Legislative Session - Taxes & Brake Tags

Hy & Tidmore discuss the Louisiana Legislative Session and the impact on state taxes and schools. Most importantly, we celebrate that automobile brake tags may soon become a thing of the past. Hy uses the patriotic moment to reflect on early education.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Battles. Politicians addressed the digitators and magicians first.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
To see the money.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
They did dumb, there's nothing to fill the holes. Well,
then are filling their pockets fied holes, politicians bouncing down
the road. Every body'suition for no moment, corruption and dysfunctional.
It's gone O take divide invention.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
The Louisiana legislative session kicked off on the eighth and
the governor has an ambitious schedule, including a constitutional amendment
for permanent pay raises, an elimination of the state income tax,
an eighty two million dollar increase in correction services i e. Jails,
and doubling the funding for school choice, and getting rid
of inspection stickers. We're going to talk about that, the

(00:55):
potential end from the Republicans of the filibuster over the save,
and a few thoughts in Iran, mostly for next week,
but a few thoughts this week and other topics on
this edition of The Founder's Show.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
And God bless all out there. You are now listening
to The Founder's Show. The voice of the Founding Fathers,
your founding fathers coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the big easy,
that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, and high on

(01:28):
up on that old Liberty cypress tree draped in Spanish moss,
way out on the Eagles Branches. None other then you
spend Gary baba o the republic chaplain, Hi mcgnry, who.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
With Christopher Tidmore, your roving reporter, resident radical moderate and
associate editor of the Louisiana Weekly at Louisiana Weekly dot
net and Hi, The governor's plans, of course, start off
with the idea of the income tax being done away with.
And look, I can't I can't get more excited about
something than that. Ooh rah. I mean we're sandwiched. For

(02:01):
those that say, oh, I can't do that, We're sandwiched
between three states with no income tax Tennessee, Texas, and Florida.
Guess what. Mississippi is getting rid of their income tax
by twenty thirty five on the current legislation, and Alabama's
not that far behind, and George is talking about it.
So I mean, you could be looking at an income
tax free zone from Texas all the way to Florida.

(02:24):
But at the very least, Louisiana is the one state
that's been losing population comparatively, we're up there with Illinois
and West Virginia and California now in loss of politicians.
So I will say there was the funniest part of
the California governor's debate. I gotta take the cebritis with
Steve Hilton, who I knew in London. He used to
be David Cameron's political director, and after at Tory, he

(02:45):
moved to California and he's running for as a Republican
candidate for governor. He's an American citizen. He's leading in
the polls, and in fact, he's doing so well he
may guarantee the Republicans don't win. Because for a while
he was doing media ore and so it looked like
there were two Republicans that were going to end up
in the run off. They have an open primary like
we used to do. Now he's doing so well that

(03:06):
it is. But one of his points was he said
California is doing so badly that our educational and income
requirements are the same as Louisiana.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Praise God, But I'm glad he's doing so well. But
you know, it's pretty sad we're showing up like that.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
But anyway, the governor wants to get rid of the
louisianacome tax, and of course there's a little budgetary problem
with that because it constitutes about seventy sixty percent of
the revenue that comes into the state of Louisiana. You
can't cut the revenue of the State of Louisiana by
sixty percent, even if you wanted to. We got to
pay debts, we got to pay mandated spending like Medicaid
and so and so forth. So you just can't do it.

(03:44):
So how do you do it. Well, the way that
Texas and Florida does it is put on a rather
large state property tax. Good luck with that in Louisiana.
With a little thing called the homestead exemption, that's gonna happen.
Another is to put a one penny in sales tax,
which the governor seems to like the idea, but for
the most part, it's not very popular with poor people
because it's a regressive tax. Well, Senate President Cameron Henry

(04:07):
we spoke before the Baton Rouge Press Club, and he
said he could see a zero point five percent cut
in the state income tax, so they stay income tax
three point five percent. He could see it going down
to three percent, which would still give us and we
would be tied for one of the lowest income taxes
in the United States. We'd still have one. I haven't,
though high, seen any of the ideas that I've written

(04:29):
about for years, and it's well, it's not badly known
on the show that Cameron Henry and I still don't
see idi at a lot of things, even though we
usually agree politically. It's not like an ideological disagreement. We
once ran for office against each other. But he's a
good guy, and I hope you would consider this idea.
You know, it's the easiest way to get rid of
this Louisiana state income tax. Simple. You simply say, no

(04:50):
one who pays more than thirty thousand dollars a year
in income tax. That's a cash amount, and that makes
thirty pays thirty that's the maximum amount. Well, why that no,
because that's the maximum that Missus Benson pays because most
of her stuff's out of state, and she's the richest
person in the state. So you cap it, but you
cap it permanently, so you over time it thirty thousand

(05:10):
is not what it in thirty years will not be
what it is now. Second, you eliminate income taxes for
those over the age of eighty, and then you factor
down over the next twenty years to those over the
age of sixty. And if anybody moves into the state
in the next twenty years and they're over the age
of sixty, they haven't lived here for about five years.
Even though they're moving back, they pay no income tax.
You make Louisiana and income tax haven. Third, it's very simple.

(05:34):
You follow Cameron Henry's idea, but you cut basically, it's
three point five percent. You cut zero point one percent
every year of the entire income tax. You don't do
this fast, you do this over time. If you did
those three things, it would take us twenty five years
to get rid of the income tax, and we will
have to replace the revenue somehow. But you've got time
to do that. And it's a very simple platform. And

(05:57):
I'll tell you if you bring in retirees. By the way,
most people in America, just so you understand, in the
next five years will be over the age of sixty.
There will be more people over sixty than under thirty
by a long shot. And so Louisiana the sportsman's paradise.
Great place to retire, but they don't retire here. Why
because they don't want to pay income taxes on their dividends.

