September 30, 2025 • 94 mins
Sen. Shelly Moore Capito discusses the pending government shutdown. Progressive commentator Michael Tomasky joins the show. Plus, Del. Rick Hillenbrand talks about the impact of the MARL transmission line on Hampshire County. Treasurer Larry Pack proposes the legislature pass a bill for "no tax on tips."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Looks like we are probably possibly most likely headed to
a government shutdown center Capital. We'll join us. Coming up
second hour, It's Metro News talk Line and we are
underway radio turned.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Off from the studios of w v r C Media
and the Metro News Radio and Television Network. A voice
up West Virginia comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This it's Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and TJ. Meadows.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So it's that way control from.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Charles stand by to David TJ.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You're on.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Metronews. Talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling you
with coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit
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Speaker 1 (01:13):
Good morning, Welcome inside the Encoba Insurance studios. Dave Wilson
in Morgantown. TJ. Meadows anchors coverage from the Charleston Incopa
Insurance Studios. Jake Link runs the video stream on Metro
News Television, and Ethan Collins is our audio producer Today.
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk is the
phone number eight hundred seven six five eight two five five,
(01:37):
or you can text the show three oh four Talk
threeh four Senator Shelley Moore Capito will join us at
eleven oh six. Sure seems like we are headed straight
for a government shutdown. We'll get the senators thoughts next hour.
Ryan Schmelz will join us from DC prior to that
to give us the latest. Also, we'll talk about the
mid Atlantic Resiliency Link and Progressive Calumn West Virginiated. Michael
(02:01):
Tamaski will join us as well. Loaded show. We'll get
your text and calls in as well. Good morning, TJ. Meadows.
Wait a minute, missed the button again. Good morning, TJ. Meadows.
Two morning already this week?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, you know, sometimes you're with it, sometimes you're not.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's all right.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
We all have our good and bad days. Hey, seventy percent,
that's what the market is, handicapping the odds of shutdown. Polymarket.
You go on, place a bet right now. I just
looked seventy percent.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Uh, that feels about right. I mean, Vegas never gets
it wrong, right, We say that in sports all the time.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Let's you and I do a bet. You wanna do
a bet, Let's let's hop on. We'll put we'll put
like two dollars in. We should do a dollar and
see if we can rise our fortune out of all this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Grand Pappy, how did you, Greg, how did you structure fortune? Well?
I was betting on the government shutdown, young and uh,
that's where we coup. I saw our buddy. A friend
of the show, Matt Lewis compared this path toward the
shutdown to the Austin Path hour scene with the steamroller. Yes,
where he's going toward the henchman and you yes, you
(03:05):
know it's you've got one hundred yards in between. That's
kind of what it feels like. We've just kind of
been lurching toward it. And that's probably going to happen,
probably going.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I think, so you know, we're having some fun joking
about it. It's it's serious and it shouldn't happen. But yeah,
all indicators the markets are down this morning. I think
it's definitely going to happen, but hopefully I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I want to be wrong. We'll check in with Ryan
Smells about fifteen minutes from now. Senator Kapita joins us
at eleven six, but joining us in the Charleston studios
this morning is the Treasure of the Great State of
Westernial Larry Pack, part of the Big beautiful bill that
was passed by the Congress and signed by the President
was the no tax on tips and overtime deduction. Is
(03:46):
that something West Virginia should consider for the state income tax? Well,
the Treasurer seems to think so. First of all, Larry,
good morning, glad you could join us.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Hey, good morning, glad to be here today. Beautiful morning.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right, no tax on tips and overtime? Is this
something the West Virginia Legislature should be considering.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Absolutely? I think we definitely need to do it. So
today I'm asking the governor. The governor, our governor and
legislatures are joining with President Trump and abolished income taxes
on overtime and tips and do it effective January one
of this year, twenty twenty five. You know, President Trump,
along with Senators Capitol, Justice, Commerce, and Miller and Moore,
they did their part this summer by abolishing those taxes
(04:26):
from federal law. We need to do the same thing
for West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
How would it work, Clary? Would it mirror the same
set up at the Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I think absolutely.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
The best The most simplest way is the mirror the
federal legislation. Again, that would give you about twenty five
thousand dollars that you could salut on tips in about
twelve five on overtime. West Virginia's you know, we're made
up of hard working folks, whether we're you know, your
construction trades or nurses or bust school bus drivers, coal
miners and so forth. Overtime is a big part of
(04:54):
their pay and to be able to give them some
relief from that would really be really be helpful. And
we all know that when you know here, if you're
from a working family, you know, when you get over time,
it's taxed a lot heavier than your regular pay. And
to give this some relief, give them relief from inflation
to really be a good thing. And then when it
comes to tips, uh, you know, those folks, those jobs
are hard and they work really, really hard. So any
(05:16):
relief we can give them from inflation we should do
to do so. President Trump showed us the way we
need to follow him.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Treasurer. Larry Pack joining us here Metro News talk Line. Certainly,
the individual benefit is there, Larry? Is there an advantage
for the state overall to consider and pass this sort
of legislation? Well, I think so.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I think particularly, you know, one of the things that
we need. What we really need we need we need
more workers, right so we have a shortage of workers
in about any any type of industry that you're here
looking at. So it definitely will help us attract these
type of workers, these type of jobs. Also from a
small business standpoint, really we have a lot of tourism.
We have a lot of small business type folks that
depend on tips, you know, where there's waitresses of hospitality
(05:54):
type folks. So it's really going to help in that
area as well, because it's going to be a pay
raise for them, and we want to be able to
give them a pay raise make sure they have a
better standard of living. So I think I think it
really does help West Virginia as far as attractiveness, it's
definitely going to help us grow.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I think our economy you hit on this, but more directly,
labor participation rate. It's horrible here, it's horrible. Does something
like this make people want to get up and participate
in the market?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You think, oh, absolutely, well, you know, so, you know,
our government, particularly our federal government, were really good about
tracking every dollar, right, so so they're really last last
ten to fifteen years, they've done a lot better job
is tracking those tips and taxing those tips, and we
just need.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
To give them help.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I've never seen a waitress that didn't bust their butts
right to accommodate this, or the folks that that work
work at the hotels and just different different trades in
our barbers and so forth. Anything we can do to
help them, to help help those folks, we should do.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So Larry. The states surrounding us, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland,
do they have similar laws or have they considered similar
type measures. No, they don't.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
But other than Maryland, they have lower income tax rates
state income tax rate than we do. So they're all
leading to charge their rates are lower than ours. So
this is uh, you know, this is a small This
is a small step I think for to make us competitive.
It's a big step if you're one of those folks
who would get this tax benefit.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I want to talk about the fundamental I guess economic
discipline of this in terms of I think you would
agree at least I think you can tell me I'm wrong.
Anytime you put more money back in people's pockets, it's
going to create more discretionary spending. We've seen that in
some of our tax numbers already this year, as we've
cut intocome tax, we're seeing our sales taxes go up.
(07:33):
Can we anticipate the same kind of economic drivers out
of a program like this?
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Absolutely, most of very few of these folks are going
to buy CDs with this money, right, They're gonna they're
going to spend it on their family. They spend it
on their on their children. Uh So it's definitely going
to go right back into colmy. So I think it
really is a good thing to do. It's it's the
right thing to do. We need to continue to march
forward to reduce our state income taxes, to have to
make us more to be more competitive with our surrounding states.
So this is this again a good step forward. But
(07:59):
it's really a good time to do it because again
we're following the President Trump's lead. The arguments he made
for the legislation are really good arguments, and so I
think we should do it in West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Are there downsidnes though to adding to our I mean,
our tax codes already complicated enough. Are there downsigns to
adding something else to the tax code?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Well, you always want to I guess you're always concerned
about that. But there you know, there are a lot
of tax credits, there's a lot of right offs for
folks that wear suits like I got on today. There's
very few deductions, there's very few credits. There's very few
exclusions for for working men and women. So again we
need to we need to balance the scales a little
bit and give them something.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Do we have any estimates on what this would cost?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right or wrong?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
There's always this debate about Peia, you know, that comes
out of general revenue. We had Mike Pushkin on yesterday
talking about a fix for Peia. This would lower the
amount of money in state coffers. So do we know
what it would cost at all and how that might affect.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
I think the state has My rough rough estimates areround
somewhere around twenty five million dollars. I'm sure that the
Revenue Department will give us some better number. So it's
going to be a small number as far as the
total MAUNT or state government spending. But again, it'll be
a big, big benefit to the folks that can take
advantage of this.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Talking to State Treasurer Larry Pack, he is urging the
governor and the legislature to take up a bill and
pass it no tax on tips and over time, have
you spoken to the governor or lawmakers in the legislature
and gotten the temperature in the room for something like this.
We've talked to small lawmakers, so I think there's a
lot of interest in it. So I really do think
it's something we can move on. Again, the later we
(09:30):
wait into the year, the harder it is to make it,
you know, to make it effect of January one, of
twenty twenty five. So we're hoping that we'll get some
movement on this quite quickly.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
So special session then in order or how do you tell?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That's what's what I'd like to see. A special session
just get it done. Should be a really quick, really
quick deal. And I think that's something that they could
They would suspend rules and get it done in one day.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Is this something you could post date or back date
if they can't get it done in a special session.
This comes up when we get to January.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
It makes it harder because you know, once we get
into January, towards the end of January, people start filing
their tax returns, so it's going to be really difficult
to do that, and we don't want to put people
to the burden having to file men of returns and
go to that expense. So if we want to save
money on filing, we need to go sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I want to.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Shift gears for just a second and talk about your
announcements when it comes to divesting in China and making
sure that we're not taking state dollars there. You're very
passionate about that. Why, well, it's just.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
You know, I think so much, so much what we
do in government is undo with things that we've done
in the past. Right, So, on one hand, the idea
that we ever invested in companies owned by communists China
to the Chinese military is fairly ridiculous, right, But for
some reason years ago, we decided to make that decision.
But the reason I'm passionate about it is you can
look almost any area in Communist Chinese Party coeds China.
(10:53):
China is working against us interests. Whether they're selling guns
and stuff to our tour enemies, they're send fitting on here,
they gave us, they gave us COVID, they're still in
our intellectual property. They've stolen our jobs right there, you know,
West Virginia is really probably the state that got hit
the hardest. You know, our factories, our meals and so many,
so many of those have been closed down because we
(11:14):
were told forty fifty years ago, we if we send
jobs over there, they'll send stuff back to us. They'll
they'll be a you know, there'll be a friend. They'll
drop our resting morals. Now that happened, all they've done
is take take take. We need to stand up for
West Virginia's to stand up for Americans.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Can the idea of divesting from these Chinese owned companies
and also managing these funds getting the most returned, getting
the most bang for the buck, can those two things coexist? Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, we've taken We've taken a lot of time at
the Investment Management Board, and that's the that's the group
that I share that that invest the state pension funds.
So we were very diligent about it. We went through
and studied it, and we made the decision to gather
with recommendations from staff from our investment advisors, or this
would reduce to our return at all.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
What kind of instruments do we invest in? I don't
know the average West Virginians. I don't off the top
of my head understand what we're putting our money in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
We have a very broad portfolio in Investment Management Board,
so we got about twenty eight twenty nine billion dollars,
so it's anywhere from stocks and bonds, the hedge funds
to real estate, lots of different financial instruments. So we
have a very broad ability to make sure that we
have the best, the best, the most diverse portfolio to
(12:31):
give us the best returns. It's one of the reasons
that our returns have been in the top ten of
all states for many, many years. So we do a
really good job, very very proud of that. And when
when we make above that seven percent or seven and
a half percent that the actuaries want us to make
for our pensions, that's less money that state we have
to put in from our general fund every year. So
it's really important, I think, which will probably the most
(12:51):
important thing that I do, is make sure there are
state investments that we're doing the right things. So we're
proving about it. We didn't just wake up one morning,
stay to do this and do it the next day.
We'll have it all completed by January the first, or
twenty twenty six. It will take us another three months.
But again we won't do it in a prudent way,
doing in the way that we won't do anything. We
won't harm our pensioners. But at the same time, we
(13:12):
also currently we're risking our pinchers assets. So if you
may remember, we lost we lost millions of dollars from
investments in Russia years ago. That's probably four or five
year ago before the Russian War started. So so you know,
some of these results, they look good, these opportunities look good.
But when you have someone who's a bad actor, any
(13:32):
day that that game can be over. So bring up
money back on shore, making sure that we're invested in
the United States companies, they're European companies. We'll protect the
pensioners and we'll do it. Will get a much better
You know what I'm going to say, Go ahead, you
know what I'm going to say. Index funds, man, index funds,
American business.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I think so.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And when we come back on, I'll show you that
our returns have been over and above indust.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You're being you're beating the index funders.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yes, pretty hard to do, Yes, sir, we have a
fantastic team, and you know, and government. Sometimes you're kind
of fussed at your predecessors, like I cad fussed the
press essers that set up PA. But when it came
to the Investment Management Board the Bureau treasure Investments, there's
a lot of decisions made twenty years ago. They were
really good decisions. We should be thankful with the folks
that were in the room at that time that made
(14:16):
those decisions, because we've got a really good system in
both We should be very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
State Treasurer Larry Pack will have a story posted up
at WDV metro news dot com proposing no tax on
tips and overtime. Larry, always good to talk to you,
appreciate you stopping by this morning. Thank you sir. Having
nice day. Coming up, we'll check in on Capitol Hill
with Fox News Radios. Ryan Schmels says we head toward
a federal government partial shutdown. We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
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Speaker 8 (14:52):
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Speaker 7 (15:02):
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Speaker 2 (15:53):
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Speaker 1 (16:04):
If you ever start to do something you're like hm,
I feel like I'm forgetting something. And then you go, boy,
I haven't got a text message in a while, and
you realize you left your phone two floors up from
your studio and went, oh, man, there's no way I
can make it up there and back during a break.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
That explains yes, because I was just texting you.
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I was kind of saying, like, usually too, we'll pull
the curtain back from me, we'll text in between breaks,
kind of communicate, see what's going on. I'm like, I've
got a text in a while from anybody, And then
I realized, oh, left the phone sitting on the desk.
So big, big props to Kelly, who serves many, many,
many roles here in the Millert building. She was kind
enough to run that down to me, cause I gotta
(16:47):
tell you, TJ. It's going to take more than a
mountain near mile for me to be able to run
up two flights of steps, grab my phone, run back
down and still be able to talk when I get
back to the studio.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And the elevator is not that quick quick, but it's
not that quick, it's it runs.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Let's just leave it there, it goes up and down. Well,
let me bring you up to speed on something, bring
the curtain back. Schmells texts me and he says, hey,
I'm going to be late. Can I be late? And
I'm like, well, what do you got going on?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
He sends me a picture in front of the Capitol
with every house dem and Hakeem Jeffrey's at a podium
that reads save Healthcare. So he's going to call us
at ten forty five. He wanted to hear what they
had to say, and he'll call us at ten forty five.
I said, well, yeah, okay, I guess I suppose that's a.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Good enough excuse. You know, he's a big deal. TJ.
He's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Brian's a good guy though, he really he always calls
if he's going to be laid. He always he's always
on time for the most part, So good guy.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
All right, Well, since we have a couple of minutes here,
let's squeeze in a couple of texts before we transition
to the Middletlantic Resiliency link. Delegate Rick Hildebrand, it's going
to join us coming up a couple of minutes from now.
Texter says, let's raise state minimum wage to fifteen dollars
an hour, like the City of Charles did the last
four years. This is what needs to happen to take
some of that billion dollar rainy day fund and give
(18:06):
back to the people it belongs to. All I'm not
a huge fan of raising the minimum wage. I also
wouldn't fight it real hard either. I guess kind of
indifferent when it comes to that. I don't think. I
don't think it does. It does not do what the
advocates think it will do. It it just raises the floor,
(18:27):
that's all. Yeah, what happens when you put more money
into anything. What happens with the IRA inflation?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Yeah, so you're gonna have artificial inflation either way, and
in real dollars it's a wash. So if you want
to pay twenty five dollars for cheeseburger, all right, fine, whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
All right? Two part text Half I agree with half.
Well you'll know, I don't think removing taxes on tips
in overtime is going to increase labor participation. I don't
imagine people who are not working are going to say,
you know what, now that the overtime isn't taxed, I
think I'll start working, and I'll work more than forty
hours a week to get that no tax. I don't
disagree with that statement. ToJ don't disagree it'll help. I
(19:06):
don't think it could hurt. But I tend to agree
without a statement that you're not gonna have a lot
of people run to go get a job because suddenly
you can get no tax on tips.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
And I guess I'll be mister unpopular today. It'll start
and it'll help. On one side of the equation, I
don't disagree with you. There has to be more, and
that other more is taking a hard look at how
easy it is to get entitlements and who really needs
it and who doesn't in order to be able to
not work. Look if we had huge numbers of millionaires
(19:38):
in this state that have very high net worths, and
that would explain our labor participation rate. I'm good with it.
That ain't it.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
The rest of the text. If West Virginia legalized wait
for it, cannabis with a Michigan style set up, West
Virginia could add some money to the bank account before
the it's not a panacea argument gets underway. No, duh,
it'd be another money making arrow in the quiver, says
the Texter ah No, you got me once on the
legal weed, not doing it again. You got me once
(20:08):
on the medical weed. I'm not going down that road again.
We basically have legalized recreational marijuana.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Let me get on and see what the bid spread
is in Vegas and polymarket of West Virginia legalizing weed.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Maybe we'll play a bed on that one while we're
at it as well, we'll take the under okay. Uh
Texas says two things. When Republicans went behind closed doors
and did not include a single Democrat in this bill,
what did they think would happened? Talking about the cr
Also to Senator Capitol, why are Democrats the only ones
trying to protect healthcare for West Virginia residents? Florida listener here, Well,
(20:45):
thank you for listening from Florida. It's a very small
partial shutdown, not a shutdown, as you keep saying. Another
reason the news is not trustworthy by not telling the truth,
they spew the same lies here. What's so hard about
being truthful? Asks the text.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I think we have said, maybe not today, but certainly
I think yesterday that it's discretionary spending. We're talking about
discretionary spending. We're not talking about essential spending, that's fundamental,
that's passed through a different process. So potato potato maybe,
But thank you, point well taken.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
We'll get more of your text a little bit later
on the program. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is going to
join us at eleven oh six. We'll talk to her
about this continuing resolution government shutdown, expanded healthcare credits. We'll
get into all of that coming up eleven oh six
this morning. Up next, we'll talk about the mid Atlantic
Resiliency Link. Some still not happy with that proposed route.
