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GOP Congressional Candidate Austin Rogers Sits Down With Preston · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Third hour. I've literally turned
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the page of the rundown, and here we are. Third
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: hour of the radio program. And not that anybody's counting,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: but it is show 5,688. I'm just throwing that out there.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Not that we're paying attention to that or anything, but
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Jared's over there running the program, and with me in
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: studio is Austin Rogers, the man, the myth, the legend.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Austin is a lifelong Panama City native. We're going to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: get into the resume here in just a second. He
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  Speaker 1: is the GOP nominee for the second congressional district looking
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to succeed Neil Dunn, who has held the seat. And
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: he succeeded, if I'm not mistaken, Gwen Graham in her
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: short run after she succeeded Steve Sutherland. Did I get
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: that about right?
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  Speaker 2: You nailed it.
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  Speaker 1: And Steve was the first Republican to win that seat
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  Speaker 1: since Reconstruction. Yeah. You've lived there your whole life other
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  Speaker 1: than your job assignments taking you elsewhere. Tell us a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: little bit about yourself. Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So as you mentioned, born and raised in the Panhandle.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: That's home for me. And went and played college soccer.
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  Speaker 2: After that, I was thinking through what's next. And I
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: have one brother who studied law. I have one brother
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: who studied theology. And so I set off on a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: path to one up both of my older brothers and
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  Speaker 2: study both law and theology. So I went to Duke
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: for that program and then came back to Florida, practiced
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  Speaker 2: law for a while and married my wife. She matched
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  Speaker 2: for residency up in D.C.
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  Speaker 1: At Georgetown.
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  Speaker 2: And when she did, that's when I joined the fight.
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  Speaker 2: And that's when I started working as a chief counsel
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  Speaker 2: in Congress. So I worked for Lindsey Graham on the
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Senate Judiciary Committee, worked for Chuck Grassley on the Senate
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  Speaker 2: Judiciary Committee, was both of their chief counsels, and then
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  Speaker 2: worked for Senator Rick Scott as his general counsel most recently.
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  Speaker 1: What attracted you to get into that world as a
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  Speaker 1: legal mind?
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  Speaker 2: So I became very intimately involved with FedSoc, Federalist Society,
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  Speaker 2: and through that process became very interested in the intersection
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: of law and politics and essentially just ensuring that our
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: country is headed on the right path and that I'm
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  Speaker 2: using my law degree to help advance that. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'd say Federalist Society and my network of friends there
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  Speaker 2: is what really set me off on that trajectory. Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 2: And as soon as a position opened up on Senate
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  Speaker 2: Judiciary Committee, one of my best friends from Duke Law,
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  Speaker 2: who's the president of Duke's Federalist Society, said, hey, there's,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you know, this opening, you ought to throw your name
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in the hat. And I kind of was like, oh, thanks,
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  Speaker 2: but no thanks. I can't take that kind of pay
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: cut for my family and, you know, this and that.
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  Speaker 2: And he's like, just throw your name in the hat
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  Speaker 2: and see what happens. And I did. And, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: never looked back. I caught the politics bug.
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  Speaker 1: Describe your job. What is the job description of somebody
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  Speaker 1: that's legal counsel in any of these settings? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So I would say threefold. You are drafting bills and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you're advising on various legal issues pertaining to bills. So
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  Speaker 2: whether they're constitutional, whether from a policy perspective, it's good policy,
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  Speaker 2: things like that. And you are seeing bills through beginning
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to end. You are conducting hearings. And so we led
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  Speaker 2: hearings on everything from anti-Semitism on college campuses or college sports,
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  Speaker 2: big tech. So we brought in all five of the
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: big tech CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg, et cetera, to call them
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  Speaker 2: to account for harms that are happening on their platform.
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  Speaker 2: So we led hearings on everything under the sun that
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you could imagine, all the most acute issues facing our nation.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And then we would conduct investigations. And so we would
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: investigate everything from California's response to the Palisades wildfire to.
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  Speaker 1: Or lack thereof.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, complete lack thereof, more accurately. We came to find out. Two,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: we investigated woke Ivy League institutions. You name it, we
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: investigated it. Law firms that were implementing DEI policies that
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: were illegal and so would also lead investigations. So I
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  Speaker 2: would say Bill's hearings, investigations. Those were my sort of
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  Speaker 2: bread and butter. And you're just providing legal counsel to
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  Speaker 2: the principal, i.e. the senator.
