Latest / Brian Thomas / Congressman Warren Davidson joins Brian Thomas this morning

Transcript

Congressman Warren Davidson joins Brian Thomas this morning · Brian Thomas

0:01
Speaker 1: It's 7.06 here at 55KRC Talk Station. Happy Friday Eve
0:04
Speaker 1: to you. Always extra special at this time because we
0:06
Speaker 1: get the benefit of Congressman Warren Davidson's logic and reason.
0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the 55KRC Morning Show. Congressman Davidson, thanks
0:13
Speaker 1: to the constituents in your district for putting you in office.
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Speaker 1: And thank you for your service to our country in
0:18
Speaker 1: the past and current service in your elected capacity. Welcome
0:21
Speaker 1: back to the show, my friend.
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Speaker 2: It's always an honor. Nice to talk with you, Brian.
0:25
Speaker 1: I guess the vice president was in your backyard just
0:27
Speaker 1: not too long ago talking about this Cleveland Cliffs development
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Speaker 1: and a significant investment. What's this going to mean to
0:33
Speaker 1: the area? And what does this sort of represent in
0:37
Speaker 1: terms of a shift from the prior administrations, Biden and
0:39
Speaker 1: Clinton and Obama, to the current administration, which seems to
0:43
Speaker 1: have obviously a very, very big focus on bringing manufacturing
0:47
Speaker 1: back to the United States of America? And I think
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Speaker 1: it's been quite a successful effort, Congressman Davidson, at least
0:51
Speaker 1: so far.
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Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, this is tremendous. I mean, this is the
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Speaker 2: kind of stuff I definitely voted for. I owned manufacturing
0:58
Speaker 2: companies before I was in Congress and after I was
1:02
Speaker 2: in the Army, so those 15 years in between. Manufacturing
1:06
Speaker 2: is just a beautiful thing. I mean, you can measure everything.
1:10
Speaker 2: Is it in spec? Is it not in spec? Is
1:13
Speaker 2: it on time or late? Did you make money or not?
1:15
Speaker 2: It takes everybody from somebody to get a GED to
1:18
Speaker 2: a PhD to work together. I mean, I love manufacturing.
1:21
Speaker 2: I miss it all the time. It was great to
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Speaker 2: be at the Middletown Works plant in Middletown, Ohio. Cleveland
1:27
Speaker 2: Cliffs bought AK Steel, bought that. And when I met
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Speaker 2: their CEO, Lorenzo Goncalves, this guy's Brazilian guy comes in,
1:36
Speaker 2: takes over Cleveland Cliffs. They were distressed at the time
1:40
Speaker 2: he came to CEO. And he starts remaking it, and
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Speaker 2: they're more of a mining and, you know, the inputs
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Speaker 2: to making steel. And they start buying up steelmakers and
1:50
Speaker 2: vertically integrating them. And, man, this guy is pretty ambitious.
1:53
Speaker 2: He said, I am going to make major investments in Middletown.
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Speaker 2: These guys are productive. And so the workers are really
2:00
Speaker 2: part of what made that possible. I mean, they haven't
2:02
Speaker 2: always had the best in the world everything, but they've
2:06
Speaker 2: gotten great results. And so the company's put investments there.
2:09
Speaker 2: The administration's put support behind it. A lot of the
2:12
Speaker 2: tariffs that the president has put after are focused on
2:15
Speaker 2: steel and getting steelmaking back in America. And you're seeing results.
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Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of industries coming into the United States,
2:23
Speaker 2: major investments from companies around the world that can be
2:27
Speaker 2: anywhere in the world and have been because of our
2:29
Speaker 2: terrible trade policies and our terrible tax policy. So both
2:34
Speaker 2: of those have been infixed under both the first Trump
2:36
Speaker 2: administration and this one. And, you know, we're seeing an
2:39
Speaker 2: announcement of a billion dollars coming into Middletown, Ohio. It
2:43
Speaker 2: will be the most advanced steelmaking facility in the world.
2:46
Speaker 2: That's a huge win.
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Speaker 1: That is a very huge win. I guess I'm kind
2:50
Speaker 1: of curious, and I mean, I can speculate, and I
2:52
Speaker 1: do believe I have some of the reasons, but the
2:54
Speaker 1: United States owned steel production, I mean, forever and ever.
2:59
Speaker 1: And then along came the 1970s, apparently just evaporated out
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Speaker 1: of nowhere, and you end up with these rust belt towns,
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Speaker 1: former steel manufacturing facilities all shut down. How did it
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Speaker 1: end up going elsewhere, and what has changed so much
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Speaker 1: that we've been able to get it back to the
3:13
Speaker 1: point where a capitalist business, a business that wants to
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Speaker 1: be successful, thinks it can generate profit and income worthy
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Speaker 1: of a $ 1 billion investment, at least in this case?
3:23
Speaker 1: Congressman Davidson?
3:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the 70s and 80s were problematic for
3:29
Speaker 2: a couple reasons. Part of it was they had not
3:33
Speaker 2: been investing and innovating in the industry. Part of it
3:35
Speaker 2: was Some of the union culture had become dysfunctional, and
3:39
Speaker 2: they weren't measuring productivity, so they had some ineffective policies.
3:46
Speaker 2: But in the wake of the Cold War, that's what
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Speaker 2: really put the nail in the coffin for a lot
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Speaker 2: of the industry, because the mindset shifted to globalism, and
3:53
Speaker 2: we can just buy everything everywhere. Now, that didn't bring competition.
3:56
Speaker 2: It made everybody have to compete and be better. But
3:59
Speaker 2: it also, as Ross Perot predicted, resulted in a giant
4:03
Speaker 2: sucking sound of jobs leaving the United States. And that
4:06
Speaker 2: was especially true here in Ohio, not just steel, but
4:10
Speaker 2: if you look around, we all know the area is
4:13
Speaker 2: full of former glory, and they're still trying to recover
4:16
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways. The great news is over
4:19
Speaker 2: the past 10 years, we've seen major investment announcements coming
4:23
Speaker 2: to Ohio, not just the United States. And Ohio has
4:26
Speaker 2: been recognized one of the top states to do business
4:28
Speaker 2: in now, and that's come a long way. So even if–
4:31
Speaker 2: I remember when I started a company in 2002– You know,
4:36
Speaker 2: it felt like the mindset was, if you're not going
4:38
Speaker 2: to get out of the country, at least get out
4:39
Speaker 2: of Ohio. So that mindset has shifted a lot. So
4:42
Speaker 2: kudos to the, frankly, multiple administrations, beginning with Taft. I
4:48
Speaker 2: can think of great progress there. Strickland, I wouldn't say
4:51
Speaker 2: was so great. But Kasich launched Jobs Ohio. That's been strong.
4:55
Speaker 2: Governor DeWine's led some reforms. But the Unsung Heroes state
5:00
Speaker 2: legislature got our tax rates competitive, restructured a lot of that.
5:04
Speaker 2: Even our courts, we had court decisions that were just nutty.
5:07
Speaker 2: We had this thing called the Ponser decision where a
5:09
Speaker 2: Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court said an uninsured motorist was supposed
5:15
Speaker 2: to be covered by the company's insurance policy. Now, this
5:18
Speaker 2: guy was driving on his own time in his own car,
5:21
Speaker 2: but because when he was at work, he drove a
5:23
Speaker 2: company car sometimes. Well, supposedly then the company was supposed
5:27
Speaker 2: to cover for his insurance policy.
5:29
Speaker 1: That makes my head run.
5:32
Speaker 2: This was nutty. So you talk about, like, that's why
5:34
Speaker 2: we have to elect Colleen O'Donnell and Dan Hawkins and
5:39
Speaker 2: make sure that we keep control of the courts. All
5:41
Speaker 2: these things have made Ohio so much more competitive over
5:46
Speaker 2: the years. And, yeah, it's just great to see these
5:49
Speaker 2: kind of ones happen.
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Speaker 1: Well, it seems to me, based on what I know
5:52
Speaker 1: about him, what I've heard from him, what I've discussed
5:54
Speaker 1: with him, Vivek Ramaswamy wants to continue the forward progress
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Speaker 1: with making Ohio a more desirable state to live in.
6:00
Speaker 1: I guess I just want to get your reaction to
6:02
Speaker 1: the apparent neck-and-neck race that exists between him and Amy Acton,
6:06
Speaker 1: which I just cannot believe, my friend. I just don't
6:10
Speaker 1: understand it. Your comments on that, maybe?
6:13
Speaker 2: Look, I think Vivek's a strong candidate. I endorsed him
6:16
Speaker 2: right out of the gate. I've known him for 10 years.
6:20
Speaker 2: Brilliant guy. I mean, you can't talk to him and
6:22
Speaker 2: not get the fact that he's a smart guy. He's
6:24
Speaker 2: been incredibly successful. What's he running for? Because he really
6:29
Speaker 2: wants to make a difference in Ohio. And so I
6:34
Speaker 2: think he's inspiring a lot of people. When I talk
6:36
Speaker 2: to not just young 20-something guys that are energized by
6:41
Speaker 2: this young, energetic, very eloquent footballer, leader in Vivek, I'm
6:46
Speaker 2: talking to old biker guys, bikers for Trump, and they're like, yeah,
6:49
Speaker 2: I like Vivek. I was in Dark County at the
6:51
Speaker 2: Dark County Fair up in the north part of the district,
6:55
Speaker 2: Greenville area, and biggest ag county in the state. They
6:59
Speaker 2: had hundreds of people come out because they knew Vivek
7:01
Speaker 2: was going to be at the fair. I'm like, where's
7:04
Speaker 2: the lack of support for Vivek? I think it's AstroTurf.
7:07
Speaker 1: I am so happy to hear you say that, because,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know, I've encountered people, you know, very strong conservative
7:13
Speaker 1: Republican types who are put off by him for some reason.
