Latest / Brian Thomas / AFP - Affordability Agenda and a need to fund DHS

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AFP - Affordability Agenda and a need to fund DHS · Brian Thomas

0:00
Speaker 1: Wednesday. Brian Thomas always plead to talk to Donovan and
0:04
Speaker 1: Neil for Americans for Prosperity. Hey, we got an affordability
0:07
Speaker 1: problem in this country. AFP knows all about it. They're
0:09
Speaker 1: launching a multi million dollar nationwide affordability campaign. Donald and Neil,
0:13
Speaker 1: welcome back to the Morning Show. It's always great having
0:15
Speaker 1: you on the program.
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Speaker 2: Brian. Despite being in DC, I'm gladly with you.
0:19
Speaker 1: I was getting ready to offer some condolences your venue.
0:23
Speaker 1: I don't end to you at all, Donovan. So STAF
0:25
Speaker 1: travels when you get out, and you might want to
0:27
Speaker 1: bring the American flag out when you do come because
0:30
Speaker 1: it doesn't quite remember resemble America, at least that as
0:32
Speaker 1: I know it. Anyway, AFP's joined with the Libra Initiative
0:37
Speaker 1: and Concerned Veterans for America teaming up to well spread
0:41
Speaker 1: the love about affordability agenda and providing some options for
0:44
Speaker 1: Americans to get some long term solutions to energy, housing,
0:47
Speaker 1: healthcare and everything else. That's the people deem unaffordable. But
0:50
Speaker 1: you did a survey which is a real eye opener, Donovan,
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Speaker 1: fifteen hundred registered voters. This was before the gas price
0:58
Speaker 1: increase brought about by the war between US and Iran.
1:01
Speaker 1: But I know we're all struggling with that, Donovan. I
1:03
Speaker 1: paid four ninety nine per gallon yesterday. It was premium,
1:06
Speaker 1: but right across the street from here, and that's obviously
1:09
Speaker 1: a lot more than it used to be. So let's
1:11
Speaker 1: talk about the results of the survey before we dive
1:13
Speaker 1: on into AFP's sort of action points and how AFP
1:17
Speaker 1: proposes dealing with affordability.
1:19
Speaker 3: Donovan, Well, yeah, you know, we're we're an organization right
1:24
Speaker 3: that doesn't just put our finger in the wind and
1:25
Speaker 3: kind of see where where things are blowing. We actually,
1:28
Speaker 3: you know, regularly pull, you know, run these polls that
1:32
Speaker 3: engauge the opinion of voters. We're out there knocking doors
1:34
Speaker 3: every day, Brian, as you and your listeners will know,
1:37
Speaker 3: to really connect with with real America, with real O Highlands,
1:40
Speaker 3: real Americans, and the message that we're bringing to Capitol
1:42
Speaker 3: Hills pretty straightforward.
1:43
Speaker 2: We've got to get our policy agenda on track in
1:48
Speaker 2: this country. We are focused on the wrong things.
1:50
Speaker 3: The real reality actually here is we aren't focused on
1:53
Speaker 3: anything in this country. We've got seven different things distracting
1:57
Speaker 3: Congress right now. And so our message on affordability is
2:00
Speaker 3: this is what the American people care about. The polling
2:02
Speaker 3: shows it Republican, moderate Democrat. What they want is lower
2:07
Speaker 3: gas prices, lower energy prices, more affordable groceries, and the
2:11
Speaker 3: ability to buy a home, afford their healthcare, the simple stuff, right,
2:15
Speaker 3: that makes the American dream possible.
2:18
Speaker 2: It's feeling like it's getting further and further away.
2:21
Speaker 3: And the more time Congress spends, you know, distracted by
2:26
Speaker 3: you know, the scroll of the day, the less time
2:28
Speaker 3: they're spending actually getting things done for the American people.
2:30
Speaker 3: That's the message to bringing to Capitol Hill. And it's
2:32
Speaker 3: what the pulling, you know, sort of bears out as
2:34
Speaker 3: well well.
