2.17.2025 -- NLS -- Idaho School Choice & Trump Unifying America

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they discuss the potential for parental choice in education, as Idaho moves closer to passing school choice legislation. They analyze the implications, including whether private schools will embrace the opportunity or find the regulations too burdensome. The ongoing debate over the grocery tax repeal also takes center stage, with concerns about the complexities of keeping receipts and filing for rebates versus a more straightforward repeal. They also highlight comments from Attorney General Raul Labrador on the issue and reflect on the political maneuvering surrounding tax policy in Idaho.

Shifting to national politics, Neal and Julie explore recent polling that suggests strong public support for key policies in Donald Trump’s agenda, including immigration enforcement, energy expansion, and government efficiency. They discuss how Trump's policies are resonating with voters across different demographics, particularly among Black and Latino communities. The conversation touches on job cuts in government, wasteful spending, and broader concerns about money laundering within the federal system.

The episode wraps up with a discussion on law enforcement, border security, and the perception that enforcing existing laws can sometimes feel like authoritarianism to those accustomed to leniency. They also touch on international relations, particularly how European allies react to U.S. leadership under figures like J.D. Vance. Throughout, Neal and Julie provide their signature mix of analysis, humor, and personal anecdotes to break down these pressing issues.

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Transcript

Oh, the melt down. How fun is this? Good morning. It is Monday, and it's great to have you along. As we get another workweek underway. A lot is happening. I think we may be mere days away from having parental choice in education. We're going to talk about that. We also have this ongoing fight and battle over the grocery tax repeal.

I've got some audio for you from that. We also have Attorney General Labrador speaking at the Kootenai County, Lincoln Day. And, want to play some of that for you as well. But I hope you're doing all right. I hope you had a good weekend. I hope that it was restful and enjoyable. And if you wanted it to be productive, productive as well.

So the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump went to his Truth social account and posted this. Congratulations to Governor Brad Little and Idaho legislators who are fighting to bring school choice to their beautiful state. $50 million to empower parents to provide the very best education for their child. Great news for Idaho families. This bill, which has my complete and total support must pass.

Must pass is in all caps, by the way. And that was posted on well yesterday. Yesterday afternoon. And obviously it's been shared widely, especially among Idaho circles. I want to give kudos. There are other lawmakers involved, but I believe Wendy Harman has truly done so much of the heavy lifting on this issue and on this bill. It's clear, even though she's not mentioned in this particular truth, that she, you know, she deserves a lot of the credit.

This is why I, I'm a big fan of Wendy Harman. She has championed this very, very important issue. Now, I will say this, the this makes a dynamic really interesting because let's set the table for just a moment. You have Wendy Harman's bill, which I think is a true parental choice. Bill. She did put some little concessions in it.

It doesn't change the core nature of the bill, but she did make a few concessions a couple of weeks ago. You have a competing bill, Senator Dave Lentz bill, which basically is a $20 million expansion of the Empowering Parents program. You might remember the Empowering Parents grants that were out there. Kids can get online and they can get an iPad, or they can buy educational materials or curriculum or whatever the case may be.

And this would add $20 million to that amount, making it also a $50 million price tag. But there were a lot more guardrails, also known as accountability. I would say this would probably be a poison pill. Even if it passes, you might have a lot of private schools that would just simply say, you know what? It's not feasible for us to jump through all of these hoops, and so we're not going to do it.

So I think it was a way to say, oh, we're offering parental choice, but it could be so egregious that maybe private schools decided they weren't gonna going to go forward with it. So either way, now, it seemed as well when we interviewed Senator Lente. He was he he he's still very reluctant about the idea. He read the room.

He chairs the Senate Education Committee, certainly in a place to put something like this forward. But he really directed our conversation away from parental choice. And when I say that, I don't mean it in the, in the way the left wants to define it or centrists want to define it. They want to define parental choices. Here's a menu of government schools.

You can choose from two choices. What are all the educational options out there and how can I how can I make this happen? And maybe with the aid of some state money, we do this in college all the time, so don't cut your pearls over that unless you're clutching your pearls. Overall, that's what I mean when I say parental choice.

And so when I look at how all of this has unrolled, and now with President Trump directly calling out, here's what I think may have happened, I think the governor, probably knowing his political past, would want to opt for caution. He would want to opt for incremental, slow, very measured change. And I would think that maybe he threw out 50 million in his state of the state speech.

And Dave Lente took that and ran with it and said, well, here's a $50 million thing. And, by the way, the fact that those figures are identical in a sense makes me feel like there's some confusion about what's what. But, it's clear that Wendy's bill, it's not across the finish line yet, but it cleared the house easily.

I think it's going to clear the Senate with an even bigger margin, because the Senate is quite conservative. And then what happens once it lands on the governor's desk? I think that the the governor, he's got to sign it. He has to sign it. Now, he doesn't have to sign it, but he has to sign it, or else all hell really is going to break loose.

So those are the dynamics that I think may have been behind the you you had someone for Trump saying, look, we're on the cusp here of having another state when school choice. Let's give the governor some encouragement and some times pressure comes in the form of praise. And I think that this may be pressure from Trump. And it's phrased as praise.

So I love it, I love it, I love these politics. I think they're great. I think it increases the likelihood that we may actually have school choice in Idaho. Now. Meanwhile, you have a lot of moderates that are coming unglued. You have the Democrat. Democrats are constantly in a state of unglued, but the the moderates are coming unglued over this because they they've fallen into some.

It's a whirlpool. It's like a vortex of virtue. And one of the measurements of virtue that certainly the Democrats and a lot of middle people have is how much do I stand up for traditional K through 12? And if you don't, then you're icky. If you don't, something's wrong with you and we hear it. It's a talking point.

I don't even know what it means because I'm here. If anything, I strive to be accurate and and to tell the truth as I see it, we should just simply be standing up for kids and standing up for giving our children a top notch education. So by the time they become an adult, they're ready for college, they're ready for training, they're ready for the workforce, they're ready for that regardless of the pathway to get there.