7:17
Speaker 1: I'm left to speculate why someone would say that, knowing
7:20
Speaker 1: full well, you know, the primaries are over, Congressman Davidson.
7:22
Speaker 1: We've got two choices. It's either Robinson or Amy Acton.
7:25
Speaker 1: And when I always pivot over and I say, so
7:26
Speaker 1: that means you're going to vote for Amy Acton? Oh,
7:28
Speaker 1: hell no. I'd never vote for her, which suggests to
7:30
Speaker 1: me that that person is not going to vote for anyone.
7:32
Speaker 1: And I just don't get that, because not voting is
7:34
Speaker 1: a vote for Amy Acton. I'm just lost on it,
7:37
Speaker 1: Congressman Davidson.
7:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, look, to some level, it's the same
7:42
Speaker 2: sort of sentiment where we had people say, I can't
7:44
Speaker 2: vote for Mitt Romney. And look, I get it. You
7:46
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily like Romney. Favik is a tremendous candidate. Now, look,
7:50
Speaker 2: there's things that I disagree with him on, but not many.
7:54
Speaker 2: I mean, when you look at policies and, you know,
7:59
Speaker 2: what is he promising to do as governor? I mean,
8:02
Speaker 2: I talked to him about it. I'm like, well, look,
8:04
Speaker 2: I'm for all that, you know, little nuanced differences. I mean,
8:08
Speaker 2: and early on when he was announcing his candidacy, people
8:11
Speaker 2: were talking to me about the race and what's going
8:14
Speaker 2: to happen and all this stuff. And I said, well, look,
8:16
Speaker 2: I think President Trump's going to be proof of it.
8:18
Speaker 2: That's going to make it really hard for any other lane.
8:21
Speaker 2: Some people were a little dismayed and they're like, oh,
8:24
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well, get to know him. I mean,
8:26
Speaker 2: if you don't know him, get to know him. Talk
8:28
Speaker 2: about what he wants to do as governor. And then, look,
8:31
Speaker 2: we've got veto-proof majorities in the state legislature. There were
8:34
Speaker 2: times when our state legislature had to override vetoes from
8:39
Speaker 2: Governor Mike DeWine just to get control of the COVID
8:41
Speaker 2: nonsense in the state to some extent. You know, Vivek
8:45
Speaker 2: is going to be the other way. He's going to
8:46
Speaker 2: be driving the conservative agenda through the legislature, and that's
8:51
Speaker 2: the kind of support the legislature has needed. And I think, honestly,
8:54
Speaker 2: this sort of AstroTurf campaign– is coming from those folks
8:59
Speaker 2: that really like being kind of in the minority, where
9:03
Speaker 2: they could say, well, you know, we had to cut
9:05
Speaker 2: a deal with Democrats. And, well, you know, yeah, I'm
9:07
Speaker 2: for all these things, but, you know, we can't. That's
9:10
Speaker 2: what they're trying to do in D.C., and I think
9:12
Speaker 2: they want to recreate that kind of dynamic here in Ohio.
9:14
Speaker 2: The reality is Ohio is now a red state. We've got,
9:18
Speaker 2: you know, veto-proof majorities in the state legislature, but we're
9:22
Speaker 2: governing in a lot of ways as a centrist government.
9:25
Speaker 2: I mean, Mike DeWine is that kind of guy. Right.
9:27
Speaker 1: For sure.
9:28
Speaker 2: But look at the kind of results Florida is getting.
9:30
Speaker 2: And those are the kinds of things Florida and Texas
9:32
Speaker 2: are benchmarking Tennessee in some ways. And you look at
9:36
Speaker 2: what Vivek is promising to do. He's promising to outperform them.
9:40
Speaker 2: And well, OK, guess who's panicking? It's the people that
9:44
Speaker 2: don't want that don't want the agenda. They say they're Republicans,
9:48
Speaker 2: but they don't support the platform at the end of
9:50
Speaker 2: the day.
9:51
Speaker 1: Isn't that the truth? Congressman Davidson, let's pause. We'll bring
9:53
Speaker 1: you back. We'll talk about oh, look, finally got everybody's attention.
9:56
Speaker 1: The national debt north of $ 40 trillion in growing. Finally,
10:00
Speaker 1: it's gotten the attention. Can anything be done about it?
10:01
Speaker 1: More with Congressman Warren. 720-55-KRC, The Talk Station. Brian Thomas
10:04
Speaker 1: with Congressman Warren Davidson. Regular feature on the program on
10:07
Speaker 1: a Thursday, which I absolutely love. Congressman Davidson, finally, people
10:10
Speaker 1: are waking up to the reality that we got $ 40
10:12
Speaker 1: trillion in debt. It's growing rapidly. No one seems to
10:16
Speaker 1: be in a position or even interested in I guess
10:19
Speaker 1: curbing spending, therein lies the problem. You've got two options
10:22
Speaker 1: on this, Congressman David, as I see it. If you
10:24
Speaker 1: want to get a handle on the debt, you either
10:26
Speaker 1: try to tax your way out of it to pay
10:27
Speaker 1: it down, or you grow your way out of it
10:29
Speaker 1: by increasing the economy. More tax dollars flow into the
10:34
Speaker 1: coffers of federal government. But the elephant in the room
10:37
Speaker 1: is that no one of any political stripe seems to
10:39
Speaker 1: want to curb spending. We've got a spending problem, do
10:42
Speaker 1: we not, Congressman Davidson?
