Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Congressman Don Bacon

Transcript

Congressman Don Bacon · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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Speaker 1: Today, I have a great guest, and we have lots
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Speaker 1: and lots to talk about. Congressman Don Bacon is with
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Speaker 1: us today from a congressional district too, And Congressman Bacon,
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Speaker 1: welcome to the show.
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Speaker 2: Hey, it's always good to be at k and it's
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Speaker 2: great to talk to you.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. Are you in DC? Are you traveling?
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Speaker 2: Got back last night?
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Speaker 1: You got back last night? So you're back in Nebraska. Boy,
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Speaker 1: you go back and forth a lot, don't you.
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Speaker 2: The funny thing is I set you a text asking
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Speaker 2: you to pick me up. I meant to send that
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Speaker 2: to someone else.
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Speaker 1: Darn it, I guess I missed it. Otherwise, you know
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Speaker 1: what I've been there, what at two in the morning
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Speaker 1: or something like that. Well, we have lots to talk
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Speaker 1: about today. I really wanted to start out and talk
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Speaker 1: a bit about Operation Epic Fury and US being in
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Speaker 1: the Middle East. And you know, we sat down about
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Speaker 1: a week ago, you and I had breakfast together, and
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Speaker 1: I think we talked for two hours as you were
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Speaker 1: telling me your opinion of things going on and why
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Speaker 1: it's so important. And I think that's what I wanted
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Speaker 1: to start out with today. Why is it so important?
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Speaker 1: You've been to the Middle East, you understand what's going on, Why,
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Speaker 1: in your opinion, is it so important that we are
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Speaker 1: over there. And then one thing I want you to
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Speaker 1: cover too is I hear from the Democrats in Congress
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Speaker 1: a lot we demand to know when we are going
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Speaker 1: to pull out, demanding that intend to get that information
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Speaker 1: right now. And I always think we're going to pull
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Speaker 1: out when the job is done. So I kind of
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Speaker 1: want to hear what you have to say about what's
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Speaker 1: going on in the Middle East.
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Speaker 2: Well, first, you know, anytime you're in war, it's a
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Speaker 2: high risk, it's unpredictable, and that's why we should be
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Speaker 2: very reluctant to go to war. And you know, lives
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Speaker 2: are put on the line, and you lose people, even
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Speaker 2: not in combat, like having those two tankers colliding in
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Speaker 2: mid air over Iraq, and you know the Kwaiti's acidentally
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Speaker 2: shut down three of our fIF fifty five teams as
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Speaker 2: they're getting ready to land. Yes, and so there's a
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Speaker 2: fog and frictional war, and we should be very careful
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Speaker 2: the use of military force. That said, Iran has been
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Speaker 2: a war with US since nineteen seventy nine. They have
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Speaker 2: killed approximately one thousand Americans in terrorist attacks. Now, the
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Speaker 2: worst one was two hundred and forty one Americans in
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Speaker 2: Beirut when they bombed our barracks with the Marines. And
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Speaker 2: then we had nineteen ninety six Iranian terrorists blew up
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Speaker 2: a dormitory in Saudi Arabia with Air Force people in it.
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Speaker 2: I lost to one of my friends in that attack.
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Speaker 2: His name was Captain Tim Hahn and he got killed
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Speaker 2: in that explosion. But I was in Iraq. The proxy
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Speaker 2: groups that worked for Iran attacked us every day, and
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Speaker 2: my part of Baghdad, on a good day, we would
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Speaker 2: have three rockets or mortars hit our area from these
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Speaker 2: proxy groups that I RAN controlled. On bad days would
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Speaker 2: be like thirty mortars and rackets. And it's estimated that
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Speaker 2: we lost six hundred and nine Americans from the the
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Speaker 2: proxy groups that I RAN controlled, And they were the
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Speaker 2: ones who sent the most deadly roadside bombs that could
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Speaker 2: go through our tanks, and they made them in Iran
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Speaker 2: and put them in Iraq for the terrorists to use.
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Speaker 2: And though recently we know Iran was trying to they've
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Speaker 2: been trying to build a nuclear weapon. They had deep
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Speaker 2: underground bunkers. We've destroyed those bunkers, you know, like six
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Speaker 2: months ago. However, they still had processed fuel that can
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Speaker 2: make nuclear weapons, about ton of them we estimate, and
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Speaker 2: so that fuel wasn't destroyed, but the ability to make
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Speaker 2: more fuel that was destroyed. And do we want Iran
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Speaker 2: to be able to have ten nuclear weapons? And the
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Speaker 2: answers obviously know their leaders talk about destroying Israel. They
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Speaker 2: have a very apocalyptic mindset of bringing in the end times,
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Speaker 2: and it's scary. This is the very top leadership of Iran.
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Speaker 2: So they're the world's biggest terrorist exporter. We paid, we've
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Speaker 2: hurt by it. Done with a nuclear weapon is unthinkable.
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Speaker 2: I think the final straw was to kill at least
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Speaker 2: thirty thousand Iranians since January in these protests, just shooting
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Speaker 2: him in the hospitals. They just you know, they just
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Speaker 2: executed their top wrestler, a nineteen year old who protested.
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Speaker 2: They did that yesterday. The over thirty thousand Iranians were killed.
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Speaker 2: And at some point when does humanity say this is unacceptable.
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Speaker 2: That's why I support the operation. And I don't know
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Speaker 2: when it will be done. I think it will be
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Speaker 2: done in a couple of weeks, months, maybe we'll have
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Speaker 2: a little bit of presence there still, but we don't
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Speaker 2: know when the war will end. It's not a science
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Speaker 2: in that way. You know that the enemy has a vote.
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Speaker 2: So I think I'm with you. We end up when
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Speaker 2: it's done and demanding.
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Speaker 1: To know when it's done. I have to think to myself, when,
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Speaker 1: when ever has Eisenhower MacArthur our patent been asked? I
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Speaker 1: want to know exactly when this is done. And it's
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Speaker 1: done when the job is done, correct.
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Speaker 2: Right, I mean it was done when we got it
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Speaker 2: when we entered Berlin, essentially, right, and so we But
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Speaker 2: I think when you look at the battle right now,
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Speaker 2: Iran has no air force, no navy, really no air
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Speaker 2: defenses anymore. But they do have these speedboats and some
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Speaker 2: ability to target these tankers right off their coast. And
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Speaker 2: that's a problem, and we're gonna have to work hard
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Speaker 2: to open up the straits of horror moves.