In fact, not regardless of the pathway to get there. Let's find the most optimal pathway for each child to get there. And I hate to break it to you. Traditional K through 12 or another government education option on the menu may not be the optimal way for them to get there. Yes, I am showing up and I am.

I'm not threatening the sacred cow. I'm not trying to butcher the cow. I'm trying to make you think that it's a cow. That may not be quite as sacred as you think it is. I want to do what's best for each kid. I don't want to do what's best for a system. I don't want to do what's best for an establishment fixture.

That does not appear to be as nimble as it ought to be in educating our kids. I also want to remind everyone who's listening that this is a mere $50 million, 50 million, and you put that side by side with the K through 12 budget that is measured in billions of dollars. This is not a threat whatsoever to K through 12.

It might embarrass him a little bit, but no child is going to be worse for us. Having this option for parents once it passes. You know, I'm just going to use, optimism language here once it passes. Not if, but when when it passes. What? You tell me which child is going to be harmed by this? Can anyone can anybody tell me name the child that's going to be harmed if parents have more choices where they where they put their kids, name them.

I'm. I'm waiting. So we have that issue then. Okay, let's migrate over. I'm I'm going to I'm going to make a confession here. Julian. I had a conversation right before this hour. We were talking about the grocery tax repeal effort. And there's sort of this compromise where everybody will continue to get the grocery tax rebate when you file your state taxes.

Great. If you want more than that, you can get more than that, but you have to show receipts. Okay. You got a it's a bookkeeping task for you to reclaim some of your money. So this is Clint Hostetler, and the confession is, is this neither Julie nor I are that deeply emotionally invested in this. Okay. You're my life is not going to be measurably different whether this passes or fails.

Okay? We're it's about sixes in terms of the grocery tax rebate that I get, I don't I don't see it being a lot more money or a lot less money in my bank account. And I think that's probably true for most Idahoans. So I don't really get to willing to spend a lot of energy on an issue that doesn't that isn't really going to move the needle in terms of my quality of life.

Now I can get emotional and pick a team and say, this is what I want, but it's actually not going to make much of a difference in in my life. I think it could make a difference, for some people to just not take the money from them in the first place. If I were to vote today, I would absolutely vote for a grocery tax repeal.

Lots of states don't tax groceries. They don't tax food. In fact, the majority of them don't tax food. There's there's a good reason for that. Idaho should be among them. I don't know why we drag our feet so much. I really don't I also don't know why. And this speaks to Attorney General Labrador's comments at the Lincoln Day.

Why are we shredding each other over this issue? Why? Why are we trying to destroy each other over this particular issue? It is interesting, if you go back trying to remember what year it was, and I think it was Governor Otter back then. We had a grocery tax repeal. The people wanted it. The legislature voted for it.

And then at the very last second and some argued it was past the last second, and it led to a court case. He vetoes the grocery tax repeal after he said he was for it in, in a campaign. So, I guess my point in the latest proposal, which is you still get your grocery tax repeal, you can get more, but you've got to keep all of your receipts.

One thing I didn't consider in this is that if that's the case, if it becomes a bookkeeping issue that you have to file with your taxes and, and keep receipts, there's actually now a new liability that you may face come tax time under this bill for a family of four to get an extra $380 on top of the normal rebate, a citizen will now have to keep receipts throughout the year for thousands of dollars of groceries bought throughout that year, scan them and turn them in.

By the way, they need to now itemize those receipts according to the Snap definition for their tax returns. So better bone up on your Snap definitions and food preparation knowledge. Apparently this bill's also got retroactive, to the first of the year. If that's the case, I hope everybody's been saving their receipts. Okay, so he makes this point that I didn't even think about.

If it's not eligible for food stamps, then it wouldn't be eligible, based on my understanding, to deduct it from your taxes. So you're you're going to have to know what. And look we're talking about hundreds, thousands of different food products. Some aren't going to be deductible. Some are. And so on top of keeping your receipts, you're going to have to know which ones are and aren't.

My basic question would be this if the store can instantly identify which of your groceries that you're buying would be deductible, why don't we just deduct it at checkout? What what I would bet you and I don't think this bill's going to pass, I would imagine the Tax Commission has said to the proponents of this bill, I think Speaker Morial is one of the proponents of this.

They've probably said this is a nightmare. You're we're going to have to sift through families, grocery store receipts so they can maybe get another couple hundred bucks. Now, first of all, a lot of families just won't do it. It's not worth it's not worth it for me. It just it I'm not going to go through all that time trouble hassle so I can eek out another couple hundred bucks.

It's not worth it. And for most people it's not worth it. And guess who else? Who knows that the proponents of the bill know that? I likened this to remember Red box ancient ancient technology, where you would walk up and scan a card, pick a movie, and it was spit out a DVD, right. Remember? Remember that? And I thought, how do they do this so cheap?

It's only like a buck 49 or however much it was. They did it so cheap because they understood human behavior and human behavior was, yeah, you're going to take that DVD, you're going to go home and you're going to watch it, and it's supposed to be back in two days. We know you're going to keep it for seven or longer, and I can't tell you.

I you know what would be interesting? I bet if I dug into the financial archives of Redbox, I could find out this info. How much did I actually spend per movie that I rented from Redbox, instead of it being a buck 49 or 249? I'll bet you was seven eight, 910 bucks. I was forever forgetting to take my red boxes back.

And guess what? So were you. Because they're their business model depended on you not doing it. They understood human nature. And I promise you, when it comes to keeping receipts so you can eke out another couple, they know you're not going to do it. But guess what? They're going to claim a political victory by saying we gave you tax relief.

If you don't take advantage of it, then that's your that's your choice to not do that when they could simply not take it from you in the first place, that would be the preferable deduction. In fact, this to me, I'll be honest. And I like Mike Miele, I really do. We interview him, he's great. And I don't mean this at him personally.

