Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Keith Gross Florida D1 GOP Candidate

Transcript

Keith Gross Florida D1 GOP Candidate · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: All right, morning friends, Welcome, It's the third hour and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Wednesday on the Morning Show. He's ose dress for Winner
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: che Man. I don't know where he gets these shirts,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: but he pulls out the tropical faves every single day
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: in some form or fashion. And I'm pleased to have
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: on the program. Keith Gross. Keith ran for the US
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Senate and is now running for the GOP nomination for
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: district too. Neil Dunn is stepping down as our congressional
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: rep For most of you listening, and obviously we're across
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the country on iHeartRadio, but for most of you listening,
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  Speaker 1: Keith wants to be your congressional representative. And so Keith,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: How are you doing good? Thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I've actually had people come to my door at
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  Speaker 1: my home asking if I knew about you. You've got
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a ground game already underway. We do.
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  Speaker 2: We've knocked nearly five thousand doors now. We've got some
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: great volunteers and they're out. They're working hard.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Why why do you think, I mean, as best as
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you can quantify, why you think young people, in particular
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Turning Point USA type kids are attracted to your candidacy?
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  Speaker 2: I think we've all grown tired of seeing the status
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  Speaker 2: quo in Washington, d C. What we want to see
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  Speaker 2: is real change, and they're energized by that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: these are the kids that had their high school graduations
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  Speaker 2: canceled by COVID when government went to this tyrannical overreach
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  Speaker 2: and they just took freedom out of the hands of people.
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  Speaker 2: These kids are saying, never again, we don't need a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: government this big. We want Washington out of our lives.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: We want government out of our lives. We want the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: freedoms that we were told exist in America. We've got
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: to revive those freedoms. And that's what I'm running for
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Congress to do, to reduce the size and scope of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: our federal government, put government back in the hands of
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  Speaker 2: the states, and restore freedoms.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself, give us a snapshot.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Who are you well, I'm forty two now. I was
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: born and raised in Northern Bay County. I grew up
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  Speaker 2: in a trailer in South Florida, Okay, and came from
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a family that didn't have a lot obviously, and went
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: on to found a couple of companies. They grew to
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: a national level sold them off to private equity. And
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: after my business career, it really became clear to me
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: that some of the biggest problems in the world start
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: in Washington, d C. With corruption, fraud, waste abuse. And
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  Speaker 2: the more I spend paying taxes, the more I get
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: frustrated at how our government wastes those tax dollars, and
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it affects people like my family. You know, my family
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: growing up, My mother worked an hourly job trying to
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: make ends meet, and she was paying those same taxes,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and those taxes were getting wasted. And the older I
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: got and the more I understood that, the matter I got.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Tell me this, and I'm not going to ask specifics,
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  Speaker 1: but would it be fair to say, then you mentioned
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a couple of businesses selling them that you don't need money.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, that's really what's set in. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a kid, like I said, I'm a kid that
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: grew up in a trailer. So after I sold the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: first company that was tens of millions of dollars and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: then the next company was a nine figure exit in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, at that point I felt like I
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  Speaker 2: need to make a difference and help everyone else, because
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  Speaker 2: when God puts that kind of a blessing on you. Yep,
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  Speaker 2: you're obligated to help others. You're obligated to pay that
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: back and to do some good in the world.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Here's why I ask because, as you know, there was
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: an index fund named after Nancy Pelosi because her returns
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: in her career have been obscene. Ilhan Omar now is
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: under investigation because she went from a business of fifteen
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  Speaker 1: thousand to now multiple millions for no product and no
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  Speaker 1: address and no anything. And I think people are looking
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: for and I'm gonna guess that's one of the things
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: why young people are saying, Yeah, I want to know
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  Speaker 1: more about Keith Gross and why they're willing to work
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with you and in fact for you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm certainly the only person that's running who can guarantee
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  Speaker 2: that I won't be bought by a lobbyist. I'm running
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  Speaker 2: not because I need anything, but because i want to
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  Speaker 2: give back to the community that raised me.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It's a full contact sport. It probably has been for
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: longer than you and I have both been alive. It's
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  Speaker 1: become not very gentlemanly, not very polite to be in politics.