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Speaker 1: And you talked about it already, but I've had plenty
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Speaker 1: of people that I know say, well, wait a minute,
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Speaker 1: didn't we already bomb them? I believe it was in
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Speaker 1: last summer July and take out all of their ability
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Speaker 1: to make nuclear weapons. But what you are saying we did,
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Speaker 1: but they still have the ability to make more. It's
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Speaker 1: an issue with uranium too. Correct.
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Speaker 2: Correct that we really destroyed their underground production and their infrastructure,
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Speaker 2: but they'd already made process fuel to make nuclear weapons
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Speaker 2: with and we weren't able to eliminate at storage and
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Speaker 2: that supply, and we estimated there's enough fuel to make
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Speaker 2: ten like Hiroshima type bombs. You know that that's what
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Speaker 2: they had, that ability, and that was really some of
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Speaker 2: the intelligence driving this, you know, the current operations.
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Speaker 1: And another thing we discussed that you have been over there,
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Speaker 1: and you've been over there present when those missiles are
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Speaker 1: being fired at you, and you told me what it
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Speaker 1: was like. You mentioned that on a bad day that
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Speaker 1: you could have say thirty or so on a good day.
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Speaker 1: I think you just said, you know, just a few,
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Speaker 1: but just describe what it's like when you get the
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Speaker 1: alert that those missiles are coming in. How long do
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Speaker 1: you have to actually take cover and what do you
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Speaker 1: do to take cover when you're over there?
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Speaker 2: Well, I was in bad Dad. You know, they were
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Speaker 2: being launched about ten or twenty miles away and you
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Speaker 2: would normally get about a five second warning, which wasn't
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Speaker 2: a lot of time to get into a bunker. So
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Speaker 2: normally just you know, you got on the ground and
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Speaker 2: tried to get behind a wall something like that. And
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Speaker 2: when I first got to back dad, I knew it
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Speaker 2: would be a lucky shot to get hit. It's just
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Speaker 2: sort of random, and I was sort of care free
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Speaker 2: about it. I didn't I just sort of it didn't
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Speaker 2: bother me. But then I almost got hit twice, right,
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Speaker 2: and then that that woke you up, right, Well, I did.
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Speaker 2: One time was I had a key wall we call
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Speaker 2: it a smell wall between a trailer, and then right outside
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Speaker 2: of my trailer was a tea wall with sandbags and
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Speaker 2: a rocket hit on the other side of that tea wall.
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Speaker 2: Enough could have been a drug hit on the trailer,
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Speaker 2: I would have got killed. But on the other side
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Speaker 2: of the tea wall, you know, the blast went into
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Speaker 2: that tea wall with the sandbags. It was so close.
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Speaker 2: My lights came out of the ceiling and it was
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Speaker 2: very jarring, and I was like, okay, that would have hurt. Yeah, right,
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Speaker 2: it changed by suddenly I got I paid a lot
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Speaker 2: more attention to warnings.
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Speaker 1: So what do you I mean, what do you have
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Speaker 1: about a minute when you know that they're they're coming.
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Speaker 2: It's a minute. It's a minute right now because they're
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Speaker 2: being fired. For my ran, wow, and the range is
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Speaker 2: a lot farther. For me, it was about five seconds.
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Speaker 2: I get about five second warning, unbelievable because they were
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Speaker 2: shooting about ten miles away right. But however, the forces
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Speaker 2: in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, they're getting about a minute
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Speaker 2: warning and so I guess enough time maybe to get
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Speaker 2: to a bunker. And Israel's getting a little longer warning
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Speaker 2: because that the range is a lot farther. But can
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Speaker 2: you imagine having to get up two or three times
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Speaker 2: a night and watch through a bunker. No, it'd be
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Speaker 2: very you know, Okay, do it for a night or
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Speaker 2: two is one thing. To do it for a month,
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Speaker 2: it gets very hard. That's what you know. The Israelis
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Speaker 2: are going through right now.
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Speaker 1: And it says so much for the brave men and
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Speaker 1: women that are in our military that are over there,
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Speaker 1: and then what is going on with the citizens over
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Speaker 1: there too, what they're having to deal with over and
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Speaker 1: over twenty four to seven. So we hope this comes
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Speaker 1: to an end soon. But let me ask you this,
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Speaker 1: do you think that there is the chance that we
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Speaker 1: will have stability or even peace in the Middle East.
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Speaker 2: I know the Bible sort of says there, this is
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Speaker 2: an area that we'll never have peace. But I gotta
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Speaker 2: I have to work with. Well, we don't have a
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Speaker 2: threat an enemy Iran, that those the shield leaders, the Malas,
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Speaker 2: they hate us, the great Satan, Israel, the little Satan.
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Speaker 2: And when someone kills over a thousand Americans over a
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Speaker 2: period of time, you know that's we should we should
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Speaker 2: see the truth of it. I got to think we're
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Speaker 2: going to be better off with getting this government out.
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Speaker 2: And what we're trying to do is collapse the government.
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Speaker 1: And we have to get rid of the right.
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Speaker 2: Right, we're trying to make the regime collapse itself, and
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Speaker 2: we've done a pretty good job of it. We're taken
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Speaker 2: we've taken out the top two or three layers of
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Speaker 2: the government between US and Israel. We've taken out a
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Speaker 2: lot of their command of control, a lot of the
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Speaker 2: all the top senior leaderships have been killed already, and
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Speaker 2: it's very hard for the the next guy's in the
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Speaker 2: line to take over, and when they do, they get killed.
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Speaker 2: And so we're trying to put enough pressure that the
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Speaker 2: government collapses, and we know the people want to have
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Speaker 2: a more representative government, and we have I don't know
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Speaker 2: how we do the polling there, but we have polling.
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Speaker 2: And Iran they're the most pro American people in the
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Speaker 2: Middle East. It's amazing. They want their freedom back. But
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Speaker 2: I think I could tell you it's very hard to
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Speaker 2: get there. I just know, are we better off with
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Speaker 2: this government or without it? And I know without it
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Speaker 2: it's the right answer. These guys would kill any of
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Speaker 2: us at our heartbeat they could.
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Speaker 1: And lastly, clarify this for us. Did the President have
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Speaker 1: the authority to do what he did without Congress approving?
