Show Rewind 11-18-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesusly, hell Ya America and.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jerry Hollin for REGUS one Nation.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
And this is wrong.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher
Thompson on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And good morning to you, Welcome back, and welcome in,
Welcome on board. It is six sixteenth, Tuesday morning, November
the eighteenth, Gary David, that's me Christopher Thompson right over there.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
You know, I don't like to start this segment by
talking about sports, because that's just a small part of
what I do. I'd like to feel like, oh yes,
but it's it is become apparent to me that game
cognation cannot get over what happened on Saturday. And I
know social media is, you know, just a big amplifier,
but it I think there were fans that honestly expected

(01:02):
Shane Biemer to get fired on the tarmac Saturday night
and are surprised that he still has a job right now.
But it's just I am amazed that this is carried over,
that this hangover is now into Tuesday and there are
still fans online talking about that loss. I know it's
gonna it's gonna take a while to get over. I
know it hurt, but I'm not surprised.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
YEA, and a lot of wanting to go back to
Virginia Tech, Well that ain't gonna happen now because the
guy that a lot of wanted to come here just
went there.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah right, James Franklin shuffling around.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
But anyway, I just said, it's surprised me because I'm
you know this is heavy on your heart. Well, because
I'm I've shifted to Coastal Carolina now, and you know,
I've got fans who are still asking me about Texas
A and M and and why Shane Beemer is still
in his office and you know who gets fired next?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I'm like, wait, you've still got two games left, so.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, this season is taught us though it doesn't matter,
sure it. You know, like like James Rankl, they've got Canada,
Penn State just one of my number of high profile
coaches and big schools that have been You're I get it,
you know, I do. I get your feelings, but I
also understand these That's that's some posts. Never gonna get

(02:14):
over that one. Yeah, same half, I guess, Well, good
morning to you it's a little chilly this morning time.
It was right there on the forecast. We had some
you know, more comfortable mornings. But you know, our favorite
cold spot usually about over there in the Cedar Creek.
It's thirty thirty four right now. So but we've got
no winds to speak of this morning, so no one,
no wind chills. But yeah, it's gonna be a little

(02:37):
nippier as you hit out this morning Rundown. Big stories,
Hot topics for this Tuesday morning, November eighteenth, Well, it's
going to be one of these topics that's going to
be talked about a lot in the upcoming State House session.
And the Judicial Merit Selection Commission started as annual screening
of judicial candidates yesterday, and uh, well there's a seat

(03:00):
up for grabs on the High Court, the State Supreme Court.
And believe it or not, we've talked about this not
a lot, I know, but this is gonna be one
of the interesting things to watch is that a former
House speaker is among those who want to sit on
the State Supreme Court.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
That's the way it works, that's kind of the way,
and that's that's the lesson right there. Isn't it nothing
against Jay Lucas. But that's the way to works.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's just the way it works.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
So you serve in the legislature, you serve on the
merit selection committee or commission, make some friends, and then.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
You just move right up the ladder.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yes, all right, Well we'll spend some time jumping into
what got got brought up yesterday in day one of
that of that cycle, it's election day, run off day
to day and h City of Columbia. Uh those well,
there are not one, but two council seats and runoffs today,
the at large council seat, which has been a little

(04:00):
mud slung in that one, some accusations made. Also, the
District four council seat is up for grabs, so those
bulls open up at seven o'clock this morning.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
And the District four races, the Peter Brown Race, that
is the Peter Brown race, which she's been endorsed by
the mayor, which was a little unusual.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
But yes, I've seen a lot of those spots, Yeah,
with the mayor and candidate Brown. Well, okay, well we'll
see what turnout is like today. Probably pretty low gubernatorial sweepstakes.
Nancy Mace rolling out a plan to end income tax
in our state within five years. Okay, well, I think

(04:37):
we're all about that. But what is in this plan?
Will it work? And again, this is not an idea,
this novel to Nancy Mace. This is an idea now
that I think by and large all of the Republican
candidates are going to be touting here in this cycle.
Here a meantime, back in her home district, another entrant

(04:58):
into the race for the first congressional seat in our state,
Genny Costa Honeycott, announcing her bid the Charleston County councilwoman
who would like to take over the Republican spot there
whole keep it Republican. She's going to be running on
that primary, declaring her candidacy just yesterday, all right, College
of Charleston launching a bid a statewide financial aid initiative,

(05:24):
a new effort, well to try to make college more accessible. Okay,
accessible is fine? Affordable is the question here, And well
they're kind of looking at that too. Listen, mister Thompson,
your daughter was at College of Charleston for a while.
That is not the most affordable place to be affordable?

(05:46):
Is never we used in conjunction with her college career.
I'm betting not. Does anybody anymore?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Really?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
I mean, come on, let's see here. Some businesses in
our state are saying they've been impacted by Operation Charlotte's
Web up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Well, okay, around the
Rock Hill area, you've got some businesses saying that, well,
they've been a little busier than they are right now.
And a lot of these are well businesses that did

(06:13):
cater to you know, folks who weren't born here, not
from around these parts. One hundred and thirty, by the way,
arrested in the first couple of days up in Charlotte
in Operation Charlottees Well, which now the granddaughter of the
author of the book is complaining that they're using that name.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yeah yeah, and this is not a joke and not
some kind of racist joke. But they actually they canceled
Taco Tuesday. I read that at first, and I thought,
with somebody making some kind of cruel joke. But that's
it's true, because people are in that particular community are
not coming out right now.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
This is the closest this has been to us here,
you know, in South Carolina. And you know, I'm sitting
on social media, folks up in the Charlotte area. They
are beside themselves with this. Oh, the Gestapo, the Nazis,
the Stormtroopers, the ss you get it, all right, you
get it all. Meantime, you got some very bad people
off the streets in the Queen City. All right. The

