bluff. Don't say things that are, don't, you know, make a say, this is our objective, then come back later

10:32and say, well, actually, I didn't really mean that. I don't think that is a good idea during wartime. Also, I thought I'd have been very good for the administration to go to Congress, get an authorization for the use of military force. If for no other reason, then you make Congress co-owners of the war. You make them buy into this. And if Congress won't pass an authorization for the use of military force, well, then you have a problem that then you really need to go to the persuasion part. I would have very much preferred for the president before this military operation began, addressed the country from the Oval Office behind the resolute desk, reading off the teleprompter, not winging it, not doing the weave, making the case. This is what, this is what we need to do. These are our objectives. This is how it will help American interests and the world in the long run, which by the way, I think is a very easy case to make. For 46 years, the Iranian regime has been the foremost problem, the foremost sponsor of World Terrorism. This is a long-simmering problem that has become intolerable. That's the message the president needs to make. If you're going to commit ground troops, first of all,

11:35every once in a while you'll see people saying it's a military operation, not a war, which is what Putin was saying about Ukraine four years ago. This is war. We're bombing people, they're shooting back, they're shooting back at our troops. This is war. Don't get into semantic arguments over this. If you're going to use ground troops and it's a seizing carg island, may well be a necessary step in this process, address the country and say clearly, say, why? And ideally, get Congress on the record, say, yes, we support doing this. You can't just wing this. You can't just, you know, there's certain things you can't spin. And I feel like the communication from the president has been really subpar. It changes every couple of days. He clearly is worried about the markets. He's always talking about do this. I think five days ago, we were going to hit the Iranian electrical plants. Then all of a sudden, he said, conversations have been going great. And then because of that, he's going to push it off. The Iranians say there's been no negotiations. I'm pretty sure the Iranians are lying. Yeah. The first sign that the Iranians are lying is that the lips are moving. But the second,

12:36but you know, did the president bluff? I hope the president did not bluff. But it is one of the what's going on behind these scenes. We talked about this earlier in this week. So if we're going to commit ground troops and if we are going to try to seize carg, like, by the way, the good news is it's very easy to see a scenario where the US military, like if they go to take carg island, they'll take carg island. It could be more casualties. It could be bloody, but they will take it. The problem is now you've got US troops on an island that would be a very easy target for the Iranians. And I imagine whatever ballistic missiles they got left, whatever missiles drone, you know, all of a sudden they're going to hit that place left and right and center. Because at that point, the Iranians have no incentive to not hit it. I'm sure they'd like to come on the other side of this war with all the oil loading infrastructure intact. But if they lose control of it, they might be like, well, we might as well blow up the thing because we don't want the Americans having it. Yeah, we don't know. And that would then freak out the oil markets even more. So I don't envy the people who are having to make the decisions in this war. This is challenging, difficult, messy stuff. Having said that, I think that the administration's kind of been

13:37winging it in its communication efforts. And if you're going to get into ground troops, you need to get really clear, really fast. I expected more communication before the start of the operation. So we will see. But it seems like that is a major step and definitely needs to be clarified what exactly the goal is. And hopefully that'll happen. So anyway, this weekend, hopefully the weather's going to be nice where you are. And that could mean making that yard. Look ready for spring and summer. And for that, you want the best possible tool. And that is the pocket hose. The world's number one expandable hose. And thanks to pocket hose for sponsoring this episode today. Jim, the flexibility of the hose, it doesn't get caught and kinked on the corners of steps or corner of your house or tangled around a bush. It's very, very flexible. It expands obviously when the water's on. It shrinks and coils easily when it's off. No more frustration if you get the pocket hose. Greg, let's say hypothetically a tree hits your house. And the one bridge from that tree somehow, some way managed to fall just in a right way to shear off the faucet

