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Is DOGE The Best Thing To Happen For Citizens? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Speaker 1: Jose can you see over there in Studio one A.
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  Speaker 1: I'm here in Study one B, and I am joined
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  Speaker 1: by our friend on the left coast. He is Justin Haskins,
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  Speaker 1: senior fellow Heartland Institute, authors books with Glenn Beck, and
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  Speaker 1: website Stoppingsocialism dot com. Hello, my friend, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing very well. I was doing better and then
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  Speaker 2: you remind me I live on the Left Coast and
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  Speaker 2: now not doing quite as well. But that's okay. But
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  Speaker 2: I forget about it.
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  Speaker 1: It's often very pretty, if not rainy and wet.
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  Speaker 2: That's true. It's gorgeous here. It's full of lunatics, but gorgeous.
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  Speaker 2: That's the trade off. That's the trade off.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about feeling like a pair of brown shoes and
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  Speaker 1: a room full of tuxedos, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Which is pretty common around here. By the way, people
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  Speaker 2: don't like to dress up on the Left Coast.
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  Speaker 1: I know, I know, Justin. How excited should we be?
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  Speaker 1: I find myself, as a much older man now as
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  Speaker 1: excited about what we're learning. Yes, horrified too, But what doge?
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  Speaker 1: What doze is uncovering that? And what it's doing in
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  Speaker 1: states across the country that are mimicking it. I think
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  Speaker 1: it might be one of the most significant things that's
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  Speaker 1: ever happened in government in my lifetimes.
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  Speaker 2: It really is remarkable to see what conservatives have been
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  Speaker 2: saying for so long is true being proven true by
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  Speaker 2: an actual investigation. And it's amazing to watch the Democrats
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  Speaker 2: rally around this idea that we shouldn't be cutting waste
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  Speaker 2: and fraud and abuse and worried about dead people receiving
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  Speaker 2: benefits that they don't deserve, and worried about corruption. None
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  Speaker 2: of that should matter. I mean, that's like their official
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  Speaker 2: position at this point is that we just shouldn't care.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, it's somehow shredding the constitution to even look
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  Speaker 2: into how taxpayer funds are being spent. It's unbelievable and fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: I agree. I think I think we are just seeing
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  Speaker 2: the tip of the iceberg. I think the more they dig,
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  Speaker 2: the more time they have to look at what's really
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  Speaker 2: going on, We're going to find all kinds of corruption,
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  Speaker 2: and yes, taxpayer money will be saved. It's not going
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  Speaker 2: to be anywhere near enough to fix the debt problem
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  Speaker 2: we had in this country. But I don't really think
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  Speaker 2: DOGE is about that. I think this is more about
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  Speaker 2: holding government and government bureaucrats responsible and accountable to the
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  Speaker 2: people who pay their salaries. And I think that's good enough.
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  Speaker 1: Justin I read a piece from Jeffrey Tucker of the
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  Speaker 1: Brownstone Institute. I want to say he made a fascinating point.
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  Speaker 1: Any and I'm curious what your reaction to this observation is.
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  Speaker 1: Does it matter that the people largely leading this effort
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  Speaker 1: happen to be refugees from the Democrat part. Trump is
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  Speaker 1: a refugee from the Democrat Party. Elon Musk is a
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  Speaker 1: refugee of the Democrat Party.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've thought about this a lot, and I
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  Speaker 2: think what we're seeing right now in political science they
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  Speaker 2: call it political realignment. We're seeing a realignment occur, and
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  Speaker 2: it's not just about politics. It's really about ideology in
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  Speaker 2: a lot of ways. There's a lot of people who
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  Speaker 2: were on the sort of the center left, like Elon Musk,
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  Speaker 2: who was a big supporter of Barack Obama, yeah one time,
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  Speaker 2: Joe Rogan, you know, people like this, who was a
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  Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders guy, who are realizing that the corruption and
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  Speaker 2: the power that has existed in Washington, d c. And
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  Speaker 2: in state capitals has become so great that it has
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  Speaker 2: to be at least to some extent dismantled. And that
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  Speaker 2: is a significant political alignment. And there's other things too,
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  Speaker 2: like trade and other things that really have changed. And
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  Speaker 2: so I do think it's extremely important to see to
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  Speaker 2: see that it really isn't just oh well, this is
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  Speaker 2: the far right imposingness on everyone else. No, this whole
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  Speaker 2: mission is being led by a guy who was a
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  Speaker 2: Barack Obama supporter, not by someone on the far right.