(07:12):
vote today up on Capitol Hill. The House will vote
on releasing the Epstein files. And it looks like that's
exactly what's going to happen. Of course, the turn of
events in the last number of days when Trump went
from well even just a week or so ago, calling
people like Nancy Mace and saying, you know, don't don't
vote to release these files. Now, of course Trump coming

(07:33):
out a couple of days ago and saying, yeah, there's
nothing there, release them all. People are still trying to
figure out that turn of events right there. But in
the meantime, looks like a number of Republicans in the
House are going to coalesce behind Trump and has now
desired to release the files. So that's what's next. Off
to the Senator gohest. Trump did say yesterday that the

(07:54):
Senate does pass the build or release the files, that
he will in fact sign it. Meantime, Larry Summer is
becoming a victim here of all of this as he's
stepping back from public roles after a while. Some of
the releases of those emails last week did not paint
him in a very good light.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, when he was continuing to stay in touch even
after Epstein was convicted.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
And apparently getting relationship advice from Epstein for a woman
who he was a mentor of. Yeah, all right, to
shut down over what's next there? Of course it is,
well Obamacare subsidies. Trump says he's talking to Democrats about
a healthcare repayment plan. Meantime, you've got some of those

(08:35):
folks over the House say they're rushing Republicans now to
develop a plan. Rush. Why are we rushing? We've known
for years this is going to come to an end
at the end of this year. This just grates on
my very last nerve. But they're rushing. We'll see where
they get. James Comy, well, maybe he gets off the hook.

(08:55):
A federal magistrate yesterday suggesting that profound investing negative missteps
by the government could provide Komy grounds for having his
case tossed out, and FEMA's director, who hadn't been on
the job long is already off the job, David Richardson
yesterday resigning as the acting head of FEMA. You've got

(09:17):
a lot of criticism for being slow to respond on
a couple of occasions, which is something we hear a
lot about these days when it comes to FEMA, no
matter who the president is. All right, friends, we've got that.
We got more coming your way here on this It's
the Tuesday morning edition of Columbia's Morning News and it's
always good to have you here. Listen anytime when I'm
going to work.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
With the iHeartRadio app, I downloaded the app on my phone,
I can listen.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Whenever I want.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
One O three point five FM and five sixty am
w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David
and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM
and five sixty am doub VOC six forty.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Good morning. Good to have you along for this Tuesday
morning edition. Columbia's Morning News is the eighteenth day of
November and is runoff day. City of Columbia two city
council seats up for grabs and runoffs. Today you got
the at large seat that is currently held by the
incumbent Adity Bustles. She's being challenged by Sam Johnson, who

(10:22):
was former chief of staff to Mayor Steve Benjamin and
Johnson actually picked up more votes a couple of tuesdays
ago in the at large election on November fourth, he
got forty seven percent of all the ballots. Bustles finished
up with forty three percent. This one has been a
bit contentious. Bustles has accused of Johnson's followers of you know,

(10:47):
saying untoward things about her online and that he wasn't
you know, telling them not to do it, and back
and forth, and well, so the war words has gone
on there. Peter District four race picked up more votes
a couple weeks ago than did his challenger Julie Lumpkin,
but they didn't quite get to fifty percent. They got

(11:10):
to was forty seven percent almost. She was in thirty
percent in that race a couple of weeks back, so
that they're heading to that runoff the day as well.
This one has been interesting because again the mayor, Daniel
Rickamand has been featured in well really every commercial that
Johnson has been or Brown i should say, has been airing,

(11:30):
and it has been a lot of them. So, yeah,
the mayor has taken a personal vested interest in this
race for the district four seats. So polls open at
seven o'clock this morning. Now what, it's been a little
bit of time and talk about this because it's been
interesting to watch, and some are maybe making more of

(11:51):
it than is really there. Or or maybe it is
really there, and that is is Maga souring on Trump.
You know, a week or two back, he made a
comment about H one B workers and made it it
came off as though we just don't have enough talented

(12:12):
people in this country and we need to, you know,
keep issuing these H one B visas. That that was
in an interview with Lori Ingram about a week ago,
said we needed to import more people because current citizenry
not skilled or talent enough to do certain jobs. Well,
yesterday I went to ask He said to reporters that

(12:36):
H one B migrant workers are needed because Americans don't
know how to make microchips, saying, for instance, if you're
going to be making chips, we don't make chips much
here anymore. We're going to be in a period of
a year, we're going to have a big portion of
the ship market. But we have to train our people
how to make chips because we didn't get it. Know,

(13:00):
how that ever came to pass. I've been questioning that
for years. How he let that slip away? But but
there it was. Does he have a point? You know?
But this has rubbed a lot of people the wrong
way that we don't have enough talented people to do
certain things. So that was one of the things that

(13:24):
that that that got folks.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Riled up, and she pushed back on him that night
in that.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
In that interview, Yeah, lor Ingram, which you won't find,
you know, a bigger Trump cheerleader than Ingram. But we're
starting to see this. There's been criticisms of Trump had
spoken out and said, you know it was you know,
he was okay with with this interview that uh Nick
Fouintes did with brain Drop what's his name? Former Fox

