November 26, 2024 • 32 mins
What if Donald Trump's election victory could redefine the construction industry landscape? Join us, Eric Smith and Donnie Blanchard, as we unpack this bold notion and discuss the newfound consumer confidence that's energizing the construction sector. We'll also explore how Trump's policies, particularly his focus on immigration enforcement, might reshape the labor force while evaluating the broader implications of a renewed America-first agenda on building projects nationwide.
Switching gears, we take a closer look at a proposed immigration reform called the ID and tax bill, which aims to bring undocumented immigrants into the workforce with legal work permits. By increasing tax revenue and allowing access to financial options without welfare or voting rights, this reform could be a game-changer. We share insights into the political dynamics at play, with a light-hearted take on potential government reshuffles featuring figures like Matt Gaetz. Reflecting on past elections, we suggest a period of introspection has revealed deeper anti-American sentiments in some policies.
Finally, we tackle the hot topic of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts being reconsidered by major companies. From Ford to UNC Chapel Hill, the shift toward a merit-based "QDEI" approach is gaining traction, celebrating natural diversity through qualifications and teamwork. In industries like construction, where skilled workers are essential, we advocate for productivity and quality as the ultimate goals. The conversation rounds off with a nod to existing minority and women-owned business programs, which stand separately from DEI mandates, highlighting the organic diversity present in the workforce.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
And welcome to another editionof the Carolina Contractor Show.
We're going to jump right intoit today because we're going to
be talking about the electionTrump has won.
Last week we talked aboutTrump's policies were going to
be overall and how they wouldaffect the country, the world,
(00:24):
you and I as individuals.
Today we're going to see howTrump's policies will have an
impact on the construction andbuilding industry.
But first a little introduction.
My name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for HomeBuilders.
Supply Across from me DonnieBlanchard.
He's a general contractor.
He's the owner of Sure TopRoofing, the owner of Blanchard
Building Company, and he alsofound us 20 million new
(00:45):
listeners.
I don't know where he got themfrom.
Evidently a few years ago theywere doing something else, but
now we got them over to the showand hitting the website.
If you want to join them,they're at
thecarolinacontractorcom.
You can also download pastshows there.
We got links to our socialmedia Facebook and Instagram.
Also, if there's a question youhave about the show, about the
20 million people or about yourhouse, it can be the inside, the
(01:08):
outside, the roof, the crawlspace inside, outside, it don't
matter.
Click on the Ask the Contractorbutton and that goes directly
to Donnie Any question you haveand he'll get back to you, and
sometimes we do a questions-onlyshow or that gives us a subject
idea that inspires us, and youcan also check out the show on
the YouTube site.
We started putting them upthere.
So if you want to check it out,start at the website
(01:30):
thecarolinacontractorcom, oragain go to the YouTube site and
just search Carolina ContractorShow and you can find it there.
Anything new in your worldsince the election, donnie oh
gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, the phone's been ringing a lot more and I
can hardly keep up.
We were, I am pleased to saythat we got a really busy spell,
maybe mid-summer and we wereworking out of that and that
carried over into the fall.
But we have some really bigjobs that have come in and I
want to say that that's going tobe attributed to consumer
confidence being a lot higherthan it was for the last four
years.
I think everybody was just kindof sitting on pins and needles
(02:03):
waiting to see what happened,but consumer confidence is
everything.
Everybody in every trade,supply, subcontractors,
everybody said things are movinga lot more than they were just
three weeks ago.
So that's great news.
All the way around.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's interesting because one of the sub-subjects
we're going to tackle today isthe consumer sentiment, or how
people are feeling.
So I'm going to hold this upand see if I can frame this
correctly.
We get trade magazines and thisone, though it might be
backwards on the screen themagazine's called Construction
Dimensions and it had an articleby a gentleman named Mark L
(02:36):
Johnson and it's about this verything how about the effects
that Trump might have onbuilding and construction?
The article was written beforethe election, so he had Kamala
Harris's positions versusTrump's.
Well, she lost.
So we don't care.
We just we're throwing thoseout.
We're just going to concentrateon some of the things he said
would happen if Trump won, andDonnie and I are going to throw
(02:58):
in our two cents on that too.
Basically, it's going to bethings that Donald might
actually do when he becomesofficially president for the
second time.
45 and 47.
That's kind of cool, and howit's going to affect the
building industry.
I will have to say, overall,once the election was over and
I'm not the first person to saythis, donnie it was like a
(03:19):
heaviness was lifted.
Everybody was kind of back tonormal and everybody's cool at
work and in the neighborhoodsonline.
It's been fun.
I got to admit I've lurked onsome of the social sites to
watch the left absolutely meltdown over his potential cabinet
appointments.
Have you followed any of that?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh yeah, and I don't have time for it, but I make
time for it and yeah, it's just,it's kind of funny to see.
And then you know, I'm not sowell versed on everybody.
A lot of these people are kindof new to me.
Anybody who didn't follow himthrough the campaign is a new
face.
And so I've done a littledigging on a few of these guys
and a couple of them are savages.
But I think we were kind ofscrewed up and I think we'd
(04:00):
gotten away from the Americafirst platform.
So that's really all I careabout.
And I think when you said theheaviness got lifted, it's
because I think the majority ofpeople in the country are
pro-American.
If you're smart, you'repro-American and if you're not,
get out of here.
It's one of those things wherethat heaviness, you know, I
think that's attributed topeople seeing this America first
movement making a wave in theother direction again and it was
(04:24):
going pretty far the other wayand that's scary man.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, that's interesting because the first
subject we want to talk aboutwas immigration.
Enforcement will be returning,we would assume with Trump he's
going to go back to the oldpolicies.
Now one of the problems he hadlast time was he said I'm going
to build the wall and the moneywouldn't get appropriated to him
, so he tried to do someworkarounds.
He couldn't get the money thatway and it basically got shut
(04:48):
down.
A lot of it Republicans, or wecan use the term the rhinos, a
Republicans, a name only.
That just kind of saw him as anadversary.
So the first thing in thisarticle is the guy said there's
multiple people and I forgive mefor misquoting or
misattributing some of thesepieces of information, but this
magazine article was so good.
One guy said the first thing weneed to do and we mentioned
(05:12):
this last week is stop thesupply of illegal immigration or
focus on the supply sideenforcement, and you had an
excellent metaphor for this,donnie.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, isn't that just common sense In the roofing
world?
Gosh, if you got a leak andyour house has taken on water,
the first thing you do is stopthe water intrusion, you stop
the leak man.
You don't go fix the drywalland the insulation and paint and
fix the inside before you stopthe water from coming in.
So that seems like common sense.
But I think, in terms of youknow the deportation threats and
(05:45):
all the things that are goingaround right now that are
scaring the heck out of a lot ofpeople in the construction
world, just stop the inflow.
Just stop the inflow, and Ithink that'll make a big
difference.
Have you?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
seen who Trump wants to be as borders are.
Tom Homan yeah, I did.
He's a savage.
If anybody out there has notseen him or is not familiar with
him, search Tom Homan,h-o-m-a-n and AOC.
Because Cortez asked him somequestion about separating
families and he's no nonsense.
He speaks legally andemotionally.
(06:16):
And then another representativein the past couple of years
accused him of not liking brownpeople and doesn't know what
it's like to have afive-year-old die and he
absolutely shreds him.