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  Speaker 1: Austin Rogers with me and a GOP candidate, for Congress,
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  Speaker 1: second congressional district. It is a massively large district. Before
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  Speaker 1: we get to some of the specifics about the district, Austin,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about, you mentioned at the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: the convergence law and theology.
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  Speaker 2: How does one impact the other? So I would say
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  Speaker 2: in every way. So some of the best lawyers in
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  Speaker 2: history have been theologians and vice versa. So you look at...
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  Speaker 2: John Calvin, for example, he was a lawyer by training,
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  Speaker 2: but he became known as one of the best theologians
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  Speaker 2: of all time. And you find that all throughout history.
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  Speaker 2: People who were attorneys who became excellent theologians or vice versa.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's a natural marrying of those two. So
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  Speaker 2: when I was at Duke Law, I took a class
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: from Justice Alito on constitutional interpretations. and we were chatting
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: through some issue of legal interpretation. He said, if you really,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: really want to know how to dissect the law and
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  Speaker 2: how to really interpret a passage, go across the road
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  Speaker 2: to the, to the divinity school and they'll teach you
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  Speaker 2: how to interpret texts. And, um, you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's a similar skill set where you're, you know, mincing words, you're, um,
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  Speaker 2: not mincing words, but you're parsing words and you're, um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, drawing reasonable inferences on what they mean. And so, uh,
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  Speaker 2: similar skill set and, uh, it, happened to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a nerd to my benefit because I was able to
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  Speaker 2: do both.
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  Speaker 1: So when I graduated from high school in 1978, I
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  Speaker 1: would never in a thousand years have imagined the types
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  Speaker 1: of things that I have routinely had to discuss over
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  Speaker 1: the last 24 years. I pin that on John Adams
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  Speaker 1: and his statement about the constitution and our country. That
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  Speaker 1: the Constitution was written for a moral and religious people
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  Speaker 1: and that it is wholly inadequate to govern any other
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  Speaker 1: kind of people.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: So what do you make of where we are right
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  Speaker 1: now and the fact that we seem to be proving
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  Speaker 1: that prophetic in a very bad way, that we are
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  Speaker 1: losing north on our compass as a society?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's also the famous, you know, a republic
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  Speaker 2: if you can keep it line, which one of the
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  Speaker 2: underlying assumptions is, you know, an educated citizenry, but also importantly,
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  Speaker 2: a virtuous citizenry. And I think in so many ways
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  Speaker 2: we've departed from that and we've gone off the track
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  Speaker 2: of our founding fathers. And so much of that is
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  Speaker 2: rooted in a loss of faith in this nation. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think one of the principal reasons that
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  Speaker 2: we see so much brokenness in Washington is is there
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  Speaker 2: is now a utter lack of faith in Washington. And
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  Speaker 2: I think it's better on the Republican end of the spectrum.
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  Speaker 2: I have spoken to a lot of prospective members now,
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  Speaker 2: or a lot of people who are current members, and
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot more faith on the Republican side of
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  Speaker 2: the spectrum, I have noticed, than on the Democrat side.
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  Speaker 2: And that's not to say, you know, Republicans are these
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  Speaker 2: solid Christian people and Democrats aren't, but, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: think speaking in generalities, it tends to be the case. Um,
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  Speaker 2: and of course there, you know, uh, divergences from that
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  Speaker 2: on the Democrat spectrum. So Chris Coons is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a great person who I worked with on the Senate
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  Speaker 2: Judiciary Committee who was a man of faith, but it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's fewer and far farther between on the left, I think.
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  Speaker 1: We got a couple minutes left before we do the
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  Speaker 1: move to the next segment. And I want to get
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  Speaker 1: to specifics on policy and things like that moving ahead,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm just curious. How did the conversation go between
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  Speaker 1: you and your wife when you said, honey? District two.
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  Speaker 1: What was that like?
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  Speaker 2: So it's my hometown seat. And it's something, you know,
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  Speaker 2: after working in politics for a while, she would have
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  Speaker 2: she and I would have conversations about how it would
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  Speaker 2: be neat to, you know, represent your hometown one day
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  Speaker 2: and this and that. It's something that we prayed through
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  Speaker 2: a lot and just sought the Lord's guidance on. And
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  Speaker 2: something we talked to, she knew it would be tough.