(21:37):
We'll get into that subject in just a moment. This
is talk line from the Encove Insurance Studios on Metro News,
the Voice of West Virginia. It is ten thirty and
time to get a news update. Let's check in with
the Metro News radio network. Find out what's happening across
the great state of West Virginia.
Speaker 12 (21:56):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. President Donald Trump
says there there should be hundreds of millions of dollars
in federal funds spent to update coal fired power plants
to keep them running, part of Trump's plan for CO
announced Monday. The plan includes six hundred and twenty five
million dollars to stop the decommissioning of power plants. There's
reaction on both sides of this issue. This morning, in
(22:16):
our story at wv metrodews dot com, the top brass
at Hope Gas is explaining the company's decision to pay
WVU millions for naming rights.
Speaker 13 (22:26):
The roots of Hope Gas go back more than one
hundred years, and now the company has negotiated a deal
to rename the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown Hope Coliseum. Hope
Gas President n CEO Morgan O'Brien says they want to
be a positive force for communities and institutions across the state.
Speaker 14 (22:44):
We came here the last three years and we're really
trying to dig the roots of Hope even deeper than
they are, and this felt like just a natural partnership
for us.
Speaker 13 (22:53):
The duration of the deal is ten years. I'm Mike
Nolton for wv metronews dot Com.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
Department has assessed public utilities for taxes to be paid
in the next year. The assessment includes a one point
five billion dollar increase linked to the beginning of operations
for the Mountain Valley Pipeline the Tax Commission matter. Irby
told the bord of public Works money. The increase will
benefit the counties where the pipeline is located to the border.
Public Works will likely approve the new assessments in January.
(23:20):
You're listening to Metro News for forty years, the Voice
of West Virginia.
Speaker 15 (23:25):
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Speaker 18 (23:54):
The second half of the high school football season continues
Friday night with our go Mark Game of a Week
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Speaker 12 (24:25):
South Charleston police officers facing domestic violence related charges in
Cabell County State Police of charge thirty two year old
Matthew Ripley the five counts of domestic assault in five
counts of domestic battery after it leslie grabbed a woman
several times and smashed her cell phone. Appears to two
We're in a relationship. The woman also accuses Ripley of
verbally accosting her for hours. Stay please say It appears
at Clarksburg. Man suffered a medical episode before he wrecked
(24:47):
his car Monday morning in Weston. Victim identified his forty
five year old Jeremy Whitson from the Metro News anchored desk,
I'm Jeff Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Metro News talk Line continues from the Cove Insurance Studios
Senator Capitol eleven oh six this morning. Last Friday, next
to Era Transmission released the proposed route, or its preferred route,
for the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link. That's the one hundred
and seven mile transmission line that will run from Pennsylvania
(25:35):
through West Virginia to Virginia. It will cut through portions
of Montaguelia, Preston, Mineral, and Hampshire Counties. In Hampshire County,
the line will enter the eastern border near Springfield and
traversed with the county exiting just east of the capean Bridge.
Local governments, including the Hampshire County Commission, have passed resolutions
(25:56):
opposing that plan. Joining au sild Metro News talk line
this morning is Hampshire County Delegate Rick Hillenbrand. Rick, good morning,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 19 (26:05):
Good morning, gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
What's the feeling in Hampshire County about the mid Atlantic
Resiliency Link.
Speaker 19 (26:13):
Well, to summarize it, I don't know a single individual
that has come out in favor of it, and I
think there was a news article a couple of weeks
ago quoting the number of letters the PSC has received
against it. It was over eight hundred letters. Against this
and not a single one for it.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
How do you balance the need for energy versus preservation
of the land. I get people don't like it. I'm
not sure, Rick, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure
if we have any of the choice or how you
fight it?
Speaker 19 (26:44):
Yeah, well we can fight it, and can I start there?
Because there's an example not too long ago where this
was successfully defeated, or similar type effort was successfully defeated.
In New England, there was an effort called the Northern
Past Transmission Line project was proposed in twenty ten. Ultimately
(27:07):
it was basically killed in twenty nineteen. So when the
people object and the governmental organizations listen, you can be
successful there. Now, electricity, I love it as well. I
enjoy AI, which is what this is substantially intended to
(27:29):
go support. And I like the well that I have
to run, and I like my air conditioning, etc. But
I think, as we all know, and TG, I think
you're an engineering type person, you know that it's not
directional in the sense of the way electricity works is
more a network, so this power can get there through
(27:50):
multiple means. If indeed that's the only place you can
go to accomplish the end result, but there are other
methods to accomplish this that are less intrusive and maybe
make it a little more palatable to those that are
going to be affected.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Rick Hill and Brand is joining US Hampshire County Delegate.
We're talking about the mid Atlantic resiliency length. I'm looking
at the map and sometimes it's hard to tell, Rick,
but it looks like the proposed route would mostly follow
an existing high voltage right of way through Hampshire County.
So's what's the major push or the major point for
(28:29):
opposing this plan in Hampshire County.
Speaker 19 (28:32):
Well, you're right, there is an existing line there, although
this would not be using the same infrastructure, so it's
going to be adding new infrastructure. We're going to have
transmission lines, i'm sorry, towers that could be as much
as two hundred foot tall as originally proposed, probably closer
(28:52):
to one hundred and eighty five, although there's a new
RFP out there asking for a second five hundred kV
line which could bring it up to the two hundred
and forty foot range in height. Additionally, there would be
additional right away requirements, etc. To put a parallel line,
so instead of having say a two lane road through
(29:14):
the countryside, you're now going to have maybe an eight
lane highway.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Rick, I wonder if you've talked with next Era, and
this is highly unusual, but it can be done from
an engineering perspective, would it be more palatable to you
and your people if you buried the line and had
a buried high voltage line.
Speaker 19 (29:36):
I am glad you asked that question multiple ways. First off,
I met with them as recently as last Thursday, prior
to their public announcement, and we've discussed it. I brought
up the issue about bearing transmission lines with next Year specifically.
I also talked with folks at the PGM and the
(29:58):
Federal Energy Regular Story Commission backed in the spring. In
my June sixth letter to Chairman Charlotte Lane of the
Public Service Commission, which I copied the Governor, I in
fact suggested you could bury it. There are several projects
right now that use that technology. There's something called the
(30:19):
champ or Chpe Champagne Hudson Power Express that's about a
three hundred and forty mile line going from the Canadian
New York border to New York City and almost entirely
underground and underwater. That's three hundred and twenty kV high
voltage DC. But that's entirely that's being done right now
(30:42):
and is significantly done. Over in Germany they buried. It's
in process right now, something called the sud Link, and
it's entirely being buried due to public and political pressure.
It's not because of technology or any of the rest
of that, but because they've decided, hey, we don't want
that type of scarring, so yes, this could be done.
(31:05):
It's an economic decision, That's what it boils down to.
And I'll acknowledge it significantly costs more, but let's face it,
next year is not going to lose money on this.
In fact, they're not even going to lose money if
the project doesn't go through the way the rules are
built up with our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, they get
paid even if it doesn't go through.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Talking to Hampshire County Delegate Rick Hillen Brown here on
Metro News talk Line about the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link,
Rick often in this business and that this one's one
of us. We'll simplify things down to it's us versus them.
It's one signed versus the other is that the situation
here or are both sides, you know, the locals Hampshire County,
(31:48):
Mineral County, Preston County willing to work with next are
to come up with a more palatable solution.
Speaker 19 (31:55):
That's a great question, and I think the answer is
possibly yes. And I say possibly based upon what will
you offer to make it more palatable? And that's the
exact word I had written in my notes prepped for this. Certainly,
minimizing the spiring of the landscape by bearing as much
of the lines as possible would very much be a
(32:17):
big plus because one of the things that we say
is key to our part of the state here is
you know, the tourism and all the rest of those
things related. I'm thinking back about a dozen years ago
when I was looking out my window one day, looking
toward Kaiser, and I noticed a new blinking red light
on top of a backbone mountain, and it's like, what's
(32:38):
that all about? And then over the course of the
next several months, that one blinking light turned into a
string of blinking red lights, which, by the way, are windmills.
You know, that wasn't a part of my scenic view
when I built my home. I think the other thing
is we need to eliminate or reduce a financial impact
on West Virginia rate payers. Again, looking back to my
(33:02):
letter that I wrote back in June, there is an
estimated cost that the West Virginia rate payer is going
to be paying as much as three hundred and fifty
dollars annually additional cost just for the infrastructure, not that
we're benefiting directly from it, but just for the infrastructure.
And by the way, if they add that second line
(33:24):
that's been proposed on top of that, that could increase
the cost by another sixty percent. So those are starting
points to make this more palatable.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Record do those numbers come from? Because my experience tells
me that causality should follow whoever has the load right,
So when you talk about transmission allocation, a higher allocation
should be placed on that load serving entity that actually
needs it. And I'm just wondering if that number reflects
that kind of paradigm.
Speaker 19 (33:54):
Well, two part answer. I'm going to answer the first part,
where did my numbers come from? Numbers came from a
report prepared by Kathy Kunkel for the Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial Analysis called the West Virginia rate Payers
putting the bill for work. Oh sorry, infrastructure build out.
(34:17):
So that's a report that's available online. But your point
with regards to who should be paying for this quoting
FIRK commissioner, that's Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christy. In
January of this year, he commented, quote, A core principle
of utility law and regulation for decades is that consumers
(34:40):
can only be forced to pay costs for assets that
are useful use I'm sorry, used and useful to them.
So that's exactly consistent with what you were saying there, Rick.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
We're going to have to leave it there for today,
but we're continue to follow this conversation and see how
it progresses as the regulars ORRY process is now underway
for this line.
Speaker 19 (35:04):
Yeah, they have made their initial I guess proposal. They
haven't made their formal submission yet, but it's in that
route and I do appreciate your time, Rick killin.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Brand Hampshire County Delegate, appreciate it well. Again, continue to
follow it, Thanks Rick, Thank you all yours quite welcome.
Coming up. Ryan Schmels kept his word he'll join us
from DC next.
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Speaker 1 (36:56):
We'll get to your text. I promise three or four
talk three oh four. Senator Capital joins US eleven six
right now from Washington, d C. A man of his word.
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmells, Ryan, good.
Speaker 22 (37:06):
Morning, Hey, good morning boys.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
How are we doing doing pretty well? So what's the
latest on the upcoming shutdown?
Speaker 22 (37:14):
Well, we just had Leader Jeffries respond to the AI
video that President Trump posted yesterday pretty much saying that
he wants President Trump to say it to his face
next time. So it seems like we're still on a standstill.
No side has appeared to budge. But we are going
to vote later on today on the Senate bill that
is the same build that passed out of the House.
(37:36):
The Senate failed to pass it last week. It extends
government funding until November twenty first, and if it passes,
you know the government shutdowns avoided. But last time only
one Democrat voted for the motion to proceed and break
the filibuster at sixty votes, so they're going to need
at least eight or nine to do the same next time.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
It just doesn't seem serious, Ryan, after that video last night.
It seems like we're gonna shut it down and reevaluate
after it's been shut down partially. As a listener pointed out,
for some time, well.
Speaker 22 (38:08):
I have been through these a couple of times since
I started working here, and usually they have found a
way to avoid a shutdown despite all the odds. This
one really does feel like the one where we're most
likely to see a shutdown fall through. So I think
that and I don't think this is me. I think
it's definitely the vibe on Capitol Hill. We actually just
had a flock of crows flying around the Capitol Dome
(38:31):
not too long ago, and Stafford yelled out, that's not
a good side.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Right, jeez. Both sides seem confident the other side's going
to be blamed. I posed this question to you yesterday.
I'll toss it to you again today. That's what they're
saying publicly. But behind the scenes, are they that confident
behind the scenes that this is worth the political gamble
both sides?
Speaker 22 (38:55):
I would say Republicans, I mean Republicans feel like they've got,
you know, a messaging that that works on this. They
feel pretty unified, and I think there's a level of
confidence among Republicans that this will be the first shutdown
that Democrats get blamed for. And ultimately, you know, it's
going to come down to the media and just the
general public how they view this. So we'll have to
wait and see on that front. But you know, they
(39:17):
have a message. They're calling it the Schumer shutdown, and
they feel that the deal that they put on the table,
the clean cr is a is a good deal. You know,
there's no spending cuts, there's no other legislation attached to it.
But Democrats to put their foot in the ground on
this healthcare issue. And of course, you know, if people
start getting notices saying their healthcare insurance freeoms are going
to go up, how's that going to go? And who's
(39:39):
going to get blamed for that? These are all things
to consider.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Does anyone on Capitol who ever contemplate the idea that
maybe the third of the country that's independent says, heck
with all.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Of these folks and once to blame it on both sides?
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I mean, is there any is there any kind of
reckoning that that could be an outcome here or are
they just so dug in on the basis they don't
even care.
Speaker 22 (40:00):
I mean, I'm sure there's always people who are going
to blame both sides, and that's nothing new. Yeah, I
mean a ridiculous amount of people identify as independent. I
think it's you know, almost half the country. So you know,
it's that that is a good point.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
But Ryan, you almost you can't blame Democrats and Chuck
Schumer here. You've got a little bit of leverage, You've
got to use it while you've got it. I mean,
this is this is a point, This is something you
want to dig in about it. I don't blame them
for necessarily doing what they're doing here.
Speaker 22 (40:31):
Yes, I mean, like there's that argument, and then I
think that the Republican counter argument is, yes, you do
have some leverage because you have you need to get
sixty votes in the Senate, but you are still in
the minority, and the deal that we put on the
table is a clean extension of funding. It's not a cut.
You know, it could have been a lot worse. They
(40:51):
could have made that CR a lot more conservative, but
they chose not to. So I think I think that
might be the argument Republicans would make when it comes
to what the ultimate package is and what the deal
is to keep the government open.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Ryan, I'm pontificating this morning more than I'm asking questions.
I apologize for that, but it seems to me one
of the larger stories here is that no one is
talking about the fact it was nineteen ninety seven, actually
ninety six for the ninety seven fiscal year, the last
time the government did what they're supposed to do in
this process.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Talk about that.
Speaker 22 (41:21):
Yeah, Well, Speaker Johnson is making the argument that the
idea of punning this to November gives them a better
chance of actually passing a budget and doing this through
regular order, which as you pass a theories of spending
those twelve total that would fund the government of the
next fiscal year. They've got three of them completed out
of the Senate. They're supposed to be negotiating them pretty
much soon. They can start that as soon as they
(41:43):
get through this process. And you know, Speaker Johnson wanted
to make that a goal for this Congress. But keep
in mind, you know, when they started in January, they
had to deal with the government funding battle, then in March,
and then the Senate has had to spend a lot
of time confirming President Trump's not the knees. The Senate
has also had to spend a lot of time on
the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. So they spend a
(42:04):
lot of their political capital and a lot of their
time and priorities dealing with those issues. And they just
flat out ran out of time. So you know, they
could could make progress on it when, if, and when
they get this funding situation done, but they can't really
move on that until they do that.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
You know, Ryan, You're full of a lot of great information,
but I can't help it. My main takeaway from this
whole conversation is our country's leaders are basically in the
middle school playground about of I know you are, but
what am I? That's really what it took away.
Speaker 22 (42:33):
From guess I mean Politico Politico. Before the meeting yesterday
they said I believe the headline was staring contest moves
to the White House?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
So AI videos, I know you are? What am I? Gracious?
All right, Ryan, Well, best of luck to you in
the next couple of days. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 22 (42:55):
I'll do my best. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
We'll check in the mark, Ryan Smells, Fox News Radio
on Camp Capital Hill, final break of the hour. We'll
come back, We'll get some text. We'll get ready for
our number two. It's talk line from the Encode Insurance Studios.
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Mega Million's jackpot is four hundred and ninety seven million,
So go ahead play today. The Texter asks update about
this fake video regarding the President announcing a new national
health plan that was later taken down? What was that
all about? You got me on that one? Dj any?
I know about that King Jeffreys AI video thanks to
(45:06):
you this morning. I don't know if it's related.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
The Wall Street Journal breaking a story that says the
White House to announce today a new program called trump Rx,
a drug buying website, and to deal with Pfizer where
the government would sell prescription drugs direct to consumer. That
breaking about ten minutes ago. What can go wrong there?
The government selling direct to consumer? What could go wrong?
(45:29):
I just I don't know, man, It's like, where does
this stuff?
Speaker 1 (45:32):
I don't know. I have to dig into that one
over the break. You know, you think you're prepared for
the show, and you've got all this stuff printed out
and notes and then that all right, three or four
talk three or four. Now the people inside the budget
office are just going, why can't you all just pass
a budget? Both Democrats and Republicans in the budget office
(45:54):
are asking the same thing. Of course, we know the
answer to that question politics, and they might not get
re elected, says the texture. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Uh when was the last time you said ninety seven
that we actually passed a.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
Budget ninety six for fiscal ninety seven, that we passed
all twelve bills in the appropriations process for discretionary spending,
nineteen ninety six. Nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Uh, that has been a long time ago. Doesn't feel
that long ago. Doesn't sound like nineteen ninety six doesn't
sound that long ago.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Put five accountants around the table. They'll have it knocked
out in two and a half hours for you.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Oh, that would be such a boring dinner party. No,
if fascinating. Oh I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I mean it's like the Super Bowl. Man, bring some food,
fry the wings up, you know, smoke them, do whatever
you're gonna do. Let's have a budget party and knock
this sucker out, get it balanced a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
That's a wild TJ. Meadows weekend. Let's get some wings.
Let's knock out a budget.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Maybe even a adult beverage or two in the room.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I don't know, we'll see, all right. Coming up, Senator
Capito is going and join us. We'll talk to her
about this government shutdown. What about extending the expanded tax
credits for the Affordable Care Act. We'll get into all
of that. Michael Tramawski will also join us in the
second hour. We'll get your text and phone calls as well.
Three or four Talk three or four and eight hundred
seven to sixty five Talk Talklinel Metro News, the voice
of West Virginia. Metro News.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance, encircling you with
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Speaker 1 (47:38):
Second hour of Metro News talk Line already in progress.
So hope you're having a great start to your day.
Thank you for letting us be part of it. Eight
hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk is the phone
number eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five five.
