AFP - ‘Save Our Salary’ Rally at Ohio Statehouse

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Uh. I know they're working on the Big Beautiful Bill,
and I just I hate even having to say those
words because I just hate the name of it. But
the one that's going to keep our taxes down. Obviously,
there's some infighting within the Republican Party shocking literally no one,
but most of the problems stem from that doesn't cut enough.
We were all expecting something that was going to pair

(00:21):
back the size and scope of government, a llah Doge
type cuts, but it didn't deliver on that. Congressman Thomas
Massy's going to join the program at eight oh five
to talk about that aspect of it. And I know
they're talking about in the Senate making some cuts to
the Big Beautiful Bill, but notwithstanding on the Americans for
Prosperity is behind it, and there is apparently a save

(00:42):
our Salary rally. Let's talk about that, Donovan.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, Yeah, from Columbus to Washington, DC, across the country,
we've got opportunities to cut taxes, let people keep more
of their hard earned money.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
This is the kind of stuff right We've heard at.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
The doors, we talked to voters about and people mobilized
in support of sending a new Republican majority to Washington
and strengthening the conservative majority in.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Columbus to get this stuff done.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Now in Ohio, we're gonna have a two point seventy
five percent flat income tax.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Our folks are rallying in Columbus for that today.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
And then I'm out here with some of my colleagues
from across the country in DC talking not just with
numbers of Congress on the one Big Beautiful Bill and
the recisions package that they're about to vote on, but
in the Senate about the improvements they can make to
strengthen the one Big Beautiful Bill, but most importantly, make
sure the Trump tax cuts stay permanent.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Right, So we're working at all on all fronts this week.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
All right, Well, everyone seems to be a unif lockstep
immunity over keeping the tax cuts in place. So I
don't think there's any argument or debate over that. I mean,
the Democrats want to raise our taxes, we all know
what they're all about. But moving aside from that, you know,
like for example, Salt, why are we rewarding these democrats states?
I mean, you've got Republican advocates to raise the ten

(01:54):
thousand dollars flat rate up to forty thousand dollars which
benefits only these crazy high tax Democrat states, so they
can write off the taxes that they pay there, why
are we rewarding them? And is that something the Senate
may cut out?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well? Yeah, and I think what that was part of
the salt.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
In some of the conversations we've had with members of
Congress and their staff yesterday and anticipating more of those today,
that is a point of contention, and I think Ohio
Senate offices understand that. I think part of the challenge
was piecing together a wide ranging conference in the House
where you have some of these folks in coastal states

(02:33):
who constituents are demanding that right or wrong.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
But I think recognizing that.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
If we can get this out of the House, which
is the bigger hurdle and has been done, get it
to the Senate, where there is a lot more deliberative body,
a lot more deliberation on what these processes should look like,
that we can potentially remove that salt. And that seems
to have been received fairly well as we've been talking
to members of the Senate around around that salt giveaway.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
So we'll see where it ends up.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
But I think it's understood that forty thousand dollars exemption
as a reward to these blue states that impose these
high taxes on their citizens just isn't really great policy
in an area for improvement, right.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, and if the Senate takes it out, I think
that takes the pressure off of the Republicans from those
states saying listen, I tried, but it's more important that
we keep the taxes lower for all Americans and get
this thing passed than it is for us to get
rewarded for our high tax states. So sorry, sucks to
be you, but we tried, and we and we couldn't
do it in the Senate. So this is much better

(03:31):
than saying no, because we want to keep that salt
deduction at forty.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Grand Yeah, And I think that's part of the strategy.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
You have a lot less Blue state senators than you
do blue state Republican congressman, right, and so there's less
of a desire I think, and the fifty three members
in the US Senate to support the salt deduction. I
think the question then is some of the insight baseball, right,
is then if.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
It comes back to that when it goes back to
the House, if.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
It gets it's salt, is a limit it entirely or
gets too big of a haircut. What do those thirteen
or so salt Republican congressman do? Do they hold the
bill hostage? I think you call him on the bluff, Brian.
I think you call him on the bluff because they're
refusal to vote for this when it comes back to
the House. Would be a vote in favor of four
point five trillion dollars in new taxes on Americans.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
It's just highly unpopular. So we'll see. This stuff is
never beautiful though.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know that, and you'll probably give you more of
the insider stuff on all that. But the important thing
here is that they're moving forward aheaded schedule, and there's
hope that this thing can be all done by July fourth,
which twould be quite an accomplishment. I think folks were
expecting late summer. But we can have these tax cuts
made permanent then. And then also there's the Recisions package.