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  Speaker 2: I knew it would be tough. We counted the cost
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  Speaker 2: and we ultimately decided it's worth it. This district's worth
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  Speaker 2: it and this country's worth it. And certainly fighting for
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  Speaker 2: the future that I think my children deserve.
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  Speaker 1: I was just going to say, you have to be
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  Speaker 1: looking at your three young'uns and saying, what kind of
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  Speaker 1: country are they going to inherit?
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, yeah. And in so many ways, as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 2: you know, John Adams' quote, in so many ways we
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  Speaker 2: veered off the track of our founding fathers of the
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  Speaker 2: country that we should have that's frankly rooted in faith. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Wes on my team and I talk about
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  Speaker 2: all the time the need for a return to faith
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  Speaker 2: in both politics and the country in general.
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  Speaker 1: Austin Rogers with me. GOP candidate for the second congressional district,
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  Speaker 1: which means those of you in the radio audience, whether
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  Speaker 1: you're listening in the Bay County surrounding area, Leon County
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: surrounding area. If you're in the radio audience, this is
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  Speaker 1: this is your candidate for the Republican side of the
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  Speaker 1: ticket to be the to be the. congressional rep for
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  Speaker 1: District 2. So you would have Jimmy Petronas on one side,
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  Speaker 1: you'd have Kat Kamik on the other, and in District
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  Speaker 1: 2 you would have Austin Rogers if you choose to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: vote for Austin. What's on the sticky notes? Like the whiteboard. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: if we pull this off, we become the next congressional
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  Speaker 1: rep for District 2. What's on the top of the list?
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  Speaker 1: What are the things that you got to get to?
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  Speaker 2: One bill that I worked on as Senator Rick Scott's
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  Speaker 2: general counsel was the Safe Kids Act. So this issue
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  Speaker 2: came to my attention about a year ago, where you
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  Speaker 2: have Chinese billionaires and officials paying United States women $ 100, 000, $ 200, 000
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  Speaker 2: a pop to give birth to their children.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Time out. We know about them coming here, birth tourism,
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  Speaker 1: you're saying that they're also contracting with Americans that are
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  Speaker 1: in this country legally, they're citizens of this country, and
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  Speaker 1: they're having their kids?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And a study out of Emory University 10 years
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  Speaker 2: ago estimated that roughly half of these international commercial surrogacy
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  Speaker 2: agreements are with our number one adversary in China. Sweet.
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  Speaker 2: And so, yeah. And in light of the Supreme Court's
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  Speaker 2: recent birthright citizenship case, you now are shipping American citizens abroad.
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  Speaker 2: And it's a massive national security threat. Obviously, it's a big,
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  Speaker 2: you and I would acknowledge, human trafficking issue.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah. And then they're being educated in the CCP
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  Speaker 1: and they're going to come back at 18 and vote.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah. So I think China has the long game
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  Speaker 2: on us. And this is an incredible national security threat
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  Speaker 2: that needs to be addressed immediately, if not sooner. And
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  Speaker 2: so I drafted up the bill. that addresses that issue.
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  Speaker 2: And that's, that's something day one, I'd love to get
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  Speaker 2: done as a safe kids act. Um, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be controversial to say we should not be selling
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  Speaker 2: our kids to our number one adversary in China.
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  Speaker 1: So, so Senator Scott has it on the Senate side.
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  Speaker 1: Has anybody picked it up in the house?
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  Speaker 2: Blake Moore has it on the house side and, um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he is on the China select committee and
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  Speaker 2: it's a, it's one of those issues where It certainly
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  Speaker 2: has the China nexus and the national security nexus, but
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  Speaker 2: it also has massive human trafficking implications. And as someone
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  Speaker 2: who has taken a heavy hand and has written this bill,
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  Speaker 2: I would love to carry the torch on it.
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  Speaker 1: I have friendly disagreements with people on our side of
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  Speaker 1: the aisle over the dividing line between district and nation.
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  Speaker 1: You are elected to represent your district, but at the
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  Speaker 1: same time, we have a nation that is in peril.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think there's a lot of argument to that.
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  Speaker 1: How do you divide it?
