The Rod and Greg Show: Utah Leading Nation in Prioritizing Worker Freedom; Legislative Update with Senator Stuart Adams

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Despite the fact that people attack you all the time,
you come here for a happiness.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
No one attacks me, Rod, I do. I know you do,
but you're not everybody. Oh, I have my defenders on
this program. Okay, thank Rod and Friday. We have got
a lot to get to today. We're going to be
talking with the President of the Utah Senate Stuart Adams
will join us. Did you say there are only ten
working days left? That's it? Wow, it's it. Boy goes

(00:24):
by fast, it really does.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, it's the shortest general session for a state in America.
And they do bills, but they also bounce a budget.
Some states do a budget once every other year. Two
budgets really, but we do. We do a budget and bills.
And it's forty five calendar days, which amounts to thirty
something business days. And we're down to the last ten.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay, all right, all right, we'll talk about that Utah.
You having a lot of recognition for the governor's signature
and for Utah lawmakers passing a bill on the prioritizing
worker freedom. We're talking about collective bargaining. We'll get into
that a little bit later on. We'll talk about a
state lead Ship initiative, What is that all about? And
our Listen Back Friday segments, including an interview we did

(01:05):
earlier this week with the new CEO of the Utah Olympics,
Brad Wilson. Will play that interview back for you on
our Listen Back Friday segment. Now, I thought, Greg, last
night the hockey game. You and I have been talking
about this today. What a great game that was last night,
and both of us recognized you had some of the
without a doubt, some of the best forwards in all

(01:28):
of hockey on both sides, right, and the defense in
that game last night shut them down.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
If I'm being an adult, I would say that that
was an amazing display of both. As you just said,
offensive defense, the speed of the game. I don't even
recall Stanley Cup Final looking at having at the kind
of quality game we saw there. That is my adult Now,
let me just tell you this, but how I really feel.
That's my head talking. Let me tell you what my

(01:55):
heart said. Okay, I hate Canada. I don't want it
to be the fifty first date I want I want
none of them, none of them. You see that Trudeau
all cheering and screaming like a little girl. Yeah, I
don't want that. I don't want them, can you. No
one's ever actually thought this true. And I was just
going through the rage in my head last night. If
they were a state, that means they get senators. Who
wants a Cannuck to Canucks in our US Senate?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Not me?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Who wants it's a big population. If you're gonna make
them a state, they get a ton of members of Congress,
forget it. I'm out. I don't want any of them.
The bloom is off the rose. Have you? Have you
told the president your thoughts on Canada, Gaza Riviera, and
now you can add the fifty first Canuck state. I
am out. I don't want that. I don't want them

(02:38):
as a state. They're not They're not just losing to Canada.
There's no worse indignity in my mind. I know they
they're good hockey players. I don't know in spite of
the leftist wusses that run their country. But no, I'm
just mad at Canada. I'm mad at them. I don't
want anything to do with them. They're not good enough
to be Americans.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
How long has it been since you've been to Canada?
It's a while it's been a long time. Actually, remember
I tried to get it's probably worse now. A couple
of years ago, I was back Easton. I told my
wife was with me, and I said, let's go up
and see the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which is up in Messina,
New York. That's where the ships came in off the
Great Lakes or the Ocean, and get in, I said,
And we'll cross over and just go into Canada for

(03:18):
a few minutes, into Cornwall, Ontario, which by the way,
has a big paper mill right right along the river.
And it stinks to high heaven when you go into
the country. But I've been to Canada for a long time,
and I grew up there, very very close to there.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
You grew up in camp You did not too good
of a human being. You never grew up in Canada.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Thank you. I that came last night was you have
to minute? It was fun h I And I mentioned
this early. I think the American team missed a chance
last night, and they played a terrific game.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's if you didn't know, folks. It was two to
two at the end of regular after the after three periods,
they had to go to overtime. And decide it and
it's sudden down and we had so many shots on
gall that I've posted this on my ex on my
citizen news page. I just think the goalie for Canada
practices the dark arts and as a witch, that that
goalie is a witch sold easily his own soul to

(04:13):
beezel bub to be able to stop those pucks that
were coming into that net. I don't know how they
didn't go in for us to win and then boom
they go. The Sith lords go down there and score
and beat us. But to your point, you were about
to say, well, I had American.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
America won last night, Okay, I think it was a
sign that American hockey has arrived. We've always played second
fiddle to Canadians, right, but with American players, American born
players taking on probably some of the best in the
world on the Canadian side, if we had beaten them
last night, I think it would have made a statement
to the rest of the world American hockey has arrived.

(04:51):
And look at the players. It's like soccer. We're never
going to convince the world we're a soccer power.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
And who cares. I'm not losing sleep over that. You
see those grown men fall down holding their legs like
I heard, just you can have that sport.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
But on the hockey thing, I think they would have
made a statement that to the rest of the world,
we're here, baby, and we have got great players, just
like Canada does.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
It was so hyped up. I actually wonder if, even
though we didn't win that game, does hawk does the
NHL replace the NBA in terms of popularity, because I
think NBA is so hard to watch. It's not the
same game. It's you know, I just don't. I haven't
you tell me an NBA game that's had the hype
that we saw that game last night build up to
and anyway, I just think that we could see the

(05:38):
United States It's fans start to gravitate to hockey, start
watching it more. It's a great sport. I sound like
it's an obscure sport. It's a major, you know, major
professional sport. But I think it could surpass the NBA.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, you and I are big hockey fans, yes, And
if you've never seen a hockey game, an NHL game,
we've got a hockey club here now. The NHL. Yeah,
and they're good, they are great, but they're a good team,
an up and coming team.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
And what's exciting about it is that they were lousy
as the Arizona Coyotes they were, or Phoenix Coyotes, they
were so bad, but they are. They are such a
better and improved team from what they were last season.
And so yeah, and it's an exciting game, and it's
it's a it's a fun atmosphere. And I know the
sport's going to really grow in popularity in Utah. But
I think the NHL. You know, when I first moved

(06:25):
to Utah, ninety one, my Penguins are in the Stanley
Cup Finals and it wasn't on TV. Yeah, I couldn't
find it on TV. And we have the internet, so
I'm like calling home trying to find out what's going
on to see how they because they won, yeah in
ninety one, ninety two, but or ninety and ninety one. Anyway,
point is the hockey rarely wasn't on the radar in
Utah thirty thirty five years ago. But now we're here.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
I said for a long time, Utah will never have
an NHL team. I know people say that and I
just kind of laughed at them. Yes, and now we
have one here and again. If you've never been to
a game. It is fast. I mean it is fast.
It is physical. I mean whether I was running at
each other, it is a collision. And people say, well,
I don't understand the rules. The rules are not that difficult.

(07:11):
The rules is a soccer game. You can see that
there's a blue line in hockey. At least I know
what offsides looks like because there's a blue line that
if your skates go over and the puck doesn't, your
off side. Who knows what an offside is in hockey
or in soccer.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I couldn't. I wouldn't know if I was sitting next
to it that it's off side that game I am.
I'm traumatized by my young daughter from the time she
was you know, in Sandy Wreck, all the way through
comp Sparta whatever they call it, my whole and in
high school I've seen my sheriff.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
I have two grandchildren in soccer games and a son
who's really into soccer, so I have to tread lightly
on the soccer thing. I have a friend who says
it's a communist son. You have a son who likes soccer, Yeah,
he coaches it, loves it, don't look at me that way.
He loves it and I love my son, so I
support them.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay, you did, you raised your kids and watched my
daughter play.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
She was a girl.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
It's a boy for sure. Your kids, your gut, your
boys ares coke machines with arms and likes. Cald her
away from me, queen and tell her what you think
about I'm not saying one word of those archids are
all big. A huge guy. That's why. Why does he
like soccer? It's a waste.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
He loves it and I've grown to like it as well.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's what any good grandfather should say. That is an
obligatory hat tip to soccer. But anyway, hockey, let's get
back to that. That's the sport, that's the that's the trajectory.
That's America.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, I think whoever came up with this idea of
the four Nations event instead of an all Star game
million one. Yeah, when you're that sport.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
If you saw a Saturday Night's game, you saw three
fights in nine seconds. That doesn't happen. That is just
that is so rare. I mean, you'll see a fight
here and there. They used to fight a lot more
in hockey back to day but to become a more
televised mainstream sport, you saw the enforcers and the fighting
go step down a lot. So if you saw the
fighting at the first on Saturday night Canada versus Team USA,

(09:11):
when Team USA won, and you thought, well, it's a
little off putting that fighting in the beginning, you don't
you see, Well, you certainly don't see fights like that
at the beginning of a game. And you rarely see
fights in hockey anymore. You'll see him occasional everyone here
and there. You won't see him in the big games.
You don't this last night. They didn't call a whole
lot of penalties last night when they should have. Actually
there was there was There was a penal. There was
a power play where they had too many Canada had

(09:33):
too many people on the ice. It was absolutely obvious.
And they never called it. They and they call icing
when they should have called it on to Well, I
guess they're like the Chiefs, you know, they're like the
Kansas City Chiefs. That's what Canada is like. Maybe so
the red in the uniform.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Maybe that's what it is. Well, it was a great
game last night. Congratulations to both teams, to the league,
that set this up, and really I think the fans
enjoyed this and hopefully you'll become hockey fans as well.
All Right, we've got a lot to get to stay
with us right here on the Rod and Greg Show.
When UTA's Talk Radio one oh five, Die can.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Arrest everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Pick up that app.
Go to our ex page also at Roden Greg Show.
Be a follower, lots of eray always is good to
put our guests that are coming out, gives links, gives
them links, give you a little heads up on what's coming.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's the music that we're playing a lot of.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I love to say.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
We had a compliment yesterday when we were out at Motorsportsland.
One of the listeners who came by said, hey, love
the bumper music man. Yeah. We put a list up
there every day so you can see what songs we're
playing to get us in and out of the well
really into the show, uh, and fans appreciate that. So
there's all kinds of information and you occasionally will post something.
I occasionally will post something. Sometimes we probably get in

(10:40):
trouble for doing it, but it's kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's we're we're we got the blue
check now too. We just want big lee. We got
that that, we got that what do you call that
verified or certified verification code? Yeah, man, we got a
blue check. Yeah yeah, it means we're legit.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, here in a few minutes, the President of the
Utah Sena will join us talking about what's going on
up at the hill as they get ready to wrap
things up. About ten working days to go. But Utah
is getting some national attention for a bill signed by
the governor passed by lawmakers which basically ends collective bargaining
for unions here in the state. A lot of people
are attacking it. But joining us on our news maker

(11:15):
line right now to talk about it is Tony Dant.
Tony is the senior director of Workers for Opportunity that's
with the Macinact Center for Public Policy. Tony, thanks for
joining us on the show this afternoon. Tony, A lot
of attention being paid to this bill. In your opinion,
why is it so important?

