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What Floridians Are Saying About a Wide-Range of Important Topics · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It means we are here for yet another hour. Friends.
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  Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, October eighth on The Morning Show with
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  Speaker 1: Preston Scotti's Oasiah and Preston Show fifty four sixty eight
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  Speaker 1: and thrilled to have back with us Doctor Bob McClure.
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  Speaker 1: He presides as president of the James Madison Institute. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: doctor McClure, how are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing fantastic. How are you, my friend?
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  Speaker 1: I am doing well. I am overwhelmed with the data
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  Speaker 1: that James Madison released in this polling of Florida voters.
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  Speaker 1: I'm curious when you see something as wide and as
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  Speaker 1: broad and as deep as this. You a data nerd
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  Speaker 1: and a guy who drills deep and into the details.
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  Speaker 1: What stood out to you is the most compelling story
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  Speaker 1: out of all of this polling.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there were a couple of things, Preston. One
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  Speaker 2: is that we live, as you and I have talked
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  Speaker 2: on and off air many times, in the greatest state
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  Speaker 2: in the country, the freest state in the country. It
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  Speaker 2: has so much going for it, but yet seventy five
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  Speaker 2: percent of the people in this state are worried about
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  Speaker 2: the cost of living. They're worried about housing they're worried
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  Speaker 2: about groceries, They're worried about property taxes, insurance and those
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  Speaker 2: kinds of things. And so I think despite the place
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  Speaker 2: that we live, this is called the Sunshine State, there's
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  Speaker 2: some worry, not some, there's a lot of worry about
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  Speaker 2: making ends meet. I think the second thing that's really
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  Speaker 2: interesting is the governor's poll, which we can talk about more.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if people don't know that Byron Donald's has
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  Speaker 2: been endorsed by Donald Trump, he's basically running even with
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  Speaker 2: Casey Desantus not saying she's going to run. I have
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  Speaker 2: no knowledge one way or the other. But once they
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  Speaker 2: know that Byron, and this is not reflected in the poll,
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  Speaker 2: but once they know that Byron has been endorsed by
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump, he's typically up twenty to twenty five points.
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  Speaker 2: So the Donald's campaign pay needs to do a better
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  Speaker 2: job of letting people know, because when you go into
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  Speaker 2: the booth Preston, it's not going to say next to
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  Speaker 2: his name, endorsed by Donald Trump. Those are the two
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  Speaker 2: things that stuck out to me.
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  Speaker 1: Let's circle back to the economic part of this, and
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  Speaker 1: let's start with the housing is what is crystallizing on
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  Speaker 1: the issue of affordable housing.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think the issue for now you and I've
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  Speaker 2: also talked about this. There's a huge difference between building
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  Speaker 2: affordable housing and building housing that's affordable. Typically, bureaucrats and
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  Speaker 2: elected officials when they say affordable housing, they're telling the
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  Speaker 2: builder to build cheap housing that they can't make money
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  Speaker 2: on and will they can just essentially kind of give away.
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  Speaker 2: What we argue at JMI and what the data shows
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  Speaker 2: is that you need to build housing that is a four.
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  Speaker 2: And what that means is typically it is the local government.
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  Speaker 2: And boy, we've seen it here in Tallahassee and Leon County.
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  Speaker 2: It is a local government that drives off, drives up
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  Speaker 2: the cost of housing. Wait times, permitting, pay go, you know,
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  Speaker 2: all of the different things that the permitting fees, all
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  Speaker 2: of the things that go into the cost of building
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  Speaker 2: a home, getting approval from some bureaucrat. Those are the
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  Speaker 2: things that drive up the cost of a house. It's
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  Speaker 2: not that builders are mean and they're trying to price
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  Speaker 2: scouts people. They will build houses that people want to buy,
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  Speaker 2: but government officials and bureaucrats too often get in the way.