I'm almost more offended that they're putting this idea forward than if they did nothing, because this really is for them. I think they think it's an upside. We get to go out on the campaign trail and go give speeches and say, we put forward tax relief similar to it when they know it's the most cumbersome way for the average Idaho and to get tax relief, when in reality they could have done it instantly at the at the checkout in your grocery store.

It would have been very, very easy to just set it up so they don't take it. It would be like the instant rebate that you would get. But no, they are leveraging human nature, which is most of us are not going to keep, receipts in order to do this. So to me, it feels like it's a gimmick and a bit of a stunt.

It's 827 on Newstalk 179. Quick break. We'll be back. We'll continue after this. And we're back at 831 on Newstalk 1079. What? Julie, this is the bumper music that you play that everybody I think believes as the night Rider theme. Like we'll get texts about it. I don't remember the Night Rider theme, but it obviously like triggers a memory in some people.

Okay, well we could play the Knight Rider theme, I sure. Yeah. Do you know what this music is? It's I right? Yeah. This is I, I created the prompt for this music, so yeah. You know what though, I, I have vague memories of the, Knight Rider theme. So here's what the Knight Rider theme sounds like. If there's not an ad, hold on.

Oh, I can't remember this now. Yeah, I can't remember it. Let's let it develop for just a moment.

You know, like I can see Simpson. I can see how people think that there's some tension there. So this is Knight Rider.

This is I. Yeah. Both very synthesizer ish. Yeah. You.

Both could have, been in. You know, here's the thing. You think about Knight Rider. I was thinking about this the other day. Had Kitt and, whoever David Hasselhoff play Kitt was the car kind of the star of the show. And, did you know that the main doctor on Saint Elsewhere was the voice for Kitt in Knight Rider?

I did not know that. Yeah. You can't remember conversations we had two days ago, but you just pulled that one. I have no idea why I remembered that, but I remember watching Knight Rider one time and thinking. That voice sounds really familiar. That sounds like that doctor on Saint elsewhere. And then I found out I did a little digging and found out, you know, it was a book with me.

I'll let you rent Neil Larson for a couple of hours. He can take you to your local bar for trivia night, and you will win. Well, yeah. No, I don't know if you will like I there's some trivia I'm. I'm terrible at, but, so today, though, speaking of music, it is Presidents Day. And on Friday we had Finley Webster and she actually performed two different pieces.

It was Valentine's Day, so she did to make you feel my love. And then we said, you know what? We have Presidents Day coming up on Monday. Would you do the national anthem. And she was wonderful to oblige us. And even though we aired it live on Friday, we did tell our audience we're going to play it again today for Presidents Day.

Should we do that now? Yes. Let's do it. All right. Finley Webster with the replay first I got to get rid of Knight Rider. Turn it is. Turn down the Knight Rider. All right. And here is, Finley's performance. Oh, say, can you see, you the dog? Dawn's early light. What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars. Through the perilous fight. O'er the red ramparts we watched. Were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in in air. Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free. And Home of the brave, beautiful.

She's just so good. I felt like we needed a plot. I know after that, in my mind, I was hearing applause after the show. She's so good. And you know what? As sweet as she is, good as she is talented. Such a sweet girl, Finley Webster. Fun to have her in. Yeah. So. All right, let's take a quick break.

It's 837 on Newstalk 179. We'll have a little news here and be back. 844 Newstalk 179. It's Monday. Neil Larson, Julie Mason and Julie. I confessed for the both of us that neither you nor I are all that deeply invested in the grocery tax rebate issue. If. Is that okay that I confess that for 100% I would have said it myself as I was dissecting that last night.

That's the very first thought that came to me is, why are we spending so much time on this? Well, I and I will say, like, I, I do care, but we all have limited bandwidth. I care far more that we don't have progressives sexually grooming our kids in libraries and schools than I care about whether I get 150 bucks back for on my groceries, or they don't take 150 bucks for me in the first.

Like it's for me. The biggest fires that are burning are not that. But but that's not us saying we don't care. We're just prioritizing it. Yeah, I just don't have as much effort to put towards it as I do other other items. I also think that there's lots of other ways to save that amount of money in in government.

And so if the system is working and, and our lawmakers appreciate that it's building up the, the tax coffers and it helps with tourism and whatever with the people who come in and spend money in Idaho. Okay. Let's find a different way to cut. Yeah. You know, let I we've had people text in and talk about property taxes.

We've had other ways that we could, manage a tax cut for, East Idahoans or Idahoans in general. And I just think this might be a losing battle. You're not. Yeah. It's kind of been doomed from the beginning. Yeah. So here's a question that I have. One of the excuses that, has been given is that, well, out of staters won't be paying taxes, so we'll we'll be losing that tax revenue if they get rid of the grocery tax.

Right. First of all, other states manage this just fine. So but whatever, I'll take it seriously for the for the sake of the argument, why not then just say when you're at the grocery, store, show an Idaho driver's license and they don't charge you tax? Sure. I mean, I don't know why that can't be built into a system.

How hard is that? And if you don't have your driver's license, you don't get the tax rebate or, you know, the, the brake on that. So if somebody is here vacationing from Wisconsin, they're not going to have an Idaho driver's license. Is that is that an easy fix for that concern? Sure, sure. I think that's one option. Stores would hate it because clerks don't want to have to check.

They have to do it slows down their processes. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah. I don't just don't take it in the first place. Yeah. And we don't care all that money. Right. Like if you bait me into an argument. Yes. Oh can be argued for this to just be done with and go away 100%. Yeah. I just don't know if all of the angst and especially the inner Republican arguing that they're calling each other names, because if you're not on X and you're not part of these Idaho profile shows that are sitting here just excoriating each other over this grocery tax repeal.

Yeah, I don't understand the the hatred that's going on between these two groups. We're all trying to get to a good end here. Right? Relax. Yeah, right now would be the perfect time to play AG Labrador's comments at the Kootenay County Link. And they are actually conservative Republicans in the House of the Senate. And they defeated establishment Republicans in the races.

