January 14, 2022 • 12 mins
In a new episode of The Armstrong & Getty Extra Large Podcast, the Hoover Institution's, Lanhee Chen (currently a candidate for the office of California State Controller) joins A&G to talk about Kamala Harris' good luck, California's fanciful, new healthcare proposal and a prediction on the 2024 presidential race.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio and the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong Show, Jetty Armstrong and Jetty Show.
You know, I tell my kids what people have been
telling their kids since the start of this great country.
You work hard, you apply yourself. You too can grow
(00:23):
up and be a state controller. That's what Lnie Chen
wants to be. Lannie Chen is candidate for California State Controller.
David and Diane Stephie Fellow in American Public Policy Studies
at the Hoover Institution. And as if that's not enough,
the director of Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford University. All
that's gotta keep you kind of busy, lan here. Huh, well,
you know it's been a busy new year already. Hope
(00:45):
you guys have had a good one so far. Have
you had the COVID yet? I have not. No, I
have not, but I know plenty of people who have
and have been dealing with over the last couple of weeks.
I'm a real yeah, you're gonna get it. I mean,
everybody's getting the O macron. I've had it once. I
suspect I'm gonna get it again. But what are you
gonna do. Yeah, so all sorts of interesting, crazy stuff
(01:06):
coming out of really America's well spring of interesting in
crazy California. But before we get to that line, he uh,
the speech Joe Biden gave the other day in which
he said, if you oppose the national nationalization of elections,
you're as good as Bull Connor, Jefferson Davis, George Wallace,
the segregationist governor of Alabama back in the day. What
(01:27):
was your reaction to that speech? Uh, you know, just
what was your gut reaction? Well, you shake your head,
because you know, here was the Joe Biden who campaigned
as a moderate, as somebody who would bring Americans together,
as somebody who would be a you know, reconciliator if that,
if that's a word, you know, somebody who would who
would attempt to bridge our divide, and now you have
(01:49):
him going out basically, you know, accusing a significant percentage
of the country who believe in local and state control
of elections, basically called them, uh, you know, really bad
name in the book. So it was it was a headshaker.
It was disappointing, But I guess I have to say
I'm not too surprised given where our politics are given given,
you know, kind of what we're seeing with what Joe
(02:11):
Biden has been dealing with. I mean, he's had a
really rough first year, guys. I mean, if you look
at what he's done over the last several months, the
challenges he continues to face with the economy and inflation.
I guess I can I have to say I can't
blame him for wanting to demogogue the issue, but that's
really what he did. He really just kind of got
out there and said, look, I'm going to call a
bunch of Americans names. I'm gonna make them feel awful
(02:34):
for disagreeing with me and for not acknowledging that there
is a real debate about this particular issue. And you know,
it's disappointing. Is there anything that's going to arrest this
direction that we're going, this trajectory of of of of
presidents giving outlandish speeches and things getting more divisive? Oh boy,
I wish, you know, I wish I could say that
(02:54):
we're headed in a different direction, or there's a way
to turn it around. It just feels like a lot
of these guys know they're going for clicks, and they're
going for retweets, and they're going for social media hype.
And you know, in the case of Joe Biden, I
think what you see is what happens when you are
responsive to the far in his case, the far left
progressive base of his party, instead of really being a
(03:16):
guy who would seek out the middle and would seek
out moderation. You have somebody who is now being incredibly
responsive to UH, to the far progressive left. And it's
quite obvious what's happened here. So one more kind of
national question, ln he, as you are an authority on
California politics in in many ways, um and and folks
tuning in, maybe you don't know Lani Chen. He's a
(03:38):
very reasonable fellow. He works beautifully across the aisle. He
is not prone to chucking bombs. So if if his
answer is subtle and gentlemanly, well it's going to be
How is Kamala Harris the Vice President of the United States? Exactly?
She seems to have zero political talent. You know, politics
(04:03):
a lot of times it's about being in the right
place at the right time, and it's about you know,
creating breaks, and it's about sometimes just lucking into breaks.
And you know, look, she's not she wouldn't be the
first politician to occupy a position that you know, she
arguably wasn't wasn't you know, particularly well suited for. But look,
I mean, you know, she gave an answer recently. I
(04:27):
forgot where I heard of she gave an answer recently
on what's going on with the administration's response to COVID
that it's almost like she I have to say, it's
like she heard a different question, but she was answering
a different question, because I was like, hold on a second.