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  Speaker 1: Is it important kind of taking a page from those
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  Speaker 1: on the left that I think are exceptionally good at
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  Speaker 1: playing the long game and using semantics with ambiguity riddled
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  Speaker 1: through it to keep people sort of confused. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you just you just hit on it. Affordable house housing, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: let's define that. Does there need to be an effort
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  Speaker 1: Is there an effort needed by those on the right
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  Speaker 1: side of the aisle, those that believe in limited government
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  Speaker 1: and so forth, to define what affordable housing is? Housing
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  Speaker 1: that is affordable?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely. The left has co opted the English language
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  Speaker 2: for years, and we know that, whether it's things like
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  Speaker 2: the Affordable Care Act, which is neither affordable, or does
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  Speaker 2: it care for patients, the Inflation Reduction Act, it does
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  Speaker 2: not reduce inflation. The term progressive. I don't like to
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  Speaker 2: use the term progressive because that implies that they are
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  Speaker 2: progressing forward. Progressives as we know them in this country
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  Speaker 2: actually are taking us back their status. They want us
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  Speaker 2: to rely on government. That's not progress, that's not human progress.
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  Speaker 2: I call them the left, and so yeah, they have
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  Speaker 2: co opted the language, and we on the right have
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  Speaker 2: to do a much better job of And I think
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump is a great example of speaking in terms
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  Speaker 2: that the average American who doesn't care about politics, can
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  Speaker 2: understand what are you going to do for me? How's
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  Speaker 2: it going to affect my life? And Donald Trump and
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  Speaker 2: Rod DeSantis. Look at the governor with this whole property
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  Speaker 2: tax debate. When we first started this, you know what
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  Speaker 2: did he start eighteen months ago? Everybody kind of thought, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: that's a nice idea, that's never going to happen. Well,
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  Speaker 2: it's something's going to happen. I can tell you that.
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  Speaker 2: And the governor has done a great job of making
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  Speaker 2: it simple for people in their everyday lives. And those
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  Speaker 2: are the two gentlemen who are really doing it the best.
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  Speaker 1: Jandard the Buttress. The point that doctor McClure was making,
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  Speaker 1: you may remember we started using the term illiberal about
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  Speaker 1: a decade ago because classic liberalism. You know, you hear
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  Speaker 1: about a liberal arts college and a degree and all
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  Speaker 1: of that. I mean it, there's there's some commonality we
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  Speaker 1: can talk to people that are classic liberals because they
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  Speaker 1: believe in liberty. But but that's changed today, doctor McClure.
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  Speaker 1: Let's let's take a little step further into this economic
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  Speaker 1: tax issue here in the state of Florida. James Madison Institute,
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  Speaker 1: you were looking at what what policy might look like.
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  Speaker 1: Have you gotten any closer to what the proper steps
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  Speaker 1: might be for moving towards elimination and property tax.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think there, I think no. I think it's
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  Speaker 2: going to depend upon kind of where the governor and
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  Speaker 2: the legislature want to go. So there are several different
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  Speaker 2: ways one can go about this, and it doesn't have
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  Speaker 2: to be an either or it can be a bull.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I heard the governor, I think
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  Speaker 2: it was yesterday, say that if they eliminated property taxes,
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  Speaker 2: particularly you know, rural counties rely on these, you know,
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  Speaker 2: these these local property taxes, taxes tremendously that the that
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  Speaker 2: he felt like the state with its revenue could cover
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  Speaker 2: some of that, could cover a lot of that. One
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  Speaker 2: of the things you can do is roll back spending
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  Speaker 2: two pre COVID levels, you know, in places like Palm
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  Speaker 2: Beach County. I was in Orlando at a press conference
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  Speaker 2: with the CFO talking about this very issue. In Seminole County,
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  Speaker 2: you know, uh and and many of these counties you're
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  Speaker 2: talking about, spend spending has gone up fifty percent Preston
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  Speaker 2: in five years since COVID. These people at the local
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  Speaker 2: level are surfing the wave of property values going up,
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  Speaker 2: property taxes going up, and then they say, hey, we
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  Speaker 2: never increased your your property taxes. Well, they didn't increase
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  Speaker 2: the milite rate, but they your property taxes went up.
