Latest / Brian Thomas / AFP - Gas Relief Proposal
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The talk station.
- 0:02Speaker 2: 7.30 on a Wednesday. It's a regular feature. To speak
- 0:06Speaker 2: with Donovan O'Neill from Americans for Prosperity, I recommend you
- 0:08Speaker 2: head on over to BuckeyeBlueprint.com. Everybody can help out. We've
- 0:12Speaker 2: got to get people out to vote in November for
- 0:14Speaker 2: all of the obvious reasons, most notably to vote for
- 0:17Speaker 2: Vivek Ramaswamy and not Amy Lockdown. I don't have a clue. Acton,
- 0:21Speaker 2: welcome back. Donovan O'Neill, Americans for Prosperity. I love having
- 0:23Speaker 2: you on the show, man.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Brian, always good to start my Wednesday with you.
- 0:27Speaker 2: And, you know, Does anybody believe in polls anymore, Donovan? Okay,
- 0:30Speaker 2: before we get to the poll issue, Donovan, your reaction, if,
- 0:35Speaker 2: let's say, let's focus on the conservative side of the ledger,
- 0:38Speaker 2: from me, little L Libertarian, all the way through the
- 0:41Speaker 2: hardest evangelical right-wing conservative you can come up with. If
- 0:44Speaker 2: that group of people is told over and over again
- 0:47Speaker 2: that either, A, the polls show the Republicans are doing really,
- 0:52Speaker 2: really well, way ahead of the Democrat challenger, or they're
- 0:55Speaker 2: told that The Republicans are way behind the Democrat challenger.
- 0:59Speaker 2: Which message, if you know, is more likely to get
- 1:03Speaker 2: people out to the polls? I don't need to worry
- 1:06Speaker 2: about it. We're so far ahead, so I'm not going
- 1:07Speaker 2: to go vote. Or, oh my God, I'm going to
- 1:09Speaker 2: prove them wrong. I'm going to get myself and everybody
- 1:11Speaker 2: else and his brother to get out to the polls
- 1:13Speaker 2: and vote. Do you know the answer to that question, Donovan?
- 1:16Speaker 3: You know, I've given up on trying to figure out
- 1:18Speaker 3: the answer to those kinds of questions, Brian.
- 1:21Speaker 1: The polling is always wildly off.
- 1:24Speaker 3: And I think You know, at the end of the day,
- 1:27Speaker 3: the kind of person who takes those.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Polls, I think, is something to maybe be examined as well, because,
- 1:32Speaker 1: you know, I think.
- 1:33Speaker 3: You know how you're doing that methodology who actually participates
- 1:38Speaker 3: in those things where you're getting those samples from I
- 1:41Speaker 3: mean we've seen it time and time again in recent elections.
- 1:45Speaker 3: Polls being extraordinarily off. There's a BGSU poll on some
- 1:49Speaker 3: stuff last cycle. Presidential polls are notoriously off. This election,
- 1:53Speaker 3: we've seen polls notoriously off. It doesn't mean you should
- 1:56Speaker 3: sleep on it, right, and just say, well, they're wrong,
- 1:58Speaker 3: so we're going to win. To me, it's just you've
- 2:01Speaker 3: got to go out and do the work. Nobody can
- 2:03Speaker 3: predict these things with any level of accuracy.
- 2:07Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's the default mindset most of
- 2:10Speaker 2: my listening audience has. I know it's mine because every
- 2:12Speaker 2: time I see another poll and then mention what it says,
- 2:15Speaker 2: the first thing I say is, well, we all know
- 2:16Speaker 2: how we feel about polls these days. I think it
- 2:18Speaker 2: really boils down to a question of who participates in them. Donovan,
- 2:24Speaker 2: you ever pick up a phone call from a telemarketer
- 2:26Speaker 2: or whatever and engage in a 10-minute discussion on a poll?
- 2:29Speaker 2: I know that every opportunity I've had to do that,
- 2:32Speaker 2: the phone call has ended probably, or I never picked
- 2:34Speaker 2: the phone up.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Well, I think that's a key thing, right?
