The Rod and Greg Show: Rep. Mike Kennedy Explains Vote Against Ban on Child Trans Surgeries; Referendum Against SLCO Property Tax Increase

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we've got a lot to get today. We'll follow
up on the President's speech last night. A member of
Utah's congressional delegation is getting a little and a little
hot water for a vote that took place on the
floor of the House last night. We'll get into that.
Steve Moore. Boy, good economic news today. Even Steve Moore,
and we'll play this a little bit later on, was
just giddy today when the numbers came in about inflation.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know that there's good things happening when economists get giddy.
I didn't even think they had it in them. I
didn't think that was a thirty with these these bean counters.
I didn't know they could get giddy. But we saw it.
We saw the clip Steven Moore, So we're gonna have
him on the show.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Steve will join us a little bit later on and
talk about that. So we've got a lot to get
to today, as we do each and every day. And
if you want to be a part of the program
eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero on
your cell phone, dial pound two to fifteen and say
hey Rod, or you can download the iHeartRadio app, brand
new app. You'll like it and you leave us our
talk bass talkback message as well. So jam packed Joe

(01:01):
again today.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes, it is in great show.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Now I want to start off though, Greg. Heidi Hatch
over at KUTV is reporting some breaking news today on
the Tyler Robinson case. Tyler Robinson's is the alleged assassin
of Charlie Kirk down at Utah Valley University in September,
and they got some breaking news on this today. Apparently
she is reporting tonight and we're talking about Heidi Hatch

(01:24):
over a Channel two. A major shakeup could be coming
in the Capitol murder case against Robinson. Defense attorneys Greg,
according to her story, are now asking a judge to
remove the entire Utah County Attorney's office from prosecuting the case,
arguing a serious conflict of interest.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, and does she say in her report what that conflict?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Here's what it says. According to a newly unsealed court filing,
a close family member of a Utah County prosecutor was
present there at UVU when Charlie Kirk was shot. Defense
attorney say that family connection to someone who witnessed the
shooting could compromise the prosecutor's ability to fairly handle a
death penalty case. The motion is arguing that the prosecutor,

(02:10):
and I'm reading this post from Heidi today, the motion
argues that the prosecutor received real time text messages from
a family member a student during the shooting, discussed those
messages with colleagues, and failed to implement any screening or
firewall to prevent conflicts. Well, that's the case.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
That's I'm not a lawyer, but I was a lawmaker,
so I'd argue that I was hiring the food chain.
But I'm going to tell you this, a defense attorneys
supposed to do their job, and there would be no
greater accomplishment for a defense attorney to put out wrench
in any kind of prosecution than to take a county
attorney's office who'd been coordinating with the county sheriffs and
been working on this and really being careful as they

(02:52):
were as this investigation rolled out. Yeah, if you could
remove them from that case entirely, the defendant would have
their odds would go through the roof in terms of
making it harder for them to get a conviction because
they remove that Utah County Attorney's office. Here's here's why
I don't. I don't take that seriously, and I would
be shocked if the judge does or anyone else. Utah

(03:14):
is a small state. If we're talking about separation, degrees
of separation in terms of people that were at that
campus that day and being close family relatives, or the
text that any of us were receiving from people that
were there that day, we all hurt. We were all
getting that there is there are people throughout this entire
state who will know someone or be related to someone
who was there because of how how small of the

(03:36):
state we are and how many people we know, especially
and you know, there's there's politics. There's campaigns that are
run for Utah County or for county attorneys and sheriffs
everything else. So there's that is an impossible standard to satisfy,
be it the Utah County sheriff or anywhere else in
terms of some family member who might have seen this.
The other thing is they're talking about the assassination, so

(03:57):
they're not talking about the defendant. There was no discussion
about the defendant or that person or who would have
done that committed that crime. All of that is later.
Anybody that saw that assassination or all of us that
saw it online. If if you haven't seen it, don't
go look at it. But you can't unsee it. But
any I mean, anyone that saw that that doesn't have
one thing to do with uh with the with the defendant.

(04:19):
That defendant wasn't known at the time. It's not it's
not the guy they arrested that We a lot of
us actually know through politics that gadfly in politics that
they apprehended at the at the scene. That's it's not
even that. So I think it's a reach. I think
that that that that it would be a major shakeup
and it would be a major advantage to the defendant
if that were to happen. But I think that's a

(04:40):
standard that you're not You're going to find a relative
and you're going to find text messages that saw that
in real time across the state.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, you have a relatively new judge handling this case.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
That we do is you know, and you don't know.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
What's going to happen here with a new judge and
where he'll come down on this. According to the Affidavid
that Heidi apparently has had a look at the defenses,
asking the judge to disc qualify not only the prosecutor,
but the entire county attorneys.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Oh, I think I think they're crazy. I think the
depends attorney here, she's good, she's from out of state.
She's flown in here to do this. It would be
if you had if you had a one percent chance,
you try to do it, because you're going to have
a much stronger defense case if you have a flat footed,
don't know anything about anything County attorney's office. It has

(05:23):
to take that case from from the Utah County prosecution
in the attorney's office. So she's going to make that
she's going to make that attempt. Just because you can
make that filing doesn't mean it has much merit. I
can't imagine again, with all that I just described that
that would be taken seriously. But we do have a
brand new judge. Was he was confirmed as a judge
in May. Here we are in the same calendar year

(05:45):
in December. I mean he's been on the job for
seven months.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, well, let me ask you this, Greg, You're bringing
this all up and I'm thinking, are they doing this
simply to put this in their quiver just in case
they have an appeal they decide to appeal whatever comes
out of this, and one of the appeals would be
the County Attorney's office should not have prosecuted this case
because of this possible conflict of interest. Could they be

(06:09):
setting that strategy up?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Well, I will just they could, and look, she wants
to win it right now, and she would be well
served to win it right now for her client and
not for justice, but for her client. But again, Utah County,
good luck. That means you can commit any crime in
Utah County and if it's high profile enough, chances are
you'd have to disqualify the Utah County County Attorney's office

(06:30):
because the degrees of separation are so small, especially once
you get into things like uvuor and or politics and
have a very prolific, very famous person, national figure coming
to our state. You would it would that strategy would
eliminate the Attorney's office. I would argue from many many

(06:51):
cases if someone who high profile that were to happen.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, well, apparently or according to this story or this
post from Heidi on X, A judge is scheduled to
hear the issue on January sixteenth. At the hearing, the
court will decide whether the conflict is significant enough to
remove the prosecutor or the entire office from the case.
I'm not sure if it's significant enough, like yours. Degrees

(07:15):
of separate.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Does not rings You see the shot, but you don't
it's not him. You don't see the person apprehended. There's
no there's no leap of logic as to who would
have been the assailant and that in that moment, because
nobody knew anything about where that shot came from, who
did it, There's I don't know what prejudicial information would
have been found. We can watch it, people can watch
it live as if they were there, grotesquely, but you

(07:38):
could see it, and you know, I'm sure, I know
it's much more traumatic if you're there. But Jason Chavids
was there. He was president. I mean, you're going to
say that he can't have an opinion about this, or
that his opinion from what he witnessed what happened there
somehow disqualifies him. I just I think it's a leap.
But again, that's a defense attorney's job.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So yeah, but apparently, I mean, what is a prosecutor
supposed to do? He has a son at this event,
By the sounds of it. Yes, he sees what's going on.
You'd pick up the phone your dad's lawn for it.
You'd call your father and you'd say, down, you won't
believe what just happened.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
If you watched that car.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Actually, you're going to be they're gonna be disqualified from
this case because of something like that. I'm with you,
I don't see it.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I don't. It's and again watching that and being there
and the concern it's a small state. It's a small state,
UVU and having that with that environment, the way they
did go find me another county where someone's relative wasn't
at that event. You, I'm telling you you're probably gonna
find what there's four Wassatch counties, there's twenty nine counties.

(08:41):
Where are you gonna play? Where are you gonna go to?
Ye Payute? Yeah, and maybe Pyout County is the only
county that doesn't have a family member that's sitting in
that that's you know, in that section of thousands and
thousands of.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
People that I just remember the day of the year.
We could have taken phone calls for five or six
hours that day. Yes, people who are that event and
talking about what happened.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I'm every college, every all we did take was either
someone present or who had a direct family member that
was present. And that would you're even I mean, yeah,
I just don't. I think it's something that it would
it would rock this investigation and it would advantage the
defendant in a in a big way to take away
that all the work that's been done up till now

(09:18):
from the Utah County's Attorney's office. But I think that
the argument for that is one that the defense attorney
should make, I guess on behalf of their client. But
I I would be shocked if it was taken seriously.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Well, if you want more information on that, our news
partner KU TV and Heidi we'll have more in that tonight.
I would imagine coming up on ku TV all right,
A lot to get to today when we come back,
a referendum on that ugly property tax in Salt Lake
County that's coming up on the Rodden Gregg Show in
Utah Stark Radio one all five dying knrs.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
It seems to be a seems to be dam pede
I mean, Davis County. And then you got and I
even you have some that are just the dust hasn't
even settled on some of the school taxes that have
come and so other counties have actually gone through it
as well. So it seems like it's it seems to
be a bit of a thing. It seems to be
a trend happening.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, I love the excuse. Well, we haven't raised taxes
for years, so we've got to catch up.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
There's that. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Is that the excuse I hear all the time.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, And they said, what we have inflation? Well, welcome
to the club.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, join them to the club, join the club. Well,
a property tax hyke of nearly fifteen percent in Salt
Lake County is under attack from a group of residents
who filed the petition for a referendum to overturn it,
leading that effort. As our next guest, he's joining us
on our newsmaker line. Goud Amerigani. He is a former
GOP candidate for Salt Lake County Clerk. Goud, how are you?

(10:39):
And welcome to the Roden greg Show. Thanks for joining us, gout.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Oh, I'm good. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Why did you launch this?