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  Speaker 1: How do you feel as though you will address address that,
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  Speaker 1: How will you conduct yourself in that kind of environment
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  Speaker 1: that is right now, I mean elbow pads and helmets
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  Speaker 1: and shoulder pads.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I certainly don't think it's going to be very
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: much fun. Like you said, it is a full contact sport.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: My solution to that is just going to have unyielding principles.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to yield my principles. I believe the
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  Speaker 2: Constitution is non negotiable. And that's what's wrong with Congress
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  Speaker 2: right now. People get up there and they start they
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: start balancing their principles against what they want. They want reelection,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: they want donations, and they start selling out their principles.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to do that. If I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: be there, I want to make sure that I'm doing
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  Speaker 2: the right thing and that I'm making a difference. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to be there at all. I love
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  Speaker 2: North Florida, That's where I want to live. Spending time
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  Speaker 2: in DC is not on my highlights reel. So if
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to be up at all, I better be
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  Speaker 2: doing some good.
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  Speaker 1: Keith Gross is with me for most of the hour,
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  Speaker 1: And what's your website.
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  Speaker 2: It's Keith Gross dot com.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: We don't know if there'll be a special election or not.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: There were rumors floating around in the last ten days
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: that Neil Dunne was considering stepping out. Early the news
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: report said that House Speaker Mike Johnson asked him not
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: to and to work out his term regardless, and announced
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: candidate is our guest, Keith Gross. District two of Florida
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: is a congressional district wedge between Jimmy Patronis in District
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: one and Kat Cammick, who's a very regular part of
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: this show. Keith, I've asked all of your predecessors your
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: thoughts on earmarks for the district.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think the idea of federal government taking
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  Speaker 2: our tax dollars and then sending them back to the
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  Speaker 2: states in various forms with strings attached, is not a
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  Speaker 2: good idea. We need to put things back in the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: hands of states. Said right now, that's how it works.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: We send all of our tax dollars up to Washington,
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  Speaker 2: d c. And as your next congressman, my job is
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  Speaker 2: going to be to bring as much of that money
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  Speaker 2: back home as possible to ensure we're building jobs for
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  Speaker 2: the people here in the Panhandle, improving infrastructure, and doing
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: good things. You know, some people, especially people like myself
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: who I identify myself as a constitutional conservative, too many
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: of these sorts of constitutional conservatives do what I would
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: call unilateral disarmament, where they say, no, I don't believe
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  Speaker 2: in federal funding for this or that, so I'm not
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: going to try to bring it home for my district.
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  Speaker 2: That's not how I approach it. I approach it as
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  Speaker 2: until we can change the way the federal government is
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  Speaker 2: structured and put that money back in the hands of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: states permanently, we've got to take that money from the
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: federal government and bring it back home to the district
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  Speaker 2: here in the panandle.
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  Speaker 1: The problem I have with that is, and as a businessman,
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  Speaker 1: I know that you know this, we don't have the money.
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  Speaker 1: We literally every dollar that comes back is borrowed money
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  Speaker 1: because they're spending every thing and then borrowing to spend
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: more and now borrowing to pay the interest. So if
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: we don't have enough members of Congress saying we got
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to stop until we get our budget, we get a
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  Speaker 1: balanced budget, we get a budget. How about a budget that'd.
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  Speaker 2: Be a good start.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's been what at least the mid nineties
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  Speaker 1: maybe since the contract with America. But I mean, help
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  Speaker 1: me out there, because I don't I appreciate what you're saying,
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  Speaker 1: and in theory, I don't disagree with you, but it's
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  Speaker 1: still to me fiscally responsible for us to be spending
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  Speaker 1: anything right now until we get it fixed.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, the entire federal budget or continuing resolution. As you
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: pointed out, we're pretty much always running on a continuing
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  Speaker 2: resolution because Congress never does its job on time. They
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: always want an extension until we can get a real
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: balance budget. We're gonna have to just start thinking about
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: how we can reduce the size of the federal government. Generally.
