Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Gone to cut that cake in Washington, DC, that huge,
monstrous federal budget and cutting billions really shouldn't be that hard.
John Hart joins us, the CEO of Opened the Books
dot com. You've got the vake ramaswaming Elon Musk in Washington,
d C. Today, John, And I'm thinking that their precedence
alone is making people nervous.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, I certainly hope. So it's great to be on again.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, they they have the work cut out for them,
for sure, but hopefully they're going to find some receptive
and eager partners to get down to the business of.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Cutting cutting that cakes, as you would say.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
But that's actually it's a good metaphor because the way
I think about it around holiday season is this problem
of the pie.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You know, how do you have once you want.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Pie and you've got a bunch of hungry kids or guests,
and how do you feed them all? Well, one of
the magic of the free market system is if you
is if you increase economic activity, increase growth, you actually
grow the pie.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You make a bigger pie. And what what Elon and.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The Vek are going to be able to do is
by cutting spending to these wasteful programs and agencies.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
They're gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They're gonna make it easier for everyone listening to grow
their own budget, to grow their business. And that's what
this is really all about.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
John, let me add your analogy here. The federal government
is that that get at the table. He doesn't need
that big honking piece of pie he needs he needs
a little tiny piece of pie.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
That's right. Yeah. And he needs a work out. He
needs to. He needs to. And let's just to go
a little step.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Further by and by working out and by eating less
and by getting in shape, he's gonna he's gonna be
he's gonna have a better future.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He's going to be more effective. And and and when.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I worked in the Senate for years with a Senator
named Tom Coburn, we forced the GEO, the Government Accountability Office,
to do an annual report on duplication. We found there's
about one hundred or two hundred million dollars of duplication
every year. But one of their key findings is, and
this is purely common sense.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But you don't get a lot of common sense coming
out of Washington.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
They said that by streamlining in reducing duplication, you will
improve the quality of services for taxpayers, because when there's
fewer programs to navigate the ones that do exist and
that are effective, it's much easier for them to do
their job well. So it's the same same analogy with
the fat kid. If you if you lose a bunch
(02:18):
of weight, he's going to be much happier, much more effective.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well here's the problem, though, John, I don't think identifying
the waste is going to be a problem at all.
They'll have no problem finding billions of dollars that can
be cut from the budget without really having any impact
on your average American in any way, shape or form.
The question is can we get Congress to act on
those recommendations.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, let me tell you why I'm optimistic. And so
again I have some first hand experience doing this with
when I was in the Senate. You know, Cobraan was
on the was called the Simpson Bulls that commissioned that
that was formed in the aftermath of the financial crisis
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. And then
that was a part based on something called the Grace
(02:59):
commit that President Reagan put together forty years ago, and
he found one out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of every three tax dollars was wasted.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
So to your point, yeah, we could get rid of
tons of waste, no one would feel anything.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In fact, we'd be happier, the economy would grow.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Coburn and during that Tea Party era, members like Jim
Demant and others, they effectively reduced spending for the first
time since the end of the Korean War. But it
was just a blip and an overall one hundred year
trend of government increasing. So why was it so hard
for us back then? Well, part of it is we
didn't have, you know, historic figures, kind of the Thomas
(03:36):
Edison of our time, like Elon Musk. He has an
incredible megaphone. You know, the President obviously is a megaphone
he's going to use. Those are two things we didn't
have going for us.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But the bigger.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Issue politically is that there's been a very important realignment
in the past ten years where the GOP is now
the working class party.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And back when we were trying to cut spending ten
fIF team, twenty.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Years ago, or you know, thirty years ago, in the
Reagan years forty years ago, the party that had the
working class base was the Democrats, and they didn't want
anything to change. So they would demagogue anybody that said, oh,
we need to reduce the seidoscope of Department of Education,
for example, and they say, well, you're going to hurt
poor people. And now people have figured out that that's
(04:23):
just not true. In fact, you'll actually help low income
people by reducing the behem, the size of.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
The federal government.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So that realignment is a big, big opportunity. And I
think members of Congress know that it's still going to
be very, very hard. It's going to take you know,
really just people like you just doing continuing to come
back at this, you know, have me on, have other
guests on, just remind people of how it because it's
it's not it's not going to come from Elon and Viveka.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It's going to come from we the people. I've had enough.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And we're going to do our list.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I want my kids to have a better future.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, we'll do our best to keep the press thus up.
John Hart, thank you, CEO of openbooks dot com. That
is John Hart.
