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BEGGS — With the end of the federal budget year approaching, fiscal hawks in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to cut the best deal they can while still being responsible, 2nd District Congressman Josh Brecheen said Friday.

“The Freedom Caucus is dialoging. Typical of any group, we’re trying to come up with sound decision-making, what we can do to make sure our position has the most strength,” Brecheen said after speaking Friday morning in Beggs.

Brecheen and fellow Freedom Caucus members have gotten a lot of attention since the 118th Congress convened in January. With Republicans holding a narrow majority in the House, Brecheen and a handful of others managed to hold up California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s confirmation as speaker until they extracted promises on debt and deficit reduction.

While even some Republicans grouse about the group’s outsized influence because of the GOP’s small majority, Brecheen said he believes things have worked well.

“We’ve been pretty good at being able to hammer out our differences, with those of us in a conservative caucus saying, ‘That’s as good as we can get.’”

Republican members, Brecheen said, must be “focused on the value of Republicans sticking together and finding the most conservative solution.”

The discussion at Beggs’ First Baptist Church mostly revolved around the proper role of the federal government. Brecheen argued, as he always does, that the federal government does too much, and most of those present seemed to mostly agree.

One man, though, declared Brecheen’s use of federal incentives for cod fishing in the 1790s and other historical references as irrelevant to present circumstances.

“I readily admit that we’re in a different time,” Brecheen said. “What I don’t agree with is that we should disregard the principles that have made this the longest-running republican experiment in (world) history.”

Brecheen argued that local governments are more efficient and less regulated.

“Who here thinks you’re better off now than you were in 1983?” he asked, his point being that the federal government was smaller 40 years ago.

Most but not all of those present old enough to remember 1983 seemed to like it better.

In responding to a complaint about medical marijuana, Brecheen said he has opposed federal legislation on the matter because he believes cannabis “takes away drive and takes away ambition.”

State Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, said this is an area in which Congress does need to act to facilitate enforcement of state laws.

“We have over 40 states with some form of legalization,” Fetgatter said. “Because there is no federal regulation on it, the FBI will not give us permission to do that fingerprint background check on these (medical marijuana) business owners.”

The main thrust of Brecheen’s comments, as is often the case, was that he believes federal spending must revert to pre-COVID levels as a start to bringing spending and revenue in line with each other.

Many disagree, including some Republicans. Five-year-old funding levels would mean a noticeable reduction in services, and Brecheen acknowledged that most of the people in the room will probably be unhappy if that goal is achieved because it will hit something in which they are interested.

“There is waste, but even waste has a constituency,” he said. “Focus on waste first. But everybody (in government) has plused-up since 2019. The question I ask is, ‘Can we not live on the amount of federal government with pre-COVID spending levels?’”

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