(04:45):
Are you going to talk with Congressman Massey about that?
It's a it's an important beginning step.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
I think, yeah, let's dive into that a little bit.
We'll bring it back Donald, the Americans were prosperate. We'll
get the website and for the details about the save
our Salary rally, hang on a second Donovan and bring
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Speaker 3 (05:58):
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forty one. Come up with six forty two.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
If you've have Kracy Detox station and Donald and Neil
for Americans for Prosperity on I'm talking about the Big
Beautiful Bill and the impact You mentioned the recision that
I sort of independent from this. It wasn't on my
list of topics with congressom asking me may very well
get around to it. But beyond the Big Beautiful Bill,
which also gets rid of, I might underscore this, and

(06:25):
I think it's very important because I don't believe that
you and I are responsible for our carbon dioxide, our
exhalation changing the temperature of the planet. But it eliminates
a trillion dollars of these green energy tax credits. I
don't know whether Elon Musk is really upset about that
or not, but you know what I mean. If you've
got to incentivize somebody to pay for some to buy something.

(06:46):
You know, other reason I'm going to buy an EV
is because I'm getting seven thousand dollars from the federal government.
You know, good ideas don't require force or coercion, and
I think those are bad ideas, and I don't believe
I should personally be responsible for paying for.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
It, Oh, without a doubt.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, I mean that was one of the big things too,
right as we were out there talking to voters last year,
to send folks like burning Moraine to beat Shared Brown
and send Burning Moraine to Washington. Uh. They wanted to
undo the disastrous effects of Bidenomics and these green energy scams.
Is tillion dollars in subsidies were at the heart of that,
and so called Inflation Reduction Act, the scheme where the
federal government said we're going to spend more money, I know,

(07:27):
do the disastrous effects of the government spending too much money.
It was wild And yeah, the one big, beautiful bill
gets that done. Not one single bill is going to
do undo all of the problems that we sort of
find ourselves in at this moment in our country. But
getting the tax cuts made permanent, undoing things like the
green energy new scam, and then bringing in recisions packages

(07:50):
to begin to chip away at the overall spending problem
and codify the DOGE cuts is the way we're going
to begin to kind of change the culture and turn
the ship and move in a better direction.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
No question about that. I guess I'm just do you
do you understand any understanding of what else the Senate
wants to change. I mean, I've seen some, you know,
discussions around the margins, and they're we're talking about compromise,
and I don't know specifically other than like the salt point,

(08:24):
what the Senate is proposing are do they are they
willing to accept the the the work requirement for Medicaid,
which I think is an important valuable thing for people
out there. They that's a program that's designed to help
people truly on life's margins, not able bodied adults, and
you know, Obama expanded all that to include literally scores
and thousands or if not millions of people who otherwise

(08:46):
should be out getting a job or at least trying
or exerting some effort to get some job training.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, and we brought that up with both Cener Marino
and Senator Housted's teams, and we'll see both of them
here shortly this morning, them themselves. But we talked about Medicaid,
and I think, you know, they they understand what the
program is designed to do, and they're not trying to
impact that.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Right they But like.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Like many voters, believe those programs are designed for folks
who are senior citizens, who are our low income who
have you know, disability, disabled disabilities, the folks who truly
need that assistance, right, who need that help, who don't
maybe have other mechanisms in their lives to help support them, right,
And that's what the program is designed to do.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
But it's grown to eight.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Different qualifying groups, and most recently, right, you know, ten
years fifteen years ago, Ohio was one of those expansion states,
and those expansions, right haveled able, able bodied working adults
to go on the program without any other requirements.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
So we need to change that. I think that's something
that the Senate's going to do.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Came up several times, and I think we're going to
see that as a key improvement and we need it
quite frankly, we're finding fraud, waste, and abuse in Ohio.
State Representative Mike Devilla put out a report identifying six
billion dollars in money going to folks ten thousand of
these people are millionaires. Brian, Yeah, closet report, and it's
just wild. And so that's the kind of stuff we've

(10:12):
got to change. And I think from Washington making some
changes to Ohio making some changes, we're going to get
that spending growth under control.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I mean, it's within the control of the state of
Ohio to get its arms around the fraud, waste and
abuse that you just mentioned. We brought this topic up
a million times on the Morning Show, and I just
find it appalling. The calculated figures are, you know, six
billion dollars of fraud, waste, abuse, and that people aren't
eligible or on it, you know, dead people on the rolls.
We can just go on and on and on for
all things that seem to be so easy to clean up,

(10:40):
and yet apparently our elected officials have no incentive to
do it, or there's no it's no urgency in every state.
You can argue there's always a budget issue and a
budget problem. By not spending six billion dollars that shouldn't
be spent anyway, you kind of create a solution to
a problem that may exist or may not, depending upon
your person, your your perspective on on spending from government.