Gone to cut that cake in Washington, DC, that huge,
monstrous federal budget and cutting billions really shouldn't be that hard.
John Hart joins us, the CEO of Opened the Books
dot com. You've got the vake ramaswaming Elon Musk in Washington,
d C. Today, John, And I'm thinking that their precedence
alone is making people nervous.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, I certainly hope. So it's great to be on again.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, they they have the work cut out for them,
for sure, but hopefully they're going to find some receptive
and eager partners to get down to the business of.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Cutting cutting that cakes, as you would say.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
But that's actually it's a good metaphor because the way
I think about it around holiday season is this problem
of the pie.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You know, how do you have once you want.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Pie and you've got a bunch of hungry kids or guests,
and how do you feed them all? Well, one of
the magic of the free market system is if you
is if you increase economic activity, increase growth, you actually
grow the pie.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You make a bigger pie. And what what Elon and.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The Vek are going to be able to do is
by cutting spending to these wasteful programs and agencies.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
They're gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They're gonna make it easier for everyone listening to grow
their own budget, to grow their business. And that's what
this is really all about.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
John, let me add your analogy here. The federal government
is that that get at the table. He doesn't need
that big honking piece of pie he needs he needs
a little tiny piece of pie.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
That's right. Yeah. And he needs a work out. He
needs to. He needs to. And let's just to go
a little step.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Further by and by working out and by eating less
and by getting in shape, he's gonna he's gonna be
he's gonna have a better future.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He's going to be more effective. And and and when.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I worked in the Senate for years with a Senator
named Tom Coburn, we forced the GEO, the Government Accountability Office,
to do an annual report on duplication. We found there's
about one hundred or two hundred million dollars of duplication
every year. But one of their key findings is, and
this is purely common sense.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But you don't get a lot of common sense coming
out of Washington.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
They said that by streamlining in reducing duplication, you will
improve the quality of services for taxpayers, because when there's
fewer programs to navigate the ones that do exist and
that are effective, it's much easier for them to do
their job well. So it's the same same analogy with
the fat kid. If you if you lose a bunch
(02:18):
of weight, he's going to be much happier, much more effective.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well here's the problem, though, John, I don't think identifying
the waste is going to be a problem at all.
They'll have no problem finding billions of dollars that can
be cut from the budget without really having any impact
on your average American in any way, shape or form.
The question is can we get Congress to act on
those recommendations.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, let me tell you why I'm optimistic. And so
again I have some first hand experience doing this with
when I was in the Senate. You know, Cobraan was
on the was called the Simpson Bulls that commissioned that
that was formed in the aftermath of the financial crisis
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. And then
that was a part based on something called the Grace
(02:59):
commit that President Reagan put together forty years ago, and
he found one out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of every three tax dollars was wasted.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
So to your point, yeah, we could get rid of
tons of waste, no one would feel anything.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In fact, we'd be happier, the economy would grow.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Coburn and during that Tea Party era, members like Jim
Demant and others, they effectively reduced spending for the first
time since the end of the Korean War. But it
was just a blip and an overall one hundred year
trend of government increasing. So why was it so hard
for us back then? Well, part of it is we
didn't have, you know, historic figures, kind of the Thomas
(03:36):
Edison of our time, like Elon Musk. He has an
incredible megaphone. You know, the President obviously is a megaphone
he's going to use. Those are two things we didn't
have going for us.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But the bigger.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Issue politically is that there's been a very important realignment
in the past ten years where the GOP is now
the working class party.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And back when we were trying to cut spending ten
fIF team, twenty.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Years ago, or you know, thirty years ago, in the
Reagan years forty years ago, the party that had the
working class base was the Democrats, and they didn't want
anything to change. So they would demagogue anybody that said, oh,
we need to reduce the seidoscope of Department of Education,
for example, and they say, well, you're going to hurt
poor people. And now people have figured out that that's
(04:23):
just not true. In fact, you'll actually help low income
people by reducing the behem, the size of.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
The federal government.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So that realignment is a big, big opportunity. And I
think members of Congress know that it's still going to
be very, very hard. It's going to take you know,
really just people like you just doing continuing to come
back at this, you know, have me on, have other
guests on, just remind people of how it because it's
it's not it's not going to come from Elon and Viveka.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It's going to come from we the people. I've had enough.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And we're going to do our list.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I want my kids to have a better future.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, we'll do our best to keep the press thus up.
John Hart, thank you, CEO of openbooks dot com. That
is John Hart.
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