I was a legislator when I was part of a small band of conservatives that was fighting the establishment, and we were hoping and praying for a day like today, where the majority of legislators are conservative, where the majority of legislators are actually standing up for what is right. And what we have right now is a rift between conservatives.

And that is so dangerous, because how many of you have heard about this fight, this happening right now about the grocery tax? Yeah. How many of you have heard about that? How many of you are for repealing the grocery tax? You know? Okay. How many of you are for increasing then I'm and then we get every year in our tax return.

I'm for that too. I'm for both. I want to make sure that we give citizens of Idaho as much money as possible, whether we do it through a tax break or we do it through some other way. I want to give the citizens of Idaho more money. Well, if there's only one person who is responsible for not having a gas, I mean, a grocery tax, three people in Idaho.

And I hate to say that, but that person ran for governor and promising that he was going to repeal the grocery tax. And then he vetoed that grocery tax bill. There's only one person responsible for that. So let's not fight each other as conservatives because we have one choice or another. Let's make sure that we work together because the reason Trump is so strong right now is because you're seeing all the conservatives in America working together, making sure that his agenda is being done.

Now, we have conservative legislators who are trying to push a conservative agenda in the legislature. Let's make sure that they work together so we can make Idaho as great as always. When I first ran for the legislature 19 years ago. Okay, then he goes on, but I want to stop there. He makes a great point. We can have some differences over what to do with the grocery tax.

None of it is worth crucifying people who are with you 85% of the time. It's this is not an issue to create very distinct conservative tribes out of. Agreed. Couldn't agree more. I it just there's other ways to help Idahoans. If we can't see eye to eye on this one, and we just need to let it rest for another session, that's fine.

Go looking for the other ways to help Idahoans. Yeah, waste that. Don't divide the Republican Party. Yeah, I'm on real issues. Hey, is he sort of echoing what we are like where it now if he if you put the choice between, having to pay full grocery tax with no rebate or repeal or the option, the alternative, then I get passionate about it because you're talking about hundreds of dollars every year for your family, right?

But whether you get it back in a rebate or you, they just don't take it in the first place. I, I'm not, I'm not going to destroy anybody over that, over that difference. It's not worth it to me to, to crucify someone who's my political ally most of the time. I'm not going to fight that battle with them.

Doesn't matter that much to me. Yeah, it doesn't to me either. In fact, I think it causes more damage than help. So that would be my question for the politicians doing this. How much damage are you causing to Idahoans by creating this rift in the Republican Party? Versus how much benefit are you giving them by repealing the grocery tax?

Yeah. What's your return on your investment here. Yes. Yeah. That's a that's a great point. That's a great point. I just had a thought, but it's not okay. It's a bad idea. It's a good idea within a really bad idea. Yeah. So my good idea, within the bad idea is grocery stores. Nil. What groceries qualify for snap.

And what don't that happens to be the exact same qualifications to get this tax money back. It would be nice if on your grocery store, receipt, it said this is how much you can claim on your taxes for additional grocery tax repeal. So you didn't have to worry about this item versus that item. You could just take the entire receipt and say, oh, I can get $1.23 back for this, or I can get does that make sense?

Totally makes sense. That's another way. Again, you're going to bother all of the the companies with with labeling that. And so somebody put out somewhere. Yes. We're doing this. Yeah. Yeah that's true. It's a bad idea. Yeah I don't know. It's like you know, finding some food on the Titanic.

All right. We gotta get a break here. It's, 853 Newstalk 179, Neil Larson and Julie Mason. So, Canada. Their crowd booed during the national anthem at a hockey game in Canada. Multiple fights broke out almost instantly within the first few seconds. And then we went on to beat them 3 to 1. It was beautiful. It was wonderful.

All right, we'll be back.

It's 858 on Newstalk 170. Neil Larson and Julie Mason and, Julie, coming up tomorrow, we're going to have. She's the minority leader, right? She is. Alana Ruble will join us at 730. Yes. And, we'll talk about the Democrat perspective in the Idaho legislative session. Right now, obviously, we see things from a different angle, but she's always been great to to chat with us.

So look, it it's amazing to me that someone who is completely opposite of our views can be so kind and and willing to share her thoughts, and we can't get that from other people. 730 tomorrow, an hour or two coming up. Hour two underway. Good morning. It's 907. I'm Neil Larson, she is Julie Mason and it is Monday.

And Julie, we have a lot of massive audio for a month. We do so much. So we're going to get to some of this. Of course. This happened over the weekend. You might remember in the waning days of Joe Biden's disastrous presidency, he shut down offshore and near shore drilling for 625 million acres. And Donald Trump, along with Doug Burgum, reversed that.

Listen to this. The executive order, by President Biden that, wiped out these trillions from our balance sheet. President Trump signed an executive order instructing me as the secretary of Interior to unban that ban. And, that's been accomplished. And so those are back on the U.S. balance sheet. Okay. Which one is the 625 million acres of offshore that was, banned from further lease sales?

Further, 625 million acres is one third the size of the lower 48. That was taken off our balance sheet. It's back on there now. President Trump cares about the American people. He knows that these public lands belong to the public. They don't belong to Washington bureaucrats from the prior administration. And we're going to make sure that we get a return on investment for the American people.

The amount of money that he took off our balance sheet, if you look at his balance sheet, it was incalculable. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And he did that. I guess, in the last few days of the administration, he just wiped it out. 635 million acres, which if you sit down and look at it like that's a major part of the ocean, and he just gave it away and took it away, and fortunately it wasn't done with an act of Congress or anything.

And we did it. And they have, I think, very abbreviated, very quick and very legal procedure. And it's now back on our balance sheet. It's back as part of our country. What they did was so horrible. It was and just a terrible thing. Okay. So they're going to reverse that. And that fits under the umbrella of drill baby drill.

So looking forward to that. I'll just want to play some audio here. The numbers for Trump. And we're, you know coming up on a month in, it'll be a month here in about three days. And the numbers are still sky high in support of his agenda and what he's doing. And this is ABC news pointing this out.

They're talking with Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader. Listen, Donald Trump was favorability rating is actually higher than it ever was the first time around. Let me ask you, I a recent poll by Marquette looked at several of the things that he has done or is says that he is going to do and 63% favor, federal government's recognition of only two sexes, 60% favor deporting immigrants who entered the United States illegally, 60% favor expanding oil and gas.

Production, 59% favor declaring an emergency at the southern border. Is there anything you are seeing that the Trump is doing, that you, are in favor of? Do you think is the right thing? Let me say, as it relates, to all of those issues, we're just at the beginning. Okay. So no. Right. Just say no.

Hakeem. Yeah, just say no or say I'm not here for the American people. Yeah. Hey, I don't know. You know, it's funny, Julie, because if you I was, I was, expressing to you my disdain for social media earlier this morning. I just don't like it. I think it has been one of the biggest contributors to us feeling divided than we've had in, in a very long, long time.

And so when I look at, social media without it and you just look at the numbers of the polling that they're doing for, the United States, we are more unified now than we've been in a long time behind Donald Trump's agenda. But would you think that? No, that's my point. Yeah. Is that there's this myth out there that America is so divided, but we are at 60 and 60 plus support for Donald Trump's main objectives, which is deport illegals, start drilling for energy, increase government efficiency and decrease government waste and fraud.

America, two thirds of America is all in on this. When have we been two thirds all in on on several big issues at the same time? We're a very united country or non divided. I don't know if that counts as united, but we're not nearly as divided as we used to be. And, it's Donald Trump that has been the unifying factor.

Now, I know I say that, and there's a handful of people out there that are gasping for air right now and hyperventilating because I said, Donald Trump is unifying the country. But if you want to look at it, Donald Trump is unifying the country. Another thing that happened. And okay, I'm going to preface what I'm about to say with he promised everything he's doing.

He didn't hide this agenda. He did not get elected and then go, oh, by the way, I'm creating Doge. Oh, by the way, I'm going to cut the federal bloat. Oh, by the way, I'm going to, secure the southern border and the northern border. All of that was out there before he was elected. He was then elected.

The people support him. And this. And then when you hear the outrage online, you have got to put it in an emotional place and understand there's only about 20% of the country that's being this loud. You know, the rest of the country is applauding it. On Saturday Night Live. They had their big 50 year celebration this weekend. Yeah.

And you had Tom Hanks, who portrayed a Maga voter. He had a hat on, like a denim shirt. Looked like middle America wouldn't shake the hand of the black host because he was scared of them. That is another way that they're portraying a lie to you. They're gaslighting you. This election was one of the most racially equal that we've had in a long time.

The the, the racial demographics centered. They came to the middle and about half voted for, Democrat and about half voted for Republicans. Well, the the elites, Hollywood. Tom Hanks is a good example of this. They're operating on old firmware. They're operating on this idea of all this inherent racism that lies in the Republican Party. They can't stand that the black community has supported Donald Trump in bigger numbers than they've ever supported a Republican, at least in any recent memory whatsoever.

They can't handle that. So they kind of have to just keep up the lie and maybe tell the lie at a higher volume to to keep convincing themselves. But there was a poll out, I don't remember the exact number, Julie from last week, but there was a poll out among black men, huge gains that they they strongly support Donald Trump like it's close to 5050 now among black men.

I don't know if it's true among, black women, but among black men, it's in the high 40s. Like something like 48% of black men support Donald Trump. And, you know, you think about this. Remember when Donald Trump came along and said, we're going to fix immigration and the media and some others, they felt like, oh, his support among Latinos is going to collapse.

It actually increased significantly. And I think when Donald Trump comes in and says, we're going to solve these problems with immigration and jobs and that that's resonating, that's resonating among a group, a demographic group that struggles with employment, that struggles maybe with crime or with, you know, drugs coming in. They like what Donald Trump's doing and and he's winning.

And that's what's beautiful about this. Over the weekend, they shut down an immigration center. I think it was San Diego. I could have the wrong city there. But they shut down an immigration center on the border. It employed just over 100 people. They had to shut it down because the border has become so secure. They're not in taking anyone.

Do you know what the narrative was on X? Oh, those poor 100 employees. What are we supposed to do? La la la la. You existed because our federal government created a criminal enterprise. I am sorry you're out of a job, but we don't keep a job for you so that a criminal enterprise can keep going. That that's true.

That. Julie, you just brought up a really, really good question. Does your job exist because of government failure? And if it does, I'm sorry. You're losing your job. Yeah, but you might be losing your job. Yes. Yeah. I, I feel for human beings, but I want to remind everybody on day one of the Biden administration, he shut down drilling and immediate leak.

10,000 plus people were out of jobs without, several months of severance. Most of these jobs that are going away that are have been, removed because of that, the, Department of Government Efficiency. Yeah. They've been given a severance package until October. If there was a humane way to do this, Donald Trump is the one doing it.

Yeah. Not the way Biden functioned on day one of his administration. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Trump's telling them you're going to get your full paycheck through the spring, through the summer and into the fall, and that's plenty of time for you to redirect yourself professionally. Go start a business, find a new job. Absolutely. Get back in college. You know it.

It's fascinating to watch this because that is an offer that most people in the private sector would never get, ever. Where we offered it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny, I was just I was just thinking, I mean, you know, we could, explain to people who were, you know, losing their jobs. I don't really want to come off that way.

But I will say from experience, a job change may kind of stink when it's happening. And you you don't know what you're what you're jumping to future is unsure, but it can be an amazing thing. It can. It can open a door. You think a door shutting, no doors opening. And it could land you in the best, much better place than than you.

You're in. You and I both can testify of that. Yes, we absolutely can. We're we're here. We're here now because of this phenomenon. And so, yeah, I, I look at this and I'm like, look, everybody's going to be okay. They're going to be okay. There was a story that had a more regional angle on it. Apparently there were employees of the Bridger Teton National Forest.