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Speaker 2: Yes, becaues see, he's the commander in chief and just
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Speaker 2: practically if he comes to Congresses, I want to go
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Speaker 2: to war with Iran. Well, now we just gave away
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Speaker 2: all the surprise. We got to have surprise and so
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Speaker 2: and that's what he was saying, you know yesterday with
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Speaker 2: the Japanese Prime minister. And there's truth there. So he
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Speaker 2: has the ability command in chief to do what he did. However,
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Speaker 2: if the operations go beyond sixty days, he has to
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Speaker 2: have approval from Congress or he has to stop them.
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Speaker 1: Okay, and that's what's important that for people to know.
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Speaker 2: And we could vote right now to say we don't
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Speaker 2: want it if we wanted it, right, So the Congress
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Speaker 2: has the ability to vote and say we're going to
11:27
Speaker 2: withdraw funding, but the majority of us thinking this is needed.
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Speaker 2: And so when this came up for a vote, when
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Speaker 2: the Delocrats wanted to have a vote it, we debated
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Speaker 2: it and the majority in the House voted against stopping
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Speaker 2: the President from doing it. So in a sense, Congress
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Speaker 2: has given us a cent or its consent to do
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Speaker 2: this because we voted against the War Powers resolution. But
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Speaker 2: we always have the ability to bring it back. And
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Speaker 2: if he doesn't have approval within sixty days, that that
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Speaker 2: would limit his ability to go forward.
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Speaker 1: Right. And I thought when he was with the Japanese
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister it was a little bit funnier, I would say,
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Speaker 1: tongue in cheek like Trump can be, but so true
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Speaker 1: when he said to the Japanese Prime minister, well, I
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Speaker 1: would have liked had a lot of warning about Pearl
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Speaker 1: Harbor too, And I thought, what a great comeback that
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Speaker 1: he had on that one. Well, while we have it's true,
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Speaker 1: it's true, I have a few more things I want
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Speaker 1: to talk about, well we still have you travel for instance,
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Speaker 1: give us your opinion on what's going on with TSA
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Speaker 1: or not showing up. I heard in Houston yesterday there
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Speaker 1: was about fifty percent of the TSA that didn't show up.
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Speaker 1: Tempers are flaring at the airport. How close are we
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Speaker 1: in Congress to coming to an agreement that those TSA
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Speaker 1: will be paid so that we don't have this problem,
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Speaker 1: especially right now coming into spring break?
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Speaker 2: Right now it's a disaster. I mean some airports are
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Speaker 2: having a three hour wait to go through TSA. Now,
12:54
Speaker 2: thankfully Omaha has been better. In DC yesterday it was
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Speaker 2: not bad at all, But so the AIRPORT'SA and Texas
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Speaker 2: are terrible. And you know, I want to stay right
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Speaker 2: up front. The House is past full funding, right so
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Speaker 2: the House has passed full funding of every agency. It's
13:11
Speaker 2: the effect that in the Senate that they have to
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Speaker 2: get sixty votes, and the Democrats by and large have
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Speaker 2: voted against funding, so they can't get sixty votes. So
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Speaker 2: we do. Our position in the House is whatever the
13:23
Speaker 2: Senate can get sixty votes on, well we'll vote on
13:25
Speaker 2: it whether we'd improve it, but they're going to have
13:27
Speaker 2: to get sixty votes somehow, and it may be full funding,
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Speaker 2: or it may be funding for everything but one or
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Speaker 2: two things. But whatever they can get sixty votes on,
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Speaker 2: we need to do it. But I do think the
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Speaker 2: pressure is growing on Chuck Schumer. It's unacceptable to not
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Speaker 2: pay TSA, the Coastguard, FEMA absolute secret service. But they're
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Speaker 2: they're trying to they're trying to really defund the whole
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Speaker 2: land Security headquarters. They would like to defund ICE and
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Speaker 2: Border Patrol. But that this is what most people don't understand.
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Speaker 2: Those two agencies are already funded right Ice and Border
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Speaker 2: patrol are funded for three years right now. But the
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Speaker 2: Chuck Humer wants to go on to defund a lot
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Speaker 2: of that on ice boarder patrol. And they're holding FEMA
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Speaker 2: Secret Service, TSA, Coast Guard, Willius hostage. And I think
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Speaker 2: that they've come back and said, well, well fund those
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Speaker 2: but we're not going to fund hold Security headquarters. But
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Speaker 2: we've got a defund Ice and border patrols. That's that's
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Speaker 2: their goal.
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Speaker 1: It's untenable, and.
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Speaker 2: We need border patrol, we need ICE. And I was
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Speaker 2: you know, people say, well they didn't like their behavior
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Speaker 2: in Minnesota. Yeah, the Secretary got fired over this, right,
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Speaker 2: and the number two person there got fired. So the
14:41
Speaker 2: President has responded to what he thought was an overreach
14:45
Speaker 2: in Minneapolis by removing the leadership, and he's putting new
14:48
Speaker 2: leadership in and you can already see the tax tactics
14:51
Speaker 2: have changed. So I would suggest to the Democrats, or
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Speaker 2: particularly Chuck Schumer, the President and the administration has already,
14:59
Speaker 2: you know, did a course correction on board patrol on
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Speaker 2: ice and how they and how they were their tactics
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Speaker 2: and how they were you know, rounding people up. So
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Speaker 2: I think in some ways the success is already is
15:11
Speaker 2: already there.
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Speaker 1: And I think people know that that government employees, they
15:15
Speaker 1: eventually will get paid. You have to pay somebody for
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Speaker 1: the work that you do. But when Because the TSA
15:22
Speaker 1: members are TSA employees, they don't get paid a wopping
15:26
Speaker 1: big salary. They're what around forty thousand a year, and
15:30
Speaker 1: they've got to live day today too, so well, so
15:32
Speaker 1: many of them are leaving, not showing up for work,
15:35
Speaker 1: to take on another job just to get by.
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Speaker 2: Well, most people in these situations are living paycheck to paycheck,
15:42
Speaker 2: and it is unacceptable what is happening. There is no
15:46
Speaker 2: excuse it's an embarrassment to Congress, but I just want
15:50
Speaker 2: people to know the House has funded it. Just we're
15:52
Speaker 2: just trying to get sixty votes in the Senate. And
15:55
Speaker 2: I think the chuck humor is long on this. But
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Speaker 2: I would rather sit down with them and try to
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Speaker 2: find an answer to get this fused, because it's not
16:05
Speaker 2: here to the people that aren't getting paid.