(06:18):
They can retire in Florida, get all the same good stuff,
pay no income taxes. That's why the village is that
god forsaken If you want to be honest, you know
faux village that goes on for ten what is it?
Two hundred and fifty thousand people all over the place
and everybody drives golf carts and it's pretty much the
largest senior swingers available in the world. He is looking

(06:40):
at me like, what did cocoon?

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Did they go to the cocoon?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
This is more like Debbie does of Florida. But anyway,
the point being I'm making a joke. The point being
that Florida is because they have no income tax and
they don't charge dividends taxes and dividends or capital gains,
that they can draw it. And if we don't do that,
he can set up a system to where we don't
cost ourselves much revenue. Is it fair that somebody in
Louisiana who is seventy would be paying income taxes when

(07:07):
somebody who moves in isn't no, but if you're willing
to bequeath a better state for your kids, you will. However,
this is the interesting part. It takes a two thirds
the income tax rates in Louisiana. It takes two thirds
majority to cut it, to increase taxes, but it takes
a two thirds majority to get rid of the income tax.
So normally it takes just a majority to cut taxes.

(07:29):
Here's the thing about Louisiana. Income taxes are in the
state constitution, so in order to actually cut you have
to to make it permanent. You have to have a
two thirds majority. Republicans have a very basic two thirds
majority in the House barely, and so if you lose
one vote on the GOP side, you lose it all.

(07:49):
And there are not many Democrats these days that are
going to cross party lines to be able to help
you in something like this. So the governor's up against it,
especially since his own Senate president is skeptical, and he's
also skeptical on something else. Before we go in to
school choice. Hi, you've been looking at this, and you've
been very quiet on all of this, But I'm curious
a question that I have for you. So you've seen

(08:12):
it from both sides. I've never seen somebody more enthusiastic
and read of the income tax than Hi mcginry here.
But I've also seen somebody very skeptical about raising sales
taxes on poor people. Because your kids, the people you
deal with, you see how much one penny changes their
entire life. It doesn't seem like much, but it changes
a lot. And you got to look at me, skeptical.
What do you think about this? If he was to

(08:32):
trade sales taxes for income.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Taxing Christopher, Honestly, I don't think they're aware of that.
They're so unknowledgeable, unaware, and we've seen him do many
crazy things. So they've got these local stores that charge
a fortune for stuff where they could walk, you know,
or take a bus to a dollar store or something,
and yet they'll go to these local stores and get

(08:53):
ripped off like crazy, and they do it all the time,
and we try to warn them. But so I don't think,
you know, a one pair a penny to them is nothing.
That's how they see it. It's nothing, because really they're
not even making pennies anymore. And so I don't think
that would affect the poor at all. Now, you'd have
some politicians who for whatever reason would play that, and

(09:15):
they'd come in and said, screaming on, you're destroying a
poor you're making a bay extra penny for when do
they go to the store, the poor folks. They don't.
They're not good at budgeting, they're really not. It's just
if you have the money, spend it. Whatever you have,
you spend. They don't have any idea of saving things, nothing,
absolutely nothing. You just spend what you have and for
whatever you can get and whenever you want to get it.

(09:37):
And that's kind of their their their method of finances,
how to handle finances. So I don't think it really
is gonna the poor themselves. They're not gonna care. I
really don't think so.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I don't know. I mean, because it's not we say
one penny, what we mean is one percent. So when
you get a car one percent more, I mean this
starts to add up ten thousand dollars. What is one
percent more? And it's one hundred bucks.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
So but again they don't even look at that. They
look at what's the monthly fee. That's all they look
at at most Americans. So that's very normal. And again
it doesn't really hardly show up there, So I don't
think it's gonna affect them psychologically, you know, emotionally whatever.
It will affect their pocketbook, but then they seem to
destroy their pocketbook all the time with irresponsible financial management.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
What do you think, folks would love your impressions? Give
us an email. You can email me at Christopher Tidmore
at yahoo dot com and let me know what you
think about. Would you trade one more sales sent in
sales tax and it would probably have to be all
the way across, including food, utilities, prescription drugs, the whole works,
But about one more opinion? Sales tax would allow us
to cut the income tax almost to nothing. Would that

(10:43):
be a good compromise to do? Do you think that's
worth it? Louisiana currently does have the highest sales tax
in the United States, state and local. In New Orleans
it's essentially ten percent, So this would be an eleven
cent sales tax for all intents and purposes. Would that
be worth it? Let us know? Give us an email,
Christoper Tibert Yahu dot com. The other thing that's going

(11:04):
on that Cameron Henry is very skeptical in the Governor's
prior room is this GATOR program. Now, for those that
don't know, Gator is not a rapacious type of amphibian
it is. It stands for the state's voucher school choice program,
and right now it serves about fifty thousand students. The
governor wants to increase this. So basically, anyone who makes

(11:25):
less than seventy five to eighty thousand dollars a year
would qualify to send their kids to private or parochial schools.
The money that would normally go to public schools would
follow them to private or parochial schools. It is somewhat
means tested in that seventy to eighty thousand, but in
Louisiana the average family income is sixty one thousand dollars,
So you're talking about most of Louisiana at this point.