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Well, you know, I certainly do think it's important. I
think it's a landmark piece of legislation that the folks
in Utah should be proud of and should be very
happy with the leadership that they've received from, you know,
the bill sponsor, State Representative Jordan Tusher, and I'm the
Senate State Senator Kirk cullamore, and then leadership in both

(11:55):
chambers were very supportive, and you know, I think it's
it's fantastic because it's a piece of legislation that is
protecting both taxpayers and public sector workers in your state.
And it does that by, as you mentioned, prohibiting collective
bargaining in the public sector, as well as additional measures

(12:18):
within the legislation that maybe not have not gotten as
much attention, but I think are still very valuable and
just as important, and that's requiring financial transparency on an
annual basis from these public sector unions, ending the practice
of release time, which for those who are unfamiliar with
the term, is essentially a special bank of leave time

(12:44):
that union individuals that public sector employees would utilize to
engage in union business while getting paid by taxpayers rather
than the union funding that. And that puts an end
to that, and it offers optional professional liability insurance for
folks like teachers, who you know, now can make a

(13:06):
determination on their desire or willingness to join the union
without fear of losing that that insurance in the job.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
You know, I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I grew
up in the eighties when we saw the still US
steal close so many mills and so many people unemployed.
And at the heart of that was the strikes and
the and the collective bargaining agreements that went bad and
and it really did bankrupt or destroy what once was
a really strong a business. And so you don't see

(13:38):
the private sector with this collective bargaining and the unionization
as much just because you can't kill the host body,
and that's what a lot of these unions have done
over time. In the public sector, there is no end
to how much money you can argue for it, because
there's not really an economy for it in the private
in the in the public sector, my question is this

(13:58):
might be the last hurrah for organized labor. Do you
suspect that a bill like this, a landmark bill being passed.
Do you do you suspect that national unions and their
dollars could come into Utah trying to seek to overturn
by ballot measure the work that's just been done by
the legislature and signed by the governor.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
That's a great question, and you've you've laid out that
that inherent conflicts, you know, perfectly in terms of, you know,
why collective bargaining doesn't belong in the public sector. And
UH to your question about outside groups coming in, you know,
and in state groups to fund a measure, it's certainly

(14:39):
something that we're we're discussing and I think we'll be
preparing for. It's it's not at all unusual for UH,
for union's public sector or private sector, or you know, frankly,
any group through throughout this country that disagree is with

(15:00):
something the legislature has done to attempt something like that.
And so if if that's the case, we'll certainly be
paying attention and we'll be there to provide, you know,
assistance pushing back on that, because we firmly believe that
this is a giant win for Utah and for Utah

(15:23):
tax payers and Utah's public sector workers. And you know,
when you get something like this across the finish line,
you certainly want to make sure it's protected for the
long term.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Tony, There were, of course, as you might expect, some
wild accusations being made leading up to the legislature passing
this and the governor signing it, arguments like, you know,
the streets won't be safe, we won't be able to
put out fires because of this coming from the police
and fire unions, and of course the traditional charge that
it is a union busting tactic. What is your response

(15:56):
to that, I mean, is this a union busting tactic?
As though those were opposed to the bill claimed it was.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
No, not not at all, And it's it's very clear
that you still have the ability to to join a union,
to pay dues to that union, to work with that union,
for the union to be able to have conversations with
the employers and management. It's it's simply prohibiting the collective

(16:26):
bargaining process whereas was laid out previously. There there's just
there's no incentive to to protect the taxpayers in the process.
And I think, uh that that's a key piece that
is sometimes missed in these discussions. And so it's furthest
thing from the truth that this is a union busting measure.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
Unions will will.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Continue to exist. They'll still be able to advocate on
behalf of their members like any other group, voluntary association
group in the state of Utah or elsewhere, and so
that's a that's a red herring of an argument.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Tony don Tony, thanks for joining us. Tony Senior director
of the Workers for Opportunity on the collective bargaining bill,
state made a great move. Lawmakers stood up and said,
here we go, folks.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
It is and I'll tell you what this is. This
is we're in enough, this is we're in the event
still because these national labor and the reason I asked
the question was they can't let this stand. In my opinion,
they got to come in here and try to reverse
that bill because that is that's that that's the last
place where pub you know, government is the last place
where unions thrive. And and if you get them out

(17:39):
of there. And by the way, when I was a lawmaker,
this stopped us from from being able to get performance
paid for good teachers that have the hardest classers. You
couldn't give them a bonus.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
There's just as someone's teaching science or something like that.
The idea was to pay them more, and the union stopped.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Well, when you do collective bargaining, it's by it's by quantity,
not quality. So who gets the hardest class. It's the
new one. Yeah, it's the brand new teacher. And that's
why the burnout rates so high in public education, and
so you know that's what anyway, there's just opportunities to
get to reward good teachers and in create incentives there
and I believe in it. But I think the unions

(18:15):
are going to go to the mat to try and
stop this bill.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Are they? Is the state free to do that now
with the passage and signature of this bill? Now be
interesting Now, now.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
The teachers that are in Title one schools are they're
in tough circumstances and that you can show year over
your progress and proficiency, you'll be awarded. Yes, you can
be absolutely recognized and given bonuses or compensation because of
the circumstances.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
All right, Mark, coming up the Rod and Greg Show
on this Friday afternoon right here on Utah's Talk Radio
one oh five nine knrs. Well, we're down to the
final ten days working days of the Utah legislature.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Greg, I know it's going fast, very quick, very quick.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, joining us on our newsmaker line of course to
talk to us about that. Our weekly chat with the
President of the Utah Senate Stewart Adams Stewart President Adams.
Great to have you on the Show's talk about you've
got some new budget figures in they showed the state
apparently didn't make as much money or doesn't have as
much money to play with this year. Is that going
to invect the tax cut? Is that tax cut that
you always love to talk about still on the table.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
You know, we allocated money for a tax cut in December.
We haven't taken a tax cut off the table, so
we're still working on that. You know, our numbers didn't
droll over the past a little while, and we've been
we've been spoiled because we get February numbers that are
always higher than December's. But the cool thing is our
economy grew at three and a half percent. We still

(19:35):
got the best economy in the nation. We're rated number
one and we're still growing. And I think we need
to make sure that we give money back to people,
and so a tax cut still on the table.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
For me, it makes all of sense in the world
because we're a supply sider. We know when people have
more money in their pocket, they spend it. It goes
into the economy. Economy grows and tax revenue tracks that
kind of economic growth. But what I wanted to let
listeners know is that your fisc allunance. They are throwing
darts at what a budget and what an economic circumstance
will look like eighteen months in advance, and they projected,

(20:06):
they projected a conservative growth. You actually grew more year
over year than last year. As you put it, the
economy has grown. Talk to our listeners because they might
not be aware how involved because you were kind of
you you held money aside. It could be for a
tax cut, it could be if it's not grown as
much as you as you expected. What kind of flexibility

(20:27):
do you have because of the conservative approach you take
to taxpayer money arriving to the state and how you budgeted.
How is that done? Is it just a guesswork? Is it?
I know how it's done. To share with our listeners
that process a little bit.

Speaker 6 (20:42):
Well, we still have the best economy in the nation.
We have a low unemployment, right and they look at
those and they still look at into the future. But
you're right, Greg, the money that we're appropriating now, the
budget we're working on now is a year to eighteen
months from now. So they're trying to look at into
the future as to what our economy might look plang
So that is a little bit of a gas. Our

(21:03):
numbers are still strong and at three and a half
percent growth rate ten years ago. If we had three
and a half percent growth rate, we would think we
are on fire. Last year, the Hinkling Institute, the Economics
of the Economic Department at the University of Utah, they
looked at all fifty states and they looked at the
GDP growth and the numbers we got from them with

(21:26):
about a three point eight percent GDP growth, which is
very similar to our economy. We are the number one,
still the number one GDP growth in the nation. And
we need to continue to make take care of the
people who take care of us, put money back in
the pockets of our citizens. And because we do that,
we're funding education at four percent plus maybe even five
percent this year. We're giving our employees increases, and we

(21:49):
can do Taxas.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
President, how much of an eye are you keeping right
now on Washington. I know you're busy with what's going
on on the Utah legislature, but with the Senate and
how I was trying to come up with a plan
to maintain the tax plan that was approved by the
Trump administration when he was first in office. I mean,
how much of an eye are you keeping on that
and the impact it may or may not have on Utah.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
It will have a big impact on Utahn. I'm trying
to watch it as best I can as we're up here.
I never thought i'd see a tax set in my lifetime,
and we saw President Trump and Orange Hatch actually put
together that tax cut. It has changed our economy. If
remember back when President Trump as he left office, we
had the lowest unemployment. Right before COVID, we had the
strongest economy ever in the history of the United States.