You can text the show at three or four Talk
three oh four. We will get to your text. Coming up,
have a couple of open segments planned four. Michael Tumaski,
(48:01):
progressive columnist and West Virginia native, will join us coming
up bottom of the hour. Tjcnn's got the count down
clock ticking this morning. So the government shut down? I mean,
why not? Why not? At this point? I made the mistake.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
Texter filled us in the previous text was talking about
the Trump medbed in the last second this idea. I
made the mistake of looking into it. It's kind of
like the Billy Madison movie. Remember he gets up and
gives a speech, and the principle says, we are now
dumber for having heard that.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Uh huh, That's kind of where I'm at.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
I guess back during the craze of World War two,
like Roswell, remember, yeah, the craft landed apparently allegedly. Allegedly,
the conspiracy is that we reverse engineered some kind of
MEDBD that can make you whole, heal, you all these
kinds of things from alien technology. And there was a
(48:53):
video AI video that the President posted and then took down.
So that's what they're referring to. It ties back quanon.
I never say that, right, you know about Yeah, those
guys refers back to that, So there you go.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
That's what they were talking about.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
I thought they were talking about the Trump RX deal
being announced today.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Nope, two different things. Well, I'm glad we got the
investigative team on that one today too. Jay. Yep, we're
covering some ground, buddy, time well spent. Well. On a
serious note, Yes, the CNN does have the government shutdown
clock ticking, and it seems that we are headed toward
an inevitable partial government shutdown. Joining us on Metrodew's talk
line this morning is the US centator from the great
(49:33):
State of West Virginia, Shelleymore Capital Centator. Good morning, thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 23 (49:37):
Good morning, nice to be on. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Last time we spoke, you were optimistic that there could
be a deal reach to avoid a government shutdown. Now,
with about thirteen hours to the deadline, how optimistic are you?
Speaker 23 (49:50):
My optimism has left me. Unfortunately. It appears as though
it's going to be a standoff in terms of what
what I've voted for and what I think makes the
most sense, which is a very simple seven week extension
here that doesn't have any bells and whistles on it.
The Democrats have already voted it down once we expect
them to vote it down again tonight, and I think
(50:13):
it an enormous dissurface to so many people, veterans, troops, otherwise,
people who need services here in West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (50:22):
On the clean cr Schumer and others on the Democratic
side have said they want the subsidies for the Affordable
Care Act to continue. I'm paraphrasing. It seems like they
don't trust Republicans. Are they wrong?
Speaker 23 (50:37):
Yes, they're wrong, because this is the subsidies on the
premiums through the ACA or a topic of discussion with everyone.
They need to be negotiated. They expire at the end
of the year, so we have some time here, but
they've loaded it's three hundred and sixty billion dollars, and
I think we need to make sure that if we
(50:57):
move in this direction, that we do some reforms. So
we need to have negotiations. We don't need to say, Okay,
just do it. That's what he wants to wants to say,
just do it. He also wants to spend over a
trillion dollars to keep the keep the government open for
four weeks, taking down the fifty billion dollar Rural health
Care Stabilization Fund that we just put in three months
(51:18):
ago from the big beautiful bill to help sustain rural
healthcare and rural hospitals. I mean, to me, it's just
an over ask and I think he's just trying to
be political to shore up his left base because they
were so mad at him for cutting a deal.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Last March, Senator Kelly Moore Cavalo joining us here on
Metro in his talk line, so do you support extending
the subsidies for the ACA?
Speaker 23 (51:42):
I think we need to look at the subsidies. I
think there are questions as to are they going to
people that really know about it. I mean, there's a
statistic that we keep seeing that says those who have
subsidies through the ACA, forty to fifty percent of them
don't ever use their benefit through the year. Well, the
national average if you have insurance is somewhere around twenty percent.
(52:04):
Something's going on there. So is it a scheme where
people are being signed up without their knowledge or double
signed up. They're own Medicaid and they're also on this premium.
We need to get to the bottom of this to
do it fiscally responsible, to make sure that that small
business owner that can't get insurance anywhere else that they
can use the premium support that is meant for them.
(52:27):
And so these are the kinds of questions we need
to answer. We can't just full flung say yes, keep
it in effect and for the rest of the years,
because they hiked all of this up during COVID and
immensely enlarged the price of this premium support.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
One criticism that is floating, real or perceived, is that
this is what the White House wants. They want the
shutdown so they can trim the government FTEs full time employees,
and this would be a way to do that. What
is your stance on that characterization?
Speaker 23 (53:02):
You know, I think. I mean, I've lived through now
two pretty significant government shutdowns. The President has lived through
one in twenty eighteen. I don't think he and I
know I don't want to live through another shutdown.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
They it is.
Speaker 23 (53:14):
It scares people, it's unsettling. People are wondering, can't.
Speaker 17 (53:18):
You do your job?
Speaker 23 (53:18):
Why don't you talk to the other side? And I
think the President, by having a meeting with the four
leaders yesterday at the White House, shows that he is
intent on keeping the government open. All we have to
do is pass a very simple extend the government for
seven weeks while we negotiate the ACA benefit, while we
negotiate more appropriations bills. That's all. That's the very simple
(53:42):
ask that I think that I have, that I've already
voted for, that I think would be very should be
very simple for the Democrats to join in on. If
they want to fight, they can fight again in another
seven weeks. But this is just a useless political exercise.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Talking to you us Senator Sellamore capital here as a
government shut down looms. What assurances where the Democrats get
that these subsidies would be renegotiated or at least re
examined here if this cr were to be extended and approved.
Speaker 23 (54:13):
You know, I don't think, you know, I don't think
that guarantees are something that's that's going to satisfy them
in any form or fashion, because they're fighting a political
battle here. But what I'm saying is, sixty thousand West
Virginians have premium support. That's a meaningful amount of people
for me to be able to fight for. And so
there's many Republicans who believe that these this premium support
(54:37):
meant at the small business owner people that are working.
You can imagine who they are. They own a small store.
They're you know, they're a beautician or a barber, or
somebody that can't get insurance anywhere else. Are so prohibitively expensive.
You know, we need to focus on those folks. And
so there's time to do that. We don't have to
do it tonight before midnight. We can do it over
(55:00):
the next several months. And that's what we have been doing,
and we need to continue that.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
There are already defenses being mounted on both sides of
the aisle to frame this as a Democratic shut down,
a Schumer shut down. There are you know, the Democrats
trying to pennant on the Republicans. What about those of
us And I'm not trying to be pejorative of you, Senator,
that are just flat out tired. This is Brighton nineteen
ninety seven was the last time we did twelve bills.
(55:27):
I mean, I don't care who's to blame, but it's
got to get better. We can't keep this up. It's
just not productive.
Speaker 23 (55:34):
I agreed, And there is a lot of blame game.
And you can hear me basically saying we want a
simple extension here of seven weeks, and the Democrats will
not accede to this. You know it's a Schumer shutdown.
I'm going to say that because I believe that. So
that is political and that is a blame game. But
here's here's where I think we need to see the
(55:54):
ray of hope here. This year, under the leadership of
John Thune, we've passed three appropriations bills. It's not twelve,
but it's three. So that's three more than we passed
last year. So that gives a certainty of the funding,
prioritization of funding, and where people in West Virginia can
see what the impacts of the funding for the next
fiscal year could be and should be. We want to
(56:14):
move towards more of that. I'm on the Appropriations Committee.
We've passed about nine of those out of committee already
in a bipartisan way. My bill, which is health, Labor,
and Education, which is very difficult, we have passed that
only losing two or three votes in committee. So that's
an accomplishment. Let's get them onto the floor. We have
time to do that now. And so I think this
(56:38):
shutdown just stalls everything out. And gosh, I don't blame
you for being sick of it. I'm sick of it.
I say every single time it's a misery march. It's
a march to nowhere. It's once you close the government,
what do you have to do reopen it? I mean,
that's just how do you do that? And so you know,
I went through today in my areas of responsibility. What
(57:01):
things are going to be shut down? I mean, probably
has to at least has The federal workforce is going
to be furloughed starting at midnight tonight, which disrupts services
in all kinds of areas.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Senator Shelley Moore Capito joining us here on Metro News
talk line. This may sound flip it. I don't mean
it to sound that way, but I know a lot
of folks are probably sitting out there thinking, well, you know,
Republicans haven't exactly been fiscal hawks. The government spends, spend, spends, Well,
what's another few billion dollars to extend my subsidies for
the ACA? So let me pose that question to you.
(57:35):
What's a few more what's a few billion dollars for
a government that continues to spend, spend, spend anyway?
Speaker 23 (57:41):
Well, I think I said it's around three hundred and
sixty billion over ten years. But let's that's only part
of what the ask is here from the Democrats. They're
asking for an additional on top of that trillion dollars
of spending. They want us to undo the big beautiful bill.
They want us to make sure that healthcare goes to
(58:02):
people that it's not intended for aside from these ACA premiums.
So you know, if maybe the only thing we were
dealing with were the ACA premiums, you know, that would
be a different story. We're talking about another trillion dollars
on top of this. Uh, that's just unsustainable. And I
think it's a big ask because they know they know
it won't it won't be accepted, and they just want
(58:24):
to play the political game, which they're doing.
Speaker 14 (58:28):
To think, given where we.
Speaker 4 (58:29):
Are, given where we are, is it time to reevaluate
the sixty rule, the use of the filibuster and discretionary
spending in the same manner that we use reconciliation for
mandatory spending.
Speaker 23 (58:42):
You know, I think that's a good question. But I'm
one who supports the filibuster. I think that the filibuster
projects the rights of the minority. It forces and you
can see it right here, it forces negotiation. The House
was able to pass because they're simple majority. They only
passed by believe one or two votes in their majority
in the House. So I think in the Senate, the
(59:04):
Senate is meant to be. They always call it the saucer,
the cooling saucer of the hot coffee of the Senate,
of the House to negotiate and get and get a
more reasonable, more studied solution than sometimes the House can offer.
And I'm not saying the House doesn't offer recent solutions
all the time, but in this case, I think, and
in a lot of cases, it allows us to look
(59:26):
at this in more detail. So I'm not for breaking
the filibuster. I voted and written letters in support of
my position throughout my term.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Us Centator Shelly Moore Capito is joining us here Metro
News talk Line. If the government shuts down, like you say,
workers could be furloughed. I mean, there are a lot
of West Virginians who work for the federal government. They
depend on those paychecks. What do you say to them
this morning?
Speaker 23 (59:50):
Well, I you know, I don't want to be flipped
here at all, but I mean I think I would
say I don't want to ask for patients because patience
is run out, and I understand and that I guess
the best I can say is we're working. We're going
to work to try to settle this. We still have
a little bit of time to maybe do a short
term continuing resolution while we while we work on these issues,
(01:00:13):
we will reopen the government at some point. Uh and
so and rest assured that I have them in my
mind because I know that it impacts a lot of families.
Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Senator should West Virginians have concerns that the White House
is not taking the issue seriously given the AI video
the President released last night. As it regards mister Schumer
and mister Jeffries.
Speaker 23 (01:00:36):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think the AI video that
the President released last night. I did catch a glimpse
of it. It's not helpful. I mean, these are serious talks.
It's it's not time for kind of jabbing and uh
and and the message that that that video I think portrayed.
And so you know, I wouldn't have put it out
(01:00:57):
if I was President Trump. But he has his own
way of doing things, and I think he's trying to
rile people up to reach a solution. I'm not sure
that the strategy I would take, and I think it
probably frustrates a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Senator Capito joining us here on Metro News talk line. Senator,
I've read a lot on articles, watched a lot about this.
It seems both sides are confident the other one is
going to be blamed for this. My observations through the
years is that when something like this comes up, Republicans
get blamed for it. Are you confident that this will
be different this time?
Speaker 23 (01:01:31):
Well, I think the fact that all we're offering, all
we want is a continuation of government for seven weeks
while we negotiate these issues, some of which are frivolous
political issues that shouldn't even be a part of this discussion,
some of which are very serious, like the ACA premiums.
And so I think our position, my position as a Republican,
(01:01:54):
is a much more reasoned, common sense way to get
over the hump here to make sure that we that
we move forward. Let's keep in mind the Democrats under
Biden past thirteen exact same bills as what we're asking
for here. So this isn't a new strategy. It's a
strategy that's been employed and has moved forward successfully to
(01:02:17):
get to keep to prevent any kind of government shutdown.
So they've voted for this thirteen times. I have quote
after quote of them saying it harms people, it's a
bad tactic. The least we can do is bare minimus,
is to keep the lights on. And yet I feel
like they're the ones that are obstructing.
Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Here are both sides sitting down today? I mean I
would hope that both sides are at a table talking.
Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
Is that happening?
Speaker 23 (01:02:42):
Well, yes, and I saw that actually, Senator Schumer and
Senator Soon the two leaders were on the floor together
debating this issue. That's great for the American people to
see because I think they can see, you know what
the lines are. And yes, I know they're talking because
I'm on the leadership team and I'm in constant contact
(01:03:03):
with our leader.
Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
By this time tomorrow, will it be shut down?
Speaker 23 (01:03:10):
Unfortunately? I think I think it will be. And the
problem's going to be how long and what the damage
is going to be here. I'm ever hopeful. I'm looking
at the countdown clock actually on c Span two twelve
hours and thirty eight minutes. We can do some things quickly,
so there is some hope. But at this point, I
(01:03:31):
think it's pretty it's pretty pretty dim. I think it
will shut down tonight at midnight.
Speaker 17 (01:03:35):
US centor Shelley on the We're going to vote.
Speaker 23 (01:03:38):
On this again tonight, so sometime in the late afternoons,
so hopefully some of the I know they're negotiating and
some of this may may break.
Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Through US sentaor Shelley Moore, Capito. Thank you so much
for the time, and we'll continue to.
Speaker 23 (01:03:51):
Follow all right, Thank you all very much, byebye.
Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Absolutely U s centor Shelley more capital back in the moment.
This is talk line on Metro News from the Encobe
Insurance Studios.
Speaker 24 (01:04:00):
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(01:04:25):
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Speaker 17 (01:04:58):
Here three or four Talk three oh four.
Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Michael Tumaski, Progressive columnists, West Virginia native going to join us,
coming up bottom of the hour. Let's get out a
couple of texts here before we take our news break
three or four Talk three oh four. It's got to
be the same thing every seven weeks. Why would the
Dems go along with that? Asks the text. I think
(01:05:41):
that's a fair question. I think it's a fair question.
I don't see to go along with it or shut
it down. And like I said this before teaching, I
don't blame them for trying to play the cards that
they have in their hand. They don't have many. You
don't have many when you're in the minority.
Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
But there's no trust in politics, that's for sure. For
not trusting Republicans. I wouldn't ask Republicans to trust Democrats
at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
But you know, the text brings up a point. We're
going even if the CR passes by some miracle today, TJ,
we're gonna do the same thing in seven weeks, and
then we'll do the same thing seven weeks after that.
Because you know, like you said nineteen ninety five, Uh,
Dave and TJ. Give us common folk a quick civics
lesson what happens if the government shuts down? What happens
(01:06:27):
if they just shut the doors? Asks the Texter. Uh, okay,
So that's a little bit more difficult than it sounds.
It would be a partial shutdown. So non essential services,
discretionary spending like the parks, like the National Parks will close.
You can't go to the national parks. Non essential agencies,
Department Offense still going to operate, or at least, you know,
(01:06:50):
the military is still gonna operate. Social Security would not
be affected. What am I forgetting here? TJ. Mandatory spending
still get spent.
Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
Yeah, anything that's in the the mandatory spending section, anything
that's discretionary, really depends on how long it's funded and
what kind of budget overages they have. If you're going
to the Smithsonian, the door is going to be shut. Sorry.
The post office will still work because it's self funded.
The SSA Social Security Administration is self funded outside of
(01:07:19):
what it gets from a mandatory perspective. So the simple
answer is the longer it goes, the more shutdowns you'll
see and the less services you'll see.
Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Textas says, Congress has one annual constitutional mandate to pass
a budget. Nineteen ninety six was the last Congress that
did its constitutional job. And we the taxpayers, and we
taxpayers pay for vacation time on furlough employees since you
know they'll still get paid at the end if they
follow history. Maybe budgets should be done before any other
bills are done. How many Americans have two weeks extra
(01:07:52):
pay if this goes or a month lying around? Not many?
Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
We should, but not many.
Speaker 17 (01:07:56):
It's gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
It's talking to a guy that's a marshal the other day.
He thought he would get be involved in it. Gotta
work with no pay.
Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
That stings three or four, talk three or four. Exqueeze
him one more. Center Capita wants to support a dictator
rather than support subsidies for ACA and medicaid for citizens.
Why was this fight about ACA support not fought in June?
She prefers billions spent on needless occupations by National Guard
in large cities. If those billions were given to cities
for police, it would make more sense. There's a lot
(01:08:27):
in that text. Listen from talking to her TEJ she
certainly is not rejecting extending those subsidies for the ACA outright.
Says we need to look at it. Sees me it
takes some time and negotiate it. But she's not rejecting
that outright by any stretch.
Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
They want to do it in a clean bill, and
she is right in pointing out the Democrats have done
clean crs a number of times. That's a fair criticism.
Just I guess we're gonna have to have a pro
con and figure out who really gets to blame for this.
Judge the scales right.
Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Get a whiteboard, Get a whiteboard out Coming up, Michael
tomat Uski will join us editor for The New Republic
and progressive columnists. We talk ten. This is Takalna Mention News,
the Voice of West Virginia. It's eleven thirty times to
get a news update. Let's check in with the Metro
News radio network. Find out what's happening across the great
state of West Virginia.
Speaker 25 (01:09:18):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lauren and say South
Charleston police officer faces ten charges in Cabital County over
allegations of domestic violence. Thirty two year old Matthew Ripley
arrested over the weekend. Those charges included five counts each
of domestics assaultant domestic battery. The victim reluctantly detailed the
ordeal to troopers who came to the home to do
a wellness check at the request of a family member.
(01:09:39):
A criminal complaint indicates the verbal and physical abuse that
occurred over several days. Ripley was taken into custody Monday
and placed in the Western Regional Jail. The fate of
embattled Bell Police Chief Robert Glenn now lies in the
hands of the town council. The Civil Service Commission Monday
issued a report following a lengthy hearing which backed Mayor
David Fletcher's recommendation that Glenn be terminated. The hearing dealt
(01:09:59):
in allegations that Glenn had a police officer, William HoTT,
place a tow order on a truck from private property
that belonged to a woman. Glenn then told the commission
he would not have told the truck if the woman
had told him that she consent her to it being there.
Speaker 16 (01:10:12):
If she had any.
Speaker 15 (01:10:13):
Times, she would have told me that she's gave him
consent and then people will want her to stay there.
Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
That would have been a different story. But no, how
did she ever tell him? Now?