(11:48):
I mean at that My attitude at that point has
just led it to be to everybody. There are some
requirements in it. So you couldn't send your kid to
Jesuit or Newman or Saint Martin's and the reason or
you know, whatever, have sacred heart, whatever have you, because
it cannot be a It can be a religious school,
but it can't be what's called an exclusive school. You
can't like turn people down for academic reasons or stuff

(12:09):
like that. So there are some requirements and that and
and that does exempt quite a few schools. But in
New Orleans, particularly in the or By this I'm not
meaning Orleans Parish, I mean the metropolitan area of New Orleans,
our listening area. The biggest recipient of vouchers currently is
the Archdiocese. There are entire schools that are kept alive

(12:31):
by the vouchers. Now this is the interesting part. I'm
a massive supporter of vouchers. I've never seen a voucher
I didn't like. But even I have to acknowledge one
particular problem and actually done a very good lot of
academic research on some of the some of the schools
that have received vouchers, they don't have the same requirements

(12:54):
that charter schools do. So what a charter is every
So every kid who gets a voucher has to take
the state's leap test in the four with the eighth
grade and the exit exam, just like every public school
kid does. If you're at a charter school, though in
Orleans Parish, for example, and the school doesn't get at
least a B rating out of a you know, on
a consistent basis, Eventually it's going to be closed. Even

(13:17):
C rated schools now are starting to be closed. If
you're an arch DIASID school and you fail, all that
happens is they don't give you any more voucher kids.
So it could take fifteen years for you to fail.
And there is an argument, a very valid argument, and
it's heavily resisted by charter supporters, that if you receive charters,

(13:40):
that you should not put any restrictions on a school
that's receiving government money because that's the camel's nose under
the tent. That's the way it did. I don't think
it's unreasonable to say the same requirement that happens if
you receive more than fifty percent of your students receiving charters,
receiving school vouchers, one of your students are getting government

(14:01):
subsidized tuition. I don't think it's a requirement that you
have to do the same thing that charter schools do,
which is educate, and if you don't educate, you could
be closed. I mean, we've shown, we've brought people from
Good Shepherd on this program. These kids come from the
poorest of the poor backgrounds. It's one hundred percent a
voucher school. And yet I mean every none of these
kids parents ever heard of a college, much less went

(14:23):
to it. None of that come from them, and yet
they have one hundred percent of college or post high
school educational level, almost all college. But some of it
is this. And these kids are all poor from the
most basically black kids from the poorest backgrounds, not Hispanic
and some Vietnamese. But and so you can do it,
don't give me that you can't do it. And religiou

(14:46):
schools are well suited. But if how do you how
do you square that? And that's the thing that Cameron
Henry brought out. He said, we don't have the money
to expand it to all Louisianians because if we do that,
a lot of public school districts will start closing. It's
true because most people would be rather send their kids
to parochial school than our private school than the public school.

(15:07):
So in order to do this, we have to come
up with what would be effectively about three billion dollars
in a twenty seven billion dollar budget. By the way,
you can't cut income taxes and do this at the
same time, to relate to this nex, you can't expand
government spending and cut taxes. We aren't the federal government.
We cannot print money, So how do you do that?
And it's it's a fair question. These are both fair questions,

(15:29):
and I'm kind of sympathetic. Frankly, I agree with the governor.
I think we ought to expand vouchers. But what do
we do about this? Your thoughts, because you've kind of
looked at this from all angles. You always surprised me
because on some issues like this, you're actually a deep skeptic.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
No, not really, Christopher, not at all. Huh uh. In fact,
we have I'll explain to you what we have seen
happen where they have these exclusive charter schools, and they
have a pretty good number of them now, and these
are created and managed and run by the wealthy people
of New Orleans, let's say, and uh, they don't want

(16:04):
poor people in their schools. They don't want people that
don't have high i qs, and they don't want people
who've come from low academic standards, and they have managed
ways to exclude them from the school. And yet our
tax money is paying for all this. And I think
that all the charter schools should be open to everybody,

(16:25):
and and and and so the kid can pick the
school he wants and and really get into that, you know,
if they're if if they're I'm sure there are limitations
by a number of people can be in the school
and all that, but they can get on the list
or whatever. And uh, and then now I understand academic standards.
They have to make certain academic standards because you can't
put a poorly educated person in with a group of

(16:48):
well educated people. They can't keep up. It overwhelms them.
And so they but there should be plans for that.
There should be schools that appeal to low people with
low academic backgrounds that they can bring them up because
they have the quality teachers and programs that will do
and you can do that, you can do that. But

(17:08):
if they do not have anything like that for the
so what they have is they have schools they're designed
for low academics. And you might as well just you know,
throw your kid to the dogs, because they're going to
get almost nothing and they have nothing for special that.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
What you're speaking about are the magnet charters like Willow Franklin,
so and so forth. But the question I'm asking is
currently in the Gator program for vouchers, the schools can't
do that. They cannot turn a kid away on academic basis.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
So it says for you, the thing is, I'm gonna
say it again, you cannot put a low academic kid
in a class with high academic other kids. It's they're
going to be lost and they won't get anywhere, and
it's going to be you know, emotionally destructive form and
everything else. So you have to have programs to help
these people who are in low academic positions. And you

(17:56):
could do it by each school having a program like
that or certain schools that will handle that. It wouldn't
matter to me, just as long as they can get
in a situation where they have a pathway to excellence
and education. Right now with these schools that are designed
for failure. And another thing that's terrible, they don't have

(18:16):
any special ed stuff for these kids. And some of
these kids come in their special ed some of them
are so brief. I'm talking about poor kids with very
poor academic backgrounds. Nevertheless, they're very gifted and all they
need is someone who can help them with that, and
and and and and bring them up to standard, and
they don't have that. And they're special needs, I mean
special ad that means they're either extremely intelligent or they

(18:38):
may have learning disabilities like uh, you know, dyslexia and
stuff like that. They have nothing for those kids, nothing,
and so those kids are just being thrown to the dogs.
I really mean it. And so we got a huge
number of kids in the walls. They're never gonna make
it academically. They'll graduate and be probably functional illiterates and
go nowhere after that. It's it's one of the it
is a great waste of talent in this city. And

(19:00):
there's no reason for it other than fact that you
have the the wealthy who are only looking out for
their people. And that's a fact. I know that, I
know the people. I've seen what they've done, and I've
seen the research done by these real experts who have
specialize in in uh, you know, in academic policy and uh,
educational policy and all that, and and it proves it