(13:53):
News host now does his his zone podcast thank you
Is it Monday Again? And then there's the saber rattling
going on that's unnerved a lot of people. Yesterday, in
the oval, Trump not ruling out using ground troops to

(14:16):
take care of what he said to take care of Venezuela,
that he wouldn't all out anything among options for dealing
with that South American country, and that rubs a lot
of people the wrong way. Uh, you know, we've got
a carrier group that's stationed there, you know, drone strikes,

(14:38):
you know, covert CIA action which goes on everywhere all
the time, or one thing. You know, certainly ratcheting it
up when you're talking about you know, flying planes over
and putting an aircraft carrier group there. But I mean
boots on the ground again for a president who ran

(15:01):
on you know, getting us out of forum worse and
his well, he's gotten other countries out of out of wars,
been pretty successful doing that. But this is rubbing a
number of people the wrong way. Now, some say, all
this is just a Trump's method of distraction, distracting from

(15:22):
things like you know this whole Epstein saga. Well, we'll
be talking about that a little bit later on, as
the House will take that vote today whether or not
to release all those files, and it looks like they will.
So I just there's some thoughts here on a Tuesday morning.
I don't know, what are your feelings. If you have
any you'd like to share with this, feel free. You

(15:44):
can always use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
You don't have that download it's absolutely free the app store,
the Google play Store. All right, Now, the economy, Uh,
Trump again talking yesterday about this idea of terror funded
dividend payments. Again, this is something again that strikes some people,

(16:06):
rubs them the wrong way. This idea was first floated
about a week ago, two thousand dollars payments to low
and middle inco Americans. Anything left over would to go
towards paying down the national debt, which is now over
thirty eight trillion dollars. Okay, Trump yesterday saying that we

(16:33):
could see these these checks roll out as soon as
next year. I see what is next year? That'd be
the midterm. That'd be the midterms, right, talking about dividends
by mid twenty twenty six.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
I mean, do you think that would affect people's I
guess it would, you know, getting a check from the
federal governments. Sure, some people see that, oh windfall of.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Low information voters.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, But I don't see how a majority
of Americans can look that as a good thing. I mean,
they know how everybody talks about the dead, even people,
even the low in the low information voters, They know
about the dead and the you know the fact that
we're running up deathsuts every year.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
And yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you there,
mister Thomas. You think so, I'm not sure that many
are even aware of or what even means. And you
think what the ratifications are free money sways that even
though again, even though they might be aware of it,
it's going to play a distant second fiddle to a

(17:43):
two thousand dollars check in their mailbox, because this is
what our society has become conditioned to give me the
free stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
All right, Well, hey, let's be real here.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
If we were talking about if this was Joe Biden
or Gavin Newsom or Kambala Harris or any other Democrat
who was sitting in the Oval office and was saying, yeah,
I'm gonna I'm gonna be cutting a bunch of people
a two thousand dollars check about mid twenty twenty six,
just a few months ahead of the midterms. What would
your reaction be to that?

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Cynical?

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Right?

Speaker 2 (18:21):
I mean, that's all. We can't be about it if
it's them and not when it's us.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
You're buying voters, Yeah, you're buying votes.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
All right. Well, and you know what, this may this
may well be needed. Well, we'll talk a little bit
later on about what Kevin Hassett, who's the director of
the National Economic Council, said about artificial intelligence creating a
quiet time in the labor markets. Uh.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, we'll roll back around of that here in a
little while.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
You were listening to Columbia's Morning news on one oh
three point five FM on five six AMBVOC Once again,
here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
The seven fifteen Borningtilia for Tuesday, November the eighteenth. It
looks like air travel, they're telling us, is getting back
to normal here a week and two days away from
Thanksgiving Day, just in the Nico time. Huh, and we're
expecting record numbers of people to travel for Thanksgiving. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Some folks may have canceled their airline plans.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I was talking to somebody the other day, a friend
of mine who's he and his wife are going on
on a Thanksgiving week cruise out of Port Canaverala. Think
he told us normally they just fly down there, but
he said, now we're driving this time. I said, probably
a pretty good call.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
Yeah, don't blame him for that. Uh, just checking the
board at Metro's gonna be a Metro.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Just just one.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
There's one cancelation today, not Airlines flight to d C
scheduled for one o'clock stafter. I'm not sure if I
had anything to do with the you know, not getting
back to total normal yet but or not, but just
just just the one. We didn't have a lot of
delays that we had some certainly during the shutdown, but
you know, not like a lot of other people saw. Thankfu.
So all of that for what Here we sit now

(20:05):
on the eighteenth of November, and we're talking about what
to do with these sub seats. Before we get to
that note here, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
has released a notice for an increase in pricing in
Medicare Part B for twenty twenty six. The twenty six

(20:29):
premium is nine point seven percent higher than the twenty
twenty five standard premium rate. It was one eighty five
for Part B, now it's going to be two two ninety.
That's nearly twice the percentage increase we saw in twenty
twenty five. Again, which begs the question why all of

(20:52):
a sudden are we seeing insurance rates for healthcare skyrocket?
I mean again subsidy issue aside here even without even
if the subsidies stay in place, uh, for Obamacare, rates
are still going up. For folks under employees sponsored health
care plans, rates have gone up. And if they haven't,

(21:13):
look at your deductibles. Look what what might have happened there?

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (21:17):
There? Why all of us are why this this year
twenty twenty six? What the prices for healthcare in this
country have been an adeline and ridiculous now for a long, long,
long time. But why all of a sudden in this
particular year next year are they? Are they skyricking like
they are? Does anybody have an answer for that? I'd

(21:40):
like to know and you probably would too. Now about
the subsidies, uh, Trump saying that he is, Uh, he's
talking with Democrats about a direct healthcare payment plan. So
he had conversations over the weekend. He had personal talks

(22:02):
of Democrats, he said this Sunday. He didn't name any names,
but he said he talked to him about paying large
amounts of dollars back to the people. This was the
Trump idea. Remember this rolled out the trial balloon floated
a week or two back. Rather than having these enhanced
subsidies being paid directly to the health insurance companies, they

(22:24):
would be paid to the UH, the insured individual. Now,
when it's all said and done, I'm not smart enough
to know if that does or does not impact the
system a flawed system in Obamacare or not. But this
is this is the idea that Trump's been putting out there,

(22:47):
saying that the insurance companies are making a fortune, that
they're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars and not
really putting it back certainly like they should. He said, Now, again,
this is a this is an argument that's not gonna
fall on deaf ears because a lot of people have
that same impression.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
But how does it How does though? Yeah, how does
it work?

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I don't know. Now. Bill Cassidy, who's the Senate Help
Committee chair, put out his own proposal yesterday, and it
sounds a lot like Trump's.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
Does allow the baseline subsidy to continue to apply to
a policy on the exchanges, but the enhanced subsidy, as
the President says, will be put into a health savings account.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Okay, so they're not cutting. The government's not cutting yet, check.
It's going to put that money to a health savings
on HSA.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
That you can then spend on things like prescriptions and supplies,
et cetera.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
HSA is gonna be yeah, spend on anything that is
you know, health related. Okay, again, I'm not sure how
that changes the dynamic that we're still you know, subsidizing
healthcare in this country for so many people. Huh, Okay, Well,

(24:17):
House Republicans are in a rush now they've been they
were gone for you know, seven weeks during the shutdown,
and now they're they're they're rushing in.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Now they're scramming.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yes, political reports. Republicans of the House are just starting
to have serious discussions about how to address skyrocketing health
insurance premiums.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
I mean, come on, folks, this has.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Been hanging over our heads for a while.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Now.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
You knew this was coming, You said you had a plan.
It was obviously you didn't. This This is just this
is fumbling the football.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Case in point here, They're going to have their first
conference wide conversation this morning on whether or not to
negotiate an extension with the Democrats or go ahead with
a separate Conservative healthcare agenda number one? What is that
separate conservative health care agenda? I guess it's this plan
that Trump is douting. Ah, but they're just now again. Okay,

(25:21):
maybe they had not been for the shutdown, Maybe they
could have done this seven weeks ago. I don't know
would they have. So today is the first day they're
going to have this conference wide discussion on where do
we go from here? The outt reporting that two people,
two sources granted anonymity, say that leadership will lead a

(25:46):
high level discussion and a closed door meeting about a
how to address rising health care costs. I'd look, if
you got the answer to that one, yeah, okay, then
everybody's going to vote for you. All right, Sorry, reality check,
you don't have an answer for that one. Nobody seems to.

(26:07):
So how to address these rising costs? And again trying
to put together a legislation under yes, a very tight deadline.
It's November the eighteenth. As of January one, these enhance
subsidies go away. And I don't want to I don't
want to come off like I'm saying, yeah, we ought

(26:28):
to keep these things. They are the greatest things that
slash about. I don't want to do that. But the
Republicans know that they've got a midterm election problem now
if they don't do something now. Again, on the Senate side,
they're they're well, I don't know if you can say,
light years ahead of the House side. But John Thune

(26:51):
has promised to vote, but not until mid December on
the Senate floor about what to do about this, whether
to extend them or or how to go about this.
At last check, Mike Johnson, the House speakers couldn't guarantee
there'd be a House floor vote on this.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
There's going to have to be. But again, question is
is when are you gonna do this?

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Here it comes Thanksgiving, there's some more time off now
you want to break for Christmas?

Speaker 4 (27:16):
Right, and then you're staring into their shutdown in the face.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
And yeah, and in January you could shut right back
down again. I don't think that's going to happen because
I think that the Republicans are going to be forced
to And here's the problem, right, because you don't have
a coherent plan already developed, you're going to wind up
having to take something that you really don't want to do,
but you're gonna do it anyway. And the Democrats are

(27:43):
going to get an extension of the Affordable Care Act
insurance enhance subsidies, and guess what, they're still going to
use that as a campaign point in twenty twenty six. Yeah,
the Republicans are gonna let these expire. But we played hardball,
we went to bat for you. We got them extended.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
So after losing this shutdown, they could still wind up winning.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
They could still wind up winning. Yeah, and sorry if
I just gave them the talking point. But trust me,
there that's already the talking point. Oh yeah, that's exactly
what they're gonna do. You know what, I know what
everybody knows it. So again, if you had if you
had come up with a with a sensible plan when
you had the time to do it, like you know,
I don't know, year two, three years ago, and had
it ready to roll out while we got a twenty

(28:26):
twenty five, you could have avoided all this. But you didn't.
So you're caught shorthanded. And now you know there's going
to be a price to pay. Sorry the conversation begins.
Here's just a society problem.