- 2:37Speaker 3: As we've seen that even in our grassroots advocacy, we've
- 2:40Speaker 3: moved away largely from phone banking. We used to do
- 2:43Speaker 3: phone banking a lot. We moved away from that because
- 2:46Speaker 3: most people don't have home phones. Those who have cell phones,
- 2:48Speaker 3: the technology filters it out.
- 2:51Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. I do get texts occasionally. for surveys,
- 2:55Speaker 1: and I'll pull those up.
- 2:57Speaker 3: But I think more and more, that's even, for at
- 3:00Speaker 3: least here where I'm at, they've been a little bit
- 3:02Speaker 3: more of local issues, and somehow they're probably just pulling
- 3:05Speaker 3: a registered voters list and randomly sampling, maybe.
- 3:09Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 3:09Speaker 3: It's often, I think, again, the fact that a lot
- 3:12Speaker 3: of those are phone calls or they're internet-based, and so
- 3:15Speaker 3: you have a lot of questions that come through, and
- 3:17Speaker 3: you spent, you know, again, the kind of person who
- 3:19Speaker 3: does that stuff.
- 3:20Speaker 1: I don't know if that's entirely.
- 3:22Speaker 3: Indicative of the normal American voter, the kind of people
- 3:26Speaker 3: who participate there.
- 3:27Speaker 2: Right. Well, and I'll just interject my belief anyway, and
- 3:30Speaker 2: I think I'm probably right on this, although no tech
- 3:34Speaker 2: genius am I, but AI, it seems to me, could
- 3:37Speaker 2: easily skew any one of those polls if you're doing
- 3:39Speaker 2: an online poll. Those seem to have the least amount
- 3:42Speaker 2: of reliability just because anybody with an internet connection or
- 3:45Speaker 2: an IP address could probably participate.
- 3:48Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'll tell you what, Brian, if we were
- 3:50Speaker 3: showing up 10, 20 points in the polls right now,
- 3:53Speaker 3: you know I'd be on the air with you saying
- 3:56Speaker 3: it's the gospel truth.
- 3:58Speaker 2: That's true, but then that goes back to my original question.
- 4:01Speaker 2: If you tell everybody out there that we're so far ahead,
- 4:05Speaker 2: and it's going to be as red as red could
- 4:06Speaker 2: possibly be in Ohio after the election, then maybe they
- 4:09Speaker 2: wouldn't go. I just know that there seems to be
- 4:13Speaker 2: this well-oiled, Well, oil, I'll say it's the far left
- 4:18Speaker 2: wing of the Democrat Party seems to me the most
- 4:21Speaker 2: motivated to do anything. They're all connected socially. They all
- 4:24Speaker 2: will show up on a moment's notice if they're called
- 4:27Speaker 2: to arms. They're all told to vote. They're all I mean,
- 4:30Speaker 2: they're well connected. So that to me is the driving
- 4:33Speaker 2: force behind the Democrats. They know these folks are reliable folks.
- 4:36Speaker 2: They want to keep their NGO dollars flowing into their pockets.
- 4:40Speaker 2: They want to keep their programs alive and well, and
- 4:43Speaker 2: they use some of the money that's donated to those
- 4:44Speaker 2: various organizations they work for to go out and campaign with.
- 4:47Speaker 2: So that's something I think the Republicans lack.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Certainly that unity, that focus, I think, you know, that's,
- 4:56Speaker 1: I think, indicative.
- 4:57Speaker 3: We talk about that a lot around the water cooler.
- 4:59Speaker 3: You know, that's just indicative of the kind of people
- 5:01Speaker 3: that we are, I think, right? You know, more independent
- 5:04Speaker 3: minded people. Individual liberty, while our liberal Democrat friends are
- 5:08Speaker 3: a little more collectivist.
- 5:10Speaker 1: In what they do, ends justify the means in a
- 5:12Speaker 1: lot of ways. You see it in.
- 5:13Speaker 3: Policy and politics. And we have our own strengths, though, right?