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Speaker 1: We got to have solutions now. While we still have
16:08
Speaker 1: a few minutes left, I want to ask you about
16:11
Speaker 1: the Save Act and why you think the Senate won't
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Speaker 1: pass that. I've heard anywhere from seventy to eighty percent
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Speaker 1: of Americans support the Save Act. It's just common sense.
16:23
Speaker 1: It's to secure our elections, voter ID, proof of citizenship
16:27
Speaker 1: to register to vote. Why do you think that it's
16:30
Speaker 1: not going to pass in the Senate. I know you
16:32
Speaker 1: supported it, and we.
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Speaker 2: Vote important place in the House in it's passed and
16:38
Speaker 2: it's a voter ID, which that is the part that
16:41
Speaker 2: I mean seventy percent of African Americans supported, eighty percent
16:44
Speaker 2: of Americans overall support voter ID. That should be a
16:48
Speaker 2: no brainer. What the Democrats have been focused on, honus
16:52
Speaker 2: the proof of citizenship that it's made too hard to prove,
16:56
Speaker 2: and so the House has worked on it to try
16:58
Speaker 2: to simplify it, make it easier, because we don't want
17:01
Speaker 2: to make it too if we don't want to make
17:02
Speaker 2: it that hard to prove your citizen. But we do
17:04
Speaker 2: think citizens should be the only ones voting in federal elections,
17:07
Speaker 2: and we know that some states have a very low bar.
17:13
Speaker 2: We'd like to have him do better. But I think
17:16
Speaker 2: that if I think if it was voter ID only
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Speaker 2: we could get sixty votes on the Senate, it would
17:21
Speaker 2: come back to the House. I think there's a lot
17:24
Speaker 2: of pushback on the citizen proof of citizenship, and they'll
17:28
Speaker 2: focus on are we making it too hard to prove
17:31
Speaker 2: here a citizen? But I think we've made it easier
17:33
Speaker 2: in the second version of this bill, and that the
17:36
Speaker 2: President also said he wants to make mail and balloting harder,
17:41
Speaker 2: and I think there's some pushback on that, even even
17:42
Speaker 2: a lot of Republicans say, you know, like we do
17:44
Speaker 2: this in Nebraska. I think we do it pretty well.
17:47
Speaker 2: So I think the way the process should work. If
17:50
Speaker 2: we can get sixty votes on voter ID, let's take
17:52
Speaker 2: take that and we can work on the rest later.
17:55
Speaker 2: Because of the alternatives, We're not going to get anything
17:57
Speaker 2: passed out of the out of the Senate, so I
17:59
Speaker 2: think we should what we get sixty votes on, and
18:02
Speaker 2: then you know, Franklin proof assistance should we should campaign
18:05
Speaker 2: on it because most Americans want citizens only to vote, absolutely.
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Speaker 1: And it's so important for the state to keep the
18:11
Speaker 1: voter rolls clean. You know, those that have moved, those
18:14
Speaker 1: that are illegal, those of who have died, and that's
18:17
Speaker 1: those are still people that are on the voter rolls
18:19
Speaker 1: in places. So I think that, you know, we really,
18:22
Speaker 1: we really got to secure our elections. And I certainly
18:26
Speaker 1: supported as I said, most Americans do too, So we
18:29
Speaker 1: hope that that can move forward and something can get
18:32
Speaker 1: done about it, because you know what, there is voter fraud.
18:35
Speaker 1: It does happen. It happens in every election. It's usually
18:39
Speaker 1: not enough to swing the election, but it does happen.
18:42
Speaker 1: I remembered the first time I ran in two thousand
18:45
Speaker 1: and six for the legislature, and if you recall, I
18:48
Speaker 1: was declared the winner and then on the ninth day,
18:50
Speaker 1: when provisional ballots were counted, my race flipped and I
18:54
Speaker 1: was behind by fourteen votes. We went through every one
18:58
Speaker 1: of those provisional ballots, and there were some that the
19:01
Speaker 1: addresses were parking lots, abandoned buildings. But you know, usually
19:05
Speaker 1: it's just not enough to swing the whole election, but
19:07
Speaker 1: it is there and it is present.
19:09
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I totally agree, and I think I think
19:13
Speaker 2: Nebraska does a good job of it. But you're right,
19:15
Speaker 2: even if it's a micro percentage, these people should be prosecuted,
19:19
Speaker 2: held accountable. And you're right. People want to know that
19:22
Speaker 2: it's one vote per person and that their vote counts.
19:25
Speaker 1: And for every vote that isn't legal, it cancels your
19:29
Speaker 1: vote out. And that's the one thing to keep on remembering.
19:33
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Congress from making thanks for being with us today.
19:36
Speaker 2: Thank you.
19:39
Speaker 1: All right, Peyton and I are here today and we're
19:42
Speaker 1: going to be taking your calls, but we you know, Peyton,
19:46
Speaker 1: I was listening to you yesterday and Chris Baker yesterday afternoon,
19:51
Speaker 1: and I heard the funniest thing I think I've ever
19:53
Speaker 1: heard on the radio. In fact, I almost wrecked my car.
19:57
Speaker 1: Oh and not good. And that was you and Chris
19:59
Speaker 1: Baker talking about pregnancy and minstrel periods. Uh uh huh,
20:05
Speaker 1: I heard it.
20:05
Speaker 3: You can't deny it. Oh no, looking at him here
20:08
Speaker 3: right now. But here's the thing, what do you think
20:10
Speaker 3: about that?
20:11
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let me say, and I'm sure there's not
20:14
Speaker 1: one woman that is listening to us now that would
20:18
Speaker 1: not agree with me, that we are certainly fortunate that
20:22
Speaker 1: men can't get pregnant. That's what I'm gonna say. But
20:26
Speaker 1: how you know, what, how much time do we have here?
20:29
Speaker 2: Yeah?
20:29
Speaker 1: We got some time, okay, so you know, for punishment
20:33
Speaker 1: for what you and Chris were saying. Oh, you are
20:35
Speaker 1: going to have to listen to my pregnancy story right now,
20:38
Speaker 1: and I'll get this. I'll get this done in two minutes.