14:41turner wheel that you use to make the water go through in your outdoor faucet. Well, now you're going to have a tough time. You're going to have to pay for that fix. But then when you're fixed, you're stuck with the same old hose from Satan that is a mess. It is a pain in an act that drags through the mud. Whatever you do it, you're trying to reel it up and it's spitting mud. You know, you can solve all of this with the pocket pivot swivel. Jim, thank you for sharing that totally hypothetical situation. Could happen to anybody. Yeah. For a limited time, three martini lunch listeners can get a free pocket pivot and their 10 pattern sprayer with the purchase of any copper head hose. Just text martini to 6400. That's text martini to 6400 for your two free gifts with your purchase text martini to 6400 message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. All right, Jim, people elected to serve in San Francisco did the right thing. I'm just going to let that. Wow. I know. People are checking their audio. This gets hacked or something or

15:47now we should clarify that it's only to correct a really stupid decision that they made a number of years ago. But hey, progress is progress. Free beacon with the story. San Francisco school officials voted Tuesday to restore eighth grade algebra more than a decade after the district eliminated the course in the name of equity. A policy that attracted intense criticism as math scores declined across the district. And so in 2014, they removed algebra from middle schools in an attempt to give minority students more time to learn basic math skills. Instead, math proficiency declined across the district, including among black students. eighth grade math proficiency in San Francisco public schools fell from 51% in 2016 and 17 to 40% in the 2022 23 school year. proficiency among black students fell from 11% to 4%. The policy led some parents to use tutors or enroll their students in summer school, often having to pay out of pocket. And so the failed policy sparked a ballot initiative in 2024 in which voters overwhelmingly demanded the school

16:48board restore accelerated math options. While the measure wasn't binding, it did quote unquote encourage the district to reinstate the course. And so basically, Jim, this goes back to George W. Bush and the soft bigotry of low expectations. Instead of raising the floor, they lowered the ceiling to try and let people catch up. So everybody's at the same playing field before they start to get to algebra and stuff like that. It didn't work because it doesn't work. You know, Greg, that referendum encouraging the lawmaker reminds me of one of our other sponsors that would encourage data brokers to stop selling your information. You know, they got nice operation. You got here shameless. What happened to it? You know, that kind of encouragement that sometimes is required in this life. First of all, let's point out that I believe that almost every parent in that district, I'm probably almost every parent in that country strongly believes that their kids should be required to take algebra and should be required to pass algebra. Also, those exact same parents adamantly believe they themselves should not have to take algebra

17:50again. And we've heard all the jokes. What? I've never used any of that stuff. Every time I've done numbers, they're numbers. I don't have to deal with x and y and all that stuff. But no, I think what you, it's interesting to see how often this comes up in education debates that there are, unfortunately, a group of educators who believe that when the kids are not performing well, the answer is to lower the bar. The answer is to expect less of them. The answer is to stop making what they're expected to know so hard, make it easy, and then loathe behold, they get better test scores and the problem's solved. Well, really, it isn't. What you need to know in the world doesn't change. What you need to do in the workforce doesn't change. In fact, you could argue it gets harder, gets tougher. You know, as technology gets more advanced, as the requirements of, you know, being a competent worker in the American economy, a globalized economy, the bar gets higher. You don't get better by lowering the bar. You don't get better by lowering your expectations. You don't get better. You only get better by raising them. Now, I think everyone would say the kids need extra help. Give them extra help. Are there

18:54different ways? I have heard this argument. I've also heard other folks say it's total nonsense. There's this idea that some kids are visual learners. They learn by seeing some are more auditory learners. They understand things better, retain information better when they hear it. They're, oh, yeah, I don't know if there's smell learners and other stuff, but there's just kids have different learning styles. And if a kid's not doing well in a class, it may well be that the way the teacher is teaching it isn't attuned to the best way that they do it. One of the reasons they have kid, they've done these tests were like, if I ask you to remember something and you don't write it down, your odds of knowing it are, of remembering it are, you know, that's so great. If you write it down, even if you don't have access to where you wrote it down, the muscle memory makes it easier for you to remember that stuff. That's one of the reasons, you know, teachers traditionally have have kids take notes. The very process of writing it down helps the neurons connect and put it down there. Maybe it's a matter of just you remember writing it. Well, you have to write out something a million times. You're never going to do it. The other thing in light of the experiences of my kids and various efforts of building robots and stuff like that, there's an important lesson