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Speaker 1: I think the immediate pain of the gas price increase
2:37
Speaker 1: is hitting everybody. And of course Donald Trump did a
2:39
Speaker 1: wonderful job of the all the above strategy opened a
2:41
Speaker 1: lot of drilling and oil and natural gas production. Things
2:45
Speaker 1: were going great. Price of gasoline was the lowest that
2:47
Speaker 1: had been in the last time. I mean, I couldn't
2:48
Speaker 1: remember how long it's been since we were paying like
2:50
Speaker 1: two dollars a gallon for gasoline. But here we are.
2:54
Speaker 1: Average in the Greater Cincinnati area is four dollars. So
2:58
Speaker 1: that is, so you can get Trump credit for what
3:01
Speaker 1: it was before the war started. But then immediately people
3:03
Speaker 1: are going to pivot over and say, well, if Donald
3:05
Speaker 1: Trump hadn't started bombing ran the straight of horor moves
3:07
Speaker 1: would be open and we wouldn't have to deal with
3:09
Speaker 1: the dollar increase in gasoline. I mean, how do you
3:11
Speaker 1: reconcile those seemingly contradictory realities, you know, and advocating for
3:15
Speaker 1: conservative principles. Donovan, Well, that's part of the message of
3:20
Speaker 1: bringing as well. Right, you know, the president has secured America,
3:23
Speaker 1: has secured some very important strategic and tactical victories in
3:26
Speaker 1: Iran right now. You know, our opinion is we should
3:30
Speaker 1: you know, double down on those and then and call
3:33
Speaker 1: it and call it a victory and get out of there.
3:35
Speaker 1: Otherwise we're going to find ourselves in another endless war.
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Speaker 1: You know what the American people elected this Republican majority
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Speaker 1: to go do back in twenty twenty four, just what
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Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen short months ago was they wanted affordability. We
3:50
Speaker 1: saw what four years of Biden on its looked like,
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Speaker 1: right with record level federal spending.
3:55
Speaker 3: We saw what an unsecured border looked like with with
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Speaker 3: you know, mass of legal immigration. We saw what failed
4:02
Speaker 3: energy policy look like with high fuel prices, and you know,
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Speaker 3: I think what the voters, you know, in midterm year,
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Speaker 3: the typical reaction from you know, the party in power,
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Speaker 3: which in this case as Republicans, is to you know,
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Speaker 3: hunker down, cover your head and just hope that you know,
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Speaker 3: the damage isn't so bad that it gets to your
4:20
Speaker 3: you know, as if your congressman gets to your district.
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Speaker 3: But the reality is is, like, we have the vision,
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Speaker 3: we have the agenda President Trump lated utter a state
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Speaker 3: of Union.
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Speaker 2: We've put out our affordability.
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Speaker 3: Agenda that aligns very nicely with what the White House
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Speaker 3: is advocating for and what honestly many congressional leaders say
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Speaker 3: we need to do. The problem is sort of getting
4:39
Speaker 3: these ducks in a row, right. You got four hundred
4:42
Speaker 3: and thirty five some of them here in the country
4:45
Speaker 3: in Congress. We've got to get those folks lined up,
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Speaker 3: at least the Republican ones, right, the two hundred and
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Speaker 3: eighteen or so of them, to go finish the things
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Speaker 3: they were elected to do. Chief among them right now,
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Speaker 3: especially with energy prices skyrocketing, is get it, you know,
5:00
Speaker 3: it is permitting reform like the Speed Act that's going
5:02
Speaker 3: to unleash energy abundance in all in this country once again.
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Speaker 1: Right, A longer term solution, which cord of the polling
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Speaker 1: you guys did, this survey you conducted voter see bigger
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Speaker 1: economic fixes, not short term controls, is more convincing solutions,
5:15
Speaker 1: so people will embrace this idea of let's say, for example,
5:19
Speaker 1: something I've been on a tearr on. You know, it
5:21
Speaker 1: may be moving forward towards small nuclear reactors, reducing the
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Speaker 1: regulatory burden to allow them to be built more cheaper
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Speaker 1: and more efficiently, thus bringing online some very reliable power
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Speaker 1: without your carbon dog soil. I'll put whatever. But that
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Speaker 1: is a longer term that's not going to be done overnight.