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  Speaker 2: In terms of, you know, who you vote in duty to?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, just that line, you know, whether it's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: there were some of your competitors in the primary saying,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: bring him back the bacon. And I get it. We're
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: a donor state. I understand that. but we're broke as
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  Speaker 1: a nation too. That's the balance I'm curious about. Where
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  Speaker 1: are you in trying to figure that out?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's tough. And I've worked for members
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  Speaker 2: who have a philosophical opposition to earmarks or toward bringing
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: dollars back to the district to work on specific projects.
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  Speaker 2: Just in that, if everyone does that, we end up
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  Speaker 2: overspending and we have a spending problem in the United States.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we're $ 40 trillion in debt. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think reasonable people suggest we shouldn't be fighting for
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  Speaker 2: those dollars, you know.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Which we don't have.
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  Speaker 2: That we don't have. Right. I'm of the mindset that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the system, broken as it is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there ain't no system but this one. And obviously we
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  Speaker 2: want to do what we can to shed light on
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  Speaker 2: wasteful spending. But This money is being given to districts
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: throughout the country, and it's often and usually going to
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: states like California, New York. And so I'm going to
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: fight for every dollar that I can for this district,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: make sure especially 13 of our 16 counties here in
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: this district are fiscally constrained. And so I think they
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: don't need a handout, but they want a hand up,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm going to fight for every dollar I can
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: for them.
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  Speaker 1: Am I oversimplifying saying, well, our argument is we're just
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: going to keep the money from going where it's wasted
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: and bring it where it won't be?
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  Speaker 2: I think that's not an unfair characterization. I'm just curious.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: I think Doge, if nothing else, shed light on the
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: wasteful spending abroad. Shouldn't that be permanent?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I was talking about it earlier this week
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: with Jared. That's one area of government that I think
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the expansion of government for the purposes of reducing government,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense to me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
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  Speaker 1: What else is on that list? As you've sat back,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've been around this now. You are not
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: a newbie to the world of Washington, D.C., and clearly
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you've had to be a student of what's going on
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: nationally and even internationally. What else is on your list
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: of got to get your attention and direct it to X, Y,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and Z?
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Well, during the break, obviously, we were talking about sports. Yeah.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: And there is an NIL bill percolating throughout Congress right now,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: passed the Senate, and now it's kicked over to the House.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And so that's another issue where it's one of the remaining...
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: You and I talked about faith at the beginning of
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: the program. That used to unite Americans. Yeah. Now, one
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: of the main things that unites Americans is a love
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: for college sports. And it's sad that we've.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: We've crossed a Rubicon here.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly, yeah. But if you're rich, if you're poor, black, white,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: you name it, from the south, from the north, you
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: typically have a college sports team. And college sports, gone
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: are the days of Bobby Bowden and Spurrier and Saban
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: where players play with heart and it's just enjoyable to watch.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Now it's semi-pro-light. If a player is discontent, they transfer
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: players You see a bunch of issues going on with coaches.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: And so we've got to make college sports great again.
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  Speaker 2: And there are bills out there that I've worked on
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: that would do that. And so we have to rein
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: in NIL. I think paying players the cat's out of
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the bag after the Alston decision, and I'm not in
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: any way advocating going back and preventing players to be
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: able to be paid off their name, image, likeness.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Well, the NCAA opened the door to this problem by
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: not being wise in how they approached any of this stuff.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: They got greedy.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So college sports is another issue that sounds
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: simple and it sounds frivolous to even talk about, but
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: it is a uniting glue for the country that I
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: would like to make great again. I still remember to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: this day Bobby Bowden visiting my church and bringing a
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: couple of players and just, you know, it being this
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: great thing. And, um, you know, now it's, uh, we're,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: we're way off the target when it comes to college sports. So, uh,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: that's another thing, you know, one other pivotal issue. I
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: worked on a series of kids online safety bills and
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: on a series of AI bills as a chief counsel.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, in this new digital era that
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: we're entering into, uh, you know, kids online safety is
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: top of mind for me. artificial intelligence.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: What's the sweet spot with AI?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I think you name it, you said it whenever you
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: said the sweet spot. There has to be a sweet spot.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: We can't just say breaks off. We do have to
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: outpace China. They're our number one adversary, and we don't
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: want their inputs or their values being in our AI.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: We don't want our AI being written on Chinese code.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: But by the same token, as a father of three,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure kids' online safety is intact.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure we're protecting American workers and
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: And importantly for this show, I want to make sure
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: we're honoring the image of God in each person. And
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: so I think there is a needle to thread, and
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I think there is a sweet spot there, and there's
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: a golden mean there, and I want to champion bills
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: that push that forward.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Final few moments here with Austin Rogers, GOP candidate for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the 2nd Congressional District, before we get to kind of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a summary of just why, You need to carefully consider
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: your vote and whether you want to cast that vote
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: with Austin. I want to pick up kind of on
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the policy thing a little bit further. If I were
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to suggest to you, because there's really no shortage of
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: issues that are really serious. AI is absolutely one of them.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: The conflict in the Middle East is one of them.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: The economy and affordability is one of them. If I
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: were to just say, Austin... the biggest issue is our
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: national debt and we have to start paying it down.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: What would you say?