Speaker 5 (10:47):
Well, after the county approved this massive tax increase, I
got calls and emails from people across the political spectrum
saying what can we do?

Speaker 4 (10:57):
We're at our breaking point.

Speaker 5 (10:59):
We've had five years of inflation, property taxes have been skyrocketing.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
We need to do something because we just can't afford
to give any more.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
I did some research, realize we can do a referendum.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I got some friends together.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
We have a photo up where I got thirteen of
my friends in the grinch. We went down to the
county and we filed to do a referendum.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
So nowd I love it? I think it's drawn appropriate attention.
I think you got people nervous out there at Sally
County Building over there. So tell me strategy wise, do
you think you have how many how many signatures do
you have to get?

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Well, we have to get forty five thousand signatures, so
it's seven point seventy five percent of the elected or right, sorry,
of the registered voters in the county and we'll have
forty five days to do it once the county clerk.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Approves our petition.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
Okay, so just clear we're not collecting signatures yet.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Okay, and then I'm assuming you've got a great ground
game plan. But are you confident or do you need
or do you need people to volunteer. What's your status
on gettings? Because that's actually that's always been the challenge,
is getting the signatures. It's designed to be tough. So
are you ready?

Speaker 4 (12:11):
Ye? We are getting ready.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
So we've decided that this is going to be an
all volunteer effort. This is about the people rising up
and getting the signatures to push back against our elected officials.
And so we're gathering volunteers right now. And actually I
have an exclusive for your listeners.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
We just got our website up.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
If people want to go to it, it's no tax
slco dot com. They can go there, they can get
information and updates about our efforts, and they can sign
up to be volunteers because once we get approval, we
will be going at one hundred miles an hour. We'll
need volunteers because we're Our goal is to collect those

(12:53):
forty five thousand signatures and to get this on the ballot.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
So let me take no tax SLC. Did you say,
l just give that that website to me again?

Speaker 5 (13:04):
Yeah, it's no tax slco Selects County.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
All right, I got it. You know, it's like living
in a jigsaw puzzle in this valley You've got municipalities
all over the place. Someone is once referred to it
as the Jigsaw Valley. How difficult will it be for
people to sign this petition? Can people are living in
Salt Lake City sign this? Can people in Murray City
sign this? Or it just has to be county residents,
doesn't it?

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, it does that have to be county residents.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
I actually think we will have signing locations all over
the county and people collecting all over the county. We've
had a huge outpouring of support coming from everywhere, I
mean River Tan, Salt Lake City, draper, all over the county.
People are contacting us, they're asking to sign up to
volunteer because they want this on the ballot. We've even

(13:53):
had elected officials reach out and say that they want
to support us and they want to help us.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
So there's a huge outpouring of support. People are tired
of their property.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
Taxes constantly going up and they're looking for some relief
and this is this is our way to do it.
This is our tool that we can use to control
taxes in our county.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
And be clear, it's not just signers that would reside
in unincorporated Soli county because you're going to get tax.
You're going to see it on that property tax. Whether
you live in a city within a county or you
live in an unincorporated part of Soli County, it's the
tax man's arriving. If you live inside of the Salt
Lake County unincorporated or in a city, we're all the
same here. Is there any qualifications about proportions around the

(14:32):
county itself or is it just you can get them
from anywhere, because that's when you get to state wide ballots.
That's always kind of the tough thing is where you
collect those signatures. Do you have any of those barriers
for the county.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Yeah, the main requirement is that we have to collect
signatures from seventy five percent of what are called voter
participation areas within the county. There's not a minimum requirement
per voter participation area. We just have to have some
signatures from each one. But like I said, I don't
think we'll have any problem because we are getting widespread

(15:04):
support all over the county as people.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Hear more and more about this, And when you hear
from people, what are they telling you? God, what are
they saying about this?

Speaker 4 (15:13):
They're saying sign me up. Where the pack is? I
want to.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
Sign right now. I have fifty people that I can
get to sign tomorrow. I mean, those are the messages
we're getting. People are really excited because they've just had enough.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
They don't want to get taxed anymore.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
So I know I'll tell you. I think it's who
would you go up to and say, hey, we want
your signature? Do you live in Sully County?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Would you like your taxes to go up or down?
I don't want them to go up? We would you
like to sign here? Yes? I would. I think that's
going to be the conversation. I don't know who's going
to tell you God, no, no, no, I want this tax
increase go away, like don't I don't want to sign that.
I want it. So I think you're I think that
it's just a manpower issue. I think that it's such
an intuitive issue that we don't it shouldn't be that

(15:55):
we're getting tax more, just be more efficient with what
they're doing. So I'm I'm optimistic for you as well.
I guess my final question is the time that you're
given forty five days once it's been approved, and that's
when the timer goes off. Where will we see you?
Where will these opportunities to sign take place? Do you

(16:15):
have that in your mind right now?

Speaker 4 (16:18):
We have a lot of ideas.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
We're working on solidifying those right now. So what I
would tell people is go to the website No tax
slco dot com. You can also follow me on x
I'm at Gowd the number four Utah. You can also
follow Phil Lyman. He's been helping with us. So Phil
underscore Lineman and we will be putting out updates as

(16:41):
we get them. While we are in this period waiting
for the clerk to approve the petition, we are working
our butts off to get this organized, to get everything
together so that on the day when we are ready
to go, this will be it'll be boom and we
are going at one hundred miles an hour until we
have the signatures we need.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
All right, Well, Gowd, we appreciate your time and good luck.
Keep us up to date on this, see how.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
It goes, and folks, we put that we've linked on
our at Rotten Greg show the website no tax slco
dot com.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, God, thank you, I know we'll be talking down
the road. Thanks God. Maragani he is a one time
candidate for Saltlake County Clerk, but he's leading up an
effort now a referendum to overturn a nearly fifteen percent
property tax increase in Salt Lake County. We'll see how
that goes, all right, Mark, coming up here on the
Rodden Gregg Show in Utah's Talk radio one O five

(17:32):
nine knrs. And we see this article that the members
of the republic Republican party in the House had passed
a bill which basically it's an outright ban on transgender
surgeries for miners. Right, Yes, we noticed, but then we
noticed there are four Republicans who voted against it. And
among those Republicans who voted against it was Utah third

(17:56):
District Congressman Mike Kennedy, one of our guys, one of
our guys, the good guys. Oh, we're saying, what's up
with that?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Don't like it, because I'll tell you, we had four
Republicans in the House voted for Obamacare expansion extensions. And
I thought that was traitorous. I knew. I served with
now Congressman Mike Kennedy, and he when he was a
state senator, literally did this very built four and on
behalf of the state of Utah to stop this and
successfully did it. Why on the earth would he vote no?

(18:25):
It was a it's a confusing issue.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, he's getting a lot of heat for this, so
we thought we'd reach out to cendra our Congressman Kennedy,
and he's joining us on our news micro line right now. Congressman,
thanks for joining us. A lot of people are wondering
why you voted no.

Speaker 6 (18:39):
Yeah, especially after in twenty twenty three, I passed the
landmark legislation a ban these procedures transgender surgery as well
as cross sex hormones and puby blockers in the state
of Utah. So we had a great piece of legislation.
And one of the things to think about that's really
important is that when the FED step in and Greg
you know this very well, everybody else is forced out.

(19:01):
So we've got twenty six states that have passed robust,
well thought out legislation, including the state of Utah that's
actually working. In the case of our legislation, the transgender
clinical the University of Utah has finished, it's done. It's
left the state many of these offices that we're operating
a wild West on our children in the form of

(19:22):
procedure as well as puberty blockers across sex hormones. These
people have left the state and our effective legislation. After
countless hours of myself and the state legislature working through
this in a well reasoned fashion, that we accomplished a
significant goal. And the other thing I'll give to you
and those that are listening is we have not had

(19:42):
any litigation on what we passed because it's sound, it
is locked up, it's well thought out legislation. So on
the counter to this, and that's where this bill on
the surface might seem like an easy call. And I
have a deep respect for my colleagues working through this. Yeah,
let's approve of that policy to put doctors in jail

(20:05):
if they're doing these kind of procedures and cross sex
hormones and things. But the issue that we're running into
here is that this legislation was forced by Marjorie Taylor
Green in a vote trade on some level to get
leadership to put this on the floor. So a vote
that we took a week or two ago, she would
vote in favor of whatever was before her. So this

(20:26):
is a rush piece of legislation that is actually bypassing
normal process and did not give the proper time to
vet and consider. And I'll go back to the fundamental
policy that when the Feds move in, it better be
good policy, because otherwise everybody else is forced out when
we step into these areas. And in this case, I

(20:48):
don't believe this so well thought out bill. It doesn't
accomplish what we need to accomplish. It's never going to
be seen in the Senate. It's a message bill, and
Greg knows all too well those message bills that are
never going to be heard on the other side of
the body. The bicameral nature of this place is the
Senate's not going to hear this. But secondarily, there's a
lot of definitions in here about what is a man,

(21:08):
what is a woman? And are those definitions going to
hold to court scrutiny, because once the judges get it,
they can turn this into a constitutional privilege, and we
might like gay marriage, we might get the exact opposite
of what we intend is gay marriage was we passed
laws protect marriage, and then the judges got to handle
on that and they started Judges defined marriage and Supreme
Court affirmed it and now became the law of land,

(21:31):
So we really need to be careful before the Feds
get too deeply into these really difficult issues that.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
We confront So Congressman here, I have two questions. But
bottom line, the first question is you would argue that
what you passed in the state legislature in twenty twenty
three does more to prevent the mutilation of children and
protect children and has kicked some of these the surgeons
into out of our state net does more as a

(21:58):
state policy than the federal bill that you that you've
voted against. Is that am I? Did I hear you right?