(19:22):
all out, Christopher, and and I know a person who's
been doing this for years.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
This person has a doctorate and and they they have
been so attacked by the word rich and powerful because
this person is exposing their crimes, their sins against UH
kids in this city. And and it's a miracle this
person is still around because because this person has done

(19:47):
so much to expose all this corruption. I won't give
you the name because she this person UH prefers anonymity
right now.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Anyway, Christopher, one of the things you mentioned specialized. That's
one of the criticisms of the arch to ass in schools.
They don't provide special ad Here's why. The way the
Gator program works is the average expense spend per child
in theory in say Oileans Paris is about fourteen thousand
a year. They would the schools the scholoship. Crovis gets

(20:15):
the state portion of that, which is about seven eight
thousand dollars. So that's how much they have to and
they can't charge extra intuition. The average special ed student
cost between twenty eight and thirty two thousand per student.
And this is the problem in the charter schools as well,
because even though every charter school is required, every single

(20:36):
one to accept special ed kids, what you're talking about
is very real. A lot of the Magnet charters, let's
just say, they go to great lengths to make sure
they don't have special ed kids because the funding mechanism
makes it very difficult for them. And it's one of
the criticisms if you're a special ed parent, where do
you send your kids? There aren't a lot of really

(20:57):
good options kids I mean that have and I've been
talking about, you know, the kids that have mental disabilities.
I'm talking at kids they were very smart, that have ADHD,
that have certain uh uh easily dealing easily manageable learning
disabilities or learning challenges. But this is a real quick,

(21:18):
big question, and honestly, it's not addressed by vouchers. But
you actually talked about charters. You didn't talk about vouchers,
so I was curious.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
That's true, But vouchers is supposed to work for charter schools,
and here in New Orleans they're not doing it because we, oh,
I thought they did.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Vouchers go to private or parochial schools. Charter schools actually
get more money than vouchers.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
They I know that they're funded by our tax money,
but I thought they also got vouchers. Okay, all right,
thank you, thank you for clarifying that. So again, who's
ever getting the vouchers should be providing for the groups
I'm talking about, and you know they're they're not doing it,
and there should be something done to make it so
that if the kids want to go to a school
like that, they can get the help, the real help

(22:01):
they need. I mean, special needs is all over the place,
and it's it's a good concept. When I was a
kid growing up, we didn't have it. And I remember
the highly intelligent kids and how they were basically mismanaged
because nobody people couldn't grasp the high intellect of these kids.
They didn't understand it. One of them was one of
my one of my best friends. And it damages them

(22:26):
because they get shoved into positions that's that puts down
their intellects and they can't really develop. And but a
special ADS teacher understands that, they know how to identify
it and they know how to put them in the
whe outs they should be going so they can blossom
and really get the most out of their their studies
and their intellect. It's very important, folks. And so if

(22:46):
you I think, if you're going to do the voxer thing,
you need to provide special needs. I didn't know they
were not doing it. My sister is a school teacher
with a master's degree. She teaches French, and she discovered
special needs stuff. She was trying it, and I've learned
a lot about it through her, and she can tell
you the same message I'm giving you right now.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
What I find interesting is that so this is the
same argument as taxes, because if you're going to fully
fund special education on a kind of ubiquitous basis, what
you're talking about are close to it. Louisiana probably doesn't
need a no income tax. We probably need a high
income tax, and then we're caught in these things. All
of this is interesting because it goes back to something
that happened in two thousand and one. If you remember,

(23:31):
there was the Senate. The United States Senate was fifty
to fifty and a Democrat, a Republican from Vermont by
the name of Jim Jeffers, became a Democrat. And the
reason he did he didn't vote for the Bush tax cut.
The reason he switched parties is he wanted to use
the money from the original Bush tax cuts to fully
fund special education on a federal level, so the federal

(23:52):
government would take responsibility around the country. Whether that was
the right idea, wrong idea. It was a missed opportunity,
and actually it's cost the publicans control of the Senate.
But you're right, this is not going to be solved
because when it gets right down to it, while these
kids are our future, and this is a large portion
of kids that have learning disabilities, you can teach them perfectly,

(24:12):
but if you don't address their actual disabilities, you're taking
smart kids and containing the real life of failure and
possibly crime and prison in chains. If we don't deal
with it, we have social problems later. But right now,
no one's talking about what you're talking about, and so
we'll see how if it comes up in the debate.
The debate over both school vouchers, expansion the Gator program,

(24:33):
and cutting income taxes will take up this legislative session.
When we come back from the break, folks, we're going
to talk about some good stuff. It may be finally
time to get rid of your break tag. The inspections
sticker may go the way of the DODO. We're going
to talk about that. We're going to talk about the
filibuster on the federal level. It also might go the
way of the DODO, which is not such a great thing.
All this and more on the Founder Show right up
to these important messages. Stay tuned. The New Orleans Opera

(24:58):
Festival is less than two weeks away, folks, and it's
the last opportunity to get tickets to see dialogues of
the Carmelites. This incredible show of faith that will be
at the Erthline Convent about a group of nuns that
we're at a convent in seventeen ninety four and wouldn't
give up their faith. Three of them became saints and pilgrimage.
That incredible Carlisle Floyd piece that is all over the

(25:18):
French Quarter talking about faith in Muss Showboat, one hundredth
anniversary of the famous Broadway show will be performed on
a showboat the City of New Orleans Riverboat and Goldschultz,
the internationally famed opera star, will be coming to New Orleans.
All for one price, all available at New Orleans Opera
Festival dot org. That is New Orleans Opera Festival dot org.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
S's Chaplin, Hi mckenry, and I'm here to tell you
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with an inner city formula and focus for inner city folks.
Please check us out, go to our website lambnola dot com,
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(26:04):
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(26:26):
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Speaker 3 (26:34):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
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please contact us. Just call me CHAPELHEIMICC INTERID aer code