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  Speaker 2: And we see that here locally as well. So there
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  Speaker 2: are a lot of ways to go about that. One
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  Speaker 2: more thing, and I'll throw it back to you. You
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  Speaker 2: can put it heavy cap on local spending, roll it
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  Speaker 2: back to say, twenty nineteen spending levels. Let's just take
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  Speaker 2: Leon County, roll it back to twenty nineteen spending levels,
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  Speaker 2: cap it, and then index that to population growth in inflation.
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  Speaker 2: You're not telling them how they can spend their money.
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  Speaker 2: You're not telling them where they can spend their money.
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  Speaker 2: But you are saying, roll it back, this is how
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  Speaker 2: much you have to spend, go forth and do good things.
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  Speaker 1: How many of the counties that are really overspending compared
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  Speaker 1: to twenty nineteen are governed by Democrats? Hmmm.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that, but I think
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  Speaker 2: it's really important. And the CFO made this point yesterday
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  Speaker 2: that this is not a Democrat Republican issue. For example,
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  Speaker 2: we were in Seminole County yesterday, which is wholly owned
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  Speaker 2: by the Republicans at the local level, right, and yet
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  Speaker 2: their spending has gone through the roof about fifty percent
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  Speaker 2: since twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Shameful, I think that's what that that's shameful.
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  Speaker 2: It is shameful, it is, but that's what we're seeing
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  Speaker 2: at the local level. And so it's not and this
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  Speaker 2: is what's refreshing. This is not Democrats or Republicans. This
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  Speaker 2: is about cutting spending and returning those dollars to the
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  Speaker 2: taxpayer in the form of real dollars. Because the cost
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  Speaker 2: of living in Leon County, in North Florida, in Seminole County,
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  Speaker 2: in Broward County has gotten out of control in large
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  Speaker 2: part because of local government spending. It's not the state.
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  Speaker 2: The state per capitis spends is one of the lowest
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  Speaker 2: in the entire country. Right. It is at the local
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  Speaker 2: level where we are seeing, because of this exponential growth
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  Speaker 2: here in the state of Florida, where we are seeing
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  Speaker 2: this abuse take place.
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  Speaker 1: Back with doctor Bob McClure of the James Madison Institute
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  Speaker 1: talking about some recent polling and among the topics, the
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six scubernatorial race, and we touched on it,
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  Speaker 1: ever so briefly, doctor MCA. I am of the opinion
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  Speaker 1: that Jay Collins was picked as lieutenant governor because Casey
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  Speaker 1: is not going to run. I don't think Governor de
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  Speaker 1: saying this puts him in that office. And he has
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  Speaker 1: been very, very visible. Is people booking him on my
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  Speaker 1: show all the time? Kind of your thoughts on the
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  Speaker 1: long race here that's.
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  Speaker 2: Ahead, well, I think that you know, if you're reading
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  Speaker 2: kind of the white smoke or black smoke from the Vatican,
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  Speaker 2: it certainly appears that Jay Collins is going to run.
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  Speaker 2: Good man, great guy, great legislator. You've got Paul Renter
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  Speaker 2: in there, who is also fantastic, was probably a historic
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  Speaker 2: House speaker if there ever was one in terms of
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  Speaker 2: getting good conservative policy through agreed, You've got Byron Donald's
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  Speaker 2: who is excellent, would make a great governor, who has
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  Speaker 2: the Trump endorsement, has you know, tens of millions of
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  Speaker 2: dollars in the bank, and would appear appear to be
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  Speaker 2: the odds on favorite. We have a long way to go, obviously.
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  Speaker 2: And then in the Democratic side, I'm not sure who
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  Speaker 2: inspires you is that David Jolly, kind of the Charlie
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  Speaker 2: Crist of the twenty twenties. He's been a Republican, he's
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  Speaker 2: been a Democrat. You know, really, I don't think so.
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  Speaker 2: Jason Pizzo Mark, Well, he's not a Democratic guy. No,
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  Speaker 2: he rejected the Democratic Party because they had gone so
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  Speaker 2: far left. And now he's running as an independent. So
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  Speaker 2: there's not the infrastructure. Maybe the fundraising component is much
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  Speaker 2: more challenging. So you know, it's all in the republic
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  Speaker 2: And then you add in Preston that there is now
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  Speaker 2: a one point three million registration voter edge for the Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: Think about that, one point three million more people identify
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  Speaker 2: as Republicans in this state than they do as Democrats.