Speaker 6 (22:04):
That's one piece, yes, And also we voted today to
ban Medicaid from covering these procedures, which is a direct
federal connection. So so yeah, that's that's a big deal. Though,
is we've already got a great piece of legislation in
the state of Utah on twenty six twenty five other states,
so twenty six total states and passed that legislation, that
type of legislation, and that could be preempted by the
federal government get involved in this if it's not well

(22:27):
thought out, good policies.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
So let me ask you. I'm going to call you,
Mike on this question. Because I know you now, we've
we worked together, we were colleagues, and I know that
you're not a perfect is the enemy of good lawmaker.
I've seen, I know how you work. I know how
you got to change the status quo. This looks like
a protest vote, and that's not a Mike Kennedy that
I know. That's just a protest vote. And I know
why on the substance it's not worthy of your vote.

(22:51):
So I guess my question, and it's easy to look in,
you know, for me to be in the cheap seats
and ask, but how come you couldn't get more colleagues
Because the fewer you are, the more extreme that that
position looks like it takes. And you're being misrepresented as
to why you would vote the way you did. Was
there any ability or why wasn't their ability to really
even if she cut that deal to put that on
the floor, to have more of your colleagues say it's

(23:11):
not true. It's actually it's like the Patriot Act and
it's not. It's not you don't vote for it because
it's you're a patriot.

Speaker 6 (23:17):
You're you know, you know how this goes legislatively? Is
that I've got colleagues reaching out and I was going
to vote no on this bill, but I was intimidated, bullied.
I had reasons to please whomever about this that I
wasn't going to vote no. I've got text as well
as signal chats where people intended to vote no but

(23:39):
were persuaded. And you and I know what that persuasion
can be like to vote yes for a bill that
was brought up on Monday and voted on Wednesday. So
there's no time for these people to consider. And there's
been a lot of people that are there. They're politically

(24:00):
please with their vote, but policy wise they have questions
and concerns like I do. But my vote reflects those
questions and concerns. There's as will and politically to just
go forward with what was there?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Well, final question for you, because I know you're trying
to catch a plane, Mike, where does this? Where does
this vote go? Now? I mean the House is approved.
Is the Senate even gonna bother looking at it? Other
than being a message bill? What happens with this thing?

Speaker 6 (24:23):
I suspect this will never see the light to day
just because of the nature of what it is. I
don't see any possibility that sixty senators would get on board.
I think there's many senators would see this as a
step in the right direction. That's why I'm committed to
working on policy just like I did in the state
legislature that accomplishes the goal, but it actually is passable
in both houses and signable by the President. In our

(24:45):
case in the state, we got the governor to sign up.
So I don't believe this is ever gonna see the
light to day, and time will tell, but myself and
others are committed to working on policy we could get
through the Senate that actually he preserves and protects our children,
because we all would agree to your listeners as well
as the three of us on this conversation, is our children,

(25:08):
our greatest asset, our greatest blessing for the future, and
we should do everything to protect them from the mutilation
and surgeries, the permanent damage associated with these procedures and
medications that can happen to them them. We're working diligently
on that, but we're not We're not done with the
policy yet, so it's still going through that well thought

(25:31):
out process.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Congressmand Mike Kennedy joining us on the Rod and Greg
Show talking about his vote concerning transgender surgeries for minors.
It makes a lot of sense to me. I mean,
he's getting a lot of heat for this today, but
you know, he's a lawyer and he's a doctor, so
I think he understands what's going on.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Well, there's two things I want to point out real quick,
and that is number one. If Mike Kennedy was not
one of those four, I would have joined the course
of just disgusted people in this country. If there were
four Republicans that can't don't have the decency to vote
to to ban the mutilation of these children. And I
I without knowing that Mike Kennedy's eyes were on this
or that he disapproved, I thought this would it's terrible

(26:09):
that the Republican's point. Yeah, but I know my Kennedy.
And here's a little here's a little fact that he
didn't mention that I maybe I shouldn't, but I'll tell you.
He got his home vandalized for the bill he ran
in twenty three. He got spray in this state. He
got his home vandalized in spray painted because he was
running this bill to stop this mutilation in the state.
So I know he's I know the good work he's
done in this space. That's what slowed my role. I

(26:30):
had to I had to understand what's happened because he
doesn't do protest votes. He's not a he's not a
he's not that kind of guy. And so I if
you if you want to say he still made the
wrong choice, it's that he should have been part of
the performative We're gonna it's it's it's a title. You
can't really be on the wrong side of. I he
he did believe that it would undermine this state and

(26:51):
the and the goodness, the good work he did here
in preventing that. But knowing it's not going to pass
in the Senate, you could say, we can fake it,
no harm, no foul, I'll just vote for it. But
it's it's it's garbage. But I know it'll never pass.
But he voted his conscience there, and so I just
I think it's worth everyone's consideration when we look at
that bill and we look at that vote, because it's
very counterintuitive to see someone vote against that and think

(27:11):
that's the right vote.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
They're Rod and Greg show rolling along on this Thursday
afternoon on talk radio one oh five nine can arress
Brown Universe. Oh, Brown University. But apparently they're now thinking
it could be linked to the murder of an MIT
professor in Boston.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
It was only fit, they say, ninety miles hard or something.
It was close in proximity. I listened to something yesterday
morning that thought they didn't think it was related. But
people are asking that question. But if they have someone
in I heard they have a person of interest in
custody or something, and so maybe there is a connection.
There a parade of clowns out there. And here's the
should I get into it with? Oh, the chief of

(27:48):
police there is the once chief of police of the
University of Utah. They got fired because he was not
licensed to be carrying his weapon and wearing a badge
yet he'd just been hired, and they put him on
suspension and he got Yeah, I got booted in.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
The chief of Brown University.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
So brown scooped them up and said, hey, that's that's
that's great credentials for us. Come on, forty five armed
law enforcement ninety five employees take it over.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, all right, coming up. Wait to hear reaction to
the inflation numbers. Today, economists are joyous that's coming up next.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
The disapproval rating for the Democrats is that an all record?
They've never seen it. No, No, Harry Anon from CNN
saying it's fifty five is a minus fifty five percent,
so eighteen percent plus, yeah, minus fifty five. They've never
seen the gap as big as since they've been doing
it as is right now.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, but I saw a survey today and Reuters who said, yes,
we hold them in very low esteem, but we'll probably
vote for.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Him til we'll see what.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
What sense does that make? Explain that one to me?

Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's because they're they Because the Democrats are great at
fomenting fear, and they they just want to make you
say you hate us. Wait do you see as Republicans
they're worse than us. So if you don't approve of us,
you're going to dis prove more of the Republicans. That's
all they have. They don't have anything, they don't build anything,
they make, They turn everything into dust. The Chicago Bears
are going to leave Soldiers Field? Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I mean, I would just love to see that.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
What is a testament or indictment on that state? And
that's it? That that you have the Chicago bears that
with all the money they spend and dole out to
everybody in that state and all that they're doing protecting
illegals and protecting criminals and all the homicide rates, they
don't give a wit about uh that they're going to
chase that NFL franchise right to the next stay over

(29:36):
the border into Indiana if that happens. You know, I
just think that normal everyday Americans go. I don't know
that that's a I think that's a tell of something bad.
And so whatever's going on in Chicago and Nolan, I
know they're both Democrat blue. There you go, there we go.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Sure, all right now, the big story of the day
today we all woke up and got the news about inflation,
the fact that it dropped. They worked expecting about three
to three point one, three point two percent, two point
seven percent. I put together a montage of economists, including
our own Steve Moore, who would be talking to in
the next hour. His reaction as those numbers came in today,

(30:13):
they were all giddy, amazing.

Speaker 7 (30:16):
I mean, I predicted that, didn't I ten minutes ago
that yes said we were going to see a slight
reduction in the inflation rate. By the way, this is
good news for Wall Street, it's good news for Main Street.
It's good news for the Federal Reserve Board, which means
it's more likely that we're going to see another quarter
percentage point reduction and rates. I got a big smile
on my face right before Christmas with this number.

Speaker 8 (30:38):
Oh maybe coming in a little bit better than expecting
two point seven percent a little light year. I'm not
calling I'm just reading the headlines here. Year over year
two seven x, Food and Energy Corps two six, so
four tenths off. That is a very good number.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Here brand new numbers on inflation. You can see the
annual rate of inflation down.

Speaker 9 (31:02):
The government just put out this new report saying the
consumer prices were by two point seven percent year over
year in November. That is much better than the forecast
from economists, which was for three percent. And as you mentioned,
this is a step in the right direction.

Speaker 10 (31:17):
I mean, I was surprised. It was a better number
than anyone was expecting. Look, inflation has been very high.
It's stayed high, it's not been coming down. But you know,
people were expecting it to be above three percent.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It was well below three percent.

Speaker 10 (31:34):
I mean, I think the President will take this as
good news.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
I think all Americans take this as good news. But
what I loved every one of these economists surprised. Yeah, oh,
he goes it's down.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
You know, you know how I can tell economists is
getting it wrong. I can see their lips move. That's
how I can tell. That's that's my powers of observation nowadays. Yeah,
if I see an economist's lips move, they're wrong.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah, they don't know how to. They don't have to
give us a they predict it, just go the other way.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, the argument's being made. Of course, we didn't get
it last month, so you're having to adjust it this month.
That's why it's down. Blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I've tested that with the some of these being counters,
and nobody thinks that because the shutdown in October occurred,
that somehow that was white that's that all. Yeah, they're not.
They're not accounting for that. So whoever is is again wrong.
It's just that's what that's what they're so good at,
being wrong and never accounting for.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Well, it is good. What'd you think of the President's
speech last night?