(11:02):
But is there any way that like this bill and
someone could amend it to require some obligation because this
is the taxpayers of the United States of America who
are shouldering a huge chunk of the burden from the
federal reimbursement. Federal dollar reimbursement means American taxpayer dollars and
their labor are paying for fraud, waste, and abuse.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, yeah, so that's six billion, I believe is just
the Ohio side of it. It is just the money
we send down through income and sales taxes to Columbus.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
That doesn't include the federal share.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right, thats somewhere from sixty five to ninety cents per dollar, Right,
American taxpayers are also sending, so that you basically double
the number almost nearly. And yeah, I mean, and I
think that's the stuff that folks are looking at right
in both in Columbus identifying some ways to hold the
Department of Medicated accountable and shine a light on the

(11:55):
obfuscation and the problems in that department, but then also
here in Washington, adjusting some of those programs and giving
states some more leniency and ability to manage the program
because that also becomes a problem. Right they ask for
these waivers and depending on who's president, the waivers approved
or denied. We need more confidence and stability in the
way of those programs. States are able to administer the programs,

(12:15):
especially as they burden state budgets coast to coast.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
And pulling on this is consistent with you and I
are saying correct.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Democrats run around screen but cutting people's medical benefits off
and yeah, that may very well happen, but also is
the work requirement? No, these people, we need lots of
people in the trades. It's wonderful pivot that I use
all the time. Look, twenty hours a week work most
of us work forty if not more. But putting in
twenty hours toward learning a trade can get you career

(12:45):
employment level money and you can be free of the
umbilical court of government. Isn't that something that we should embrace?
And where are the American people on that? When you
do your polling?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, we actually just released the pulling two days ago.
Before we got to the release the pulling, and we're
sharing it with members and their staff all on this item.
We pulled folks, ninety percent of voters want to prioritize
care for seniors, low income families, and people with disabilities.
But also nine and ten voters, so just almost the
same amount, say Medicaid should eliminate waste, fraud, an abuse,

(13:16):
So the program provide better health care for low income
families and safe tax pair money. But what this really
comes down to in a lot of ways, Brian, right,
is the messaging war around that right. Democrats have been
going out there saying you're gonna you're gonna put grandma
on the streets, and you're gonna you're gonna take disabled
folks and leave them destitute.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
And that's not what It's a lie Republicans are doing.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
It's a lie, and so we got to call them
out on it as we're doing here, but also stand
up for the folks who are who are fighting to
for the for the stability and strength of these programs
so that they can exist for the people who truly need.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
There you go and see that that's that's one of
the more fundamental points for all those people screaming, oh
my god, you're gonna cut medical benefitial for Grandma, which
is a lie the stability of the program. It obligates
us to get rid of fraudway's and abuse, and to
tailor it and narrow it down for those who truly
need it, because as of right now, it's not sustainable
and people literally will, including Grandma and people on life's margins,

(14:10):
will lose their medical coverage that the program falls and
collapses because of how huge it is and how unsupportable
it is in terms of the number of dollars. It's
just craziness.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Well, and you know the problem here then becomes right
tight time tables on getting these things done. You know,
Congress very quickly will be looking at reelection, and that
always silly season comes around. It's harder to have the
political will. And it's why it's so important to get
this big, beautiful bill done. Sen make their improvements, take
a good bill and make it better, and get this
to the president's test so we can have these things

(14:44):
we're talking about accomplished done in the bank comes li
fourth Donovan.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Is there a rally?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Well, yeah, so on the state side, we're busy on
all fronts here. As I said, we're rallying in Columbus today.
So if your listeners are able to make it up
there to the State House one o'clock this afternoon on
the State House steps, Senator George Lang is going to
be joining us for to Save our Salaries Rally. It's
a rally in support of a two point seventy five
percent flat income tax, the second lowest in the country,
the lowest in the Midwest. Brian, this has been our

(15:15):
number one priority four years and we're rallying today because
the Senate will vote on their budget bill this afternoon
that includes that flat tax provision one o'clock at the
State House.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Senator George Lang, AFP Leebray, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's going to be a good time and a real
celebration of the work we've done over the last decade
to go from nine brackets down to two one one
flat tax, one flat tax.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that I call that fair