They saw this. Yes. That are losing, losing their jobs. Also the white House, apparently. I did see this on ABC news. They have come out and said there have been some firings that were in error. And so those people will probably get their jobs back. But you know what? You're going to have that I remember the story I read, back when I liked Mitt Romney.

I read his book about the Olympics when he came in, and he admitted in that book, because he basically came in when he took over the the Olympics, that it was broken. He pretty much fired everybody. He had to start over. And he said, I probably fired people that were doing their jobs. They weren't corrupt. They were. But in order to to press the reset button on this, I felt like I had to do this to to get a clean slate and to start fresh.

And I think there may be an element of that, of course, when when hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs, there are going to be a few that will lose their jobs. That probably shouldn't. Yes. And so I you know, it's just the law of averages is just numbers. You get enough in there. There's going to be some.

But but I would hope that Donald Trump in those those isolated instances that he'll make it right. Can he he can rectify it. I would also offer up to the people who have lost their jobs. No one's job is 100% safe. Yeah. I don't I'm not sure what working for the government made you believe that you would have this job indefinitely.

Everyone's replaceable. Everyone's removable. Erasable. Yeah. Ask all of those people who lost their jobs during Covid. Yeah. They were told that they weren't necessary. Yeah. That was mostly in the private sector. This is not unique to just the government. Yeah. And I'm sorry at this time that it's affecting you. But it's a reality that every American has in front of them.

Yeah. Part of the DOJ's report Julie, was that something like $2.7 trillion have been misspent and that's harmed the Medicaid and Medicare budgets. Do you know how much $2.7 trillion is. That is a staggering amount of money. Trillion with a tiny part of these budgets have gone overseas to people who aren't even in America. Yeah. And you have these people who they really don't think there's too much waste.

They don't. They just think, you know what? It it's a travesty if a federal employee loses their job. And I'm like, when we can in error send $2.7 trillion overseas, somebody needs to lose their job, someone needs to lose their job. And again, there is no guarantee that you get to keep your job. You should know if your job was this kind of a job, a job that was getting, subsidized by poor government management?

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Here's, here's the latest clip. This is from the white House briefing room. Point $7 trillion in improper payments to Medicare, Medicaid overseas. The people who should not have gotten it. Some of this room might have missed that press conference. Can you elaborate on what the president, is thinking at this point? Well, again, that's another example.

There's a very long list of the fraud, waste and abuse that DOJ's identifying on a daily basis. Elon Musk also talked about yesterday about Social Security payments that are going out the door for people who are no longer with us. Unfortunately, I would say that is certainly, fraud. There's also a lot of contracts. They've identified that just as a hypothetical example, are a million bucks, but only 500,000 went out the door.

So where's the rest of that cash? And so that's the thing. Those are the things that DOJ's working on every single day. Yeah. I think what my current working theory is that the federal government is a big money laundering operation that addresses her question of how it was $1 million grant awarded, but only half a million actually went out to out the door to the people who were supposed to be the recipient of it.

Whereas the other half, if you're having conversations with people about this in your everyday life, I would encourage you to challenge them and ask that question. You know, say, okay, you're complaining about the fact that, that this part of this department is being shut down. I'm just giving us a made up scenario here. I would then challenge that person.

Have you done a deep dive to see where all of the money was going? Because there's a reason that it would be axed if it's been granted $1 million, but only half of that money is going to that department. Another half is going to politicians. It's time to get rid of it because it doesn't need it. We don't need it that if it didn't need funded completely, it's probably not necessary.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Get rid of the funding and the politicians. A lot of hands in this cookie jar. Yep. All right. 924 Newstalk 1079 quick break. We'll come back and continue after this.

929 On Newstalk 1079 Julie, I don't know if you knew this or not. Adam Schiff has issued a very important warning for us, and I want to I want this is very scary. They could go after the president's enemies. They could open investigations of people for no reason, with no evidence. They could potentially pressure prosecutors, to move forward with charges without an adequate basis.

Now I have can you imagine that happening? This is terrifying. Oh, I hate it. How does he say it with a straight face? I, I don't know, I don't know, I, I don't know you. He might as well have said they're going to do exactly what we did. And that is not fair. I you know what? He copied and pasted the Democrat playbook into the alarmists talking points.

That's what he did. And I have faith in the court system that those cases ultimately get thrown out. I have faith in the jury system, but they could really turn people's lives upside down in the process. And of course, merely opening an investigation against someone, even if it's without merit, that can create a cloud over that person.

You don't say. And I'm sure one way they, you know, may be contemplating going after their enemies is to open unwarranted investigations, make the fact of the investigation public, and attempt to smear people. This is all we have seen over the last three years. Well, prior to that, if whoever's interviewing had any guts at all, they would say, oh, you mean an investigation?

Like when you you look into some real estate dealings of Donald Trump and you take what has been handled as a misdemeanor for years, and you, you push it up to a felony charge. You mean investigations like that, that that can be harmful to a person or a campaign finance, issue. And you squeeze 34 felonies out of that, none of which actually apply to anything in the law or like sicking the FBI on to a residence and having them pose documents for pictures.

Oh, give me one like that, Adam Schiff. Is that one or or like, a racketeering charge or whatever that was in Georgia where you get, the prosecutors boyfriend involved to open the investigation and make that one stick. Oh, like that one? Is that the one you're talking about? Oh, or are we talking about the one where, like, you turn a phone call with Ukraine into something?

It's not like that one. There's that one. Or there was an accusation. Remember when they said Biden was colluding with the Russians to try to win an election? Oh, yeah. And that and then they found out Biden wasn't doing that. Remember when that happened? This is all they've done. Yeah. My goodness you have. It's it's funny because now the left is melting down.

They're freaking out because Pam Bondi opened the investigation into a bunch of New York officials because they're they've committed crimes, they've aided and abetted illegal immigration. So they're going to be investigated for it now. And they're well, they've done other things too. But now they're saying, oh, this is retribution. Well, no, they violated the law, as Pam Bondi has every right to look into this as well.