I can't wait till Homan gets incharge of immigration.
He said he'd do it for free ifhe's asked.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Nice.
Yeah, a lot of these guys aredoing it for free.
They just believe in the causeand I think that's wonderful.
But did you see where youmentioned AOC?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
no-transcript really bugs me again.
I mentioned this last week, butit just really bugs me, as
people on the left tend to saywell, if you don't have the
immigrants here and we'respeaking illegal, well, who's
(07:29):
going to pick your fruit, yourvegetables and mow your lawn?
And I'm like what is thisleft's fascination with having
almost slave labor wages andslaves working for them where
they actually think, no, weshould have these people here
because they'll work for pennieson the dollar and get all that
dirty work done for me so I canlive this higher upper crust
bourgeois lifestyle that theythey're preaching all the time.
It's.
It's so insulting to legalimmigrants especially.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
They were pro-slavery back then and I guess maybe
they reworded it, you know, inthe 1800s and that they maybe
they reworded it and it sounds alittle different now, but when
it comes right down to it andthe way that they feel and act,
I mean it's almost like they'restill in that same mindset.
Man Sad.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, and like we were talking about Rush Limbaugh
earlier.
As Rush would say, I haven'tseen Democrats this mad since
Lincoln freed their slaves.
All right.
Another thing on theimmigration.
Here's the thing they want todo, because people are saying,
well, if you get rid of theillegal immigrants, what are we
(08:29):
going to do?
I don't know if you take everyillegal or undocumented person
here and just kick them out, butone of the articles I'm going
to get to had a great way thatyou can use immigrants that are
here to keep the impact onconstruction and hospitality
manufacturing industries thatrely on immigrant labor.
Keep them here and they callthis the ID and tax bill.
(08:50):
And this article in thismagazine said the ID and tax
bill is for immigrants alreadyhere.
A lot of them have the skills,but they can't be hired.
This immigration reform proposalwould act like a guest worker
program similar to DACA.
Under this proposal,undocumented workers who have
lived in the United States forat least five years and pass a
(09:13):
background check meaning ifthey're a criminal element, they
get the heave-ho they couldbecome employable as W-2 wage
earners.
That way they would pay taxes,they would receive a
tamper-proof ID that would allowthem to work legally, but they
would not have the privilege toreceive welfare or have voting
rights because they're still notcitizens.
By $4.75 billion a year forevery million workers, because a
(09:49):
lot of illegal immigrants workin cash so they don't pay into
the system directly throughSocial Security or federal and
state taxes, they kind of arebypassing it.
This would make them pay taxes,continue to keep their job and
still have to find a legal wayto become a citizen, but not
necessarily be deported.
You cool with that idea.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I think it's great and I think that the end game
there will be.
I think we touched on it lastweek, but the end game there is
that they'll also be on paper.
They won't be under the radaranymore.
So when it comes to things like, you know, financing a house or
financing a car, you knowthey're going to be documented
and their pay is going to bedocumented.
So it's almost like they'reworking for whatever they can
afford is going to be documented.
(10:24):
So it's almost like they'reworking for whatever they can
afford and I'm not a fan ofcredit or anything, but if
sometimes with a house or a car,I mean no secret there that
that's something that you needto pay in small bites, and so I
think that, ultimately, if theycome here for the American dream
and maybe they came hereillegally, but what you just
said, I'm a big proponent ofthat I've met folks who have had
to take a much harder path tocitizenship and they were great
(10:46):
people, great family people, andthey did it, but it took them a
long time.
So what you're saying soundslike a more streamlined approach
and it sounds good to me.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
A line in this article about all that was
really good it said.
But for the program to workproperly, securing the borders
is most important.
And that goes back to what yousaid.
Stop the leak and then dealwith the problem inside and then
(11:17):
you can really make headway onthis problem.
And again, maybe it's beingmisrepresented on how Trump
means mass deportations, orprobably the leftist press is
misinterpreting it.
Rifle pointed to a MiamiAmerican citizen's head to say
let go of this immigrant.
Good point, all right.
Number two, donnie we.
(11:51):
We hit a little bit of this withHoman heading up the border
security, and we also mentionedhow we're having fun watching
the left explode at the idea ofsome of Trump's cabinet posts.
One of them I'm not completelyfamiliar with this.
The guy gives me a little bitof the heebie-jeebies, but it's
Matt Getz out of Florida,talking about making him the
(12:14):
attorney general, and someonesaid he's the perfect candidate
to hire as attorney generalbecause he knows law, he's smart
and he also has an ax to grind.
So he has absolutely no problemwith saying let's go, let's dig
up some stuff and get rid ofthis swamp.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yep, I do, and I'm going to comment on something
that I wanted to say when weopened the show but drain the
swamp was a loose term the firstgo around, we watched him try
to do it.
But you watch a guy who's anon-politician step into the
political world and all of asudden he is, you know, master
of the universe and he's themost powerful person in the
world, and I just don't thinkthat he knew how to use it.
(12:53):
I don't think that he heunderstood what he understands
now, and I've told somebody, andactually everybody I've
mentioned this to agreed with me.
I'm glad he didn't win in 2020.
I think that had he won in 2020and just had eight straight
years, the agenda of the otherside wouldn't have gotten
exposed like it did.
And I think that the last fouryears really exposed just how
(13:16):
anti-America a lot of thesepolicies that were being put in
place were, and it's almost likewhat was wrong was claimed to
be right and vice versa.
And so I hate to reference theBible on that, because it's not
a religious show, but that'skind of scary, with end time
stuff saying that what's evilwill be called good and what's
good will be called evil, andyou kind of feel that way.
(13:39):
I mean, it was almost like wewere being forced to agree or
pretend that things were thatwere not, and I won't even go
into that because, gosh, we'llgo down a rabbit trail there,
but it was scary.
As a dad, you know, I'mthinking what in the world is
the world coming to, and whatare my children going to have to
experience?
So I almost think that the lastfour years gave him a chance to
(13:59):
catch his breath.
It humbled him.
I mean, he got shot at, forheaven's sakes.
It humbled him and I think thatit let him put a plan in place
that's going to be a lot betterthan what he would have had four
years ago.
That being said, what youmentioned with the cabinet
members, that he's coming outwith man, these guys they're
hardcore, and I don't think hewould have come up with those
same people until he saw justhow bad the corruption was.
So I'm game and I think thatthe country has spoken.
(14:22):
I think a lot of people are onthe same page.
I want peace.
I want peace.
I'm not about going out hereand starting bullying anybody
and none of that stuff, but I dothink that peace through
strength is a real thing, and Ithink that we're in a mess and
the outlook is looking morepositive than it has in a long
time.
Sure thing.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And I think some of the big names get recognized or
take all the oxygen out of aroom when you mentioned who
would be head of this departmentor that department.
The AK guy, brandon Herrera.
They're talking about puttinghim in as the head of the ATF.
For people not familiar withhim, put a thumb in it, that's
one of the phrases.
(15:01):
Look him up, brandon Herrera.
But he said, if I were honoredwith being given the head of the
ATF, I will just want to leteverybody know I will break it
down, tear it apart so it cannever come back and then go to
Mr Trump and say it's officiallydestroyed, move on.
And then I'd go back home toTexas.