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: I'd say I agree. I mean, without having a country
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: and without having a thriving, flourishing country, that's what's required
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: for all the other things, all the other liberties that
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: we love and cherish as a nation. And so, you know,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: we're over $ 40 trillion in debt. And I'd say that's
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: due largely to two things. One is a spending problem. And,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you know, we, see the wasteful spending that happened under Democrats,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: under Biden for a long time. We were funding, you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: transgender theater in Columbia, or we were funding, I don't know, D,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: training in serbia right and i can't imagine a bigger
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: waste of taxpayer dollars.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: And then there's the fraud that we're learning about that's
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: happening in in washington in minnesota in california in ohio
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: in all of these other places. There's waste everywhere. But
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: are there enough members of Congress, you've been around them,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: that think that this is important? Because it doesn't seem
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to be important.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: No, and I think overspending is a bipartisan issue. And
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I want to be clear on that. I think Republicans
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: have a spending problem as well. I think it's worse
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: on the Democrat side of the spectrum. I mean, every
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: day we hear Democrats talking about affordability because they think
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: that is the silver bullet. What is their solution to
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: addressing affordability? It's raising your taxes. It's Medicare for all.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: My opponent is running on a Medicare for all platform.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's astonishing. And, you know, any solution that
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: we have on the left that's being proposed to address
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the affordability crisis doesn't actually move the needle and, in fact,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: makes things worse. So, yeah, I think we have a
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: big national debt problem. I think we're rearranging chairs on
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the Titanic. the extent we're doing anything, but there are
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: two different visions being put forward for the future of
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: our country for addressing the national debt. And the vision
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: on the left, frankly, just doesn't make any sense.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Well, those two visions are really in every area of policy.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: We just need more government to solve the problem and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: we need more tax dollars to And we need to,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: you know, take from them and give to them because
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of course that's always worked in history. And then there's
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a different view that I think you carry. Summarize kind
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of what you want listeners right now to take away
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: from your visit today. What matters most here in those
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: two competing visions?
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think at bottom it's limited government
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: and There are ways that the Republican Party has strayed
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: off that, certainly, and where we've overspent. And I've alluded
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: to that. But it's at bottom limited government. The solution
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: to government bloat, overregulation, things that have made our economy weak,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: isn't more government. There's the famous line, the most dangerous
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: words are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: The solution to government waste and government stupidity is not
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: more government. It's less government. And there might be certain
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: things like Doge where you have to have the government
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: to investigate fraud, waste, abuse to rein that in. But
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: for the most part, the problem that we have is
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: having too large and bloated of a federal government. And
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: so I want to do what I can to restrict that,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: to rein that in. There are certain bills, the REINS Act,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: for example, that I'd love to co-sponsor as a member.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: But Yeah, we have an over-regulation problem. We have a
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: national debt problem. Those are things that we have to
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: tackle on day one.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: You know Jimmy Petronas?
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I do, yes.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: You know Cat Kamek?
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I do, yes. Okay.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Because if you win this office, I told you before
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: we even started.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: You got to be on the show on a regular basis.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just give me a shout.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Hook up to the constituents.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for having me. Good to get to
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: know you. Yeah, y'all have a great day.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: All right, Austin Rogers with us this morning. RogersforFlorida.com is
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the website. 46 past the hour. President Trump is in
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the Detroit area today, renewing his push to bolster the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: American auto industry in a campaign...