You know, it's like, do you like hamburgers or hot dogs? Well?
I think the weather is nice, thank you? And it's like,
what is going on here? At different universe? A different universe?
(04:51):
You know. I mean, so I don't know if it's
if it's just that she lacks you know, look, I
think the answer is it's a really difficult situation, and
she didn't want to acknowledge a difficult situation, but it
just made her look silly, unfortunately for her. So California
is going to have health care for everybody, including illegals.
How the hell is that going to work? Oh boy?
(05:14):
I mean, you know that the best thing that I've
heard recently about this is that it is so fanciful
and so crazy that nobody actually thinks it's gonna happen. Okay,
and and and the the proposal that you're seeing from
a number of secciment I remember feeling that exact way
about driver's licenses for illegal You know, the plan that
(05:40):
we're hearing about now requires the one that basically would
create a single payer health care system in California. That's
going to require literally doubling taxes in California. I mean,
I wish it were an exaggeration, guys. I mean, sometimes
you hear stuff you're like and it can't be true.
In this case, it literally true. They want to double
(06:01):
tax collections. They want to raise the top marginal tax
rate in California, over which is well above any other states.
I would have to move tomorrow. I would have no choice.
Not not only that, not only that, but lest you
think it is just a tax on rich people, they
plan on adding a payroll tax to pay for this thing,
(06:24):
which will impact families making fifty dollars a year. If
that is not a middle class tax increase, I don't
know what is. And so this idea, by the way,
other states have tried this and I've studied this extensively.
You look at Vermont. Vermont tried this whole single payer
let's let's create a socialist healthcare program. They tried this,
(06:46):
and you know why they gave up on it because
they couldn't pay for it. They tried for two years
to figure out how to pay for it, even with
massive tax increases, they couldn't pay for it. Here's the kicker, guys.
If they get their way on this single payer healthcare thing,
they're actually going to have a rule in place that
they can raise taxes any time to pay for this
thing with a simple majority. Currently in California it requires
(07:09):
a supermajority. They're going to change it. So just for
healthcare you need a simple majority. So this is that
I'm just saying, there's so much in here that people
are going to stop and say nine and a hole
on a second, we can't do this. And even in California,
even in California, people are gonna stop and say we can't. Hope,
you're right. I think La Eachen is with the Hoover Institution,
(07:30):
Director and Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford, candidate for California
State Controller. You know, uh, Lani. I'm going to ask
you a question, and the entire state government of Illinois
is going to be listening rapidly to your answer. How
is it that a state so badly managed fiscally as
California has such a big surplus and all those billions
(07:52):
of dollars sitting in the bank. How to happen? Two things?
Number one is we've gotten a tremendous amount of federal
cash from the from the Biden stimulus bills over the
last several years. Suckers, are you glad you went to work? Exactly?
Thank you? Thank you to the taxpayers of the great
(08:13):
state of Alabama for for for your latest California boondoggle.
I mean, so, first of all, is there's just a
lot of federal cash and and you know, a lot
of states are dealing with surplus positions because they have
a lot of cash from the Feds. The other thing
you gotta understand about California's tax system is that it
is a tremendously volatile tax system, which means when the
economy is doing well. And by the economy, I don't
(08:35):
necessarily mean the economy, I mean the stock market. Okay,
when the stock markets doing well, you're gonna have a
lot of revenue in the state. And as it turns out,
for the last year, the last couple of years, the
stock market has been doing pretty darn well. So as
a result, we've got all this money coming in from
people cashing out their stock options and from people engaging
in in capital gains realizations. And so that means behind
(08:58):
a lot of revenue, it has nothing at all to
do with smart policy or smart planning by the state.
It is entirely a product of good fortune of what's
going on in in stock markets. And you know what
that means, guys, is it the stock market goes the
other way, We're going to be in deep, deep trouble.
We're gonna go from a multibillion dollar surplus to a
multibillion dollar deficit overnight. So we have to be very careful.
(09:21):
And you know, I love it when Newsom's out there says, oh,
look at all these great things that we've done. We
have excuse great surplus. As if he had anything to
do with it. He had absolutely nothing to do with it.
The FEDS has had a lot to do with it.
And then you had a great stock market, and and
so the combination of those two things has produced this
kind of surplus that has nothing to do with fiscal management.