They get the attention.
(15:22):
How does this affectconstruction and building is?
There's a couple boards.
There's the National LaborRelations Board and the Equal
Employment OpportunityCommission.
There's a couple names floatingaround there that could have a
big impact.
One of them is Marvin Kaplan ispossibly becoming the head of
the NLRB, and also Andrea Lucas,which I think she will become
head of the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission.
(15:44):
And thing is, they will be ableto work with border immigration
to have an effect on how theseimmigrants and the United States
population in general works andhow the labor force doesn't get
bogged down by governmentrestrictions.
The only downside and I usethat term lightly is if Lucas is
(16:05):
head of the EEOC, there willstill be a Democratic majority
on the voting section or blockof that commission, so she won't
be able to necessarily overridethings, but she gets to control
the agenda.
So there will be some thingsthat we'll need a little
patience on, but leadershipchanges reshape labor policies
(16:27):
and Trump definitely wants to dothat, so I think that's going
to be good.
The other big names he'sbringing in Elon Musk and Vivek
Ramaswamy, and I'm excited aboutthese two.
Have you read anything abouttheir commission or their
department?
They're going to makeAbsolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Government efficiency is the way to sum that up.
And, and, man, those two guys Imean together they're going to
be a superpower.
The whole team is is great.
It's almost like this real lifeJustice League, marvel movie
kind of thing where you knoweverybody who's good at what
they do just got put in theperfect position to succeed and
uh and really make a difference.
So, yeah, uh, vivek, I was, Iwas a proponent of his.
(17:06):
Uh, you know, when he wasrunning for the presidency, I it
was hard not to like the guy.
I mean, he's so well-spoken andhe's intelligent, he's young,
he's, he's fired up and, man, hecould move.
Know that we would hang out notthat he would hang out with me,
but he's a little off.
But the dude is a genius andputting the smartest person in
(17:27):
the department that you need himto make a difference in is just
a no-brainer.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I like.
Somebody said that.
Why does everybody treat Elonlike he's the smartest person in
the world?
Elon doesn't say that, but Elonis smart enough to get the
people who are the smartest atwhat they do to work for him,
and that's why he's successful.
So him being head of thisDepartment of Government
(17:51):
Efficiency.
They're calling it the doge.
I think they should call it thedoggie because it just sounds
funnier to say I'm head of thedoggie.
Yeah, but anyways, the two ofthem get flack from Elizabeth
Warren Fokohanis, the senatorfrom Massachusetts.
She said oh great, we start anew department and they put two
people in the place that coulddo the job of one Real efficient
(18:13):
guys.
And Elon Musk came back withwell, we're doing it for free,
so we're already being efficientbecause it's not going to cost
the taxpayers any money on us.
Now I want to mention somebodyelse who's not been part of this
conversation, but his style ofmanagement could be beneficial,
and that's Jeff Bezos, and he'shead of Amazon, and love him or
(18:33):
hate him.
He owns the Washington Post,which is an ultra liberal rag,
but his job is to make money beefficient.
Imagine what he's done withAmazon.
Love it, hate it, especially ifyou work there.
I know people have theiropinions, but he's made it
streamlined, he's made itefficient and you click a button
on your phone and you can havebooks and light bulbs and
(18:56):
groceries delivered to your doorin hours, if not a day.
He knows what he's doing.
Imagine if you had a Jeff Bezosrunning agencies like the DOT,
the IRS or the DMV, where youclick an app and get your
license or you go in and peoplethere are trained on how to be
efficient or quick and you saidhire people from Chick-fil-A.
(19:18):
So when you go to get yourlicense or go to the IRS, they
always respond with my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, nobody likes that DMV line man.
Maybe they should.
They do have two DMV lines,titles and then renewals, but
the lay folks have figured itout.
You know Biscuitville'sfollowing suit.
They have a similar drivethrough pattern and yeah, that
was.
That was a game changer forfast food and the foods better.
So close on Sundays.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Hey, nothing wrong with being closed on Sundays and
I just think overall, beingmore efficient means done on
time.
They're done on budget or underbudget and everybody wins.
People sometimes thinkefficiency means loss of jobs.
Actually, no, efficiency meansyou can do more things and the
same article I was talking aboutthat I was reading.
(20:03):
One of the things the guytalked about is there's a lot of
stuff sitting in the wingsready to pull the trigger on and
they need the people.
But they wanted to let theelection go by and they said
very possibly by the spring wecould really see a big bump in
production and demand.
And one thing that's going tohelp that go is regulatory
activity needs to be changed andyou're a small business owner,
(20:26):
donnie, but you get affected bygovernment red tape all the time
, just like starting with apermit process.
Yeah, especially.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
That's the main place that it affects me and you have
to go through severaldepartments, and environmental
health first, and they have toclear you for everything that
they have to inspect and do allthe plan review for mainly the
septic and the well or justwhat's going to happen with your
land, your setbacks, and theygive you what's called a
construction authorization.
So the inspections departmentwon't even talk to you about a
(20:55):
permit until you have thatauthorization from environmental
health.
And I think that a big reasonthat Trump is targeting that
area is because he was a realestate developer before he got,
you know, into the TV and andand, of course, presidency.
But he experienced that redtape and and a lot of these
people, you know, maybe theyjust don't like you and and they
, they, they don't, they don'tbelieve in your projects or
(21:17):
they're going to fight tooth andnail to keep you from getting
going.
I guess that's not always a badthing.
A controlled growth platform iswhat a lot of municipalities say
that they are all about, andthat's not a bad thing if you
have big businesses trying toinfiltrate your small town.
But, that being said,everybody's got to have a place
to live, with North Carolinabeing the third most influx
(21:41):
state in the country behindFlorida and Texas.
That's one of those thingswhere, if we have to dance
through all this red tape Now inmy county we're still a smaller
town but you go one county eastand then the county east of
that it's impossible to get apermit in a timely manner and
you just have to go through somany different departments and a
(22:01):
lot of those departments.
The way I word it is, the righthand doesn't know what the left
hand is doing and they've allswitched to a portal system.
There's no more paperapplications and it's almost
like you can't get your hands ona real person anymore and it's
very sad.
But if he does away with thatred tape or clears some of the
way for that, some people aregoing to lose their jobs.
But those people probably werean extra layer that wasn't
(22:23):
needed in the first place.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I agree with that 100%.
Other left side pundits weresaying, well, these restrictions
on building or construction orthe regulatory roadblocks that
are put up there for a goodreason.
And then they were talkingabout Trump's going to roll back
things like Biden's position onovertime and independent
contractor classifications andit's like, yeah, he's going to
get rid of those.
But Trump also said no tax onovertime.
(22:51):
How about no tax on that?
No tax on tips.
How about no tax on SocialSecurity withdrawals?
Because you already paid tax toput it in there and as you take
it out, it gets taxed again andthe government didn't do
anything.
So if he's going to pullsomething away, trump's been
very good to say but I'm goingto replace it with something
even better.
And the independent contractorclassification went into.
(23:14):
I think California was one ofthe examples, with Uber or
something, and they wereindependent contractors, so they
got paid a different way andCalifornia said, nope, they've
got to be considered employers Imean full-time employees and
you have to treat them just thesame.
And Uber's like that's notworking for our model.
Everybody was happy and you'rescrewing around with it.
