ZadekpediaThomas Massie is a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, elected in 2012. He appears on the show as a guest on the Bob Zadek Show and as a figure invoked by other guests. Bob Zadek introduces him as a representative who “did the outrageous act” of insisting Congress follow the rules of conduct set forth in the Constitution, and who forced an in-person vote on the first $2 trillion bailout measure rather than allowing members to vote anonymously or from afar Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
On the show
1 appearance, 2020.
- 2020-04-30 · Prime time for the PRIME Act · 51:40 — Food supply chain fragility and the PRIME Act.
Background and entry into Congress
Massie came to Congress from what Zadek describes as a high-tech career and off-grid farming in Kentucky. In his own account, he was motivated by an economically depressed region of Kentucky, by the growth of government at every level, and by the national debt. He says that as soon as he arrived in Congress, before putting up family photographs, he installed a debt clock on his office wall updated every second, so he would not forget why he went there; his goal, he says, was to stop the debt from growing. He recounts that his youngest daughter, seeing the clock, asked whether it would go backwards once he fixed things — a question he says he had not considered Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
Zadek notes that Massie represents the 4th Congressional District and has served since 2012. Massie describes his voting card as belonging to 750,000 people in Kentucky rather than to a caucus, party or member of leadership. He recounts that on his second day in Congress a staffer told him he had voted incorrectly and that, because the vote was not being whipped, he could vote as he wished — an exchange he says left him dumbfounded Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
Congressional corruption and the committee system
Massie describes a lunch in the basement of the Capitol Hill Club about eight weeks after arriving, arranged by his fundraising aide, with three lobbyists from the medical device industry. He says they told him he was wasting his time on the transportation, oversight and science committees, that he should be on the Ways and Means Committee, that Paul Ryan would become its next chairman, and that they were prepared to raise the money required to get him the seat. Massie says he told his chief of staff afterward that he needed a shower Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
He states that a member must give about a million dollars to the party — on either side of the aisle — to get on the Ways and Means Committee, and that the seat is rented rather than sold: there is no equity in it, and the money must be paid every two years. He describes leadership’s leverage as a “bat signal” to lobbyists, warning them that supporting him would cost their legislation a place in the next omnibus bill, which he says can cut a member’s Washington fundraising from 60 to zero in about four seconds. He also says he voted against Speaker John Boehner and later led a coup against him Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
The PRIME Act and the food supply
Zadek frames the 2020 episode around Massie’s warning of a USSR-style food shortage and empty supermarket shelves, especially at the meat counter, and around the PRIME Act as his legislative solution. Zadek says Massie had predicted the shortage months and years earlier. The episode’s introduction describes Massie as discussing the fragility of the American food supply chain, the “pay-to-play” committee structure, and federal regulations causing mass livestock euthanization while grocery shelves go empty Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
In closing, Zadek tells Massie he has “about the world’s worst job” and urges him not to quit or resign, calling him essential to the freedom and liberty of listeners. Massie replies that he will go back to raising beef cattle, and Zadek wishes him luck in the primary Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020).
Across episodes
Massie appears in three episodes. In the 2014 episode on innovation, Derek Khanna names him among the Republicans — alongside Chairman Bob Goodlatte — who helped the cell-phone unlocking campaign, and says he is happy for Obama to claim credit so long as more free-market legislation follows; Khanna also describes the Reboot conference of “conservatarians,” where Senator Rand Paul spoke about Uber, Tesla, occupational licensing and NSA surveillance Derek Khanna - What’s Stifling Innovation? (2014). In the 2020 episode, Massie is the hour-long guest on the PRIME Act, the debt clock and committee fundraising. In the 2022 episode on Freedom in the 50 States, Zadek says that no candidate he has seen except perhaps Justin Amash or Thomas Massie runs on a platform of standing for freedom and taking positions based on a bill’s effect on freedom Ranking Freedom in the 50 States (2022). The episodes show no development in Massie’s own positions between episodes; the later treatments add context rather than change.