(22:35):
That's what tax cuts do. And those tax cuts have
to be maintained. They have to be not only maintained,
that increased. And I think again we've seen the American
people speak they want change, they want great that great
economy that will actually produce. Ronald Reagan saw President Reagan
saw he was able to reduce the deficit and get

(22:57):
tax cuts, and they're tied together. And that's what drives
an economy. At economy is what drives people's pality alive.
But also the revenue comes into government.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
You're coming down. I think there's ten business I hate
I don't know if you're tracking this, but maybe ten
business days left in this legit twenty twenty five General Session.
What are the what are your what are the pinch points?
I always know that the House, Senate and the Governor
might not be exactly on the same page. With ten
days left, a lot of work left to be done.
What do you think the big rocks are that you're

(23:29):
still trying to work out with your colleagues in the
House and with the with the Governor.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
Well, we're working on a lot of things. One is
we had a lot of budget and we'll always do that.
You know that we've already passed the base budget. If
we get in trouble, we've got you know, we're working
on the election bills and that's a big, a big deal.
We've got other issues. I mean, the we're speakers pushing
at the problem that I just love the Catalyst campus.
That that that's kids in a in a position where

(23:58):
where they can look at their careers. When we got
in high school, you're having career ready programs taught to
high school kids that go out and change the world
and actually give us more capacity to have workers, which
we need with her loan unemployment right, trying to fund
projects like that and then trying to deal with the

(24:18):
other issues. You know, there's always about five hundred bills
that pass, and each of those has a little bit
of nuance to him.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
The Salt Lake City stole the executive director of the
corrections department to make him the new police chief. Brian Read,
how do you will that help? What do you see
that doing with a relationship between state lawmakers and Salt
Lake City. I know many are concerned about the city
and make sure it is that shining city and on
the hill. What do you see the future of the
relationship between lawmakers and Salt Lake City.

Speaker 6 (24:50):
Well, I'm a Brian Red fan. I remember when they
considered him to take over in the prison, people were
concerned about him. I know who he is, I know
his character. He's a collaborator and he has absolutely turned
around our Utah State Prison. We were in trouble out there.
There was morale problems, there are prisoner problems, there are
all kinds of problems. He and his great ability to

(25:10):
collaborate with people and yet even have the prisoners now
talking about how great a person he is, and it's
a great loss for the state. So yeah, I have
to say I'm a little bit, uh, you know, taken
by the fact that he's gone, because he has done
such a great job that he will do a good
job in salt Lake City, if the Salt Lake City,
it couldn't be a better future for Salt Lake. And

(25:33):
I blogged the America she was smart to hire him,
but it is a great loss for salt Lake and
he will he will have will have a better relationship
with sal Late City before him, no question about it,
because just the type of person he is.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
I couldn't agree more. I actually think Brian Read's too
good for that city, if you want to know the truth,
I think he's he's above it all. But yeah, they
are very very lucky as a city to have him.
And then the hats off to Meyri Menenhall that she
was good enough to spot that kind of town. I
do think it's a I we'll see what happens with corrections,
but I couldn't agree more that that he has taken
that corrections and he's just done things that I didn't

(26:06):
even think could you would see done by way of
positive reform and change. So I think that's good. Hey, nuclear,
you were really you were really bullish on partnering with
the with the national labs and nuclear do we have?
Are we three mile island yet? What's going on?

Speaker 6 (26:24):
We had the Iron l If you know what Iron
l is, it's that one of the one of the
Ida National ab, one of the probably the premier national
ad for nuclear just up the road in Idaho Falls.
We had their entire leadership team down here. They are
working so hard. It's the future and that is what's
going to power America. And we're going to be and

(26:46):
they want Utah to lead the way. And we'll not
only lead the way in Utah, but we'll we're looking
at partnerships with Idaho and Wyoming both water and power.
We need water, we need power, and that's what's going
to drive our economy. And we are going to lead
the nation and we're going to make you the nuclear
capital of the world. And the Idohol Lab is down
here and we're trying to and we have great partnerships

(27:07):
with them. Our futures bright because of that.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
The President of the Utah Senate, Stewart Adams, joining us
on our newsmaker line. And both you and I are
big supporters of nuclear energy. I don't know what we're
waiting for.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
I know, and Stuart, And what I love about President
Senate President Adams is he's not He's very impatient. He
wants it yesterday. This guy doesn't let any dust settle.
I mean, once he's on an issue like this, you
can absolutely this. He's not gonna convene and meet about
it for a year. He's going to get things done.
And I and I love that about him. He's got
he gets very motivated to see movement, and so we do.

(27:41):
I think I think nuclear power is there's just no
other alternative, especially with how much we're depending on it
now and the grid can't sustain even technology everything else
is going on. So I'm excited for that and it's
cleaner than clean.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yes, motivated to feed us a cheese wrapped in salami
from some speedway one night we're in Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, it was a powerful lunch. That's what That's what
powerful people do. If you didn't know, you go to
a speedway, you get a little bit of mozzarella stick
and wrapped in protrudo hamm. You are Salmo.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
I had no idea. Mystery meat more coming up on
The Roden Gregg Show and Talk Radio one O five
nine kN R s Now, we've got some news coming
out of Los Angeles concerning the fire.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Robert, is that a plant over there?

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Never mind?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Never mind, just I just got distracted.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
You're so bad, Okay, would you like to share a
little bit of news on this thing, this show, this
radio show, I would thank you, okay.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Mayor of the year. Mayor of the year, Karen Bass
from Los Angeles. She's just discovered that her l A
p d l A Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, was
not prepared really fire for the fire as wow. And
it turns out, she says, we know that a thousand
firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning

(29:05):
that the fires broke out were instead sent home on
Chief Crowley's watch. So she said that she Bass has
also blamed her for not warning her about about the
imminent fire risk and that's why she went to Ghana,
because she wasn't warned by this fire chief to not go,
and so she's now fired her.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
From what I understand, the mayor is going to set
up a commission to investigate why she wasn't told not
to go to Ghana.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, I just think it's an odd it's odd timing.
I think if you're if you're lying in the sand,
was you didn't do your job. I think the fact
you don't have much of a city left is kind
of evidence of that. You don't need to go till
now to figure that out.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Fire Chief.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
She also wants to blame her for why she went
traveling during that time, which with the high wind everybody
knew the high winds were coming. I don't know that
it took a rock out sign.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, all right, when we come back, more on the
uh Trump touch doze that and boy did Trump have
a confrontation with the governor of Maine today. Wait till
you hear this one.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
I'm caught a little off guard, just slightly. But this
isn't fat like you'll just say things that are just
patently untrue, Like you know, Kentucky baby chicken moved to Texas.
Everything's moved to Texas because you you know, well they
have school in Texas. Texas is so great. That's is
not true. But looks like uh Selensky from Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, President Baltimore or whatever his name is.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Selensky, Vladimir Vladimir, Vladimir Volta. All I know is this, Yeah,
he's thrown up the white flag in that he has
said he will allow for the minerals that can be
mined out of Ukraine to be accessed uh and acquired
by the United States, and he will have that signed
and agreed upon this afternoon, This afternoon, Rod, this afternoon.

(30:55):
Not let's have a summit. Yeah, not let's circle it
and talk about it for a year by this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Now you got to ask yourself, is you know you
might not anyone on our listening audience, but people might
think that Trump's crazy.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Not so crazy?

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Now the China controls all the rare minerals in this world,
would it be nice to have rare minerals that are
not controlled by China? I'd say yes. You know, we
have them in Grand County, Utah. All the Libs down
there stopped us from mining rare minerals down there, even
though they all own Tesla's down there. But yeah, now
we have a source for rare minerals which we need,
and we don't have to have hat in hand to China.

(31:31):
Oh sounds like a pretty smart deal. To me, yeah,
and Zelensky was like, you know what, guess what, You're
not getting a red scent till you start, you know this,
Guess this has to be some kind of two way street.

Speaker 7 (31:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Well, the the bulldozers are out in the second lane
and the two way streets getting made right now.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, Well, this whole dust up, Greg, if you look
at the background into this between Trump and Selensky, was
they thought they had a deal with Selinsky. As a
matter of fact, Marco Rubio talked about that this week
in an interview in which you said, you know, we
went into a meeting with the Ukrainian president. We said
here's what we want. We'll get you some aid, but
we want these mineral rights. And he walked out of

(32:08):
that meeting and Rubio said, hey, it sounded great. We're
in good shape with this. Two hours later, they got
a call from Zelinsky saying, well, before I do this,
I have to have parliamentary approval. There is no parliament
in the Ukraine right now because of what is going
on with Russia. And this is what ticked off Trump.
He felt he was lied to. Well, now Zelensky has
come around and said, guess what, We'll give you those

(32:30):
mineral rights after.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
It Parliament, I got rid of them a long time.
Did we canceled elections here? It's a guffa. I didn't
know what I was saying. I was just it was
just a little, you know, little laps in memoryy. I'm
so sorry.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I'm s I lied. Bald Fate's live to you, but
I'm sorry about that. Now. Other news today, Donald Trump
at the White House today welcoming governors from around the country.
I would imagine Spencer Cox was there. I don't know
that for sure, but I imagine Spencer Cox showed up
because he's a big fan all of a sudden of
Donald Trump. But the President also had a bit of

(33:08):
a confrontation today with the governor from Maine. Now, the
story going on about Maine is that the president one
of his executive orders was that no longer can men
who think their women compete in girls sports. Right, it's
an executive order. Well, apparently the state of Maine is
I mean, it's no, said Donald Trump say, we are

(33:30):
not going to comply. Yes, Well, the President decided to
get after the main governor today during this luncheon at
the White House with governors. Listen to this exchange.

Speaker 8 (33:41):
The NCAA has complied immediately. By the way, that's good.
But I understand Maine is the Maine here, the governor
of Maine. Are you not going to comply with it.

Speaker 6 (33:55):
Laws?

Speaker 8 (33:56):
Well, we are the federal law.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Well you better do it.

Speaker 8 (33:59):
You better do it because you're not going to get
any federal funding at all if you don't. And by
the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, alo
I did very well there. Your population doesn't want men
playing in women's sports. So you better you better comply
because otherwise you're not getting any any federal funding. Every state. Good,
I'll see you and could I look forward to that.