Speaker 25 (01:10:20):
The truck wound up in Glenn's possession and he was
selling and using parts from the truck. Haught's signature and
badge number appeared on documentation of the vehicle transfer. He
testified he never signed them, and Glenn did admit he
forged Hot's signature with Hat's permission. The Mountain Valley Pipeline
has been in operation fifteen months and it's a big
driver of a projected one and a half billion dollar
(01:10:40):
increase in property tax assessments this year. You're listening to
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Speaker 8 (01:10:47):
Attention high school football fans. If you're wondering where your
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(01:11:08):
Rankings of twenty twenty five. Metro News Power Rankings are
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Visit them at tudors biscuit World dot com.
Speaker 17 (01:11:19):
Time Out.
Speaker 5 (01:11:20):
Oh why remember, We're a team, the place together.
Speaker 17 (01:11:24):
Listen, the winning will take care of itself.
Speaker 10 (01:11:27):
We just have to get everyone involved.
Speaker 26 (01:11:29):
In interscholastic sports. We celebrate what makes every one of
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everyone in the huddle, in the bleachers, and in the
community comes together.
Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
This message presented.
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By the WBSSAC and the West Virginia Athletic Directors Association.
Speaker 25 (01:11:48):
It is the story of a deer that was obviously
tamed by human interaction, and it jumped onto the boat
of a fisherman, Steve Jackson a Barbersville while he was
fishing at East Lynn Lake last weekend.
Speaker 27 (01:11:58):
Dave jessa chicking my boat out and everything else and
started walking away like towards you to bake of my boat.
And I figured, Okay, he's done, and I went back
to doing what I was doing.
Speaker 14 (01:12:10):
He hopped on board.
Speaker 25 (01:12:12):
You can see pictures at wv metronews dot com from
the Metro News anchored desk game Chris Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
That is possibly one of the craziest stories that I've
heard in a while. And I'm not sure how I
would react if the six point buck just decided to
hop on my bass boat with me hang out for
a little bit. Leave it to Chris Lawrence track that
one down. I don't know if you can say shoe,
you know you need to get out of here, my man.
(01:13:00):
There are times though, and it has happened, you know,
as you know, being a deer hunter, where you feel sorry.
You're like, I can't no, not you. You're the one
that like walks up ten yards from your tree stand,
lays down and you're like, all right, you need to
leave now. I've actually thrown bark at deer before. Usually
(01:13:20):
you're you know, it's buck season, you're looking for a
big rack TJ and you got a doze will come in.
Then they lay down ten yards from your tree stand
and just let you know, I'm gonna lay here. You
gotta throw something at them because they start to aggravate you.
Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
Dad used to we haven't hunted in a long time,
but Dad used to say, you know, ah, man, if
it's not at least a seven pointer, let it go.
Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
You know what you say that on day one, by
you know, day fourteen, you're you change your tune a
little bit to you, Joey.
Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Cittyet Fiber is expanding across West Virginia from basics to
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it sitting at dot net today joining us on Metro
News talk line this morning. Editor for the New Republic,
he's a progressive columnist and West Virginia native. Michael Tamaski, Michael,
(01:14:09):
good morning, Glad you could join us.
Speaker 28 (01:14:11):
Good morning, Happy to be with you. First of all,
fourteen days. I think deer season was five days when
I was growing up.
Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
You got two weeks of rifle season there, plus there's
muzzleoder and you know a look, man, the longer the
season goes, and the worst you do, the less picky
you get.
Speaker 28 (01:14:24):
Michael, I guess that's true. And I've got the deer's
roaming around my suburban backyard, so there's more deer than
there were in those days. I guess I.
Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Wanted to talk to you about your piece regarding the
Komy indictment, but we've been talking about the government shutdown
all morning long. We just had Senator Kapitau on what's
your take on this, this government shutdown that's looming here
about twelve hours from now.
Speaker 28 (01:14:45):
Well, you know, it sure looks like it's gonna happen.
I don't think. You know, the Democrats got hummeled pretty
bad by their base back in March when they, according
to their base, caved at the last minute and to
avert a shutdown, and that made a lot of people
(01:15:06):
mad at Chuck Schumer and a Keem Jefferies on the
Republican side. You know, I don't think Trump wants to deal.
I think that I think that Trump and russ Vote.
Who's the head of a little known guy, but the
head of the Office of Management and Budget in many
ways the architect of these kinds of moves. They want
to use this shutdown to furlough workers and to decrease
(01:15:28):
the size of the executive branch and the federal workforce,
and the federal bureaucracy. So I think they're both pretty
dug in.
Speaker 4 (01:15:35):
So tomorrow it's shut down. Don't you think.
Speaker 28 (01:15:38):
That's how it feels? Yeah, I mean, you know they
could come to look they always there's always a chance
that at ten thirty at night, you know, they come
to a six week thing and they put a six
week band aid on it and do that. So there's
always a thirty percent to fifty percent chance of that,
but I'd say this time it's much close to thirty
(01:16:00):
and fifty.
Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Michael Tamaski joining us here mentioned in his talk line, Michael,
I don't blame the Democrats for using the leverage that
they have. Are they overplaying their hand though, asking for
too much knowing they won't get it?
Speaker 28 (01:16:17):
That I don't think no. I mean, you know, take
your stand, you know, you know, plant your flag and
just take your stand and take the lumps. They're making
a calculation that that number one twenty million people up
to twenty million people going to see their premiums increase,
(01:16:38):
healthcare premiums increase, and that that's going to make people angry,
and that the public is going to be on their side.
So if that's what you think, you know, go all in.
I mean, don't go half in these Democrats. You know,
as a liberal commentator, I think Democrats are way too
often guilty of going halfway on things. Just if you're
(01:17:00):
going to do it, do it.
Speaker 4 (01:17:02):
How long can you hold that out with that position
until you have to blink?
Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
What do you think some of.
Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
The precursors are, or the happenings post shut down that
will pull people back to the table and bring them
to make a deal.
Speaker 28 (01:17:16):
Well, I think the fact that military personnel aren't going
to be paid. It's a pretty big factor in both
parties' minds. And you know, you can't go much longer
than about two weeks before you know, officers and enlisted
personnel are banging at their doors and telling them to
cut some kind of deal. So that's a big driver
(01:17:36):
on both sides. But you know, I think it's hard
to say where public opinion is going to land. You know,
I mean public opinion as we know these days, on
most questions, it's forty five forty five or forty seven
forty seven, and then there's six percent who can be
persuaded one way or the other. And you know, we'll
(01:17:57):
see how the majority of that six percent, and then
the other side, the other side will cave.
Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
What do you say if I told you I think
it's going to be deeper this time, because I think
people are just completely ticked off at this point, especially independence.
This idea that Democrats can place it on Republicans, Republicans
can place it on Democrats, I call something on that, man.
I think at this point people are fed up, and
they're fed up equally with both sides. I think that's
(01:18:25):
the bigger picture.
Speaker 28 (01:18:26):
Well, they are, they are, And the vote of the
swing voters who you mentioned, Yeah, they're definitely set up
with both sides. Donald Trump won most of them last fall.
Now he's at forty three percent in polls, maybe forty
five in good polls, maybe thirty eight in bad polls,
(01:18:47):
And so he's those numbers tell me that he's lost
a good chunk of those swing voters. Doesn't mean they're
necessarily loyal to the Democrats. Now, they're somewhere in the middle,
you know. I yes, there's anger at both sides, but
but public opinion will within a week or so, will
(01:19:11):
kind of settle in one direction or the other. As
who's as who should be shouldering more blame here?
Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Talking to Michael Tamaski, West Virginia native, editor of The
New Republic Progressive commentator. We are sometimes it's hard to see, Michael,
because we are in this particular business. We watch this
stuff very closely. We have to talk about it on
a daily basis. For the average for the average person
out there, and I'm talking about folks who don't work
(01:19:37):
for the federal government, who just get up go to
work every day. Are they paying attention to this and
really all that concerned about it? Or are they going
to get up and go about their business tomorrow whether
or not the government's open or closed.
Speaker 28 (01:19:50):
Of course, most people aren't going to be that concerned about.
If people have their lives to live and their kids
to raise. There is some percentage of the population that
is going to be hit more directly than other people.
And these tend to be poorer people, and you know,
they don't you know, we in the media don't probably
(01:20:10):
don't pay as much quite as much attention to these
people as we ought to, and they don't have much
of a megaphone. But you know, so there are some
people who will be directly affected in the coming weeks
in terms of certain kinds of benefits and things like that.
But you know, most for most people, it's pretty abstract
(01:20:31):
until some aspect of it really hits home.
Speaker 4 (01:20:36):
Reading your piece at New republic dot com, you raise
the issue of spirituality Christianity in the argument that you make.
This is a quote you say, because as we all know,
Jesus wanted governments to take money from poor people and
give it to rich people, and believe that strangers among
us should be spurned and even detained and taught we
(01:20:56):
should hate people who aren't like us. You're speaking tongue
in cheek there, but get into your thinking and why
you wrote that, and to vend your position there.
Speaker 28 (01:21:04):
Well, it angers me when I hear these people invoke
Jesus's name all the time, and you know, and what
all they want to do is take food stamps away
from poor people and give tax cuts to rich people
and you know, throw people into tention camps. Those aren't
Jesus positions. I'm sorry, they just aren't. And you know,
(01:21:27):
I wish the Democrats would talk more about religion. Part
of this is the democrats fault. And I say that
as one who's more sympathetic to the Democrats than to
the Republicans certainly, But part of it's the Democrats fault
because they aren't comfortable talking about religion and invoking Jesus's
name in defense of their values. But you know, Jesus
(01:21:48):
would not be you know, throwing people intotention camps and
you know it just makes me mad, that's all.
Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Are you talking about illgomigrants? Michael?
Speaker 28 (01:22:01):
Yeah, Well, I mean they.
Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
Are illegal or what do we.
Speaker 10 (01:22:08):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Michael? We got we got twelve million illegals whatever the
case is in the country. I mean, we have these problems.
How do we address them?
Speaker 27 (01:22:17):
Uh?
Speaker 28 (01:22:17):
You know that's a different question. What kind of policy
should be is a different question from what would Jesus do?
But what what should the policy be? We've come there?
Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Uh uh I think there was Uh oh we might
I swear you didn't cut him off off out? No? No,
uh uh Michael TAMASKI just got cut off.
Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
Maybe that has to do. Maybe there's also a plan
in an addition to Trump r X for Trump Telcommon. We're
having issues with the tailcoat lines already, Michael. You there,
we have lost them.
Speaker 28 (01:22:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
And you know what, it was just about to get
good too. It was just getting good we lost.
Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
Should we take the break and maybe he'll call back?
Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
You know what, we can take the break and we
see if Ethan can reconnect with him, because I want
to hear where he goes with that answer. You know,
I don't know s. I'm just saying, we just started
bringing up some deep stuff and then it gets cut off.
Is the Illuminati listening to the show just saying all right?
Three or four? Talk? Three of four is the text line,
see if you can reconnect with Mike Warback at the moment.
(01:23:18):
This is talk line from the Encove Insurance Studios.
Speaker 11 (01:23:23):
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Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
All right, still trying to reconnect with Michael Tamaski. So
we speculated it might be the Illuminati. TJ and producer
Jake thought he'd be funny during the break and he
cut the lights in the studio like they are listening.
Oh that's pretty good. All right, we got Michael back on. Michael,
(01:25:06):
we thought maybe you know, the demand was listening in
and cut off our conversation there.
Speaker 14 (01:25:12):
Yeah, I don't you know. I was on a landline,
which I used for these because I think it's more secure.
But look what happens. I had a little power outage anyway. Okay,
So what I say? So as a policy matter, well,
you know, we've come close a few times to a
bipartisan agreement. It's been a while, it's been almost twenty years,
(01:25:34):
but we came very close to a bypartisan agreement on
a path to citizenship for people if they if they
met certain certain standards and steps along the way over
a period of years. And you know, we were almost
there in the Bush era with Democrats and Republicans agreement.
That's been a long long time but and I don't
(01:25:55):
know how much hope there is for such a thing today,
but you know, the model is out there. People are
interested in it.
Speaker 1 (01:26:01):
And Michael, just to add a couple of thoughts to
your to your previous point, quite from my perspective, when
politicians start mixing politics and religion, I find so much
of it to be very disingenuous because the speech doesn't
match the actions.
Speaker 17 (01:26:18):
And I'm not.
Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Pointing the finger at any one person, pointing the finger
to everybody because and a broad brushes here obviously, Michael,
But you bring religion into politics, Like I said, this
speech often does not match the actions of the politician.
I find much of it to be very disingenuous and
insulting in a lot of cases.
Speaker 14 (01:26:39):
Yeah, i'd certainly say that's true, was new with respect
to a lot of people. But I'm just saying that,
Like the point I was trying to make a few
minutes ago, is that Republicans are going to bring religion
into politics. It's it's it's The religious right is a
massive part of the Republican base. The Democrats normally stay
(01:27:01):
away from it. And maybe that's to be admired in
some respects, but you know, the fact is a lot
of people are religious. There are a lot of religious
liberals out there in the United States. Believe it or not,
there are. You wouldn't know it from watching our political discourse,
but there are. And I think Democrats sometimes ought to
(01:27:24):
invoke religion, invoke the teachings of Jesus and other religious
leaders in support of their values.
Speaker 4 (01:27:31):
So that's where I wanted to go. I agree with you,
And the question is why do they not?
Speaker 14 (01:27:37):
I don't get it, because it's a more diverse coalition,
you know, Republicans, the Republican Party, the Republican base rank
and file is more just straightforwardly Christian Democrats are a
lot of different denominations of Christian and Republicans are specifically
(01:27:57):
Southern Baptists, not all, of course, but but to a
consider book step.
Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Yeah, but isn't there a room even if someone isn't
a follower of Christ. Couldn't you say within the democratic
circles that Jesus did good things, and certainly that example
would resonate.
Speaker 14 (01:28:14):
Yes, I think they should. I think they should, and
I think they shy away from it because you know,
they're afraid they're going to offend Jews. They're afraid they're
going to offend Muslims, they're afraid they're going to offend
and non believers. I don't think they're going to offend
any of those people. I think if you're talking about,
you know, your values and tying them to religious figures
(01:28:36):
in history, I just don't think that's going to offend anybody.
I think the Democrats, you know, they're polsters and there
and their sound bite people. I can give them a
lot of bad advice.
Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Michael. We do have to leave it there. We have
another break to take before we clear the top of
the hour. Sorry about the technical difficulties and come back anytime, buddy.
Speaker 14 (01:28:56):
I'd love to. And that was all on my end,
my beads land life.
Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Who would think the landline would let you down? All right,
Michael appreciates the conversation. All right, gotta take a break.
We'll wrap things up on a Tuesday. This is a
talk line from the COVID Short Studios.
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Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
All right, TJ, So the video is fake, But Trump's
announcing his drug deal with the Pfiser as we speak
right now.
Speaker 4 (01:31:05):
Yeah, so, well, you're Eli, Lilly. Is that government picking
winners and losers? Why only Pfiser? Why do they get
a preferred path? I got a real problem with this.
Anytime the government gets into the private sector, as well
intentioned as it is, because the president can make a
great deal, this thing in, it's going to end poorly.
I'm sorry, I just don't see it.
Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
You mean, the government getting involved in things ends poorly? Shocking, DJ, shocking. Uh, well,
I guess we've got something to talk about tomorrow. Yeah,
I'll do my homework. Uh, all right, let me get
some text in here. Three or four talk three or four.
Jesus would not vote Republican. Dave's brain broke for a
second considering living a religious principles or living GOP principles.
(01:31:47):
Don't hurt yourself, Dave you.
Speaker 4 (01:31:50):
Were being responsible and thinking before you speak.
Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
That's all. Uh three or four talk three oh four
to your previous guest. When Jesus was asked about paying
tax to Caesar, he said, give to Caesar. What is Caesar?
So you do have to follow the law of the government.
You do not have to be of the world, but
we do have to live in the world and follow
the rules and regulations that are spelled out by government.
People that are here illegally are circumventing legal government rules
(01:32:17):
and laws. Texters simply says, wa w bd, what would
Bubba do? Gotta get that on a T shirt? Three
or four talk three oh four. Republicans have no place
talk about this government shutdown thing. Whichever party is not
in power holds it up for a theater something to
(01:32:39):
that TJ. Republicans were right wing people made a concerted
effort to paint Jesus as a warrior in the mid
twentieth century. You might like reading the book Jesus and
John Wayne. It would explain a lot about the difference
between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to Christianity and
political views.
Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
How do you think Tamaski's onto something though? You think
to the Republican excuse me. The Democratic Party of West
Virginia day back the eighties and nineties when the ay
Days right, hardly find a Democrat that was pro abortion.
They were very spiritual, they held as much high ground
as Republicans there, so nationally, I think he's right. I
(01:33:18):
think it's something they failed to embrace, and I think
they're less oft than they would be politically because of it.
Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Three or four talk three o four. Thanks for providing
balanced perspective, though I'm sure you will get grief for it.
Dave and TJ. Would you guys vote Democrats to stop that,
to stop what the Republicans are doing? Asks the Texter guys,
please stop saying I'm sorry when you're stating your opinion
(01:33:45):
about your basic values. Didn't realize I did, thank you.
We pay high med price range, we pay high medical
prices range elsewhere because we subsidize their lower prices. I
think I get what you're saying there. I think I
get it.
Speaker 4 (01:34:03):
God, look at Pfizer stock.
Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
I could take a guess where it went. I can
take a guess. All right, we are plumb out of
time at your news. Middays coming up Chris Hamilton from
the Cole Associate President of the West Virginia Cole Association,
going to join the show. After yesterday's announcement regarding coal
investment by the government, we'll get into that, or well,
David Amanda will get into that. We're going to get
(01:34:27):
out of here. We'll try to regroup and do a
little bit better tomorrow, and I'll try not to break
my brain over the next twenty two hours. As the
test Texter suggested, all right, for Jake, Kyle and Ethan
as well as TJ. Don't forget him. I have a
great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. It's talk a
lon To Mention News, the Voice of West Virginia.
Looks like we are probably possibly most likely headed to
a government shutdown center Capital. We'll join us. Coming up
second hour, It's Metro News talk Line and we are
underway radio turned.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Off from the studios of w v r C Media
and the Metro News Radio and Television Network. A voice
up West Virginia comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This it's Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and TJ. Meadows.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So it's that way control from.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Charles stand by to David TJ.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You're on.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Metronews. Talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling you
with coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit
incova dot com to learn more.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Good morning, Welcome inside the Encoba Insurance studios. Dave Wilson
in Morgantown. TJ. Meadows anchors coverage from the Charleston Incopa
Insurance Studios. Jake Link runs the video stream on Metro
News Television, and Ethan Collins is our audio producer Today.
