Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Dr. Bob McClure Talks Maps, Taxes, and Budgets

Transcript

Dr. Bob McClure Talks Maps, Taxes, and Budgets · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Good a mates and welcome, ruminators, ladies and gentlemen, boys
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and girls, males and females. Only to the second hour
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of The Morning Show with Preston Scott Show fifty six
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: oh two. He's ose, I'm Preston and this is the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: president of JMI, otherwise known as the James Madison Institute.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bob McClure, Hello.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Sir, Hello sir. How are you doing this fine morning?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm good. I'm fascinated to hear your reaction
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: because everybody I've had on the show of late, I've
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: asked them their thoughts on the redistricting battle that's happening. Obviously,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I want your thoughts on what Florida has decided to do,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: but just broadly, doctor McClure, your thoughts on what's happening nationwide.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it is a product of the political
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: landscape really since Trump came on board in twenty sixteen,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and this is kind of just the men infestation of
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that by both parties. So if we look at it
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: from ten thousand feet, that's kind of where we are.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We have kind of this brass knuckles fight over the
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: future of the House because if the Democrats take it back.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: They will just gum up everything with investigation, and after investigation,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: impeachment after impeachment. And we have a fighter in the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: White House, whether you agree with him or not, he's,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: you know, unlike George W. Bush or Mitt Romney or
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: John McCain, the two lost. He's not going to put
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: up with it. And so they're fighting across the country.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: It's really hand to hand combat because just a few
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: seats will make a difference. And right now, given the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Virginia decision, the Missouri decision yesterday, the Republicans have the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: upper hand and look to have some Republican leaning seats.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I'd say, you know, eight to ten possible seats. And
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I'll add one more thing pressing about this. You know,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to paraphrase John Roberts, the way you don't discriminate based
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: on race is you don't discriminate based on race. And
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: these majority minority districts, I would argue, if you look
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: at the last election, Trump one tremendously with African American men,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: with Hispanics, with blue collar African Americans. He moved every
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: demographic except white women towards him than the last election.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I would argue that that eliminating these majority minority districts
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: forces and this is a good thing. Republicans and Democrats
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: to fight for black votes in many of these districts
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that are purplish slightly read when otherwise they never had
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: to fight for these votes. So now that means African
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: American voices will be heard, I would argue even more
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: so than they traditionally have.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: The argument has been that a lot of the redistricting
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that was race based was done in the South, that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in the Northeast it was not done that way. That
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: in the Northeast, and maybe even California, districts were drawn
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: solely to eliminate Republican representation, regardless of how much of
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the population was registered Republican or not. How do you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: fix that if that's true.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you draw, you know, districts that are
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: you know, rectangular or or you know square. In other words,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: if I understand your question correctly, if you look at
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: New England, you have roughly in round numbers, forty to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: forty to forty five percent of the voting public in
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: New England is Republican, and yet they don't have a
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: single House congressional member of the Republicans still and so
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: in the South, there's a historical component. There is the
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the specter and the disgusting haunting of segregation and Jim
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Crow and the Voting Rights Act, which was never designed
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to set up majority minority districts. It was this is
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: this idea that somehow this is going to disenfranchise African
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Americans from voting. That's that's not true. The Voting Rights
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Act protects that. This is a completely separate issue. And
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: we had this notion that the Voting Rights Act was
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: somehow not notion. It was distorted in the courts through
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: guilt over segregation in Jim Crow, which was horrific stuff,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and it perverted the Voting Rights Act into establishing this
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: majority minority districts. The voting right, Voting Rights Act protects
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: everyone's African Americans ability to vote. That is a wholly
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: in separate issue, and it's being pervert by the left
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: to say somehow that this is a racist issue. Look
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: at the congressman from Memphis. He's white, he's a white male.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: There's a very good chance that an African American woman
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Republican could now win that seat. This is not about
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: race for the Democrats. For the left, this is about power.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: We have spoken at length about Florida property taxes and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: what the future might look like. After talking with state
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: CFO Blazingolia back a few days ago, I'm under the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: impression that what seems to be the most realistic is
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: some sort of glide slope to an abolition of property taxes.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: What is your hunch in what you're hearing and what
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: you think is going to happen?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, you have to the CFO would know more
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: but than me, But I you know, I think there
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: is going to be a glidepath. I don't know. You know,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: that's a very large general term glidepath. So what does
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: that mean? Is that a you know, an exemption that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: has raised over time to seven fifty or a million dollars?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Don't I don't know the answer to that. I do
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: believe the governor is going to be bold and big
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: on this, and there's pressure building on the legislature. The
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: longer they wait, a lot of people are like, Oh,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: what's the governor doing? He's waiting so long. I mean,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: this is a smart man. He's been in office for
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: nearly eight years. He knows what he's doing, and I
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: think not having any insider knowledge. But I think he's
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: building the pressure on the legislature to do something big
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and bold, whatever it is he reveals, because if they don't,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: then they have to go home and face voters, and
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: that's going to be a real, real challenge for that legislature.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be something big and bold.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the final product's going to be,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: probably some sort of exemption preston. My concern is, here's
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: my concern is that they have got to plug the bucket.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: In other words, they're gonna just the local municipalities if
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: they don't do something at the legislative level level, they're
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: gonna they're gonna cost shift, and they're gonna cost shift
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: in other ways. We see it in this town all
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the time, right with utilities, with the milite rates, with
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: you know, all of these different things, the sales, the
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: penny ha penny sales tax, all of that kind of stuff.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: They're just gonna cost shift. So they need to make
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: sure that they find a way to plug the bucket