That's the stuff Trump wants toget rid of.
(23:35):
And then just imagine if you'reworking a job that gives
overtime, and not only are yougoing to get time and a half,
but it wouldn't pay taxes.
Your employees would love towork for you.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Incentivize work again.
Now, with everybody going homeduring the pandemic, think about
how long it's taken to untanglethat knot.
I mean, a lot of people wenthome and they got lazy man, but
they still did their job, theystill met their quotas.
So technically, their employercan't say, well, you didn't do
what you were supposed to do.
That being said, being at thehouse all day, every day,
(24:10):
there's just something about it.
I mean, I could see workingfrom home a day or two a week,
but there's no such thing as astay-at-home contractor, so it's
not even an option in my world.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But, like you mentioned, incentivizing work
again is just about as importantof an issue as anything else, I
think.
Now the last thing I want totalk about people don't think
has a big effect day-to-day onthe economy, on employers, on
the labor groups in general, butit's actually pretty big and
that's shifting DEI policies.
Dei, diversity, equity,inclusion on the surface the
(24:45):
words sound good, but they'reused in a kind of heinous way.
Any idea, donnie?
How much do you think in 2024?
So far, us companies spent onDEI policies.
I don't know how much, but I'mguessing it's in the billions
$7.5 billion so far in 2024 hasbeen spent on DEI policies for
(25:06):
businesses and they've been anabject failure for the most part
, so much so that Trump saidthat he's going to reenact or
reinstate a previous executiveorder he had in his first term,
which restricted certain DEItraining concepts.
Because, we see it in themilitary, there's one great
example of the guy standing on aNavy ship a sailor and he says
(25:28):
how I get ready before theincoming enemy arrives?
And he puts lipstick on andskips across the ship and that
scene is oh good, you're beinginclusive.
That's what he wants to do.
No, I want him to learn how tokill and be efficient at doing
that.
As the aforementioned RushLimbaugh used to say, the
military is designed to killpeople and break things.
That's what I want it to do.
(25:50):
Well, dei is going away becauseFord has gotten rid of their DEI
program, harley-davidson.
How does this affectconstruction?
Well, lowe's got rid of theirs.
I didn't know they had one, butthey've decided no, we're not
going to do that anymore.
Unc school system got rid oftheir DEI programs and if you've
(26:11):
lost UNC Chapel Hill on yourleftist social agenda, they
didn't.
You didn't as you said.
They lost the fort.
No, the fort burned down to theground and they put a parking
lot on top of it.
It's done.
So Trump wants to roll thatback.
He wants to roll back any ofBiden's DEI policies and just
say, hey, let's focus on, as youpointed out, working together
(26:35):
and being a team.
When it comes to being a,country.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I never saw Chapel Hill giving all that up.
And whoever would have thoughtthat, when a group of fraternity
guys were protecting theAmerican flag from Hamas
protesters, that you know, a fewshort months later, that Chapel
Hill is going to drop the DEIthing?
And if DEI were a thing, theyshould do it the right way.
I think it should be calledQDEI, meaning qualified being
(26:59):
the first part of that acronym.
You know, if you're qualified,I don't care what color you are.
If you're good at your job,rock and roll, let's do this
thing together.
That means you can be asdiverse as you want to Equal hey
, dude, if you're qualified, weare equals, people that work for
me.
I don't say, hey, this guyworks for me.
I say we work together.
I've always worded it that waysince I've been self-employed.
And if you're qualified, I'mgoing to make you feel as
(27:21):
included as anybody.
You know you're part of theteam, but be qualified, carry
your weight.
You didn't just get hired for,but because of all the wrong
reasons, and I thought DEI wasgoing to collapse from the
beginning, but it was being heldup for all the wrong reasons.
I'll word it that way just tokeep from saying the wrong thing
.
But, yeah, qualified it doesn'tmatter about any of the rest,
(27:44):
just be qualified.
And opportunities.
I understand that they say,well, certain people don't have
the opportunities, I get thatpart of it, but they have
minority and women-ownedbusiness programs that are
flourishing now.
So that's a completelydifferent deal from DEI and I
agree with you wholeheartedly,man.
I think that was well said.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would be willing to go on record, donnie, that you
and me and people that work inour industries whether it's
direct construction on the site,like you do, or selling
supplies, like I do, or all thebusinesses and trades involved
Our groups are the most diverseyou will find in this country.
When it comes to where peopleare, from skin color,
(28:22):
socioeconomic levels we have themost diverse groups that we
work with, but we all cometogether every day and we work,
and our goal is Charles, one ofour managers says, is four
o'clock.
We go home on Friday.
That's what we're working fortogether and that's what we
don't need a special program inplace to tell us how to do it.
We just work together.
(28:43):
It doesn't matter who you are.
Where you're from, as youpointed out, does not matter.
We have one common thing getthe job done, do the best that
we can at it and go home so wecan hang out with our families
for a couple days.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yep, that's what makes a good day of work feel so
good and makes you love thepeople you work with.
And yeah, yeah, that commonbond almost got interrupted.
And can you imagine dropping aDEI hire at a supply house and
you know?
Or even just a DEI hire?
What if I had to hire a trimcarpenter or somebody because of
a DEI thing and the house lookslike crap and it's like, well,
(29:17):
what happened?
Well, I had to hire this guybecause I was made to do it and
I'm so sorry that your endproduct didn't turn out like you
thought, but I had to abide bythe government's rules.
That's all BS and I'm glad thatit's on the way out the door.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Man, you don't want to hire a drywaller who doesn't
know what they're doing.
You need to hire people thatcan knock it out quick and do it
of a high standard and do itfor the best money.
So yeah, do you want a cheapelectrician or a plumber?
Well, I don't know what I'mdoing, but I got this DEI
requirement that says I got toget to put the plumbing in by
(29:51):
this person and you know, let'sjust get it done.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I got one for you.
Quality and qualified go handin hand.
Maybe I should have said thatthe other way Qualified and
quality go hand in hand, allright.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
We're going to go ahead and trademark that.
That's going to be a slogan forthe show in the future and
we're not going to abandontalking about Trump and politics
and how they affectconstruction and building as we
do more and more of these shows,because they're intertwined and
I think we're going to see areally big impact on it in a
positive way.
And going back to that articlethat I told you about, I would
show you the magazine coveragain, but I made it to a paper
(30:23):
horn.
I'm sorry I fidget, but thatarticle kind of summed it up
when he said there's a lot ofstuff sitting in the pipeline.
They're waiting for thiselection to be over.
And when they found out Trumpwon, he said I expect in the
next few months, especially thespring, there's going to be some
stuff unleashed that's going tobe very positive for everybody
in the country and I'm lookingforward to that.
(30:43):
We will keep you on top of thatnews every week.
On the Carolina Contractor.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Show.
That's real life.
People Stay tuned.
We dig and we're buddies and wetalk off the air about all this
stuff and we just enjoybringing it to you guys and we
thank you for everybodylistening.
The downloads have beenexploding and we always
hesitated to talk about anythingwith politics.
But shoot, we dove into sportsand that hit really good and you
know kind of over footballabout halfway through the season
(31:08):
because the local Carolina catsaren't performing too great.
But the election news,post-election news, promise,
campaign promises was how weworded last week's show and I
think when we talked about this,when we started figuring out
how we were going to structurethis, we talked about
expectations for the future.
