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What Is Happening With Florida's Legislature? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Speaker 1: It's the third hour Good Morning Show with Preston Scott.
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  Speaker 1: Great to be with you. That's Osea over there at
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  Speaker 1: Studio one AM. Here in Studio one B and joining
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  Speaker 1: us doctor Bob McClure, president of the James Madison Institute. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: my friend, how are you, sir? I'm great, Thanks for
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  Speaker 1: having me. I look forward to these visits all the time.
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  Speaker 1: As you're watching the last twenty plus days, what's your
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  Speaker 1: reaction to what we're seeing government, everything from the executive
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  Speaker 1: orders to doge at the federal level or at the
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  Speaker 1: state level.
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  Speaker 2: Federal level, Donald Trump's doing exactly what he said he
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  Speaker 2: was going to do.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Believe people when they tell you right. That's a term
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  Speaker 2: people use all the time. He's doing exactly what he
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  Speaker 2: said he was going to do, and the American people
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  Speaker 2: see it, and they realize it. In the end, they
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  Speaker 2: understand it. What I find fascinating is that the Democratic
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  Speaker 2: Party got their hat handed to them on November fifth.
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  Speaker 2: Across the board, Donald Trump moved every single state, All
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  Speaker 2: fifty states moved more conservatively, meaning he won more votes
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  Speaker 2: than he did in twenty twenty. All fifty states. He
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  Speaker 2: won the popular vote, which I thought was a critical,
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  Speaker 2: critical component to his mandate, and we still don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Three months later, we still don't know what the Democratic
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  Speaker 2: Party at the national level is for. What are they four?
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  Speaker 2: Who are they helping? Who do they want to work for?
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  Speaker 2: Is it the American people? Is it the common man
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  Speaker 2: or woman? Is it the forgotten man or woman? Who
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  Speaker 2: are you for? And what does that mean? Donald Trump's
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  Speaker 2: very clear he's going to lower the lower our at taxes,
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  Speaker 2: reduced regulations, close the border, and have a strong military. Right,
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  Speaker 2: not more wars, but a strong military is pretty simple.
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  Speaker 2: There's a whole bunch of other stuff he's doing. We
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  Speaker 2: know what he's for. We don't know what the Democratic
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  Speaker 2: Party's for. All they're doing is is fighting Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 2: And now they're setting up a snitch line and they're
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  Speaker 2: setting up a combat committee, a war room to combat
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: But what are you for?
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  Speaker 2: And so the American people are saying, I mean, I
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  Speaker 2: like this guy. This is guy's common sense. He's just
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  Speaker 2: common sense. So I would argue the Democratic Party is
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  Speaker 2: really on a really challenging precipice. Now we can talk
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  Speaker 2: about why they won't say what they're for. I have
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  Speaker 2: a theory that most reasonable Democrats are afraid of their
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  Speaker 2: left wing base, and they are afraid of being primaried.
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  Speaker 2: I would argue Chuck Schubert.
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  Speaker 1: Bit sure.
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  Speaker 2: I think Chuck Schumer in a normal day, in a
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  Speaker 2: normal during a normal time, can negotiate and work with
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  Speaker 2: He's proven that in many, many, you know, past years.
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  Speaker 2: It was the old Joe Biden, right, Joe Biden used
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  Speaker 2: to be, if nothing else, pragmatic. That's right, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not saying they're virtuous, but I don't worry what
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  Speaker 2: politician is. But they are at least pragmatic. Okay, there's
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  Speaker 2: a difference between pragmatism and principle, right, and so, but
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  Speaker 2: Chuck Schumer is afraid of his left wing base. He's
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  Speaker 2: afraid of being primaried by an AOC or a Letitia
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  Speaker 2: James or someone like that. And so are these House members,
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  Speaker 2: so are senators all across the country, other senators. They
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  Speaker 2: can't run from their left wing base, so they play
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  Speaker 2: to that base, which is a very tiny echo chamber,
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  Speaker 2: and then they want they can't win generals. That's I mean,
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  Speaker 2: look at what Kamala ran on. She ran on climate change,
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  Speaker 2: abortion and being from a middle class family and I
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  Speaker 2: don't know what else. Okay, she ran on the issues
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  Speaker 2: that she cared about, not the issues the American people
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  Speaker 2: cared about. And so the Democratic parties in a on
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  Speaker 2: a real precipice here at the national level.
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  Speaker 1: All right, eleven past the hour, doctor Bob McClure. I mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: We've been talking about it all morning. It's the big story,
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  Speaker 1: the amount of money that has been found by Doge.
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  Speaker 1: I've maintained it required somebody outside of Washington, outside the
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  Speaker 1: Beltway to come in and find it, and that's what
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing. What are your thoughts though of the unelected
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  Speaker 1: Elon Musk. I mean, he's not personally closing anything down.
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  Speaker 1: All they can do is say, here's what I've found.
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  Speaker 2: Right right. He's an auditor. I mean, that's all he's doing.
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  Speaker 2: He's auditing the books of the federal government. That's all
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  Speaker 2: he's doing. And then he's advising Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, in theory, Bob, don't all of us in theory,
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't we all have a right to look at the books.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, of.