Speaker 2 (32:33):
So I liked it. I I not even I say
that with a fleeting voice.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
No.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I loved the speech, and I loved many aspects of it.
I love his closing statements about how crooked politicians have
been giving away taxpayer money and it's been harming the
American people. They've been coddling to criminals, letting illegal immigration
run rampant. He just wanted to just assess all of
that and all of it pointing out I think, really well,
all to the detriment of everyday Americans and how committed

(33:00):
is to reversing that and protecting everyday Americans in this country.
And I thought it was a very strong statement. I
think that the criticism from Democrats is just so sad.
I mean, ny One of the comments was on CNN.
I listened to the panel and it was she said, oh,
seventeen hundred to the military dividend of one thousand, seven

(33:21):
hundred and seventy six dollars. So you know, whatever one
point four million, one million, four and fifty thousand service
members would receive that that one thousand, seven hundred and
seventy six dollars dividend, that's in the mail, he said,
right now, she says you know, that's not that's nothing.
That doesn't even pay for rent in DC. If she
wanted to say that other first responders deserved it or something,

(33:42):
I could see I wouldn't agree with that argument, but
I could see how you make it for her to
scoff at seventeen hundred dollars is the most elitist, disconnected observation.
And I hope that when America, the American people hear
the Democrats condemned that because that's chump change. Seventeen hundred
dollars is chump change. I hope people hear that and
realize these people don't understand. They don't understand what goes

(34:05):
on in this country. They don't like us. They are
not here for us, they're not here to protect us,
defend us. They they don't understand. There's anyway. I just
think that that criticizing that over it's just chump chance,
it's not that doesn't amount to anything.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Oh really, yeah, yeah, I bet Greg if you went
out and talk to average Americans right and say, hey,
how would you like a check for seventeen hundred dollars?
Would you take it? They'd be giddy? They exist. Yeah,
that does mean a lot to us, and you're right,
these elite snobs in the Democratic Party brush ups what a.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Pit ince amount? That is just nothing. Really, yeah, that's nothing.
I'm gonna tell you that means a lot. I'm going
to say, there's gonna be a lot of appreciative people
that that's happening. And to our military that protect our freedoms,
you know, land of the free, because of the brave.
I can think of no more appropriate gesture than what
the President made last night and what they're doing. And
by the way, they're using tariff money, so they're in

(34:58):
the black. It's not spending. It's one time money that
came in that they didn't budget for.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
So I've got more in the President's speech, but we've
got some calls coming in on this tonight. Let's go
to the phones. Let's hear from John and pleasent Grove.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
John, how are you appreciate I'm doing great.

Speaker 6 (35:16):
The radio down, yeah, turn the radio, yeah, I'm trying.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
To gestures, just turn it off.

Speaker 11 (35:27):
I was driving and trying to turn it off anyway.
You know, you're talking about the economy going down.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Uh what was it two point five percent inflation?

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, yeah, two.

Speaker 11 (35:41):
Point seven inflation. Anyway, so this is not a big deal,
but it happens in small increments. It's like, okay, so
this is a dumb example, but I bought some Jim
Donuts and I usually say a dollar fifty nine. They
were up forty since in two weeks they.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
Went forty cents.

Speaker 11 (36:03):
So you know, like the economy just seems like, you know,
it's hard for us to see that as a as
an improvement. You know, you hear it, you know, two
point by two point seven percent, but little things like that,

(36:24):
and there's other things that have gone up.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Beef has gone up sky high.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah, now, John, So yeah, I appreciate the observation. I
agree with you. I think that the all what two
point seven means is that you've gained two point seven
more pounds. It doesn't even mean that anything's actually gone
down in price. It just means that inflation. Every time
you hear the quarter or the monthly inflation rate, it's
how much we're gaining weight. It's never going you know,
never losing weight. So to your point, I mean, there

(36:51):
we're seeing that go up. What what's supposed to happen
is our income is supposed to rise, Our returns from
our taxes because we got cat tax cuts that that
took place when they signed the big beautiful bill. So
the rebate should be stronger, and how much they take
in taxes from us going forward should be less. Those
types of things ought to amount to hiring household income

(37:11):
with that should manage that or outpace the inflation.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, So I just want to know why John didn't
bring us a donut.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Their jelly donuts too excellent. And actually that price i'd take.
But what do you say?

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Fifty?

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah? Man, I like that.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
I don't know where they forty cents more though, buck
ninety or something like that for it. But that's still
a pretty good deal in a jelly donut.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
No, but I you know, I I yeah, you're right,
I think about it. I saw that eggs have gone
down twenty seven percent, but again, everybody wants to talk
about eggs. But I think when you get to the story,
you buy more than eggs.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah, I think you do. All right, We've got a
lot more to get to some of your calls and
comments coming up. It is the Rod and Greg Show
on Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine. Can all right?
Apparently police have from what we understand found the suspects
abandoned car, and they are taking a look at the
possible will lead that the suspect may be in a
building where that car was found in the parking lot

(38:04):
there there, you know, so police, a lot of cameras
out there, a lot of helicopters, police out there right now.
Not sure where this going to lead, but that's a
new development and we'll keep you up to date on
it if anything happens between now and the time off
or the time that we sign off tonight.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
You know, the press conferences have been you know, like
bad comedy. Yeah, I mean they've not even not the parody.
Notwithstanding that, the reason that parody even sounded like it
could be real is because the things they've tried to
share or had to share or contradicted themselves about this
as Brown University, it's it's police department, police chief who

(38:41):
has a Utah connection and not a good one. Yeah,
or even the Providence chief of police. It's been a joke.
Everything they've said has contradicted itself. They've turned off the
cameras as per a pro Palestinian organization that asked universities
nationally to do it. So they complied at Brown, they
turned them all off. There's just there's just a parade
of mistakes to go from that where my confidence level

(39:03):
just kept declining every time they had a press conference.
To be here right now and think they might have
a suspect and a hold up in a building and
I think New Hampshire, that's that's some prier. Somebody has
a brain, somebody's doing some work out there.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Well, you know what I find fascinating about this story.
Have we heard from any of the other students who
were trapped in that room when that guy started shooting
and killing two people injuring what about eight or nine others?
Have we heard from anyone in that room? Why aren't
they talking? Have police told him to shut up? What
is going and what did he say? A lot of
people would like to know what he said when the

(39:38):
shooting started, but we don't even have that information yet.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Days and days after this had happened, the question was asked,
what you just asked? They asked. They asked the president
of Brown University, what did these students report back? What
did they say? And the answer back, Now, again, whether
this is true or not, who knows, But the answer
back was, well, We sent them all emails asking for
their information, and we've not received any back yet. This

(40:04):
is this is at least three days after it's happened.
That is not go knock on their door. Why don't
you go find them? Why don't you go ask? You're
waiting for the reply on the email. I just it's
just it's been a it's been a strange thing to watch.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
I am surprised the media hasn't tried to find these
these students because the media, they having been there, done that.
You love to find the first hand experience of what
they witnessed. I haven't seen any of that. And I'm
going to are they sheltering these kids? Do these kids
not want to talk a lot of times they do.
It's a good process to get through the grief period
is to talk about what happened. I haven't heard or

(40:41):
seen anything of that regard yet, And I'm going, what
what what is going on here at Brown University?

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Even the police and die Hard went and found John
McLean's wife's house and they put it on TV. Remember
it's a reporter that was a reporter. Reporter did some
investigation that was that was in a Diehard movie. Yeah,
And that was kind of the that was kind of
the status quo with the journalists back then. It was
a movie, you know, I know, but it was just
reflecting reality. That movie was like a documentary to me.

(41:09):
It's a Christmas movie, but it was a documentary. I
still look at Knokotomy Towers and wonder what happened again?
Could it ever happen again?

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Well, by the way, again, if you just just catching in,
there are some new developments tonight in the Boston University shooting.
Apparently police at Brown University. I'm sorry, I keep on
saying Boston.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Just throw Boston. It probably deserve it.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Miles away from each other in that vicinity. But apparently
they they identified as suspect earlier today, but have not
released who that is to the media, so we know
who they're looking for. But apparently they have may have
found the individual's car, an abandoned car, and they think
it could be linked to the Brown University shooting.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Well, we'll find out. I will like some closure on
this because I do think that it's so on set.
Day after Yeah, and again I think we've gotten a
real front row seat to the dysfunction of Providence, Rhode
Island it's a liberal approach to everything, and their their
university professor is just I don't find her competent at all.
I really don't. If I was paying tuition to a

(42:14):
school like that, I would be revisiting my decisions because
I don't think that school's uh at least it Yeah,
it's not leaving us with any kind of sure. Oh yeah,
they've got to center control or they're doing things well.
The answers are just bizarre that they keep proffering to
the to the press. It's just none of it makes sense.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, and you're asking some very basic questions and they go.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Why were the students around Storday? Don't know? Don't know?
What did they have to say?

Speaker 1 (42:40):
How about the cameras don't.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Know, don't know? They we have cameras inside? Well you
said you didn't, Well we do? Or were they on?
Don't know? No, how about the students, what have they said? Well,
we send them emails, haven't heard back. Okay, okay. So
it's like you almost think that they're just not telling
you the truth. But to what end? I mean, you know,
I just don't know. I find the whole thing to
be disturber, and I'm going to repeat, the chief of

(43:03):
police of their campus. Brown University's campus police is the
chief of police that the University of Utah well suspended
and was terminating, and he went and left the job
he received that job, had not hadn't been licensed or
certified to carry his badging gun, and was doing so
prior to being able to legally. So he was suspended

(43:24):
and he ultimately left the university under a cloud. And
Brown University said, well, that's the kind of that's the
top cop we need. That's how we need ninety five employees,
forty five armed law enforcement officers for this university. Come out,
Come on in, you got fired over there, come here
and run the show all right.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
After the break, we're going to talk about what happened
in Australia and wait to hear what a journalist said
about that. A lot of heat on that one as well.
That's all coming up on the Thursday afternoon edition of
The Rod and Greg Show and Talk Radio one oh
five nine knrs two.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
You know, I used to tell my kids when they
were young. I told my nieces and nephews, and I
got like, those kids have grown up, and I got
a new generation of little kids to scare. I tell
him that, you know, Sannah's basically breaking the law. It's
called breaking an entering, you know. And he comes in,
He steals the cookies, he steals milk. He just he
takes things that don't belong to him. And I'm tired
of the breaking and entering. I'm tired of the The
man needs to go to jail. I tell this, he

(44:17):
tells to my kids. They'd be outraged, and then my
nieces and nephews the same. You scared your children, I said, Man,
if that guy comes in here, I am calling the cops.
I'm done with it. I'm calling grayper police. Even get
my friend Mary Walker to confirm that he's they're they're
they're up in the patrols. You make sure that Santa
doesn't start home invasions. We gotta we got to watch

(44:38):
for this.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
You need help. Do you know that you honestly need help?

