Iesuous right. He yea s America and Jery Holland for regious for nation. I God invasi.
And this is wrong. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
It is fifteen minutes after six o'clock. Good morning and welcome. We finally made it to Friday. It's February fourteenth. It's Valentine's Oh you did not, sir, forget. I didn't. I can promise you your significant other did not forget. You said you're ready. I'm good as ready as I need to be. Like I mentioned yesterday, my wife's down with the flu. So oh yeah, it's not feeling it better huh a little. Yeah, she's she's on the mend. Okay, good,
but won't be doing anything special tonight. So just hopefully you're gonna be giving you the flu. Yeah.
I kept it to the bare minimum.
Yeah all right. So, uh, this week for me personally, I mean usually man, I come back from vacation. It seems like that first week back is last forever. This one's kind of fown on by here. Whatever your plans are, if you need to do anything outdoors. Yeah, you're sir tired to forecast? Do it today because after the day it's just nasty. And oh, hang on a minute, wait just a minute. What now the model is starting to
ramp up. We have more winter weather on the way. Really, yeah, potential of a some models calling for a wintery mix for us come Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I just saw a couple of runs of the UH, the the euro and the GFS and yeah, they're they're showing the potential for snowfall for the Midlands the Columbia area next Thursday. When model says it could even be maybe like two inches of snow. Wow. Yeah, so we may not be done with winter weather, ye or sortatly. I done with
the colder air. But do we get more snow? Hopefully no ice? And again depends on what mode you're looking at. Wintry, mixed, sleet, freezing rain. We don't want that. But are the models calling for just some snow possible for us?
All right, but let's get through the weekend and then you can tell us what it looks like on Monday.
I'll just this weekend looks to be a looks to be a wash out at least, but you know how that goes. That stinks. Yeah, it's opening weekend for college baseball the D one level across the state. Yeah, this is gonna be hard to get them all in. I guess all right, the rundown the big stories of hot topics for this Valentine's Day doze in SC. Well, there are some leaders over the state House Republicans who think that's a good idea. They want to establish a Department
of Government Efficiency in South Carolina. It's hard to disagree with that concept, right.
And yet at the same time, it just seems like a bit of a stretch. I mean, if we're that bloated at the state government level, then I mean there just aren't nearly enough agencies and organizations for it to get that point like it is federal. No. No, I mean I absolutely agree. If if we've got that kind of bloat, then then go to cutting. Well, but of course, you know, with the Republicans, if there's bloat, you're the ones who created.
Exactly right, you can't blame that on the Democrats. Well, we do actually have bodies that are in existence right now here in the state that that served as somewhat the same function. But anyway, it's you know, it's a hey, it's it's the shiny new object exactly. And uh, you know, some folks over there want to say, hey, I have no issue. I don't think any of us do with making sure that that our taxpayer dollars aren't being unwisely
and frivolously distributed here in South CARELA. And yeah, there's some of that, you know there is.
Oh, I'm sure there is. But is it worth spending a lot of time and effort and money.
I don't know.
This seems like one of the usual state House suspects when they get to a point where they don't want to tackle what they need to tackle, they see what's up in Washington and then they recreate those headlines in South Carolina.
But now, if if you're if you're serious about it, you want to do it, then sign me up to be elon musk. Okay, yeah, I'll be happy to yeah, be happy to. Yeah. We also have some over the state House that are pushing for a change to the US Constitution as it pertains to term limits. You know that that would be a constitutional change. It would require thirty four states to all sign on, and there's a resolution over the state House that says what we should
sign on to that here in South Carolina. This again term limits. You know, uh yeah, this pops up all the time, and people get excited about it when they hear about it, and then it just kind of goes way. This will always be in the discussion and we'll probably never happen.
I don't mean it in terms of how he's voted the last couple of days. But you turn on a TV and you look at Mitch McConnell and same on the other side, you look at Nancy Pelosi and you think, yeah, term limits need to be instituted.
Yeah, I mean there are very very good arguments for that. Certainly now you mentioned the fluorting through your household right now, d heck. They're no longer d heck are they? The Department of Public Health. It's going to take me a long time to get used to not saying d HACK anymore. I wasn't sure which what to call it, and I'm glad, you know, I guess we'll call him DPH anyway. One
and thirty influenza hospitalizations this past week alone. Hospitalization so far, we've had close to fifty five hundred people hospitalized and thirty seven people have died as a result of the flu here in South Carolina. Hey, good news, Northeast Richland County travelers. The hard Scrabble Road project, the project that seemed like it would never end. Maybe Devin here, but maybe getting close to wrapping up here. Give him a couple more months, as Dot to complete the last two
miles of this. This has been going on since twenty seventeen. This is crazy.