10:44
Speaker 2: Well, look, Brian, you're just a rational guy. I mean,
10:47
Speaker 2: you're using math. And look... In D.C., they don't talk
10:50
Speaker 2: like that, right? It's like, look, we can just print
10:54
Speaker 2: more money, right? Have you heard about modern monetary theory?
10:57
Speaker 1: Yes, I have.
10:58
Speaker 2: We have a currency. We can just print this money. Now,
11:02
Speaker 2: most Republicans say they don't support modern monetary theory, but
11:06
Speaker 2: they don't want to cut spending. They know to say
11:09
Speaker 2: that they want a smaller, more accountable government, but they
11:12
Speaker 2: don't vote for it. I mean, we barely had the votes. Now, look,
11:15
Speaker 2: I don't want to say none. Most everyone did. We
11:19
Speaker 2: had enough moderates who just barely could get across a
11:25
Speaker 2: cut to the national public radio budget that was state-sponsored radio.
11:31
Speaker 2: It was only 3%, 4% of their budget. So we said,
11:34
Speaker 2: you know, you'll be able to survive just fine without
11:37
Speaker 2: this money from the federal government. And we barely had
11:40
Speaker 2: the votes to defund NPR. So that's where we're at
11:44
Speaker 2: on the level of appetite for cutting spending. And look,
11:48
Speaker 2: Scott Besson knows that, you know, and when you run
11:50
Speaker 2: on cutting spending, there's some people that like it, but
11:54
Speaker 2: not enough. So you end up losing. And people have
11:57
Speaker 2: learned that they're like, look, the public likes the spending.
11:59
Speaker 2: In fact, they want more free stuff for more people.
12:02
Speaker 2: And in some ways, some of the populists within the
12:05
Speaker 2: party are like often agreeing with Bernie Sanders on programs.
12:11
Speaker 2: And you're like, well, what are we doing here? And,
12:13
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a guy that like, we can't use,
12:16
Speaker 2: you know, Jack Sparrow's compass and just go wherever, wherever
12:19
Speaker 2: the whims go. You got to have Northeast, South and West.
12:23
Speaker 2: I'm still a math guy like you. I'm like, look,
12:25
Speaker 2: we need to balance the budget. And in the, in
12:28
Speaker 2: the long run, what you're doing is you're not doing either.
12:31
Speaker 2: You're not raising the revenue. You're not cutting the spending.
12:34
Speaker 2: You're not doing a blend of both. You're not transferring
12:37
Speaker 2: responsibility to States where balanced budgets are required. And programs
12:41
Speaker 2: could be run more effectively in a lot of ways
12:44
Speaker 2: or scaled differently by state. That would be, to me,
12:46
Speaker 2: the best way to shift some of the burden on
12:49
Speaker 2: the means-tested programs. It would also align structural incentives to
12:53
Speaker 2: get rid of fraud. So there's so many things you
12:56
Speaker 2: could do differently to get this under control. They're not
12:59
Speaker 2: doing it. So what are they doing? They're buying up
13:01
Speaker 2: the debt. And it's like taking out a new credit
13:04
Speaker 2: card to pay off the old credit card. Eventually, your
13:07
Speaker 2: creditors get wind of that. And they say, oh, that
13:11
Speaker 2: looks risky. We're going to charge you higher interest or
13:14
Speaker 2: maybe not extend you credit anymore. And that's exactly what's
13:17
Speaker 2: happening in the bond market. So there's pressure on Kevin
13:20
Speaker 2: Warsh and the Federal Reserve to lower rates. But the
13:23
Speaker 2: bond market is saying, nay, nay, we need higher rates
13:27
Speaker 2: because we know your default risk is going up and
13:30
Speaker 2: we know inflation is still high. So those are the
13:33
Speaker 2: two main components of an interest rate. So rates are
13:35
Speaker 2: going higher and they're likely to keep going higher. And
13:39
Speaker 2: if you want to artificially try to drive rates down, well,
13:41
Speaker 2: then inflation is going to go up faster. So there's
13:44
Speaker 2: no free lunch here, and I think that's the quandary warrant.
