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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Katherine Getty 0:01
Captain, Hi and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me, your host, Katherine Getty, each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without the bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government. Welcome back to another episode of The on the Hill podcast with me, your host, Katherine Getty, as I record this episode like I've been saying, if you've been listening, in real time, we are less than 30 days to election day 2024 which it's hard to believe, but I feel like if you're in a battleground state, this is probably not surprising, because you are being inundated by ads, door knockers, flyers, you name it. So you're really, you're really getting all of the political, the political love right now. So I was thinking about what to record this week, and as I watched the vice presidential debate from last week, I had this thought of, okay, there's all these big bold ideas on both sides. How does this actually get done? And giving some context as we think about elections, about big bold ideas are important, but ensuring that they are measurable or achievable, I feel like is a important kind of piece to consider as well. And I'll say on the whole, I think it was a deeper policy conversation between Governor Tim Walz, Democrat, who is VP Harris's running mate and Senator JD Vance, Republican and former President Trump's running mate. Then you really saw between VP Harris and President Trump themselves. I feel like that debate got pretty personal pretty fast, and the vice presidential debate really got into some wonky policies, which is a policy nerd I was exceptionally thrilled about, but I just kept coming back to this idea that the elephant in the room of these big, bold ideas is how the ideas get done. And I think oftentimes, when I talk to people about what I do, or, you know, people say, How are you not disenchanted with politics because it's a lot of name calling, and things don't get done. And I'll my response in broad strokes, is, yes, there is name calling. It is sad. That is what gets the clicks and the attention, but what sometimes doesn't get the attention, and what gives me the most hope is I see, I'll say, in my professional career members of both sides of the aisle work on really tough issues and come to consensus and get things done, and that is what lights the fire in me to keep doing the my professional work, but it's also why I find it so important that I want to share with you all my love of politics, so that you don't feel so disenchanted, because it's really easy to get disenchanted. You see crazy things that members say, and you're like, we sent them to Congress, and today, what we're going to cover is, I just want you to have some more context as you think about these big, bold policy ideas, what's in the context of a likely reality we'll be seeing next year when it comes to Congress, and how does that slow down or speed up? Policy ideas? I'm going to take two different policy kind of talking points, one from Vice President Harris's policy platform and one from President Trump's and kind of just give you some context, because I think this podcast is all about calling balls and strikes, and I want to be as fair as possible, and I want to give you something to think about, but I know that examples are really important in this conversation, so we'll cover two things, what to think about As you consider these policies and these ideas and the importance of voting for members or elected officials in Congress, particularly, or at a local level, who has jurisdiction over the things that you really care about, but understanding those broader dynamics. So I'm going to take the two examples. One, we've heard a lot about an immigration bill, a bipartisan immigration bill that was negotiated within the Senate. And the kind of talking point is Vice President Harris says, If I get elected, I will call that bill back up and sign it into law. And while that is a laudable effort, I think it's important to realize that, as we sit here today in October of 2024 it is more than likely it will be a Republican Senate. So it will switch from a Democrat controlled chamber to a Republican controlled chamber. She being a Democrat, they're going to have different policy ideas. They're not going to have the same consideration. And why that's important is it's not just calling up the bill and signing into law. There's a process that goes along with it. Does the Republican Senate want to approach it in a different way? Divided Congress on the whole, you see, by more bipartisan things, because it's the nature of the beast. You have to get things across the line. So you got to kind of compromise, which has oftentimes been a dirty word in Congress, but I just want you to think about it's really important the context in which these policy ideas are put forth. Another kind of consideration, and one that's a part of President Trump's platform is a lot of the taxes that were passed in 2018 so the tax cuts and Jobs Act, where a majority of those taxes are about individual but there are a lot of business considerations, the corporate tax rate among them, those expire next year. So we are setting ourselves up, no matter what, to have a big tax conversation in 2025 I think it's important, if a President Trump was elected and we say, okay, it's likely a Republican Senate could be a democratically controlled house. What dynamics does that put into the tax conversation? And I say all these things as this is where the where potentially it will go. It could be also a Democrat house, a Democrat Senate, and a Democrat in the White House as vice president Harris, becoming president Harris. You could see on the flip side, a Republican controlled House, a Republican controlled Senate, and President Trump reelected. What does that do for these conversations related to taxes, very different work products that come out of it. And so I say all this to get you thinking about what are the other dynamics I need to be thinking about. And it is so important that you are voting for and researching who you're voting for, and understanding the ballot initiatives like we've been talking about over the last few weeks. But I also don't want you to lose faith when you see, oh, it's, it's harder to get some of these policy measures done because we're in a divided government, or things go in a different direction. And it's, it's happening fast. It feels like it's happening fast. Well, it's because of the different, you know, parties in control. So all that being said, as you are becoming prepared for the elections, as you think about these big, bold ideas, I want you to stop and think about what are the other dynamics that may be present when you come into 2025 not only could it be divided government, but it could also be, and it will likely be, a lot of different faces when it comes to members on the committees of jurisdiction, so those authorizing committees that are creating programs, or on the Appropriations Committee that are appropriating the dollars so funding these programs, they're going to be different Members and different staffers and have different goals and different objectives. So things are going to take a little bit of time. I just all I want to do is kind of give you the context, because it provides you even more understanding as you head into this election, and it also gives you kind of a okay, this is to be expected. We have always had a system of government where things are sometimes messy, but that's okay, because we have a democracy, a constitutional republic, that allows for us to have these conversations, to disagree without being disagreeable. And I hope, as you listen to these kind of episodes in the last few weeks that's providing you that hope for the future and excitement about election day 2024, November 5, as always, thank you so much for tuning into another episode of The on the Hill podcast. If you haven't yet listened to researching candidates and researching ballot initiatives. I encourage you to go back and listen to the last couple episodes from the last two weeks. We'll continue to you know, provide content and context for this upcoming election. If there's ever anything you want to hear about, please reach out to me. I'm on Instagram. The podcast handle is on the Hill DC podcast. My personal handle is at Katherine Getty, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in and do me a favor. I asked this week last week, and I'm going to ask again this week, share this episode with one friend. It means the world to this podcast when it grows a little bit. You sharing helps that initiative. Thank you, thank you. Thank you as always, and I'll see you next week. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai