JMI Won The Florida Session, Does That Mean You Won?

News outlets declared the James Madison Institute (JMI) the winner of Florida's 2024 legislative session. Bit is that good or bad news for you and me? We had the President of JMI, Dr. Bob McClure, come in and discuss. 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Why don't we do this the thirdand final hour at least for today of
the Morning Show with President Scott notI'm not trying to be any kind of
profit of doom here. I'm notgoing anywhere at least I'm not planning on
it. Ultimately, I hope that'sjust strictly up to God nobody else.

(00:23):
But we welcome you to the thirdhour. Grant Allen over there running the
radio program in Studio one A.I'm here in Studio one B, and
I am joined by it's been,as the kids say, a minute since
he's been back with us in studio. Doctor Bob McClure, President of the
James Madison Institute, Hello, myfriend, how are you, Preston?
How are you? My friend?I think the last time you were in

(00:44):
here it might have been you,me and doctor Ed Moore and we might
have been punching numbers. Was ittwenty twelve, Maybe it wasn't the Trump
No election. I think it wasthe second election of Barack Obama. Oh
my gosh, you were breaking downnumber and you were just you were reigning
threes from you know, I mean, you were everything you were predicting was

(01:06):
going on and in Florida. Younailed everything and I think that was the
last time you were in student.I can't believe it. I know I've
done the show a number of times, just not in studio. Yes,
well, I'm glad to be here. The studio looks fantastic. Love all
the babbleheads and the pennants. Yourman James Madison. Absolutely yes, he

(01:27):
is fantastic for someone tuning in thatthat. You know, they hear us
talk about James Madison. They rememberyour former colleague and you know, now
working in another group with another group. Salnwzo represented JMI so well joining us
over the years, and we thankyou for allowing Sal to join us,
of course and give us those insightslegislatively. But for those that are new,

(01:51):
don't really have an idea. Theyhear James Madison, they know he's
a founding father. What's James MadisonInstitute about and why is it based in
Tallassee, Florida. You know,as many of your listeners will know,
James Madison, the man was responsiblein large part for many of our founding
documents that we have in our nation, with our nations founding and those documents,

(02:16):
as you talk about all the timeare designed to protect us from an
overarching, overreaching government. And thefounders understood the power of government and what
it could do and how oppressive itcould be because they came from that.

(02:40):
And so the James Madison Institute,founded in nineteen eighty seven, was founded
by Stanley Marshall, former president ofFlorida State University. Stan was president from
the late six from about sixty sevento seventy six. Turbulent times here in
Florida, but handled it, Ithink from every angle, and I think

(03:01):
both sides would agree. While hemay have been tough, he was fair.
He allowed civil disobedience in the midto late sixties. Florida State at
the time was considered the Berkeley ofthe South. That's a direct quote from
a national newspaper, and stan handledthat as well as one could possibly handle.

(03:23):
In the late sixties seventies, fastforward to about nineteen eighty seven,
Reagan's second term, everything coming outof the Academies was focused on higher taxes,
more government, the use of governmentto advance policy, to advance whatever

(03:44):
the leadership chosen was. Reagan turnedthat tide and when he was elected in
nineteen eighty but even in nineteen eightyseven. Coming out of the academies,
there was this notion that more governmentwas better. So what happened was there
was the establishment that these these state, these think tanks that popped up around
the country. JMI, which isalso what the shorthand of what we're called,

(04:06):
was one of ten and the statethink tanks focused on returning to the
principles of the founding, which isto limit the role of government in our
daily lives, to allow for freeenterprise to happen, for markets to move,
for people to chase their version ofthe American dream, whatever that is

(04:27):
to them, within the the boundariesof the law and the protection of private
property. Those were in the lateeighties, you know, Reagan articulated those
that that that's so that's that's thefounding of the James Madison Industrute. We're
based in Tallahassee because we're in thestate capitol and this is where things happen,
and so uh we have to protectand promote the ideals that our nation

(04:53):
was founded upon. Back with doctorBob McClure from the James Madison Institute.
He's the president. He runs itand been a long time friend of the
program. We've taken calls with Bobover the years and talked about a lot
of different things that matter. Youknow, a lot was written up about

(05:14):
how the legislative session. I thoughtit was interesting. One write up said
the winner was the James Madison Institute. First, what's your reaction when you
see a headline like that, Becausehere's how I boil it down. That
means that the citizens of Florida won, right. You know, when you're
a principally based organization, the idealsof the founding, and you're not worrying

(05:36):
about lobbying or you're not worrying aboutpropaganda, to see something like that,
Preston, is a tremendous feeling becauseyou understand that our state is winning,
as you just said, and welive in such I love the state of
Florida. I'm a seventh generation Floridian. It's so diverse, it's so dynamic.

(05:57):
And the fact that quote we win, it's not us. You know.
My philosophy is just you know,it's like Nick Saban says, it
can be rat poison. You gotto keep moving forward, You got to
keep advancing the ball in policy becausethere are always things to do. But
in that moment. In that glimmerof a moment, you understand that our
state is winning the free hashtag freestate of Florida. And one thing that

(06:21):
really matters is that the rest ofthe country is watching. So when these
kinds of things happen in Florida,you see other governors other legislatures around the
country go, oh, I cando that. I can do that in
education reform and school choice. Ican do that in certificate of need health
care repeal. And that's really reallyimportant and critical. You know, Grant

(06:43):
and I talk about the fact thatFlorida is a lesson that number one,
you can do just fine with apart time legislature. Right. Secondly,
we're consumer tax state, right,And I think that those two really stand
out as examples of this might bea better way for governance to operate.