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  Speaker 2: Course we should. That's what we've been taught for how
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  Speaker 2: many years, for my entire life, Preston, we've talked about Oh,
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  Speaker 2: we're gonna get rid of waste for Auden abuse. Right.
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  Speaker 2: We've been saying that since Reagan Carter the days, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: come on, and so Elon goes in and he's auditing
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  Speaker 2: the books, and we're finding out where all of this
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  Speaker 2: garbage is going in terms of the they're just lighting
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  Speaker 2: money on fire and the what what what is fascinating.
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  Speaker 2: What we've learned is that the money goes to in many, many,
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  Speaker 2: many ways, the left winging organizations who then launder it
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  Speaker 2: back to the federal government in the form of media,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's Politico or the Hill, or in forms of
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  Speaker 2: uh contributions to Democratic Party candidates or talking points, or
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  Speaker 2: organizations who hate us right, supposed foundations right, and then
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  Speaker 2: money going across the world. This is simply we're just
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  Speaker 2: getting started and we're finding out how much real waste,
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  Speaker 2: fraud and abuse there is. I mean, when they say
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  Speaker 2: he's oh, he's unelected, he doesn't have a role, he's
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  Speaker 2: an advisor. Who do you think was running the country
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  Speaker 2: the last four years? Advisors? It wasn't Joe Biden. He
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  Speaker 2: didn't know where he was half the time. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: not being sarcastic. He literally did not know where he was.
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  Speaker 2: Advisors have been running the country the last four years.
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  Speaker 2: FDR during World War Two had a kitchen cabinet to
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  Speaker 2: advise him. They were not elected. It was a kitchen
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  Speaker 2: cabinet to advise him during the war. Reagan had a
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  Speaker 2: kitchen cabinet during the Cold War. This is nothing new.
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk just happened to be very visible, incredibly smart,
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  Speaker 2: and he's turning over rocks. So you're telling me that
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  Speaker 2: if you don't like Elin and notice what they say
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  Speaker 2: or what they don't ever say. They never talk about
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  Speaker 2: what he finds. Is nothing about what he finds. It's
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  Speaker 2: the same thing with Donald Trump. It's never about what
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  Speaker 2: he's doing. It's a constitutional crisis. That was the term
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  Speaker 2: of the day yesterday. Where's the constitutional crisis? We're auditing
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  Speaker 2: the federal government. What's wrong with that? We're finding out
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  Speaker 2: out where they're lighting money on your money and my
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  Speaker 2: money and your listener's money on fire. Right, So that's
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  Speaker 2: what they're doing. There's no constitutional crisis. We've seen this
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  Speaker 2: kind of role played for numerous presidents outside of the
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  Speaker 2: traditional cabinet picks that are that are you know, signed
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  Speaker 2: off on by the US Senate Da Da Da Da
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  Speaker 2: da da. Who Who who are the advisors running the
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  Speaker 2: country the last four years?
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  Speaker 1: We still don't know. Right, Let's pivot and go back
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  Speaker 1: to something you said in the opening segment. You talked
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  Speaker 1: about they aren't for anything, and this seems to be
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  Speaker 1: something that is going to bite Democrats in the state
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  Speaker 1: of Florida. They re elected Nikki Freed as their chair
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  Speaker 1: and what are they doing.
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  Speaker 2: You've heard me say on this show a lot that
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  Speaker 2: good policy is good politics. Okay, when you and we
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  Speaker 2: just saw it rit large in the most recent election.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, Donald Trump said over and over and over,
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  Speaker 2: here are my policies, and he got elected good politics.
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  Speaker 2: Ron DeSantis said over and over and over what he
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  Speaker 2: was going to do, and he did it, and he
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  Speaker 2: went from eking out a thirty thousand vote win over
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Gillam to winning his second term. He won Florida
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  Speaker 2: by more votes than Gavin Newsom won the state of California.
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  Speaker 2: Good policy is good politics. The Democrats in the state
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  Speaker 2: of Florida have no policy. We don't know what they're for.
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  Speaker 2: They were for Weed. I mean, I guess right, I
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  Speaker 2: mean that was kind of Nicky Freed's thing, and DeSantis
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  Speaker 2: shut that down.
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  Speaker 1: They were for abortion.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, maybe what about lurering the cost of daily living?
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  Speaker 2: What about making Floridians lives easier? What about health care?
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  Speaker 2: Reducing cost of health care in the state of Florida
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  Speaker 2: for our elder population. There are a lot of things
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  Speaker 2: a Democratic Party could be four but we don't know
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  Speaker 2: what they're for. We know what Governor DeSantis was for
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  Speaker 2: is for we know, and most people don't know. Outside
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  Speaker 2: the four blocks of Tallahassee the names of the legislators,
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  Speaker 2: they know they're old legislator, but nobody else. But at
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  Speaker 2: least we knew what they were for, what they were doing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and we could, you know, we could list the ten
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  Speaker 2: things they did, most recently universal school choice, which is critical.