So I think you did a heck of ajob today outlining that man and
thank you for your time, eric.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I'm glad to do it.
As Donnie said, we just likedoing this and you guys get to
listen in to our conversationsand we're going to do it again
next week.
You got questions, comments.
Anything you want to know aboutus or about the show, go to the
website,thecarolinacontractorcom.
And who knows, maybe we'll haveTrump on sometime in the near
future, so you'll just have totune in and maybe it'll happen
(31:48):
next week.
But we just hope you will tunein to the Carolina.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Contractor Show, I got one for you.
Make it a great day again.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Say goodnight, donnie , night-night.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
And welcome to another editionof the Carolina Contractor Show.
We're going to jump right intoit today because we're going to
be talking about the electionTrump has won.
Last week we talked aboutTrump's policies were going to
be overall and how they wouldaffect the country, the world,
(00:24):
you and I as individuals.
Today we're going to see howTrump's policies will have an
impact on the construction andbuilding industry.
But first a little introduction.
My name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for HomeBuilders.
Supply Across from me DonnieBlanchard.
He's a general contractor.
He's the owner of Sure TopRoofing, the owner of Blanchard
Building Company, and he alsofound us 20 million new
(00:45):
listeners.
I don't know where he got themfrom.
Evidently a few years ago theywere doing something else, but
now we got them over to the showand hitting the website.
If you want to join them,they're at
thecarolinacontractorcom.
You can also download pastshows there.
We got links to our socialmedia Facebook and Instagram.
Also, if there's a question youhave about the show, about the
20 million people or about yourhouse, it can be the inside, the
(01:08):
outside, the roof, the crawlspace inside, outside, it don't
matter.
Click on the Ask the Contractorbutton and that goes directly
to Donnie Any question you haveand he'll get back to you, and
sometimes we do a questions-onlyshow or that gives us a subject
idea that inspires us, and youcan also check out the show on
the YouTube site.
We started putting them upthere.
So if you want to check it out,start at the website
(01:30):
thecarolinacontractorcom, oragain go to the YouTube site and
just search Carolina ContractorShow and you can find it there.
Anything new in your worldsince the election, donnie oh
gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, the phone's been ringing a lot more and I
can hardly keep up.
We were, I am pleased to saythat we got a really busy spell,
maybe mid-summer and we wereworking out of that and that
carried over into the fall.
But we have some really bigjobs that have come in and I
want to say that that's going tobe attributed to consumer
confidence being a lot higherthan it was for the last four
years.
I think everybody was just kindof sitting on pins and needles
(02:03):
waiting to see what happened,but consumer confidence is
everything.
Everybody in every trade,supply, subcontractors,
everybody said things are movinga lot more than they were just
three weeks ago.
So that's great news.
All the way around.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's interesting because one of the sub-subjects
we're going to tackle today isthe consumer sentiment, or how
people are feeling.
So I'm going to hold this upand see if I can frame this
correctly.
We get trade magazines and thisone, though it might be
backwards on the screen themagazine's called Construction
Dimensions and it had an articleby a gentleman named Mark L
(02:36):
Johnson and it's about this verything how about the effects
that Trump might have onbuilding and construction?
The article was written beforethe election, so he had Kamala
Harris's positions versusTrump's.
Well, she lost.
So we don't care.
We just we're throwing thoseout.
We're just going to concentrateon some of the things he said
would happen if Trump won, andDonnie and I are going to throw
(02:58):
in our two cents on that too.
Basically, it's going to bethings that Donald might
actually do when he becomesofficially president for the
second time.
45 and 47.
That's kind of cool, and howit's going to affect the
building industry.
I will have to say, overall,once the election was over and
I'm not the first person to saythis, donnie it was like a
(03:19):
heaviness was lifted.
Everybody was kind of back tonormal and everybody's cool at
work and in the neighborhoodsonline.
It's been fun.
I got to admit I've lurked onsome of the social sites to
watch the left absolutely meltdown over his potential cabinet
appointments.
Have you followed any of that?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh yeah, and I don't have time for it, but I make
time for it and yeah, it's just,it's kind of funny to see.
And then you know, I'm not sowell versed on everybody.
A lot of these people are kindof new to me.
Anybody who didn't follow himthrough the campaign is a new
face.
And so I've done a littledigging on a few of these guys
and a couple of them are savages.
But I think we were kind ofscrewed up and I think we'd
(04:00):
gotten away from the Americafirst platform.
So that's really all I careabout.
And I think when you said theheaviness got lifted, it's
because I think the majority ofpeople in the country are
pro-American.
If you're smart, you'repro-American and if you're not,
get out of here.
It's one of those things wherethat heaviness, you know, I
think that's attributed topeople seeing this America first
movement making a wave in theother direction again and it was
(04:24):
going pretty far the other wayand that's scary man.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, that's interesting because the first
subject we want to talk aboutwas immigration.
Enforcement will be returning,we would assume with Trump he's
going to go back to the oldpolicies.
Now one of the problems he hadlast time was he said I'm going
to build the wall and the moneywouldn't get appropriated to him
, so he tried to do someworkarounds.
He couldn't get the money thatway and it basically got shut
(04:48):
down.
A lot of it Republicans, or wecan use the term the rhinos, a
Republicans, a name only.
That just kind of saw him as anadversary.
So the first thing in thisarticle is the guy said there's
multiple people and I forgive mefor misquoting or
misattributing some of thesepieces of information, but this
magazine article was so good.
One guy said the first thing weneed to do and we mentioned
(05:12):
this last week is stop thesupply of illegal immigration or
focus on the supply sideenforcement, and you had an
excellent metaphor for this,donnie.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, isn't that just common sense In the roofing
world?
Gosh, if you got a leak andyour house has taken on water,
the first thing you do is stopthe water intrusion, you stop
the leak man.
You don't go fix the drywalland the insulation and paint and
fix the inside before you stopthe water from coming in.
So that seems like common sense.
But I think, in terms of youknow the deportation threats and
(05:45):
all the things that are goingaround right now that are
scaring the heck out of a lot ofpeople in the construction
world, just stop the inflow.
Just stop the inflow, and Ithink that'll make a big
difference.
Have you?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
seen who Trump wants to be as borders are.
Tom Homan yeah, I did.
He's a savage.
If anybody out there has notseen him or is not familiar with
him, search Tom Homan,h-o-m-a-n and AOC.
Because Cortez asked him somequestion about separating
families and he's no nonsense.
He speaks legally andemotionally.
(06:16):
And then another representativein the past couple of years
accused him of not liking brownpeople and doesn't know what
it's like to have afive-year-old die and he
absolutely shreds him.
I can't wait till Homan gets incharge of immigration.
He said he'd do it for free ifhe's asked.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Nice.
Yeah, a lot of these guys aredoing it for free.
They just believe in the causeand I think that's wonderful.
But did you see where youmentioned AOC?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
no-transcript really bugs me again.
I mentioned this last week, butit just really bugs me, as
people on the left tend to saywell, if you don't have the
immigrants here and we'respeaking illegal, well, who's
(07:29):
going to pick your fruit, yourvegetables and mow your lawn?
And I'm like what is thisleft's fascination with having
almost slave labor wages andslaves working for them where
they actually think, no, weshould have these people here
because they'll work for pennieson the dollar and get all that
dirty work done for me so I canlive this higher upper crust
bourgeois lifestyle that theythey're preaching all the time.
It's.
It's so insulting to legalimmigrants especially.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
They were pro-slavery back then and I guess maybe
they reworded it, you know, inthe 1800s and that they maybe
they reworded it and it sounds alittle different now, but when
it comes right down to it andthe way that they feel and act,
I mean it's almost like they'restill in that same mindset.
Man Sad.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, and like we were talking about Rush Limbaugh
earlier.
As Rush would say, I haven'tseen Democrats this mad since
Lincoln freed their slaves.
All right.
Another thing on theimmigration.
Here's the thing they want todo, because people are saying,
well, if you get rid of theillegal immigrants, what are we
(08:29):
going to do?
I don't know if you take everyillegal or undocumented person
here and just kick them out, butone of the articles I'm going
to get to had a great way thatyou can use immigrants that are
here to keep the impact onconstruction and hospitality
manufacturing industries thatrely on immigrant labor.
Keep them here and they callthis the ID and tax bill.
(08:50):
And this article in thismagazine said the ID and tax
bill is for immigrants alreadyhere.
A lot of them have the skills,but they can't be hired.
This immigration reform proposalwould act like a guest worker
program similar to DACA.
Under this proposal,undocumented workers who have
lived in the United States forat least five years and pass a
(09:13):
background check meaning ifthey're a criminal element, they
get the heave-ho they couldbecome employable as W-2 wage
earners.
That way they would pay taxes,they would receive a
tamper-proof ID that would allowthem to work legally, but they
would not have the privilege toreceive welfare or have voting
rights because they're still notcitizens.
By $4.75 billion a year forevery million workers, because a
(09:49):
lot of illegal immigrants workin cash so they don't pay into
the system directly throughSocial Security or federal and
state taxes, they kind of arebypassing it.
This would make them pay taxes,continue to keep their job and
still have to find a legal wayto become a citizen, but not
necessarily be deported.
You cool with that idea.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I think it's great and I think that the end game
there will be.
I think we touched on it lastweek, but the end game there is
that they'll also be on paper.
They won't be under the radaranymore.
So when it comes to things like, you know, financing a house or
financing a car, you knowthey're going to be documented
and their pay is going to bedocumented.
So it's almost like they'reworking for whatever they can
afford is going to be documented.
(10:24):
So it's almost like they'reworking for whatever they can
afford and I'm not a fan ofcredit or anything, but if
sometimes with a house or a car,I mean no secret there that
that's something that you needto pay in small bites, and so I
think that, ultimately, if theycome here for the American dream
and maybe they came hereillegally, but what you just
said, I'm a big proponent ofthat I've met folks who have had
to take a much harder path tocitizenship and they were great
(10:46):
people, great family people, andthey did it, but it took them a
long time.
So what you're saying soundslike a more streamlined approach
and it sounds good to me.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
A line in this article about all that was
really good it said.
But for the program to workproperly, securing the borders
is most important.
And that goes back to what yousaid.
Stop the leak and then dealwith the problem inside and then
(11:17):
you can really make headway onthis problem.
And again, maybe it's beingmisrepresented on how Trump
means mass deportations, orprobably the leftist press is
misinterpreting it.
Rifle pointed to a MiamiAmerican citizen's head to say
let go of this immigrant.
Good point, all right.
Number two, donnie we.
(11:51):
We hit a little bit of this withHoman heading up the border
security, and we also mentionedhow we're having fun watching
the left explode at the idea ofsome of Trump's cabinet posts.
One of them I'm not completelyfamiliar with this.
The guy gives me a little bitof the heebie-jeebies, but it's
Matt Getz out of Florida,talking about making him the
(12:14):
attorney general, and someonesaid he's the perfect candidate
to hire as attorney generalbecause he knows law, he's smart
and he also has an ax to grind.
So he has absolutely no problemwith saying let's go, let's dig
up some stuff and get rid ofthis swamp.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yep, I do, and I'm going to comment on something
that I wanted to say when weopened the show but drain the
swamp was a loose term the firstgo around, we watched him try
to do it.
But you watch a guy who's anon-politician step into the
political world and all of asudden he is, you know, master
of the universe and he's themost powerful person in the
world, and I just don't thinkthat he knew how to use it.
(12:53):
I don't think that he heunderstood what he understands
now, and I've told somebody, andactually everybody I've
mentioned this to agreed with me.
I'm glad he didn't win in 2020.
I think that had he won in 2020and just had eight straight
years, the agenda of the otherside wouldn't have gotten
exposed like it did.
And I think that the last fouryears really exposed just how
(13:16):
anti-America a lot of thesepolicies that were being put in
place were, and it's almost likewhat was wrong was claimed to
be right and vice versa.
And so I hate to reference theBible on that, because it's not
a religious show, but that'skind of scary, with end time
stuff saying that what's evilwill be called good and what's
good will be called evil, andyou kind of feel that way.
(13:39):
I mean, it was almost like wewere being forced to agree or
pretend that things were thatwere not, and I won't even go
into that because, gosh, we'llgo down a rabbit trail there,
but it was scary.
As a dad, you know, I'mthinking what in the world is
the world coming to, and whatare my children going to have to
experience?
So I almost think that the lastfour years gave him a chance to
(13:59):
catch his breath.
It humbled him.
I mean, he got shot at, forheaven's sakes.
It humbled him and I think thatit let him put a plan in place
that's going to be a lot betterthan what he would have had four
years ago.
That being said, what youmentioned with the cabinet
members, that he's coming outwith man, these guys they're
hardcore, and I don't think hewould have come up with those
same people until he saw justhow bad the corruption was.
So I'm game and I think thatthe country has spoken.
(14:22):
I think a lot of people are onthe same page.
I want peace.
I want peace.
I'm not about going out hereand starting bullying anybody
and none of that stuff, but I dothink that peace through
strength is a real thing, and Ithink that we're in a mess and
the outlook is looking morepositive than it has in a long
time.
Sure thing.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And I think some of the big names get recognized or
take all the oxygen out of aroom when you mentioned who
would be head of this departmentor that department.
The AK guy, brandon Herrera.
They're talking about puttinghim in as the head of the ATF.
For people not familiar withhim, put a thumb in it, that's
one of the phrases.
(15:01):
Look him up, brandon Herrera.
But he said, if I were honoredwith being given the head of the
ATF, I will just want to leteverybody know I will break it
down, tear it apart so it cannever come back and then go to
Mr Trump and say it's officiallydestroyed, move on.
And then I'd go back home toTexas.
They get the attention.
(15:22):
How does this affectconstruction and building is?
There's a couple boards.
There's the National LaborRelations Board and the Equal
Employment OpportunityCommission.
There's a couple names floatingaround there that could have a
big impact.
One of them is Marvin Kaplan ispossibly becoming the head of
the NLRB, and also Andrea Lucas,which I think she will become
head of the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission.
(15:44):
And thing is, they will be ableto work with border immigration
to have an effect on how theseimmigrants and the United States
population in general works andhow the labor force doesn't get
bogged down by governmentrestrictions.
The only downside and I usethat term lightly is if Lucas is
(16:05):
head of the EEOC, there willstill be a Democratic majority
on the voting section or blockof that commission, so she won't
be able to necessarily overridethings, but she gets to control
the agenda.
