Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / JMI Won The Florida Session, Does That Mean You Won?

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JMI Won The Florida Session, Does That Mean You Won? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Why don't we do this the third and final hour at least for today of
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  the Morning Show with President Scott not I'm not trying to be any kind of
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  profit of doom here. I'm not going anywhere at least I'm not planning on
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  it. Ultimately, I hope that's just strictly up to God nobody else.
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  But we welcome you to the third hour. Grant Allen over there running the
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  radio program in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio one B, and
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  I am joined by it's been, as the kids say, a minute since
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  he's been back with us in studio. Doctor Bob McClure, President of the
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  James Madison Institute, Hello, my friend, how are you, Preston?
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  How are you? My friend? I think the last time you were in
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  here it might have been you, me and doctor Ed Moore and we might
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  have been punching numbers. Was it twenty twelve, Maybe it wasn't the Trump
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  No election. I think it was the second election of Barack Obama. Oh
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  my gosh, you were breaking down number and you were just you were reigning
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  threes from you know, I mean, you were everything you were predicting was
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  going on and in Florida. You nailed everything and I think that was the
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  last time you were in student. I can't believe it. I know I've
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  done the show a number of times, just not in studio. Yes,
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  well, I'm glad to be here. The studio looks fantastic. Love all
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  the babbleheads and the pennants. Your man James Madison. Absolutely yes, he
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  is fantastic for someone tuning in that that. You know, they hear us
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  talk about James Madison. They remember your former colleague and you know, now
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  working in another group with another group. Salnwzo represented JMI so well joining us
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  over the years, and we thank you for allowing Sal to join us,
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  of course and give us those insights legislatively. But for those that are new,
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  don't really have an idea. They hear James Madison, they know he's
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  a founding father. What's James Madison Institute about and why is it based in
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  Tallassee, Florida. You know, as many of your listeners will know,
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  James Madison, the man was responsible in large part for many of our founding
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  documents that we have in our nation, with our nations founding and those documents,
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  as you talk about all the time are designed to protect us from an
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  overarching, overreaching government. And the founders understood the power of government and what
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  it could do and how oppressive it could be because they came from that.
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  And so the James Madison Institute, founded in nineteen eighty seven, was founded
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  by Stanley Marshall, former president of Florida State University. Stan was president from
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  the late six from about sixty seven to seventy six. Turbulent times here in
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  Florida, but handled it, I think from every angle, and I think
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  both sides would agree. While he may have been tough, he was fair.
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  He allowed civil disobedience in the mid to late sixties. Florida State at
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  the time was considered the Berkeley of the South. That's a direct quote from
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  a national newspaper, and stan handled that as well as one could possibly handle.
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  In the late sixties seventies, fast forward to about nineteen eighty seven,
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  Reagan's second term, everything coming out of the Academies was focused on higher taxes,
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  more government, the use of government to advance policy, to advance whatever
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  the leadership chosen was. Reagan turned that tide and when he was elected in
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  nineteen eighty but even in nineteen eighty seven. Coming out of the academies,
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  there was this notion that more government was better. So what happened was there
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  was the establishment that these these state, these think tanks that popped up around
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  the country. JMI, which is also what the shorthand of what we're called,
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  was one of ten and the state think tanks focused on returning to the
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  principles of the founding, which is to limit the role of government in our
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  daily lives, to allow for free enterprise to happen, for markets to move,
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  for people to chase their version of the American dream, whatever that is
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  to them, within the the boundaries of the law and the protection of private
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  property. Those were in the late eighties, you know, Reagan articulated those
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  that that that's so that's that's the founding of the James Madison Industrute. We're
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  based in Tallahassee because we're in the state capitol and this is where things happen,
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  and so uh we have to protect and promote the ideals that our nation
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  was founded upon. Back with doctor Bob McClure from the James Madison Institute.
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  He's the president. He runs it and been a long time friend of the
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  program. We've taken calls with Bob over the years and talked about a lot
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  of different things that matter. You know, a lot was written up about
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  how the legislative session. I thought it was interesting. One write up said
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  the winner was the James Madison Institute. First, what's your reaction when you
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  see a headline like that, Because here's how I boil it down. That
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  means that the citizens of Florida won, right. You know, when you're
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  a principally based organization, the ideals of the founding, and you're not worrying
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  about lobbying or you're not worrying about propaganda, to see something like that,
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  Preston, is a tremendous feeling because you understand that our state is winning,
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  as you just said, and we live in such I love the state of
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  Florida. I'm a seventh generation Floridian. It's so diverse, it's so dynamic.
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  And the fact that quote we win, it's not us. You know.
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  My philosophy is just you know, it's like Nick Saban says, it
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  can be rat poison. You got to keep moving forward, You got to
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  keep advancing the ball in policy because there are always things to do. But
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  in that moment. In that glimmer of a moment, you understand that our
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  state is winning the free hashtag free state of Florida. And one thing that
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  really matters is that the rest of the country is watching. So when these
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  kinds of things happen in Florida, you see other governors other legislatures around the
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  country go, oh, I can do that. I can do that in
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  education reform and school choice. I can do that in certificate of need health
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  care repeal. And that's really really important and critical. You know, Grant
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  and I talk about the fact that Florida is a lesson that number one,
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  you can do just fine with a part time legislature. Right. Secondly,
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  we're consumer tax state, right, And I think that those two really stand
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  out as examples of this might be a better way for governance to operate.
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  You agree, I absolutely agree. And you see other states starting to compete
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  with Florida. So you're seeing Iowa lower their income tax, You're seeing Georgia
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  looking to gradually lower their income tax over the next two to three years.