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  Speaker 2: We've got so many agencies, dozens of agencies in the
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  Speaker 2: federal government that shouldn't exist at all, because if you
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  Speaker 2: look at the outline in the Constitution and the things
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  Speaker 2: that the federal government's supposed to be doing, many of
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  Speaker 2: the things that our government currently does it has no
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  Speaker 2: business doing at all. We've got to put those things
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  Speaker 2: back in the hands of states. You've got things like
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  Speaker 2: the US Department of Education that shouldn't even exist. We've
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: got a state Department of education. Do we really need
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  Speaker 2: to send three hundred billion dollars a year to a
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  Speaker 2: US Department of Education who doesn't employee teachers. By the way,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: they're going to waste that money. We would be better
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  Speaker 2: off keeping that money here in the state of Florida
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  Speaker 2: and letting our local schools and parents chart the path
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  Speaker 2: of their children's education.
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  Speaker 1: Do we need a convention of states? Do we need?
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  Speaker 1: You know, we're edging towards having enough states to get there,
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  Speaker 1: but it might not be in my lifetime. It could
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: happen in yours. But is that what we need? Do
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  Speaker 1: we need to have the people tell Congress enough?
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  Speaker 2: I think the people certainly do need to tell Congress
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  Speaker 2: enough because what we've been doing for the last many
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  Speaker 2: years hasn't been working out so well. You know, we're
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: coming up on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: America and we don't have term limits, we don't have
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: a balanced budget, and I think a lot of people
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: are pushing for that sort of movement where we can
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: have term limits and a balanced budget amendment that I'd
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: point out, with the idea of the balance budget amendment,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: we need an exception. You know, things like war could
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: come up in which case we don't need a balance
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  Speaker 2: budget that year it's going to be an expensive thing.
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  Speaker 1: I love the idea of term limits until I came
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  Speaker 1: to realize it leaves the bureaucrats who kind of run
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  Speaker 1: everything now in even more control. Absolutely, that's how we
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: deal with that.
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  Speaker 2: You term limit the deep state and the bureaucrats first,
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  Speaker 2: before you term limit our politicians. We shouldn't be again,
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  Speaker 2: it's unilateral disarmament. We can't have freshmen congressmen getting eaten
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  Speaker 2: for lunch by twenty year bureaucrats.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: How do you stop that.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: You stop having so many bureaucrats, and you take away
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: their authority. You know, President Trump just did that with
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: this automotive regulation that he repealed, that start stop button
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: that we have in all of our cars. That's not
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: a law passed by Congress. That was some made up
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: regulations by unelected bureaucrats. So you start taking away the
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: power of these unelected bureaucrats, put it back in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: hands of Congress.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You mentioned some policies that clearly are policies of President
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. Give me your thoughts. What do you think
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you know?
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  Speaker 2: I think President Trump is doing his best to put
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: am Mareaicans first. Americans have been getting a bad deal
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: from other countries for a long time. It's why we've
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: lost so many jobs in this country. It's why our
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: infrastructure isn't the way it needs to be anymore, because
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: we don't make enough things here in America. President Trump's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: doing everything he can to rebalance these bad foreign trade
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: deals and help put Americans first again.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: What of the policies that he's rolled out do you
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: like the most? What do you think needs a little
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: more help from Congress.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I think most of it could use a little
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: more help from Congress. I think when we look at.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: The the law as opposed to an executive order exactly.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's one of the things I've pledged to
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: do as your next Congressman. I'm going to introduce all
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: of his executive orders that haven't already been codified into
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: law into legislation so that we can put them into
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: law so the next Democrat president can't undo them with
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: a stroke of a pen. I think we want to
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: see Donald Trump's legacy preserved because his policies are good
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: for America. You look at things he's done with foreign trade.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: He's bringing back jobs, he's bringing back investment. We've got
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: tech firms building companies here in America now because they're
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: afraid of getting tariffed if they import all this st
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: from China. You know, China's undermining our economy because they
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: back their companies in that country with companies that are
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: funded ultimately by the communist government.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Now they subsidize and can undercut everybody here in the West.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So it's an unfair playing field for
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: an American company to go up against something that's state
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: funded in China.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on Chinese nationals being allowed to
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: own land in this country?