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk is the
phone number eight hundred seven six five eight two five five,
(01:37):
or you can text the show three oh four Talk
threeh four Senator Shelley Moore Capito will join us at
eleven oh six. Sure seems like we are headed straight
for a government shutdown. We'll get the senators thoughts next hour.
Ryan Schmelz will join us from DC prior to that
to give us the latest. Also, we'll talk about the
mid Atlantic Resiliency Link and Progressive Calumn West Virginiated. Michael
(02:01):
Tamaski will join us as well. Loaded show. We'll get
your text and calls in as well. Good morning, TJ. Meadows.
Wait a minute, missed the button again. Good morning, TJ. Meadows.
Two morning already this week?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, you know, sometimes you're with it, sometimes you're not.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's all right.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
We all have our good and bad days. Hey, seventy percent,
that's what the market is, handicapping the odds of shutdown. Polymarket.
You go on, place a bet right now. I just
looked seventy percent.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Uh, that feels about right. I mean, Vegas never gets
it wrong, right, We say that in sports all the time.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Let's you and I do a bet. You wanna do
a bet, Let's let's hop on. We'll put we'll put
like two dollars in. We should do a dollar and
see if we can rise our fortune out of all this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Grand Pappy, how did you, Greg, how did you structure fortune? Well?
I was betting on the government shutdown, young and uh,
that's where we coup. I saw our buddy. A friend
of the show, Matt Lewis compared this path toward the
shutdown to the Austin Path hour scene with the steamroller. Yes,
where he's going toward the henchman and you yes, you
(03:05):
know it's you've got one hundred yards in between. That's
kind of what it feels like. We've just kind of
been lurching toward it. And that's probably going to happen,
probably going.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I think, so you know, we're having some fun joking
about it. It's it's serious and it shouldn't happen. But yeah,
all indicators the markets are down this morning. I think
it's definitely going to happen, but hopefully I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I want to be wrong. We'll check in with Ryan
Smells about fifteen minutes from now. Senator Kapita joins us
at eleven six, but joining us in the Charleston studios
this morning is the Treasure of the Great State of
Westernial Larry Pack, part of the Big beautiful bill that
was passed by the Congress and signed by the President
was the no tax on tips and overtime deduction. Is
(03:46):
that something West Virginia should consider for the state income tax? Well,
the Treasurer seems to think so. First of all, Larry,
good morning, glad you could join us.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Hey, good morning, glad to be here today. Beautiful morning.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right, no tax on tips and overtime? Is this
something the West Virginia Legislature should be considering.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Absolutely? I think we definitely need to do it. So
today I'm asking the governor. The governor, our governor and
legislatures are joining with President Trump and abolished income taxes
on overtime and tips and do it effective January one
of this year, twenty twenty five. You know, President Trump,
along with Senators Capitol, Justice, Commerce, and Miller and Moore,
they did their part this summer by abolishing those taxes
(04:26):
from federal law. We need to do the same thing
for West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
How would it work, Clary? Would it mirror the same
set up at the Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I think absolutely.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
The best The most simplest way is the mirror the
federal legislation. Again, that would give you about twenty five
thousand dollars that you could salut on tips in about
twelve five on overtime. West Virginia's you know, we're made
up of hard working folks, whether we're you know, your
construction trades or nurses or bust school bus drivers, coal
miners and so forth. Overtime is a big part of
(04:54):
their pay and to be able to give them some
relief from that would really be really be helpful. And
we all know that when you know here, if you're
from a working family, you know, when you get over time,
it's taxed a lot heavier than your regular pay. And
to give this some relief, give them relief from inflation
to really be a good thing. And then when it
comes to tips, uh, you know, those folks, those jobs
are hard and they work really, really hard. So any
(05:16):
relief we can give them from inflation we should do
to do so. President Trump showed us the way we
need to follow him.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Treasurer. Larry Pack joining us here Metro News talk Line. Certainly,
the individual benefit is there, Larry? Is there an advantage
for the state overall to consider and pass this sort
of legislation? Well, I think so.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I think particularly, you know, one of the things that
we need. What we really need we need we need
more workers, right so we have a shortage of workers
in about any any type of industry that you're here
looking at. So it definitely will help us attract these
type of workers, these type of jobs. Also from a
small business standpoint, really we have a lot of tourism.
We have a lot of small business type folks that
depend on tips, you know, where there's waitresses of hospitality
(05:54):
type folks. So it's really going to help in that
area as well, because it's going to be a pay
raise for them, and we want to be able to
give them a pay raise make sure they have a
better standard of living. So I think I think it
really does help West Virginia as far as attractiveness, it's
definitely going to help us grow.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I think our economy you hit on this, but more directly,
labor participation rate. It's horrible here, it's horrible. Does something
like this make people want to get up and participate
in the market?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You think, oh, absolutely, well, you know, so, you know,
our government, particularly our federal government, were really good about
tracking every dollar, right, so so they're really last last
ten to fifteen years, they've done a lot better job
is tracking those tips and taxing those tips, and we
just need.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
To give them help.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I've never seen a waitress that didn't bust their butts
right to accommodate this, or the folks that that work
work at the hotels and just different different trades in
our barbers and so forth. Anything we can do to
help them, to help help those folks, we should do.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So Larry. The states surrounding us, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland,
do they have similar laws or have they considered similar
type measures. No, they don't.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
But other than Maryland, they have lower income tax rates
state income tax rate than we do. So they're all
leading to charge their rates are lower than ours. So
this is uh, you know, this is a small This
is a small step I think for to make us competitive.
It's a big step if you're one of those folks
who would get this tax benefit.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I want to talk about the fundamental I guess economic
discipline of this in terms of I think you would
agree at least I think you can tell me I'm wrong.
Anytime you put more money back in people's pockets, it's
going to create more discretionary spending. We've seen that in
some of our tax numbers already this year, as we've
cut intocome tax, we're seeing our sales taxes go up.
(07:33):
Can we anticipate the same kind of economic drivers out
of a program like this?
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Absolutely, most of very few of these folks are going
to buy CDs with this money, right, They're gonna they're
going to spend it on their family. They spend it
on their on their children. Uh So it's definitely going
to go right back into colmy. So I think it
really is a good thing to do. It's it's the
right thing to do. We need to continue to march
forward to reduce our state income taxes, to have to
make us more to be more competitive with our surrounding states.
So this is this again a good step forward. But
(07:59):
it's really a good time to do it because again
we're following the President Trump's lead. The arguments he made
for the legislation are really good arguments, and so I
think we should do it in West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Are there downsidnes though to adding to our I mean,
our tax codes already complicated enough. Are there downsigns to
adding something else to the tax code?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Well, you always want to I guess you're always concerned
about that. But there you know, there are a lot
of tax credits, there's a lot of right offs for
folks that wear suits like I got on today. There's
very few deductions, there's very few credits. There's very few
exclusions for for working men and women. So again we
need to we need to balance the scales a little
bit and give them something.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Do we have any estimates on what this would cost?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right or wrong?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
There's always this debate about Peia, you know, that comes
out of general revenue. We had Mike Pushkin on yesterday
talking about a fix for Peia. This would lower the
amount of money in state coffers. So do we know
what it would cost at all and how that might affect.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
I think the state has My rough rough estimates areround
somewhere around twenty five million dollars. I'm sure that the
Revenue Department will give us some better number. So it's
going to be a small number as far as the
total MAUNT or state government spending. But again, it'll be
a big, big benefit to the folks that can take
advantage of this.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Talking to State Treasurer Larry Pack, he is urging the
governor and the legislature to take up a bill and
pass it no tax on tips and over time, have
you spoken to the governor or lawmakers in the legislature
and gotten the temperature in the room for something like this.
We've talked to small lawmakers, so I think there's a
lot of interest in it. So I really do think
it's something we can move on. Again, the later we
(09:30):
wait into the year, the harder it is to make it,
you know, to make it effect of January one, of
twenty twenty five. So we're hoping that we'll get some
movement on this quite quickly.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
So special session then in order or how do you tell?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That's what's what I'd like to see. A special session
just get it done. Should be a really quick, really
quick deal. And I think that's something that they could
They would suspend rules and get it done in one day.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Is this something you could post date or back date
if they can't get it done in a special session.
This comes up when we get to January.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
It makes it harder because you know, once we get
into January, towards the end of January, people start filing
their tax returns, so it's going to be really difficult
to do that, and we don't want to put people
to the burden having to file men of returns and
go to that expense. So if we want to save
money on filing, we need to go sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I want to.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Shift gears for just a second and talk about your
announcements when it comes to divesting in China and making
sure that we're not taking state dollars there. You're very
passionate about that. Why, well, it's just.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
You know, I think so much, so much what we
do in government is undo with things that we've done
in the past. Right, So, on one hand, the idea
that we ever invested in companies owned by communists China
to the Chinese military is fairly ridiculous, right, But for
some reason years ago, we decided to make that decision.
But the reason I'm passionate about it is you can
look almost any area in Communist Chinese Party coeds China.
(10:53):
China is working against us interests. Whether they're selling guns
and stuff to our tour enemies, they're send fitting on here,
they gave us, they gave us COVID, they're still in
our intellectual property. They've stolen our jobs right there, you know,
West Virginia is really probably the state that got hit
the hardest. You know, our factories, our meals and so many,
so many of those have been closed down because we
(11:14):
were told forty fifty years ago, we if we send
jobs over there, they'll send stuff back to us. They'll
they'll be a you know, there'll be a friend. They'll
drop our resting morals. Now that happened, all they've done
is take take take. We need to stand up for
West Virginia's to stand up for Americans.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Can the idea of divesting from these Chinese owned companies
and also managing these funds getting the most returned, getting
the most bang for the buck, can those two things coexist? Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, we've taken We've taken a lot of time at
the Investment Management Board, and that's the that's the group
that I share that that invest the state pension funds.
So we were very diligent about it. We went through
and studied it, and we made the decision to gather
with recommendations from staff from our investment advisors, or this
would reduce to our return at all.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
What kind of instruments do we invest in? I don't
know the average West Virginians. I don't off the top
of my head understand what we're putting our money in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
We have a very broad portfolio in Investment Management Board,
so we got about twenty eight twenty nine billion dollars,
so it's anywhere from stocks and bonds, the hedge funds
to real estate, lots of different financial instruments. So we
have a very broad ability to make sure that we
have the best, the best, the most diverse portfolio to
(12:31):
give us the best returns. It's one of the reasons
that our returns have been in the top ten of
all states for many, many years. So we do a
really good job, very very proud of that. And when
when we make above that seven percent or seven and
a half percent that the actuaries want us to make
for our pensions, that's less money that state we have
to put in from our general fund every year. So
it's really important, I think, which will probably the most
(12:51):
important thing that I do, is make sure there are
state investments that we're doing the right things. So we're
proving about it. We didn't just wake up one morning,
stay to do this and do it the next day.
We'll have it all completed by January the first, or
twenty twenty six. It will take us another three months.
But again we won't do it in a prudent way,
doing in the way that we won't do anything. We
won't harm our pensioners. But at the same time, we
(13:12):
also currently we're risking our pinchers assets. So if you
may remember, we lost we lost millions of dollars from
investments in Russia years ago. That's probably four or five
year ago before the Russian War started. So so you know,
some of these results, they look good, these opportunities look good.
But when you have someone who's a bad actor, any
(13:32):
day that that game can be over. So bring up
money back on shore, making sure that we're invested in
the United States companies, they're European companies. We'll protect the
pensioners and we'll do it. Will get a much better
You know what I'm going to say, Go ahead, you
know what I'm going to say. Index funds, man, index funds,
American business.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I think so.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And when we come back on, I'll show you that
our returns have been over and above indust.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You're being you're beating the index funders.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yes, pretty hard to do, Yes, sir, we have a
fantastic team, and you know, and government. Sometimes you're kind
of fussed at your predecessors, like I cad fussed the
press essers that set up PA. But when it came
to the Investment Management Board the Bureau treasure Investments, there's
a lot of decisions made twenty years ago. They were
really good decisions. We should be thankful with the folks
that were in the room at that time that made
(14:16):
those decisions, because we've got a really good system in
both We should be very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
State Treasurer Larry Pack will have a story posted up
at WDV metro news dot com proposing no tax on
tips and overtime. Larry, always good to talk to you,
appreciate you stopping by this morning. Thank you sir. Having
nice day. Coming up, we'll check in on Capitol Hill
with Fox News Radios. Ryan Schmels says we head toward
a federal government partial shutdown. We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
A new episode of Live Healthy West Virginia is now
posted on the podcast center of WV metronews dot com
and the Metro News TV app. We talk about gynecologic
cancer and the most common warning sign that you may
have it.
Speaker 8 (14:52):
You should never have fashion of bleeding after menopause and
not have it worked up. It's just highly abnormal and
is the most commons them out a lot of the
canters that we see.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
Listen to Live Healthy West Virginia for candid conversations with
insights for improving your health and well being. Live Healthy
West Virginia is presented by WU Medicine.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Rafters along the Lower Gully have reported sightings of a
pirate on the riverbank. Apparently he's throwing gold coins to
every boat that passes back to you.
Speaker 9 (15:20):
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Speaker 2 (15:53):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encovia Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit in covid dot com to learn more.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
If you ever start to do something you're like hm,
I feel like I'm forgetting something. And then you go, boy,
I haven't got a text message in a while, and
you realize you left your phone two floors up from
your studio and went, oh, man, there's no way I
can make it up there and back during a break.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
That explains yes, because I was just texting you.
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I was kind of saying, like, usually too, we'll pull
the curtain back from me, we'll text in between breaks,
kind of communicate, see what's going on. I'm like, I've
got a text in a while from anybody, And then
I realized, oh, left the phone sitting on the desk.
So big, big props to Kelly, who serves many, many,
many roles here in the Millert building. She was kind
enough to run that down to me, cause I gotta
(16:47):
tell you, TJ. It's going to take more than a
mountain near mile for me to be able to run
up two flights of steps, grab my phone, run back
down and still be able to talk when I get
back to the studio.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And the elevator is not that quick quick, but it's
not that quick, it's it runs.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Let's just leave it there, it goes up and down. Well,
let me bring you up to speed on something, bring
the curtain back. Schmells texts me and he says, hey,
I'm going to be late. Can I be late? And
I'm like, well, what do you got going on?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
He sends me a picture in front of the Capitol
with every house dem and Hakeem Jeffrey's at a podium
that reads save Healthcare. So he's going to call us
at ten forty five. He wanted to hear what they
had to say, and he'll call us at ten forty five.
I said, well, yeah, okay, I guess I suppose that's a.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Good enough excuse. You know, he's a big deal. TJ.
He's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Brian's a good guy though, he really he always calls
if he's going to be laid. He always he's always
on time for the most part, So good guy.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
All right, Well, since we have a couple of minutes here,
let's squeeze in a couple of texts before we transition
to the Middletlantic Resiliency link. Delegate Rick Hildebrand, it's going
to join us coming up a couple of minutes from now.
Texter says, let's raise state minimum wage to fifteen dollars
an hour, like the City of Charles did the last
four years. This is what needs to happen to take
some of that billion dollar rainy day fund and give
(18:06):
back to the people it belongs to. All I'm not
a huge fan of raising the minimum wage. I also
wouldn't fight it real hard either. I guess kind of
indifferent when it comes to that. I don't think. I
don't think it does. It does not do what the
advocates think it will do. It it just raises the floor,
(18:27):
that's all. Yeah, what happens when you put more money
into anything. What happens with the IRA inflation?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Yeah, so you're gonna have artificial inflation either way, and
in real dollars it's a wash. So if you want
to pay twenty five dollars for cheeseburger, all right, fine, whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
All right? Two part text Half I agree with half.
Well you'll know, I don't think removing taxes on tips
in overtime is going to increase labor participation. I don't
imagine people who are not working are going to say,
you know what, now that the overtime isn't taxed, I
think I'll start working, and I'll work more than forty
hours a week to get that no tax. I don't
disagree with that statement. ToJ don't disagree it'll help. I
(19:06):
don't think it could hurt. But I tend to agree
without a statement that you're not gonna have a lot
of people run to go get a job because suddenly
you can get no tax on tips.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
And I guess I'll be mister unpopular today. It'll start
and it'll help. On one side of the equation, I
don't disagree with you. There has to be more, and
that other more is taking a hard look at how
easy it is to get entitlements and who really needs
it and who doesn't in order to be able to
not work. Look if we had huge numbers of millionaires
(19:38):
in this state that have very high net worths, and
that would explain our labor participation rate. I'm good with it.
That ain't it.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
The rest of the text. If West Virginia legalized wait
for it, cannabis with a Michigan style set up, West
Virginia could add some money to the bank account before
the it's not a panacea argument gets underway. No, duh,
it'd be another money making arrow in the quiver, says
the Texter ah No, you got me once on the
legal weed, not doing it again. You got me once
(20:08):
on the medical weed. I'm not going down that road again.
We basically have legalized recreational marijuana.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Let me get on and see what the bid spread
is in Vegas and polymarket of West Virginia legalizing weed.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Maybe we'll play a bed on that one while we're
at it as well, we'll take the under okay. Uh
Texas says two things. When Republicans went behind closed doors
and did not include a single Democrat in this bill,
what did they think would happened? Talking about the cr
Also to Senator Capitol, why are Democrats the only ones
trying to protect healthcare for West Virginia residents? Florida listener here, Well,
(20:45):
thank you for listening from Florida. It's a very small
partial shutdown, not a shutdown, as you keep saying. Another
reason the news is not trustworthy by not telling the truth,
they spew the same lies here. What's so hard about
being truthful? Asks the text.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I think we have said, maybe not today, but certainly
I think yesterday that it's discretionary spending. We're talking about
discretionary spending. We're not talking about essential spending, that's fundamental,
that's passed through a different process. So potato potato maybe,
But thank you, point well taken.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
We'll get more of your text a little bit later
on the program. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is going to
join us at eleven oh six. We'll talk to her
about this continuing resolution government shutdown, expanded healthcare credits. We'll
get into all of that coming up eleven oh six
this morning. Up next, we'll talk about the mid Atlantic
Resiliency Link. Some still not happy with that proposed route.
(21:37):
We'll get into that subject in just a moment. This
is talk line from the Encove Insurance Studios on Metro News,
the Voice of West Virginia. It is ten thirty and
time to get a news update. Let's check in with
the Metro News radio network. Find out what's happening across
the great state of West Virginia.
Speaker 12 (21:56):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. President Donald Trump
says there there should be hundreds of millions of dollars
in federal funds spent to update coal fired power plants
to keep them running, part of Trump's plan for CO
announced Monday. The plan includes six hundred and twenty five
million dollars to stop the decommissioning of power plants. There's
reaction on both sides of this issue. This morning, in
(22:16):
our story at wv metrodews dot com, the top brass
at Hope Gas is explaining the company's decision to pay
WVU millions for naming rights.
Speaker 13 (22:26):
The roots of Hope Gas go back more than one
hundred years, and now the company has negotiated a deal
to rename the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown Hope Coliseum. Hope
Gas President n CEO Morgan O'Brien says they want to
be a positive force for communities and institutions across the state.
Speaker 14 (22:44):
We came here the last three years and we're really
trying to dig the roots of Hope even deeper than
they are, and this felt like just a natural partnership
for us.
Speaker 13 (22:53):
The duration of the deal is ten years. I'm Mike
Nolton for wv metronews dot Com.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
Department has assessed public utilities for taxes to be paid
in the next year. The assessment includes a one point
five billion dollar increase linked to the beginning of operations
for the Mountain Valley Pipeline the Tax Commission matter. Irby
told the bord of public Works money. The increase will
benefit the counties where the pipeline is located to the border.
Public Works will likely approve the new assessments in January.
(23:20):
You're listening to Metro News for forty years, the Voice
of West Virginia.
Speaker 15 (23:25):
Hi.
Speaker 16 (23:25):
I'm Eli Henthorne, Project server at CEC. Starting my career
at CEC was the best decision I ever made. I
wanted to explore new areas in land surveying, and CEC
offered just that. I've grown so much, serving diverse markets
and rapidly advancing my career. And it's more than just work.
CEC is like family, supporting me every step of the way.
CEC is where your career takes flight. At CEC, we
(23:46):
engineer progress and the great state of West Virginia.
Speaker 17 (23:48):
Find out what CEC can do for you. Visit cecinc
dot com.
Speaker 18 (23:54):
The second half of the high school football season continues
Friday night with our go Mark Game of a Week
Ford Hill, Ireland at Bridgeport Lost Catch Greenbriar West against
Port Fry, Ohio. Just Sales versus Cabell Midland Willing Park
in Morgantown and Mary at a Versus Williamstown, all on
Metro News TV brought to you by the Thrasher Group,
Marshall University and the Mountain Air Challenge Academy. Download the
(24:15):
free Metro News TV app on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple, TV,
Roku or Fire TV, or visit Double DV Metro newstv
dot com for more information.
Speaker 12 (24:25):
South Charleston police officers facing domestic violence related charges in
Cabell County State Police of charge thirty two year old
Matthew Ripley the five counts of domestic assault in five
counts of domestic battery after it leslie grabbed a woman
several times and smashed her cell phone. Appears to two
We're in a relationship. The woman also accuses Ripley of
verbally accosting her for hours. Stay please say It appears
at Clarksburg. Man suffered a medical episode before he wrecked
(24:47):
his car Monday morning in Weston. Victim identified his forty
five year old Jeremy Whitson from the Metro News anchored desk,
I'm Jeff Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Metro News talk Line continues from the Cove Insurance Studios
Senator Capitol eleven oh six this morning. Last Friday, next
to Era Transmission released the proposed route, or its preferred route,
for the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link. That's the one hundred
and seven mile transmission line that will run from Pennsylvania
(25:35):
through West Virginia to Virginia. It will cut through portions
of Montaguelia, Preston, Mineral, and Hampshire Counties. In Hampshire County,
the line will enter the eastern border near Springfield and
traversed with the county exiting just east of the capean Bridge.
Local governments, including the Hampshire County Commission, have passed resolutions
(25:56):
opposing that plan. Joining au sild Metro News talk line
this morning is Hampshire County Delegate Rick Hillenbrand. Rick, good morning,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 19 (26:05):
Good morning, gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
What's the feeling in Hampshire County about the mid Atlantic
Resiliency Link.
Speaker 19 (26:13):
Well, to summarize it, I don't know a single individual
that has come out in favor of it, and I
think there was a news article a couple of weeks
ago quoting the number of letters the PSC has received
against it. It was over eight hundred letters. Against this
and not a single one for it.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
How do you balance the need for energy versus preservation
of the land. I get people don't like it. I'm
not sure, Rick, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure
if we have any of the choice or how you
fight it?
Speaker 19 (26:44):
Yeah, well we can fight it, and can I start there?
Because there's an example not too long ago where this
was successfully defeated, or similar type effort was successfully defeated.
In New England, there was an effort called the Northern
Past Transmission Line project was proposed in twenty ten. Ultimately
(27:07):
it was basically killed in twenty nineteen. So when the
people object and the governmental organizations listen, you can be
successful there. Now, electricity, I love it as well. I
enjoy AI, which is what this is substantially intended to
(27:29):
go support. And I like the well that I have
to run, and I like my air conditioning, etc. But
I think, as we all know, and TG, I think
you're an engineering type person, you know that it's not
directional in the sense of the way electricity works is
more a network, so this power can get there through
(27:50):
multiple means. If indeed that's the only place you can
go to accomplish the end result, but there are other
methods to accomplish this that are less intrusive and maybe
make it a little more palatable to those that are
going to be affected.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Rick Hill and Brand is joining US Hampshire County Delegate.
We're talking about the mid Atlantic resiliency length. I'm looking
at the map and sometimes it's hard to tell, Rick,
but it looks like the proposed route would mostly follow
an existing high voltage right of way through Hampshire County.
So's what's the major push or the major point for
(28:29):
opposing this plan in Hampshire County.
Speaker 19 (28:32):
Well, you're right, there is an existing line there, although
this would not be using the same infrastructure, so it's
going to be adding new infrastructure. We're going to have
transmission lines, i'm sorry, towers that could be as much
as two hundred foot tall as originally proposed, probably closer
(28:52):
to one hundred and eighty five, although there's a new
RFP out there asking for a second five hundred kV
line which could bring it up to the two hundred
and forty foot range in height. Additionally, there would be
additional right away requirements, etc. To put a parallel line,
so instead of having say a two lane road through
(29:14):
the countryside, you're now going to have maybe an eight
lane highway.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Rick, I wonder if you've talked with next Era, and
this is highly unusual, but it can be done from
an engineering perspective, would it be more palatable to you
and your people if you buried the line and had
a buried high voltage line.
Speaker 19 (29:36):
I am glad you asked that question multiple ways. First off,
I met with them as recently as last Thursday, prior
to their public announcement, and we've discussed it. I brought
up the issue about bearing transmission lines with next Year specifically.
I also talked with folks at the PGM and the
(29:58):
Federal Energy Regular Story Commission backed in the spring. In
my June sixth letter to Chairman Charlotte Lane of the
Public Service Commission, which I copied the Governor, I in
fact suggested you could bury it. There are several projects
right now that use that technology. There's something called the
(30:19):
champ or Chpe Champagne Hudson Power Express that's about a
three hundred and forty mile line going from the Canadian
New York border to New York City and almost entirely
underground and underwater. That's three hundred and twenty kV high
voltage DC. But that's entirely that's being done right now
(30:42):
and is significantly done. Over in Germany they buried. It's
in process right now, something called the sud Link, and
it's entirely being buried due to public and political pressure.
It's not because of technology or any of the rest
of that, but because they've decided, hey, we don't want
that type of scarring, so yes, this could be done.
(31:05):
It's an economic decision, That's what it boils down to.
And I'll acknowledge it significantly costs more, but let's face it,
next year is not going to lose money on this.
In fact, they're not even going to lose money if
the project doesn't go through the way the rules are
built up with our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, they get
paid even if it doesn't go through.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Talking to Hampshire County Delegate Rick Hillen Brown here on
Metro News talk Line about the mid Atlantic Resiliency Link,
Rick often in this business and that this one's one
of us. We'll simplify things down to it's us versus them.
It's one signed versus the other is that the situation
here or are both sides, you know, the locals Hampshire County,
(31:48):
Mineral County, Preston County willing to work with next are
to come up with a more palatable solution.
Speaker 19 (31:55):
That's a great question, and I think the answer is
possibly yes. And I say possibly based upon what will
you offer to make it more palatable? And that's the
exact word I had written in my notes prepped for this. Certainly,
minimizing the spiring of the landscape by bearing as much
of the lines as possible would very much be a
(32:17):
big plus because one of the things that we say
is key to our part of the state here is
you know, the tourism and all the rest of those
things related. I'm thinking back about a dozen years ago
when I was looking out my window one day, looking
toward Kaiser, and I noticed a new blinking red light
on top of a backbone mountain, and it's like, what's
(32:38):
that all about? And then over the course of the
next several months, that one blinking light turned into a
string of blinking red lights, which, by the way, are windmills.
You know, that wasn't a part of my scenic view
when I built my home. I think the other thing
is we need to eliminate or reduce a financial impact
on West Virginia rate payers. Again, looking back to my
(33:02):
letter that I wrote back in June, there is an
estimated cost that the West Virginia rate payer is going
to be paying as much as three hundred and fifty
dollars annually additional cost just for the infrastructure, not that
we're benefiting directly from it, but just for the infrastructure.
And by the way, if they add that second line
(33:24):
that's been proposed on top of that, that could increase
the cost by another sixty percent. So those are starting
points to make this more palatable.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Record do those numbers come from? Because my experience tells
me that causality should follow whoever has the load right,
So when you talk about transmission allocation, a higher allocation
should be placed on that load serving entity that actually
needs it. And I'm just wondering if that number reflects
that kind of paradigm.
Speaker 19 (33:54):
Well, two part answer. I'm going to answer the first part,
where did my numbers come from? Numbers came from a
report prepared by Kathy Kunkel for the Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial Analysis called the West Virginia rate Payers
putting the bill for work. Oh sorry, infrastructure build out.
(34:17):
So that's a report that's available online. But your point
with regards to who should be paying for this quoting
FIRK commissioner, that's Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christy. In
January of this year, he commented, quote, A core principle
of utility law and regulation for decades is that consumers
(34:40):
can only be forced to pay costs for assets that
are useful use I'm sorry, used and useful to them.
So that's exactly consistent with what you were saying there, Rick.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
We're going to have to leave it there for today,
but we're continue to follow this conversation and see how
it progresses as the regulars ORRY process is now underway
for this line.
Speaker 19 (35:04):
Yeah, they have made their initial I guess proposal. They
haven't made their formal submission yet, but it's in that
route and I do appreciate your time, Rick killin.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Brand Hampshire County Delegate, appreciate it well. Again, continue to
follow it, Thanks Rick, Thank you all yours quite welcome.
Coming up. Ryan Schmels kept his word he'll join us
from DC next.
Speaker 20 (35:30):
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Speaker 15 (36:00):
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Speaker 2 (36:41):
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circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
We'll get to your text. I promise three or four
talk three oh four. Senator Capital joins US eleven six
right now from Washington, d C. A man of his word.
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmells, Ryan, good.
Speaker 22 (37:06):
Morning, Hey, good morning boys.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
How are we doing doing pretty well? So what's the
latest on the upcoming shutdown?
Speaker 22 (37:14):
Well, we just had Leader Jeffries respond to the AI
video that President Trump posted yesterday pretty much saying that
he wants President Trump to say it to his face
next time. So it seems like we're still on a standstill.
No side has appeared to budge. But we are going
to vote later on today on the Senate bill that
is the same build that passed out of the House.
(37:36):
The Senate failed to pass it last week. It extends
government funding until November twenty first, and if it passes,
you know the government shutdowns avoided. But last time only
one Democrat voted for the motion to proceed and break
the filibuster at sixty votes, so they're going to need
at least eight or nine to do the same next time.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
It just doesn't seem serious, Ryan, after that video last night.
It seems like we're gonna shut it down and reevaluate
after it's been shut down partially. As a listener pointed out,
for some time, well.
Speaker 22 (38:08):
I have been through these a couple of times since
I started working here, and usually they have found a
way to avoid a shutdown despite all the odds. This
one really does feel like the one where we're most
likely to see a shutdown fall through. So I think
that and I don't think this is me. I think
it's definitely the vibe on Capitol Hill. We actually just
had a flock of crows flying around the Capitol Dome
(38:31):
not too long ago, and Stafford yelled out, that's not
a good side.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Right, jeez. Both sides seem confident the other side's going
to be blamed. I posed this question to you yesterday.
I'll toss it to you again today. That's what they're
saying publicly. But behind the scenes, are they that confident
behind the scenes that this is worth the political gamble
both sides?
Speaker 22 (38:55):
I would say Republicans, I mean Republicans feel like they've got,
you know, a messaging that that works on this. They
feel pretty unified, and I think there's a level of
confidence among Republicans that this will be the first shutdown
that Democrats get blamed for. And ultimately, you know, it's
going to come down to the media and just the
general public how they view this. So we'll have to
wait and see on that front. But you know, they
(39:17):
have a message. They're calling it the Schumer shutdown, and
they feel that the deal that they put on the table,
the clean cr is a is a good deal. You know,
there's no spending cuts, there's no other legislation attached to it.
But Democrats to put their foot in the ground on
this healthcare issue. And of course, you know, if people
start getting notices saying their healthcare insurance freeoms are going
to go up, how's that going to go? And who's
(39:39):
going to get blamed for that? These are all things
to consider.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Does anyone on Capitol who ever contemplate the idea that
maybe the third of the country that's independent says, heck
with all.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Of these folks and once to blame it on both sides?
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I mean, is there any is there any kind of
reckoning that that could be an outcome here or are
they just so dug in on the basis they don't
even care.
Speaker 22 (40:00):
I mean, I'm sure there's always people who are going
to blame both sides, and that's nothing new. Yeah, I
mean a ridiculous amount of people identify as independent. I
think it's you know, almost half the country. So you know,
it's that that is a good point.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
But Ryan, you almost you can't blame Democrats and Chuck
Schumer here. You've got a little bit of leverage, You've
got to use it while you've got it. I mean,
this is this is a point, This is something you
want to dig in about it. I don't blame them
for necessarily doing what they're doing here.
Speaker 22 (40:31):
Yes, I mean, like there's that argument, and then I
think that the Republican counter argument is, yes, you do
have some leverage because you have you need to get
sixty votes in the Senate, but you are still in
the minority, and the deal that we put on the
table is a clean extension of funding. It's not a cut.
You know, it could have been a lot worse. They
(40:51):
could have made that CR a lot more conservative, but
they chose not to. So I think I think that
might be the argument Republicans would make when it comes
to what the ultimate package is and what the deal
is to keep the government open.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Ryan, I'm pontificating this morning more than I'm asking questions.
I apologize for that, but it seems to me one
of the larger stories here is that no one is
talking about the fact it was nineteen ninety seven, actually
ninety six for the ninety seven fiscal year, the last
time the government did what they're supposed to do in
this process.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Talk about that.
Speaker 22 (41:21):
Yeah, Well, Speaker Johnson is making the argument that the
idea of punning this to November gives them a better
chance of actually passing a budget and doing this through
regular order, which as you pass a theories of spending
those twelve total that would fund the government of the
next fiscal year. They've got three of them completed out
of the Senate. They're supposed to be negotiating them pretty
much soon. They can start that as soon as they
(41:43):
get through this process. And you know, Speaker Johnson wanted
to make that a goal for this Congress. But keep
in mind, you know, when they started in January, they
had to deal with the government funding battle, then in March,
and then the Senate has had to spend a lot
of time confirming President Trump's not the knees. The Senate
has also had to spend a lot of time on
the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. So they spend a
(42:04):
lot of their political capital and a lot of their
time and priorities dealing with those issues. And they just
flat out ran out of time. So you know, they
could could make progress on it when, if, and when
they get this funding situation done, but they can't really
move on that until they do that.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
You know, Ryan, You're full of a lot of great information,
but I can't help it. My main takeaway from this
whole conversation is our country's leaders are basically in the
middle school playground about of I know you are, but
what am I? That's really what it took away.
Speaker 22 (42:33):
From guess I mean Politico Politico. Before the meeting yesterday
they said I believe the headline was staring contest moves
to the White House?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
So AI videos, I know you are? What am I? Gracious?
All right, Ryan, Well, best of luck to you in
the next couple of days. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 22 (42:55):
I'll do my best. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
We'll check in the mark, Ryan Smells, Fox News Radio
on Camp Capital Hill, final break of the hour. We'll
come back, We'll get some text. We'll get ready for
our number two. It's talk line from the Encode Insurance Studios.
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So go ahead play today. The Texter asks update about
this fake video regarding the President announcing a new national
health plan that was later taken down? What was that
all about? You got me on that one? Dj any?
I know about that King Jeffreys AI video thanks to
(45:06):
you this morning. I don't know if it's related.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
The Wall Street Journal breaking a story that says the
White House to announce today a new program called trump Rx,
a drug buying website, and to deal with Pfizer where
the government would sell prescription drugs direct to consumer. That
breaking about ten minutes ago. What can go wrong there?
The government selling direct to consumer? What could go wrong?
(45:29):
I just I don't know, man, It's like, where does
this stuff?
Speaker 1 (45:32):
I don't know. I have to dig into that one
over the break. You know, you think you're prepared for
the show, and you've got all this stuff printed out
and notes and then that all right, three or four
talk three or four. Now the people inside the budget
office are just going, why can't you all just pass
a budget? Both Democrats and Republicans in the budget office
(45:54):
are asking the same thing. Of course, we know the
answer to that question politics, and they might not get
re elected, says the texture. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Uh when was the last time you said ninety seven
that we actually passed a.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
Budget ninety six for fiscal ninety seven, that we passed
all twelve bills in the appropriations process for discretionary spending,
nineteen ninety six. Nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Uh, that has been a long time ago. Doesn't feel
that long ago. Doesn't sound like nineteen ninety six doesn't
sound that long ago.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Put five accountants around the table. They'll have it knocked
out in two and a half hours for you.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Oh, that would be such a boring dinner party. No,
if fascinating. Oh I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I mean it's like the Super Bowl. Man, bring some food,
fry the wings up, you know, smoke them, do whatever
you're gonna do. Let's have a budget party and knock
this sucker out, get it balanced a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
That's a wild TJ. Meadows weekend. Let's get some wings.
Let's knock out a budget.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Maybe even a adult beverage or two in the room.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I don't know, we'll see, all right. Coming up, Senator
Capito is going and join us. We'll talk to her
about this government shutdown. What about extending the expanded tax
credits for the Affordable Care Act. We'll get into all
of that. Michael Tramawski will also join us in the
second hour. We'll get your text and phone calls as well.
Three or four Talk three or four and eight hundred
seven to sixty five Talk Talklinel Metro News, the voice
of West Virginia. Metro News.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
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Speaker 1 (47:38):
Second hour of Metro News talk Line already in progress.
So hope you're having a great start to your day.
Thank you for letting us be part of it. Eight
hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk is the phone
number eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five five.
You can text the show at three or four Talk
three oh four. We will get to your text. Coming up,
have a couple of open segments planned four. Michael Tumaski,
(48:01):
progressive columnist and West Virginia native, will join us coming
up bottom of the hour. Tjcnn's got the count down
clock ticking this morning. So the government shut down? I mean,
why not? Why not? At this point? I made the mistake.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
Texter filled us in the previous text was talking about
the Trump medbed in the last second this idea. I
made the mistake of looking into it. It's kind of
like the Billy Madison movie. Remember he gets up and
gives a speech, and the principle says, we are now
dumber for having heard that.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Uh huh, That's kind of where I'm at.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
I guess back during the craze of World War two,
like Roswell, remember, yeah, the craft landed apparently allegedly. Allegedly,
the conspiracy is that we reverse engineered some kind of
MEDBD that can make you whole, heal, you all these
kinds of things from alien technology. And there was a
(48:53):
video AI video that the President posted and then took down.
So that's what they're referring to. It ties back quanon.
I never say that, right, you know about Yeah, those
guys refers back to that, So there you go.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
That's what they were talking about.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
I thought they were talking about the Trump RX deal
being announced today.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Nope, two different things. Well, I'm glad we got the
investigative team on that one today too. Jay. Yep, we're
covering some ground, buddy, time well spent. Well. On a
serious note, Yes, the CNN does have the government shutdown
clock ticking, and it seems that we are headed toward
an inevitable partial government shutdown. Joining us on Metrodew's talk
line this morning is the US centator from the great
(49:33):
State of West Virginia, Shelleymore Capital Centator. Good morning, thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 23 (49:37):
Good morning, nice to be on. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Last time we spoke, you were optimistic that there could
be a deal reach to avoid a government shutdown. Now,
with about thirteen hours to the deadline, how optimistic are you?
Speaker 23 (49:50):
My optimism has left me. Unfortunately. It appears as though
it's going to be a standoff in terms of what
what I've voted for and what I think makes the
most sense, which is a very simple seven week extension
here that doesn't have any bells and whistles on it.
The Democrats have already voted it down once we expect
them to vote it down again tonight, and I think
(50:13):
it an enormous dissurface to so many people, veterans, troops, otherwise,
people who need services here in West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (50:22):
On the clean cr Schumer and others on the Democratic
side have said they want the subsidies for the Affordable
Care Act to continue. I'm paraphrasing. It seems like they
don't trust Republicans. Are they wrong?
Speaker 23 (50:37):
Yes, they're wrong, because this is the subsidies on the
premiums through the ACA or a topic of discussion with everyone.
They need to be negotiated. They expire at the end
of the year, so we have some time here, but
they've loaded it's three hundred and sixty billion dollars, and
I think we need to make sure that if we
(50:57):
move in this direction, that we do some reforms. So
we need to have negotiations. We don't need to say, Okay,
just do it. That's what he wants to wants to say,
just do it. He also wants to spend over a
trillion dollars to keep the keep the government open for
four weeks, taking down the fifty billion dollar Rural health
Care Stabilization Fund that we just put in three months
(51:18):
ago from the big beautiful bill to help sustain rural
healthcare and rural hospitals. I mean, to me, it's just
an over ask and I think he's just trying to
be political to shore up his left base because they
were so mad at him for cutting a deal.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Last March, Senator Kelly Moore Cavalo joining us here on
Metro in his talk line, so do you support extending
the subsidies for the ACA?
Speaker 23 (51:42):
I think we need to look at the subsidies. I
think there are questions as to are they going to
people that really know about it. I mean, there's a
statistic that we keep seeing that says those who have
subsidies through the ACA, forty to fifty percent of them
don't ever use their benefit through the year. Well, the
national average if you have insurance is somewhere around twenty percent.
(52:04):
Something's going on there. So is it a scheme where
people are being signed up without their knowledge or double
signed up. They're own Medicaid and they're also on this premium.
We need to get to the bottom of this to
do it fiscally responsible, to make sure that that small
business owner that can't get insurance anywhere else that they
can use the premium support that is meant for them.
(52:27):
And so these are the kinds of questions we need
to answer. We can't just full flung say yes, keep
it in effect and for the rest of the years,
because they hiked all of this up during COVID and
immensely enlarged the price of this premium support.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
One criticism that is floating, real or perceived, is that
this is what the White House wants. They want the
shutdown so they can trim the government FTEs full time employees,
and this would be a way to do that. What
is your stance on that characterization?
Speaker 23 (53:02):
You know, I think. I mean, I've lived through now
two pretty significant government shutdowns. The President has lived through
one in twenty eighteen. I don't think he and I
know I don't want to live through another shutdown.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
They it is.
Speaker 23 (53:14):
It scares people, it's unsettling. People are wondering, can't.
Speaker 17 (53:18):
You do your job?
Speaker 23 (53:18):
Why don't you talk to the other side? And I
think the President, by having a meeting with the four
leaders yesterday at the White House, shows that he is
intent on keeping the government open. All we have to
do is pass a very simple extend the government for
seven weeks while we negotiate the ACA benefit, while we
negotiate more appropriations bills. That's all. That's the very simple
(53:42):
ask that I think that I have, that I've already
voted for, that I think would be very should be
very simple for the Democrats to join in on. If
they want to fight, they can fight again in another
seven weeks. But this is just a useless political exercise.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Talking to you us Senator Sellamore capital here as a
government shut down looms. What assurances where the Democrats get
that these subsidies would be renegotiated or at least re
examined here if this cr were to be extended and approved.
Speaker 23 (54:13):
You know, I don't think, you know, I don't think
that guarantees are something that's that's going to satisfy them
in any form or fashion, because they're fighting a political
battle here. But what I'm saying is, sixty thousand West
Virginians have premium support. That's a meaningful amount of people
for me to be able to fight for. And so
there's many Republicans who believe that these this premium support
(54:37):
meant at the small business owner people that are working.
You can imagine who they are. They own a small store.
They're you know, they're a beautician or a barber, or
somebody that can't get insurance anywhere else. Are so prohibitively expensive.
You know, we need to focus on those folks. And
so there's time to do that. We don't have to
do it tonight before midnight. We can do it over
(55:00):
the next several months. And that's what we have been doing,
and we need to continue that.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
There are already defenses being mounted on both sides of
the aisle to frame this as a Democratic shut down,
a Schumer shut down. There are you know, the Democrats
trying to pennant on the Republicans. What about those of
us And I'm not trying to be pejorative of you, Senator,
that are just flat out tired. This is Brighton nineteen
ninety seven was the last time we did twelve bills.
(55:27):
I mean, I don't care who's to blame, but it's
got to get better. We can't keep this up. It's
just not productive.
Speaker 23 (55:34):
I agreed, And there is a lot of blame game.
And you can hear me basically saying we want a
simple extension here of seven weeks, and the Democrats will
not accede to this. You know it's a Schumer shutdown.
I'm going to say that because I believe that. So
that is political and that is a blame game. But
here's here's where I think we need to see the
(55:54):
ray of hope here. This year, under the leadership of
John Thune, we've passed three appropriations bills. It's not twelve,
but it's three. So that's three more than we passed
last year. So that gives a certainty of the funding,
prioritization of funding, and where people in West Virginia can
see what the impacts of the funding for the next
fiscal year could be and should be. We want to
(56:14):
move towards more of that. I'm on the Appropriations Committee.
We've passed about nine of those out of committee already
in a bipartisan way. My bill, which is health, Labor,
and Education, which is very difficult, we have passed that
only losing two or three votes in committee. So that's
an accomplishment. Let's get them onto the floor. We have
time to do that now. And so I think this
(56:38):
shutdown just stalls everything out. And gosh, I don't blame
you for being sick of it. I'm sick of it.
I say every single time it's a misery march. It's
a march to nowhere. It's once you close the government,
what do you have to do reopen it? I mean,
that's just how do you do that? And so you know,
I went through today in my areas of responsibility. What
(57:01):
things are going to be shut down? I mean, probably
has to at least has The federal workforce is going
to be furloughed starting at midnight tonight, which disrupts services
in all kinds of areas.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Senator Shelley Moore Capito joining us here on Metro News
talk line. This may sound flip it. I don't mean
it to sound that way, but I know a lot
of folks are probably sitting out there thinking, well, you know,
Republicans haven't exactly been fiscal hawks. The government spends, spend, spends, Well,
what's another few billion dollars to extend my subsidies for
the ACA? So let me pose that question to you.
(57:35):
What's a few more what's a few billion dollars for
a government that continues to spend, spend, spend anyway?
Speaker 23 (57:41):
Well, I think I said it's around three hundred and
sixty billion over ten years. But let's that's only part
of what the ask is here from the Democrats. They're
asking for an additional on top of that trillion dollars
of spending. They want us to undo the big beautiful bill.
They want us to make sure that healthcare goes to
(58:02):
people that it's not intended for aside from these ACA premiums.
So you know, if maybe the only thing we were
dealing with were the ACA premiums, you know, that would
be a different story. We're talking about another trillion dollars
on top of this. Uh, that's just unsustainable. And I
think it's a big ask because they know they know
it won't it won't be accepted, and they just want
(58:24):
to play the political game, which they're doing.
Speaker 14 (58:28):
To think, given where we.
Speaker 4 (58:29):
Are, given where we are, is it time to reevaluate
the sixty rule, the use of the filibuster and discretionary
spending in the same manner that we use reconciliation for
mandatory spending.
Speaker 23 (58:42):
You know, I think that's a good question. But I'm
one who supports the filibuster. I think that the filibuster
projects the rights of the minority. It forces and you
can see it right here, it forces negotiation. The House
was able to pass because they're simple majority. They only
passed by believe one or two votes in their majority
in the House. So I think in the Senate, the
(59:04):
Senate is meant to be. They always call it the saucer,
the cooling saucer of the hot coffee of the Senate,
of the House to negotiate and get and get a
more reasonable, more studied solution than sometimes the House can offer.
And I'm not saying the House doesn't offer recent solutions
all the time, but in this case, I think, and
in a lot of cases, it allows us to look
(59:26):
at this in more detail. So I'm not for breaking
the filibuster. I voted and written letters in support of
my position throughout my term.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Us Centator Shelly Moore Capito is joining us here Metro
News talk Line. If the government shuts down, like you say,
workers could be furloughed. I mean, there are a lot
of West Virginians who work for the federal government. They
depend on those paychecks. What do you say to them
this morning?
Speaker 23 (59:50):
Well, I you know, I don't want to be flipped
here at all, but I mean I think I would
say I don't want to ask for patients because patience
is run out, and I understand and that I guess
the best I can say is we're working. We're going
to work to try to settle this. We still have
a little bit of time to maybe do a short
term continuing resolution while we while we work on these issues,
(01:00:13):
we will reopen the government at some point. Uh and
so and rest assured that I have them in my
mind because I know that it impacts a lot of families.
Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Senator should West Virginians have concerns that the White House
is not taking the issue seriously given the AI video
the President released last night. As it regards mister Schumer
and mister Jeffries.
Speaker 23 (01:00:36):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think the AI video that
the President released last night. I did catch a glimpse
of it. It's not helpful. I mean, these are serious talks.
It's it's not time for kind of jabbing and uh
and and the message that that that video I think portrayed.
And so you know, I wouldn't have put it out
(01:00:57):
if I was President Trump. But he has his own
way of doing things, and I think he's trying to
rile people up to reach a solution. I'm not sure
that the strategy I would take, and I think it
probably frustrates a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Senator Capito joining us here on Metro News talk line. Senator,
I've read a lot on articles, watched a lot about this.
It seems both sides are confident the other one is
going to be blamed for this. My observations through the
years is that when something like this comes up, Republicans
get blamed for it. Are you confident that this will
be different this time?
Speaker 23 (01:01:31):
Well, I think the fact that all we're offering, all
we want is a continuation of government for seven weeks
while we negotiate these issues, some of which are frivolous
political issues that shouldn't even be a part of this discussion,
some of which are very serious, like the ACA premiums.
And so I think our position, my position as a Republican,
(01:01:54):
is a much more reasoned, common sense way to get
over the hump here to make sure that we that
we move forward. Let's keep in mind the Democrats under
Biden past thirteen exact same bills as what we're asking
for here. So this isn't a new strategy. It's a
strategy that's been employed and has moved forward successfully to
(01:02:17):
get to keep to prevent any kind of government shutdown.
So they've voted for this thirteen times. I have quote
after quote of them saying it harms people, it's a
bad tactic. The least we can do is bare minimus,
is to keep the lights on. And yet I feel
like they're the ones that are obstructing.
Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Here are both sides sitting down today? I mean I
would hope that both sides are at a table talking.
Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
Is that happening?
Speaker 23 (01:02:42):
Well, yes, and I saw that actually, Senator Schumer and
Senator Soon the two leaders were on the floor together
debating this issue. That's great for the American people to
see because I think they can see, you know what
the lines are. And yes, I know they're talking because
I'm on the leadership team and I'm in constant contact
(01:03:03):
with our leader.
Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
By this time tomorrow, will it be shut down?
Speaker 23 (01:03:10):
Unfortunately? I think I think it will be. And the
problem's going to be how long and what the damage
is going to be here. I'm ever hopeful. I'm looking
at the countdown clock actually on c Span two twelve
hours and thirty eight minutes. We can do some things quickly,
so there is some hope. But at this point, I
(01:03:31):
think it's pretty it's pretty pretty dim. I think it
will shut down tonight at midnight.
Speaker 17 (01:03:35):
US centor Shelley on the We're going to vote.
Speaker 23 (01:03:38):
On this again tonight, so sometime in the late afternoons,
so hopefully some of the I know they're negotiating and
some of this may may break.
Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Through US sentaor Shelley Moore, Capito. Thank you so much
for the time, and we'll continue to.
Speaker 23 (01:03:51):
Follow all right, Thank you all very much, byebye.
Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Absolutely U s centor Shelley more capital back in the moment.
This is talk line on Metro News from the Encobe
Insurance Studios.
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Speaker 10 (01:04:51):
We are to care for you.
Speaker 17 (01:04:58):
Here three or four Talk three oh four.
Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Michael Tumaski, Progressive columnists, West Virginia native going to join us,
coming up bottom of the hour. Let's get out a
couple of texts here before we take our news break
three or four Talk three oh four. It's got to
be the same thing every seven weeks. Why would the
Dems go along with that? Asks the text. I think
(01:05:41):
that's a fair question. I think it's a fair question.
I don't see to go along with it or shut
it down. And like I said this before teaching, I
don't blame them for trying to play the cards that
they have in their hand. They don't have many. You
don't have many when you're in the minority.
Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
But there's no trust in politics, that's for sure. For
not trusting Republicans. I wouldn't ask Republicans to trust Democrats
at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
But you know, the text brings up a point. We're
going even if the CR passes by some miracle today, TJ,
we're gonna do the same thing in seven weeks, and
then we'll do the same thing seven weeks after that.
Because you know, like you said nineteen ninety five, Uh,
Dave and TJ. Give us common folk a quick civics
lesson what happens if the government shuts down? What happens
(01:06:27):
if they just shut the doors? Asks the Texter. Uh, okay,
So that's a little bit more difficult than it sounds.
It would be a partial shutdown. So non essential services,
discretionary spending like the parks, like the National Parks will close.
You can't go to the national parks. Non essential agencies,
Department Offense still going to operate, or at least, you know,
(01:06:50):
the military is still gonna operate. Social Security would not
be affected. What am I forgetting here? TJ. Mandatory spending
still get spent.
Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
Yeah, anything that's in the the mandatory spending section, anything
that's discretionary, really depends on how long it's funded and
what kind of budget overages they have. If you're going
to the Smithsonian, the door is going to be shut. Sorry.
The post office will still work because it's self funded.
The SSA Social Security Administration is self funded outside of
(01:07:19):
what it gets from a mandatory perspective. So the simple
answer is the longer it goes, the more shutdowns you'll
see and the less services you'll see.
Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Textas says, Congress has one annual constitutional mandate to pass
a budget. Nineteen ninety six was the last Congress that
did its constitutional job. And we the taxpayers, and we
taxpayers pay for vacation time on furlough employees since you
know they'll still get paid at the end if they
follow history. Maybe budgets should be done before any other
bills are done. How many Americans have two weeks extra
(01:07:52):
pay if this goes or a month lying around? Not many?
Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
We should, but not many.
Speaker 17 (01:07:56):
It's gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
It's talking to a guy that's a marshal the other day.
He thought he would get be involved in it. Gotta
work with no pay.
Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
That stings three or four, talk three or four. Exqueeze
him one more. Center Capita wants to support a dictator
rather than support subsidies for ACA and medicaid for citizens.
Why was this fight about ACA support not fought in June?
She prefers billions spent on needless occupations by National Guard
in large cities. If those billions were given to cities
for police, it would make more sense. There's a lot
(01:08:27):
in that text. Listen from talking to her TEJ she
certainly is not rejecting extending those subsidies for the ACA outright.
Says we need to look at it. Sees me it
takes some time and negotiate it. But she's not rejecting
that outright by any stretch.
Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
They want to do it in a clean bill, and
she is right in pointing out the Democrats have done
clean crs a number of times. That's a fair criticism.
Just I guess we're gonna have to have a pro
con and figure out who really gets to blame for this.
Judge the scales right.
Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Get a whiteboard, Get a whiteboard out Coming up, Michael
tomat Uski will join us editor for The New Republic
and progressive columnists. We talk ten. This is Takalna Mention News,
the Voice of West Virginia. It's eleven thirty times to
get a news update. Let's check in with the Metro
News radio network. Find out what's happening across the great
state of West Virginia.
Speaker 25 (01:09:18):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lauren and say South
Charleston police officer faces ten charges in Cabital County over
allegations of domestic violence. Thirty two year old Matthew Ripley
arrested over the weekend. Those charges included five counts each
of domestics assaultant domestic battery. The victim reluctantly detailed the
ordeal to troopers who came to the home to do
a wellness check at the request of a family member.
(01:09:39):
A criminal complaint indicates the verbal and physical abuse that
occurred over several days. Ripley was taken into custody Monday
and placed in the Western Regional Jail. The fate of
embattled Bell Police Chief Robert Glenn now lies in the
hands of the town council. The Civil Service Commission Monday
issued a report following a lengthy hearing which backed Mayor
David Fletcher's recommendation that Glenn be terminated. The hearing dealt
(01:09:59):
in allegations that Glenn had a police officer, William HoTT,
place a tow order on a truck from private property
that belonged to a woman. Glenn then told the commission
he would not have told the truck if the woman
had told him that she consent her to it being there.