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  Alabama is looking at doing those same things. And what I love about Florida
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  is that we've been told for as long as you and I have been alive
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  that as the nation becomes more diverse, more brown, more this, more,
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  that it's inevitable that the left is going to win everything. Well,
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  Florida gives a lot of that. We have every demographic in this state.
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  We have, you know, almost twenty percent Hispanic, twelve to fifteen percent
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  African American, rural, urban, military retiree, every demographic that the left
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  loves to kind of pluck out cherry pick right. And yet Florida has become
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  more and more red. And why is that. It's not because of politicians
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  per se, though we've had some really good ones. We've been very fortunate.
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  It's your point, it's policy. It's good policies. The good policy.
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  We say it, j Am. I good policy is good politics.
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  And so what happens is when you have good policies and they are put in
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  place and executed properly. Taxation, education, those kinds of things you see
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  that people go, Okay, I get it. It doesn't matter what color
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  you are, it doesn't matter what your demographic is. Everybody has the same
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  goal in that almost everybody to achieve their version of the American dream. They
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  want their children and their grandchildren to have a shot at their version of the
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  American dream. And you see that happen in Florida, and the left can't
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  stand it. Doctor Bob McClure with me, President James Madison Institute. So
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  many wins in the legislative session? Where to begin? So I will just
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  simply tee you up and ask you what is the most important set of wins
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  for the Floridians of this state in the last legislative session? From your chairs
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  out of JMI. I think there are really two preston that are really important.
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  You know, two years ago we had what are Salnuzo, who used
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  to be at JMI, called the Session of the century. We got tort
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  reform, we got DEI reform at higher ed, we got ESG reform,
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  we got paycheck protection, universal school choice, and universal school choice is very
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  simple. It simply means that the money follows the child. Right. Parents
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  get to choose what the best needs are for their children and or grandchildren,
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  and the money follows the child. It's very simple. Nobody's stealing from the
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  public schools, nobody's doing it's none of that. But there were some glitches
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  there. You could pay for transp rotation, but you could buy an easel
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  for art if you were a homeschooler, but you couldn't buy paints. You
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  know, you could buy a basketball goal, but you couldn't buy basketballs.
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  And so there was some what they called a glitch bill for universal school choice
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  in the use of those dollars, and so one of them for parents and
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  grandparents is that now they fix that so that the dollars can be used more
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  properly to allow for education, homeschooling, podschooling, those kinds of things.
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  That was a huge issue because it was very, very hard. The second
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  thing related to education pressing is that the funding they streamline the ability to get
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  those dollars, so you can't take let's just say it's ten grand to educate
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  a public school child. You can't take that ten grand to go to Vegas.
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  You can't do that. But it was really hard initially after the bill
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  to get state ramped up to get those dollars to schools that are taking the
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  money, the scholarship money, and also to homeschools. They streamlined all that,
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  so the dollars are now flowing properly so that you can do that.
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  That's a huge issue because if you have universal school choice. But you screw
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  up the execution, the unions are gonna come in and say, see aha
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  aha, just like the sawmis says, right, uhha aha, this isn't
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  working. You know, we got to go back. So that was a
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  huge issue. Second issue that is a huge win for UH Floridians is this
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  notion of reciprocity. So we have almost a thousand people moving to the state
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  of Florida a day. They're gonna need doctors, they're gonna need uh barbers,
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  They're gonna need cosmatologists, they're gonna need all kinds of different services.
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  And yet if you are a doctor moving from New York to Florida, it
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  was it was really really hard to get the ice ensure to practice in Florida.
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  And so what they've done is, again I won't get too far into
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  the weeds, is they have allowed entrepreneurs and and doctors to move to Florida
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  and if you are licensed in another state, the ability to practice medicine in
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  Florida is now completely streamlined. The ability to open a barbershop, the ability
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  to you know, and we don't have it so much in North Florida,
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  but think about Sarasota and Naples where people are just pouring in Palm Beach,
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  Miami. They need you know, as people come, they also need services.
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  And the legislature did a tremendous job of streamlining the ability to work and
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  be an entrepreneur and a business owner. If you were in another state,
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  now in Florida, if I were to ask you, what is one thing
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  that didn't get across the finish line that is going to be high on the
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  list on your notes for next year? What would that be? I think?
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  I think there are two issues that could could move Florida into the ditch
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  if we're not careful, and and the legislature, to their credit, has
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  really tried to address both of these. I wish they would be a little
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  more bold. One is this this notion of affordable housing. Okay, the
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  left. You know, as as people pouring to Florida, you see it
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  every day in the Wall Street Journal, you see it everywhere. You know,
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  buying a home is becoming less affordable. Okay, right, it's very
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  right, but it's it's what. But what what we have to understand is
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  building affordable housing and building houses that are affordable are not the same thing.
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  So typically local governments want to say, hey, you need to build more
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  affordable, more affordable housing, mister builder, right, well, that simply
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  means build, build a chief house, h under price it and you lose
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  money on house, and then we'll give you the rest of the development to
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  really make your money. That's that's not the way it works. Affordable housing
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  and houses that afford are affordable are two different things. Houses that are affordable
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  eliminate permitting process, wait times, impact fees, all of the things that
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  local municipalities use to make tons of money. That's different, and waiting time
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  cost builders money. That's the one issue. The second issue is property insurance,
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  but that's going to take time and we have to address that more fully.
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  Can't wait for our visit next month already, thanks for coming in,
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  all right, thank you, Doctor Bob McClure. Will join us monthly and
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  we will chat about such matters on the third Tuesday, I think it is
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  of every month. Ready here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott SA