There's evidence they violated the law. And she has every right to look into this right? Right. I, I think that all of it is is ludicrous. I think that we we need to just clean up government so people can't launder money. So people can't behave poorly. But whatever, don't come on national TV and act like this is an egregious step by Pam Bondi.

When you've been doing it for eight years, no longer than eight, ten years, because they started while he was campaigning that this selective pearl clutching gets really old. Yeah. Really old. So, I do want to play this. Julie, speaking of AOC, I don't have the audio for this. Apparently AOC did a tutorial video on how people can evade ice.

Yeah, and Tom Homan says she's committing a crime. You can't aid and abet people to break the law. She could get in trouble for it. I don't know if Pam Bondi is going to chase this down, but it's like George Soros. He was using his radio stations to convey information of where Ice was so that listeners could avoid Ice, his license, which that's what is really a value with the radio station.

It isn't all the equipment that we use, it is a value, but the real value is that we can broadcast on a certain frequency on UN airwaves. And if you're utilizing that to help people break the law, they're going to look at you. And so now the FCC is looking at some of Soros radio stations and I hope they yank those those permits.

There should be a higher level of what she's required to live up to. And if she's teaching people how to evade, she shouldn't have the office. Yeah, yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Okay, so here's here's Tom Homan. He was asked about AOC and what she's doing. Me aware of immigration. I've done. This is 1984. I forgot more about the immigration law, the AOC, whatever.

No matter of fact, the hearing couple years ago, I had explained to her that entering the country illegally was actually a crime. So I, I don't know, I like to play that game. I simply made a statement when you when you sit down with people who are wanted by us criminal aliens that have been ordered to be ported from the United States government and ignore that.

Or if you and I ignored that order, we'd be sitting in prison, which they ignored an order from federal judge. They're hiding in a home, and she told them not to open the door. Yeah, she could be in hot water, as she should be. Yeah, yeah. You know, one thing that I. I realize, Julie, that it if for a while adhering to the law is going to feel like authoritarianism.

It's not, but it will feel that way for a little while because we've been lawless for so long. There's been a certain segment of the society that has felt like, oh, illegals can just do whatever they want, or we can ignore this part of the law. We can have a sanctuary this or and, and and so when you have someone like Donald Trump come along puts people in place and he says, we need to uphold the law.

The Constitution means something, our laws mean something, and we're going to start enforcing them. I think for the people who've been lawless, that's indistinguishable from tyranny. They view that as sort of this oppression that they're not used to. But for me, it's just reestablishing law and order. Yeah, it's nothing different than the way parents parent, which is, okay, your child is 16 and has been misusing their cell phone, so you take the cell phone away.

Well, of course the child's going to tell all of their friends what a horrible person their mother is. And and she's so mean to me and blah, blah. Now we're just reestablishing the rules. And if you'd like to play by the rules, then you can have the cell phone. Yes. That's it's that simple. Yeah. It's egregious at the time to them, like they they feel like it's a it's a big yeah.

That 16 year old can't stand it and thinks that they're going to just fall apart. But the reality is we should all play by the rules. Yeah yeah. Agreed. All right. 937 on Newstalk 179 Quick break. And, by the way, Elon Musk and Doge is winning in court, being granted access to these agencies that where you've had states that have tried to stop it, they know there's waste, fraud and abuse.

They're moving back. Any progress? I assure you, the United States has come under withering criticism on many occasions from many leaders in Europe, and we don't go around throwing temper tantrums about it. 943 on Newstalk 179, of course, that is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and he's referencing JD Vance, his speech to well, it was in Munich, but there were a lot of European nations there and representatives from European nations.

And basically he gave them a little lecture. Julie. He said why are you not adhering to free speech. And unfortunately when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winters. I look to Brussels, where EU Commission commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest.

The moment they spot what they've judged to be, quote, hateful content, or to this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, combating misogyny on the internet. A day of action. I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friends murder.

And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden's laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact grants. And I'm quoting a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief. And perhaps most concerning, Lee, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the crosshairs.

A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith Connor, a 51 year old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50m from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son.

He and his former girlfriend had aborted years before. Okay, so you know what I like about this. He didn't just give a generalized critique. He brought receipts. He brought specific examples of how these nations, in very specific cases, are not honoring our our quote unquote, shared values of, of a democracy, free speech being one of the most premier basic human rights that that you have in a free society.

You don't have that if if you have to worry about being jailed because you're praying 50m away silently without obstructing anyone, you don't have freedom. You don't have free even if you are burning Korans, but you get jailed for it or worse, you don't have freedom that may be offensive, that may not be nice. It may be rude.

It's certainly not how I would, approach a situation. But you don't have freedom if if you don't have the freedom to offend people. Right? So I'm going to use a sports analogy here, which is there's a team and I think that we can we can say that Europeans and Americans are on the same team. Right? When it comes to protecting the world.

Europeans and Americans are supposed to be on the same team. So does that mean individual teammates on the team don't look at each other and call each other out when they're not playing correctly? Happens all the time. Happens all of the time. Yeah. You you see good leaders pull wide receivers over and show them how they ran the route incorrectly.

Yeah okay. This is normal, but they act like J.D. Vance just committed the biggest sin that was possible. Yeah, no. If you're going to be good teammate, you're going to do this. You're going to help each other out like this. And maybe if they didn't want to public in a meeting like this. But he needed to telegraph to the rest of the world, this matters.

Yeah. Well, you know what I bet happened? I mean, I don't know this for sure, but I would imagine we sent this message through more discreet diplomatic channels. You guys need to stop this. This is not freedom. This is not democracy. And they told them where to go. And I bet you it I I, I would almost guarantee that there has been behind the scenes pressure to not do these kinds of things.

And these European countries probably gave them the middle finger basically saying, but out of, of our, of our business and, and that's probably when J.D. Vance said, okay, you know what? I'll bring it up to the next level then. Yep. I'll give a speech in front of everybody so they can see what is expected of you in Europe.

