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Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague - Running for Sec of State · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: For Secretary's date. Welcome back to the thirty five Ksey
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show, Robert Sprague. It's the pleasure to have you
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  Speaker 1: on this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Brian, and be with you.
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  Speaker 1: It's pleasure Sprague for Ohio, s p R A g
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  Speaker 1: U E for Ohio, the word for not the number
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  Speaker 1: four Ohio dot coms where you can find Robert Spegg's website.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you'd appreciate a campaign contribution. Let us start
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  Speaker 1: off a treasure of Spragu on your campaign for Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of State. What's your motivation for running and how's the
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  Speaker 1: campaign going so far?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think, Brian, the cost of our freedom is
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  Speaker 2: eternal vigilance, and the threats are constantly evolving. Our enemies
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  Speaker 2: certainly would love to be able to control our elections,
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  Speaker 2: at the very least be able to influence them. And
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  Speaker 2: as your next Secretary of State, I want to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that our elections are secure and I also want
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that they're fair, and I have a
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  Speaker 2: plan to make sure that our elections are both of those.
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  Speaker 1: Well, what would you think, as it currently stands, what
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  Speaker 1: is wrong with the current process in what way will
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  Speaker 1: you fix it? When you are elected to be Secretary State.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you we do a very good job
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  Speaker 2: with elections in the state of Ohio. But there are
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  Speaker 2: a few things that I would make sure that we
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  Speaker 2: are able to evolve and make sure that we build
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  Speaker 2: upon the successes that we're already having and make our
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  Speaker 2: election system even more secure. For one thing, I would
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  Speaker 2: make sure that we have a front end citizenship check
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that there are only Americans voting in
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  Speaker 2: Ohio elections. You know, this idea of citizens being able
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  Speaker 2: to vote in their government, having a social contract with
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  Speaker 2: their government is so important to our constitutional republic. And
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  Speaker 2: as a matter of fact, our current Secretary of State,
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  Speaker 2: Frank LeRose, who's done a very good job. He led
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  Speaker 2: the effort in twenty twenty two to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: our constitution was amended to say that only American citizens
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  Speaker 2: can vote in Ohio elections in a past with seventy
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  Speaker 2: seven percent of the vote. So that's the first thing
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  Speaker 2: I would do is I'd move to a front end
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  Speaker 2: citizenship check. And we can do that if we work
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  Speaker 2: with the federal government and the Trump administration make sure
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  Speaker 2: that we have access to those databases.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's so far. I saw this recent article and
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if Ohio uses Dominion voting systems. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of red flags being weighed about this big company.
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  Speaker 1: I guess more than twenty states used Dominion. It just
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  Speaker 1: got bought out by a Missouri tech entrepreneur, former Republican
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  Speaker 1: director of Saint Louis City Board of Elections, a guy
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  Speaker 1: named Scott Liendecker, And he announced this the other day.
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  Speaker 1: As of today, Dominion is gone. Liberty Vote assumes full
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  Speaker 1: ownership and operational control. He's a pro paper ballot kind
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  Speaker 1: of guy. So does that transfer of dominion ownership mean
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  Speaker 1: anything to Ohio? Do we use dominion? And this suggests
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  Speaker 1: made me a movement in the right direction. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of people are still still hankering to get their paper
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  Speaker 1: ballots back because they have no faith in basically electronics,
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  Speaker 1: and I understand that.
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  Speaker 2: I do too, and I think that no matter who
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  Speaker 2: owns the voting machines, at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: you've got to be careful that they're not compromised. And
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  Speaker 2: so that's why the second thing I would do as
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  Speaker 2: your next Secretary of Status, I would make sure that
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  Speaker 2: we move to all paper ballots in every county in
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  Speaker 2: every election that we have in the state of Ohio.
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  Speaker 2: And I used to work at Ernst and Young when
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  Speaker 2: I when I first graduated from college. And what they
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  Speaker 2: will tell you is that the paper ballot gives you
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  Speaker 2: a beautiful audit trail. You can always go back and
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  Speaker 2: you can count the paper. And as a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 2: that's the requirement of the Ohio Constitution, is that we
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  Speaker 2: vote by ballot, which is a secret piece of paper.
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  Speaker 2: And being able to check on the paper and tabulate
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  Speaker 2: the paper gives you a check on the machines. The
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  Speaker 2: paper is never wrong. And so I want to move
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  Speaker 2: to all paper ballots in the state of Ohio. Sixty
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  Speaker 2: percent of the counties are already there. That's the way
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  Speaker 2: they vote. You have a separate piece of paper. You
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  Speaker 2: can see who you voted for, and then you submit
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  Speaker 2: it in the ballot box and then it's tabulated. It's
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  Speaker 2: the best way for us to vote in the state
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  Speaker 2: of Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Scored some points in my listening audience for that one. Sir,
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  Speaker 1: appreciate that got to have a paper trail, all right,
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  Speaker 1: pivoting over in your role as our treasure. What is
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  Speaker 1: the Buckeye Loan program? I saw this just announcing you
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  Speaker 1: just launched this.
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  Speaker 2: This is a fabulous new program. We want to bring
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  Speaker 2: production back to the state of Ohio. We want to
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  Speaker 2: bring jobs back to the state of Ohio. Manufacturing has
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  Speaker 2: always been the backbone of our state, and so we're
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  Speaker 2: starting there with our brand new Buckeye Business Advantage. If
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  Speaker 2: you're a listener right now and you happen to have
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  Speaker 2: a small company under one hundred and fifty employees, you
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  Speaker 2: will qualify. If you want to expand your balance sheet,
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  Speaker 2: if you can take out with the financial institution, your
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  Speaker 2: local financial institution, you can take out up to a
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  Speaker 2: million dollar loan to expand your business. It could be
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  Speaker 2: working capital. This is flexible capital. It could be it
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  Speaker 2: could be you expanding your plant, it could be putting
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  Speaker 2: in that new product line. And we will reduce the
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  Speaker 2: interest rate on that million dollar loan by up to
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  Speaker 2: three percent for up to two years for you. And
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  Speaker 2: that's the big deal, because look, all the federal news
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  Speaker 2: is about the lowering of interest rates, correct, And here
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  Speaker 2: we are lowering interest rates with the state twenty five
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  Speaker 2: billion dollar balance sheet by three hundred basis points three percent,
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  Speaker 2: front running the Fed just lowered by zero point two
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  Speaker 2: five percent or twenty five basis points. So this is
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  Speaker 2: a way that we can put our balance sheet to work.
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  Speaker 2: The first thing we're doing is we're focusing on manufacturing,
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  Speaker 2: because that's our bread and butter. Is a state. October
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  Speaker 2: is manufacturing month. And then we anticipate coming out with
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  Speaker 2: some other focuses on small businesses. But this is a
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  Speaker 2: great thing to help our state bring back jobs, bring
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  Speaker 2: back production, bring back and know how. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that this is going to be a big help to
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  Speaker 2: a lot of these small businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and you're still getting points on the loan too.
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  Speaker 1: It's not like you're giving it away for free. They
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  Speaker 1: have to pay back. It's just a lesser loan rate.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a great incentive for folks to go
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  Speaker 1: out and borrow the money. Because million dollars borrowed at
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  Speaker 1: what current bank rates, that's a sizable difference over a
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  Speaker 1: three point drop.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, three point drop was actually real money for a
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  Speaker 2: lot of these small businesses, and it could be the
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  Speaker 2: difference between them being able to expand or not. Right,
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  Speaker 2: And I love what you said, Brian, because it's not
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  Speaker 2: as if we're stepping in as the government and giving
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  Speaker 2: a grant. It's actually the private market capitalism at work.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to get the loan from a private institution,
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  Speaker 2: but we'll do our parts in the back office plumbing
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  Speaker 2: of lowering the interest rate.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's an important component. That you're still working
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  Speaker 1: with a bank who does due diligence and evaluates the
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  Speaker 1: nature of your business and your credit worthiness. So the
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  Speaker 1: bank is actually doing the laboring or of work, or
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  Speaker 1: the state the States is backing it up with its
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  Speaker 1: own financial resources. I think this sounds like an excellent idea.
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  Speaker 2: And there's no risk at the Treasure's office. I mean, ultimately,
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  Speaker 2: the bank or the financial institution has to underwrite that
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  Speaker 2: from in other words, back it up with their own money,
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  Speaker 2: so there's no risk to us. So this is a
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  Speaker 2: win win for everybody, and we hope that it'll help
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  Speaker 2: small businesses expand and help our states grow economically.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I will acknowledge my ignorance on the entire topic.
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  Speaker 1: I regularly refer to cryptocurrency as like the peace of God,
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  Speaker 1: it passes all human understanding, while at least acknowledge it
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  Speaker 1: passes Brian Thomas's understanding. Listen, my MENSA membership is worthless
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to stuff like this. It doesn't mean anything,
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  Speaker 1: and it never has. But what's the story on the
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio accepting crypto in connection with certain transactions.
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  Speaker 2: Well, i'll tell you what. We decided that the Treasure's Office,
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  Speaker 2: we could either follow everybody else, all these other states
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  Speaker 2: that are being able to accept cryptocurrency as payment, or
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  Speaker 2: we could lead. And there are a few states out
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  Speaker 2: there that are doing it already. But we have decided
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  Speaker 2: that if we lead, we get to determine the process,
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  Speaker 2: we get to make it secure, and so we've decided
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  Speaker 2: that we are going to launch a brand new crypto
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  Speaker 2: payment platform. The future is this digital currency. Everybody's going
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  Speaker 2: to want to pay with their phone with Apple, pay
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  Speaker 2: with PayPal, with stable coin, with bitcoin, with ethereum, and
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  Speaker 2: pretty soon, I think what you're going to see is
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  Speaker 2: it's not just people that are going to want to
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  Speaker 2: pay with these digital currencies, it is also corporations because
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  Speaker 2: it is instantaneous and in many ways, it's cheaper and
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  Speaker 2: it's more secure. So there are some valuable reasons to
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  Speaker 2: do it. We're going to do it the right way.
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  Speaker 2: We are going to develop a cryptocurrency payment platform for
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  Speaker 2: the entire state. That way, you can pay in cryptocurrency
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  Speaker 2: if you want to, and we are immediately it's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen actually outside the Treasure's office, but we are
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  Speaker 2: going to immediately make sure that it's transferred and transformed
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  Speaker 2: into US dollars, and so we will only hold the
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  Speaker 2: US dollars. We will not be holding cryptocurrency, but it
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  Speaker 2: will facilitate the payment. And by the way, the state
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  Speaker 2: is not paying that user fee. The user is paying
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  Speaker 2: a user fee to be able to use that new product.
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  Speaker 2: We think that we are going to have the best
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  Speaker 2: and the safest product in the United States of America.
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  Speaker 2: We just went through the RFP process and the Board
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  Speaker 2: of Deposit approved it unanimously, and we're looking forward to
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  Speaker 2: getting that up and running.
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  Speaker 1: And briefly, I want to hold you up because I
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  Speaker 1: know we only have you this one segment. Sir Robert
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  Speaker 1: spa treasurer running for Secretary of State. How do you,
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  Speaker 1: again going back to my ignorance on the topic, how
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  Speaker 1: do you deal with the volatility at crypto? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: one day bitcoin's trading for twenty thousand dollars, the next
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  Speaker 1: thing is trading for thirty thousand dollars, and it's back
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  Speaker 1: to fifteen. I know I'm overstating the volatility of it,
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  Speaker 1: and trust me, I have no faith in the FIO currency.
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  Speaker 1: But the American dollar does not struggle with that level
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  Speaker 1: of volatility on a day to day basis. I guess
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  Speaker 1: if I got one hundred dollar bill and I'm paying
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  Speaker 1: with crypto, crypto's worth x amount one day and maybe
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  Speaker 1: less than next tomorrow, how does that translate into something
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  Speaker 1: that you can use? Or real briefly with Robert.
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  Speaker 2: Spragg, that's a great question, Brian, and just real briefly. Bitcoin,
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  Speaker 2: because there's a limited amount of it, which is what
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  Speaker 2: makes it valuable, it goes up and down huge volatility
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  Speaker 2: every day. You could pay in bitcoin, and the transaction
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  Speaker 2: obviously digitally is almost instantaneous, and so I guess that's
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  Speaker 2: how you deal with the volatility. But there's also stable coin,
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  Speaker 2: and stable coin is a digital coin, but it's basically
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  Speaker 2: a money market account. It's a share in a money
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  Speaker 2: market account, and so it's backed up. For every stable coin,
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  Speaker 2: it's backed up by a United States dollar, and then
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  Speaker 2: that dollar is in the money market account. It's invested
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  Speaker 2: in United States Treasury short term treasury. So it basically
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  Speaker 2: operates just like a money market account of those stable
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  Speaker 2: coins are pegged one to one to the United States dollar.
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  Speaker 2: So you can see now the difference between the bitcoin
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  Speaker 2: and the stable coin, and you can see where corporations
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  Speaker 2: would you know, maybe one of transact more and more
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  Speaker 2: transactions in the stable coin type of a digital currency,
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  Speaker 2: which will be instantaneous, safer. And the other advantage from
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  Speaker 2: the Treasure's office standpoint that people don't think about. When
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  Speaker 2: you write a check to the Treasure's office, it does
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  Speaker 2: not cost you anything, but it costs the treasure in
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  Speaker 2: the state of Ohio a lot because those checks are
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  Speaker 2: pieces of paper, and it costs us actually a great
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  Speaker 2: deal to process all that paper. Understand So there definitely
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  Speaker 2: are advantages of moving into digital currency direction, but we
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  Speaker 2: have to be very careful. We're being cautious, we're being prouded.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate the prudence and the caution if we enter
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  Speaker 1: into the great unknown. Robert Sprague, he's running for Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of State. He's currently our treasurer. Help him out on
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  Speaker 1: his campaign. Sprague at for Ohio dot com. Robert Spragg,
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your willingness to come on the Morning show
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  Speaker 1: over the over the over the years and I wish
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  Speaker 1: you the best in the future, and I look forward
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  Speaker 1: to having you as ohiuse Secretary of State and further
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  Speaker 1: conversations down the road, Sir