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  Speaker 2: So I do think that's important for the American people
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  Speaker 2: to see that. Look, there is a lot of corruption
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  Speaker 2: in government, there is a lot of authoritarianism. There does
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  Speaker 2: need to be something that has to be done about this,
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  Speaker 2: and there are people. You don't necessarily have to be
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  Speaker 2: a hardcore right winger to believe that. You could be
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  Speaker 2: someone who agrees mostly with e On Musk, who doesn't
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  Speaker 2: agree with me on all sorts of things like climate
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  Speaker 2: change and you know, and the benefits of electric vehicles
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  Speaker 2: and a whole bunch of other things. But what we
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  Speaker 2: do agree on is that the government needs to be
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  Speaker 2: held accountable to its citizens, and it's not. And I
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  Speaker 2: I think that that is a great point by mister Tucker. However,
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  Speaker 2: I am a little bit worried by that as well,
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  Speaker 2: because Trump is very dependent politically on this sort of
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  Speaker 2: coalition that he's built with the center left, and over time,
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  Speaker 2: my concern is that the center left is going to
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  Speaker 2: sort of move the Republican Party further to the left
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  Speaker 2: on a lot of issues. I'm also concerned that if
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  Speaker 2: Democrats ever get their act together and they realize that
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  Speaker 2: they need to sort of infuse some common sense into
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  Speaker 2: their operations, which might never happen, but if they ever
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  Speaker 2: realize it, they could probably win those people back with
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  Speaker 2: a common sense candidate on the center left. And so
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  Speaker 2: there are problems with this coalition that's being built as well,
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  Speaker 2: But right now I think it's a really good thing
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  Speaker 2: for the American people to see.
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  Speaker 1: I think at this point most everybody in America knows
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  Speaker 1: about DEI. They know what the acronyms do bans for
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  Speaker 1: because there's been so much focused in the first fifty
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  Speaker 1: days of the Trump administration. Are you concerned that we're
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  Speaker 1: losing sight of ESG and remind our listeners what that
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  Speaker 1: stands for.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. It's
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  Speaker 2: a kind of social credit scoring system that's imposed primarily
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  Speaker 2: on businesses, but it can also be imposed on whole countries,
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  Speaker 2: it can be imposed on individuals. And essentially, what it
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  Speaker 2: seeks to do is to place a score, a value,
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  Speaker 2: a social credit score on entities based on non financial metrics.
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  Speaker 2: So instead of measuring a business based on just its
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  Speaker 2: profit and loss and customer satisfaction and traditional business metrics
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  Speaker 2: like that, you would evaluate the business on those things.
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  Speaker 2: Plus does it support left wing causes in its community?
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  Speaker 2: Does it battle climate change? Does it limit its water consumption,
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  Speaker 2: et cetera. And so it's a really dangerous thing because
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  Speaker 2: it's a systematic way of transforming society through the financial system,
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  Speaker 2: through interaction with government and private entities using government contracts
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  Speaker 2: and things like that. And for a long time, the
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  Speaker 2: last decade or so, the left has slowly been sort
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  Speaker 2: of imposing this into a variety of it depends on
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  Speaker 2: the situation, but in a variety of different ways throughout
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  Speaker 2: the economy, primarily through big asset managers like Black Rock
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  Speaker 2: and people like that. And they've been moving the country
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  Speaker 2: to the left through esg imposing it on big corporations.
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  Speaker 2: And what I've been fighting for and what we've been
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  Speaker 2: talking about on this show for a long time is
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  Speaker 2: stopping the use of ESG through the financial system and
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  Speaker 2: other things, because essentially banks and financial managers and others
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  Speaker 2: have been using it to force the whole economy to
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  Speaker 2: move to the left, and they shouldn't be doing that.