20:41
Speaker 1: Let's hear it. But okay, I have two kids, right
20:44
Speaker 1: My daughter Elizabeth was born in eighty five, so she's
20:47
Speaker 1: forty right now. I was living well in another state
20:51
Speaker 1: and we and my husband at the time, who has
20:53
Speaker 1: passed away, we moved down to Galveston, Texas, and I
20:57
Speaker 1: was seven months pregnant, all right, So here I didn't
21:01
Speaker 1: know anybody, didn't know the doctor had a new doctor.
21:04
Speaker 1: And so that was in August. In October is when
21:07
Speaker 1: she was due. I remembered one day I started having
21:10
Speaker 1: these cramps and things like that. But I didn't want
21:13
Speaker 1: to be that girl. I didn't want to be the
21:15
Speaker 1: new doctor's wife coming into the hospital and I'm going
21:18
Speaker 1: over gosh sake, let's send her home, you know. So
21:21
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do that. So I went through
21:22
Speaker 1: the whole day, made tacos for dinner. Hurricane jan was
21:27
Speaker 1: in the Gulf. We were in Galveston, which is an
21:29
Speaker 1: island in the Gulf, and so we waited till. I
21:32
Speaker 1: waited till probably midnight, and I'm thinking to myself, my goodness,
21:36
Speaker 1: this is uncomfortable. And when I really go into labor,
21:39
Speaker 1: I'm probably not going to do too well because this
21:41
Speaker 1: is really uncomfortable. Now, I said, maybe we should go
21:44
Speaker 1: and get checked. We're driving down the seawall. Waves are
21:47
Speaker 1: coming over the sea wall, splashing into the car, and
21:50
Speaker 1: I know, I told my husband at the time, I said,
21:52
Speaker 1: let's turn around and go back. This is ridiculous. No,
21:54
Speaker 1: we better go in and get you checked. So we
21:56
Speaker 1: go in in a dlly dally around for like an hour,
22:00
Speaker 1: and then when they first checked me, they go, oh,
22:02
Speaker 1: you're having a baby. Boom. We went in the delivery
22:04
Speaker 1: room and I had her, so lucky. I went no anesthesia,
22:09
Speaker 1: no epidural. Nothing. She just popped right out as healthy
22:12
Speaker 1: as she can be. Second kid, two years later, This
22:15
Speaker 1: is Andrew. So I thought, I'm not going to go
22:18
Speaker 1: in late on this one. Andrew's thirty eight right now,
22:21
Speaker 1: and so we went in a week before he was due.
22:24
Speaker 1: Went to the doctor and he goes feel, They feel
22:26
Speaker 1: your belly, and he goes, this kid's really big. So
22:30
Speaker 1: we come in on your due date. If you haven't
22:32
Speaker 1: had him, we're going to induce you. So I went
22:33
Speaker 1: in on his due date and they go, you're in
22:35
Speaker 1: labor already, and I said, okay, so I didn't have
22:37
Speaker 1: to get induced. But long story short, that one went
22:41
Speaker 1: real easy too. Andrew weighed eleven pounds and he was
22:45
Speaker 1: twenty four inches long. He was two feet long, and
22:48
Speaker 1: to get eleven pounds, he was like a toddler. And
22:52
Speaker 1: everybody was saying, holy cow, is this really an infant?
22:56
Speaker 1: If they were even kidding me, they didn't want to
22:57
Speaker 1: put him in the newborn nursery because you look like
22:59
Speaker 1: a He was probably sitting up in his little bassin,
23:02
Speaker 1: walking walking in as he gets delivered, and he's still
23:05
Speaker 1: a big The kid is is six foot five. But
23:07
Speaker 1: the kid came out screaming, and and Andrew's screamed for
23:10
Speaker 1: the next nine months. But he's a good kid.
23:13
Speaker 3: So just to clarify, we were talking that in plenty
23:17
Speaker 3: of other countries around the world, South Korea, Kenya, Indonesia, Spain,
23:23
Speaker 3: they give women two days off per month for their
23:28
Speaker 3: menstrual cycles.
23:29
Speaker 1: Really is that? Is that not a good thing? I
23:34
Speaker 1: I I really wouldn't think that that would be something
23:37
Speaker 1: that I would campaign on or that I would think
23:41
Speaker 1: would be really important. I just don't. I mean, this
23:45
Speaker 1: is this is just something that's part of life, and
23:47
Speaker 1: you just, I mean, deal with it. For christ I hear,
23:50
Speaker 1: I hear you. Well that's that. You remember I had
23:53
Speaker 1: an eleven pound baby. So, yeah, you're you're a tough cookie,
23:57
Speaker 1: aren't you. Yeah, and I was, yeah, I guess I
23:58
Speaker 1: was like back out on the fields later on that day,
24:01
Speaker 1: you know, first day of spring. Yes, it is, thank goodness.
24:06
Speaker 1: But you know what I just read this morning that
24:09
Speaker 1: this was the second mildest winter in history. Oh, I'll
24:13
Speaker 1: take it. It kind of felt like it. It was
24:14
Speaker 1: very very mild. You know, we had a couple snowfalls,
24:17
Speaker 1: but but no big deal this year. And so but
24:21
Speaker 1: you know what I am. I am solar powered. I
24:23
Speaker 1: don't know about you. I love warm weather. I love
24:26
Speaker 1: the sunshine. I love it when we change the clocks
24:29
Speaker 1: so that it stays light later and later and later.
24:32
Speaker 1: I bet you do too, because you're probably out there
24:34
Speaker 1: kicking a soccer ball around. I love it. I know
24:36
Speaker 1: I do. I really like this. So I'm so glad
24:39
Speaker 1: it's the first day of spring. Now watch, we'll have
24:41
Speaker 1: some big blizzard next weak and it'll it'll be ten below.
24:45
Speaker 3: Yes, So we're gonna get into affordable housing here, Yes, Okay.
24:47
Speaker 3: I'm gonna play a quick talkback mic from Ken just
24:50
Speaker 3: to get a listener's perspective of how things are going,
24:53
Speaker 3: and then you can break it down for us. Okay, sure,
24:56
Speaker 3: radio talkback mic on the new iHeartRadio app. Good morning.
25:01
Speaker 4: I'll tell you another consequence intended or not. Many years ago,
25:06
Speaker 4: I was up and coming out of the military, and
25:09
Speaker 4: I lived in an apartment complex in Omaha. I was
25:12
Speaker 4: paying nine hundred a month. Neighbor next to me fifteen dollars.