5:36
Speaker 1: But if I suppose if Americans can see some progress
5:39
Speaker 1: going down that road, they may see some hope at
5:41
Speaker 1: least that their electricity bill might go out or at
5:43
Speaker 1: least that their lights will stay on.
5:46
Speaker 2: Well.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And part of that polling that we did as well,
5:50
Speaker 3: right is we didn't just kind of gauge, Hey, what's
5:52
Speaker 3: the most important issue to you and what do you
5:54
Speaker 3: think IRIS needs to do? You know, that's pretty straightforward
5:56
Speaker 3: point we didn't took it a level deeper, right and
5:58
Speaker 3: began to say, heyy, what do you believe as an
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Speaker 3: American is?
6:03
Speaker 2: Is you know, what reforms do you believe that an American are.
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Speaker 3: Going to make the most impact and modernizing energy regulations,
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Speaker 3: believe it or not. Taking laws that were enacted in
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Speaker 3: the late sixties early seventies and modernizing them. You know,
6:16
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six people American people.
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Speaker 2: Say like, yeah, it's common sense stuff, right right.
6:22
Speaker 3: You know in Congress, common sense doesn't win the day always,
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Speaker 3: and that's why we're here to remind them. Hey, I'm
6:28
Speaker 3: from Ohio. You know, we're out there talking to people.
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Speaker 3: These are the things they want and get at it,
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Speaker 3: and we're going to be okay in this country.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really important point to remember. A lot
6:37
Speaker 1: of these rigs are so old. Technology has passed them up,
6:41
Speaker 1: leading them and making them look sort of comical on paper. Now,
6:43
Speaker 1: you know, I go back to the like for example,
6:45
Speaker 1: one of my favorite pet peeves the fifty five mile
6:47
Speaker 1: an hour speed limit now sixty five in a lot
6:49
Speaker 1: of places. But that was put in place when breaks
6:51
Speaker 1: were all drum breaks, and it took like nine years
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Speaker 1: to bring your car to a stop and cars weighed
6:55
Speaker 1: about ninety jillion pounds. It didn't have airbags and anti
6:58
Speaker 1: lock breaks. It's just a rule. It's past its prime.
7:01
Speaker 1: That's just a little side note on how laws and
7:04
Speaker 1: rules don't age well. I want to bring you back
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Speaker 1: Donovan and Neil some of the important findings from the surveys.
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Speaker 1: It turns out people are really really astute to where
7:11
Speaker 1: the problems come from government. Maybe more with Donald and'
7:16
Speaker 1: neil for Americans for Prosperity, But if you're serious about
7:18
Speaker 1: improving your shooting, what an important thing to know about
7:23
Speaker 1: seven forty here fifty bove kcd talks station Americans for Prosperity,
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Speaker 1: help them help you. It's easy to help out with
7:29
Speaker 1: AFP and learn how to ocdors will tell you how
7:32
Speaker 1: to do that, give you the skills you need. Help
7:34
Speaker 1: out in any level. You can a little bit, a
7:35
Speaker 1: lot either way. We'll take whatever we can get. In
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Speaker 1: terms of spreading the message, there's a better way out there,
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Speaker 1: one that can lead to affordability. Of course, affordability a
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Speaker 1: key issue, and that's what this survey shows. AFP did
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Speaker 1: a survey with along with a couple of other organizations,
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Speaker 1: and you know, Donovan and Neil, I'm really refreshed to
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Speaker 1: see the results of the survey. People, I guess are
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Speaker 1: really astute. They know where the fault lies, and that
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Speaker 1: is basically government. I mean, percentage of people that believe
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Speaker 1: government is making things harder not easier, is overwhelming. Sixty
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Speaker 1: one percent says government makes it harder rather than easier.