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you or I pressed and went to
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: go and buy land in China, they would not only
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: not let us buy it, we would probably be disappeared
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: into some prison forever. So I don't know why we
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: let all these other foreign nationals by land in America.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know why we let them come here and
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: take up hundreds of thousands of slots in our universities,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: or why we let them come here have children and
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: call them Americans even though they're definitely not Americans, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: they're going to be taken right back home to be
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: indoctrinated by the communist government of China.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Give me your thoughts. Let's talk a little bit more
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: about the terrif issue, because we hear people, you know,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: talking about, oh, it's adding the cost of everything, and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it might have added the cost of some things. I
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: personally have no problem with paying more for a level
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: playing field. I have no problem paying more for more
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: jobs in America. If it costs a little more to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: produce it here, I'm good with that.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I internally, I balance the libertarian free market ideals with reality.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Reality is we're getting bad deals from foreign nations, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: tariffs are one of the only tools in the toolbox
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to fix that. Because if you continue to allow the
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Chinese economy to undermine the American economy, tariffs are going
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: to be the least of our worries. This becomes a
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: national security problem. If we're not building things in America,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: how are we going to preserve our national security? How
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: are we going to preserve healthcare? Because right now over
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: eighty percent of the pharmaceuticals we use in America come
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: from China. We've got to get back to building things
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: in America again so that we can see real wage growth.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a national security issue. We saw that during
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: COVID the pharmaceutical industry. Now we're learning about the infrastructure
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: for our electrical grid coming straight from China. Obviously, the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: telecom industry coming from China, or earth minerals, all of
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: these things are more dependent on China absolutely.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, if it wasn't for Donald Trump, all of
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: our cell phone towers right now would be from Huawei,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: and those all had back doors where the Chinese communist
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: government could get into our networks anytime they wanted. And unfortunately,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: there's still too much of that infrastructure everywhere. I mean,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: we've seen hik hike vision, I think is how they
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: say it, cameras all over the place, even on military basis,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: those things have back doors. It's really dangerous to be
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: buying critical technology from an adversary.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Our Congress is obviously now razor thin margins on the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Republican side. I worry that the Republicans die from more
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: self inflicted wounds than anything else. They just don't seem
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to know how to message. They don't seem to understand
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: how to communicate properly why things fail, and I think
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: we're now fighting socialism as a result. What are your
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: thoughts on the party in general.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: You know, the Republican Party could certainly do a better
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: job of marketing. We are often out marketed by Democrats
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: who appeal to emotion rather than logic, and you know, Republicans,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: including myself, are often very logical. We're looking at things
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: from a policy perspective and how we can do the
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: right thing, and sometimes that doesn't appeal as well as
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: the Democrats coming out with, you know, socialist communist ideas
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: saying hey, we can give you free stuff, just vote
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: for us. That's a pretty appealing idea, so I see
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: why people go for it, but that doesn't work. You know,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: we can't give free stuff to everyone because eventually you
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: run out of other people's money.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: But don't you think the logic that should rule the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Republican Party because hopefully it acts on conservative, libertarian if
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you will principles. Don't you think that's easy to message,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: because I do.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: You would think so. But here's the thing. In the
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Republican Party, we believe in the freedom of thought. You
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: can have your own ideas, you can disagree with each
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: other and still be friends at the end of the day.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And the Democrat Party they don't do that. They vote
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: like a block. And if you step out of line.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: In the Democrat Party, you're enemy number one. So it
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter how moderate a particular Democrat is. At the
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: end of the day, they're going to vote party line.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: They're going to vote in a Locke for whatever the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Democrat leadership wants, and these days seems clear they're appealing
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: to their communist base.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Keith Gross with me. He's a candidate for District two
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: for Congress. What committees would you want to be on
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: if you were elected?