Need I remind you in California we're the home of
(09:42):
the thirty billion dollar unemployment insurance fiasco. We're thirty billion
dollars of our taxpayer money but sent out the door
to fraudsters in Russia and China for fake unemployment insurance
California and Christness Scott Peterson. Scott Peterson right, anyway, it's
it's a it's a remarkable thing, and a politician and
claim credit for something he had absolutely nothing to do with.
(10:03):
But I guess that's politics. If you're a California listener,
you want him to be your California state controller. It's long,
heat chan. I have one final question for you because
I heard this on ABC this week last week, and
sometimes you're on those kind of shows. So they asked
the roundtable people there, what do you put the odds
of a Biden Trump rematch? And the answers varied froment
(10:24):
to from Chris Christie, what do you put the odds
at for a Biden Trump rematch? I think it's really
come on, you're out of your mind. I love you,
an here, you're out of your mind. Biden's gotta live
that long. You think you think Biden is the X factor,
not Trump? Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, fifty fifty. I mean,
(10:46):
there's there's a bunch of things that are they're gonna
have to happen one way or the other. But I'm
so glad I don't have to worry about that for
another couple of years. Awesome, I'm glad. I asked, well,
thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Always great to
talk to you. He chan always a pleasure. Thanks. Man,
You know, I said, I'm why does nobody but me
have the guts to say what's true? Trump isn't interested.
He pretends to be interested, but he's not. And Biden's
(11:09):
to effing old it will never happen to pressure. See
seems high to me too. But man, there's a lot
of people that have spent their lives studying this sort
of thing who are saying are better they've spent their
lives getting on TV. It's like, h L menkin, my
(11:30):
hero's got this beautiful quote about looking at the government.
These people have no particular talent for governing. Their talent
is for getting elected office. Period. Then they get into
the office, and they have no idea what they're doing
anymore than you or I would. And the same thing
with the talking heads on TV plays. They're full of crap.
Hn't tell I'm rooting for it or not. Gotta be
so exciting. Oh no, No, Republic could not endure. Hey,
(11:56):
how about a nasal spray that protects you against COVID day? Yeah,
didn't they? They might have one out that'd be very cool,
among other things we can talk about coming up. And
our text line is always ready for you at four one, five,
two nine five kftc art strong and yet
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio and the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong Show, Jetty Armstrong and Jetty Show.
You know, I tell my kids what people have been
telling their kids since the start of this great country.
You work hard, you apply yourself. You too can grow
(00:23):
up and be a state controller. That's what Lnie Chen
wants to be. Lannie Chen is candidate for California State Controller.
David and Diane Stephie Fellow in American Public Policy Studies
at the Hoover Institution. And as if that's not enough,
the director of Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford University. All
that's gotta keep you kind of busy, lan here. Huh, well,
you know it's been a busy new year already. Hope
(00:45):
you guys have had a good one so far. Have
you had the COVID yet? I have not. No, I
have not, but I know plenty of people who have
and have been dealing with over the last couple of weeks.
I'm a real yeah, you're gonna get it. I mean,
everybody's getting the O macron. I've had it once. I
suspect I'm gonna get it again. But what are you
gonna do. Yeah, so all sorts of interesting, crazy stuff
(01:06):
coming out of really America's well spring of interesting in
crazy California. But before we get to that line, he uh,
the speech Joe Biden gave the other day in which
he said, if you oppose the national nationalization of elections,
you're as good as Bull Connor, Jefferson Davis, George Wallace,
the segregationist governor of Alabama back in the day. What
(01:27):
was your reaction to that speech? Uh, you know, just
what was your gut reaction? Well, you shake your head,
because you know, here was the Joe Biden who campaigned
as a moderate, as somebody who would bring Americans together,
as somebody who would be a you know, reconciliator if that,
if that's a word, you know, somebody who would who
would attempt to bridge our divide, and now you have
(01:49):
him going out basically, you know, accusing a significant percentage
of the country who believe in local and state control
of elections, basically called them, uh, you know, really bad
name in the book. So it was it was a headshaker.
It was disappointing, But I guess I have to say
I'm not too surprised given where our politics are given given,
you know, kind of what we're seeing with what Joe
(02:11):
Biden has been dealing with. I mean, he's had a
really rough first year, guys. I mean, if you look
at what he's done over the last several months, the
challenges he continues to face with the economy and inflation.