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:44):
They yeah, these kids though they they you know, they
they fear me, but then they love me. Okay. They
gets so mad that I want to arrest Santa. It'd
make him so mad, but then you know, they would
it would it would bear other conversations. They just you know,
it was attention getter for sure.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
You know, growing up as a kid during Christmas time,
one thing that me and my siblings could never figure out. This,
this just baffled us. We would go to midnight Mass,
which is a big.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Yes, I see, go to midnight Mass, big Catholic church.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Right, and it's going to midnight Mass when you're a
kid knowing Christmas. That's pretty tough, it is. You know,
they had to basically hog tie us to keep us
still well. And I don't know if you if you
haven't been a Mass, just Catholic Mass. There's a lot
of kneeling, standing, sitting, kneeling, standing, sitting, and it's a
lot of work.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
And then you got a piece be with you. Gotta
be someone coughing a lung out into their hand and
you got to shake it. Peace be with you. You
got to shake their hands. Disgusting, But it's Christmas Eve
and all you want to do is get home.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
We we could never figure out how Santa knew to
come to our house when we were all at Mass,
because we come home from Mass, there was Christmas, there
was no We could never figure out what happened. The
guy had talent?

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Did you have did you have both parents under I
watchful eye.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yeah, they were both wisches all the time, and it.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Would still show up.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Many guy has some magic about him.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
He does. But you know, I've I've drawn a bright line.
I think it's I think it's home. It's breaking the laws.
So that then I got they got a video of
my sister in law and brother in law. They took
a video of their kids screaming at me on the
phone about how I better not get Senta arrested. Yeah,
I said, no, I'm doing it. I'm done with it
too long.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Shall we hear from our great listeners? Yes, Yeah, we've
been talking about the economy, talking about the economy. Had
a couple of listeners leave us a message on our
talk back line. Here's one of them.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
Hey, Rod and Greg, Hopefully you're having a good Thursday.

Speaker 12 (46:38):
It's just something I've been thinking about with the economy,
especially Trump's comments, is that a lot of he does
want to help the short term effects of the economy,
but he is trying to save our country from debt
and you know, economic collapse and everything Biden was headed towards,
and I could say Obama as well. So I think

(46:59):
it's a poor remember that there are short term things
he's trying to save, but it's also the long term
effects he's looking for.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, I would agree, Yeah, I would agree, And I
think I think the short term effects have an added
urgency right now, and because it's gotten a lot of attention,
and there's an irony with the Democrats clutching pearls over
this when they we had so much worse under Biden.
They just ignored it entirely. But the reality is still
the same. It is hard out there, and so I
think he's I think he's laser folks. That's the one

(47:26):
thing President Trump I think has a gift for and
that is, even if he didn't sense it right away,
he ultimately understands the American people. And I got to
tell you, you can't spend ten years in those rallies
and traveling this country and enjoying the rallies and enjoying
interacting with the American people at large the way he
does and it not changed you, and it not for
the better, and for you not to understand the American

(47:48):
people in a much deeper way. After literally ten years
of these types of rallies and events that he has
held and continues to hold throughout his presidency, and so
I think that it's it is very authentic when he
declare he is absolutely single minded. He is going to
address affordability in the short term, but also that long term,
which is the bigger deal.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, here's another coming on our talk back line.

Speaker 13 (48:11):
Inflation can go down all wants, but since prices have
always been up, they're always going to stay up because
businesses like the higher prices. They don't want to lower
the prices to match inflation. They want those record profits.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
You know, I've always wondered that. You know, if you're
making money with higher prices, people are still buying your product,
why would you reduce the price?

Speaker 2 (48:36):
You won't.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
You won't.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
I mean that's why some products like eggs and beef,
you know, is what the market is doing. But there
are some products, why would you want to lower them?

Speaker 2 (48:45):
And here's here's and I think that the wages have
to outpace that. Yeah, because again they have to have
a consumer market. They can't see their market share shrink,
and that the only time they lower it is that
people are just so priced out they can't buy it anymore.
My concern about Utah is I think we're a captured market.
I don't think we're going through the same free market
competition because of that idea that you can charge more

(49:08):
as long as they're still buying, where else are they
going to go? And this mountainous state, in this valley
of four or four contiguous counties that account for seventy
five percent of the entire population of our state, I
think it's a captured market. And so even some of
the costs of anything, whether it's a grocery store or
if it's it's the supplies to build homes or construction call.

(49:29):
I think everything is higher here comparatively to other regions
of the United States because, yeah, the competition. They all
everybody understands. They all understand that it's a no one
there's nowhere else to go.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
I was talking with a realtor several months ago and
asked him about home prices, and he said, Rod, is
this simple? People who own a home or asking for
this amount of money and guess what they're getting it.
So if they get the money, why would they want
to lower their price?

Speaker 2 (49:53):
And that's the definition of a free market. You know,
it's something worth what someone's willing to pay. Yeah, I
used to be drive me crazy about appraisers and they
appraise your home. If I have a higher offer and
that person could afford to pay more for that home
than the appraisal came in, well that what the what.
I don't need an appraiser. I know what the value is.
It's what someone was ready to transact with. That's the

(50:14):
that's the value of it.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
That's what I can get. Yeah, all right, Mary, coming
up the Roderin Greg show here on this Thursday and
Talk Radio one oh five nine.

Speaker 6 (50:20):
K n R S.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
If that carbon footprint can get expanded, I can.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
You guys think of December playing golf. That's kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
I'm excited for that.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
That's kind of fun. We've been talking a little bit
today about the President's speech last night.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Phil Wegman, Philip Wigman, who we've had on the show
before with Real Clear Politics, He covers the White House
for RCP wrote a wonderful article as to how it
was handled last night. Guess who was in charge, not
Donald Trump, Susie Wiles.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
According to Phil's article, Uh, Susie Wiles directed the President
to use the teleprompter, which he doesn't do very often.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
You and I have witnessing it.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, the goals, she said, was to deliver a clear,
scripted message about affordability and accomplishments, rather than his typical
off the cuff rally style.

Speaker 11 (51:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I think, I you know, and he I mean it
was good. I mean, I want to say he was
talking fast, But I will take that nineteen minutes of
really just getting as much information to the American people
as he possibly can then the way that he can
in a rally. You know, he'll keep wander. You and
I watched it. We watched the teleprompter. We were sitting
behind the stage of the Natural Convention, and we saw

(51:36):
the teleprompter stop because he went off script. He went
off for he was talking just off the cuff for
fifteen minutes before he went back to the teleprompter to
keep going. I think Susie Wiles was helping the president
a lot by having him stay strict to that teleprompter,
and he did it in just nineteen minutes. Well, I actually,
before I left the studio and we were together, I

(51:57):
didn't think he was reading. I thought he was freelancing
because he'd seen to be. I didn't think he was reading.
And but I guess he was so good. Good for Susie.

Speaker 10 (52:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Can you see Susie Wiles right next to the camera,
right and Trump in front, okay, and he's looking at
the camera and if and if he does one thing wrong,
she's going I could just see that. And I think
I think Susie Wiles and Milannia are the two people
who he listens to.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
And you know, they didn't just get that assignment. They
earned that assignment because there's a lot of people that
don't control the president, who he's very close to, that
he quite enjoys, but they don't have that role, they
don't have that ability. But I think you're right. I
think his wife and I think Susie Wiles can uh.
And I bet you that one of the reasons they're
so effective of that is that they they probably use
that strength judiciously. It's not something that they're constantly bossing

(52:50):
them around. It's just when there's a certain moment, it's time,
it gets real. And I think I think that that
Donald Trump respects that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Well here's what here's what Wegman said article I love this.
Trump's prime time speech marked a shift toward discipline and focus,
guided by Susie Wiles. Yes, as she's probably telling them
shut up and deliver the message.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yes, well, I actually I don't think said the way
you just said.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
I mean, she is expect for the president.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Yeah, but I think that he absolutely trusts her, her instincts,
her eye, and and she knew if you're going to
take prime time, you're gonna people. You know, there's other
things they could watch, so don't waste the time, and
they got all that. I thought it was unique to
see how many networks covered that, all of them, because
he has been ignored largely by many in the past.

(53:41):
But every network that I reviewed when we were together
was covering that that national address, and I love that.
The Democrats just they're so unimpressed by it. Really.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Schumer gave them all f's today. Of course, everything on
the economy, David, that's not a surprise. Someone someone harken
back to remember the Biden speech. It's all red behind
him and he's got the two Marines. It looked like
something off Star Wars.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Yeah, it was, and he was. And it was a
dark speech, and it was ripping on Republicans and right
of center ideology, and I mean he it was as
partisan as you're going to get if you compare that
the words the imagery compared to last night. If Democrats
want to call that a partisan speech or not a
substance of speech, go look at that moment when Biden
with that red behind him, you know it was the

(54:28):
Independence Hall or something, with those marines, those soldiers behind him.
It was draconian as you get.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Do will the American people and we'll find out if
they'll buy his message. And I think his message last
night was we were handed a mess and we're just
trying to fix it.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Do you think the American people will buy that?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I think no, Well no, I think they'll have to
feel it. I frankly feel like they're going to have
to feel like things are getting looking up.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Queen Bee, Yeah, rodeo, Queen.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
I'll know when she said, she tells me things are
getting better, and then I'll know.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
All right, Steve are forgetting about the places report today,
He'll join us next, stay with us.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Order omelets. I cut up all the green peppers and
the mushrooms, and they get the hand little pieces of
ham and onions and all the kids, and they'll come around.
And my sister comes by, and my niece and pick
out what you want in your olmelet, and I cook those.
I only cook once a year. I only cook omelets.
And it's because I was an omelet chef at a

(55:27):
UH in my college years. Man, I was that was awesome.
That's why, in fact, my omelets are top notch, and
I know how to do it right because the chef
at the restaurant taught me. It was a hotel. Oh yeah,
would you like to share the trick? I can share
some of it.

