Russ Vought
speaker
409 appearances
6 recordings
5 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 18 Apr
Russ Vought’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah. Yeah. So why do we have black budgets? Yeah. It's a great question, Tucker. I mean, there's dramatically more transparency needed, and I would say it's one of those areas where, not unlike the over-classification, there are things we need to know a lot more about.
And I can't tell you, well, what's the optimal level of transparency on that front, but the extent to which you can't have, as a citizen— an understanding of what the size of your IC community is, that's kind of a problem.
And the size of these buildings. Like, you go around and you realize, oh, wow, that alphabet has an enormous... institutional presence that the country's never even heard about.
We need to know a lot more and we need to demand that we know more. Like how is Congress and yeah, they can go into a SCIF and they can be given a brief information. Debates are supposed to happen on the House and Senate floor, and you can't – you're providing no ability to be able to share with your voters and us as voters whether – do we ever vote for this?
Did we ever vote for this military-industrial complex, this intel community, the extent to which it sprawled all over the country? Who got a say in that? It doesn't seem like the intel— I would say it's rather undemocratic.
I don't want to, I would just say this. Devin Nunez was kind of a unique character in his ability to provide leadership in that. And they came after him with everything they got. I know. And he survived. And I think he's a model not unlike that. When you say they, you mean the intel agencies? The intel agencies. The forces that are, you know, some out of government, non-government organizations.
Oh, yeah. And working with the intelligence.
And so what... Why don't we have more Devin Nunes? That would be the question that I would ask is what what fear factor is there that and I'm not I'm not making an accusation of anyone. I'm just saying that with with all Congress and with all non-government organizations, even our there's there's this point where you're like.
If I go after these individuals, this issue set or this area of corruption or this policy set, and I saw it right after Mar-a-Lago was raided and we came out really quickly and said, you know, the FBI should be radically reformed. I think I thought it should be, you know, exploded into a thousand pieces, right? Yeah. Why do we have such fear that that is such a provocative position?
Because you don't own the government. Right. And so that's what we've got to go after. And I think it's a systemic issue that we've got to tackle with everything we've got.
Well, I think they're bringing an exhilarating rush to the system of creativity, outside-the-box thinking, comfortability with risk and leverage.
It is amazing. And the reason I love it is, I mean, you... In some respects, this does feel like an intractable problem that we're up against. Yes, yes, exactly. And I don't think it is, but I think it feels that way. And we're bringing people that, you know, are trying to get to Mars.
So I'm pretty sure they can handle, you know, the ability for us to balance our books and run a government that's much more efficient. So I think that the things that I've heard them say are things like really going after or from a deregulatory perspective, all of the recent court cases that have said and chopped at the feet of this administrative state.
You know, you don't have the ability to just come up with new major questions, you know, rank agency, rank and file agency. You've got to have actual specific language from Congress. Right. You don't have the ability to get the deference for every position that you've taken just because you're a federal agency. These have been big axe cuts at the administrative branches.
And so I think what they want to do is to use those as the basis for a massive deregulatory agenda and game on. I also think they want to look for as much that you can do to start cutting costs without Congress or with Congress, but to be really aggressive in some of the areas that I've mentioned. Empowerment would be a huge part of that, the ability to just not spend the money.
And so, and then of course, you know, being as radical or aggressive as you can in eliminating and reducing employees, you know, full-time employees, individuals, and going after contracts that may not make sense. So I think that that's where they're headed. And I think it'll be an enormous boon to the country.
Well, I think that you, you know, they will be working with the agencies that do this. I think they'll be working with OMB, whoever's in that role. They'll be working with Treasury, who's ever in that role. And they will be rallying the theory of the case. I mean, I think ultimately that's what's most needed, Tucker, is a specific theory of the case about what can be done. That's right.
And then you give it to the people, and hopefully that's been a two-way conversation, but you give it to the people that are on the president's executive team and his administration and they run with it. And then you've got Doge out there providing a political support for what must be done.
I mean, we haven't had any spending reductions in like 20 years, right? But we're bankrupt, right? But we're bankrupt. And there's just this notion that nothing can be done about it. We still pass $100 billion Ukraine checks. Even if you thought it was a good idea. You can't afford it. Like you never have the affordability conversation at all. Is that true? That's totally true.
Like literally no one ever talks about affordability, what we can do.
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