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Well, generally you get to serve on two committees, and
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: of course I'm going to ask the Speaker for a
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: third committee and see if he'll give me a waiver
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: for that. But I'd like to serve on Energy and Commerce.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: You know our current congressman, he is the vice chair
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I think that's a
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: really important committee as a business person to be on
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: because it's a place where we can undo a lot
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: of excessive regulations that kill business growth and make it
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: harder to do the right thing in a small business
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: and employ people. So that's really the first one. The
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: second would be Armed Services. I've served in the Army
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: National Guard, and as a veteran, I have a deep
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: interest in ensuring that our national security is first and foremost.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Do you like Pete Hegsith.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: I think he's doing a great job. I do. We
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: needed to shake up things at the Pentagon. That's an
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: organization that has wasted a lot of tax payer money
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: on overpriced contracts that we could do a better job.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: You know, we spend a lot of money in this
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: country on our national defense, and that's a good thing
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: because when you think of yourself as a constitutional conservative,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the easiest thing that you can think of that the
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: federal government really should do is national defense.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: That's job one.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: That is absolutely job one. So I want to be
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: involved in that committee so that I can help us
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: spend the money that we're spending on defense better. Let's
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: see it not wasted so much and put in the
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: hands of our service members where it belongs. Because despite
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: spending all of these hundreds of billions and now north
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: of a trillion dollars on defense, we've got service members
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: scraping by not getting paid what they deserve and then
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: amusingly enough, being taxed on the money that they get
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: from the US Treasury. We shouldn't be taxing the paychecks
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: from our service members. We write in the check from
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the US Treasury and then turn around and tell them
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: to give part of it right back. That's the silliest
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: thing you do.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: You as a business guy that has been successful for
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: those of who just tuning in. Keith Grosse sold a
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: couple of businesses, did very well. Do you struggle with
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the notion that we're saying trillions now?
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: So?
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Actually, I sure do.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: I listened to some of Ronald Reagan's speeches and he
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: was outraged that we were going to have an eighty
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: billion dollar deficit, and we probably do that in a
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: week these days.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: What's the third committee?
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: So I'd like to serve on the Intelligence Committee. I
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: think our intelligence apparatus could use a bit of a reform,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: and we could do a better job of looking out
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: for Americans and focusing on the threats that actually matter
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: around the globe.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the to the dry erase board.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Have you allowed yourself to think about? Okay, this is
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: job one, two three. These are the priorities. Regardless of
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: whether I get the committee assignments I want. You're still
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a voting member of Congress if you get elected.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: What matters most reducing the size of government every chance
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: we get, So every time there's a bill, I'm going
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: to introduce an amendment to try to reduce spending, to say,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: let's cut this by a reasonable percentage, let's eliminate this
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: part of an agency, and let's start chipping away at
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: this federal machine piece by piece.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Where do you start? I mean, the President's been busy.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I think the number is something like three hundred and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: seventy thousand jobs. I could be wrong there, and that's good.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I personally wish we'd gone deregulation and created more because
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: we're creating jobs, we're creating manufacturing, we're bringing we're repatriating
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: money back into this country. We're getting investment through the tariffs,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned. But I feel like we needed to
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: provide a few more landing spots for all the people
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: we want to get out of federal government work.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but we also need to make it easier for
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: the executive branch to remove people from government work. You know,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: when the President wanted to do massive layoffs at federal agencies,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: which are greatly needed. Yeah, you know, our federal workforce
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: has ballooned. Federal government doesn't work any better. It just
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: costs a lot more money. We need a lot fewer
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: people working for the government. But when the president went
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: to eliminate some of these people when he was working
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: with Elon Musk under the Doge movement, we saw massive
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: pushback because the separation of powers has been interfered with
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: for too long. We've had judges taking away part of
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: the executive branch authority. We've got legislative branch taking away
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: part of the executive branch authority. And in the legislative branch,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: we can do a lot of good to put that
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: executive authority back in the hands of press, because the
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: president needs to be able to fire the staff that
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: reports to him, and the notion that he can't is
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: truly absurd. Also, the notion that the president is forced
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: to spend every dollar that Congress spends sends him, that's
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: an absurd idea. You know, Congress passed the Impoundment Act
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: for example. I believe the Impoundment Act is entirely unconstitutional.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Congress can't dictate to the president how he executes the law.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: They can write a law, but it's ultimately the president's
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: job and discretion and how he executes that law. The
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: president should be able to say thanks Congress for the funding.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I don't think we need to spend it, so I'm
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: not going to spend it that way. We have two
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: branches who have to simultaneously agree before they can spend
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: any money. That would slow down the amount they're spending
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: and let us start to get this debt under control.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Staying laser focused on the campaign of Keith Gross this morning.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: He wants to be the UH District two Congressional rep.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And that means that all of you listening on broadcast
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: radio a set iHeart aside, although I know some of
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: you are streaming on I Rate that are in the area.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Broadcast US Radio wise, he's your rep. This is your
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: guy if if you want him to take the office
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of Neil done when Neil steps down. We talked about
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: job one. What you think is the most important thing
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you gotta get done. To that end, how important is
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: it that Congress passes a balanced budget.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: I think that's one of the most critical things of
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: our lifetime. For the last decades, we haven't seen a
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: balanced budget, and we need to get back to that
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: because the national debt continues to balloon. And when we
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: think about the struggles that face us here in the
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Panhandle issue. One is probably affordability. Affordability is driven in
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: large part by the out of control inflation. Inflation comes
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: from government spending, so you can trace this all back
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: to an out of control Congress that spends more money
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: than it should and that doesn't spend it well. You know,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: we don't have an income problem in this country.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Good to know, not at all.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Plenty of plenty of income going to Congress. We have
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: a spending problem where they always want to spend more
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: than they take in. And like any business owner listening
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: can tell you, if you spend more than you take
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: in consistently, that doesn't end well.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I've never owned a business. I've talked to a lot
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of people that have. I make this blanket statement knowing
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that I've never owned a business. Every business owner that
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I've ever met, whether their politics are left or right,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: runs their business as a conservative. Is that fair?