Speaker 14 (55:43):
Some of it.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I've acquired secret recipe type things. I'm going to tell
you right now. You got to take ray. You gotta
take your your cyber bullying me or you're you're bullying
me with those those sounds. You got to take the
ingredients and you gotta find well, no, no, the eggs, oh,
your ham and your onions, peppers, your mushroom, whatever you want,

(56:05):
whatever you want. I I brown that, I I saute it.
I get that all going for a while, and then
I've already mixed my three egg concoction. I got it
all ready to pour in, but I make sure all
the ingredients are well cooked first. Then I pour it
around the pants. I have my my frying pan is
the size of the omelet. It's an omelet, pant, right,

(56:25):
and then I and then I can I can fluff
it where I can put it to the side and
let the running part get cooked, and then move it
over and over, and then I flip it. I don't
even use this spatula. I can flip it and then
I cook that side. I flip it again, no spatula,
and then I put the cheese on the top, and
then I fold it over and it is perfection.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
We have to put up with this kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
It's just jealous, but it's true and it is so
that's what I do. I've don't. I don't cook. I don't.
I actually have a phobia about cooking other than these omelets,
because I don't like taking it. I don't like when
it takes longer to make than to eat.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to Cooking Time with
Greg right here on the Rotting Greg Show and Doc
Radio time. Because our kids are all grown up and
they've got their own families to be with on Christmas morning, right,
we have one tradition my wife started a couple of
years ago, which is she makes eggs benedict Ooh, I
love this Spnedict and it's just the two of us.

(57:23):
We have a nice breakfast with eggs. Benedict, I love Eggspanic.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
That is nice.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Yeah, and she knows how to do it.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
She shared today or some of our holiday popcorn that
everybody's been chewing on today.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I hate so much of it. I think the last
bite I stopped at my estopagaus, I think I had.
My whole stomach is full and it's worked its way up.
It doesn't make you feel guy feeling a little sluggish
because of it. But so good, so good.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
The big news of the day, of course, inflation numbers
came in a lot smaller than expected. Most people were
saying three to three point one percent, two point seven
percent today now earlier. We played a medium montage of
economists like our good friend Steve Moore, who was giddy
this morning when he saw that number.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
He you know, our friend Steve Moore are our weekly contributor.
He where he made his you know, he made his life.
He made his bones here at the on the Ronning
greg Show. That's where he got famous. But he's all
over the country. I watched in real time as he
found out about these numbers, and he just got so
you see an economists get giddy. That's a that's a moment.
That's a moment.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Well, Steve is joining us on our newsmaker line. Steve,
we all witnessed to getting giddy today. What on earth
was that all over?

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Oh my god?

Speaker 10 (58:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
So it was such an interesting thing because I was
on ten minutes before the report came out, and you know,
she was saying, you know, all the experts say we're
gonna have three point one three point two percent inflation,
and you know, I said, well, you know, Marie, I'm
going to predict that it's a little lower than that.
And then my jaw dropped. She announced two point seven percent.
And you know that in the last couple of months
has dropped a two point two percent. So we are

(58:55):
we're making huge progress on the inflation front and the
affordability front. And this was a blockbuster number. All the
experts were raw and so much for economic experts, and
it shows that Trump is is making a huge progress
in in uh in in bringing the inflation rate down.
We want to get it to two percent. We're not

(59:15):
quite there yet, but it's a Remember, by the way,
these numbers compare with an average rate over four years
under Biden, which is five percent. And at one point,
remember in his presidency, the inflation rate went up to
nine point one percent. So this is real progress. It's
it's a it's blessed relief right before Christmas for the

(59:35):
great American family.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Well, I got to say, you finding that out in
real time and watching an economist just burst with glee
and just rattle off like a gatling gun. This is
great for you know, our interest rates.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Did you see my did you see my jaw drop? That?

Speaker 2 (59:52):
It was brilliant? And so when when you get that excited,
I have to take away that there's good things coming
in that this is this was this was really good news.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
So what do we say Do people say, well, we
didn't have numbers in October and then and for some
reason that somehow is supposed to have a chilling effect
on the good news we heard this morning. Is there
any glass half empty scenario here?

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
The only half glass half empty scenario is you know,
we're making huge progress in so many areas. I mean,
what about gas prices. I mean I think you said
you guys are paying about two sixty nine a gallon there,
and you know most of the country is below two
eighty a gallon, when it was as high as five
dollars a gallon under Biden. Healthcare is a problem. Obamacare

(01:00:34):
was not the Affordable Care Act, it was the Unaffordable
Care Act. And the prices went up and up and up,
and we're still having a problem. We're having big debate
now as we speak in Washington in Congress about what
we're going to do about obama Care. I say, blow
it up. Let's I've got an idea. Why don't we
try the free market in healthcare? A lot of people
pick their own insurance. I know that's a radical idea

(01:00:56):
for America, but you know, look, healthcare costs out of control.
I mean, if I sound a little angry about this,
I am. We just got our statement from our health
insurance companies saying our premiums are going to go up
twelve percent next year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Wow. Wow, So I guess, Steve, good news that came.
And these economists do they ever lose their jobs? I mean, you,
how many times can you be wrong in any time?
They're they're becoming they're becoming our magic a Paul. Whatever
they say, we know that won't happen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
So what you true?

Speaker 7 (01:01:26):
I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
And then when you think about it, academics are the
only people who have kind of lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Tenure and they can be wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
And it doesn't matter. And then they always keep going
to the back to those experts, and then if they're
wrong enough, then they get a job working at the
Federal Reserve port.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
I've got I've got to ask you this, Steve. He
only went nineteen minutes last night, which I think is
a record for Donald Trump. What did you make of
the speech last night?

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
You know, it was a great speech, and I did,
by the way, I didn't see all the nineteen minus
of it, but I saw a lot of it because
I had to watch it on replay. I was busy
that night. But you know, with Trump, less is more,
don't you think? You know, I don't like it when
he goes on for an hour and fifteen minutes. You know,
I think he was very disappointing what he said. He

(01:02:17):
presented the facts to the American people. He was you know,
he didn't say any crazy things, you know, like the
s whole countries and all that, and so you know
it was. It was very and he was factual. And
you know what, the facts speak for themselves. We have
a booming economy. How many I said? How many times
have I said this on your show? If you gets good, Now,

(01:02:39):
wait three months when people start seeing their paychecks expanded,
because in January, people are going to start to see
less money with help from their paycheck. If you're a
service worker, no tax on tips kicks in, no tax
on overtime. I'm here to tell you I'm with Trump.
You know he said this last night. We are going
to have one of the biggest booming economy we've seen

(01:03:00):
in a long long time in twenty twenty six. You
can go to the bank on it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
So let me ask you this. I thought that the
Democrats condemnation of the Warrior dividend of the one, seven
hundred and seventy six dollars, they scoffed at it because
it's just a pittance. It's such a small number. Whereas
I stopped Steve yesterday on my way to a dinner
or lunch appointment and saw a nickel on the ground.
I'm not kidding, and I picked up that nickel on

(01:03:24):
the ground. Okay, I actually think seventeen hundred dollars is
not chump change. I think that's something significant. It looks
like he's using one time money from the terraffs, so
he's not deficit spending. Am I seeing that writer? Did
you do you think that that's a gimmick?

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Well, I'm just surprised they still make nickels. You probably
should pick that up because it's a rarety. Now it's
a collector's site of it. That's right, listen. I love
I really liked that idea. I mean, the servicemen and
women of our country are our heroes, and you know
they a lot of them didn't get pay raises during
the government chet down. A lot of them worked without pay,

(01:04:02):
and yeah, let's salute them with a little little bonus.
And to these you know people in Washington say, oh, well,
seventeen seventy six, that's not going to really I'll bet
you ninety five percent of your listeners would love a
one thousand, seven seventy six.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
You sign me up end of the year.

Speaker 15 (01:04:20):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
I think the average American would say seventeen hundred dollars,
almost eighteen hundred dollars, Yeah, I'd take it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Yes, Thank you, Steven Moore, thank you for.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Would turn my nose up on something like that. But
the elite not a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
It just and again I think it just reveals their
blatant disregard disconnect from everyday people. I don't even think
it's a Republican thing. I think they just don't like
everyday people. In fact, the disapproval numbers for the Democrats
being as low, being so overwhelmingly lost. They like it
a minus fifty five amongst all Americans. Amongst independents, it's

(01:04:56):
like sixty six percent.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
You know when they were popular amongst their own party,
not independents or Republicans, but amongst registered Democrats. When were
they popular?

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Shut down?