That's a long drawn out project.
But Dot says, maybe months away from getting it done. All right, Well, he's in or FK Junior confirmed as Trump's Health secretary. That vote fifty to forty eight yesterday. So let the fund begin here Maha for everybody. Matter of fact, it looks like Trump's establishing a new AMU Maha Commission. Of course RFK Junior will head that up. I don't know how to any different from what he'll be doing at at at DHS. But but whatever, Cash Battel has cleared a key confirmation hurdle. He got out
of the Senate Judiciary Committee party line vote. Duh. Really yeah, so uh, this nomination moves on, and really I'm you know, this, this is going to happen with cash battel and you know, one of the one of the things that's got to a lot of people in DC apparently calling defense attorneys. Is is he going to release the Epstein files? I bet he will.
Uh.
Trump came through with it yesterday. He talked about it this past Sunday on Air Force One heading down to the Super Bowl, that he would do it sometime this week, and he has now done it's signing a memorandum yesterday reciprocal tariffs.
Uh.
Now, there's a lot of handwringing over this one. Main Street is concerned, National Retailers Federation warning of higher prices. Trump even himself saying, yeah, that could be higher prices in the short term, but long term is the payoff. Wall Street didn't seem bothered by this. Yesterday, stocks on the brink of new record highs futures pulling back a
little bit this morning. We could spend the whole morning and then need more time talking about how many times now in the last couple of weeks judges have got involved in at least temporarily halting Trump executive orders here. I mean, the list goes on and on and on a federal judge late yesterday issuing an order compelling the White House to lift its three week funding on a free funding freeze, I should say on US foreign aid Biden appointee I think was responsible for that. Yeah, you
better believe it. Meantime, another Biden appointed judge directing the White House to keep funding hospitals that performed child sex change operations.
Okay, you know, I don't understand this, this whole brewhaha. I mean, on the one hand, you've got Democrats yelling out this is a constitutional crisis. The you know, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are running wild, and then at the same time they're celebrating these judges who are executing well, they're doing things that obviously the Republicans don't agree with. But at the same time, it is the balance of power. You've got the judicial branch versus the executive branch, kind
of one balances the other. It can't be both. It can't be a constitutional crisis and you think the system is working at the same time.
That's talking about both sides. You mount exactly, exactly, U. Yeah, you got fourteen states attorneys general suing Elon Musk over what they're calling unchecked government power.
Have you seen the doge clock? No, Oh, it's awesome. I mean it's it is. Let me let me see where it stands right now. You, you personally, you as a taxpayer, you've already saved three hundred three dollars and ninety two cents just individually, just individually, and each have said every US taxpayer. Yes, Wow, they have saved forty five point five nine billion dollars so far. They are two point three percent toward their goal.
Well, they say they save that, but the problem is judges keeps saying no, you can't do that. Well, it's still working, all right. That more coming up here on this the Friday morning Valentine's Day edition. Love is in the air, No Columbus, Well love it. It'll be his morning news now hear about it. We've had multiple Democrats politicians talk about it, threven people and incited violence.
One on three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM and five six w VOC.
It is six forty one. Good morning, and good to have you along for Valentine's Day, Friday, February fourteenth. I am Gary David. That is Christopher Thompson right over there. So much going on, I mean, so many things to talk about, and we'll be talking about a lot of them today. Doze in South Carolina. We'll get to that a little bit later on this morning. This this this concept.
RFK Junior confirmed by the Senate fifty to forty eight as the next Secretary of the Department of Health Human Services. The list goes on and on, the reciprocal tariffs from imposed as of yesterday, and and what that effect is going to have on on on all of us. So big stuff, but you know what, all of that really pales in comparison to this topic we're going to spend a couple of minutes on right now, artificial intelligence. So Vice President Vance was in France earlier this week and
it was a big symposium. They were talking about artificial intelligence. How many times have you, I know, I've done it a bunch. You think about AI and the machines and all this, and the image conjures up in your mind of the Terminator movies, right little, yeah, yeah, Oh, I
do it all the time. James Cameron, who directed that first Terminator moving back in nineteen eighty four, is actually a part of a group of people that are studying and you know, consulting and talking to people about all this. And he was talking recently at the Special Competitive Study the Projects AI and Robotic Summit. He made the argument that AI today is a scarier scenario than what he presented in The Terminator forty years ago. He says that
for no other reason, it's no longer science fiction. It's happening. He's sounding the alarm. He's part of the board of Stability AI, which is a UK based artificial intelligence company, and he's issued to warnings now not about rogue AI launching missiles. Remember that was a whole the backdrop what Sky now was called sky now. I think in the in the Terminator movies, the machines took launched a war
on the humans. He fears though, that the emergence of an all encompassing intelligence system embedded within society, one that enables constant surveillance, manipulates public opinion, influences behavior, and operates largely without oversight, is a scary prospect. That is scary, very much so. And he says it's it's happening, he said. You'll be living in a world you didn't agree to, you didn't vote for, and you're being forced to share with a super intelligent entity that allows the goals of
a corporation. He points out, in this case, an entity will have access to your communications, beliefs, everything you've ever said, and the whereabouts of every person in the country through personal are that's happening right now.