(34:19):
That should be a really easy one. And enjoy your
life after governor, because I don't think you'll be an
elected politics.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I just want to say something though. Okay, yes, I've
been to the White House. I've been to meetings where
you have leaders. And Trump's very good at not just
bringing governors, but he'll bring speakers of states houses and
center presidents and even county commissioners. It's what he loves
to do. And I'm talking back in his first term.
There is a level of decorum, there's a level of

(34:53):
all this. He did want to talk to the main
you know, governor, and say I heard that you're going
to He'd been brief if the Maine was not going
to comply, and so he's looking at a bunch of governors.
Is Maine here, is Maine's going here? And you hear this? Yes,
I'm here, okay, and are you going to comply? We'll
comply with the law, Well, the federal law. We are

(35:13):
the federal law. Well the part where that went wrong?
And I would I would, I would look at the
mayor for her responses. For the governor, well, we'll see
you in court. We'll see you in court. She took
a full frontal I'm telling you, what's what? Okay, what
do you think this commander in chief's going to do?

(35:36):
We wouldn't want him to, He wouldn't want him to
kind of laugh it off or go on or move on.
The man is resolute about what he's trying to accomplish.
His executive orders are serious as a heart attack, and
he doesn't take him lightly, and he expects the states
to if they want the federal funds. I mean, this
is I mean, this isn't actually a new mechanism either.
I mean, Utah was forced into George W. Bush's No

(35:59):
Child Left Behind under the threat of losing federal funds.
That's why we did it. We didn't want it, we couldn't. Actually,
it's very difficult for the state of US got to
comply with all that was in that No Child Left
Behind federal legislation. But if we didn't do it, they
were going to take federal funds away from our state,
which we at the time thought we couldn't afford. But
so that's that's a tried and true practice. He didn't
invent invent it, but he is very transparent about that.

(36:22):
That's not a behind the doors conversation. That's not two faced.
I'll be smiling and pretend I'm nice now and then
be mean or be more direct later, he told her.
And it was after she said, well, we'll see you
in court. Okay, okay, that'll be an easy thing. He says,
good luck with your life after Governor.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Can I make a prediction. Yeah, Janet Mills, who is
the governor of Maine, was in that little confrontation with
Trump today, will be all over liberal media this weekend.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Oh sure, you're a hero, but not America.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
She is their hero, and she'll be all over the
legacy media this weekend and they'll praise her for a
standing out the tyrant.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Well, meanwhile, the American people are saying, yeah, we don't
want boys playing girls sports, and we're kind of with
president here. We think it's that serious, and so he's
there again. I love the eighty twenty twenty percent people
want one way. Eighty percent went to other that that
governor and the regime media are on the twenty percent side.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
So we play this game for people who may not
have heard it.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Let's do it. I can't get it. I can't get
enough of it. We just make it. We should just
make it. Put it on a loop.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Here it is.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
The NCAA has.

Speaker 8 (37:30):
Complied immediately, by the way, that's good. But I understand
Maine is the main here. The governor of main Well,
are you not going to comply with it.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
Federal laws?

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it.

Speaker 8 (37:45):
You better do it because you're not going to get
any federal funding at all if you don't. And by
the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although
I did very well there, your population doesn't want men
playing in women's sports, so you better, you better comply
because otherwise, as you're not getting any any federal funding,
every state. Good, I'll see you and could I look
forward to that. That should be a really easy one.

(38:09):
And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think
he'll be an elected politics.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
He couldn't help himself, rank. He just had to get
that little dig in and enjoy your life. I know.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
I just had a reader or a listener comment and said,
if you heard that, that his comments even about ten
seconds before he said that he heard that Maine wasn't
going to comply. He talked about the Olympics and about
a man. Yeah, a female Olympic boxer having to box
and compete against a man and not coming out of
the corner because those have been broken. And it does

(38:43):
it does set up that exchange a little bit better
in that he's defending women without apology and he doesn't
think it's right to see them women pummeled by men
in female competitive sports. And I think that would that
would help frame it for those that might think the
President was a bit too harsh.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
He was, yeah, well, what's going on in Maine. There's
a story, and I think I've got this right, Greg,
that in Maine there was a high school, there was
a I think it was a track competition, a pole
vaulting competition, right, and this young man, when he was
still a young man, Okay, finished like fifth or sixth
in the pole vaulting right, then became a girl Okay,

(39:21):
entered the girls competition and took first place and beat
the daylights out of the girl's competitors in the pole
vaulting issue. So that's what this story is told about.
And Maine said, we're going to allow him to continue,
and the President is saying, no, you won't, not anymore.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Yeah, No, it's not good. It's he I just I do.
I love it. I love it that he's he's not
afraid to have that conversation in person live.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
There was no script to that. Yeah, I was just
the way it works. And the media can go ahead
and make governor a genet Mills out to be a
martyr there they will, or they will courageous. But I
think that the people are really on the present side
of night.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I would agree with you. All right, when we come back,
I want to open up the phones. I've got an
interesting question for you tonight. There's a story on CNN
apparently there was a town hall meeting in Georgia last
night where a Republican lawmaker was there, a member of Congress,
and just got booed right and got attacked for what
is taking place in Washington. My question is tonight, Greg,
we're seeing all these stories about all these layoffs around

(40:24):
the country. Is we attempt to reduce the size of government?
Right with Elon Musk and President Trump reducing the size
of government. Let's be honest. There may be some people
out there who say we're going to feel the pain.
We don't know if we're ready for this, a smaller
federal government not providing all these services for us. So
my question tonight to our great listeners, Greg, is are

(40:45):
you ready for what is about to happen with these
cups and what it will mean and how it may
impact your lives? Are you ready for this? Eight eight
eight five seven eights or a one zero eight eight
eight five seven O eights er a one zero or
on your cell phone dial pound two fifty and say hey,
Rod and we'll get to your phone calls coming up
on the Rodding Greg Show right here on Utah's Talk
Radio one oh five nine K and R.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
I'm telling you my my threading and the titles of
our bumper music I think is brilliant.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
I think that's what you want. You want to I'm
just saying, cold star on your forehead.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
For saying being ditzy, I'm still threading the needle.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, you trying to get Brownie points.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
No, I'm just saying I'm still crushing it even when
I'm ditsy. That's what I'm saying. Well, you are ditsy. Yeah,
we'll give that today. I'm just a slight bit distracted.
You know why, because we got to all great listeners
and they comment, and so I get into the comments.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Don't comment to them during the show.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
No, it's I can't. I got a quite well, Okay.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
You still get your tut I know you crash and
burn without those training.

Speaker 8 (41:47):
I know.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
That's why it's still your show. It's still your world.
I'm living in it, all right.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
All right now, I want to go back to the
question I asked before the break. If you can remember that,
remember you're seeing your you know, a local media. There
there was a protest, I guess two days ago or
yesterday up in Ogden with some I R S employees.
So we're not going to be coming back to work
because of DOGE cuts. You've got protests around the country,
federal employees going, I lost my job.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
Now.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
We don't want to see anybody lose their job. We
understand that. But we all agree that the federal the
federal government, the federal government is too big. You would
agree you and I would agree with that. And Donald
Trump told the American people he would get there and
would trim things down right, and and him just to
see Elon Musk at seapack, and who is it, the

(42:34):
president of Argentina give him a chainsaw?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
So was that a gift? I thought I thought he
that Argentina. Oh see that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
I thought it was.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
I thought it was a prop. They tried to make
him look like he was looney because he had that chainsaw.
I didn't know it was a gift.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
It was a gift.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
It was like in a.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Nice gift, a nice gift box, everything else.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
So the bar on that chainsaw was like serious. You
know logger, you know guy cutting from Oregon, you know
lumberjack style.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
He's taking a chainsaw to the federal government. Now, of
course the media is out there going, oh, these poor
federal employees. Oh, there's a story that at Yosemite National Park,
if you get locked into a restroom, we won't be
able to get you out because the only person has
a key as a locksmith who's been let go by
the federal government. So don't go to the bathroom when
you go to Yosemite National Park. They didn't think to

(43:23):
give keys to other people, just that one guy job security, right,
And then you have I just saw this on CNN
a few moments ago town hall meeting in Georgia yesterday
where all these people showed up and were booing this
Republican congressman for supporting Donald Trump and the cuts that
he's trying to make. So my question, yeah, well remember

(43:43):
the tea party days. Oh those were fun.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yes, these are the opposite of it.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, but remember you know, my question is we're just
seeing the cuts being made. Okay, that may result in
some change services or not what we're used to when
it comes to the federal government. My question is, Greg,
to you and to our listeners, do you think the
American people are ready for this change?

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Why?

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Without pause?

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Why?

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Because I think people are suffering. I think kitchen table
issues are the inflation has climbed up. We've never seen anyone, Nope.
And we're figuring out with the with the transparency of
how government money has been abused, wasted, fraudulently spent in
contrast to how people have been struggling. It could there
could be no higher offense. And we realize collectively at

(44:28):
the same time, my goodness, no wonder, no one in Washington,
d C. Ever gave a wit about how bad this
last administration had been treating Americans. No wonder, they defended
a great economy. They were receiving all this taxpayer money,
and they were shuffling, shuttling it, shuttling it through nonprofits.
And it's money laundering at the highest level. And this
is why, and and and because there are conduits of

(44:49):
communication that allow us to see it in very simple terms.
There's not I don't think there's anybody in the media,
anywhere else, Democrat, you name it that's going to make
me feel sorry for the people that have been rob
in the public treasury while we have collectively been struggling
in this country. And it's going to take a lot
to turn this country back in the right direction. So no,
I think when they and this is a trick that

(45:11):
all government does, and I would even argue that I've
seen this in state government when you make cuts, Okay,
well I guess, oh, you're going to cut health and
human services? Well, I guess grandma that was getting meals
on wheels, going to starve by the door, waiting for
the meal that never comes. And they take the most logical,
extreme and an inaccurate story to try and pull on
the hearts trainings of taxpayers to make them think like,

(45:32):
why would you be so cruel and callous? The percentage
of jobs being carried now is infinitesimal to the number
of federal employees. There are two point one million, yes,
and so the number is just not even calculable. It's
decimal dust. So nothing to feel sorry for there, and
the waste is as offensive as we've ever seen. So yes,
I think we're all ready and we aren't going to
blink when we see this stuff cut.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
All right, We're gonna take a break, get a news update,
and then we want to get to your phone calls. Now,
by raising this question, Greg, I'm not saying we shouldn't
be making these cuts, because I think we should be
making these cuts. My question is are the American people
ready for this type of change. They've never seen anything
like this, so are they ready? Heck to the sick
to the s All right, more coming up your phone
calls eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero

(46:15):
eight eight eight five seven o eight zero one zero.
Let's get to our calls.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Okay, let's go to Amy from Highland. Amy, thank you
for waiting. Welcome to the Rod and Greg show.