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Yes, so when things were the most miserable, when the
government was shut down and that people weren't getting their checks,
and that is when they had a plus rated approval rating.
And now it's at minus eight. It was at plus
twenty two in October, in the month of October. Now
they're at minus eight. So what the people that are
registered Democrats are really angry about with their members of

(01:05:28):
Congress that are in their party is that they they yeah,
they didn't. They they're not letting it get worse, that
they didn't let the government be shut down forever and
blame the Republicans all the while. So I think if
you're a Democrat in America right now, you've got a
big decision to make between everyday Americans and your base
because they have, they do not, their interests are not
aligned in any way.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
And yet thanks to Dirty Diana, Yeah, we'll probably be
electing a Democrat in that first.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Twenty plus twenty four Kamala Harris District. Dirty and uh,
we have that on auto loop. We have that as
a button we can press. Ain't I love it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
All?

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Boy? Coming up, it is the Rod and Gregg Show
with you on this Thursday and Talk Radio one oh
five nine. Okay, n rs. They're starting to hold the
funerals for the fifteen people that were killed. The youngest
was a little ten year old girl.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Just terrible. Yeah, they're terrible, terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
But there is some controversy over there. Apparently the global
affairs editor for the Australian Broadcasting Company a spark contract
or controversy by claiming that the attack on Sunday had
nothing to do with religion.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
I don't think that man knows what the word religion means.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
It's a she she is.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
I don't think she knows what the word religion means.
She thinks there was no religious influence in that attack.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
She's a veteran reporter known throughout the country. Her name
is Laura Tinggel. I believe insisted the terrorist actions were
not related to their faith.

Speaker 14 (01:06:56):
Let's do what she said, and we should be very
clear that terrorists, which is what these two men were,
got nothing to do with religion and absolutely a radicalized
these work targeting Jews is anti Semitic.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
But we are ascribing all sorts of things, right. Their
actions are not based on their religion.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
What is it based on that? If it's not based
on religion and the hatred of Jews by Muslims, what
they just want to go out and kill people.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
And here's what's astounding there. You would think that that
there's all these terrorist attacks from all these different faith
or all these different beliefs or all whatever is motivating it,
you know, being mad at healthcare executives, it just runs
the gambit in their mind. But let's just pause for
a second and look at global terrorism and where it
really comes from. It's a little weighted on the side

(01:07:46):
of Islam. I'm gonna say, you think, yeah, I mean,
I don't think I'm I don't think I'm sticking my
neck out to say there is a trend and it
is on the Islamic side. Where are they radicalized? Yes?
Is that the mainstream Islam? I don't think it is.
But to say it's not a religious that it's not
based on a religious belief. They believe that what the
Western world were infidels and that makes us the enemy.

Speaker 10 (01:08:08):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
It is that is in their faith, in that Quran.
So you can't say and if you and you remember
you showed the list of what how many are.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
There forty three and this around the world.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Yes, you know, and one common denominator Muslim. That's correct,
every one of them. Yes, And so do other types
of terrorist attacks occur, Yes, but in the volume and
frequency of Islamist extreme Islamic terrorism not even close. So
for them to just discount holy like this is just violence.
It's just violent. They're just violent people. It doesn't have

(01:08:41):
anything do as religion. It is either they are just
trying to conceal the truth or they are just hopelessly ignorant.
I don't know which, but neither is a good It's
not a good sign.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Well, of course the folks at Sky News are having
a field day with his comment. Here's a commentator was
on one of the shows I guess last night. His
name is Jack Houghton. Just what he said about this reporter.

Speaker 16 (01:09:02):
So, who on earth does Laura Tingle think she is
to jump that process to spread misinformation throughout Australia at
a time of mourning, at a time of uncertainty and fear.
Who does she think she is to just make these
assumptions and to put this information out there that this
was anything other than what we all know it is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Who does she think she is greg to putpagandist She
knows it's a bad look. She's been on the side
of the Palestinians, I'm guessing for so long. She doesn't
want to be on the wrong side of history. So
she wants to dismiss, you know, the things that she
has helped foment, the hatred, all those things that she
has probably been a part of, or said that that
these Palestinian protests were all righteous causes and this makes

(01:09:47):
her look bad. So what does she say, Well, no,
this attack has had nothing to do with violence at all,
with religion at all.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Here's the proof. Police found an Islamic state flag inside
their vehicle, a group where as we all know, is
Hell bend on killing infidels like us. The attackers attended
a radical mosque, Okay, the targets were Jews lighting candles
celebrating the first night of Hanukkah on the anniversary of
Hamas's founding.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
Yeah, so what would it be? What would what would
inspire the hatred they.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Just someon under facetiously. Maybe they were mad they missed breakfast.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
Yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe they missed the most important
meal of the day. And I'm just beside myself, I'm
just gonna go ahead be a terrorists.

Speaker 1 (01:10:29):
The logic of that, I mean, I mean, I can't
believe people they had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
And this is why it's hard for us to discern
parody from reality.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
This is why, because those comments are so outlandish, it
could be akin to parody and it's hard to see
the difference anymore. I mean, that's why we got pulled
into that fake spokesperson from Providence Police depart Because they've
said things equally as stupid and as crazy and it's
been real. So how do you tell if you told
me if a color called in that's a parody, parody reality, wonder,

(01:11:03):
it's all it all interchanges to me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
I we don't believe it is because the whole country
is into this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
No, it's that's real, but it is it is. It
could be parody. That's how how bad it's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Crazy it gets anymore? All right, more coming up on
the Rod and Greg Show and Talk Radio one oh
five nine k n RS. Here in a minute, we'll
be talking with Rachel Sheffield. She is a research fellow
at the Heritage Foundation about you know, all the money
that we may have lost or been ripped off by
the Somaliads, the Smalids there in Minnesota. I mean, Greag,

(01:11:34):
you're talking one billion, two billion, maybe as high as
eight billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
Yeah, it's it's staggering and and it's I've even seen
a report now that it just keeps getting deeper. It
might even be it might exceed eight billion dollars, it
may go even higher. So it's it's unprecedented at least
the level of this fraud that's happened, and it's it's
hard to imagine with that amount of money flying around
that we don't have government officials that, beyond the whistleblowers

(01:12:05):
being ignored, beyond enabling it, there has to be people
that are more culpable in terms of how you can
possibly funnel Yeah, eight billion dollars steal. Well, it's not fraud,
it's it's it's absolute theft of the public treasury. And
it's it's it's numbers that we have a hard time comprehending.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Well, they it's not that they got away with it,
which they did, Greg, but there were people who were saying,
we got a problem here, and government officials ignored them
and told them go away, you're a racist.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
And if you get up to that number, that that
dollar amount, you're laughing. You're playing with house money. If
you were even caught and you ever saw a day
behind bars, who cares you? They can't even They'll never
find all that money.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
Well, joining it's on our news maker line to talk
more about that is Rachel Sheffield, or research fellow at
the Heritage Foundation. Rachel, how are you and welcome to
the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 15 (01:12:55):
Yeah, doing well, Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Boy talk about a broken welfare system, right, So how
on earth did they get.

Speaker 4 (01:13:01):
Away with this?

Speaker 15 (01:13:03):
Yeah? Absolutely, Well, you know, one piece of this story
that I think is important to understand is that the
fact that our our welfare system really helps facilitate this
the way that it's designed, so the way that most
most you know, welfare spending goes is that you have

(01:13:24):
federal dollars passed on to state for them to then
don't out. There's no for the vast majority of the
money comes from the federal government, so states are really
not uh you know, there's there's not a lot of
financial accountability on the part of states. You can see
how this gets to be a problem of when there's
not a lot of financial skill in the game. The
other thing is that you have you know, states are

(01:13:49):
get more money the more people they have on the roles,
So the incentives are all wrong. And uh, you know,
when when when the when the mindset when kind of
the of the welfare system is inputs. You know that
that's kind of how the measure of success of Hey,
the more people on the role is the better. It's
a completely you know, misguided way to do things and

(01:14:11):
helps facilitate the fraud that we saw in Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
So, Rachel, I am just saying it's hard for the
mind to comprehend eight billion dollars and there's some some
stories are saying it might be even up to nine billion.
Now there's just so much. The fraud is so rampant.
Where do you think that money is? I mean, that's
that is a lot of money to steal. Where is it?

Speaker 15 (01:14:33):
Yeah, that's a great question. Well, we know that it
went to luxury vacations, cars and uh funding terrorist groups,
which is absolutely mind blowing. Where the rest of it is?
I your guess is as good as mine.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Do they feel campaign coffers with that money?

Speaker 4 (01:14:53):
Good?

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
Have?

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
Good have? Rachel? What about the oversight you've talked about
that the federal government gives states money to do these
various welfare programs. Who should be more responsible for the oversight? Shouldn't,
in my opinion, to be the states?

Speaker 15 (01:15:10):
Absolutely? Absolutely, Yeah, I mean really the way that we
should have our welfare system set up is so much
more of it. It really should be a state uh
you know, states, state run, state funded. But we could
we could begin by at least requiring states to to
pay uh to pay more for these programs. There's a

(01:15:30):
lot of good you know, there's a lot of good
reasons for doing that. For one thing, you know, you
have states then making sure that hey program are the
ones that should be on the program. There's more incentive
to help people get off the program to move forward
in their lives. And that's that's the goal. That's really
the point of welfare. We want to help people improve
their lives, not just have to get hair outs. And

(01:15:53):
so that that's one start to say, hey, states, let's
require more more financial skin in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
You know, there's a paull that seventy nine percent of
Minnesota's do not believe that the state has done enough
to protect vulnerable people that are eligible for these benefits,
as well as the taxpayer who's been defrauded. That's a
captain obvious moment. But let's talk about the governor. Governor Walls,
the former vice presidential nominee or candidate on the Democrat ticket.
How much of this is going to splash on the

(01:16:21):
on Governor Walls. I understand he's going to be the
subject of an inquiry in Congress, but is this going
to end his political career? What happens with Governor Walls?
Do you think in Minnesota.