(07:04):
You agree, I absolutely agree.And you see other states starting to compete
with Florida. So you're seeing Iowalower their income tax, You're seeing Georgia
looking to gradually lower their income taxover the next two to three years.
Alabama is looking at doing those samethings. And what I love about Florida

(07:25):
is that we've been told for aslong as you and I have been alive
that as the nation becomes more diverse, more brown, more this, more,
that it's inevitable that the left isgoing to win everything. Well,
Florida gives a lot of that.We have every demographic in this state.
We have, you know, almosttwenty percent Hispanic, twelve to fifteen percent

(07:46):
African American, rural, urban,military retiree, every demographic that the left
loves to kind of pluck out cherrypick right. And yet Florida has become
more and more red. And whyis that. It's not because of politicians
per se, though we've had somereally good ones. We've been very fortunate.
It's your point, it's policy.It's good policies. The good policy.

(08:09):
We say it, j Am.I good policy is good politics.
And so what happens is when youhave good policies and they are put in
place and executed properly. Taxation,education, those kinds of things you see
that people go, Okay, Iget it. It doesn't matter what color
you are, it doesn't matter whatyour demographic is. Everybody has the same

(08:33):
goal in that almost everybody to achievetheir version of the American dream. They
want their children and their grandchildren tohave a shot at their version of the
American dream. And you see thathappen in Florida, and the left can't
stand it. Doctor Bob McClure withme, President James Madison Institute. So

(09:00):
many wins in the legislative session?Where to begin? So I will just
simply tee you up and ask youwhat is the most important set of wins
for the Floridians of this state inthe last legislative session? From your chairs
out of JMI. I think thereare really two preston that are really important.
You know, two years ago wehad what are Salnuzo, who used

(09:24):
to be at JMI, called theSession of the century. We got tort
reform, we got DEI reform athigher ed, we got ESG reform,
we got paycheck protection, universal schoolchoice, and universal school choice is very
simple. It simply means that themoney follows the child. Right. Parents
get to choose what the best needsare for their children and or grandchildren,

(09:46):
and the money follows the child.It's very simple. Nobody's stealing from the
public schools, nobody's doing it's noneof that. But there were some glitches
there. You could pay for transprotation, but you could buy an easel
for art if you were a homeschooler, but you couldn't buy paints. You

(10:07):
know, you could buy a basketballgoal, but you couldn't buy basketballs.
And so there was some what theycalled a glitch bill for universal school choice
in the use of those dollars,and so one of them for parents and
grandparents is that now they fix thatso that the dollars can be used more
properly to allow for education, homeschooling, podschooling, those kinds of things.

(10:35):
That was a huge issue because itwas very, very hard. The second
thing related to education pressing is thatthe funding they streamline the ability to get
those dollars, so you can't takelet's just say it's ten grand to educate
a public school child. You can'ttake that ten grand to go to Vegas.
You can't do that. But itwas really hard initially after the bill

(10:58):
to get state ramped up to getthose dollars to schools that are taking the
money, the scholarship money, andalso to homeschools. They streamlined all that,
so the dollars are now flowing properlyso that you can do that.
That's a huge issue because if youhave universal school choice. But you screw
up the execution, the unions aregonna come in and say, see aha

(11:20):
aha, just like the sawmis says, right, uhha aha, this isn't
working. You know, we gotto go back. So that was a
huge issue. Second issue that isa huge win for UH Floridians is this
notion of reciprocity. So we havealmost a thousand people moving to the state
of Florida a day. They're gonnaneed doctors, they're gonna need uh barbers,

(11:43):
They're gonna need cosmatologists, they're gonnaneed all kinds of different services.
And yet if you are a doctormoving from New York to Florida, it
was it was really really hard toget the ice ensure to practice in Florida.
And so what they've done is,again I won't get too far into

(12:05):
the weeds, is they have allowedentrepreneurs and and doctors to move to Florida
and if you are licensed in anotherstate, the ability to practice medicine in
Florida is now completely streamlined. Theability to open a barbershop, the ability
to you know, and we don'thave it so much in North Florida,

(12:28):
but think about Sarasota and Naples wherepeople are just pouring in Palm Beach,
Miami. They need you know,as people come, they also need services.
And the legislature did a tremendous jobof streamlining the ability to work and
be an entrepreneur and a business owner. If you were in another state,
now in Florida, if I wereto ask you, what is one thing

(12:54):
that didn't get across the finish linethat is going to be high on the
list on your notes for next year? What would that be? I think?
I think there are two issues thatcould could move Florida into the ditch
if we're not careful, and andthe legislature, to their credit, has
really tried to address both of these. I wish they would be a little

(13:16):
more bold. One is this thisnotion of affordable housing. Okay, the
left. You know, as aspeople pouring to Florida, you see it
every day in the Wall Street Journal, you see it everywhere. You know,
buying a home is becoming less affordable. Okay, right, it's very
right, but it's it's what.But what what we have to understand is

(13:37):
building affordable housing and building houses thatare affordable are not the same thing.
So typically local governments want to say, hey, you need to build more
affordable, more affordable housing, misterbuilder, right, well, that simply
means build, build a chief house, h under price it and you lose

(13:58):
money on house, and then we'llgive you the rest of the development to
really make your money. That's that'snot the way it works. Affordable housing
and houses that afford are affordable aretwo different things. Houses that are affordable
eliminate permitting process, wait times,impact fees, all of the things that

(14:20):
local municipalities use to make tons ofmoney. That's different, and waiting time
cost builders money. That's the oneissue. The second issue is property insurance,
but that's going to take time andwe have to address that more fully.
Can't wait for our visit next monthalready, thanks for coming in,
all right, thank you, DoctorBob McClure. Will join us monthly and

(14:45):
we will chat about such matters onthe third Tuesday, I think it is
of every month. Ready here onthe Morning Show with Preston Scott SA