Speaker 9 (46:26):
Sure, and just so you know, I am in the
McDonald's line. We are supposed to be done by now.
They messed up the order, so I apologize no if that.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Comes sorry, sorry, sorry, anyway, go ahead, Amy.

Speaker 9 (46:37):
But I just want to say that I am completely
ready for the change in the government. And while I
empathize with anybody who gets laid off, my husband is
a self employed filmmaker and one of the projects that
they were working on ran out of funding, and so

(46:57):
at first they were trying their us to keep everyone
employed because my husband felt like it was his responsible
responsibility to give them a job. And then it just
got to the point where he realized, my company can't
go into debt just to keep give someone a job,
and so a responsible business owner is going to realize

(47:20):
that you can't. Going into debt is wrong. And so
obviously with our government, all we do is go into
debt to give people jobs that aren't necessary. Anybody who
has a job has the risk of getting laid off.
That's just how business works. And hopefully people are realizing

(47:43):
that with the end of wasteful spending that it's going
to circle back and benefit our lives.

Speaker 7 (47:49):
In other ways.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah, good, well put Amy, and you're right. Anybody in
the private sector, and Abby and e Ray and myself
and others been in broadcasting, has been going through changes
for a long long time. And unfortunately, Greg, that means
a reduction in force when it comes to changes. So
never a nice thing to deal with, but it is

(48:11):
a fact of life. As Amy said, all right, back
to the phones. Let's start with Carl in Taylorville. The
like Carl, how are you welcome to the Rod and
Greg Show?

Speaker 10 (48:19):
Great, thanks for taking my call. I just I want
to say a couple of quick things about this.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
I hope we're ready. The problem I.

Speaker 10 (48:26):
See is that it's a little bit like elections. You know,
you say, well, why is it we have ninety seven
percent incumbents get reelected.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
Because I don't like.

Speaker 10 (48:34):
The sobs except mine. So if my money gets caught
up a program I like gets cut, have I got
to be ready for that. That's what I worry about
more than the man generally. Yes, I'm all in favor
of it. I think it's about time. But I wonder
if people, including myself, will be really excited as something
that I think is a great thing suddenly disappears. And

(48:55):
I wanted to say one other quick thing about federal money.
You know you're talking about the withholding the money for
main and so forth. You know, I get that, but
I remember back in the eighties or so when when
we had the fifty five mile an hour speed on
them and Utah didn't like it, and we said, you know,
it takes forever to get anywhere in Utah that speed.
And they said, well, don't do it, or will withhold
your highway money? And we were furious about that. We said,

(49:17):
that's our money. You know, they're holding a sausage, So
is that is it?

Speaker 5 (49:21):
Do we like it?

Speaker 10 (49:21):
Because they were doing it for this reason, but not
for that reason. This is kind of what I'm saying.
You know it's my soobs is different than your soob.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
It's a great observation, Carl, and let me I'll walk
you through at least my thinking on all that. And
so this is the trap you get into when they
when the federal government has you pay federal gas tax,
you want the money. They say, if you don't do
what we say, we're not going to give you the money.
I think the state of Utah and I think it's
done a better job than many states, but we're still

(49:49):
too dependent on federal money. Yes, if we want to
not be held hostage for reasons whether we like them
or not like them, however that might be, we enter
knowingly into those relationships when we pursue or receive federal funds.
Sometimes we're into it so deep. Is why I love
Trump cutting the Department of Education because we could so

(50:09):
we could not replace that money that the Department of
Education sends for free and reduced lunch Title I kids
for special education. But boy, if they let us block
grant that and keep that money, that would be a
way to do it. So I think it always depends
on if I just think the relationship with the federal government,
you do lose a lot of your sovereignty as a

(50:32):
state when you enter into that relationship. I will say this,
I'm seeing enough waste that is being identified, whether it's
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, some of those sacred cows. You
weren't even allowed to say, if you cut, you're going
to lose an election because it makes people so upset.
The waste, fraud, and abuse within all of these should

(50:52):
never even for the programs that we depend on or
look at. We shouldn't be feeling this as taxpayers because
there's just trillions. There's trillions of dat. A Republican who
we were the first for her to be on the
radio as an interview one point set was it one
point seven trillion that she was able to track, So,
and that's to waste. That's not to any program where

(51:14):
you can point to and see that it's working. That's
just shuttling money between these interest groups we didn't even
know existed. So I believe that when you have Social
Security paying people that apparently are one hundred and fifty
years old, cut that, okay, that doesn't that that person's
not one hundred and fifty, that's person's not real. I
think there's a ton of that inside this system to

(51:34):
start cutting, and before you ever get to somebody's own,
as Carl points out, you know, sacred cow or something
that they'd appreciate. I think there's a lot we're going
to cut before we ever get We're a lot of fat,
before we get to the to the bone.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
That story about the one hundred and fifty year old person,
actually I think the person was three hundred and sixty
years old, and the President mentioned he's older than the country.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Well, you grew up with him, and I know you're
very defensive about that person.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
Why did I know that?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
We know you think we're callous because we're cutting off
your childhood friend. But no, it's been long enough. Three
hundred years is long enough?

Speaker 5 (52:10):
All right?

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Maria Goals coming up eight eight eight five seven o
eight zero one zero eight eight eight five seven o
eight zero one zero, will get to your calls. Are
you ready for the impact of the federal budget cuts
and all the personnel, all the personnel they're being laid off.
Let's go to Adam and Payson, who wants to weigh
in on this this afternoon. Adam, how are you welcome
to the show?

Speaker 7 (52:32):
Doing very well?

Speaker 11 (52:32):
Can you hear me, all right.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
We sure can go ahead. Okay, very good.

Speaker 11 (52:37):
Hey, you were wondering if we are ready for change,
and there was a previous color that was talking about
programs that we like that we don't want to give up,
or maybe we're not ready for that. But I think
Elon Musk has hit the nail on the head. He
said everything's going away if we don't take care of
our debt. And one of the things I'm surprised that

(52:59):
he suggested these dividend refunds, because really it's not a
refund of our money, it's our debt. We have been
deficit spending in the federal government, borrowing from our enemies,
and that the interest that we're paying needs to be
dealt with. And I don't know why they're not just

(53:21):
taking that money that they're saving. As Doge is going
through these different agencies and finding this, we should be
slamming everything against that debt. And I'm just worried that,
you know, if we do get refunds, that's just going
to increase our inflation and make our dollar worth less.

(53:45):
I think it's a lot better that we just get
back to priorities. It should be about freedom, it shouldn't
be about programs, and these people that are getting laid
off in the federal government shouldn't have been hired in
the first place.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeah. Yeah, you make some very good points out of
I need to get to other calls, but I was
a big fan of the refund or the rebate. There's
better ways to use that money. I think that's being saved,
not use it at all.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
I kind of liked it when I first heard it.
I think I think, I think Zay just sold me
the other way though, because you know, sometimes if you
can get a contract, like if you find savings, you
can split the savings with the person who finds it,
because you know, and then it incentivize more people doing it.
And I thought these dividends would be a way to
keep the American people dialed into yeah, we want to
see the cut that. But what Zaine's pointing out is

(54:29):
none of that is real money. That's debt. That debt
continues to climb, which is our disaster. That's the that's
the ticking time bomb. And then you don't want to
you don't want to populace that's dependent upon that of
money that you'd get it by way of a refund.
So I'm with Zaying on that. I've reconsidered my position.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
On let's go back to the phones.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Oh we just talked to Zaane.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
No, we talked to Adam.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Oh, we talked to Adam. I wrote down, zay Zayne.
I'm well, Adam. Sorry, I called you, zay Zaying. Thank
you for holding and welcome to the Rodd and Gregg Show.

Speaker 12 (55:00):
Hey, thanks for having me at. I've got an opinion
on a way to cut spending that's wildly unpopular, but
I think it's something that should be should be seriously
looked at. And again, it's that zone of social security.
So I'm a younger guy obviously, so I'm sure I'll
get plenty of feedback from this from people older than me.

(55:22):
But I feel like if you're not the kind of
if you don't have a job where you have the
options to pay into a four to one K, you
don't have the money to put into a retirement account.
Though that's who social Security should be for. I don't
think somebody who's collecting, you know, five, six, seven thousand
dollars a month from their retirement account should also be

(55:46):
collecting social Security. So I think it needs to be
based on how much money you're getting from your retirement
other places, but then we will subsidize if you're not
making enough off of your retirement to also to make
to live. I mean, I want to make sure that
everybody is taken care of. But at the same time,

(56:06):
I don't want to see some rich millionaire who's collecting
massive chunks from their massive paychecks from their retirement account
also collecting Social Security when the reality of it is
they don't need it.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
So I agreed with Adam. I missed I called him
Zaying accidentally, but guess what I totally heard from Zaying.
I'm told I totally agree with him. To shame on you, Rod,
You're just you got a sche mask on a gun
in your hand, Robin, Robin, the public treasure which your
Social Security. Get out of here.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
First, I at a millionaire, as you you apparently think,
I am, Oh, yeah, you know, but I think Zaye
may I agree with saying to a certain point, a
guy who's got ten million dollars does he really need
Social Security?