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and not allow municipalities to just raise taxes in other areas.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that there's there's gonna have to be
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: some uh, some real work with the pencil and eraser
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and and figuring out how this is gonna manifest itself.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I'm curious, do you do you personally think that they
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: can get away with just putting a cap on who's
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: going to get an exemption? Or would that be unconstitutional
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to limit it? I mean, I get the idea of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: being homesteaded properties only that you know your primary residence.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: But is it possible for them to say okay, up
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: to a million dollars and just stop there? Wouldn't the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: people that own a more expensive home say well why
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: not us?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Well that's the danger. And the other danger is, well,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: let's give it to only people who have paid off
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: their mortgage. Well why would people who haven't paid off
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: their mortgage vote for that? Or somebody over sixty or veterans.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I mean that this is this is the issue. It
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: needs to be simple, it needs to be understood, and
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: it needs to affect virtually all as many Floridians as possible.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: That's what needs to happen. And so, you know, some
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: sort of exemption up to a million dollars, let's say.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I mean a lot of people are like, oh my gosh,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: a million dollars. Well, a million dollars in a you know,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: in Orlando is not as much as one thinks as
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: it is. And we're not talking about Tallahassee or Montase Madison,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So I don't know. I'm not advocating for a million.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: But we've laid out a number of ways to do this,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: and your your listeners can go to James Madison dot org.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: We presented a study you know, about six months ago
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: on this issue. Lots of different options. The simplest way
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: for us, Preston, we think, is you could One thing
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: you could do is just cap spending at the local
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: level and roll it back three years. Just roll it
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: back to twenty twenty three and then cap spending and
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: then say you can only raise spending based on population
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: and index to inflation. And that protects rural counties, that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: protects small counties, that protects large counties, and it takes
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: a hatchet to the ability of municipalities to spend like
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: drunken sailors. Just it's called a levy. Cap cap all spending,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: roll it back three years and don't tell them how
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to spend the money, but say you can't spend more
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: than this, and return the extra dollar to the taxpayer,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Doctor McClure.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: What are your expectations when the smoke clears in the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: budget process here in Florida's special session.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's the one thing they're constitutionally required
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: to do, so I would imagine they will get there.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: It's a you know, listen to this, it's they're only
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: a few billion in air quotes apart pressing right, So
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I would imagine they'll get there and it'll be somewhere
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: around one thirteen one fifteen billion. I will say this, okay,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: whatever they get to. Our legislature, despite the infighting over
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the last few years, is and when Paul Rinter was
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Speaker and previous to that, has done a really good
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: job of not blowing out the budget. We've been around
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: one hundred and fifteen billion dollars or less for a
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: few years. And I you know, whatever they you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: whatever the bickering and arguing, they're going to have to
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: come to a decision because they got to pass the
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: budget and it's for capita. Florida is one of the
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: best states in the country in terms of how our
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: legislature uses our money.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: What do you credit that too?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I would credit it to great movement conservative leadership,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: not Republican leadership JMI. First of all, it's not a
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: republican organization. We believe in movement conservative conservatism. So you
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: have people going back to Jeb Bush who managed the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: money properly, Rick Scott, Ron Desantus. But then in the House,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: in the Senate, you've had some really great House speakers
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: who manage the money, Alan Benz, Paul Renner, some folks
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: that have done some fantastic work in terms of setting
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: the tone and good policy. Preston is good politics. So
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: what we've reached in Florida, why Florida has become such
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: a deep red state when it used to be purple,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: is the implementation of conservative policies that now translate into votes.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: It doesn't happen overnight, but it happens over time. So
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: no income tax, less government spending, fewer regulations, universal school choice,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: all of these kinds of things translate over time into
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: spending less money at the state level, and they also
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: translate over time into votes. And that's why Florida has
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: gone from purple to red because of movement conservative leadership.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Do you expect there to be one particular area of
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: policy inside these negotiations. That will be the sticking point
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: between the House and the Senate.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I think there are several sticking points, so I don't
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: know that there will be one specific. I know the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Speaker has some of his priorities, the Center President has his,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: and obviously the governor has his, So I don't know
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: that there will be one. I'm not sure anyone knows
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: how this is going to shake out, but it's got
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: to be done, and I think these men and women
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: want to get it done this year so they can
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: go home to their districts and get ready for their campaigns.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, though, they know that the governor holds the final
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: say with the line item veto power that the governor's
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: office has.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: That's correct, that's correct, and the governor will use it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And he's proven that he will use his line item
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to get rid of things that he perceives as wasteful
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: or that are needless in the budget. And that line
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: item has also contributed to some to a significant degree
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: of why Florida remains per capita, really really strong when
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: it comes to less government spending compared to other states.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Our state budget is just if you almost the same
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: three million people, almost the same as the City of
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: New York's, which has eight million people. The City of
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: New York's in twenty twenty five was one hundred and
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: twelve billion dollars. Ours was one hundred and fifteen. I mean,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: think about that, that's funny. Imagine that kind of three times,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: you know, the people. If our budget was three times
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: as large, it would be horrific.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: We'd be moving, Yeah, yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: We would, Doctor Michele, are moving here.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: In part Yeah, no kidding, Doctor McClure, thanks, as always
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: for the time. We'll talk again next month.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me my friend, all right, Doctor
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Bob McClure, President of the James Madison Institute, the website
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: James Madison dot org.