I guess I can I have to say I can't
blame him for wanting to demogogue the issue, but that's
really what he did. He really just kind of got
out there and said, look, I'm going to call a
bunch of Americans names. I'm gonna make them feel awful
(02:34):
for disagreeing with me and for not acknowledging that there
is a real debate about this particular issue. And you know,
it's disappointing. Is there anything that's going to arrest this
direction that we're going, this trajectory of of of of
presidents giving outlandish speeches and things getting more divisive? Oh boy,
I wish, you know, I wish I could say that
(02:54):
we're headed in a different direction, or there's a way
to turn it around. It just feels like a lot
of these guys know they're going for clicks, and they're
going for retweets, and they're going for social media hype.
And you know, in the case of Joe Biden, I
think what you see is what happens when you are
responsive to the far in his case, the far left
progressive base of his party, instead of really being a
(03:16):
guy who would seek out the middle and would seek
out moderation. You have somebody who is now being incredibly
responsive to UH, to the far progressive left. And it's
quite obvious what's happened here. So one more kind of
national question, ln he, as you are an authority on
California politics in in many ways, um and and folks
tuning in, maybe you don't know Lani Chen. He's a
(03:38):
very reasonable fellow. He works beautifully across the aisle. He
is not prone to chucking bombs. So if if his
answer is subtle and gentlemanly, well it's going to be
How is Kamala Harris the Vice President of the United States? Exactly?
She seems to have zero political talent. You know, politics
(04:03):
a lot of times it's about being in the right
place at the right time, and it's about you know,
creating breaks, and it's about sometimes just lucking into breaks.
And you know, look, she's not she wouldn't be the
first politician to occupy a position that you know, she
arguably wasn't wasn't you know, particularly well suited for. But look,
I mean, you know, she gave an answer recently. I
(04:27):
forgot where I heard of she gave an answer recently
on what's going on with the administration's response to COVID
that it's almost like she I have to say, it's
like she heard a different question, but she was answering
a different question, because I was like, hold on a second.
You know, it's like, do you like hamburgers or hot dogs? Well?
I think the weather is nice, thank you? And it's like,
what is going on here? At different universe? A different universe?
(04:51):
You know. I mean, so I don't know if it's
if it's just that she lacks you know, look, I
think the answer is it's a really difficult situation, and
she didn't want to acknowledge a difficult situation, but it
just made her look silly, unfortunately for her. So California
is going to have health care for everybody, including illegals.
How the hell is that going to work? Oh boy?
(05:14):
I mean, you know that the best thing that I've
heard recently about this is that it is so fanciful
and so crazy that nobody actually thinks it's gonna happen. Okay,
and and and the the proposal that you're seeing from
a number of secciment I remember feeling that exact way
about driver's licenses for illegal You know, the plan that
(05:40):
we're hearing about now requires the one that basically would
create a single payer health care system in California. That's
going to require literally doubling taxes in California. I mean,
I wish it were an exaggeration, guys. I mean, sometimes
you hear stuff you're like and it can't be true.
In this case, it literally true. They want to double
(06:01):
tax collections. They want to raise the top marginal tax
rate in California, over which is well above any other states.
I would have to move tomorrow. I would have no choice.
Not not only that, not only that, but lest you
think it is just a tax on rich people, they
plan on adding a payroll tax to pay for this thing,
(06:24):
which will impact families making fifty dollars a year. If
that is not a middle class tax increase, I don't
know what is. And so this idea, by the way,
other states have tried this and I've studied this extensively.
You look at Vermont. Vermont tried this whole single payer
let's let's create a socialist healthcare program. They tried this,
(06:46):
and you know why they gave up on it because
they couldn't pay for it. They tried for two years
to figure out how to pay for it, even with
massive tax increases, they couldn't pay for it. Here's the kicker, guys.
If they get their way on this single payer healthcare thing,
they're actually going to have a rule in place that
they can raise taxes any time to pay for this
thing with a simple majority. Currently in California it requires
(07:09):
a supermajority. They're going to change it. So just for
healthcare you need a simple majority. So this is that
I'm just saying, there's so much in here that people
are going to stop and say nine and a hole
on a second, we can't do this. And even in California,
even in California, people are gonna stop and say we can't. Hope,
you're right. I think La Eachen is with the Hoover Institution,
(07:30):
Director and Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford, candidate for California
State Controller. You know, uh, Lani. I'm going to ask
you a question, and the entire state government of Illinois
is going to be listening rapidly to your answer. How
is it that a state so badly managed fiscally as
California has such a big surplus and all those billions
(07:52):
of dollars sitting in the bank. How to happen? Two things?