- 5:19Speaker 3: I think the principles that we carry help us be successful.
- 5:22Speaker 3: And the dedication to the cause that we have, too,
- 5:25Speaker 3: is what– I think we're starting to see a bit
- 5:28Speaker 3: of that shift again. towards Republicans as folks are getting
- 5:32Speaker 3: closer to Election Day and we're seeing people start to
- 5:34Speaker 3: pay attention to what's.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Really at stake.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Well, that's what I truly hope, because really people are
- 5:38Speaker 2: paying attention to the price of gasoline. We're going to
- 5:40Speaker 2: talk about that with Donald O'Neill, Americans for Prosperity, how
- 5:43Speaker 2: it impacts the gubernatorial. It's 740 here at 55KRC Detox Station.
- 5:48Speaker 2: Happy Wednesday. Brian Thomas with Donald O'Neill from Americans for Prosperity.
- 5:52Speaker 2: I strongly encourage you to get over to BuckeyeBlueprint.com and
- 5:55Speaker 2: get engaged in the process of changing the hearts and
- 5:58Speaker 2: minds of people, most notably changing their mind to stay
- 6:00Speaker 2: at home on election day and get out and vote.
- 6:02Speaker 2: Donovan O'Neill, maybe a gas tax relief here in the
- 6:06Speaker 2: state of Ohio might help. I know the pain at
- 6:08Speaker 2: the pump is obvious to everybody. We've got a gas
- 6:11Speaker 2: tax here in the state of Ohio of, what, 38 cents,
- 6:14Speaker 2: 38 and a half cents per gallon. Governor DeWine said
- 6:17Speaker 2: no to that back in May. I don't know what
- 6:18Speaker 2: his problem is, but then again, that's been a problem
- 6:20Speaker 2: for me for his entire administration. What the hell is
- 6:22Speaker 2: he thinking? But You don't need a new governor to
- 6:25Speaker 2: get rid of the gas tax right now, do you?
- 6:28Speaker 3: No.
- 6:29Speaker 1: In fact, you just.
- 6:30Speaker 3: Need a good legislature willing to come back to the
- 6:32Speaker 3: statehouse for a couple hours, pass a bill, and put
- 6:36Speaker 3: the charge on Governor DeWine's desk.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Slim and none.
- 6:40Speaker 3: I'd be hard-pressed to believe he would veto something like that,
- 6:43Speaker 3: especially given— dynamics at.
- 6:45Speaker 1: Play here in Ohio right now with fuel prices.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Yeah, but the gubernatorial candidates, my understanding, correct me if
- 6:50Speaker 2: I'm wrong with my understanding, Donovan O'Neill, is that both
- 6:53Speaker 2: Acton and Ramaswamy have come out with the idea of
- 6:56Speaker 2: suspending the gas tax to give us some relief. Although,
- 6:58Speaker 2: if I have the order of things right, Acton came
- 7:01Speaker 2: out first with that proposal, didn't she?
- 7:05Speaker 1: Well, and I think this is actually a key thing
- 7:06Speaker 1: to point out here.
- 7:08Speaker 3: Yes, based on Twitter and few hours before Vivek put
- 7:12Speaker 3: out his comprehensive plan. But we've had lawmakers, you mentioned
- 7:16Speaker 3: going back to May, we've had lawmakers, politicians, you know,
- 7:19Speaker 3: political commentators consistently talk about, you know, lowering the gas
- 7:23Speaker 3: tax or freezing the gas tax, but it's never backed
- 7:26Speaker 3: up with a plan. And I think what, you know,
- 7:28Speaker 3: caught our eyes particularly on this was Vivek's comprehensive plan.
- 7:33Speaker 3: There's actually a laying out how we're going to pay
- 7:36Speaker 3: for this because, you and I say this as somebody
- 7:39Speaker 3: who works every day to eliminate taxes in the state
- 7:41Speaker 3: of Ohio and proud of it, Brian, if you just
- 7:45Speaker 3: turn that tax revenue off, that has real impact. And
- 7:48Speaker 3: those gas taxes go towards roads and bridges and other things.
