Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., is known for voting to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, trying to get the government to release what it knows about UFOs or UAPs, and being a first baseman on the Republican congressional baseball team. So with the game coming up on June 12, Straight Arrow News asked him to join Political Correspondent Ray Bogan for a catch on Capitol Hill.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Ray Bogan: Congressman Burchett, thanks for joining us. Let me start by apologizing to you for showing up so underdressed to our catch.
Rep. Tim Burchett: That’s all right, brother. I’ve got my Massey Ferguson hat on. I’ve got a Massey Ferguson tractor, I was bush hogging Monday night. I finished at 11 o’clock, I had one of one headlight that worked and it was under moonlight. But I told my wife and daughter I was gonna get the horses in the field.
Ray Bogan: So, we’re having this catch because one day I asked you a question about the motion to vacate against Speaker Johnson. And you said, if the situation were different, I’d really be asking why you’re third string on the congressional baseball team.
Are you really third string or are you pulling my leg?
Rep. Tim Burchett: I’m third string but I had a meteoric rise. I think I was fifth string at one time and one guy went to the outfield and another guy got hurt. So it worked out pretty well for me. I’m 59 years old. Those guys are obviously young and they show it but I love competition, and it’s more about relationships than anything else and I’m friends with everybody on the team. And I think I’m a confidence builder, too, because they can have a terrible day, but they go, ‘Hey, at least I’m not Burchett.’
Ray Bogan: You’re known as one of the friendliest guys on Capitol Hill. You tell everybody to call you Tim. And one time I saw the House Progressive Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., come up, give you a fist bump and check in on you.
How come the public doesn’t see more of that side of members of Congress?
Rep. Tim Burchett: I don’t think it sells. People don’t like it. You know, I was on C-SPAN last week and some guy called in, I think from New Jersey, and said, ‘I saw you talking to Goldman and Jared Moskowitz.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, what’s your point?’
The other side gets it too, you know, when I talked to a Democrat, there are people that can’t believe you’re talking to Burchett. I mean, some of the members even. Life’s too short man, I’ve been in this thing a long time. I see people that just hate the people across the aisle and people in their own party, and I just, I don’t hate anybody, man. Life’s too doggone short. It doesn’t sell I guess — the friendship and the camaraderie.
Ray Bogan: There were a couple big hearings on spending bills this week. What do you think the chances are of getting a budget for next year done before the election? What do you think the chances are of getting anything big done before the election?
Rep. Tim Burchett: I don’t think you’re gonna see a real budget. You’ll see a minibus or something to carry us over the line. We haven’t done a budget in, I believe over 30 years, a true budget.
Everybody’s got a budget, but we don’t. Because if we did you’d have to bring every spending implement in, everybody would have to justify it. And the big boys don’t want that because they got too much cushion, too much sweet stuff in there for their district, or their people or their family member working for some group. So I mean, look, it’s a crooked deal up here and the public needs to realize that.
Ray Bogan: If Republicans swept the elections in November, and you had House Senate, White House, what would you like to see done in 2025.
Rep. Tim Burchett: I’d like to see some real spending reduction. I’d like to see the border contained. I’d like to see just some fiscal restraint, really, everything that’s in there needs to be paid for. And we can’t hide behind that. And I would honestly like to see us really do a budget, Jodi Arrington, R-Texas, chairs the budget committee. He’s a buddy of mine. I think he gets it. If he’s given the ability to do that, we ought to pass a budget, send it over to the Senate and say, ‘You all pass the budget as well,’ and force them to do that. But I don’t think we have the guts to do that. I’d like to see a lot of our alphabet agencies just dismantled. The Department of Education, send all that money to the states, let them handle it. There’s a lot of things I’d like to see. And when we do things like that, I think you’re gonna see some more accountability.
But the bottom line is, people want to get into leadership so they can get into leadership. So they can go on the sweet trips, they can have the entourage and raise all the money. They don’t want to do it because they want to help out America and, to me, that’s kind of disheartening. I worry about our country, I really do, regardless of who’s in charge. I just think if we get in this time, that the conservative base is going to hold us more accountable. I think they realize what’s going on.
Ray Bogan: You represent your constituents in your district, but so many of the issues that come up here on Capitol Hill, are national and committee based. How do you split up your time with constituent services?
Rep. Tim Burchett: We have the best constituent service people in the country. During COVID, God speaks to me — just not with an audible voice — and I heard about people committing suicide during COVID. And I just thought, ‘What a waste.’ I’ve lost friends to suicide. And so at a moment of clarity or stupidity, I don’t know, I gave my number out over the internet. And we handled stuff from all 50 states, people had health checks, people going in and checking on people. People that talked about taking their lives and called me and then some people just wanted to say, “I really didn’t think you would answer the phone,” and I did.
I mean, it was 24/7, all hands on deck. But we ended up having more constituent service than anybody, I believe in the state combined. So we and then we did and that was all over the country. We do a lot of referrals to other districts, but we handled our own very well. And that’s what’s most important, really the stuff up here. It’s going to keep we’re not going to do a whole lot. It’s like moving a glacier up here. But constituent services, what is what keeps you in office, you know, the press releases and all the all the Twitter stuff, it probably raised you a little money. And I know that does so much about getting reelected. It’s a constituent service. It does. And it’s unfortunate that we have to do it. Most of our job is just trying to undo what we’ve done up here, which is I think it’s just a waste of energy. But I’m still idealistic, I still think we can change it.