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah? You know what, I would you know, I I.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Agree with don it, so shouldn't he get the money?

Speaker 2 (56:57):
I'll just I'll just this is where I land and
I everything Adam said, everything Zane said, these are all
truth bombs. Okay, I'm just telling you I agree with
our callers, but I would just say this, and Carl too.
I think it's tough to change the rules after the
game has started, and there has been there has been
a social contract that that workers they get their money taxed,

(57:18):
they paid in the FIKA, they did all the all
they're supposed to, and there was a deal. Okay to
the extent that we don't get this work this out,
this deal will not be honored by the US government.
So there there is change that has to happen. I
think what what Zain said is you go back to
people that are younger, and I'm I'm I'd like to
I wish I was further away from sixty five, but

(57:40):
I'm probably I'm closer now. I'm definitely on the back
nine of life, you know, back nine of I don't
have another eighteen holes in me or anything. But here's
the deal. Go back to a time where it's not
their immediate retirement circumstance and and say, look, you're either
going to have to have it at sixty seven seventy
or there's going to be some adjustment made because it's not.

(58:00):
We'll make that with a younger generation. But then at
the same time, take this cuts. There's so many people
getting social Security that don't exist as humans. We got
to cut that too. So there's a lot of cuts
in the fat all of that. And then let's get
to young wings and say too bad, so bad.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah, try that one. All right? Our number three Rod
and Greg on this thank rodin greg Is Friday is
on his way. Stay with us, all right, We've got
a lot to get to in the final hour of
the show with you on this Friday evening, we're all
talking about Doge at the state level. Yes, things be done.
We'll talk about that one.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
Well.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Good more about how progressives used US eight as a
slush fund and are listening back. Friday segments coming your
way as well. So let's get ball rolling. Let's talk
about DOGE. I mean, are you confident, Greg, You've been
on the hill for a long time. Are you confident
that UTAH watches things very closely and keeps their eye
on things and doesn't let various agencies get out of

(58:57):
control spending?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
I can tell in contrast to our US Congress a
much closer eye is paid. And one of the realities
is that you don't print money, so you actually have
to count what comes in and what goes out, and
so there's just inherently a better process there. We're one
of the rare states that has subappropriation means where every
lawmaker has some hand in building one of the department's budgets. So,
but that said, it's still government. And let me tell

(59:20):
you something about government. It's always in need of the
hood being lifted up and look under that and check
that engine. So that is something that can always be
done and should be done.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Yeah. Well, there's a new effort underway to move those
to various states, maybe some red states that aren't as
read as we think they are, Rhino states, we could
call them. It's underway a group by the name of
the State Leadership Initiative. Then joining us on our Newsmaker
line to talk about that as Sean Fleetwood, staff writer
of The Federalist, Sean, what is this all about?

Speaker 13 (59:49):
Yeah, So it's this new organization that it just launched
earlier this week, and basically the idea is to create
a coalition building organization that gets these different grassroots organizations
and groups together to what I like to say, make
Red States great again. You look across America right now,
and with the exception of Republican leaders like of Neronda

(01:00:12):
Santis in Florida, you look at a lot of these
Republicans so called red states and legislatures, and they're not
really acting like they should be in terms of forwarding
Republican principles. They're very milk toasts. They're not getting things
done in the legislature. You look at the bureaucracies, they're
incredibly bloated. And so what SLI intends to do is

(01:00:33):
to really fix that and get back to strong conservative
Republican governance. And so you asked who is behind this?
You look at the board of directors and you have
several conservatives who have been notable in the conservative industry
for a long time. The president of this organization is
Noah Wall He's someone who's been in the fight against

(01:00:54):
ESG environmental social governance in the financial sector for several years.
Nate Fisher, who's also a co founder of the organization.
He's been involved in adventure firm called New Founding, which
is focused on American resilience and forwarding conservative values. Kevin Roberts,
the president of the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
So you have a really.

Speaker 13 (01:01:15):
Great team here of conservative leaders that are just trying
to get back to really strong conservative Republican governance and
actually making sure that Republicans are living up to the
obligations that they promised their voters.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
So I'm a recovering public servant. I was in the
state legislature here in Utah and where states don't print
money like we're seeing with the federal government and this
fourth branch of government where we're seeing so much money funneled.
Just the inherent budget process, there's certainly a cuts and
waste to be found, But have you given thought to

(01:01:49):
the things that I think that state government needs to
get way better at in a Doge like effort could
really drill down on is the dependency on federal funds
and how that drives state policy, which doesn't get talked
about enough. And you know, Utah is no different. They
receive a lot of federal funds. These departments and agencies
within states, they will create rules and they will create

(01:02:10):
processes that lawmakers don't know about the state, certainly the
citizens don't. State institutions of higher learning, this is where
you're seeing all of this, all of this radical you know,
curriculum being taught, and are those issues that are front
burner for you as you look at how to get
into red states and make sure that it's being governed
the way that the citizens would expect.

Speaker 13 (01:02:32):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent. And you know, when I
was talking with Noah, he told me that, you know,
one of the priorities of SLI is to get conservatives,
actual conservatives in some of these state boards and state positions.
You know that we really don't pay attention to that much.
Cleta Mitchell over at the Election Integrity Network. She has
a great saying about you know, the left is always

(01:02:52):
focused on process, and that's something that the right has
consistently ignored over the years. And I think when you
look at the broader landscape, whether higher education or these
other institutions, I mean, that's absolutely true. The reason that
the left has been able to gain so much power
and influence in our culture and our government is because
they've focused on getting involved in these positions that we

(01:03:13):
really don't think about that much, and controlling the process,
making sure that they have that rule making ability and
powers to push their agenda forward. I think for so
long Republicans have been focused solely on elections, primarily at
the federal level, that we ignore a lot of what's
happening in our own communities at the local and state level.
And that's kind of the antithesis of what our founding

(01:03:34):
fathers wanted. You know, they wanted a federalist system of government,
where the state and local governments were really the focus
of the people because those were the governments that were
most accountable to them. And unfortunately that has flipped, as
we've seen really within the past hundred years, to where
the federal government is now captivating everyone's attention. And you know,
it's very exciting what's happening in Washington right now with

(01:03:57):
the Trump administration and the great things that they're getting done,
but we need to remember what's happening at the state
and local level because that's just as if not more, important,
in continuing conservative governance and saving what's left of our country.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Sean, I love that quote you have from Nate Fisher
in your article where he describes what is taking place
today when it comes to the relationship between the federal
goverment and states. The states that we become clients of
the federal government. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Speaker 13 (01:04:27):
Yeah, one hundred percent. You know, we just have kind
of seeded this idea. And you know, this is something
when I was growing up in school that you know,
all we are talking about is what's happening at the
federal government. And they've really accumulated all of this power.
And you know, you go back and you look through
our history, I think things like the seventeenth Amendment, which
changed the way that we elected senators. Senators weren't always

(01:04:50):
directed by elected by popular vote. They used to be
chosen by the state legislatures, and that gave the states
significant power and influence on what was happening in Washington.
And you know, and once we passed the seventeenth Amendment
that influenced that power just went out the door, and
the states, as you guys have said, has effectively become
subservient to the federal government. And so hopefully with an

(01:05:10):
initiative like the State Leadership Initiative, we can get things
turned around and actually get back to empowering the states
rather than just having them be there as kind of
a second afterthought in our politics.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Do you foresee, sometimes politicians either do nothing or they overreact.
It seems to be one or the other. Is the
pressure that states will feel from the effort of DOGE
and hopefully from a Congress that starts putting these budgets
together and we're identifying maybe money that was outside of
congressional purview. When those grants and all of that money

(01:05:44):
stops flowing the states, is that the moment that states
wake up to this and really start looking at their
own processes or are they going to or state's going
to have to be more proactive.

Speaker 13 (01:05:56):
I definitely think that states are going to be more proactive,
But I also think that the people need to be
more proactive. I think that when you talk about a
lot of you know, rhinos and establishment Republicans, the reason
that a big reason of why that is and why
we have that within the Republican party today is because
neglect from the people. We just kind of realize that

(01:06:18):
Democrats are awful and worse than Republicans, and so we
sort of just settle for Republicans. But getting involved in
Republican primaries or conventions or whatever the election mechanism in
your state, your locality is, that's incredibly important, because if
you don't have Republicans who are fighting for your values,
who actually believe in your cause, then you're just going
to be fighting with two hands tied behind your back.

(01:06:40):
And So, if we really do want to make a
substantial change in how our system of government operates, we
as a people need to become more active, more aware,
and more involved in our government. Being an American is
not a free ride. I think for so long we've
put self governance on autopilot, and I think it's time
we take it off and really become the citizens that
are found and fathers wanted.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
Us to be.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
On our Newsmaker line joining us Sean Fleetwood, he's a
staff writer of The Federalist, talking about the State Leadership Initiative.
All Right, more coming up on the Rod and Greg Show.
On this thank rodin Greg. It is Friday. Well, the
US AID or USA nightmare continues. We're down today, Greg,
You'll love this one. That mega donor George Sorows, the
lead financer of institutional left here in America. Apparently the

(01:07:26):
US AID Agency dispersed money to him. You're any for
this to fund color revolutions in the Balkans. That's according
to the latest gig.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
If you can get it. We've been all crying about
his billionaire money going out on ice. He's collecting.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
He's collecting, guys. Yeah, sure is well. Robert McCreevy has
been looking into this. Robert is a reporter of The
Daily Caller. Robert, thanks for joining us. How Robert did
us AID become a progressive slush fund? What happened to Robert?