(26:56):
five zero of four seven two three nine three six nine.
We need all the help we can get. We need
financial support, we need prayer warriors and We need volunteers,
so again you want to get into a really exciting work,
give us a call and thank you so very very much.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Through March of twenty twenty seven. Special exhibit in the
Carnival Collection of the Louisiana State Museum at the Presbyteri
The Carnival of African American Upper Class. This is the
Old Illinois and the Young Illinois Club's exhibits at the
Presbyteri Museum. Glittering costumes and a tradition from the Chicago
Slide to the history of carnival and how it enriched

(27:38):
our carnival traditions. The fourth only carnival organization is the
Old Illinois Club. All this available at the Fantastic Carnival
Collection at the Louisiana State Museum's presbyter That's the building
to the right of the cathedral. Going on for one
more year, all the way through March twenty twenty seven.
And give the gift of flowers as we get towards Easter, folks,
Incredible Easter vaskets available at Villary's Florist. Give them a call.

(28:01):
One eight hundred vi l Eri center pieces for your
Easter table, Easter baskets, you name it. They've got it.
The Easter Bunny is actually making a visit at Villari's
Florist and I'll do the baskets for you all available.
Give them a call one eight hundred vi l Erie
or go to Villariesflowers dot com in the web and
tell them you heard it here on the Founder's show.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
Remember, folks, lilies are for Easter. And what is the
symbol of the saints, the fleur de lis, which means
flower of the lily. The lily is a New Orleans flower.
Get it at Villary's Flowers. You can't go wrong. It's
the best.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Bos shows.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, Folks for back And this is Chapel hih mckenry.
And you are listening to the Founders, so the voice
of the founding followers. And I want you to know
where the number one rated weekend show on WRNO where
you can get us every Sunday morning from eight to
nine am on wr O. That's ninety nine point five
on your radio dial. Now during the week you can
so here's drivetime eight to nine am on WSLA and

(29:03):
that's ninety three point nine on the FM dial or
one five six zero on the AM dial. Folks, is
a very exciting show. You get all kinds of good
stuff out of us, and if you want to listen
to us at your convenience, go to our website, thefoundershow
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download it and you can listen to us and all

(29:24):
kinds of other things. iHeartMedia is better than satellite, it
literally is. It has a greater variety, more things. It's
an amazing app. You can put on your phone, put
in your computer, put in your car, wherever you want
to put it. Folks, it's dynamic. Remember the iHeartMedia app.
And thank you so very very much.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
And as always, Hi McKenny and Christopher tidmore with you
till the end of the hour. And folks, I got
some good news for you. If Jeff Landry does this,
I don't care if we agree disagree. We agree a
lot on a lot of things, disagree in some. He
will be one of the greatest governors I've ever done.
Because there's something I absolutely hate, the most pointless activity

(30:01):
you've ever seen, and that's going to spend what is it,
thirty five dollars now, I forget what even it is
every two years to get a bloody break tag. You
realize most states don't do this. It's a useless activity.
It doesn't tell you anything. It doesn't how many times
have they really checked your car? I mean, I'm sure
there's a couple of break tag stations that actually take
the time, and I'll give them credit. Most of the

(30:23):
time they're like, turn your lights, great, you got a
break tag, maybe if you're lucky, and to send your blinker,
your left blinker, usually because they want to pay you,
wants you to pay them if they have a blinker out.
But other than that, they don't take any time. Governor
Jeff Landry said at the opening of the legislative session
that he wants to get rid of the inspection sticker.

(30:43):
He said he wants to end the quote nagging debate
about it. The traditional vehicle inspection sticker process is annoying,
it's inconvenient, it's little safety to our needs and on
safety on our roads. Amen, hallelujah. So what he wants
to do is every Louisiana would get a a QR
code costing six dollars that will be able to provide

(31:03):
instant information to law enforcement about the ownership make model
and eventually we hope insurance coverage information. So it'll just
be a QR code that you'll get in the mail
and it will say basically, is a car registered? Is
it insured? If you're stopped, so you don't have to say,
you know, you don't have no longer if you could
pulled over a police officer, give me your papers please,

(31:24):
All they do is a QR code with a cell
phone and they get everything you want. And to be
honest with you, all that information is already in state computers.
It's not a violation of prose. And the ability never
to first to cut from thirty five to six dollars
would be worth every penny by itself. But the ability
never to have to ever think about, ever think about

(31:45):
going to get a brake tag again would be too soon.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
Well, chrispher A, I like that, and I agree with
the break tags are a joke. And if you don't
have a break tag and the cops stop you, you
know what they do, go get a break tag, see
you later. They don't find you, don't get you don't
get a ticket.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Oh contrere. I got one hundred and ten dollars ticket
once because my tag was expired.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Well mine was too, and they just said, well, make
sure you get a break tag nicer than I am,
they like you more maybe so anyway, Uh, they're not
hot on this. They can It's like they got a
lot bigger fish to fry than running around checking for
break tags. And uh and again what what, I don't
know that it really makes any difference.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Those states do not do this, folks. I mean you're like, well,
everybody has a break No we don't.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
And you know it's crazy about it. You get a
break tag, you can get them for two years. I
always get the two year one because I hate going back,
you know more than that. And and a month after
you've gotten the break tag, your brakes could go out.
The break tag doesn't prove that you have safe breaks
at all. It just means at the moment it's tested.
And they don't even test your brakes. They yeah, they

(32:54):
look for your lights and all they they don't do
that anymore. They look at your brakes. They could care
less about your brakes. They're just checking for lights. And again,
lights can go out a month after you've been tested.
So it's just kind of a silly thing, you know.
I guess it was a money making deal. But Landry
would do well to get rid of that, because it's no,
it has very little value for safety on the street.