13:46
Speaker 1: Well, it couldn't have come at a better time, this
13:48
Speaker 1: discussion about the debt we've dug ourselves, the hole we've
13:50
Speaker 1: dug ourselves in, because the DSA has rolled out all
13:54
Speaker 1: these insane, unbelievably costly programs. I mean, say, I don't
13:58
Speaker 1: believe the Cato Institute, which crunched the numbers on these programs,
14:01
Speaker 1: you put them all in place, it's $ 70 to $ 200
14:03
Speaker 1: trillion additional dollars over 10 years. Cut the number in half,
14:06
Speaker 1: 35 to 100 trillion. It's still like way over the
14:10
Speaker 1: size of our current deficit. I mean, you can't print
14:12
Speaker 1: your way into prosperity. If that worked, then everyone would
14:16
Speaker 1: do it. They would have printed $ 40 trillion on it
14:18
Speaker 1: and say, no, we don't have a deficit anymore. We
14:20
Speaker 1: have no more interest to pay. Look, the world's a
14:22
Speaker 1: better place, but that would just wipe out the value
14:24
Speaker 1: of the dollar. Maybe people will finally wake up to
14:26
Speaker 1: the idea that modern monetary theory is a lie. It's alchemy.
14:31
Speaker 1: It does not and has never worked.
14:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I mean, even just take Medicare for All.
14:38
Speaker 2: People say, oh, well, that's a common sense thing. It
14:40
Speaker 2: works great. That alone is like $ 7 trillion a year.
14:43
Speaker 2: We only collect $ 5. 5 trillion in taxes right now. We
14:47
Speaker 2: spend almost $ 7. 5 trillion every year, so $ 2 trillion structural deficit.
14:53
Speaker 2: You need to be addressing that. They don't even want
14:58
Speaker 2: to address that. They want to double federal spending, which
15:02
Speaker 2: is insane. So yeah, in every country that's tried it,
15:07
Speaker 2: 52 out of 53 countries in recorded history that have
15:11
Speaker 2: gotten their debt 30% bigger than their economy, so 130%
15:16
Speaker 2: debt-to-GDP ratio, 52 of the 53 countries that have crossed
15:21
Speaker 2: that threshold have defaulted on their currency. The only one
15:25
Speaker 2: that hasn't is Japan, and if you're following the news,
15:27
Speaker 2: they're in sort of the death throes right now. So
15:29
Speaker 2: we're trying to prop up Japan and save ourselves right now.
15:33
Speaker 2: And we're rapidly accelerating towards that 130% debt-to-GDP ratio. And frankly,
15:38
Speaker 2: the only difference right now is the rate of speed
15:41
Speaker 2: at which we're going to arrive at the crash site.
15:43
Speaker 2: There's not a course correction that you're talking about where
15:46
Speaker 2: we're going to spend less or shift it in some way.
15:49
Speaker 2: It's all like three-card money. Where are we going to
15:54
Speaker 2: hide the game? But you can hide it by the
15:57
Speaker 2: Treasury buying back debt, like Scott Besson did last week.
16:01
Speaker 2: But the bond market's going to look at it and go, oh, well,
16:04
Speaker 2: I see what you did there. We want higher interest rates.
16:07
Speaker 2: And if you find some other way to kind of
16:09
Speaker 2: suppress interest rates, well, then you're going to see higher inflation.
16:12
Speaker 2: So I wish there was some magic that could just
16:17
Speaker 2: end the concept of scarcity. But until heaven, I don't
16:21
Speaker 2: think that's.
16:21
Speaker 1: Going to happen. And that just means we're facing a
16:24
Speaker 1: collapse down the road that everyone is painfully aware of
16:26
Speaker 1: and yet, again, refuses to do anything about.
16:29
Speaker 2: Wow.
16:30
Speaker 1: Can you stick around?
16:30
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully that crisis... Hopefully that crisis or at least
16:33
Speaker 2: the recognition of it will result in a changed behavior
16:37
Speaker 2: or at least what we're working on as a plan
16:39
Speaker 2: is so that when we do arrive at the crash
16:42
Speaker 2: site and listen to people saying, you know, we could
16:44
Speaker 2: have avoided this if we just spent more money. And
16:47
Speaker 2: you're like, you do realize why we arrived here, right?
16:51
Speaker 2: We'll at least have a plan at that hour of crisis,
16:54
Speaker 2: as Rahm Emanuel famously said. Never let a crisis go
16:57
Speaker 2: to waste. And look, that crisis is coming. I wish
17:00
Speaker 2: it wasn't. I've been fighting hard to make sure it
17:02
Speaker 2: doesn't come. But math is real. I mean, that is
17:06
Speaker 2: eventually where we're going to arrive. And I hope we
17:09
Speaker 2: have a plan in place and some reinforcements that are
17:11
Speaker 2: going to say, look, we know what happened here. We
17:14
Speaker 2: know how to avoid it. We're going to all have
17:16
Speaker 2: to suffer for a little while to adapt to this
17:19
Speaker 2: new reality. But that's what happens when people go bankrupt
17:23
Speaker 2: or corporations go bankrupt. You have to restructure things.
17:25
Speaker 1: No question about it. Can you spend a couple more
17:27
Speaker 1: minutes with my listening audience and me, uh, after this break,
17:29
Speaker 1: Congressman Davidson, you have to run off. I appreciate it.