25:16
Speaker 4: Other neighbor next to me seven point fifty. There's no
25:19
Speaker 4: steak in the game when you talk about affordable housing.
25:22
Speaker 4: There is no stake in the game, they don't have
25:24
Speaker 4: to keep it up. The place was run down inside
25:26
Speaker 4: of five years. If you don't have any stake in
25:28
Speaker 4: the game, you don't care.
25:30
Speaker 1: You know, I really understand what he is saying, and
25:33
Speaker 1: I think it's important to I explained it the other day,
25:36
Speaker 1: but I'm going to explain it again because affordable housing
25:39
Speaker 1: is so misunderstood. It is true that affordable housing is
25:45
Speaker 1: different in New York and Los Angeles as it is
25:50
Speaker 1: in Omaha, Nebraska. The definition of affordable is based on
25:55
Speaker 1: the area median income, or we call it the AMI.
25:59
Speaker 1: But the so it's different in New York the average
26:01
Speaker 1: income as it is in Omaha. But the AMI also
26:05
Speaker 1: depends on the size of the household. So basically, you
26:10
Speaker 1: should not be paying any more than thirty percent of
26:14
Speaker 1: your income on housing including utilities. And it doesn't make
26:19
Speaker 1: any difference if you make fifty thousand a year or
26:22
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand a year. It's the same base calculation.
26:26
Speaker 1: And so the AMI, like I said, it depends on
26:29
Speaker 1: the size of the household. The AMI is not only
26:32
Speaker 1: looking at the average median income, but it's different if
26:37
Speaker 1: you are a one person household or a four person household,
26:42
Speaker 1: and so you almost need a table to define what
26:45
Speaker 1: affordable means. So, for instance, Omaha's single person AMI, the
26:51
Speaker 1: average median income in Omaha, Nebraska is about seventy nine
26:54
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, and for a four person household
26:59
Speaker 1: it's about one hundred thirteen seven hundred thousand a year.
27:03
Speaker 1: So affordable for a single person is twenty three thousand,
27:08
Speaker 1: eight hundred eighty dollars a year or one thousand, nine
27:12
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety dollars a month. That's what is considered
27:16
Speaker 1: affordable in Omaha, Nebraska. Affordable for a four person household
27:22
Speaker 1: is approximately thirty four thousand a year, are two thousand,
27:25
Speaker 1: eight hundred and forty three a month. So you got
27:28
Speaker 1: to see that there are different levels of affordability, and
27:31
Speaker 1: like I said, it is it is very difficult to understand.
27:35
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, the terms are eighty percent to one hundred percent.
27:40
Speaker 1: AMI is for affordable workforce housing is like fifty to
27:45
Speaker 1: eighty percent, Low income housing is thirty to fifty percent,
27:48
Speaker 1: and very low income is below thirty percent. That's or
27:52
Speaker 1: that would be extremely low income. So there's a lot
27:55
Speaker 1: of definition that goes with that, and it's very confusing.
27:59
Speaker 1: But what I found when I was mayor is when
28:01
Speaker 1: we would announce that, according to the regulations that there
28:05
Speaker 1: are here is a housing project. Let's look at the duo,
28:10
Speaker 1: which are the twin Towers Central Park Plaza, Downtown, seven
28:13
Speaker 1: hundred and seven apartments. There's a percentage of those, a
28:17
Speaker 1: certain percentage are affordable. But immediately people would say, well,
28:21
Speaker 1: what is the rent for a one bedroom or a studio,
28:24
Speaker 1: And when the developer would say this is what it is, well,
28:27
Speaker 1: that's not affordable for me, you know, but it's affordable
28:31
Speaker 1: according to the definition. And HUD basically defines what affordable means.
28:36
Speaker 1: I said this the other day, but I'm going to
28:38
Speaker 1: repeat it. HUD defines what affordable is. And if you
28:41
Speaker 1: look at their I'll say their chart, start at the bottom.
28:44
Speaker 1: It comes to low income, and then it would be
28:47
Speaker 1: up a level subsidized, then it would be affordable, then
28:51
Speaker 1: it would be workforce, then it would be market rate,
28:54
Speaker 1: and then it would be luxury. That's kind of how
28:56
Speaker 1: the different levels go. But to basically, and I'm not
29:01
Speaker 1: sure that that's the right word to use, you have
29:04
Speaker 1: to have this certain income in the area that you
29:07
Speaker 1: are in, so it is very very confusing about that.
29:10
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of people that just want
29:13
Speaker 1: to think that affordable housing is cheap housing, and it
29:16
Speaker 1: is not. It's not at all.
29:18
Speaker 3: Well, Gene, you know here, I am looking for apartments
29:21
Speaker 3: with my fiance before we move in together, and you
29:24
Speaker 3: said nineteen hundred could be considered affordable.
29:27
Speaker 1: Well, our budget's lower than that. What does that mean
29:29
Speaker 1: for us?
29:30
Speaker 2: Oh?
29:30
Speaker 1: There and there, you know, there there are some that
29:33
Speaker 1: and I'm just going through the numbers off of the
29:36
Speaker 1: chart right here. But the thing of it is the
29:39
Speaker 1: average is is that to qualify, you should not be
29:43
Speaker 1: paying any more than thirty percent of your monthly income
29:47
Speaker 1: including utilities on housing. And you know a lot of
29:50
Speaker 1: times some of these studios are say eight nine hundred
29:53
Speaker 1: a month, that's all they are. That's considered affordable. But
29:57
Speaker 1: I will have people say not affordable for me. So
30:00
Speaker 1: you really got to shop around, you know. I think
30:03
Speaker 1: the I think the average in Omaha for a one
30:07
Speaker 1: bedroom might be twelve to fourteen hundred for a market rate,
30:12
Speaker 1: and then you go up from there. And so yeah,
30:15
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a challenge because people need to
30:18
Speaker 1: get something they need to get in good housing, that's
30:20
Speaker 1: for sure. We want them to do that. We don't
30:22
Speaker 1: want them all in low income subsidized housing, and you know,
30:25
Speaker 1: we don't promote low income housing anymore either. It should
30:29
Speaker 1: be mixed income, because you don't want to create an
30:32
Speaker 1: area a big, a big bunch of apartments that are
30:35
Speaker 1: all low income, because then you recreate the projects and
30:38
Speaker 1: that's not what you want. So it's really you're really
30:42
Speaker 1: looking for good mixed income and good affordable housing and
30:47
Speaker 1: then to have our stock of affordable housing available. But
30:52
Speaker 1: we have to work on some incentives to get developers
30:55
Speaker 1: to build those things because they again they have to
30:58
Speaker 1: get their return on investment, so forcing them forcing developers
31:02
Speaker 1: to build more affordable housing is not a way that
31:05
Speaker 1: I would support.