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  Speaker 2: That makes whoever comes out of this primary, and you
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  Speaker 2: got to believe it. Byron with the Pole position, it's
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  Speaker 2: got to be the odds on favorite to be the
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  Speaker 2: next governor.
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  Speaker 1: The problem that Congressman Donald's has is that at this
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  Speaker 1: point in time, his ground game in the state is
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  Speaker 1: very lacking. I don't know if the people advising him
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  Speaker 1: aren't just recognizing how poor it is, but but they're
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  Speaker 1: struggling with the ground game in Florida, and they're struggling
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  Speaker 1: getting him local exposure in places like this program. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm just curious if that's if having Trump's endorsement is
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  Speaker 1: what they're they're banking on, because I think I like
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  Speaker 1: you like him very much, and I think he'd be
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  Speaker 1: a terrific governor along with a couple of other people.
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  Speaker 1: But if he doesn't do a better job of connecting,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he's going to struggle.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that was what was interesting about the polling. So
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  Speaker 2: we did a polling back in the winter where we said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, do you know that Byron is endorsed by
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  Speaker 2: Trump because it had just come out. No, I didn't
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  Speaker 2: if it. If I did, it increases he's up by
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  Speaker 2: twenty points. But this most recent poll was just like
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  Speaker 2: it would appear in the ballot box, on the ballot
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  Speaker 2: box and it's who would you vote for? Straight up
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  Speaker 2: positive negative? We you know this is not this is public.
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  Speaker 2: We caught some flak from the Donalds campaign because we
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  Speaker 2: didn't include it the Trump endorsement on this most recent pulling,
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  Speaker 2: but it's not going to be in the polling booth
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  Speaker 2: when you go in to vote. It's a comment upon
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  Speaker 2: them to make sure everybody knows that he's been endorsed
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  Speaker 2: by Trump. So when you just show it as you
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  Speaker 2: show it as it's going to be on the ballot.
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  Speaker 2: It was pretty even. So that tells me there's work
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  Speaker 2: to do now. I have no inside knowledge. I don't
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  Speaker 2: even pretend to. Don't want to know. Are they holding
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  Speaker 2: their fire till January? They have a lot of money
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  Speaker 2: in the bank. I don't know. That's not that is
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: there there. They've got a lot of smart people running
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  Speaker 2: their show. So maybe that's just holding their fire till
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  Speaker 2: January and then they're going to push the ground game,
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  Speaker 2: push the other I don't have an answer for you
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  Speaker 2: on that, but it is an interesting thought that most Republicans,
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  Speaker 2: most Floridians have no idea he's been endorsed by the president.
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  Speaker 1: Last question, what are your expectations? And we can talk
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  Speaker 1: more about this next month, but what are your expectations
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  Speaker 1: in short for the final session with Governor Ron de
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Santas at the HELM.
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  Speaker 2: I believe the Governor's going to get something very significant
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: on the ballot in terms of property taxes, and I
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  Speaker 2: think it's going to be a really, really important issue
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  Speaker 2: for Floridians. Can you imagine if you eliminated property taxes
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  Speaker 2: or you reduce them seventy five eighty percent, what that
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: would mean for Florida's economy and putting money back in
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  Speaker 2: people's pockets. I'll say this about the governor. He has
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: run through the tape man. He is not coasting in
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: these last two years. He is driving and pushing. You know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: you go back to the weed Amendment to the abortion amendment.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: He put all the chips on the table, he won there,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: and so he is pushing. I think the second component, Preston,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: is that the trial bar is going to continue to
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: try to claw back what they lost when we put
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: in those reforms toward reforms primarily focused on insurance two
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: years ago, and I think we're going to have to
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: play a little bit of offense on the property tax issue,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: a lot of offense and some defense to keep in
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: place the reforms on property insurance that are working.