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  Speaker 2: The Democratic Party in Florida has the same problem that
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  Speaker 2: the National Democratic Party has. We don't know what they
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  Speaker 2: are going to do for me. And when I say me,
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  Speaker 2: I mean that in air, quotes me the voter. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm just going to kind of turn you loose here.
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  Speaker 2: Your thoughts on the way that the special sessions unfolded
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  Speaker 2: and what you think the heavy lifting has to be
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  Speaker 2: for the regular session. Well, I think the governor had
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  Speaker 2: some very clear ideas about what he wanted to do
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  Speaker 2: on immigration. In the special session, I think legislative leadership
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  Speaker 2: kind of said, hold on, we are a co equal branch.
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  Speaker 2: It's unfortunate that played out in public in that it
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  Speaker 2: couldn't get those conversations couldn't be resolved in private, and
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  Speaker 2: then they go to a special session to get things done.
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  Speaker 2: The Republican Party owns everything in the state. They have
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  Speaker 2: supermajorities in the legislature, They have both US senators, they
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  Speaker 2: have all the cabinet officers. You have a Democratic Party
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  Speaker 2: that is kind of dying on the vine in the
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  Speaker 2: state the state. Donald Trump won Florida in twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 2: by one hundred thousand votes over Hillary Clinton, just barely
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  Speaker 2: beat her. Twenty twenty he wins by about three or
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  Speaker 2: four hundred thousand. Twenty twenty four, he wins by a
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  Speaker 2: million and a half votes. The Hispanic community, African American men,
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  Speaker 2: Miami Dade County. I mean, whatever metric you want to use,
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  Speaker 2: Florida is moving deep red. But with that preston, as
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  Speaker 2: you know, is that old biblical adage iron sharpens iron,
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  Speaker 2: and the Republican Party doesn't have anything to sharpen it
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  Speaker 2: right right. There's no competition at the moment, so they
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  Speaker 2: need to be careful. They need to stay focused on
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  Speaker 2: their principle. They need to get these things done for
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  Speaker 2: Floridians in the state and continue to move forward in
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  Speaker 2: that way, working out disagreements, not in a public spinning match,
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  Speaker 2: but in a more kosher kind of way.
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  Speaker 1: What do you expect has to happen? I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: know the budget. Yeah, it's a constitutional mandate. But for
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  Speaker 1: people listening right now, their everyday life, what has to
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  Speaker 1: happen in this session? Is it insurance? I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a couple of things. Yeah, I think it's auto insurance.
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  Speaker 1: It's insurance for sure.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw the demographic that the government,
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  Speaker 2: I mean the infographic that the governor put out last week.
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  Speaker 2: Insurance rates are either holding steady or increasing at the
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  Speaker 2: lowest rate in I don't know how many years, twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five years. So the reforms are working. Okay, saying
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  Speaker 2: hold on the reforms are going to work. It's not
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  Speaker 2: very good political policy, but they have to hold the
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  Speaker 2: line on the reforms. They have to enact some more
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  Speaker 2: reforms on auto insurance. They have to beat back the
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  Speaker 2: trial bar, which is going to continue to come after
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  Speaker 2: the legislature. So insurance, property insurance, auto insurance, and then
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  Speaker 2: affordable housing. Okay, and I've talked about this a little
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  Speaker 2: bit on this show before. There's a difference between affordable housing,
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  Speaker 2: which is on what the city of Tallahassee wants built,
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  Speaker 2: and building housing that is affordable. Affordable housing to democrats
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  Speaker 2: and to the left is build cheap, lose money and
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  Speaker 2: we'll put people in there. That's affordable housing to a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people. But building housing, if you even get
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  Speaker 2: that definition right, but building housing that is affordable is
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  Speaker 2: decrease weight times, allow permits, decrease regulations, and allow builders
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  Speaker 2: to build, you know, tinker with lot size, those kinds
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  Speaker 2: of things, allow them to make money. They will build
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  Speaker 2: housing that people can afford its supply and demand. But
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  Speaker 2: it's almost always that government gets in the way of
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  Speaker 2: builders and construction folks who want to build housing that
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  Speaker 2: is affordable. So that's going to be another issue that
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  Speaker 2: they're gonna have to do with, and of course they
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  Speaker 2: always have to do the budget.
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  Speaker 1: Do you expect the acrimonies in the rearview mirror?
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  Speaker 2: You know, we talked about this off air. If there's
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  Speaker 2: an iceberg in the ocean, right the old adage, you
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  Speaker 2: see ten percent of the iceberg sticking out of the ocean,
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  Speaker 2: and ninety percent of the iceberg is underneath the water.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. There's a lot of jockeying over
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  Speaker 2: the next two years, with so much up in the
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  Speaker 2: air in terms of the governor's race and a newly
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  Speaker 2: appointed US Senator and cabinet offices and appointments and all
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  Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. Just think of the iceberg analogy.
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  Speaker 1: Just think of the next time we meet, the sausage
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  Speaker 1: will be in the process of being made. Yes, it
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  Speaker 1: will good to see you. Thanks for having me. My
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  Speaker 1: friend doctor Bob McClure with the James Madison Institute, my
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  Speaker 1: guest JM I in the Morning Show with Preston Scott