So there will be some thingsthat we'll need a little
patience on, but leadershipchanges reshape labor policies
(16:27):
and Trump definitely wants to dothat, so I think that's going
to be good.
The other big names he'sbringing in Elon Musk and Vivek
Ramaswamy, and I'm excited aboutthese two.
Have you read anything abouttheir commission or their
department?
They're going to makeAbsolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Government efficiency is the way to sum that up.
And, and, man, those two guys Imean together they're going to
be a superpower.
The whole team is is great.
It's almost like this real lifeJustice League, marvel movie
kind of thing where you knoweverybody who's good at what
they do just got put in theperfect position to succeed and
uh and really make a difference.
So, yeah, uh, vivek, I was, Iwas a proponent of his.
(17:06):
Uh, you know, when he wasrunning for the presidency, I it
was hard not to like the guy.
I mean, he's so well-spoken andhe's intelligent, he's young,
he's, he's fired up and, man, hecould move.
Know that we would hang out notthat he would hang out with me,
but he's a little off.
But the dude is a genius andputting the smartest person in
(17:27):
the department that you need himto make a difference in is just
a no-brainer.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I like.
Somebody said that.
Why does everybody treat Elonlike he's the smartest person in
the world?
Elon doesn't say that, but Elonis smart enough to get the
people who are the smartest atwhat they do to work for him,
and that's why he's successful.
So him being head of thisDepartment of Government
(17:51):
Efficiency.
They're calling it the doge.
I think they should call it thedoggie because it just sounds
funnier to say I'm head of thedoggie.
Yeah, but anyways, the two ofthem get flack from Elizabeth
Warren Fokohanis, the senatorfrom Massachusetts.
She said oh great, we start anew department and they put two
people in the place that coulddo the job of one Real efficient
(18:13):
guys.
And Elon Musk came back withwell, we're doing it for free,
so we're already being efficientbecause it's not going to cost
the taxpayers any money on us.
Now I want to mention somebodyelse who's not been part of this
conversation, but his style ofmanagement could be beneficial,
and that's Jeff Bezos, and he'shead of Amazon, and love him or
(18:33):
hate him.
He owns the Washington Post,which is an ultra liberal rag,
but his job is to make money beefficient.
Imagine what he's done withAmazon.
Love it, hate it, especially ifyou work there.
I know people have theiropinions, but he's made it
streamlined, he's made itefficient and you click a button
on your phone and you can havebooks and light bulbs and
(18:56):
groceries delivered to your doorin hours, if not a day.
He knows what he's doing.
Imagine if you had a Jeff Bezosrunning agencies like the DOT,
the IRS or the DMV, where youclick an app and get your
license or you go in and peoplethere are trained on how to be
efficient or quick and you saidhire people from Chick-fil-A.
(19:18):
So when you go to get yourlicense or go to the IRS, they
always respond with my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, nobody likes that DMV line man.
Maybe they should.
They do have two DMV lines,titles and then renewals, but
the lay folks have figured itout.
You know Biscuitville'sfollowing suit.
They have a similar drivethrough pattern and yeah, that
was.
That was a game changer forfast food and the foods better.
So close on Sundays.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Hey, nothing wrong with being closed on Sundays and
I just think overall, beingmore efficient means done on
time.
They're done on budget or underbudget and everybody wins.
People sometimes thinkefficiency means loss of jobs.
Actually, no, efficiency meansyou can do more things and the
same article I was talking aboutthat I was reading.
(20:03):
One of the things the guytalked about is there's a lot of
stuff sitting in the wingsready to pull the trigger on and
they need the people.
But they wanted to let theelection go by and they said
very possibly by the spring wecould really see a big bump in
production and demand.
And one thing that's going tohelp that go is regulatory
activity needs to be changed andyou're a small business owner,
(20:26):
donnie, but you get affected bygovernment red tape all the time
, just like starting with apermit process.
Yeah, especially.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
That's the main place that it affects me and you have
to go through severaldepartments, and environmental
health first, and they have toclear you for everything that
they have to inspect and do allthe plan review for mainly the
septic and the well or justwhat's going to happen with your
land, your setbacks, and theygive you what's called a
construction authorization.
So the inspections departmentwon't even talk to you about a
(20:55):
permit until you have thatauthorization from environmental
health.
And I think that a big reasonthat Trump is targeting that
area is because he was a realestate developer before he got,
you know, into the TV and andand, of course, presidency.
But he experienced that redtape and and a lot of these
people, you know, maybe theyjust don't like you and and they
, they, they don't, they don'tbelieve in your projects or
(21:17):
they're going to fight tooth andnail to keep you from getting
going.
I guess that's not always a badthing.
A controlled growth platform iswhat a lot of municipalities say
that they are all about, andthat's not a bad thing if you
have big businesses trying toinfiltrate your small town.
But, that being said,everybody's got to have a place
to live, with North Carolinabeing the third most influx
(21:41):
state in the country behindFlorida and Texas.
That's one of those thingswhere, if we have to dance
through all this red tape Now inmy county we're still a smaller
town but you go one county eastand then the county east of
that it's impossible to get apermit in a timely manner and
you just have to go through somany different departments and a
(22:01):
lot of those departments.
The way I word it is, the righthand doesn't know what the left
hand is doing and they've allswitched to a portal system.
There's no more paperapplications and it's almost
like you can't get your hands ona real person anymore and it's
very sad.
But if he does away with thatred tape or clears some of the
way for that, some people aregoing to lose their jobs.
But those people probably werean extra layer that wasn't
(22:23):
needed in the first place.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I agree with that 100%.
Other left side pundits weresaying, well, these restrictions
on building or construction orthe regulatory roadblocks that
are put up there for a goodreason.
And then they were talkingabout Trump's going to roll back
things like Biden's position onovertime and independent
contractor classifications andit's like, yeah, he's going to
get rid of those.
But Trump also said no tax onovertime.
(22:51):
How about no tax on that?
No tax on tips.
How about no tax on SocialSecurity withdrawals?
Because you already paid tax toput it in there and as you take
it out, it gets taxed again andthe government didn't do
anything.
So if he's going to pullsomething away, trump's been
very good to say but I'm goingto replace it with something
even better.
And the independent contractorclassification went into.
(23:14):
I think California was one ofthe examples, with Uber or
something, and they wereindependent contractors, so they
got paid a different way andCalifornia said, nope, they've
got to be considered employers Imean full-time employees and
you have to treat them just thesame.
And Uber's like that's notworking for our model.
Everybody was happy and you'rescrewing around with it.
That's the stuff Trump wants toget rid of.
(23:35):
And then just imagine if you'reworking a job that gives
overtime, and not only are yougoing to get time and a half,
but it wouldn't pay taxes.
Your employees would love towork for you.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Incentivize work again.
Now, with everybody going homeduring the pandemic, think about
how long it's taken to untanglethat knot.
I mean, a lot of people wenthome and they got lazy man, but
they still did their job, theystill met their quotas.
So technically, their employercan't say, well, you didn't do
what you were supposed to do.
That being said, being at thehouse all day, every day,
(24:10):
there's just something about it.