Well, the influencing on the public, I mean we saw that during the election. I mean, you've got all these bots out there, the algorithm algorithms that you know, read your behavior and then send you certain things to make you think something else.
Sure, but let's let's let's bring this to on to just the level of Okay, what do you do when this happens? One example, here in this country, our government operates on getting taxes from working individuals. Right, So now the talk is what happens. James O'Brien wrote an opinion piece on foxnews dot com. What happens when so many
jobs are eventually taken over by AI. You got people that aren't working and needing what government benefits, but so many people aren't working, what happens to the tax base in this country. I mean, the way our government makes money is to get taxes from working human beings. Well, what if that job is replaced by artificial intelligence? Where does the tax money? Where? Where does that Where does that revenue generating tax base come from? This has to
be considered. No one idea is that, well, companies, corporations that employ this AI that somehow they're they're they're they're they're levied more taxes on it. But this is something I hadn't thought about. And yeah, and worst case scenario here is is that a lot of people lose their jobs. And so it's it's it's a double edged sword. Not only does the tax base start to dry up, but now these are folks who are going to need government assistants more than likely some of them at least. That's
a double a double whammy right there. Man. If we see widespread unemployment as a result of this, what do we do and what do you do? In the tax base shrinks so much that now we've got people who who can't even get government benefits that would maybe deserve them. This is just a this is not a good scenario, man, not good at all. So of everything that we talk about here, everything going on in the world today, Quite honestly, what's all said and done, it all does pale in
comparison to this issue. And how many times have we said this. You can even talk about it all you want to. You could talk about putting restrictions on it and this and that, but it's already out there. It's already out there. You don't put that cow back in the barn. And yet it has the ability to bring a lot of good things. You know, is AI the way we cure cancer one of these days.
AI is working on doge now now.
But the downsides are potentially very, very devastating for the of the entire planet, for the human race. I mean not trying to be hyperbolic here, but we again part of the problem. We just have no idea. But how rapidly it is advanced in such a short amount of time is really stunning. Okay, So that's something else somebody's
got to work on. You know, if so many people lose their jobs and suddenly, you know, don't pay taxes anymore, but but need government benefits because they've lost their jobs to AI, what do you do? Then? Hopefully there are much brighter minds than mine working on those sorts of issues right now and trying to figure it all out.
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three point five FM on five sixty am w VOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
What Tyler didn't mention there, he stopped it next Wednesday because next Thursday is kind of iffy right now. There's a chance of either a frozen some mixed precipitation, or maybe just some plain, good old snow for us. Next Thursday is the day that some of the models are calling for that, so we'll be keeping an eye on that over the next couple of days. Morning, Tallia, It's fifteen after seven o'clock is Valentine's Day, Friday, February fourteenth.
I've already been chastised once for singing this morning, so I won't do that again. I didn't chastise you. Oh it was a severe chastise version, I guess I did. We can go back to the table, go on, No, no, no, that's okay, because then we'll walk to hear your singing again. Real right, when I was younger, I could sing, I think when I hit about twenty three, I suddenly couldn't sing anymore.
Just sing it chake when you performed there back in the.
Day, of course I did. Of course you did. Ill to go back in time. Oh the good old Shaky's days. Uh all right, do we need doge in South Carolina? Well you've got some lawmakers in both chambers that are talking doze, yes, c all right. So again it's we've been in the rundown last hour. You know. Dose thing is the is the bright shiny object, and uh hey, you know I'm I'm all about I'm all about getting
rid of government inefficiency. I think everybody is. You're not gonna find too many people to say, yeah, no, I just love giving my money to the government at all levels to just go ahead and waste it.
You know, nobody wants that.