Speaker 15 (01:16:32):
Yeah, that's that's a great question. I mean, you know,
I can't really predict where things will go with him,
but you know, certainly we thought, you know, just political
leadership at you know, various levels, not you know, well
we five not we five the opposode of leadership and
so yeah, with whole numbers like that, Yeah, you know,

(01:16:53):
it'll be up to the voters to decide what they think.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
Let me ask you this, Rachel Greg has talked about this,
We both talked about this on the show over the
over the past several months. How about a crackdown or
a stronger focus on NGOs and what they do with
the money that is given to them? Are do you
see that coming?

Speaker 15 (01:17:13):
Well, yeah, I think I think that's a that's an
important piece of the public because yeah, a lot of times,
you know, you'd have money that's being right, like I said,
it gets filled out and you know, these NGOs.

Speaker 4 (01:17:23):
And.

Speaker 15 (01:17:25):
Yeah, I think what would be wise is if instead
of just passing money to these you know, nonprofits and
again for them to distribute and say hey, that's success
what we should do, it's more of a pay for
outcomes approach to say hey, yeah, we will we will
fund you if you are able to show us, you

(01:17:47):
know good good, you know measurable outcomes are did you
increase you know, reduce poverty or get more people into
the workforce, then we'll give you the money once we
once those outcomes are achieved, and that would be way
to increase accountability for nonprofits and for yeah, and for
others who receive government grants.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
You know, Minnesota's a blue state, so that you know,
more welfare services and more resources is just goes hand
in glove. Has this proven that too much welfare is
a is a negative thing. You can't account for it,
you can't keep pace with it, and it can grow
exponentially and no one would actually notice. There's a lot
of I think lessons to be learned from what's happening

(01:18:28):
in Minnesota, or any of these lessening lessons sticking, do
you think?

Speaker 15 (01:18:33):
I sure hope so, because you know, I've heard a
lot of different angles on this story, and I and
I and I hope that welfare, the need for welfare
reform is one of those.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
And you're right.

Speaker 15 (01:18:44):
The US welfare system is so massive, it's such a
mayf of programs, it's it's over ninety programs, run over,
run out of you know, more than a dozen federal agencies.
We spend well over one trillion dollars a year on
the programs. It's hard to know where all of the
money is going for some of the programs. But you know,

(01:19:05):
I think really the bigger issue is that we're not
actually helping people, you know, improve their lives. What we're
doing is we just keep putting more and more money
into the system without actually improving efficiency. And that is
the real tragedy of the welfare system in America.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
You know, Minnesota is taking the spotlight, but there have
been reports of fraud, what in Ohio, in Maine, in Maine, Indiana.
I mean, it is not just one state that's having
an issue with us, is that right?

Speaker 15 (01:19:34):
Yeah? There there are other stories about fraud we thought.
We've heard recently about kind of more you know, a
fraud in the food stamp program. The Trump administration has
been looking into that and more so. One of the
things though, is that I just don't think we have
a full understanding of just how much of fraud because

(01:19:57):
we don't really measure it. The government doesn't mever it
terribly well. So we're kind of you know in the
dark about that, but yeah, it's certainly taking place in every.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
State to some degree.

Speaker 15 (01:20:10):
Now, of course not you know, let's let's pray not
to the level going on in Minnesota, but certainly it
is on to some degree in every.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Most likely hopefully we will get a focus on this.
Don't know how long it will take, but it will
take a while. Rachel, thank you. Happy holidays to you
and thanks for joining us tonight.

Speaker 15 (01:20:30):
Likewise, thank you so much and happy holidays.

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
Rachel Sheffield. She is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Talking about welfare, the welfare system is broken. I think
most Americans have realized that for a long long time,
Grace they really have.

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Since a great society, it's all grown and you're not
seeing people escape poverty. You're seeing an underclass that keeps growing.
And that's multi generational poverty. People living in poverty and
their numbers just grow. And it used to be in
America that if you were you know, you were the
working class, or you were poor, you worked very hard
to see your children have a better life than the
one you've had, and you saw that trajectory. Since Lbj's

(01:21:07):
Great Society, you've just seen a welfare state where you
have a permanent underclass, and that underclass is growing, and
when you see the scams that can be perpetrated on
a state like we're seeing in Minnesota, I agree with
you and I agree with Rachel. That's not the silver
bullet that just flew by our eyes. That's just what
we have found. I'm sure it's in every state.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
And we're kind of from And when Johnsin moved in
that direction, other great, they're great society. I think it
was New York sender Daniel Patrick moynihan, yes, who is
a Democrat right, and warned against this and saying, oh, folks,
you better be careful. He warned us, but no one
wanted to pay attention.

Speaker 2 (01:21:42):
It's an interesting thing whether you're a rich trust fund
baby or you are a welfare recipient. Free money destroys, yes,
it destroys everything because you need earned success. And earned
success oftentimes and most times comes from being able to
earn a living, make your way, be able to put
food on the table, close on your back, roof over
your head. That's kind of the charge. Once money becomes free,

(01:22:06):
you lose those things. You lose that need or that
will to succeed and that I think that erodes people's
self confidence and their ability to achieve.

Speaker 4 (01:22:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
All right, final segment of the Rod and Greg Show,
coming your way right here on Utah's Talk Radio one
o five to nine k NRS. We have a follow
up tonight, Greg on the nurse in Chico, California, who
just berated a Target employee for wearing a red Charlie
kirk T shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
Yeah, that's that one's absolutely terrible. She is deranged, and
her husband is and their daughter.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Well, the medical center, which has been caught in the
crosshairs that internet meltdown, has apparently been bombarded with over
six thousand profanity laced phone calls.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
Well, let me just tell you. I think that you
think that that the person, the woman that filmed herself
acting this way and thinking that somehow this was acceptable
and she was proud of it. I don't know that
these this recoil from the public and what's happening. I
bet you she thinks that it's it's an affirmation. Yeah,
she's right that look at these deranged people calling. I

(01:23:10):
was right, look at it. It's just bringing the crazies out.
I don't I'll bet you anything she hasn't learned one
thing from this. I bet you she's doubled and tripled
down since this incident became public. I bet yeah, I
bet she's embarrassed at all.

Speaker 12 (01:23:21):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
No, Well, if you saw the disgusting picture of her
husband and her daughter, they found a car with some
stickers on it supporting Charlie Kirk and her husband is
faking like holding a gun and pointing it at his
neck and his daughter flipping him off. That whole family
is nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
Yeah, it's it's disturbing. And I don't think that she's
regretting what she did. I think she's a heroine. She's
a hero in her own mind.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
One of our favorite lawmakers, California Representative Eric Swaalwell, Oh yeah,
that guy wants to be the next governor of California.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
How's that going.

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Uh well, I don't know as of yet, but apparently
he neglects his job in the House to mingle with celebs.
He's been doing that. He misses more votes than anybody
in Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
Really. Yeah, he's got the biggest mouth and wall one
of the biggest MOUs not the biggest, but one of
the biggest mouths. Yeah, and he's missing the most votes.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
Yeah, he missed ninety five votes. Jeez, not including truancy
from committee hearings. I'll never judge anyone that's true. Are
there any up on the hill about lawmakers missing votes?

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
There's not, but there's but there's a record of it,
is there.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24:35):
And one thing I will say though, is that if
you're in leadership, there's a lot of negotiations that you
get towards the end of the session where there's floor time,
but members of leadership are off of the floor a
negotiating with the Senate or the governor. And then so
there's some if you're in if you're a member of
leadership in the House or Senate, there are probably more
votes you miss at the end, and that's when things
are starting to speed up and a lot of bills
are getting passed. It sometimes the stats look like, why

(01:24:57):
aren't they on the job? We're trying to no multitask,
there's there's there's there's some negotiations going on while the
floor sessions are going on. So but they keep recording that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
You talk continues to grow. We're now at three point
five five one thousand people, so three and a half
million people.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
Three and a half million as of a July first. Yeah,
there we're growing, but.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
It slowed down. It was at one point five. We're
down to one point three.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
I believe we are. This is going. This is a
stat that it will surprise me. But fourth, I think
fourth budget year in a row where they are seeing
declining student enrollment. Uh really fourth year.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
Fourth in a row. Yeah, yeah, we keep on pumping
more moneymunication.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
So yeah, sixteen years of public service for me in
the state legislature, I never encountered one single year where
the entering the graduating seniors. There were more kindergarteners entering
our public schools and there were seniors graduating, and that
number was increasing every single year. I served for sixteen
straight years, with my last year being the twenty eighteen
so we did the eighteen nineteen budget. Yeah, and so

(01:26:05):
the population was growing. You saw more kids, and that's
good for a state emerging workforce. So you have this
strong workforce coming through, so you can see your economy grow.
That's a great thing. Four years of declining enrollment as
those budgets go up, you know, it's it's that the
declining enrollments really a stat that is hard to believe
Utah's experiencing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Now, Hollywood got rocked by this announcement yesterday. The Oscars
are moving. Ooh, they will leave ABC and go to YouTube.
Wow that in twenty twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
Well, I think there's like nine people that watch the
Oscars at this point. Nobody recognized any of the movies.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Oh, they they're all artsy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:46):
Yeah, I mean it used to used to be aware
of the movies that were that were nominated, but those
days are longer. Nobody recognizes any of it. So who
watches it?

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
And there has to be diversity in the awards and
in the nominees and but yeah, Hollywood announced the Academy
of Motion Pictures announced yesterday that they are going to YouTube.
I think it's in twenty twenty nine. The move marks
the end of ABC's fifty year run the Academy Awards.
But they're going to YouTube, said something.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
Else where we're at.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
So nineteen seventy six, Rocky wins Best Picture of the Year.
Obviously it deserved it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
Good movie.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
There's many movies that got Picture of the Year that
I would have seen that previous year and would agree
or at least was nominated, not anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Don't know who they are, all right. That does it
for us Tonight, head out, shoulders back. May God bless
you and your family. And that's a great country of ours.
Enjoy your Thursday. We'll be back tomorrow.

Speaker 11 (01:27:40):
It's four

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