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Speaker 1: Three quarters say government actions contribute to higher consumer prices.
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Speaker 1: So we're not dumb as they take us to be. Donovan, No,
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Speaker 1: that's absolutely right. I mean, the voters know where the
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Speaker 1: problems lie. And I think, you know, that's part of
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Speaker 1: the you know, if there's any silver lining to the
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Speaker 1: last several years, you know, from COVID through the Bidenomics era,
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Speaker 1: is folks saw the impact government can have on their lives,
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Speaker 1: the negative impact government can have on their lives, and
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Speaker 1: they said, look, we don't need more you know, welfare programs.
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Speaker 1: We don't need more handouts even hand ups.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: What we want is Congress government to do the things
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Speaker 3: it's got to do, to kind of modernize the laws,
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Speaker 3: clean up the regulatory regime, and really just empower people, right,
8:50
Speaker 3: create an environment where people could make their American dream
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Speaker 3: possible from healthcare where we're sending money to you know,
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Speaker 3: you know the six largest health and sure It's companies
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Speaker 3: through you know, Unaffordable Care Act subsidies.
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Speaker 2: Instead of doing that, how do we put it into
9:05
Speaker 2: health savings accounts?
9:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, let the money follow the people. Like this big
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Speaker 1: trend we're all on with school choice, same thing applies, well.
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Speaker 3: Same thing the same with energy, right, Instead of picking
9:14
Speaker 3: winners and losers in the energy marketplace like we've been
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Speaker 3: doing for twenty thirty years now, you know, picking wind
9:19
Speaker 3: and solar, which are fine, right, but we're picking that
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Speaker 3: over basedload generation like your favorite nuclear and coal and
9:26
Speaker 3: oil and gas. Right, Instead of doing that, how about
9:28
Speaker 3: we just create an environment where all energy players you know,
9:31
Speaker 3: based on the market cost of bringing that energy to
9:34
Speaker 3: the grid.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, get to get to decide, right, But.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, how about yeah, our FP submit us an energy
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Speaker 1: proposal to those who can provide energy, submit your proposal
9:44
Speaker 1: for energy. We will judge it on its merits. The
9:46
Speaker 1: best way to go is what what does your RFP
9:49
Speaker 1: say how much can your windmill generate? If that's the
9:51
Speaker 1: way you want to go compared to say, somebody else,
9:53
Speaker 1: you might go with more traditional power generation methodologies like
9:56
Speaker 1: natural gas, coal, nuclear, whatever. So if one is obviously
10:00
Speaker 1: better than the other, then you go with the one
10:02
Speaker 1: that's better. That's not bad. That way everybody compete. But
10:05
Speaker 1: we all know that without subsidies from the government, solar
10:09
Speaker 1: and wind can't compete in terms of volume of power
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Speaker 1: and reliability of power.
10:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and that's the you know, to put a
10:19
Speaker 3: you know, underlying bold and put an acclamation mark on it.
10:22
Speaker 3: That's that's what the American people want, right is getting
10:24
Speaker 3: government out of the way. They believe government makes things harder,
10:27
Speaker 3: not easier. And you know, Congress has a number of
10:30
Speaker 3: bills and number of things they can do right now today.
10:33
Speaker 3: If they have the willpower to do it, then send
10:35
Speaker 3: it to the President's desk for signature.
10:36
Speaker 2: That would get government out of the way. We just
10:39
Speaker 2: got to get them on track to do it well.
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Speaker 1: And one of the examples you pointed out in the
10:42
Speaker 1: materials about what we can do and a great illustration
10:45
Speaker 1: of the problem that you and I are talking about,
10:46
Speaker 1: you know, on a ten thousand foot level, on a
10:48
Speaker 1: specific level, and going back to the not short term fixes,
10:52
Speaker 1: but longer term solutions. Recently, I think it was the
10:56
Speaker 1: Donald Trump suspended the Jones Act in order to bring
10:59
Speaker 1: up greater shipping. Now, the Jones Act forces the the
11:04
Speaker 1: the US ports to only carry goods be only carried
11:06
Speaker 1: on vessels that are built, owned and crewed by Americans. Donovan,
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Speaker 1: I don't even know that we make ships in America anymore.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of an offshore problem with that. So that
11:14
Speaker 1: really increases the cost of shipping, just getting rid of that.