Speaker 5 (28:39):
Just w peopack Nowadays, they don't think they've just added.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
One o three point five five sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
Now more of Columbia's morning news with Gary David and
Christopher Thompson right here on one o three point five
FM and five sixty am w VOC.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Thank you, Sean, it's seven forty and it's good to
have you with us for Tuesday, November the eighteenth. All right, Oh,
let me preface this by saying that any Republican gubernatorial
candidate worth their salt is talking about cutting our state's
income tax. All right, that's if you're not talking about that,
forget it. You don't get a seat at the primary

(29:22):
table and the legislature. Of course, remember they teased us
last year. Remember the ill fated idea of the.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
The new tax plan before they had figured out the
new tax plan.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Right that one. Yeah, kind of like, you know, alluding
to our last conversation a few minutes ago about the
Republicans up on Capitol Hill and you know, not not
thinking through a and having a cohesive health care idea. Here.
The state House did that last year when it came
to taxes. They threw out this plan. Everybody was, oh,

(29:57):
this is fantastic, until you get out the calculus. The calculator.
It didn't require calculus. It was much simpler than that.
You could have done it on an abacus. That yeah,
middle class earners in our state would have wound up
paying more under this plan, not less. So they quickly

(30:20):
had to shew that idea. And then here comes to talk, Well,
you know what, we could just do away with this.
I mean around here you always think of Florida as
a state with no income tax. Truth of the matter is,
I think the number is up to about thirteen now, yeah,
I mean it's you've got to be competitive. We talk
all the time about these industries who you know, were

(30:41):
actively recruiting. Well, that's one of the reasons people want
to live here, businesses want to do business here is
because you've got a tax friendly environment.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Right.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
The next state to come online, and I don't think
they're there yet, but they will be in some short
order is Mississippi. And for crying out loud, right, if
Mississippi can find a way to do it, certainly South
Carolina can. But how do you go about doing that?
The tough part is is that in the state that well,

(31:14):
at the end of every fiscal year magically discovers these
enormous surpluses in the state budget. You think it could
be pretty easy, but the problem is that so much
of our state's revenue is generated from this income tax
base that it's a lot to make up. As I recall,
the number is somewhere above sixty percent, and I'd have

(31:36):
to double check that. But I think I'm in the
ballpark with that. So I say all that to tell
you this that Nancy Mace has rolled out a plan.
She included a presentation called South Carolina's Path of Prosperity,

(31:57):
and one of them misgetting us from our current tax
structure to having no state income tax in five to
seven years. Although it's it's titled five years to zero,
but it's just five to seven years. You're didn't sound
as sexy.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Okay, So this is income tax.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
This is state income tax. Yes, And the state paper
rolling out laying out what she rolled out. It includes
one capping the general fund spending at eleven point six
billion dollars a year. Two using surplus money above the cap, again,
which we do get every year, it seems like around here,

(32:36):
and use that towards an income tax reduction.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
Yeah, but you can't plan on us problem right there. Yeah,
I hope for surplus well, actually, you don't hope for
surp surplus, right, you hope your spending is fairly balanced.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
But it's like giving Uncle Sam way too much money
all year long, yeah, and then getting a big refund
check and you know, next spring, which feels good then,
but in the meantime you Uncle Sam player their.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Money, right.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
I'd rather the state not take as much if it's
going to have a lot leftover.

Speaker 7 (33:05):
Mm hm.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
So yeah, Number two using surplus money above that eleven
point six billion dollars year cap. And by the way,
you cap general fund spending, what happens when you have
do have emergencies? Well, an'tu? So Number three pausing reducing
or eliminating ear marks, Well, you know, I don't think

(33:28):
you're going to find too many citizens in South Carolina
to have an issue with that, Robins, You're going to
find too many politicians that have an issue with that.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Well, I thought we had tried to do away with those,
at least the ones that are hidden in the state budget.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
We have at least temporarily right. Number four mandating a
four percent cut a year by every state agency for
five years. Okay, kind of a slow motion doge sort
of effort. It sounds like Number five, eliminating boards and

(34:02):
commissions that don't serve key functions. Okay, cool with that.
I don't have much money that saves you, but you
know that's fine. Number six a hiring freeze and offering
early retirement, So no more hiring into state government and
offering folks early retirement. Of course that cost, but still

(34:23):
there another doze sounding effort right there. And finally auditing
administrative overhead and sun setting low impact or duplicative government programs.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
And we do have a lot of those, and that's
another doze type effort.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Yes, so a lot of these ideas may not sound
original because quite honestly they're not.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
I know, she didn't say raise sales tax, raise no
property taxes yet, no, because that's what a lot of
states do that don't have income taxes. There, Yeah, I
mean they've got to find a way to you know,
make the fire engines keep running and the police keep
policing and everything else.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
So yeah, money's got to be brought in. Yeah, and
this is the again, this is the problem. And but
this is what the Republicans are saying right now and
all of them. Yeah, we can cut our state income
tax without raising other taxes. Huh okay, I don't know

(35:22):
how that works. It'd be great if it did. Now, again,
this is every Republican running for governor is saying the
same thing. This is not a Nancy Mace exclusive idea here. Well,
you just read what her ideas were though. M h
all right, so that's different than somebody else's plan. Probably

(35:43):
we'll see what the other's plans are.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yeah, I'm sure now they'll be rolling them out pretty
quickly here.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah. But the top line is is that they all
want to get our income tax phased out here over
some period of time.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
And I probably confused when I said fire engines and police.
That's more property tax is an income taxes?