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  Speaker 2: You shouldn't be denied access to a bank account, for example,
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  Speaker 2: because you don't agree with the bank on climate change.
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  Speaker 2: But that's exactly the kind of thing that they are
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  Speaker 2: allowed to do. So DEI has been getting all the
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  Speaker 2: headlines DEI programs and colleges, DEI programs and governments and
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  Speaker 2: all of that. It's similar to ESG, except ESG is
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  Speaker 2: the thing that actually is being used with money. So
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  Speaker 2: that's the thing that has teeth. It's not just a
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  Speaker 2: program that exists at a college. It's something that's being
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  Speaker 2: used by financial institutions and others to actually impose these
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  Speaker 2: values on other people that don't have the program. And
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  Speaker 2: so it's a really dangerous thing. And I think that
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump understands that. I think Republicans understand it, but
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  Speaker 2: so far they haven't taken actual tangible action against it yet.
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  Speaker 2: There's been legislation that's been proposed to stop ESG and banking,
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  Speaker 2: called the Fair Access Bill Fare Access to Banking Act,
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  Speaker 2: and I hope it passes. There's a lot of support
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  Speaker 2: from Republicans in the House and in the Senate for that,
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  Speaker 2: but it hasn't moved yet. Donald Trump could pass the
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  Speaker 2: regulation that stops banking from doing this. That hasn't happened yet,
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  Speaker 2: although I suspect he might. And there's been a lot
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  Speaker 2: of action at the state level, but not as much
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  Speaker 2: going on at the federal level yet. And I wish
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  Speaker 2: that that would become a bigger issue than the DEI
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  Speaker 2: issue because of how authoritarian it it is. DEI is
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  Speaker 2: bad for a variety of reasons, but it's not necessarily authoritarian.
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  Speaker 2: But this is an authoritarian idea.
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  Speaker 1: Congress Woman kat Camick is a regular guest now on
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  Speaker 1: the show. She's not our congressional representative where we live, necessarily,
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  Speaker 1: but she's the only one in Florida that does not
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  Speaker 1: allow and does not accept and does not ask for
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  Speaker 1: any pork. She challenges other members of the Republican Caucus
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  Speaker 1: inside the Sunshine State to join her. So far she's alone,
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  Speaker 1: but she and Ran Paul have co sponsored the Rains
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  Speaker 1: Act which brings a certain degree of accountability. But she
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  Speaker 1: also broke out something to me in the last visit
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  Speaker 1: that I couldn't believe. She said justin that none of
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  Speaker 1: the bureaucrats, none of the people that actually work in Congress,
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  Speaker 1: have a background check, and so she is proposing legislation
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  Speaker 1: to require background checks for everybody that works as a
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  Speaker 1: legislative aid or any level of bureaucrat inside the Beltway.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's great. I think they absolutely should do that.
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  Speaker 2: Why should the rules be different for members of Congress
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  Speaker 2: and their staff? And of course the rules are different
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  Speaker 2: on all sorts of things. They've been different on health insurance,
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  Speaker 2: they've been different on those kinds of things. They're different
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  Speaker 2: on a variety of different levels. But that's one of
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  Speaker 2: those things where you know, once again, how is that's
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  Speaker 2: the first that I'm hearing about this?
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  Speaker 1: That's you know, that's the point.
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  Speaker 2: Incredible, she said.
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  Speaker 1: She said to me in a break, she said, did
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  Speaker 1: you know that members that work for the House in
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  Speaker 1: the Senate don't have to go through a background check?