- 7:54Speaker 3: We need to make sure, right, if we're going to
- 7:56Speaker 3: suspend that, that there's a plan to pay for it, right?
- 7:59Speaker 1: Have the trade-off conversation. Most politicians don't, right?
- 8:02Speaker 3: They spend like drunken sailors and say the next generation
- 8:04Speaker 3: will pay for it.
- 8:06Speaker 1: What I like about.
- 8:06Speaker 3: Vivek Macaulay's plan here, that it looks like the House
- 8:09Speaker 3: and Senate, we'll find out more today, might take up,
- 8:12Speaker 3: is that they actually have a plan to say this
- 8:14Speaker 3: is going to have to come from ODOT's money first.
- 8:17Speaker 1: And any other cash balance ODOT doesn't have, it's going
- 8:19Speaker 1: to come out of the general revenue.
- 8:20Speaker 3: And then ultimately, the goal is going to be to
- 8:23Speaker 3: get hard on the Medicaid fraud.
- 8:25Speaker 1: And we're going to use that money. We're going to
- 8:27Speaker 1: earmark that money when that time comes to ultimately backfill
- 8:30Speaker 1: it either way.
- 8:31Speaker 3: Having a sober assessment of it, I think, is refreshing
- 8:34Speaker 3: in politics. Again, too many folks just say the next
- 8:36Speaker 3: generation will pay the bill without having a plan for
- 8:39Speaker 3: what to do today.
- 8:41Speaker 2: Fair enough. I guess we take in– I did a
- 8:44Speaker 2: quick AI search about the total. Ohio collects approximately $ 2. 6
- 8:48Speaker 2: billion annually. They're not talking about– at least my understanding
- 8:51Speaker 2: is either proposal is not talking about a complete year-long
- 8:56Speaker 2: suspension or eradication of the gas tax. It's just like
- 8:59Speaker 2: a 90-day suspension to hopefully get us past the current disruptions.
- 9:04Speaker 2: And I suppose that's a suggestion of optimism that the
- 9:06Speaker 2: war in the Middle East is going to be resolved
- 9:08Speaker 2: within 90 days.
- 9:11Speaker 1: Well, I think that would be the hope. I mean,
- 9:12Speaker 1: the larger challenge with fuel prices, right? Gas tax, 38.5 cents.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Goes a long way when you're pushing $ 5 a gallon
- 9:19Speaker 3: in the state for unleaded.
- 9:21Speaker 2: But.
- 9:22Speaker 3: You know, we have some larger energy challenges that we
- 9:24Speaker 3: find ourselves in that put us here.
- 9:26Speaker 1: I think the other thing to point out too, when.
- 9:27Speaker 3: You look at general revenue funds, we're about 1.82 billion,
- 9:31Speaker 3: I think, in last fiscal year over estimates. And that's
- 9:36Speaker 3: with Brian, by the way, proud to say, Ohio moving
- 9:39Speaker 3: to a flat income tax, right? We've made good tax policy.
- 9:41Speaker 3: We've seen what pro-economic growth tax policy can do. It
- 9:45Speaker 3: gives the state some flexibility to be able to do
- 9:47Speaker 3: these things and still meet the obligations of you know, to.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Our roads and bridges and other infrastructure that, you know.
- 9:54Speaker 3: We may, you know, if we didn't have that padding there,
- 9:57Speaker 3: may not be able to do it this time.
- 9:59Speaker 1: All right.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Don O'Neill, bear with me. We're going to take a
- 10:01Speaker 2: quick break here, and I want to talk with you
- 10:03Speaker 2: about the Houston Brown Race and what we can do
- 10:06Speaker 2: to change the dynamic on that one. I don't get
- 10:08Speaker 2: people's traction.
- 10:09Speaker 1: The Talk Station.