31:07
Speaker 3: So good conversation on affordable I want to shift our
31:11
Speaker 3: attention a little bit to this State of the City. Yeah,
31:13
Speaker 3: and I don't have a direct question for you to
31:15
Speaker 3: get you kicked off here, but I just kind of
31:17
Speaker 3: want to hear your thoughts. Mayor John Ewing has his
31:20
Speaker 3: State of the City this afternoon at two o'clock.
31:23
Speaker 1: Do those start on time? That's exactly what I did.
31:27
Speaker 1: I did. I did twelve of those. I started at
31:29
Speaker 1: two o'clock in the afternoon. Yes, they do start on time,
31:32
Speaker 1: and you should be able to go to the City
31:35
Speaker 1: of Omaha to their website. You should go to City
31:38
Speaker 1: Council and it should be playing live so you could
31:41
Speaker 1: listen to it. I will say that the two most
31:44
Speaker 1: important speeches a year a mayor gives, and I've given
31:48
Speaker 1: plenty of speeches in my twelve years a mayor are
31:50
Speaker 1: the budget speech, which you've given the summer, and then
31:54
Speaker 1: the State of the City speech. Those are the two
31:57
Speaker 1: most important speeches you give, and you talk about the
32:00
Speaker 1: mayor and with the budget as well as the state
32:02
Speaker 1: of the city, we'll talk about what your priorities are
32:05
Speaker 1: and what your priority and your successes that you've had,
32:09
Speaker 1: and then you talk about where you're going in the future. Now,
32:12
Speaker 1: I did say because it is true that when Maror
32:15
Speaker 1: Ewing did his first budget speech, it was verbatim the
32:19
Speaker 1: last budget speech that I gave was because it was
32:22
Speaker 1: so good. Well, I want to tell myself that, but
32:25
Speaker 1: I mean Kerrie Murphy, who is my communication director, and
32:29
Speaker 1: I wrote that speech, and we recognize that speech. When
32:33
Speaker 1: Maror Ewing gave it, so hopefully I thought it was
32:35
Speaker 1: a really good speech and just change a lot of
32:37
Speaker 1: numbers and change some things, but a lot of it
32:39
Speaker 1: was my speech, so I will be really interested in
32:42
Speaker 1: seeing what the state of the city is. It is
32:44
Speaker 1: the longest speech I gave. It could get up to
32:47
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. You know, I usually didn't want to give
32:49
Speaker 1: a speech over fifteen because you certainly did start losing
32:52
Speaker 1: your audience. People start looking at their cell phones, sleeping whatever,
32:56
Speaker 1: And you know you want it. You might want to
32:58
Speaker 1: make it interesting and you want to make it going.
33:00
Speaker 1: But I want to hear it. I want to hear
33:02
Speaker 1: what Mary Ewing's priorities are where he's going. Keep in mind,
33:07
Speaker 1: there were a lot of campaign promises that were made.
33:11
Speaker 1: I stood right next to him and I heard every
33:12
Speaker 1: one of them. So let's see if he's going to
33:16
Speaker 1: address those things and he is going to move forward
33:20
Speaker 1: with the things that he has promised. It's a very
33:22
Speaker 1: important speech and I want people to listen to it,
33:25
Speaker 1: and then you be the judge. You know, I shouldn't
33:27
Speaker 1: be the judge, but I know what it's like. I
33:31
Speaker 1: know what it's like being mayor, and I know how
33:33
Speaker 1: important this speech is to let people know what's going
33:36
Speaker 1: on and where you're going in the future.
33:38
Speaker 3: This is the kfa B comment line with your host
33:40
Speaker 3: Jean Stothard. My name is Peyton Highlocked, producer of the show.
33:43
Speaker 3: A little bit of a fun question here. If Omaha
33:46
Speaker 3: residents won a second trash container, they fill out a
33:49
Speaker 3: form listing all the people in the home and the
33:52
Speaker 3: form has to be notarized. This seems to be very unnecessary.
33:55
Speaker 3: Councilman brinker Harding stated that the notary is misused to
33:58
Speaker 3: obtain an extra trash container. Why the notary, I don't know.
34:03
Speaker 1: Why the rotary To tell you the truth? And you know,
34:05
Speaker 1: I have to stop and refresh my memory because I
34:08
Speaker 1: negotiated this new contract for our new trash collection system
34:13
Speaker 1: we have with the ninety six gallon cards. Honestly, I
34:17
Speaker 1: have an extra bin and I applied for it myself,
34:23
Speaker 1: and I don't remember having it notarized. But you know,
34:27
Speaker 1: I guess my husband and I is just me and him.
34:29
Speaker 1: I guess we create a lot of trash. I don't know.
34:32
Speaker 1: Do you recycle? I recycle like crazy. What about composting?
34:36
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't do a lot of composting,
34:38
Speaker 1: but every bit of glass if you recall, we don't
34:43
Speaker 1: recycle glass curbside in Omaha. It's considered a contaminant and
34:47
Speaker 1: if you put it in with your regular recycling and
34:50
Speaker 1: one breaks, the whole thing has to be put in
34:52
Speaker 1: the landfill. So we have those big purple bins all
34:55
Speaker 1: over Omaha, and once a week I take all of
34:59
Speaker 1: my glass, I say, and I go and I throw
35:01
Speaker 1: it in the purple bins. But yes, I do recycle.
35:04
Speaker 1: But you can get this extra cart that I'm talking about.
35:08
Speaker 1: It's a different color. It's blue, so they know it's
35:10
Speaker 1: your extra cart. But I have one, and I pay
35:13
Speaker 1: ninety dollars a year for it. Now somebody may say, well,
35:17
Speaker 1: I have a lot of I have six kids, and
35:19
Speaker 1: I don't want to pay that ninety dollars. But really,
35:21
Speaker 1: ninety dollars a year is not a lot to have
35:24
Speaker 1: the ability to have that extra ninety six gallon cart.