(33:17):
It's very very little value.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Now, Landry would do well to get rid of that.
Trump would not do well to get rid of the filibuster.
And I want to say this very bluntly. There's a
lot of discussion in circles, in Republican conservative circles about
abandoning the filibuster in order to pass the Save Act.
I have no problem with the Save Act. I think
a lot of people on the left friends of mine,

(33:40):
are wrong about getting worked up about being required to
have a photo ID to vote. This is standard in
many countries around the world, and you know you can't
vote without one. It's not that big a deal. We
can easily deal with the equity issue. People can't afford
it by giving everybody in the United States a passport
card that requested for free. It would cost the federal

(34:02):
government very little money and it's very easy to do
so there are ways around the equity arguments. Having said that,
right now, that and the provisions of the Save Act
are what is being filibustered by Democrats and Republicans are
anxious to pass the bill. Ken Paxton, the Attorney General
of Texas, is in a knockdown, drag out primary against

(34:24):
John Corwin. John corn is the incumbent US Senator from Texas,
and they would face James Tallerco for the election, and
every one of the polls basically says Paxton loses to
tall Rico. Corwyn wins, but Paxton is Trump's favorite attorney general.
He comes out and says it's an arrow either way.

(34:48):
But Paxton was the guy every one of Trump's cases
that a state attorney general brought. If Jeff Landry didn't
bring it, Paxton did. But Paxton's a lot like David Vitter.
He's got all these personal ethics, basically sex problems. I
was the only politician I've ever seen whose wife filed
for divorce and her official reasons was a biblical justifications

(35:11):
and the violation of divorce.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
It was.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
It was so he's got so many personal problems that
he could win the primary and lose the general election.
James Tallerico is, for those that don't know, was a seminary.
It was a former public school student that became a teacher,
that became a seminarian. He's a state representative. He has
a lot of crossover appeal amongst conservative Christians. Well anyway,

(35:34):
So the reason I'm giving you this background about this
is a lot of Republicans are very scared about this race.
So Corwin, who's in this knockdown drag out, has reversed
his long standing opposition to getting rid of the filibuster.
Philibuster requires you to have sixty votes in the Senate
to pass any piece of legislation other than the yearly budget.
And it has protected the Republic and protected bad legislation

(35:58):
throughout the Obama years, throughout the Biden years, throughout every
presidential things. It requires a supermajority for legislation to pass
the Senate. He wants to get rid of it for
the Save Act. There's no way, by the way, so
you understand to get rid of it for one particular purpose.
If you get rid of the filibuster, if you change
the rules of the Senate to require fifty plus one vote,

(36:18):
it's for everything. There's no way you can say we're
just going to do it for the Save Act. It
doesn't work because once it's done, it's done. Democrats have
threatened to get rid of the filibuster for years because
they didn't want it. They came in office. Republicans are
now doing the same thing, and maybe it'll get rid
of it eventually, but here's the facts been it has
protected the rights of the minority and protected conservative positions

(36:41):
for the last forty years. And to win a battle
and lose the war, to win the battle on photo IDs,
to vote and lose the war on protecting against bad legislation,
to basically say transgender rights could be fifty plus one
vote in the US Senate when the next Democrats elected.
That's a Dane Jurius idea when you could easily keep

(37:03):
the filibuster in place. And so Donald Trump wants to
get rid of the philibuster because he wants to get
what he wants through not thinking about the future, which
is always one of my concerns about Trump. He always
said our Trump Arrangement syndrome. But it's like some of
the stuff that he advocates out of expediency is things
that Republicans have fought against for generations, and that's always

(37:26):
been in a microcousem the problem I have with Trump.
I agree with him on seventy eighty percent of the ideas,
but I don't agree with him on the points. I
don't want to have a Trump fight. I'm saying on
this particular battle, getting rid of the filibuster is a
very bad idea.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
I don't really like the idea of it either. But
I understand Trump. He's a guy get the job done
no matter what. That's why he's such a great executive leader.
And that's how executive leaders are. They are determined to
get the job done. And sometimes they overdo it, but
they do get the job done, like patent and so,
uh you know, it's it's it's But what I'm thinking

(38:03):
is that they'll they'll they'll stop the filibuster past what
they want, and then they'll bring the filibuster back in.
They could do that, and uh, well we'll see, Christopher.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Literally, once you change the rules of the Senate, you
cannot change the rules back and not have the next
group change the rules. It's been this agreement between the parties.
And I'm just telling you right now that operationally, why
wouldn't a Democrat say, okay, well, for us, socialized medicine
is so important, we'll just change the rules this one time.

(38:33):
It becomes a Essentially, it becomes a meaningless piece of protection.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
For they're doing that all the time, and in our
legislatures they have they have broken so many traditions and
rules and whatnot. And the Democrats they were trying to
break the filibusters so that both sides have thought of
doing this to get through whatever they want to get through.
And uh, you know, I don't know. I think the
philibuster is very important because it gives the minority a

(39:01):
chance to have a voice, let's say. And so I
don't know where it's going to go. It's gonna interesting to see
how this all works out. I don't know why the
Democrats are against the Save Act. They emphatically require identifications
for you know, IDs, for everything they do. You can't
get a convention without an ID. The most recent, most glorious,

(39:26):
if you will, a Democrat leader right now, MANDAMMI required
four IDs just to shovel Snow, all of a sudden,
the poor people can get IDs, and to say they
can't get them is so insulting to poor people. You're
saying they're so stupid and such losers they can't get IDs.
But you know, how come they can figure out how
to get IDs to get welfare Medicaid and all the

(39:46):
other freebies they get all of a sudden, they know
how to get IDs. No, they can get an ID
to vote. And we know how crooked the whole voting
system is, and we know how crooked the Democrats are
every year we see every election year we see how
many dead people vote always for the Democrats, and how
many and also no, this is true, Christopher, and also