19:58from failure, right? If you screw something up and fixing it takes you a bunch of hours because you wired it the wrong way and you suddenly realize it, you will never make that mistake again. Any mistake that is sufficiently painful to you, you will remember that pain and you will check it every single time. So, look, we can get kids to do better in algebra. Look at how Mississippi has done this amazing turnaround in his schools compared, unfortunately, to the state of California, and they're a whole bunch of students in the state of California. So, look, this is thankfully a step in the right direction, a rare kudos to those folks out there on the west coast. That's also a lesson that this is a toxic attitude in our education system of lowering standards and saying, well, they didn't do well. It's just lower the bar and then we'll pretend the kids did better. No, the test scores are the test scores. The answer the question right away, answer the question incorrectly. So, good for you students out there, good for you parents out there, there are many adults who would eagerly help you learn algebra. I am not one of them.

21:04Algebra is pretty close to my ceiling of what I can still help with. That's it. I understood stuff above that at one time, but once you get the letters in there, it gets tricky. But algebra, I can still. It's like, Alphabet, what are you doing here? That's right. That's right. In a moment, our final chaser of the week. Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner. Navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most, it's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Healthcare. All right, Jim, as we head into the weekend, and as you head into spring break in just about 60 seconds, let's head into our final quick chaser of the week. The president's signature typically

22:04does not show up on American currency. That is about to change. It's Treasury Department announcing yesterday in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States. President Donald Jay Trump's signature will appear on future US paper currency, along with the Secretary of the Treasury, marking the first time in history for a sitting president. Jim is usually the Treasury Secretary and the Treasury of the United States to very different people. So what do you make of Trump adding his John Hancock to the bills here? I don't love it. I basically, you know, I don't love the renamed the Kennedy Center. There's a bunch of things which Trump wants to put his name on everything, and I don't like that impulse. I think, you know, we will survive this, however, and I think back to Jack Lu, who was the treasurer of the United States back in the, I think it was like Obama's second term or somewhere in the middle of the Obama years. You know, if you said, you know, how do you spell Jack Lu? You'd probably say J-A-C-K-S-B-A-L-E-W. If you looked at his signature, you would think his name was pronounced, ooh, that's right. From his signature, you would

23:06think it was spelled with Cheerios. It's all just loop, loop, loop, loop, loop, loop. It is the line you draw when you're not sure if your pen is working. You kind of like, you know, it's just like that. So we got through that. I could see the interesting question will be if some, we're also, you know, people argue we're headed towards a cashless society. People don't use cash. I still use cash, and periodically the cashier will look at me like I've got two heads. No, I've got 20 bucks, just traditionally how we do this. And no, I do not want to sign up for your rewards program. I just want to buy the thing in front. No, no, you don't need my ID. No, no, no, no, I don't want your cell phone number. I'm not going to give you my cell phone number. I don't want spam. Can I just, you know, just, just give me the object. You're this, this brain pieces of paper. This is how we traditionally do this in this country. But now maybe some people won't take it just because it is Trump's signature. We'll see. Well, I can imagine the left going for more digital currency and a cashless society just because his name's out there. This is what it'll take to get them into crypto. The other is also if actually to all of our progressive friends,

24:10if you do not like the Trump signature on the cash that you have, you can send them for just to just, you know, to get rid of them to Greg and myself, care of Radio America at yes, yes, we'll take them. We will, yeah, we will not take you won't have to walk around with Trump signature in your pocket, you know, exactly. And the ones with Benjamin Franklin on the front, we really want those and Grant. So those would be great. Anyway, Jim, have a fantastic spring break. Enjoy your time and we'll talk to you the day after Easter. I will see you in a week, Greg. Take care of Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Carumbus of Radio America. We will have three Martini lunch podcasts all next week where the great lineup of guest hosts in Jim's place. But in the meantime, subscribe to the podcast if you don't already tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you have to say is play three Martini lunch podcast. Follow us both on X. He's at Jim Garrity. I'm at Greg Carumbus and follow three Martini lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have a great weekend. Join us again Monday for the next three Martini lunch.

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26:20culture and many mysteries of English. Plus, some life cracks. Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts.