Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Florida's Fight To Protect Healthcare; Plus, Are Things That Bad?

Transcript

Florida's Fight To Protect Healthcare; Plus, Are Things That Bad? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: And here we are the third and final hour of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the show for the day. It is Wednesday, November twelfth.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Here on the Morning Show with Preston Scotti's ose, I'm
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Preston and cozying up to the microphone. That's a not
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: so subtle way of saying, grab the microphone and pull
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it closer. Is doctor Bob McClure, President of the James
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Madison Institute. Hello, Hi buddy, how are you?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I'm well? How about you dressed for the weather? I say, am,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I am. I've got to pretend to be important every
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: once in a while.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Well, no, I mean I just love the cool weather
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: hitting a little early this year.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: The lovest thing in the world.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely love it. We were just talking in the break.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: What is your sense on how things will shake out
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for this final legislative session for RHN de Santis. Does
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: he get to run through the tape or is he
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: going to have to fight through what's going on with
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: leadership in particular in the House.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I do think he's going to have to do some
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: fighting in the House. I don't think we have recovered
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: from last legislative set. Having said that, it's in the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: best interest of a lot of those folks in the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: legislature with an election year coming up, to do some
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: of the right things. And I've said this before, I've
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: said it many times. I mean this governor, I mean
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: he could be coasting if he wanted to on his
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: legacy and what he has done so far for this
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: state in the last seven years. And the man is
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: running through the tape. And I'm really really excited. I mean,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: you think about what we've had. We started with Jeb
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: We had a little blip with Charlie crist then we
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: had Rick Scott, two very very forward thinking governors. Then
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: we get Ron DeSantis, and the man has been bold,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: he's been innovative, he's been thoughtful and really preston. Look.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, the proof is in the putting look at
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the state, whether it's our economic health, whether it's people
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: moving here, whether it's our our economic opportunity. The biggest issue,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: which you and I have talked about a lot, is
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: for lots of reasons, kind of a witch's brew of reasons.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: The cost of living is challenging for a lot of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: people in the state, and that's something that we have
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to address. But the governor is at least trying to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: address this with his property tax issue.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The word that I would use to describe governors as
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: santus is the word relentless. Oh my god, just has
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: not touched the pause button. To your point about running
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: through the tape, I hear him, and I hear the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: same tone and the same resiliency and the same determination
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that I heard in his first year in office.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: It's exactly the same. Look at what he did just
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: a year and a half ago with the amendments three
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and four. Right, whether you agree with those amendments or not,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the weed amendment in the abortion amendment, doesn't matter where
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: you are politically. He put all his chips. He was
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the only person in the state who was willing to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: do this. He put all his chips in the middle,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and he won, and he moved from there to run
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: for president, or I guess he got it the other
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: way around. He's run for president, he's defeated those amendments,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and now he doesn't have to have this property tax discussion. Right.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, he could have just sailed off into the
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: sunset next administration if they want to do it, but
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: he hasn't. And so relentless is an excellent term. I mean,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: he is kind of like you know this, this this
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Nick Saban of governors in the sense that he he
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: gets back to work. I mean, Lane Kiffin tells the
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: story of Saban winning the national championship, saying telling everybody,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: all right, we'll see it at seven thirty Monday morning,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: to get to work. And the governor has been tremendous.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Well, you've said all along, good policy makes for good politicists,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and and he is a policy wonk if there ever
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: was one in the governor's office.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he is. But I think I think the
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: dynamic back to your original question, because it's it's it
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: is an election, yeer. These men and women in the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: legislature understand that you've got every office, cabinet off, everybody's
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: up for election. I think you're going to see a
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: little more play nice this year. And I think the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: governor's going to get some things he wants on the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: property tax issue. I don't know what they are. Yeah,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I believe we will.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Back with doctor Bob McClure James Madison Institute. He's the president.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: We affectionately refer to it by its initials JMI. You've
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: got in your hands an article here, Bob that I
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: thought was interesting, and it's and it's an issue that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the governor has over the years tried to make some
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: headway on, and it is sort of creating Florida inside
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the moat of all the noise on healthcare and creating
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: some safe space inside the state of Florida. But what
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: is China's impact and influence in healthcare and what can
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Florida do about it?
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Well, let's start, let's back up just a hair. The
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: governor has already taken tremendously bold action against the CCP
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: influence in the state of Florida. Right They've blocked land
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: purchases near military bases, scrutinizing kind of university partnerships and
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the money that the CCP may be giving folks, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: strengthening kind of various consumer protections. The AG has also
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: helped uncover foreign threats to our digital infrastructure. But I
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: think there's another component to at preston that we need
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to think about, and that is the technology that patients
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: use and hospitals use to keep themselves alive. So think
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: about it this way. It's not an urgent issue, but
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: it poses long term risks to patient privacy and to
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: our health care security. So think of it this way.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Devices such as Internet connected monitors, pumps, diagnostic tools, those
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: kinds of things are now made by the CCP are
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: all now embedded in hospitals and clinics across the country.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's like in our power grid. That's right,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: with the transformers that we now know have embedded technology
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: that can literally turn our power grid dark. The same
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: vulnerability is this inside healthcare?
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, and you think of you think of the
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: rare earth minerals discussion, the same kind of component. And
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: so what you have is that that kind of integration
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: has come with this invisible cost, and that's dependent on
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: companies that operate under the authority of the CCP okay,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: and that's that's a huge issue when it who and
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: they can compel access to data or cooperation on espionage
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: efforts with some of these healthcare components, and that's something
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: we need to focus on here in the state.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised that the federal government hasn't taken more
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: action given the exposure that we saw during COVID.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, i am, I'm i'm Let me let me
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: back up with that federal government under Joe Biden. No, right,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I'm not because they had a completely different agenda.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Well, Joe was beholden to the Chinese.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, that's right. But they were also
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: focused on, I would argue, changing this is not a
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: conspiracy theorist thing, changing the very fabric of the country
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: in four years in so many different ways. And so
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: whether it was how the federal government funded NGOs, whether
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: it was the Green New Deal which turned out to
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: be a disaster, and Bill Gates has confirmed that, whether
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: it's the border was open, but no, they told us
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: it was secure. So who you're gonna believe me or
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: your lying eyes, all of those kinds of things. They
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: were not focused on the role of the CCP and
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: it's threat. Remember the spy balloon that flew over half
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: the country. And now we're talking about healthcare devices. This
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: is a very real issue where they can mind data.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: You know, people are talking about TikTok and they're talking
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: about rare earth minerals and how China can kind of
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: grab a hold of America kind of strangled them by
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: the throat. Well also in healthcare devices, where they can
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: mind data and they can do these kinds of things.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: It's a very real issue, and it's not something we
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: think about on a daily basis. Well, we saw the
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: story and we talked about it here on the program
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: that baby monitors, some of the most popular baby monitors
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: had technology inside that allowed the Chinese government to monitor,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: as you say, just lifestyle, what people are doing, what
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: kinds of choices they're making inside their homes in real time. Right.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: And so the president wants to bring manufacturing back here.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: And that's one of the critical reasons why. Now you know,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: he was interviewed by Laura Ingram a couple of nights ago,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: and he's talking about students, Chinese students at colleges and
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: some of these other things. I don't he sees it
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: as less of a threat. I don't agree. I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: they're all potential spies. I agree the CCP is playing
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: the long game. In the long game is one hundred years, right,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: and we Americans barely play the game of two years, right,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: And so we're talking about midterms, So that's an issue.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I don't agree with the president. I think the CCP
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: is a very threat to the future of the nation.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think they just celebrated when New York
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: City went socialist.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Sure, they did.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Back with doctor Bob McClure of the James Madison Institute,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: we were talking.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, quick follow up. This is kind of an obscure
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: issue about this healthcare and China's influence and all these things.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: For your listeners, they can go to James Madison dot org.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Doug Wheeler wrote a great piece, one of our policy
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: director for the Gibsoner for Economic Prosperity at JMI. Doug
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Wheeler wrote a great piece for Florida Politics and it's
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: called Florida Must Lead on securing healthcare from China's influence.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: So it's an obscure issue, but your listeners can go
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: find that piece learn a whole lot more about this
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: issue at James Maadison dot org.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: They rely on obscure. Yeah, as you said, they play
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the long game, and they play it exceptionally well. But
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that's what the left does.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: We were talking earlier about just how good Florida is
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: sitting with problems to be solved, to be sure, But
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: then you see this study. We've talked about it quite