- 10:13Speaker 2: It's 749-55-KRC, The Talk Station. Brian Thomas with Don O'Neill
- 10:17Speaker 2: from Americans for Prosperity. Ah, AFP Action is where you
- 10:21Speaker 2: find them, or BuckeyeBlueprint.com. It's AFP Action, too, but you
- 10:24Speaker 2: want to go to BuckeyeBlueprint.com and figure out what's going
- 10:27Speaker 2: on in the state of Ohio and how to get
- 10:28Speaker 2: involved with the door-knocking campaign. They'll train you, they'll tell
- 10:31Speaker 2: you what to do, and you'll actually have an enjoyable
- 10:33Speaker 2: experience based upon everything I've heard from Donovan. Right, Donovan? Oh, absolutely.
- 10:38Speaker 3: In fact, it's quite refreshing when you actually go out
- 10:40Speaker 3: and you have a conversation at somebody's doorstep about the
- 10:44Speaker 3: issues they care about, where they're inclined to vote, Even
- 10:49Speaker 3: the folks who indicate they're leaning towards a Sherrod Brown.
- 10:54Speaker 3: You know, I got to say a lot of those
- 10:55Speaker 3: most all of those conversations walk away from in a
- 10:59Speaker 3: very cordial way and may disagree on how to solve
- 11:03Speaker 3: the problems in this nation. But that's why our door
- 11:05Speaker 3: knocking campaigns go year round.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Right. We'll be back. We'll talk to him, Brian. We're
- 11:09Speaker 1: going to we're going to win him over before they
- 11:10Speaker 1: they vote here in a few weeks.
- 11:12Speaker 2: All right, and convincing them to vote for John Houston
- 11:14Speaker 2: over Sherrod Brown may be a little bit of a challenge.
- 11:17Speaker 2: I'm going to qualify it again. Okay, we know how
- 11:19Speaker 2: we feel about polls. Fine, we got that out of
- 11:20Speaker 2: the way. At least go to a real clear polling average.
- 11:24Speaker 2: We'll look at all of the various polls and be
- 11:26Speaker 2: provided with an average. Brown up 4.8 over Houston. Is
- 11:32Speaker 2: John having trouble getting some traction? How do you analyze
- 11:35Speaker 2: this one, Donovan?
- 11:37Speaker 1: Well, I think one of the things we.
- 11:38Speaker 3: Knew from the beginning of the campaign was that, you know,
- 11:40Speaker 3: Sherrod Brown has near universal name ID, right? 50 years
- 11:44Speaker 3: in politics, 20 years in the Senate. He's somebody who
- 11:48Speaker 3: voters have opinions on, right? And so the real work
- 11:52Speaker 3: here has been for a while to build up, you know,
- 11:55Speaker 3: John Husted's name ID, right? Make sure voters understand what
- 11:59Speaker 3: their senator is doing in the, you know, short 18 months. Now,
- 12:02Speaker 3: at this point, nearly 20, you know, 2022 months. if
- 12:06Speaker 3: their senator's been in Washington working for them. So that's,
- 12:09Speaker 3: I think, a large part of the challenge, right, is
- 12:11Speaker 3: building up, you know, the voter's impression of the candidate
- 12:15Speaker 3: and pushing back. The other dynamic at play here is,
- 12:19Speaker 3: for the first time in his career, Sugar Brown is
- 12:21Speaker 3: actually running not from an elected office. And so he's able,
- 12:25Speaker 3: you know, he's able to go out and campaign any
- 12:28Speaker 3: way he wants and as the masterful political chameleon that
- 12:31Speaker 3: he is the message that you're hearing from him right
- 12:34Speaker 3: the voters who hear from him are hearing a message
- 12:36Speaker 3: of a really a moderate yeah blue dog democrat but
- 12:39Speaker 3: we know that's not the case not that that's not
- 12:42Speaker 3: him you know what the.
- 12:44Speaker 2: Thing is about cher brown he's like a wolf in
- 12:45Speaker 2: sheep's clothing he doesn't run around screaming about women having
- 12:49Speaker 2: a play against men because that's just the right thing
- 12:51Speaker 2: to do or Anything else that the far left wing
- 12:54Speaker 2: of the Democrats, that they support, that they're now trying
- 12:57Speaker 2: to walk away and distance themselves from? But that's him.