Speaker 8 (36:01):
Mean?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, that's I mean, you got something's got to get
ready somewhere, something's got to get raised in order to
keep the state moving.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah. Now, one of the ideas would be, of course,
that well by doing this, as you started off this
topic by talking about, you're going to attract more business here.
More people want to come here. It's a big, you know,
advantage when it comes to taxation, of course, but we've
already got a lot of people and business is coming here.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Anyway, it would require we draw in.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
More and more. But if they're not paying state income tax,
does that really solve anything. They'll be paying property taxes
and sales taxes and such. Yeah, but I don't know
that just bringing in more people. Hey, I'm all for this,
trust me. I want to see this work. I want

(36:54):
to see somebody get a plan that works. I'm just
not sure you know what that looks like. And again,
in a state that's growing by leaps and bounds, it's
going to require more government services, more government workers, more
this more that.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
I'd just like to see what the numbers look like
and how much more we're paying in other areas in
order for this to work.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
But you know, if you're running for governor, you can't
talk about that part.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
No, No, you're not going to say, by the way,
I'm going to raise your property taxes. This is how
I'm going to pay for this plan. You know, I'm
going to raise this or raise that.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, or you're.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Now going to pay you know, ten percent on every
everything you buy at the cash register? What are we
paying now? It's five or six? Right, six or seven? Well,
it depends on where you live.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, if you got that penny sales tax followed by
another penny sales tax. You know, soonerly it all starts
to add up. Right again, this will be fantastic, and well,
we'll get the you know, the ideas and the plans
directly from all the rest of the the Republican gubernatorial candidates.
They've all they all want to do this, they'll all
lay it out. But yeah, we need Okay, this is great,

(38:18):
but how do we make up for what we just lost?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
And is it going to be worse than what we
have now?

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (38:24):
I mean that was that was our problem with the
plan the State House ad right, yeah, oh god, wait
a minute, that's going to be worse for most of us.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Well, I'm sure there are enterprising individuals out there a
lot smarter than me that'll start crunching numbers when all
these plans rolled out, and they'll say, Okay, here's why
it will work or here's why it won't work. So
let's pay folks, let's put together one that will work,
and let's try to get there.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher
Thompson on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w voc I lived.

Speaker 8 (38:59):
In Colorado for a short while, and the Colorado income
tax is four and a half percent versus South Carolina's
six and a half percent. So even a blue state
like Colorado seems to be able to find a way
to get their systems.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
A reduction in income tax.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Okay, well, thanks for weighing in there. It's James winging
in on talkback.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Could James, thank you for listening first up, and thanks
for hitting us up on the talk back line on.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
The free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
If you don't have it, get it doesn't cost you
anything and you can talk back to us as well.
I don't know. Maybe that's because Colorado is making money
selling dope. True, they were the first, right, some legalized marijuana,
wasn't Colorado.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
I'm not sure if they were the first or not.
They were one of the first, I think, and I
mean you hear people who live in those states. Yeah,
it makes some money, and yeah it's initially a boon.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
But I'm not advocating for that here.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
Yeah, it's a different world after a little while. I mean,
you smell it everywhere and you go to you go
to states or cities where it's legal, and it's it's
a different environment.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
I got to tell you this quick story here and
then we'll move on. A couple of weeks ago, and
and I had We're in a a neighborhood and we
pull up in the driveway. I thought, smells like marijuana. Sure,
let these two guys next door walk into the garage
or whatever. I happened to notice that one of the

(40:30):
cars had a Colorado license plate high.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
Well, it doesn't have to be legal here. I mean,
you still smell it. You can get behind a car
on the interstate and.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
You can smell it.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, anyway, but thanks for waving on it. Yeah, four
and a half percent, and they in a big blue state.
I mean, come on, truth and batter is. We could
probably reduce ours from six and a half to four
and a half easily with all these budget surpluses we
have year after year after year.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
But you know what's going to happen. It's it's it's
it's Murphy's law.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
The first time we do that, suddenly the surplus drives
up and we're short of money.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
That words dipping into the emergency fund.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Yes, all right, well, today is the day the House
we'll have that full floor vote on whether or not
to release the Epstein viles. So here goes that I
had some audio here somewhere that my computer just took
a nose diyb on me here. Oh anyway, okay, oh,
there we go a couple of comments from a couple

(41:24):
of people.

Speaker 9 (41:25):
You know, we have nothing to do with Epstein and
Democrats too. All of his friends were Democrats. You look
at this Redhoff and you look at Larry Summers, Bill Clinton,
they went to his island all the time. Many of
this oral Democrats.

Speaker 7 (41:39):
And it's a complete and total surrender because as Democrats,
we may claim from the very beginning the survivors and
the American people deserve full and complete transparency.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
So let the hips fallward the bay. That last words,
course of Acheim Jeffery is the House Minority leader.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
At least he got the memo. Yesterday, Schumer was still saying, oh,
Trump's hiding everything. We've got to force him to release.
Even as Trump had said released the files, Schumer's you know,
going on that on the floor of the Senate, saying,
oh Trump was hiding again. At least the King Jeffrey's

(42:17):
got the memo that Trump had been on board with this.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, so release the Kraken. Uh, here we go.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
So that that vote today and officials of the White
House said they're not at all concerned about this this vote.
Now that again the the turn up events here, because
it was just a week ago that Trump was making
phone calls to you know, people like Lauren Bobert to

(42:46):
Nancy Mace, trying to convince them not to vote yes
on that discharge position petition. Rather remember it was Mace,
it was Bobert, of course, Massy, and I can't remember
who the other, Oh, Marjorie Taylor Green, right, who are
all the Republicans going to vote for the discharge petition

(43:08):
that would have forced the Speaker's hand to bring this
thing to a vote today. Just a week ago he
was a lobbying those people not to vote for the
discharge position petition. I said it again, and then in
the last couple of days he changed his tune on that,
which still a lot of people are trying to figure
that out. Word is that Republicans in the House now

(43:35):
are quickly falling in line behind this bill. To prominent
House committee chairs say they plan to support the bill.
One of those, Jim Jordan, a week ago, you would
have been your wildest dreams thought that Jim Jordan would
support this, but he will. Now there there people that said, yeah,

(44:01):
the idea, they they've whitewashed this thing, They've made ray
verdacted everywhere. Drum are we Do you think that we might?
The Trump says, will sign this thing. If the House passes,
the Senate passes it, he'll sign it. He says, you
don't think we're going to wind up again with something

(44:23):
that gets put out there that's going to be so
heavily redacted. They were like, you did this to us again.
I suppose that's possibility, But it looks like again some
of Trump's close his eyes in the House or are
going to heed his advice and they're going to vote
to release all this today. Now will the Senates agree

(44:48):
as well? Quite honestly, I don't see this point. Why not?
The Republican talking point is they're not talking about their
their feelings are Is that again? The Democrats are well,
they say that they're trying to drag this out as
long as possible to hurt Trump. Truth be known. Before
the shutdown, remember, the House speaker called an early recess

(45:11):
to avoid this very thing, to avoid a full house
for vote on releasing these files. So well, you know,
Republicans now are thinking the Democrats trying to drag this out.
It was the Republicans who were to try to drag
this out. Well. Anyhow, a story that we've almost forgotten
about now is thru Us right back into the forefront

(45:34):
and one of the now I've used the term loosely
here victims of all this. Larry Sommers, who was one
time the president of Harvard University and of course worked
in the Obama administration as a key cabinet member, is
going to step back from all public roles this after

(45:55):
again last week, some of these Epstein emails came out,
and it wasn't a good look for him. It showed
continued communications between uh Summers and Jeffrey Epstein. Summers appeared

(46:16):
to place his trust in Epstein when it came to
romantic relationships. He was pursuing a young woman who was
well he was mentoring. Yes, yes, Epstein these emails described
himself as being Summer's wingman.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
Well yeah, I mean, if you want to know how
to woo a young woman, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
So, writing that he is deeply ashamed of his actions
and recognizes the painties caused. He is uh withdrawing from
all public roles at Harvard or anywhere else.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
You know, usually somebody who's been in the political realm
or who's been in charge of a university has enough
of a conscience and has enough of a sense of awareness.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
But before you say that, I got I got one name. Yeah, okay,
James Holderman, All right, well the guy whose name is
on my diploma.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
By the way, Usually they have enough of awareness about
you know, the waste society feels to know when enough
is enough. And this is after Epstein was already behind bars.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Some of these were Yeah if Epstein's been in trouble
with the law for a long time, yeah, he was
before he was finally put behind bars, whether he was
jailed or not. I mean the whole Florida thing. I mean,
everybody knew this is not a good guy.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
But what does that make Larry Summers then just absolutely
just tone deaf.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Or somebody thinking with something other than his brain.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Okay, there you go, Okay, all right.

Speaker 6 (47:56):
I'm just saying, if you're a squatter, you have more
rights than.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Homo shot nity.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
Just saying one on three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC. You're listening to Columbia's Morning news
on one oh three point five FM and five sixty
am w VOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher
Thompson say forty.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
It's Tuesday, number eighteenth. Of course, big newsday is going
to be this House vote coming up on whether or
not to release the Epstein files in full. The House
does vote and looks more and more like they will.
The Republicans are getting on board. Uh, Trump pulled them too,
and let's have they're going to do that. Then we'll
go to the Senate and then if they pass that,
and Trump says he will in fact sign that bill

(48:44):
to release the Epstein files. So that will be the
big story today. Watching that, we get a couple of runoffs.
City of Columbia Council polls were open now. The at
large race, the incumbent Adedi Bustles and Sam Johnson, the
former Columbia Mayor, Steve Benjamin, chief of staff. A couple

(49:06):
of weeks ago. Johnson actually brought in more votes than
did Bustles and Peter Brown, who's been starring in a
lot of commercials with the current mayor, Daniel Rickeman, as
in a race for a District four seat with Julie Lumpkin.
He easily got most of the votes two weeks ago,
but didn't quite crack fifty percent. Okay, so polls are

(49:27):
open now. I can't believe I missed this story Jonathan
Kelly were talking about about Mark Sandford. Yeah, how did
I not see that this morning? If I swallowed every
drop of water from the tower above your house, I
would still thirst for you.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Okay, guys, he is aromanic, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yeah. If you need a good pickup line, don't ask
Mark Sandford for it though, all right, Okay, come on, And.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
If you're Mark Sandford, stop writing it down everything you think, right, Yeah, just.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Keep it to yourself. Due. Yeah, this is if you
missed that political reporter Olivia Newsy who's apparently had relationships
with lots of famous people.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
No, he was not married at the time.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
No was she she was in a relationship. She was
not married. Now, okay with another reporter, and he's the
one who's spilling all the beans.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Now, I got you.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Oh, and also, love Gov, don't get involved with anybody
who was ever involved with Keith Olberman. That should be
a big red flag right there. Okay, a couple thoughts
here before we scoot on out. Yesterday, first day of
screenings for judicial candidates with the Judicial Merit Selection Commission.