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: a bit. FAU releases a pole that shows nearly fifty
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: percent of Floridians considering leaving the state because of cost
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of living primarily and driving that we've talked about quite
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a bit, and that's the cost of housing. What do
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you make of the fact that one out of two
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: is now thinking of doing a U turn and leaving
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the state.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm first of all, I'm not sure where
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: they would go.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what I said, grass is always greener type thing.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But be careful, you know, this is a different state
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: when it comes to that kind of thing.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So what do we That's a high number. It's not
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: like we one out of five or six. But I mean,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: you know, the way people respond to poles sometimes preston
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: compared to what they actually do. Right, So look at
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: the state. We have almost a thousand people moving to
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: this state a year, okay almost today. What I say
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: a year here, I meant yeah, And so a thousand
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: people a day. And so you know what you've seen
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: is Miami has become the new Silicon Valley. We're seeing
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: that happen over and over. Ken Griffin, whether it's Ken
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Griffin or all of this investment that's happening in Miami.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: For Fortune magazine called Palm Beach the Wall Street of
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: the South. And now with the most recent mayoral election
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: in New York City that's going to hasten. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: But Florida does have. What this poll reveals is that
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: there is a very real issue and the cost of
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: living is a very real issue in the state. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: these aren't people in Palm Beach in Miami. These are
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: people in Lakeland and people in Melbourne, and people in
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Quincy and people in you know, Live Oak and you
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: know this is this is real. This is true Americana,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: this is Middle America, and and it is expensive. And
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: it's expensive for a number of reasons. We talked about it,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: but it's kind of this. It's property insurance, which is
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: slowly coming down, even though you know, I don't think
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: all for Fluirdians.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Feel it just yet, it's at least stabilizing. Stabilizing for sure.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: State Farm just filed for a rate reduction. I think
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it was twenty percent progressive as filed for a rate reduction.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: So people are going to see that happening now. But
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: housing is a very real component of that, and that
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: is traditionally at the local level. It makes it harder
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to build homes, or those homes that they do build
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: are far more expensive because of permitting, wait times, pay go,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: whatever the terms are that you want to use for builders.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: All Right, we need more housing. This fifty year mortgage
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: is that Trump proposed is not going to solve the problem.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, it is. It's ridiculous. We need more housing, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: people say, oh, we need more affordable housing. We just
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: need housing. Build housing, because what happens in a market
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: is that when you build houses that people need and want,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: they move into those houses. The other houses become vacant,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and then the market begins to move and it brings
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: down the cost of housing.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Last thing I'll say on the cost of living under
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden, inflation accumulatively was twenty one percent. Okay, that's
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a staggering It is a staggering number. And the Trump
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: administration has not solved that issue. I'm not blaming them. Okay,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: they've been in office nine months. But they need to
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: wake up. And I saw Stephen Miller begin to change
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the messaging after the election. They need to wake up
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: every day and say, look, it's working. We haven't done enough.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: We have a long way to go. We inherited a
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: complete train wreck, but we are going to bring down
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the cost of living, and we are going to focus
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: on it every day. They need to be careful because
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: remember under Joe Biden, they kept saying, oh, Biden, economics
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: is working, it's working, it's working. Well, who you're gonna
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: believe me or your lying eyes, right right? And Trump
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: needs they need to be careful. They don't need to
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: fall into that same thing of saying, well things are
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: getting better, suck it up, so to speak.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Right, Tell me this, though, what can the government do
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: beyond the regulatory environment that drives prices down? I don't
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: know of much. Well, they can they get energy as everything,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: right right, So we're and we're making that better.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Right right. But it takes a minute. It takes time.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And so whether they're opening up more drilling, more opportunity
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: for natural gas, they're bringing down regulations the middle man
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: or the middle woman in the energy sector. But if
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: you need to continue to focus on energy and also
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: you know, focus on you know, ag is another area
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: like grocery prices in those kinds.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: We've got to deal with small agriculture.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Right, reduce the cost of doing business and the consumer
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: will benefit. But it's gonna take time. But the Trump
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: administration needs to be careful. The answer is not, Hey,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: things are getting better. You just don't see it. It
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: needs to be. We wake up every day to make
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: things better, but we have a ways to go.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and explain why they're bad. Correct, All right, Thank you, Bob,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: appreciate the time. Thanks for having me. Doctor Bob McClure,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: President of the James Madison Institute. My guest, the big
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: stories in the press box are next.