I mean, I could see workingfrom home a day or two a week,
but there's no such thing as astay-at-home contractor, so it's
not even an option in my world.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But, like you mentioned, incentivizing work
again is just about as importantof an issue as anything else, I
think.
Now the last thing I want totalk about people don't think
has a big effect day-to-day onthe economy, on employers, on
the labor groups in general, butit's actually pretty big and
that's shifting DEI policies.
Dei, diversity, equity,inclusion on the surface the
(24:45):
words sound good, but they'reused in a kind of heinous way.
Any idea, donnie?
How much do you think in 2024?
So far, us companies spent onDEI policies.
I don't know how much, but I'mguessing it's in the billions
$7.5 billion so far in 2024 hasbeen spent on DEI policies for
(25:06):
businesses and they've been anabject failure for the most part
, so much so that Trump saidthat he's going to reenact or
reinstate a previous executiveorder he had in his first term,
which restricted certain DEItraining concepts.
Because, we see it in themilitary, there's one great
example of the guy standing on aNavy ship a sailor and he says
(25:28):
how I get ready before theincoming enemy arrives?
And he puts lipstick on andskips across the ship and that
scene is oh good, you're beinginclusive.
That's what he wants to do.
No, I want him to learn how tokill and be efficient at doing
that.
As the aforementioned RushLimbaugh used to say, the
military is designed to killpeople and break things.
That's what I want it to do.
(25:50):
Well, dei is going away becauseFord has gotten rid of their DEI
program, harley-davidson.
How does this affectconstruction?
Well, lowe's got rid of theirs.
I didn't know they had one, butthey've decided no, we're not
going to do that anymore.
Unc school system got rid oftheir DEI programs and if you've
(26:11):
lost UNC Chapel Hill on yourleftist social agenda, they
didn't.
You didn't as you said.
They lost the fort.
No, the fort burned down to theground and they put a parking
lot on top of it.
It's done.
So Trump wants to roll thatback.
He wants to roll back any ofBiden's DEI policies and just
say, hey, let's focus on, as youpointed out, working together
(26:35):
and being a team.
When it comes to being a,country.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I never saw Chapel Hill giving all that up.
And whoever would have thoughtthat, when a group of fraternity
guys were protecting theAmerican flag from Hamas
protesters, that you know, a fewshort months later, that Chapel
Hill is going to drop the DEIthing?
And if DEI were a thing, theyshould do it the right way.
I think it should be calledQDEI, meaning qualified being
(26:59):
the first part of that acronym.
You know, if you're qualified,I don't care what color you are.
If you're good at your job,rock and roll, let's do this
thing together.
That means you can be asdiverse as you want to Equal hey
, dude, if you're qualified, weare equals, people that work for
me.
I don't say, hey, this guyworks for me.
I say we work together.
I've always worded it that waysince I've been self-employed.
And if you're qualified, I'mgoing to make you feel as
(27:21):
included as anybody.
You know you're part of theteam, but be qualified, carry
your weight.
You didn't just get hired for,but because of all the wrong
reasons, and I thought DEI wasgoing to collapse from the
beginning, but it was being heldup for all the wrong reasons.
I'll word it that way just tokeep from saying the wrong thing
.
But, yeah, qualified it doesn'tmatter about any of the rest,
(27:44):
just be qualified.
And opportunities.
I understand that they say,well, certain people don't have
the opportunities, I get thatpart of it, but they have
minority and women-ownedbusiness programs that are
flourishing now.
So that's a completelydifferent deal from DEI and I
agree with you wholeheartedly,man.
I think that was well said.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would be willing to go on record, donnie, that you
and me and people that work inour industries whether it's
direct construction on the site,like you do, or selling
supplies, like I do, or all thebusinesses and trades involved
Our groups are the most diverseyou will find in this country.
When it comes to where peopleare, from skin color,
(28:22):
socioeconomic levels we have themost diverse groups that we
work with, but we all cometogether every day and we work,
and our goal is Charles, one ofour managers says, is four
o'clock.
We go home on Friday.
That's what we're working fortogether and that's what we
don't need a special program inplace to tell us how to do it.
We just work together.
(28:43):
It doesn't matter who you are.
Where you're from, as youpointed out, does not matter.
We have one common thing getthe job done, do the best that
we can at it and go home so wecan hang out with our families
for a couple days.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yep, that's what makes a good day of work feel so
good and makes you love thepeople you work with.
And yeah, yeah, that commonbond almost got interrupted.
And can you imagine dropping aDEI hire at a supply house and
you know?
Or even just a DEI hire?
What if I had to hire a trimcarpenter or somebody because of
a DEI thing and the house lookslike crap and it's like, well,
(29:17):
what happened?
Well, I had to hire this guybecause I was made to do it and
I'm so sorry that your endproduct didn't turn out like you
thought, but I had to abide bythe government's rules.
That's all BS and I'm glad thatit's on the way out the door.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Man, you don't want to hire a drywaller who doesn't
know what they're doing.
You need to hire people thatcan knock it out quick and do it
of a high standard and do itfor the best money.
So yeah, do you want a cheapelectrician or a plumber?
Well, I don't know what I'mdoing, but I got this DEI
requirement that says I got toget to put the plumbing in by
(29:51):
this person and you know, let'sjust get it done.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I got one for you.
Quality and qualified go handin hand.
Maybe I should have said thatthe other way Qualified and
quality go hand in hand, allright.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
We're going to go ahead and trademark that.
That's going to be a slogan forthe show in the future and
we're not going to abandontalking about Trump and politics
and how they affectconstruction and building as we
do more and more of these shows,because they're intertwined and
I think we're going to see areally big impact on it in a
positive way.
And going back to that articlethat I told you about, I would
show you the magazine coveragain, but I made it to a paper
(30:23):
horn.
I'm sorry I fidget, but thatarticle kind of summed it up
when he said there's a lot ofstuff sitting in the pipeline.
They're waiting for thiselection to be over.
And when they found out Trumpwon, he said I expect in the
next few months, especially thespring, there's going to be some
stuff unleashed that's going tobe very positive for everybody
in the country and I'm lookingforward to that.
(30:43):
We will keep you on top of thatnews every week.
On the Carolina Contractor.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Show.
That's real life.
People Stay tuned.
We dig and we're buddies and wetalk off the air about all this
stuff and we just enjoybringing it to you guys and we
thank you for everybodylistening.
The downloads have beenexploding and we always
hesitated to talk about anythingwith politics.
But shoot, we dove into sportsand that hit really good and you
know kind of over footballabout halfway through the season
(31:08):
because the local Carolina catsaren't performing too great.
But the election news,post-election news, promise,
campaign promises was how weworded last week's show and I
think when we talked about this,when we started figuring out
how we were going to structurethis, we talked about
expectations for the future.
So I think you did a heck of ajob today outlining that man and
thank you for your time, eric.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I'm glad to do it.
As Donnie said, we just likedoing this and you guys get to
listen in to our conversationsand we're going to do it again
next week.
You got questions, comments.
Anything you want to know aboutus or about the show, go to the
website,thecarolinacontractorcom.
And who knows, maybe we'll haveTrump on sometime in the near
future, so you'll just have totune in and maybe it'll happen
(31:48):
next week.
But we just hope you will tunein to the Carolina.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Contractor Show, I got one for you.
Make it a great day again.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Say goodnight, donnie , night-night.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
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