17:33
Speaker 2: I've got a gap till nine. So I'm happy to
17:35
Speaker 2: talk and great coffee.
17:37
Speaker 1: I'll take you up on that gap because I want
17:38
Speaker 1: to find out what your priorities are through the end
17:40
Speaker 1: of the year, but you know, part of growing ourselves
17:42
Speaker 1: out of the problem and we can do see the
17:44
Speaker 1: talk station. 732 55 care CD talk station. That'd be Thursday.
17:49
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas with Congressman Warren Davidson, uh, pivoting over before
17:52
Speaker 1: we get to your legislative agenda, your personal agenda moving forward. Uh,
17:55
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, I'm a huge fan of the
17:57
Speaker 1: concept of small modular reactors. It is the solution to
18:00
Speaker 1: everyone's climate crisis concerns because they don't produce carbon dioxide.
18:05
Speaker 1: One size kind of fits all. Pull one off the shelf,
18:07
Speaker 1: put it in a plant, it would power the plant.
18:08
Speaker 1: The Army is moving forward with this, a $ 2. 2 billion
18:12
Speaker 1: project that was announced yesterday. Five nuclear energy companies have
18:16
Speaker 1: awarded these grants, I guess, to put microreactors at military
18:21
Speaker 1: bases in North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia, and New York.
18:25
Speaker 1: It's an experimental plan. They expect more than 20 nuclear
18:28
Speaker 1: microreactors to be built and operate for our bases, which
18:32
Speaker 1: I understand. It's an important thing. Secretary of the Army
18:35
Speaker 1: Dan Driscoll pointed out the obvious, says it accelerates our
18:38
Speaker 1: ability to deliver safe, reliable baseload power directly to our installations,
18:42
Speaker 1: building the energy resilience necessary to protect combat power globally
18:47
Speaker 1: without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids. Well, that's great.
18:52
Speaker 1: I understand the need for that. How can we have this?
18:55
Speaker 1: I know this is a step in the right direction
18:56
Speaker 1: to bring to the civilian population abundant, less expensive energy
19:01
Speaker 1: that's reliable. That's great for manufacturing and growth in our country.
19:05
Speaker 1: Are we going to get it soon, Congressman Davidson?
19:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think this is the future. Distributed grid
19:10
Speaker 2: technology will make a grid much more resilient. You can
19:14
Speaker 2: have smaller power generation systems. Modular nuclear is brilliant. I've
19:19
Speaker 2: talked with Dan Driscoll about this and others. The president's
19:22
Speaker 2: been strong on saying, look, we can deal with permitting.
19:26
Speaker 2: We'll just put the stuff on military installations. We control those,
19:30
Speaker 2: at least when they're in the United States. So this
19:33
Speaker 2: is a strong thing. And it is not just for
19:36
Speaker 2: current operations in a great way to add back to
19:39
Speaker 2: the grid in areas like Fort Benning, like Fort Campbell,
19:43
Speaker 2: Fort Bragg, Fort Drumm. And I think Fort Hood. Those
19:48
Speaker 2: are the five that I think got them. And it
19:50
Speaker 2: makes sense. The military has been using nuclear reactors for
19:54
Speaker 2: a long time, granted a little different than the small modular,
19:57
Speaker 2: because our submarines and aircraft carriers are powered by nuclear reactors.
20:01
Speaker 2: In In forward deployed areas, you still need power. I mean,
20:06
Speaker 2: we're using power for so many things today in the
20:09
Speaker 2: modern battlefield. We're confronting, well, how do we have deployable power?
20:15
Speaker 2: And right now, it's big storage containers packed with diesel
20:19
Speaker 2: generators and lots of diesel fuel. But in a smaller
20:23
Speaker 2: footprint and quieter environment, With no same kind of challenge
20:30
Speaker 2: on resupplying with fuel, you can deploy these small modular
20:33
Speaker 2: reactors and have power for all kinds of things. So
20:37
Speaker 2: it's a tremendous win for military readiness, but it's going
20:39
Speaker 2: to have huge benefits for our whole grid. And when
20:42
Speaker 2: you think about where we should be going as a
20:46
Speaker 2: state anyway, hopefully as a country, you look at spikes
20:50
Speaker 2: in power prices. Having more points of generation is more resilient.
20:55
Speaker 2: and shorter transmission distances because you lose yield over distance
21:00
Speaker 2: on transmission lines. Transmission lines are an emotional topic anyway
21:06
Speaker 2: right now, but it doesn't make sense to get all
21:08
Speaker 2: this power from outside our state when we could be
21:12
Speaker 2: meeting our needs and then some here in Ohio with
21:17
Speaker 2: more grid capabilities. The last thing is, is while data
21:20
Speaker 2: centers should be decided by local governments with some good safeguards,
21:24
Speaker 2: I think at the state level, and I know they're
21:26
Speaker 2: working on these things, the big mandate has been to
21:31
Speaker 2: make sure that these guys put more power into the
21:35
Speaker 2: grid than they consume. So this is a way that
21:37
Speaker 2: you're already seeing some pressure to create this distributed grid approach.