Number one is we've gotten a tremendous amount of federal
cash from the from the Biden stimulus bills over the
last several years. Suckers, are you glad you went to work? Exactly?
Thank you? Thank you to the taxpayers of the great
(08:13):
state of Alabama for for for your latest California boondoggle.
I mean, so, first of all, is there's just a
lot of federal cash and and you know, a lot
of states are dealing with surplus positions because they have
a lot of cash from the Feds. The other thing
you gotta understand about California's tax system is that it
is a tremendously volatile tax system, which means when the
economy is doing well. And by the economy, I don't
(08:35):
necessarily mean the economy, I mean the stock market. Okay,
when the stock markets doing well, you're gonna have a
lot of revenue in the state. And as it turns out,
for the last year, the last couple of years, the
stock market has been doing pretty darn well. So as
a result, we've got all this money coming in from
people cashing out their stock options and from people engaging
in in capital gains realizations. And so that means behind
(08:58):
a lot of revenue, it has nothing at all to
do with smart policy or smart planning by the state.
It is entirely a product of good fortune of what's
going on in in stock markets. And you know what
that means, guys, is it the stock market goes the
other way, We're going to be in deep, deep trouble.
We're gonna go from a multibillion dollar surplus to a
multibillion dollar deficit overnight. So we have to be very careful.
(09:21):
And you know, I love it when Newsom's out there says, oh,
look at all these great things that we've done. We
have excuse great surplus. As if he had anything to
do with it. He had absolutely nothing to do with it.
The FEDS has had a lot to do with it.
And then you had a great stock market, and and
so the combination of those two things has produced this
kind of surplus that has nothing to do with fiscal management.
Need I remind you in California we're the home of
(09:42):
the thirty billion dollar unemployment insurance fiasco. We're thirty billion
dollars of our taxpayer money but sent out the door
to fraudsters in Russia and China for fake unemployment insurance
California and Christness Scott Peterson. Scott Peterson right, anyway, it's
it's a it's a remarkable thing, and a politician and
claim credit for something he had absolutely nothing to do with.
(10:03):
But I guess that's politics. If you're a California listener,
you want him to be your California state controller. It's long,
heat chan. I have one final question for you because
I heard this on ABC this week last week, and
sometimes you're on those kind of shows. So they asked
the roundtable people there, what do you put the odds
of a Biden Trump rematch? And the answers varied froment
(10:24):
to from Chris Christie, what do you put the odds
at for a Biden Trump rematch? I think it's really
come on, you're out of your mind. I love you,
an here, you're out of your mind. Biden's gotta live
that long. You think you think Biden is the X factor,
not Trump? Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, fifty fifty. I mean,
(10:46):
there's there's a bunch of things that are they're gonna
have to happen one way or the other. But I'm
so glad I don't have to worry about that for
another couple of years. Awesome, I'm glad. I asked, well,
thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Always great to
talk to you. He chan always a pleasure. Thanks. Man,
You know, I said, I'm why does nobody but me
have the guts to say what's true? Trump isn't interested.
He pretends to be interested, but he's not. And Biden's
(11:09):
to effing old it will never happen to pressure. See
seems high to me too. But man, there's a lot
of people that have spent their lives studying this sort
of thing who are saying are better they've spent their
lives getting on TV. It's like, h L menkin, my
(11:30):
hero's got this beautiful quote about looking at the government.
These people have no particular talent for governing. Their talent
is for getting elected office. Period. Then they get into
the office, and they have no idea what they're doing
anymore than you or I would. And the same thing
with the talking heads on TV plays. They're full of crap.
Hn't tell I'm rooting for it or not. Gotta be
so exciting. Oh no, No, Republic could not endure. Hey,
(11:56):
how about a nasal spray that protects you against COVID day? Yeah,
didn't they? They might have one out that'd be very cool,
among other things we can talk about coming up. And
our text line is always ready for you at four one, five,
two nine five kftc art strong and yet
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