Yeah. I would also ask Julie to the the people on the we have the hand ringers in society. You know who the hand ringers. So clearly we and it's bipartisan. It's a bipartisan phenomenon. We have most people in the Democrat Party are hand ringers. But more than there should be Republicans also wringing their hands over things like this.

Like they're afraid we've offended Europe. They're are, you know, oh no, federal workers lost their jobs. It's the worst thing ever. And, you know, they wring their hands over everything and which is fine. We'll all wring our hands once in a while. But they wring their hands over everything. Their hands are raw. Parents can't have school choice that just, you know, you're right.

Their hands are bloody. They've been wringing them so much, I, I would, I would say to them and I even in the spirit of friendliness as I've been kind of mocking them, it's going to be okay. You people, if they're not grown up, this will teach them to be more grown up. People can get their feelings hurt.

We certainly as Americans, we get criticized all the time from European countries, from their culture, from Mexico, from kid. We could go on if we went on the international media. Julie. If we looked up the biggest, networks that are overseas or the biggest newspapers that are overseas, I promise you, there is anti-American sentiment all through that we don't get all butthurt for sure.

We're like, we're America. You can have your opinion. That's fine. We're going to continue to do what we do. So why is it this one way street where we are expected to be emotionally resilient as Americans and not cower in the corner and, and, you know, lie down in the fetal position with our feelings hurt because some ally said something negative towards us, but we can't expect the same thing in return.

We. I love the analogy that you had about teammates calling on each other to do better. We're just saying, look, Belgium do better, Sweden do better. You you're not honoring people's basic freedoms when you do this kind of stuff. I promise to all the hand-wringing, listening to all the Democrats and all the, the mushy Republicans out there who think that this was a bad look for for JD Vance in the United States.

It's going to be okay. It's a it's a great look. Actually, it is a great I would say, I'm going to deviate but bring it back around. So over the weekend the NHL did this. It's kind of like their version of an all star game but with other people. So it what's it called the something for? I don't know.

They were the NHL team. The national team was in the US team was in Canada. Yeah. The Canadian, national anthem was played and the American national anthem was played. Canada booed, and, led by these two brothers on the team. They said, all right, that's how we're going to play. We're going to do this. They picked three fights with within the first nine seconds.

So when I say they picked fights, they didn't pick fights and lose. They picked fights and won. Yeah, America went on to win that match 3 to 1. And that was their way of telling everybody, you don't mess with America. Yeah, you're going to beat us. We'll show you exactly what we think about that. This was a much less glove still on version by J.D. Vance.

He didn't drop the stick. He didn't pull off the gloves and start throwing punches. Yeah, but he stood there and he said, you will not treat us this way. And we expect more of you as teammates. Yeah, yeah, we can get to the next level if you'd like to. Europe. Yeah, yeah, we can. I love that Trump is telling Europe you need to you need to pull your own freight.

Over in Ukraine we've been we've been throwing way too much to Ukraine. It's your backyard. Yep. You secure your backyard. Why is it our job to secure your backyard? We want to help you secure it, but it's not our responsibility. Yeah, and I love that Trump. And when I say JD Vance, I mean Trump. I love that Trump is looking out for America.

And and not just that looking out for freedom. And I think what he's saying now, like I look at this and I think, okay, Trump is not the savior of the world. He's he's not. We're going to save the people of Sweden or we're going to save the people of Belgium. But he is leveraging our relationship and saying, don't come to a table that celebrates democracy and quote unquote shared values unless you're going to walk the walk.

And we don't want to sit down at the table with disingenuous leaders of nations that say fancy things and, and, and flowery messages about freedom when they're arresting someone praying 50m away from an abortion clinic. And I know it's uncomfortable for them. They, they have been dealing with the last four years of a president who was wandering off to watch a Paris shooter and didn't even know what was going on, and a sub subpar, intelligent vice president who couldn't even put sentences together.

That is, if she was coherent at the time, or if possibly she might have been using some illicit, some intoxication. Yes, yes. So they've been dealing with that for four years. I know this is uncomfortable Europe and it's not what you were used to. But guess what the old saying. There's a new sheriff in town. Yeah, bring your Grown-Ups.

Be emotionally resilient. 954 quick break. We'll come back and continue. We'll we'll actually wrap up with our last segment coming up on Newstalk 179. Okay. Are we on? We're on hello Facebook live. How many do we have? Well, I don't know because we're frozen it says 11. Okay. I don't know why we're frozen. Let me see if we can see.

Thanks. We might have figured out why it was blocking us. We think, it says 11 on my anti. So. Okay, okay. Which is not surprising because we started so late. So that's fine. At least we've got it fixed we think. Yeah.

I was doing all of the same steps without success. And so we, we cleansed everything, did an update and, we think we might have figured it out. Someone sent in this idea. If we want to get tax revenue from tourists, why not do minimal hotel room taxes on a statewide basis? Yeah, you can do that.

I look, I'll say this just randomly, you and I drive past, especially me drive past a lot of hotels to get to work every morning. I am so surprised at how full they are. I would have if you would have asked me before I took this job. Are that many people staying in Idaho Falls? I would have been like, no, they are full.

Okay, we'll come back. We'll have 11 seconds. So okay, okay, answered everybody back on the text line who said they couldn't get in now? And I have had a heck of a morning. There's been gremlins everywhere this morning. This Monday is Monday IG yeah, it's on steroids. It started it. What time do you get here? Four 3445 442 here.

Some like it. It started at 442 when Neil walked in the door. Yeah, yeah, it did yesterday. Drove to Rexburg to do church. Coming up the hill in Rexburg by the temple. I don't know what BMW calls their little Boxster version of a car, but you know, it's teeny like their little Boxster version of a BMW kid in his suit trying to get that car up that hill is stuck.

Oh. After passing him I don't know what he did, but started spinning down the hill. Oh.

That's funny. Were. Are you laughing? I was hoping that's an expensive car. I was kind of silently praying for him that it doesn't get broken. Yeah. All right, that does it for our Monday. Julie and I will be back tomorrow. Alana ruble, 730 tomorrow. Be sure and join us for that and we'll see you then.