Speaker 16 (01:10:12):
If she had any.
Speaker 15 (01:10:13):
Times, she would have told me that she's gave him
consent and then people will want her to stay there.
Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
That would have been a different story. But no, how
did she ever tell him? Now?
Speaker 25 (01:10:20):
The truck wound up in Glenn's possession and he was
selling and using parts from the truck. Haught's signature and
badge number appeared on documentation of the vehicle transfer. He
testified he never signed them, and Glenn did admit he
forged Hot's signature with Hat's permission. The Mountain Valley Pipeline
has been in operation fifteen months and it's a big
driver of a projected one and a half billion dollar
(01:10:40):
increase in property tax assessments this year. You're listening to
Metro News for forty years the Boys of West Virginia.
Speaker 8 (01:10:47):
Attention high school football fans. If you're wondering where your
team ranks each week, check out the Tutor's Biscuit World
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Metro News will update the power rankings for all four
class and to find out where your favorite team ranks,
simply go to WV Metronews dot com click on the
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(01:11:08):
Rankings of twenty twenty five. Metro News Power Rankings are
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Visit them at tudors biscuit World dot com.
Speaker 17 (01:11:19):
Time Out.
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Oh why remember, We're a team, the place together.
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Listen, the winning will take care of itself.
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We just have to get everyone involved.
Speaker 26 (01:11:29):
In interscholastic sports. We celebrate what makes every one of
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everyone in the huddle, in the bleachers, and in the
community comes together.
Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
This message presented.
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By the WBSSAC and the West Virginia Athletic Directors Association.
Speaker 25 (01:11:48):
It is the story of a deer that was obviously
tamed by human interaction, and it jumped onto the boat
of a fisherman, Steve Jackson a Barbersville while he was
fishing at East Lynn Lake last weekend.
Speaker 27 (01:11:58):
Dave jessa chicking my boat out and everything else and
started walking away like towards you to bake of my boat.
And I figured, Okay, he's done, and I went back
to doing what I was doing.
Speaker 14 (01:12:10):
He hopped on board.
Speaker 25 (01:12:12):
You can see pictures at wv metronews dot com from
the Metro News anchored desk game Chris Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
That is possibly one of the craziest stories that I've
heard in a while. And I'm not sure how I
would react if the six point buck just decided to
hop on my bass boat with me hang out for
a little bit. Leave it to Chris Lawrence track that
one down. I don't know if you can say shoe,
you know you need to get out of here, my man.
(01:13:00):
There are times though, and it has happened, you know,
as you know, being a deer hunter, where you feel sorry.
You're like, I can't no, not you. You're the one
that like walks up ten yards from your tree stand,
lays down and you're like, all right, you need to
leave now. I've actually thrown bark at deer before. Usually
(01:13:20):
you're you know, it's buck season, you're looking for a
big rack TJ and you got a doze will come in.
Then they lay down ten yards from your tree stand
and just let you know, I'm gonna lay here. You
gotta throw something at them because they start to aggravate you.
Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
Dad used to we haven't hunted in a long time,
but Dad used to say, you know, ah, man, if
it's not at least a seven pointer, let it go.
Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
You know what you say that on day one, by
you know, day fourteen, you're you change your tune a
little bit to you, Joey.
Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Cittyet Fiber is expanding across West Virginia from basics to
blazing fast ten gig speeds. They have a plan for you,
plus their new app lets you control your WiFi and
set parental controls with these Go local, Go sittyinget is
it sitting at dot net today joining us on Metro
News talk line this morning. Editor for the New Republic,
he's a progressive columnist and West Virginia native. Michael Tamaski, Michael,
(01:14:09):
good morning, Glad you could join us.
Speaker 28 (01:14:11):
Good morning, Happy to be with you. First of all,
fourteen days. I think deer season was five days when
I was growing up.
Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
You got two weeks of rifle season there, plus there's
muzzleoder and you know a look, man, the longer the
season goes, and the worst you do, the less picky
you get.
Speaker 28 (01:14:24):
Michael, I guess that's true. And I've got the deer's
roaming around my suburban backyard, so there's more deer than
there were in those days. I guess I.
Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Wanted to talk to you about your piece regarding the
Komy indictment, but we've been talking about the government shutdown
all morning long. We just had Senator Kapitau on what's
your take on this, this government shutdown that's looming here
about twelve hours from now.
Speaker 28 (01:14:45):
Well, you know, it sure looks like it's gonna happen.
I don't think. You know, the Democrats got hummeled pretty
bad by their base back in March when they, according
to their base, caved at the last minute and to
avert a shutdown, and that made a lot of people
(01:15:06):
mad at Chuck Schumer and a Keem Jefferies on the
Republican side. You know, I don't think Trump wants to deal.
I think that I think that Trump and russ Vote.
Who's the head of a little known guy, but the
head of the Office of Management and Budget in many
ways the architect of these kinds of moves. They want
to use this shutdown to furlough workers and to decrease
(01:15:28):
the size of the executive branch and the federal workforce,
and the federal bureaucracy. So I think they're both pretty
dug in.
Speaker 4 (01:15:35):
So tomorrow it's shut down. Don't you think.
Speaker 28 (01:15:38):
That's how it feels? Yeah, I mean, you know they
could come to look they always there's always a chance
that at ten thirty at night, you know, they come
to a six week thing and they put a six
week band aid on it and do that. So there's
always a thirty percent to fifty percent chance of that,
but I'd say this time it's much close to thirty
(01:16:00):
and fifty.
Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Michael Tamaski joining us here mentioned in his talk line, Michael,
I don't blame the Democrats for using the leverage that
they have. Are they overplaying their hand though, asking for
too much knowing they won't get it?
Speaker 28 (01:16:17):
That I don't think no. I mean, you know, take
your stand, you know, you know, plant your flag and
just take your stand and take the lumps. They're making
a calculation that that number one twenty million people up
to twenty million people going to see their premiums increase,
(01:16:38):
healthcare premiums increase, and that that's going to make people angry,
and that the public is going to be on their side.
So if that's what you think, you know, go all in.
I mean, don't go half in these Democrats. You know,
as a liberal commentator, I think Democrats are way too
often guilty of going halfway on things. Just if you're
(01:17:00):
going to do it, do it.
Speaker 4 (01:17:02):
How long can you hold that out with that position
until you have to blink?
Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
What do you think some of.
Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
The precursors are, or the happenings post shut down that
will pull people back to the table and bring them
to make a deal.
Speaker 28 (01:17:16):
Well, I think the fact that military personnel aren't going
to be paid. It's a pretty big factor in both
parties' minds. And you know, you can't go much longer
than about two weeks before you know, officers and enlisted
personnel are banging at their doors and telling them to
cut some kind of deal. So that's a big driver
(01:17:36):
on both sides. But you know, I think it's hard
to say where public opinion is going to land. You know,
I mean public opinion as we know these days, on
most questions, it's forty five forty five or forty seven
forty seven, and then there's six percent who can be
persuaded one way or the other. And you know, we'll
(01:17:57):
see how the majority of that six percent, and then
the other side, the other side will cave.
Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
What do you say if I told you I think
it's going to be deeper this time, because I think
people are just completely ticked off at this point, especially independence.
This idea that Democrats can place it on Republicans, Republicans
can place it on Democrats, I call something on that, man.
I think at this point people are fed up, and
they're fed up equally with both sides. I think that's
(01:18:25):
the bigger picture.
Speaker 28 (01:18:26):
Well, they are, they are, And the vote of the
swing voters who you mentioned, Yeah, they're definitely set up
with both sides. Donald Trump won most of them last fall.
Now he's at forty three percent in polls, maybe forty
five in good polls, maybe thirty eight in bad polls,
(01:18:47):
And so he's those numbers tell me that he's lost
a good chunk of those swing voters. Doesn't mean they're
necessarily loyal to the Democrats. Now, they're somewhere in the middle,
you know. I yes, there's anger at both sides, but
but public opinion will within a week or so, will
(01:19:11):
kind of settle in one direction or the other. As
who's as who should be shouldering more blame here?
Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Talking to Michael Tamaski, West Virginia native, editor of The
New Republic Progressive commentator. We are sometimes it's hard to see, Michael,
because we are in this particular business. We watch this
stuff very closely. We have to talk about it on
a daily basis. For the average for the average person
out there, and I'm talking about folks who don't work
(01:19:37):
for the federal government, who just get up go to
work every day. Are they paying attention to this and
really all that concerned about it? Or are they going
to get up and go about their business tomorrow whether
or not the government's open or closed.
Speaker 28 (01:19:50):
Of course, most people aren't going to be that concerned about.
If people have their lives to live and their kids
to raise. There is some percentage of the population that
is going to be hit more directly than other people.
And these tend to be poorer people, and you know,
they don't you know, we in the media don't probably
(01:20:10):
don't pay as much quite as much attention to these
people as we ought to, and they don't have much
of a megaphone. But you know, so there are some
people who will be directly affected in the coming weeks
in terms of certain kinds of benefits and things like that.
But you know, most for most people, it's pretty abstract
(01:20:31):
until some aspect of it really hits home.
Speaker 4 (01:20:36):
Reading your piece at New republic dot com, you raise
the issue of spirituality Christianity in the argument that you make.
This is a quote you say, because as we all know,
Jesus wanted governments to take money from poor people and
give it to rich people, and believe that strangers among
us should be spurned and even detained and taught we
(01:20:56):
should hate people who aren't like us. You're speaking tongue
in cheek there, but get into your thinking and why
you wrote that, and to vend your position there.
Speaker 28 (01:21:04):
Well, it angers me when I hear these people invoke
Jesus's name all the time, and you know, and what
all they want to do is take food stamps away
from poor people and give tax cuts to rich people
and you know, throw people into tention camps. Those aren't
Jesus positions. I'm sorry, they just aren't. And you know,
(01:21:27):
I wish the Democrats would talk more about religion. Part
of this is the democrats fault. And I say that
as one who's more sympathetic to the Democrats than to
the Republicans certainly, But part of it's the Democrats fault
because they aren't comfortable talking about religion and invoking Jesus's
name in defense of their values. But you know, Jesus
(01:21:48):
would not be you know, throwing people intotention camps and
you know it just makes me mad, that's all.
Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Are you talking about illgomigrants? Michael?
Speaker 28 (01:22:01):
Yeah, Well, I mean they.
Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
Are illegal or what do we.
Speaker 10 (01:22:08):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Michael? We got we got twelve million illegals whatever the
case is in the country. I mean, we have these problems.
How do we address them?
Speaker 27 (01:22:17):
Uh?
Speaker 28 (01:22:17):
You know that's a different question. What kind of policy
should be is a different question from what would Jesus do?
But what what should the policy be? We've come there?
Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Uh uh I think there was Uh oh we might
I swear you didn't cut him off off out? No? No,
uh uh Michael TAMASKI just got cut off.
Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
Maybe that has to do. Maybe there's also a plan
in an addition to Trump r X for Trump Telcommon. We're
having issues with the tailcoat lines already, Michael. You there,
we have lost them.
Speaker 28 (01:22:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
And you know what, it was just about to get
good too. It was just getting good we lost.
Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
Should we take the break and maybe he'll call back?
Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
You know what, we can take the break and we
see if Ethan can reconnect with him, because I want
to hear where he goes with that answer. You know,
I don't know s. I'm just saying, we just started
bringing up some deep stuff and then it gets cut off.
Is the Illuminati listening to the show just saying all right?
Three or four? Talk? Three of four is the text line,
see if you can reconnect with Mike Warback at the moment.
(01:23:18):
This is talk line from the Encove Insurance Studios.
Speaker 11 (01:23:23):
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Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
All right, still trying to reconnect with Michael Tamaski. So
we speculated it might be the Illuminati. TJ and producer
Jake thought he'd be funny during the break and he
cut the lights in the studio like they are listening.
Oh that's pretty good. All right, we got Michael back on. Michael,
(01:25:06):
we thought maybe you know, the demand was listening in
and cut off our conversation there.
Speaker 14 (01:25:12):
Yeah, I don't you know. I was on a landline,
which I used for these because I think it's more secure.
But look what happens. I had a little power outage anyway. Okay,
So what I say? So as a policy matter, well,
you know, we've come close a few times to a
bipartisan agreement. It's been a while, it's been almost twenty years,
(01:25:34):
but we came very close to a bypartisan agreement on
a path to citizenship for people if they if they
met certain certain standards and steps along the way over
a period of years. And you know, we were almost
there in the Bush era with Democrats and Republicans agreement.
That's been a long long time but and I don't
(01:25:55):
know how much hope there is for such a thing today,
but you know, the model is out there. People are
interested in it.
Speaker 1 (01:26:01):
And Michael, just to add a couple of thoughts to
your to your previous point, quite from my perspective, when
politicians start mixing politics and religion, I find so much
of it to be very disingenuous because the speech doesn't
match the actions.
Speaker 17 (01:26:18):
And I'm not.
Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Pointing the finger at any one person, pointing the finger
to everybody because and a broad brushes here obviously, Michael,
But you bring religion into politics, Like I said, this
speech often does not match the actions of the politician.
I find much of it to be very disingenuous and
insulting in a lot of cases.
Speaker 14 (01:26:39):
Yeah, i'd certainly say that's true, was new with respect
to a lot of people. But I'm just saying that,
Like the point I was trying to make a few
minutes ago, is that Republicans are going to bring religion
into politics. It's it's it's The religious right is a
massive part of the Republican base. The Democrats normally stay
(01:27:01):
away from it. And maybe that's to be admired in
some respects, but you know, the fact is a lot
of people are religious. There are a lot of religious
liberals out there in the United States. Believe it or not,
there are. You wouldn't know it from watching our political discourse,
but there are. And I think Democrats sometimes ought to
(01:27:24):
invoke religion, invoke the teachings of Jesus and other religious
leaders in support of their values.
Speaker 4 (01:27:31):
So that's where I wanted to go. I agree with you,
And the question is why do they not?
Speaker 14 (01:27:37):
I don't get it, because it's a more diverse coalition,
you know, Republicans, the Republican Party, the Republican base rank
and file is more just straightforwardly Christian Democrats are a
lot of different denominations of Christian and Republicans are specifically
(01:27:57):
Southern Baptists, not all, of course, but but to a
consider book step.
Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Yeah, but isn't there a room even if someone isn't
a follower of Christ. Couldn't you say within the democratic
circles that Jesus did good things, and certainly that example
would resonate.
Speaker 14 (01:28:14):
Yes, I think they should. I think they should, and
I think they shy away from it because you know,
they're afraid they're going to offend Jews. They're afraid they're
going to offend Muslims, they're afraid they're going to offend
and non believers. I don't think they're going to offend
any of those people. I think if you're talking about,
you know, your values and tying them to religious figures
(01:28:36):
in history, I just don't think that's going to offend anybody.
I think the Democrats, you know, they're polsters and there
and their sound bite people. I can give them a
lot of bad advice.
Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Michael. We do have to leave it there. We have
another break to take before we clear the top of
the hour. Sorry about the technical difficulties and come back anytime, buddy.
Speaker 14 (01:28:56):
I'd love to. And that was all on my end,
my beads land life.
Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Who would think the landline would let you down? All right,
Michael appreciates the conversation. All right, gotta take a break.
We'll wrap things up on a Tuesday. This is a
talk line from the COVID Short Studios.
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Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
All right, TJ, So the video is fake, But Trump's
announcing his drug deal with the Pfiser as we speak
right now.
Speaker 4 (01:31:05):
Yeah, so, well, you're Eli, Lilly. Is that government picking
winners and losers? Why only Pfiser? Why do they get
a preferred path? I got a real problem with this.
Anytime the government gets into the private sector, as well
intentioned as it is, because the president can make a
great deal, this thing in, it's going to end poorly.
I'm sorry, I just don't see it.
Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
You mean, the government getting involved in things ends poorly? Shocking, DJ, shocking. Uh, well,
I guess we've got something to talk about tomorrow. Yeah,
I'll do my homework. Uh, all right, let me get
some text in here. Three or four talk three or four.
Jesus would not vote Republican. Dave's brain broke for a
second considering living a religious principles or living GOP principles.
(01:31:47):
Don't hurt yourself, Dave you.
Speaker 4 (01:31:50):
Were being responsible and thinking before you speak.
Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
That's all. Uh three or four talk three oh four
to your previous guest. When Jesus was asked about paying
tax to Caesar, he said, give to Caesar. What is Caesar?
So you do have to follow the law of the government.
You do not have to be of the world, but
we do have to live in the world and follow
the rules and regulations that are spelled out by government.
People that are here illegally are circumventing legal government rules
(01:32:17):
and laws. Texters simply says, wa w bd, what would
Bubba do? Gotta get that on a T shirt? Three
or four talk three oh four. Republicans have no place
talk about this government shutdown thing. Whichever party is not
in power holds it up for a theater something to
(01:32:39):
that TJ. Republicans were right wing people made a concerted
effort to paint Jesus as a warrior in the mid
twentieth century. You might like reading the book Jesus and
John Wayne. It would explain a lot about the difference
between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to Christianity and
political views.
Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
How do you think Tamaski's onto something though? You think
to the Republican excuse me. The Democratic Party of West
Virginia day back the eighties and nineties when the ay
Days right, hardly find a Democrat that was pro abortion.
They were very spiritual, they held as much high ground
as Republicans there, so nationally, I think he's right. I
(01:33:18):
think it's something they failed to embrace, and I think
they're less oft than they would be politically because of it.
Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Three or four talk three o four. Thanks for providing
balanced perspective, though I'm sure you will get grief for it.
Dave and TJ. Would you guys vote Democrats to stop that,
to stop what the Republicans are doing? Asks the Texter guys,
please stop saying I'm sorry when you're stating your opinion
(01:33:45):
about your basic values. Didn't realize I did, thank you.
We pay high med price range, we pay high medical
prices range elsewhere because we subsidize their lower prices. I
think I get what you're saying there. I think I
get it.
Speaker 4 (01:34:03):
God, look at Pfizer stock.
Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
I could take a guess where it went. I can
take a guess. All right, we are plumb out of
time at your news. Middays coming up Chris Hamilton from
the Cole Associate President of the West Virginia Cole Association,
going to join the show. After yesterday's announcement regarding coal
investment by the government, we'll get into that, or well,
David Amanda will get into that. We're going to get
(01:34:27):
out of here. We'll try to regroup and do a
little bit better tomorrow, and I'll try not to break
my brain over the next twenty two hours. As the
test Texter suggested, all right, for Jake, Kyle and Ethan
as well as TJ. Don't forget him. I have a
great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. It's talk a
lon To Mention News, the Voice of West Virginia.
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