35:28
Speaker 1: Some weeks, I don't put it out. In some weeks
35:31
Speaker 1: when I'm purging and doing things like that, I do
35:34
Speaker 1: put that extra card out. Remember, with our old system,
35:36
Speaker 1: I mean, people could put their sofa and their barbecue
35:39
Speaker 1: grill out on the curb and the city would pick
35:42
Speaker 1: it up. Can't do that anymore, it has to fit
35:44
Speaker 1: in that cart, so that extra one is quite handy.
35:47
Speaker 3: That makes a lot of work for the for the
35:49
Speaker 3: workers coming around to collect those things.
35:50
Speaker 1: But remember now it's all automated and they have those
35:53
Speaker 1: big arms that come down and will lift the carts,
35:57
Speaker 1: and you could put bricks in those carts. Really there's
36:00
Speaker 1: not a lot of weight limit with them anymore. But
36:03
Speaker 1: it's so much safer for those that are working on
36:06
Speaker 1: those trucks too, So it's a good system. It took
36:09
Speaker 1: some time to get used to it. I know people
36:11
Speaker 1: hated it at first. I remember that we did a
36:14
Speaker 1: pilot for about six months. We picked one neighborhood and
36:17
Speaker 1: the one thing that they said in the beginning is
36:19
Speaker 1: I hate that ninety six gallon cart. And when the
36:22
Speaker 1: pilot was over, they said, don't take away my ninety
36:24
Speaker 1: six gallon card because I love it. So it just
36:26
Speaker 1: takes them getting used to and Gene.
36:28
Speaker 3: It looks and sounds like people were not super satisfied
36:32
Speaker 3: with your answer. They love the definition of affordable, but
36:35
Speaker 3: what does it mean.
36:36
Speaker 1: It's confusing it, I mean, it's very confusing, and it
36:40
Speaker 1: is confusing to try to define it too. But like
36:43
Speaker 1: I said, it's based on your average median income of
36:48
Speaker 1: the area live in. And the base definition is you
36:52
Speaker 1: should not be spending more than thirty percent of your
36:56
Speaker 1: income on housing, including you utilities. And it doesn't make
37:01
Speaker 1: any difference if you're fifty thousand dollars a year salary
37:05
Speaker 1: or your five hundred thousand dollars a year. And so
37:09
Speaker 1: affordable again based on the average median income. Where I
37:13
Speaker 1: is probably can excuse me confusing is when I said,
37:17
Speaker 1: so a single person's ami in Omaha is about seventy
37:21
Speaker 1: nine thousand a year, where a four person household is
37:25
Speaker 1: around one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars a year. And
37:28
Speaker 1: so I said affordable for a single person is that
37:33
Speaker 1: you would be paying twenty three thousand, about twenty three
37:37
Speaker 1: thousand a year on housing or nineteen hundred a month.
37:40
Speaker 1: Now that includes homes. We're not just talking apartments here.
37:45
Speaker 1: So you got to think if you go out and
37:47
Speaker 1: buy a home, you got to think of the mortgage
37:50
Speaker 1: to on that. And so it's different for a single person,
37:53
Speaker 1: and it's different for what is affordable. But I believe
37:56
Speaker 1: you're an average affordable housing studio or single single bed,
38:02
Speaker 1: single bed apartment in Omaha now is maybe seven eight
38:06
Speaker 1: hundred a month, and some people will say that's not
38:09
Speaker 1: affordable for me, but that's according to what the definition is.
38:14
Speaker 1: So it is confusing, but it's it's worth spending time
38:18
Speaker 1: on it, because when we keep on saying we need
38:21
Speaker 1: more affordable housing units, what does that mean? And it
38:25
Speaker 1: does not mean that you're gonna get, you know, a
38:28
Speaker 1: luxury apartment for four hundred dollars a month.
38:31
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just not going to happen. This is
38:33
Speaker 3: a little bit of a lighter question here to wrap
38:35
Speaker 3: up the day. Okay, this comes from Angie this morning.
38:38
Speaker 3: This morning, when I was laying in bed, unable to
38:40
Speaker 3: go back to sleep, I had a pressing question come
38:42
Speaker 3: to mind. Gean, while you were mayor in now do
38:45
Speaker 3: or did you have security stay around your house overnight?
38:48
Speaker 3: Did you have security following you during the day. Inquiring
38:51
Speaker 3: minds want to know.
38:52
Speaker 1: Oh, I bet you they do. No, I never had
38:54
Speaker 1: them at my home. I didn't. I didn't want that.
38:57
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was necessary to have a cruiser
39:00
Speaker 1: out in front of my home. I did have security
39:04
Speaker 1: drive me around, and I will tell you when I
39:06
Speaker 1: became mayor, I told Todd Schmoter, I don't need this,
39:09
Speaker 1: I don't want this. I'm going to drive my own
39:11
Speaker 1: personal car and I'm going to drive myself around until
39:14
Speaker 1: a couple incidents happened with me and Todd had to say,
39:17
Speaker 1: I told you so, and so then I said, okay,
39:20
Speaker 1: I will have security drive me around, but I will
39:23
Speaker 1: drive my own car. And we did that for four years,
39:27
Speaker 1: and so I think it's important to do that. A
39:30
Speaker 1: lot of times you're running around during the day. You
39:32
Speaker 1: got to get to one place to another to another,
39:34
Speaker 1: and it helps the security is with you. But I
39:37
Speaker 1: never had them travel with me, and I never had
39:41
Speaker 1: them parking a cruiser around my house at night time.
39:44
Speaker 3: Thirty seconds left in the show Geane ninety degrees Tomorrow,
39:47
Speaker 3: Beautiful Day Today.
39:48
Speaker 1: Anything going on this weekend? You know? I Well, first
39:51
Speaker 1: of all, Tomorrow night we're going to go see my
39:52
Speaker 1: husband and I, Kevin and I are going to go
39:54
Speaker 1: see Bob Dylan at the Orpheum. Well, that's going to
39:55
Speaker 1: be a great show. And he's playing golf tomorrow. I mean,
39:58
Speaker 1: you go, you go your south. Their city courses are open,
40:01
Speaker 1: the private courses are being open, So enjoy your weekend.
40:05
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and thanks for being with us today.