(50:41):
It's the annual screenings they do. Well. We had a
former House Speaker who wants to be on the Supreme Court.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
And wants to stay there.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, he would like to stay there. We passed the
mandatory seventy two retirement age.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
I mean we've had in recent times, we've had justices
finally get to the chief Justice role and immediately have
to step down. Yeah, exactly because of the mandatory age.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
How old is Jay lu Because I don't even know
he looks like I mean, if he doesn't color that hair,
God bless him.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
I mean, he looks a lot younger than he is.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Well, he'd like to stay there until he's eighty.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
And I didn't know this was a thing where you
could just simply say, I'll stay as long as you
don't pay me, as long as.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
He's sixty nine. There we go. I just found it. It's
no wonder he wants to.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
I'll stay as long as I don't get a pension.
That's possible.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
That shouldn't be possible.

Speaker 4 (51:37):
That seemed to take the Judicial Merit Selection Commission by surprise.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Well, the state's mandatory retirement age for judges and justices
is seventy two. Just because you say I'll do it
without getting paid, that shouldn't change the dynamic at all,
I wouldn't think. But yeah, I mean, if he's named
of the bench, you'd only serve three years, So yeah,
I get it why he'd like to make it till
eighty College at Charleston With a new statewide effort launched

(52:04):
to try to make college more accessible and yes, affordable,
Starting in the fall of next year, the South Carolina
Talent Initiative will guarantee that eligible there's that word eligible, Okay.
In state, students with financial need receivedly sixty five percent
of that needed to cover through a combination of scholarships, grants,

(52:27):
and institutional aid.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Now is that using things like the Hope Scholarship, And.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
That's got to play in there somewhere, right, Yes, yeah,
gotta be. I mean, okay, you got an institution like
the University of South Carolina CLEMS and these big you know,
state supported schools, not totally state supported again, but still
you know, they're not really worried. But you get to
these you know, these private colleges, they're expensive places to.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Go, man, they are.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
And they're under the gun though, like all these other
state institutions to keep in state kids in state. So
I guess this is, as they see it, one way
to do it.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, they've got to do something because, yeah, if the
trend is is for more and more kids to come
out of high school and say you either go to a
trade school or just say I'm gonna start a career
right now that you know, college and all that debt
is just not worth it. Yeah, and it's these private
institutions are going to really feel the pinch. Hub Around

(53:27):
the rock Hill area, we're getting word that businesses are
are well, are seeing the impact of what's happening just
north of they've been Charlotte Operation. Charlotte's Web is well.
I'm hearing stories about, you know, schools having a lot
of vacancies and you know, businesses are empty. And I
can tell you the Libers and Charlotte are freaking out

(53:48):
over this. One hundred and thirty arrested in the first
couple of days, according to Homeland Security. They started this
on Saturday, where we saw eighty one and just five hours. Okay,
So the Libs want you to think they're just going
in and if your skin color is not right, there
snatching you up. When they went in there, they had

(54:11):
a laundry list because there are some fourteen hundred or
some odd detainers that the State of North Carolina has
refused to honor. So they know exactly who they're looking
for exactly. By the way, the granddaughter of E. B. White,
who wrote that children's book Charlotte's Webb, is now upset

(54:36):
that the FEDS are using Operation Charlotte's Web for this. Okay.
I mentioned this earlier, kind of alluded to, We talked
a bit about it, and I go on honestly forgot
to Kevin Hassett, who's the director of the National Economic Council,
saying on CNBC yesterday that ARTI initial intelligence is creating

(55:01):
what he called a quiet time in the labor market
as it diminishes the necessity of entry level workers. Uhh.
This is uh, this is this is the story we're
gonna hear a lot more of. And there's no two

(55:27):
ways about it. A quiet time. But it's not just
entry level jobs. This is this is a cow that's
out of the barn and ain't no turning that one back.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
Yeah, Jeff Bezos just announced yesterday that he's co leading
a new AI startup and he's got some success with startups.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Just a few yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
A judge scolding the Justice Department for what the judge
calls profound and instigative misteps that could result in this
indictment against James Comy being dropped. Fundamental misteps of the
law by the prosecutor of the grand jury. If that's
the case, how does that happen? Okay, this is not

(56:18):
John Doe, you know, this is James Comy. This is
a high profile case. I'm not sure what the missteps
are or if what the judge says they are is accurate.
But if so, how do you make those mistakes? Huh?
My goodness. Senate Dems looking to investigate some of the

(56:40):
messaging during the shutdown, and quite honestly, I don't blame them.
We brought this up. The administration had put well wording
on return emails from like the Department of Education and
others that, you know, thanks to the Democrats shutdown, which yeah,
I agree with it was, but still, I mean that
was kind of juvenile, I thought, and quite honestly, you're

(57:01):
not supposed to be doing that, but they did. But
how far will they go? Democrats? The news that a
staffer for Senator Tammy Duckworth fired now after DHS said
he misrepresented himself as an attorney of an attained illegal
immigrant to help try to get the man's release. Wow, yeah,
he's not a lawyer. He didn't rep this guy. He

(57:23):
was a staffer for a US senator who's now out
of a job and a brand new Acpeopole American Communities
Project poll shows that well, in our big cities now,
Americans don't see this as being a top issue anymore,
this being climate change. It was the fifth highest policy

(57:45):
issue in these big blue cities in twenty twenty three.
It's now the ninth biggest issue. Hello, somebody quick tell
Al Gore