11:18
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump demonstrated that, well, we're gonna wave that
11:20
Speaker 1: for a while to get through these problems. Waving it
11:22
Speaker 1: reduces prices. Same thing goes with just the other day
11:25
Speaker 1: he said he's gonna wave the summer gas rules as
11:28
Speaker 1: soon as today. Summer gas rules which make you remix
11:31
Speaker 1: to reduce smog in the summertime. That increases the price
11:34
Speaker 1: of gasoline. Look, how about a long term fix. Just
11:36
Speaker 1: get rid of the damn thing. So there's two things
11:38
Speaker 1: right there, quick solutions which will provide long term relief.
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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, you know.
11:44
Speaker 3: And again you know a lot of these laws, All
11:47
Speaker 3: of these laws get enacted because somebody feels like it's
11:50
Speaker 3: gonna make things better, right, or trying to solve some problem.
11:53
Speaker 3: But they don't count among that are the downstream effects
11:57
Speaker 3: of the you know, these top down policy making gotta
11:59
Speaker 3: wash in DC. You know, kudos to the President Trump
12:02
Speaker 3: for identifying the Jones Act, right especially, you know, if
12:04
Speaker 3: we're going to be involved in a protracted conflict in
12:07
Speaker 3: the Middle East and we're going to tie our hands
12:10
Speaker 3: with some arbitrary laws like the Jones Act that make
12:14
Speaker 3: it harder to get products, goods, and services moved around
12:17
Speaker 3: this country or into this country. Good all the President
12:21
Speaker 3: for you know, putting that Jones Act down. But again,
12:23
Speaker 3: we don't want to do it if you know, if
12:24
Speaker 3: it's good, right. If we saw this during COVID too,
12:26
Speaker 3: with so many weird healthcare rules, right like hey, you
12:29
Speaker 3: can't you can't get a prescription unless you go in
12:31
Speaker 3: and have the doctor see you. Right, you pay for that,
12:34
Speaker 3: or you can't you know, go see a doctor to
12:36
Speaker 3: get a you know, some medicine if you've got the flu,
12:39
Speaker 3: like tell amedicine.
12:39
Speaker 2: Right.
12:40
Speaker 3: Well, we saw the silliness of these arbitrary rules that
12:43
Speaker 3: were put into place to force people's behaviors.
12:48
Speaker 2: You know, we got rid of them.
12:49
Speaker 3: Jones Act is another example of that. We can get
12:52
Speaker 3: rid of that today. That's not just a good just
12:54
Speaker 3: to pause it temporarily, but like Congress could go act today,
12:59
Speaker 3: remove the Jones Act and make shipping and the access
13:03
Speaker 3: to goods and services in this country much much more
13:06
Speaker 3: easier if again, if they get focused on the right
13:09
Speaker 3: mission well.
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Speaker 1: And by overwhelming numbers, voters believe government actions well raise
13:15
Speaker 1: consumer prices, And overwhelmingly they say government regulations specifically increased costs.
13:20
Speaker 1: And one of the illustrations you provided in your materials
13:22
Speaker 1: with AFP is the bullet that we dodged coming out
13:25
Speaker 1: of the US Department of Energy. They were proposing that
13:27
Speaker 1: rule that altered the standards for commercial refrigerators and freezers
13:30
Speaker 1: like they've done with so many other things. Oh, you're
13:32
Speaker 1: going to shave a little bit of money over the years.