21:43
Speaker 2: In fact, when we were at Cleveland Cliffs talking about
21:47
Speaker 2: the announcement you spoke about earlier with the vice president,
21:49
Speaker 2: $ 1 billion going into that plant, they're going to generate
21:53
Speaker 2: 120 megawatts of power that will not meet 100% of
21:59
Speaker 2: their needs, but nearly all of their needs. And so
22:02
Speaker 2: that's going to be a huge win for the grid
22:04
Speaker 2: in this area. because they're going to have smarter technology
22:07
Speaker 2: to capture the natural gas that goes through that plant.
22:11
Speaker 2: So it's going to power it. So the technology is
22:14
Speaker 2: out there. It's going to be cool.
22:15
Speaker 1: Congressman Davidson, I don't recall reading about or hearing about
22:19
Speaker 1: any protesters that were against the Cleveland Cliffs development that
22:23
Speaker 1: was there for Vice President Vance's announcement in Middletown the
22:26
Speaker 1: other day. Were people complaining about electricity drains and problems
22:29
Speaker 1: with the environment or anything like that?
22:32
Speaker 2: No, I mean, to my surprise, when I rolled up
22:34
Speaker 2: to that event, there was no big gathering of protesters
22:38
Speaker 2: at the event. So I think this is something that's
22:40
Speaker 2: pretty unifying. They're like, okay, all right, this is a win.
22:45
Speaker 2: And the reality is it is a win. I mean,
22:48
Speaker 2: so thankfully there's at least some level of accepting a
22:51
Speaker 2: win when it's a win in Middletown.
22:53
Speaker 1: In Middletown. There's still some sane people in the world,
22:56
Speaker 1: and they're in your district. Congressman Davidson, I'm going to
22:58
Speaker 1: take you up on your offer. I'll do one more
23:00
Speaker 1: couple minutes with you, and then I'll give you some
23:01
Speaker 1: time before your 8 o'clock meeting, if you don't mind.
23:05
Speaker 1: One more. Find out about legislative agenda for Congressman Davidson
23:07
Speaker 1: right after I mention Prestige Interior. The Talk Station. 741-55-KRC,
23:14
Speaker 1: The Talk Station. Appreciating and enjoying the conversation with Congressman
23:17
Speaker 1: Warren Davidson this morning. Get another opportunity here. We're going
23:19
Speaker 1: to find out about Congressman Davidson's desires in terms of
23:22
Speaker 1: legislative agenda and priorities. Through the end of the year,
23:24
Speaker 1: obviously complicating the whole situation, Congressman Davidson stating the obvious,
23:28
Speaker 1: the big November election. I know a lot of people
23:30
Speaker 1: are campaigning and distracted. Will anything get done? But if
23:33
Speaker 1: something gets done, what might you hope will be accomplished?
23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, great pragmatic question. I mean, you know,
23:40
Speaker 2: traditionally both parties withhold their votes in the run-up to
23:43
Speaker 2: the election because both parties tend, if you're in the minority,
23:46
Speaker 2: you tend to believe that you're going to improve your
23:48
Speaker 2: lot in the election. Now, we're working hard to make
23:51
Speaker 2: sure that's not true for Democrats. And if anything is
23:54
Speaker 2: true for us and we get bigger, better majority. So
23:57
Speaker 2: I'm asking everybody send reinforcements right here in Cincinnati. We
24:00
Speaker 2: can elect Eric Conroy and that'd make a huge difference
24:04
Speaker 2: for our majority in the House. But, you know, why
24:08
Speaker 2: aren't people going to give the votes? Well, because those
24:10
Speaker 2: things are on the ballot. So a continuing resolution is
24:13
Speaker 2: most likely. I don't think there's going to be a
24:14
Speaker 2: government shutdown. The House passed a continuing resolution until December 4th.
24:19
Speaker 2: The Senate, of course, has to be nonconformist and do
24:22
Speaker 2: something different, and they passed a different CR until December 11th.
24:27
Speaker 2: And there are some important differences in there. The Senate
24:31
Speaker 2: is basically hand-capping President Trump in some ways. It's very disappointing,
24:36
Speaker 2: but Dune's got different challenges to wrestle with than Mike
24:39
Speaker 2: Johnson does in the House. So we'll probably have a
24:42
Speaker 2: CR until December 11th. What am I hoping that we'll
24:45
Speaker 2: get in there? One of the things I always promised
24:47
Speaker 2: would be in there is this beneficial ownership reporting requirement.
24:50
Speaker 2: The Democrats created this Corporate Transparency Act that sounds great.