(40:06):
how many illegals are voting, and how many times they're
voting in a day. If you don't need an ID,
you can be totally unqualified to vote, but you'll get
the vote because they can't identify you, and you can
vote many times that day if you want to. And
the Democrats are masters at this. So why is it?
Why are they so opposed to it? It's going to
shut down much of their votes that could put them

(40:31):
in an extreme minority position. They know that. That's why
they're so desperate to kill voter I.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
D I don't disagree with you on voter ID. I'm
just telling you that if you think getting rid of
the filibuster for this is not going to make the
Democrats get rid of it to bring in a single
payer health system or doing the next time around, You're crazy. Anyway. Look,
I'm aware of.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
That, Christopher. That's why I said, I think I kind
of wish the filibuster was inviolate, and I really do.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Anyway, Anyway, I do want to think. We've only got
a couple of minutes left the legislative session. One thing
that's interesting is people may not be aware of this,
but we had Julia Letlow on this program. We had
John Young on this program. We have John Mason on
this program. We got other people coming on because there's
an election going on in about sixty days, a Republican
and Democratic primaries for not just the US Senate, but
for congressional races and for the Public Service Commission as

(41:24):
well as boards of elementary and secondary education. So major
issues in the PSC race to replace Eric Scrometta. He
of course is moving, he's terminated out. John Young, who
was on in this program, got the Jefferson Parish Republican
Political Executive. Parish Executive Committee's the official candidate, and he's
looked as Stephanie Hilfordy his opponent has gotten many legislators

(41:45):
and behind Julie Emernson has gotten others. It's a very
hot race. There's thirteen candidates in it on the Republican side,
one on the Democratic side, and we're going to be
monitoring that. It's basically, for all intents and purposes, the
first congressional district, with a little bit more in the
Florida parishes. But what's been fascinating to me is how
many people in the legislature hate the closed primary, and

(42:05):
by the way, so do I. It is anti democratic.
Little d that Louisiana has always been a great state
because in the seventies and eighties, because Republicans and Democrats
weren't disenfranchised, you could be a Republican in New Orleans
or a Democrat in Saint Tammany Parish and you're vote
mattered because you could have two Republicans two Democrats. Well,
Mike Bayham and Senate President Cameron Henry have both moved

(42:28):
or moving legislation to return the open primary over the
opposition of Jeff Landry, who did this close primary for
the same reason that Donald Trump wants to get rid
of the filibuster. It was expeditious for him to get
rid of Bill Cassidy by doing it, and he's made
the willingness to get a short term political victory at

(42:48):
the price of a long term political damage to the system.
That's how these are connected, and that's what we got
to be aware of. Anyway, folks, we got to do this.
Have a happy Saint Patrick's Day and we'll be back
with a patriotic moment right after these important messages too.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Orleans Mission
take to make a positive impact on the homeless problem
facing the greater New Orleans area. We begin the rescue
process by going out into the community every day to

(43:25):
bring food, pray, and share the love of Jesus with
the hopeless and hurting in our community. Through the process
of recovery, these individuals have the opportunity to take time out,
assess their life, and begin to make new decisions to
live out their God given purpose. After the healing process

(43:46):
has begun and lives are back on track, we walk
each individual as they re engage back into the community
to be healthy, thriving, and living a life of purpose.
No one is meant to live under a bridge. No
one should endure abuse, no one should be stuck in addiction.
The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of

(44:08):
that life of destruction and into a life of hope
and purpose. Partner with us today go to www dot
New Orleansmission dot org or make a difference by texting
to seven seven nine four eight.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Battles Bind the two Shoes.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Well, folks were back and you are listening to the
Founders show, the voice of the Founding Fathers and this
is none other. Then you'll spend Gary Babao the republic
Chaplain High McHenry and there's no time for us to
go into our chaplain. Bye ba patriotic moment, where would
just take a brief time to give you a little
history lesson on the biblical foundations of our country, our
Judeo Christian jurisprudence. And today we're going to just talk

(44:52):
about education because we had a good, strong topic about
education on the show. And I want you to know
that from day one when the Jamestown Colony was first founded,
the very first schools that began dedicated themselves to teaching
the Bible as in formal education. Everything came from the
Bible and that's all the schools. Twenty years later, as

(45:15):
the Massachusetts Bay Colony was developed the same thing. All
the major colleges dedicated their schools to God, all of them, folks.
In the early days, and you know Yale, Harvard, Whatever, Princeton,
William and Mary, Dartmouth, on and on and on, they
all dedicated their schools to God. The man who's known

(45:37):
as a father of American education, gow and Morris declared
that of all the textbooks to be used, both public
and private, should be the Holy Bible. He knew the
Constitution better than anybody because he was the recording secretary
and gave more speeches than anybody. Folks, These stories just
go on. Benjamin Franklin dedicated the public schools of Philadelphia

(46:02):
and the college he founded, which became an Ivy League college.
And that's I think it's Penn State he or the
University of Pennsylvany. I forget which one it is. Anyway,
he dedicated his school to the Lord Jesus Christ as
a cornerstone of his school, Folks. George Washington said all
educations should be built on the cornerstone of the Lord

(46:23):
Jesus Christ. This just goes on and on. The textbooks
they used with the Bible, Noah's Webster, Western's dictionary with
every word being explained with biblical quotes. That's why Congress
chose Noah's Webster's of the other dictionaries, because it had
such a biblical foundation. The again, folks, this story just

(46:45):
goes on and on and on. It's absolutely amazing to
see how strong God was in education. The textbook that
was used for like one hundred fifty years. McGuffey readers,
they were all based on biblical stories. How can you
say America was founded upon God? Just by studying our
educational system, Folks, we have a preponderance of evidence to