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
It's a good question. And you know, something that I
didn't actually flo in the article, but that one of
the sources doctor Max Moyer explained to me was that
it actually kind of started under the Clinton administration and
then with every Democratic president since then, it's been sort
of progressively intensified. So the Obama administration did some things,

(01:08:17):
but then the Biden administration really kind of kicked it
into third gear. And that's when you sort of started
seeing and I think it kind of coincided with the
cultural umbrates of sort of Marxism and all the woke
stuff and kind of perfectly intertwined into having in the
agencies sort of you know, language policing and these sort

(01:08:41):
of DEI privileged walks that were explained to me, and
then that kind of manifests outside the agency in being
able to spend their money, you know, not just on
what I think we now consider wasteful spending abroad, but
particularly in service to sort of these Marxist goals of

(01:09:04):
furthering that agenda in other countries, so spending money on
social programs in Africa to sort of teach this Dei philosophy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
You know. The thing that's been troubling for me as
I've been following the data Republican search engine, where she
creates these flow charts where the amount of money that's
shuttled between entities was meant to never be traced and
never to be understood. And I think AI is what's
helped her create these flow charts that we can kind
of follow. But as I see how much money they

(01:09:35):
receive and then how much goes by way of grants,
I ask myself, is this more plundering of the public
treasury for personal profit first? Political agenda? Second? Because I
don't see that money being sent in the same size
out to these crazy Marxist endeavors. It looks like there's
a ton of people making a ton of money, am

(01:09:57):
I writer? Is it unknown?

Speaker 5 (01:10:01):
Yeah? I think it's a good question. I haven't personally
dug into that myself. I sort of just spoke to
these guys and I looked into their claims, but I haven't,
you know, like you said, it's super complex, and even
somebody like me who who spends my time looking into things,
I think what we've seen now Trump flooded the zone

(01:10:23):
in terms of policy. I think these career bureaucrats have
been flooding the zone in terms of the programs they're
using it and kind of purposely obfuscating to make it
difficult for the layperson to actually figure out what they're doing.
So I think what you've posed there is certainly plausible,
if not likely. I wouldn't be able to speak to
that one hundred percent right now, Robert.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
How did they get away with it? I mean, Joni
arn said she asked questions. Marco Rubio said he asked questions.
They basically told them, none of your darn business. We're
doing what is best for the United States. I mean,
how on earth did they get away with this?

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
Great questions? It's when I asked myself, I think just
the structure of these bureaucracies were so that they're so
insulated that their sort of power structures were so cut
off from the political process. I mean, so doctor Moyer
was a political appointee, so Trump appointed him to USAID

(01:11:21):
and about a year in he kind of discovered that,
you know, one of these slush funds is called the
Complex Crisis Fund, and he sort of discovered that in
this fund they were mislabeling things and kind of trying
to keep you know, not use these sort of liberal
and woke buzzwords that I think a lot of you know,

(01:11:43):
people in the Trump administration would see and go, oh no,
we're not having that. And when he discovered that, you know,
he he kind of discovered this sprawling bureaucracy that you know.
One example is when he discovered this, he was basically
retaliated against insecurity clearances pulled and eventually he had to leave.

(01:12:07):
And when he tried to blow the whistle, he found
out that political appointees did not get the whistleblower protections
that career bureaucrats, people who are hired by the agency
and not selected by the president get. So that's just
one example of kind of how these you know, people
use the term deep state, but it's really just sort

(01:12:28):
of the career bureaucrats. The system has been set up
to insulate them and protect them. And I think to
a degree it was not insidious when it was first
proposed that it's a good idea for continuity of government
to have kind of a system of people who can
stay there and steer the course through shifts and changes

(01:12:51):
in administrations. But particularly the Democrats have really taken advantage
of that and used it as a way to, you know,
like like I kind of laid out in the article,
insulate themselves and keep sort of carrying on these these
democratic and progressive priorities even through a Republican administration.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
So where do you see this going? I don't I
don't see these Are these going to find their way
into budget cuts or a Republican controlled Congress? And how
they pair this back? Is this money that was never
within Congress's perview? So the president can just stop the
funding uh unilaterally? How does now that we know this exist,
now that we know this is happening, and how where

(01:13:36):
does it go from here?

Speaker 5 (01:13:37):
Well? Yeah, it actually was within Congress's perview, and that's
I think why we're seeing the legal challenges to the
funding freeze, and that's going to be up to the courts.
I do know now that the usc I D is
essentially going to be absorbed into the state at State
Department in Marco Ribio now as Secretary of State will
be the effective head of it. So at least for

(01:14:00):
the time being, for the next four years, it's going
to be those sort of progressive policies are not going
to be carried out now. Whether or not that could
be codified, I think he's going to be up to
Congress in terms of saving that off for future administrations.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
On our newsmaker line, Robert McGreevy, a reporter at the
Daily Caller, talking about USAID and how it became a
progressive slush fund. All right, when we come back, Greg
and I will have our listen back Friday segments for
you right here on the Rod and Greg Show and
Talk Radio one oh five nine k NRS. Let's talk
about the media landscape in the past week. You know,
CBS started with Face the Nation and then sixty minutes

(01:14:41):
last Sunday night and the legacy media. I tell you what,
Greg is just falling apart. They're being called out and
they can't stand it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
I love it. I just I just think that as
long as we have enough people that can dissect and
expose the lunacy that they're peddling right now. I hope
they keep doing it as long as our conduits communication
remains strong.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
Yeah. Well, earlier this week, we had a great conversation
with Paul ken Gore. He is an author political science
professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Also apparently grew
up in the same neighborhood as mister Hughes did back there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Yeah, how about the universe so we call it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
But we talked with Paul about CNN grasping at trump straws,
so to speak, And we asked Paul about this and
his thoughts on what he saw transpire over the past
week when it comes to the legacy media.

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:15:28):
Well, and specifically Rod and the price of eggs. Right,
And so I'm sitting there at a restaurant in Fort Wayne,
Indiana at night evening and they had CNN on the
TV set and I see this headline about Trump betraying
a promise to lower the price of eggs, and I
almost spit my food all over the table when I
saw that. I thought, well, at that point, the guy

(01:15:49):
had been president for about two and a half weeks
and they're angry at him for not lowering the price
of eggs yet. I mean, and at that point, I mean,
the whole country world is watching this veritable human cyclone
named Donald Trump, who did more in two weeks and
probably FDRs first hundred days of not FDR's twelve years.

(01:16:10):
Everybody's marveling that all that he's done. And here's CNN
complaining that he hasn't lower the price of eggs yet,
of all things. And by the way, I mean, part
of the reason for that is there's a bird flu
that's going on right now with chickens. And but even
if there wasn't, I mean, it just comes off as
petty for the for the for the media to focus
on something like that. I mean, what do they think

(01:16:33):
trumpet has godlike powers or something. I thought that's what
they thought Trump supporters thought about about Trump. So yeah,
it's way overly picking it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
Gee, give the man a break.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
So what What's what's otherworldly about listening to CNN and
others in the regime media is that they got three
there's three positions. One, they didn't give a whit about
any inflation or cost of groceries or anything for four
years during Biden two. They they do say, why are
egg stiol expensive? It's been twenty minutes, what's going on?
But then their very next sentence is he's moving too fast?

(01:17:05):
Is too this is too rapid? Like this is just chaotic,
it's just so fast. Do you think that the average American?
I just really believe that the Republican Party has shifted
to just this everyday Americans common sense. Do people hear
the contradiction in CNN? Are they catching it or is
it just are they tuned out? Or is it going
over their head? What do you think happens when CNN

(01:17:26):
just says profoundly bipolar almost messages and observations the way
they do.

Speaker 7 (01:17:33):
Well, I think Ray GiB most people are tuning them out. However,
and I talk about this in my article for The
American Spectator. The next day after I heard that, I
got in the car, turned on Sirius XM radio and
turned on the Patriot Channel. And some liberal who call
it into a show is losing his mind over the
price of eggs under Donald Trum. Okay, all right, so

(01:17:57):
there's kind of a click or a group of them
that you exchange talking points on social media. Read the
same sources watch the same thing, and so for those people,
they could lose their minds over the fact that the
price of eggs isn't down yet. But but I think
that's I think that's a minority of people, and and
I think it's a lot of people within a kind

(01:18:19):
of smaller faction on the political left that a lot
of the rest of the country is at the point
now where they say, Okay, you sit there and complain
about the price of eggs, but the we're going to
go on and you know, push aggressively ahead and change
the country. And what Donald Trump has done in less
than a month in power is right. I'll tell you, guys,

(01:18:40):
I never thought i'd see anything like it. I'm a
Ronald Reagan scholar. Reagan had major changes in foreign policy
over the course of eight years. But I don't see
I haven't seen any president in my lifetime or truly,
you'd have to go back to FDR where you've seen
this many change, which is this quickly under one president.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
Yeah, I would agree with you, Paul. I think both
Greg and I would. You mentioned a moment ago you
called this attack on the price of eggs petty. It
may be petty, but what else do they have to
attack right now, Paul, I mean, what are they going
to go after Donald Trump for other than the price
of eggs?

Speaker 7 (01:19:18):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And what further looks petty about
it is that, as Greg alluded to, I don't remember
them complaining about the price of eggs two or three
years ago, right, Yeah, So of all things to suddenly
zero in on that, Ol. I mean, it's related to
the overall.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
Issue of inflation.

Speaker 7 (01:19:39):
But the fact that in a story like that, they
would even dig a little deeper and go into the
fact of what's going on with the bird flu that's
affecting the price of eggs, and just a general idea
that you would expect anyone who's chief executive of the
country within two weeks to be able to unilaterally lower
the price of eggs. It's just and and it and

(01:20:01):
and and and it looks very petty.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
So here's my here's my concern. Though we got Congress, Okay,
they won on the cotails. They preserve their majorities. Republicans
did really on the strength of President of Trump's campaign
and election, but they got a budget to pass. Is
the budget going to reflect the savings and the and
the fraud, waste that doge and is discovering, and the
Trump's administrations finding in the departments, and then we got

(01:20:25):
a tax increase coming. I hate it described as as
an extension of a tax cut. We have no tax cut.
Whatever the governent's getting, they're already getting from us. We
have no cuts coming. We only have a massive tax
increase if they don't in fact extend it. So will
Congress do its bit? Because at some point the cost
of eggs will come into the conversation. If we don't

(01:20:46):
have a Congress acting on the good work that Trump's doing.
Is that Is that a worry for you?