24:55
Speaker 2: I'm for corporate transparency. But you think of bigger corporations
25:00
Speaker 2: and lack of accountability for companies like when East Palestine
25:05
Speaker 2: happened and you had a train spill and you had
25:07
Speaker 2: CSX Rail. Great. Tell us more about what's shipping through
25:11
Speaker 2: our communities on the rail lines. That's not what this
25:13
Speaker 2: bill does. What it does is it requires small businesses,
25:17
Speaker 2: 20 or fewer employees, and it ropes in even farms
25:21
Speaker 2: and homeowners associations and everything else. At least he said,
25:24
Speaker 2: we're going to put you in jail and fine you
25:26
Speaker 2: if you don't tell us who are the beneficial owners
25:28
Speaker 2: of this corporation. That's a swept up, unconstitutional thing. It
25:34
Speaker 2: assumes that if you own a business and control a
25:36
Speaker 2: bank account for an organization, that you must be involved
25:39
Speaker 2: in illicit finance. So that's what it's designed to try
25:43
Speaker 2: to protect. But it's unconstitutional. They were losing in court.
25:46
Speaker 2: The Trump administration put an executive order in. They went
25:50
Speaker 2: through fencing and did rulemaking. But the reality is, is
25:53
Speaker 2: Democrats would reverse this if we don't change the law.
25:56
Speaker 2: And so I've been told we're going to get this
25:58
Speaker 2: through the finish line by the end of the year.
26:01
Speaker 2: The Defense Production Act's invoked a lot. We're trying to
26:04
Speaker 2: get some parameters around when and how that can be
26:07
Speaker 2: used going forward. It's an important tool, but we really
26:11
Speaker 2: want some parameters around that. We get a bipartisan reform
26:14
Speaker 2: package that puts some ethics requirements in and caps on
26:18
Speaker 2: percentage ownership, forces some exits eventually out of anything the
26:21
Speaker 2: government would take a stake in. And that's bipartisan, and
26:25
Speaker 2: we hope that can get in. And lastly, John Yovanovitch
26:29
Speaker 2: was at GE just a few weeks ago. People say, well,
26:33
Speaker 2: who's that guy? He's the guy that runs the Export-Import Bank,
26:36
Speaker 2: and they provide trade finance that helps us grow our
26:40
Speaker 2: exports from the United States and smartly drive foreign investment
26:44
Speaker 2: into the United States. So this is a real win.
26:47
Speaker 2: We have like 700-some suppliers here in Ohio that are
26:49
Speaker 2: just benefiting from that. And this is huge for us
26:54
Speaker 2: to get to do. There's no real partisanship on it,
26:57
Speaker 2: and I think we can protect critical minerals out of this.
26:59
Speaker 2: They created a bank to create sort of like the
27:01
Speaker 2: Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a reserve for critical minerals. So these
27:06
Speaker 2: are some of the things that I think we can
27:07
Speaker 2: get done before the end of the year. There's tons
27:10
Speaker 2: of other stuff we're working on and bigger aspirational things,
27:12
Speaker 2: but I think these are bills that I'm directly working
27:15
Speaker 2: on that I think we can get done.
27:16
Speaker 1: Well, no problem in the House for a part company.
27:18
Speaker 1: I just have to observe. I know the biggest disappointment
27:20
Speaker 1: among a lot of my listeners, and of course me,
27:22
Speaker 1: the failure to pass the SAVE Act. Now, it went
27:24
Speaker 1: through the House okay a couple of times, but bogged
27:26
Speaker 1: down in the Senate for whatever reason. I just don't
27:28
Speaker 1: quite get that. Maybe they're waiting for after the election
27:30
Speaker 1: in hopes that the numbers improve, but That's a real
27:33
Speaker 1: letdown considering how popular the SAVE Act is.
27:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I mean, there's no excuse. It passed like
27:39
Speaker 2: the House four times. It can't get through the Senate.
27:42
Speaker 2: I'm very frustrated just like you are. But look, President
27:45
Speaker 2: Trump won on using the mail to protect election integrity.
27:49
Speaker 2: That's a win. So we're getting wins where we can
27:51
Speaker 2: get them. You know, I'm disappointed that Doge didn't have
27:54
Speaker 2: more traction. But we're getting wins there. And you're seeing
27:58
Speaker 2: because they did get enough Doge to find ways to
28:01
Speaker 2: follow the money better. you're seeing lots of things being
28:04
Speaker 2: unearthed by investigative journalists and by state auditors. So you
28:08
Speaker 2: get guys like Keith Faber, who've been doing good yeoman's
28:11
Speaker 2: work as auditor, going to be a great attorney general,
28:13
Speaker 2: and we're going to put people in jail that have
28:15
Speaker 2: been stealing our money.
28:16
Speaker 1: Amen to that. Congressman Warren Davidson, thank you so much
28:18
Speaker 1: for the time you spent with my listeners and me today.
28:20
Speaker 1: We'll do it again hopefully next Thursday. And best of
28:23
Speaker 1: love and health to you and your family, sir. Have
28:25
Speaker 1: a wonderful week between now and our next conversation.