13:34
Speaker 1: This is going to keep x amount of carbon out
13:35
Speaker 1: of the atmosphere. But the price of the damn thing's
13:37
Speaker 1: going to go up. And you got to rely on
13:38
Speaker 1: the grid because everything's electric. Nobody wanted that, and fortunately
13:43
Speaker 1: it didn't go into effect, but clearly the price of
13:45
Speaker 1: these specific appliance was going to increase. And because electricity
13:48
Speaker 1: has gone through the roof for a lot of reasons,
13:49
Speaker 1: we've talked about this morning. The price of operating it's
13:52
Speaker 1: going to go up, so no net savings overall. And gee,
13:55
Speaker 1: what is the elimination of carbon from a dryer going
13:58
Speaker 1: to do for the planet given the actually occurring phenomena
14:01
Speaker 1: like a wildfire of volcano Negate, all of human efforts
14:04
Speaker 1: to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Donovan and Neil, Well.
14:09
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, And you know what I would say to
14:11
Speaker 3: that in the message we're bringing in the Capitol Hill today,
14:13
Speaker 3: as we go and have these meetings throughout the day
14:15
Speaker 3: to day and tomorrow is going to be Look, you know, Congressman,
14:20
Speaker 3: you worked your district, You've knocked doors, You've met with constituents,
14:25
Speaker 3: You've been on record saying the things that we need
14:27
Speaker 3: to get done. We've got two opportunities this year, right
14:30
Speaker 3: in a midterm election year. Either we can you know,
14:32
Speaker 3: you can hunker down, take the losses and potentially lose
14:36
Speaker 3: the majority, in which case, you know, the last two
14:40
Speaker 3: years of President Trump's administration are a very severe lame duck.
14:43
Speaker 3: Or you know, you can follow through one of the things,
14:47
Speaker 3: you know, just as an American citizen, need to happen
14:50
Speaker 3: in this country. That Republicans have the majority to act
14:54
Speaker 3: on today. And you know, worst case, you know, trends
14:59
Speaker 3: continue like they do and Democrats take control of Washington
15:02
Speaker 3: and Congress.
15:03
Speaker 2: But along that path, we made good things happen.
15:06
Speaker 3: We fixed the problems that so many people have, you know,
15:09
Speaker 3: kicked the proverbial can down the road on that we
15:12
Speaker 3: know will work. And by the way, I think, Brian,
15:15
Speaker 3: if we go do those things, your organizations like our
15:18
Speaker 3: is going to be out there advocating and reminding folks. Hey,
15:20
Speaker 3: you know, folks like Warren Davidson, David Taylor, you know,
15:23
Speaker 3: voted for these folks like Greg Landsman voted against common sense,
15:27
Speaker 3: you know, reforms to our country, and you know voter
15:31
Speaker 3: so and so maybe you should remember that when you
15:33
Speaker 3: have a ballot box in November.
15:34
Speaker 2: I like that.
15:35
Speaker 1: Don't get caught up in the moment right now. Yes,
15:38
Speaker 1: things are a little rocky right now, but if you
15:39
Speaker 1: think about long term and the big picture, which everyone
15:41
Speaker 1: seems to want, we've got great results that you can
15:44
Speaker 1: show two people as you go door to door, look
15:47
Speaker 1: what was done, and you run the risk of the
15:49
Speaker 1: Democrats unfixing it or breaking it and putting us back
15:53
Speaker 1: in a bad place that we were. Donald and Neilmericans
15:55
Speaker 1: for Prosperity. It's afpaction dot com where folks go to
15:58
Speaker 1: get involved, right Donovan, Well.
16:01
Speaker 3: That's if you want to get involved on the work
16:02
Speaker 3: to keep Senator John Houstead in office. If you want
16:06
Speaker 3: to learn about this affordability campaign and the work we're
16:08
Speaker 3: doing there, go to Americans for Prosperity dot org slash
16:12
Speaker 3: affordability and you can download the playbook and maybe send
16:16
Speaker 3: it over to your congressman.
16:17
Speaker 2: Let them know you want to see them put it
16:18
Speaker 2: into action.
16:18
Speaker 1: Easy action item for people to accomplish without even