Speaker 4 (01:20:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:20:52):
I don't know, Greg. I mean I think with Elon
what Elon Musk is doing at those and the others,
I mean, they really are uncovering just an absolute massive
amount of waste, and even aside from just the specific
dollar numbers, and in some cases we're talking about not
just billions, but trillions of dollars when you look at
some of the anecdotal examples of what they're finding at

(01:21:14):
places like USAID, and those things are getting out there.
And because people you know no longer get their news
just from CNN or the New York Times, but they're
getting them from all sorts of other platforms and even
podcasts and even social media. These different outrages and abuses

(01:21:34):
that Musk and others are finding and flagging, they're becoming stories,
and they're becoming headlines and so and I think pretty
much every American you know it, kind of knows intuitively that,
you know, those people in Washington just spend too much
money and all sorts of ridiculous things, And everybody knows
that there's waste at all sorts of different levels. So

(01:21:56):
I think Congress will enact a lot of that, enact
a lot of those cuts. I don't think taxes are
going to go up or down one way or the other.
How many federal income tax rates are there now five
or six I think the top rates maybe thirty seven percent,
so that wouldn't change much anyway. It's not like when
Reagan came in and the top rate was seventy percent,
they could cut it down to twenty eight. So I

(01:22:18):
don't see many big changes there. But I think most
people generally approve of this investigation in some of these
expose a's of massive government waste that Trump and his
team are uncovering right now.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
Hey man, it's blown my mind. It's it's like a
fourth branch and it's they're just plumber the treasury. It's
it is really unbelievable.

Speaker 7 (01:22:42):
Yeah, yeah, right, and they're exposing the plunderers, right, yes,
I mean yeah. It was Frederick Bostiot that taught talked
about you know, government theft, plunder and and when you
really see things like USI aid, you see how they
become kind of giant, you know, kind of ideological redistribute
schemes for the powers that be in Washington, and you know,

(01:23:03):
from the liberal progressive democratic wing to reward friends and allies,
even publications like Politico. I mean, if my magazine, The
American Spectator got nine million dollars a year, I mean,
you know what.

Speaker 6 (01:23:17):
We could do with that.

Speaker 7 (01:23:19):
It's it's unbelievable. And most people, frankly, are disgusted and
yet also not surprised.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
On our Newsmaker line and part of our list back
Friday segments, Paul King Gore talking about the CNN grasping
us through us all the legacy Media's right, they cannot
figure out what Donald Trump is doing, you know, how
to respond to it?

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
They don't and I love it. I love it. They
don't know all right?

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
More coming up on the Rod and Greg Show on
this thank rodin Greg is Friday right here on Utah's
Talk Radio one oh five nine can arrests well an
individual who replaced you as Speaker of the Utah House?
Is that right or tried?

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Kate did a phenomenal job. I love Freddy, We're dear friends.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Brad Wilson, former Speaker of the Utah House, one time
candidate for Senate here in the state of Utah, but now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
He has as a new job as anyone who herds
cats in the House can handle other less daunting, less
challenging jobs. This is almost like a vacation after having
been Speaker of the House. Brad Wilson is now leading.
He's the CEO of our Olympic Committee, getting ready to
host the World twenty thirty four Winter Olympic Games here

(01:24:20):
and you tell.

Speaker 1 (01:24:20):
Now what a task that is. We had a chance
to talk with Brad earlier this weekend as part of
our Listen Back Friday segment. We thought you'd enjoy the
interview if you may have missed it, and we asked Brad,
first of all, his thoughts on getting Utah ready for
twenty thirty four.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
We absolutely are. Utah will host the world and represent
our country in February of twenty thirty four, and we
couldn't be more excited about it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
So you've been a phenomenal Speaker of the House. We
worked together when I served in the House, and I
think we made a phenomenal team. But when you say
twenty thirty six, I can't even fathom what the world
looks like when I'm in nine years. For me, what's
the first step you do? I mean, when something out
that far in terms of an event, what are you

(01:25:02):
working on? Give our listeners an idea? What are you
working on today as the CEO of our Olympic Committee.

Speaker 3 (01:25:09):
Yeah, well, Greg, I will just say that it was
a great time working with you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
But thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:25:14):
We you know, we've got about thirty two hundred days
between now and twenty thirty four when the Olympics arrive here,
and so yeah, you're right, it's a little bit of
a long time. And in fact, in some ways we're
really lucky. We got awarded these Olympics about two and
a half years earlier than most cities or most states
would and The question that we've got to answer is

(01:25:36):
how do we use that time to our advantage, and
so we're in the process of figuring that out. To
be honest with you, we don't know all the answers yet.
One of the things that I'm going to do very
first my role as CEO is go on a listening
tour to all the communities that are going to host
these events, but also to other parts of the state,
rural Utah, southern Utah and try to learn how they

(01:25:59):
want to be engaged As we ramp up to host
these amazing Olympic Olympic Games, and we are in the
process of what we're calling the Foundational Phase. We're going
to engage our youth in a tremendous way, not just
in Utah. But think about this for a minute. Because
we've got so much time. There could be kids going

(01:26:21):
to school today somewhere in Utah or other places in
our country that could become Olympians nine years from now,
and we want to do everything we can to not
just host your great Olympics for the world, but also
make sure the Team USA has a very strong podium
showing in nine years that we have great athletes and

(01:26:44):
the youth of today or the athletes of tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
Right what about the facilities and what we'll need to
do as far as the facilities are concerned, I know
we did a great job. We continue to maintain them.
They're continue they're being used right now. Is it going
to take you foresee a huge upgrade of the facilities?
We have construction and new facilities. I know it's early
in the game right now, but what's your take on that?
I mean, to me, I think we're in pretty good shape.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
You know, what you just described brought as actually the
cornerstone of why we became the host for twenty thirty four,
and it's because our venues are Olympic ready today. We
don't have to do virtually anything to get ready to
host the Olympics. And it's for two different reasons. One is,
at the end of the two thousand and two Olympics

(01:27:31):
there was a legacy fund that was created and that
about seventy five million dollars has been used to maintain
those venues and to keep our youth and athletes in
them every day since two thousand and two. But also
the state has invested a lot of money, probably about
seventy to eighty million dollars over the last twenty years

(01:27:53):
to upgrade and maintain those venues. And really we would
have done that regardless of whether or not we were
going to be hosting future Winter Olympics, because they are
really used. I mean they're used heavily. But anyway, because
we've got these venues, they're ready to go. We literally
could host the Olympics next year if we wanted to
without having to build anything.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
That's amazing. You know. Leading up to the two thousand
and two Winter Games, I mean, as lawmakers, we heard
about all the marshaling of federal funds and grants for
transportation infrastructure, things that we use today that really aren't
related to the Olympics. But as hosts of the World
Winter Games, really we could put on a fast track
and see that funding and that transportation infrastructure built in

(01:28:37):
preparation for that event. Do you see a similar path
for Utah for its transportation infrastructure getting ready for these
Winter Olympics this time around?

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
Yeah, I think it's going to be a little bit different.
You'll all remember if you were here then that reconstruction
of I fifteen and events of the Olympics tracks went in.
We will absolutely take advantage of the next nine years
to what I would describe is use the Olympics as
a catalyst to help us maybe advance some infrastructure projects

(01:29:09):
that we would be doing anyway, but maybe we can
get federal dollars to help us get those done sooner.
But you're not going to see a big gold rush
to spend a lot of infrastructure money just for the Olympics.
That would be very short sided. If we're going to
invest money in infrastructure, it needs to be infrastructure that
we're going to need in twenty forty so that the

(01:29:33):
state's a better place to live, our quality and life
is better, and those are the kinds of things that
will we'll be working on. Make no mistake though, and
former Speaker Hughes knows this. Any good government relations person
around the state's going to use the Olympics and that
terminology to try to get fund pet projects.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Yeah, that is true.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
We've just got to be careful because, like I said,
we don't need those tax dollars to go to help
us support the Olympics. We will not use any tax
dollars to operate the Olympic Organizing Committee that I'm the
CEO of that's all going to be done with private
dollars and with sponsorship dollars and ticket sales down the road.

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
Brad, final question for you. You mentioned this at the beginning.
I know a big challenge facing you know, your task
right now is just to go out there and listen
to what people have to say and what they want.
Is there another challenge that you see the committee is
facing right now. I mean we're nine years out, but
still facing.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
You know, we're very fortunate our venues are not just ready,
but they're very proximate to each other and close to
each other. And I think that maybe not a challenge,
but an opportunity is what I would say we have.
Utah has become a global sports destination. I don't know
if you know this, but Salt Lake City now uses

(01:30:54):
more hotel rooms for sporting events than they do for conventions.
People from all over just the country, but all over
the world are coming to Utah, Southern Utah, Northern Utah
for amateur sporting events. And so we've got and you know,
we've adding hockey, We're going to be at baseball most likely,
we're hosting the Winter Olympics. We are becoming a global

(01:31:17):
sports destination, and we've just got to accelerate that and
try to lean into it because sports and I know
you both love sports, but sports is one of the
last things we have that brings us all together, and
Utah has this just really fun chance to be a
big part of that in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
Brad Wilson, former Speaker of the Utah House, now CEO
of the twenty thirty four Olympics here in Utah. I
think Brad will do a super job.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
He will good guy, without a doubt, the phenomenal that
job he does.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
All Right, that does it for us tonight and for
this week, head up, shoulders back. May God bless you
and your family. That's great, great country of ours. Thanks
for listening this week. We'll be back Monday, and for
have a good weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:32:00):
It s

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