- 13:00Speaker 2: I mean, he votes with the Democrats. What's the statistic
- 13:03Speaker 2: on that? 98% of the time?
- 13:06Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. That's about right. It depends on different people.
- 13:09Speaker 3: But yes, nearly 100% of the time, Sherry Brown votes
- 13:12Speaker 3: with his party. And what's changed in the last 20 years,
- 13:15Speaker 3: let alone the last 50 years, right, is the composition
- 13:18Speaker 3: and the things that the Democratic Party cares about.
- 13:20Speaker 1: Exactly. We talked about it before. It's that Democrat socialist agenda, right?
- 13:24Speaker 3: It's co-opted the Democrat Party that maybe our fathers, grandfathers would.
- 13:29Speaker 1: Have voted in.
- 13:29Speaker 3: And it's totally different than what many folks associate with
- 13:35Speaker 3: traditional worker values that the Democrat Party sort of built
- 13:39Speaker 3: a brand around. And then in the last century, the
- 13:44Speaker 3: last couple of decades, it's really been about the craziness
- 13:47Speaker 3: and the Democrat socialists are on full tilt here.
- 13:50Speaker 2: No doubt about it, Donovan O'Neill. And, boy, couldn't we
- 13:53Speaker 2: use a bunch of Kennedy-era Democrats, John F. Kennedy Democrats,
- 13:57Speaker 2: who would be advocating for lowering taxes, for example? My
- 14:01Speaker 2: other world's changed.
- 14:04Speaker 3: It's a different place. But, you know, that's why the
- 14:06Speaker 3: work is so important, right? Because especially, you know, I
- 14:08Speaker 3: was talking with Joe before it came on the air
- 14:10Speaker 3: today about the TV ads and the political environment. You're
- 14:13Speaker 3: getting bombarded with those ads. The mail is starting to
- 14:15Speaker 3: pile up. It's why those conversations at the door that
- 14:18Speaker 3: we have, right? To be able to actually talk to people.
- 14:20Speaker 3: Here's what John Husted has done. Here's where Sherrod Brown
- 14:23Speaker 3: has voted.
- 14:23Speaker 2: On, right?
- 14:23Speaker 1: These are just the facts. We'll lay them out, have
- 14:25Speaker 1: the conversation at the door. That wins votes.
- 14:28Speaker 3: And it's why we believe in it and do it
- 14:30Speaker 3: tirelessly and will be for the next several weeks.
- 14:33Speaker 2: It's a great concept. The idea of actually talking to someone,
- 14:36Speaker 2: answering their questions, maybe walking through some of the stark,
- 14:39Speaker 2: crazy allegations that are levied by political action committees in
- 14:44Speaker 2: those ads. If you get somebody alone for a couple
- 14:47Speaker 2: of minutes, you can explain away that nonsense pretty darn easily.
- 14:49Speaker 2: It's just impossible to do in a 30-second ad buy.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Well, absolutely.
- 14:54Speaker 3: And those 30-second ad buys, right, they're going to get
- 14:56Speaker 3: crazier and sillier as we get closer to Election Day.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Yes. And it's walking folks through the facts, talking through
- 15:03Speaker 1: the circumstances. And, you know, we have a lot of that.
- 15:07Speaker 3: And I'm excited now that we're getting into that fall weather.
- 15:09Speaker 3: It gets even better, right, because we're not up there sweating.
- 15:14Speaker 3: And so your conversations are a little bit better.
- 15:17Speaker 2: They don't have to let you in to keep the
- 15:19Speaker 2: air conditioning from going out that side. So you can
- 15:21Speaker 2: stand on the front porch and talk with them, be comfortable.
- 15:23Speaker 2: One little small thing that makes it so much easier.
- 15:26Speaker 2: It makes it really easy by going to BuckeyeBlueprint.com. AFP
- 15:29Speaker 2: has done everything they can to get you involved, and
- 15:31Speaker 2: I encourage you to do so.