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I think that is fair. You know, I think it's
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: easy to be h It's easy to have these utopian
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: ideas when you're young, and certainly when I was young,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I had these utopian ideas that hey, let's use government
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: as this big tool where we can come together make
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: joint purchases. It's an efficient machine. And then you know,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: you grow up and you learn that that's a terrible idea.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: It doesn't work at all. Government's the least efficient thing
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: on the planet. If you gave them anything, they'd run
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: out of it.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Isn't Florida a wonderful example of what a consumption tax
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: could look like because we don't have an income tax,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: we have an overage in our budget seemingly every year
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: where we're paying down what little debt this state has.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: And it seems to me that the Petrie dish that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: we call the Sunshine State is effectively modeling what the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: country could go to if it just changed tax policy.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, that's a lot of the reason that
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: we're having this movement about canceling property taxes at least
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: for homestead property owners here in the state of Florida,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: because we could make up that difference with sales taxes
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: such that other people, visitors, tourists, and so forth, are
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: helping to offset the costs of our infrastructure here in
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: the state of Florida. You know, when I talk to
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: friends and neighbors around rural districts, they point out that
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: that's great for you know a place that has beach tourism,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: But what are we going to do in say, Liberty County,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: where there just isn't going to be a lot of
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: sales tax revenue to increase? And that's where this surplus
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: at the state level would probably need to be redistributed
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: such that the rural counties get enough to run their
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: budgets and take care of first responders and schools and
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: so forth. You know, that's really a state issue. I'd
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: love to see that sort of thing applied at a
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: federal level, where we're doing more consumption based taxing instead
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: of income based taxing. You know, for the better part
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of our country's existence, until nineteen thirteen, we didn't have
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: an income tax, and the federal government worked just fine,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: but you know, it was a lot smaller. And if
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: we got back to a federal government that was as
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: small as our government was back then, we'd be a
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: lot better off.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I still remember the story of a fight breaking out
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: in Congress when someone said that Congress would raise the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: tax at some point, and that guy got beaten up
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: for it, and it's like, no, he was a prophet. Keith,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in closing, we didn't have any set agenda. I told him, folks,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: we were just going to talk and so in stage
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: any questions, just what would you like to say in closing.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I need your vote. I humbly
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: ask all of you to show up on August eighteenth,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: vote for me in the primary.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: If not sooner.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: If not sooner, we might have a special election. Keep
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: your eyes peeled for an earlier date. Could be as
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: soon as the end of April, early May. We don't
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: know yet ntil the governor makes an announcement, but you know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: follow along, follow me on Facebook. I'm on social media.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: I'm very active on social media. I'm at Keith Gross
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: fl follow on there, stay in touch Keithgross dot com.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: If you want to sign up for updates, we send
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: text messages and email updates. This is going to be
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: an important election, folks. We've got to make sure that
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: you show up in the primary because the good thing
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: about the Panhandle, we're probably going to elect a Republican congressman.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: You've got to show up in the primary if you
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: want to pick which one. Thanks so much, Thank you,