(47:07):
prove every which way you want to look that America
had biblical foundations. And for those who say it doesn't,
they're either extremely stupid or extremely dishonest. I don't know
what it is anyway, Folks, you could be the greatest
patriots that ever lived. But if you died and went
to Hell, what good would it do you? As we
now go into our chaplain bab bab biblical moment, gospel

(47:28):
moment to teach you and show you how you can
know that you'd know that you'd know you go in
too heaven when you die. Did you know that God
loves you with an everlasting love, the Bible says, and
because of that, he knew we had a big love problem.
It was broken up into two things, sin and death.
He wanted to fix that problem for us because he
knew we'd never fix it on our own, and so

(47:50):
he came up with a plan. He decided to pay
for our sins himself. And he did that when God
the Son became a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is perfect God, perfect man, all the way God, and
all the way man. He became a man two thousand
years ago to take care of that very problem, and
he did it when he died on the cross of
the Bible said blood watched away all our sins, and

(48:10):
then it said that when he rose from the dead,
he won for each and every one of us that
precious free gift of resurrection, ever lasting life, defeating death. So, folks,
that's the way. And he said, do you want that?

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Do you want it?

Speaker 4 (48:23):
He said, I'll give it to you for free, but
you gotta take it as a gift for free. And
the only way you can do that is if you repent.
And what does repentance mean. It is not an action,
It is not walking down the aisle. It is not
you know, saying penance. It's not all the things we think.
It's not putting a lot of money in the church,
or you know, doing good deeds. You know, there's so

(48:46):
many good things we can do. Right turn from your sins,
repenting of your sins, this, that, and whatever. None of
that works because it's your human righteousness. And the scripture says,
all of our righteousness are as filthy ranks. So what
you have to do to repent is you have to
believe that all the things won't work. You have to
believe that you're completely hopeless and help us without God,
and you have absolutely nothing. You can do nothing. You
can do nothing you can bring to the table to

(49:09):
add to God's perfect work of redemption. All you can
do is with the faith of a little child, believe
that Jesus really did die for all your sins, was
buried in Rosemond dead, and the split second you do,
you are born again. You have Christ's righteous that comes
into you, and you guaranteed heaven forever. The scripture says
he that knew nos sin, that's the Lord Jesus Christ

(49:30):
was made sin. That's all your dirty rting sins, all
of them from the day you're born, in the day
you die. Your times, the greatest sins was made sin
that you might be made the righteousness of God in him.
You just got to believe it's true for you with
all your heart, because you're not trusting anything else but
only Jesus. You're not trusted in your good works or
religious works or whatever. You're trusted only in Jesus. And

(49:52):
a split second you do that, you are born again,
and the righteousness of God comes into you. You are
God's child forever. So, folks, if you I've never done
this before, please do it now. Don't wait until it's
too late, like the old country preacher said. And remember
the scripture says, and now today is the day of salvation.
You may not get tomorrow, folks, don't put it off.
Believe right now with all your heart, and you're guaranteed

(50:14):
heaven forever. I don't care what denomination or what religion
you belong to. It doesn't matter. You are God's child
from then on. So, folks, it's now time for us
to go into our chaplain bye. By testimony time, We'll
just take a brief moment to remind you of the
story A life story of some great person and today
who we I wonder who we're going to talk about. Well,

(50:34):
of course we're going to talk about old Saint Patty,
one of my favorite people, Saint Patrick. You know, I'm
an irishman and of course I love the stories of
Saint Patrick and his merry band of evangelist and holy warriors.
You know, folks, Saint Patrick was a slave, brought to
Ireland and did seven years hard labor as a slave.

(50:54):
During that very hard time is when he finally found God.
And he found God in his spectacular way. When he
escaped and ended up in France, went to a seminary
by acts of convent studied under Saint Germain and others.
He got up dream one night of the children in
the forest of Ireland calling for him to help them,

(51:17):
to come save them, and he realized he'd have to
go back to Ireland, which meant certain death and perhaps
a terrible death, but he knew he had to do it,
so he packed up his bags and went right back
to Ireland, and the rest is history. He tore through
that island like something you never could imagine. It's one
of the greatest missionary actions and movements the world has

(51:39):
ever seen. You know that before he died almost the
entire island of Ireland had converted, and the rest of
it converted just maybe within ten years after his death.
And then those followers of Patrick became some of the
greatest missionaries the world has ever seen. They flooded through
the entire all the British Isles and then into the
kind of Europe and even as far as way into
Asia and Africa, and wherever they went they did magnificent,

(52:02):
spectacular things. This movement lasted for about four hundred years
and kind of ended right about the time when Charlemagne
called for the education of his people and he realized
only people could do it with these Irish holy men,
So he hired him and they went to work, and
they educated, and he gave us the first Renaissance in Europe.
It's just an amazing story with the work of Saint

(52:25):
Patrick accomplished in his He was only I think he
was in Ireland anywhere from twenty to thirty years before
he finally passed away. What a spectacular testimony, folks, What
a story. Think of the impact that one man had
on all of Europe. Folks. This is just say that
they're over one hundred universities that claim their origins from
the Irish Holy Man. It's in such a wonderful story. Folks.

(52:49):
You know the scriptures by the Blood of the Lamb
that means a gospel, and the word of their testimony
that means how are you living your life as a Christian?
The word of their testimony overcame the devil. You want
to beat Satan, Start walking like Saint Patrick and you
will do it because Patrick followed Jesus. His footsteps went
right in the footsteps of Jesus. If you've never ever

(53:10):
thought about doing this or experiencing this, give it a try. Folks,
show God how you can really live for him, Show
all of us because it will impact and inspire all
of us. Thank you so very much. It is not
time for us to close with him on Saint Martin
singing a creole goodbye, and God bless all of.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
The call you cREL goodbye. They think we just wasted
it on time put me in all three saby, there's

(53:51):
time for a Creo goodbye.