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  Speaker 1: I said, you're kidding me. She said, aha, she said,
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  Speaker 1: I've not said that to one person that said that.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I knew that. No one knows it. Nobody
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  Speaker 1: and that's why Alexandricstio Cortez had an aid working for
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  Speaker 1: her that was illegally in this country, and he's self
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  Speaker 1: deported back to Columbia.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And I did hear about that story. And that's
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  Speaker 2: and that's exactly the point. For all these years, for
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  Speaker 2: all these decades, we've had Republicans in Congress and in
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  Speaker 2: the White House, frankly, who have not taken the issues
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  Speaker 2: that we have seriously and and really have presented themselves
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  Speaker 2: as sort of champions of the conservative cause and limited
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  Speaker 2: government and all of that. But in reality they were
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  Speaker 2: just slogans on flyers that they handed out and TV
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  Speaker 2: commercials they produced, but they didn't actually do the things.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, surely she's not the first congress person to
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  Speaker 2: realize this. So how many hundreds or thousands of Republicans
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  Speaker 2: over the past several decades knew that and just didn't care,
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  Speaker 2: didn't do anything about it. I mean, this is we
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  Speaker 2: desperately need what is happening right now, which is a
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  Speaker 2: revolution in the Republican Party, a complete transformation of our
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  Speaker 2: mission and goals to the things that we thought the
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  Speaker 2: Republicans were for in the past, but apparently weren't. Right.
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  Speaker 2: It's the least radical, radical revolution in the history of
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  Speaker 2: a political party. We just want them to do what
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  Speaker 2: we asked them to do three decades ago and thought
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  Speaker 2: they were doing, but actually weren't. And it is finally
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  Speaker 2: starting to happen because we've gotten beginning with the Tea Party,
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  Speaker 2: you know movement back in the Obama days, going all
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  Speaker 2: the way up to today. It has taken a long
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  Speaker 2: time to get rid of a lot of the dead
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  Speaker 2: weight in the Republican Party and a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: closet Democrats. But we are finally getting there. And good
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  Speaker 2: for Cat Cammick. That's a great story.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me this justin as you well know anyone who
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  Speaker 1: listens to a show like this. Yeah, there are exceptions,
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  Speaker 1: There are people that are on the other side philosophically
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  Speaker 1: and politically. But you're preaching to the choir. But what
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  Speaker 1: should the choir be doing. That's the most effective thing
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  Speaker 1: to do in support of pushing back on ESG, in
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  Speaker 1: support of these types of bills that Congresswoman Chemick are
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  Speaker 1: pushing out, or just in general.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the most important thing that you can
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  Speaker 2: do on any issue is to call your lawmaker. People
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  Speaker 2: think that that doesn't matter, but it actually matters a lot.
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  Speaker 2: They track that both at the congressional level and especially
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  Speaker 2: at the local level. They're very concerned by it. It
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  Speaker 2: actually doesn't take a ton of calls to get people's
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  Speaker 2: attention in those offices. Don't email, call yep and be
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  Speaker 2: very respectful and kind and just say, look, this is
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  Speaker 2: my priority. These are the things I think are in important.
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  Speaker 2: But if members of Congress get a bunch of phone
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  Speaker 2: calls in a day, that does move the needle. It
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  Speaker 2: does impact them because they want to stay in office.
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  Speaker 2: That's what a lot of politicians number one goal is.
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  Speaker 2: And if they think that staying in office means fighting
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  Speaker 2: ESG and doing the right things and eliminating corruption and
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  Speaker 2: supporting what Doge's mission is, then they will do it.
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  Speaker 2: But they have to believe that, and the only way
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  Speaker 2: they'll believe it is if they hear from their voters,
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  Speaker 2: their constituents, and if they're.
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  Speaker 1: A Republican that's in Congress. They need to fear being primary,
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  Speaker 1: which is why you have to hold them accountable.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. They're not worried about general election, but they are
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  Speaker 2: worried about the kind of person that calls up a
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: conservative who calls them up on the phone and says
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  Speaker 2: you need to do something they are worried about. That
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  Speaker 2: person in the primary voting for another candidate that takes
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  Speaker 2: it more seriously and frankly, we need more good people
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  Speaker 2: running for office. Yes, at the state and local level especially,
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  Speaker 2: but at the federal level too.
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  Speaker 1: Justin, you're one of my heroes. Brother. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for what you do. I appreciate you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, Preston, appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: That was Justin Haskins with us this morning from the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Heartland Institute stoppingsocialism dot com and of course co authors
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of books with Glenn Beck. But he's our friend,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and that's on top of the resume here in the
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show with Preston Scott