Nobody wants that. But do we have that big of an issue here in South Carolina? Is the question that we need something like doge here? I can't believe I actually heard a TV reporter talking about this, and a very good TV report too, and called a dogie. Yes, Oh my gosh, yes, call it what you want. It's got everybody, everybody's attention, certainly so you have on the
House side, excuse me, on the Senate side, Stephen Goldfinch. Okay, stop right there, Yeah, yeah, okay, he probably only wants a certain number of government regulations cut and they all relate to sea walls on the coast.
I mean, he's a one trick pony.
Yeah, Goldfinch yesterday saying what you will find at the state level burden over burden, some regulations, duplicated regulations, regulations that are hurting our business and our families and friends here in South Carolina. Okay, regulatory reform is one thing. All about that. Absolutely, do we have a I.
Mean, we're looking at doing that right now. You just told us yesterday. They're talking about taking out some of this speed bumps that are in place right now for us to build a new energy plant.
Exactly. You've got a companion building the House of Representatives with a proposing a similar commission that the Senate's idea is a commission of ten members appointed by the House, the Senate, the Governor, and the Department of Administration. None of these members could be lawmakers, right, so there'd be no lawmakers involving all that, thank you. That'd be defeating the whole purpose from the get go with yes, it would, So you bring it outside, folks, I've already volunteered my services.
The commission would assess state spending, determined potential spending cuts, consolidations, or regulatory streaming. And I assume this would be much like the those commission in d C. It doesn't actually have the power itself to make these cuts. It just has the power to point them out. Oh wait a minute, then who makes the cuts? Back in the state House? Again, we are okay, I'm not sure that would work out. You know, do we have an overburden or over bloated
workforce when it comes to the state. I don't know. But again, this is this is something that's got everybody's attention.
They should always be focused on what makes government more efficient and and you know, for us as taxpayers, they should always be worried about, you know, what works best, and what's what's not wasteful, and what regulations don't stand in the way of our state's success. I just I just don't know if there's that big a problem at the state level versus you know what Elon Musk is tackling at the national life.
Oh, it's it's it's it's it's not even apples and oranges. Now, we do have already some some institutions in size state government that are tasked with this sort of thing to begin.
With, the oversight commissions and committees. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, So yeah, we're already doing this how successfully I couldn't tell you. Now. Democrats critical of this, and they got a point. They say, hey, you Republicans, you you already oversee state financial management and have for a long period of all the time. Yeah, and if there's any you know, if there's any waste and inefficiences going on,
and it it's your fault to begin with. Very again, very different than Washington d C. Although hey, it's not as though Republicans in Washington d C. Aren't responsible for a great deal of waste and egregious spending as well, because they are all right, So this this, this is this idea the Senate build at least is right now headed to the full Senate Finance Committee, and if approved, the report would be due in October, but would not impact it until the next budget cycles.
So is this going to cost us money? Eli's doing this for free? Is this going to cost us money? Here in South Carolina to do this report and involve all these other people.
And I just changed my mind. I don't want to be on the scene.
I'm asking I don't know.
Well, if you can find ten people that you know, kind of know what's going on and wanted to donate their time, I think it should be Yeah, never mind, I withdraw my name from consideration.
Sorry, I mean you just mentioned in the last hour talking about the d heck and it changes. I mean, we wrestle with this all the time at the government, at the state government level. Is you know how to make it more efficient? Which was a long drawn out argument last year involving d heck and how to break it up and what belongs with what and who should be in charge? I just I feel like a lot of this we're already doing and those just just the popular, popular term.
Right now, Well, let me let me just float this idea. Yeah, why don't why don't we do this? Why don't we start by just having a commissioned study what exactly happens to all the budget surplus money we wind up with at the end of every fiscal year.
I can answer that without a study, we figured it other ways to spend it.
M ways that apparently we in the budget didn't think we needed to spend it.
True, although some of it goes to the Rainy Day fund.
Well sure that's and some of us come back to us here in recent years, true, some of it. But yeah, how about just a breakdown of Yeah, where where does the money go at the end of the year, when you've taken in way too much tax money from us and you money you didn't have allocated to be spent on certain things. Where did that money go? Let's just start with that right there? How about that? The hottest talk. The reason I'm calling.
I believe that we're all laved here working for the government.
One on three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
Seven forty one. Good morning and happy Valentine's Day tea and happy Friday as well. All right, So the fight
in the courts continues over usaid. A federal judge late yesterday issuing an order telling the White House to lift its three week funding freeze on US foreign aid, which is what USAID was supposed to be all about right in the order of the judge Amir Ali noting the Trump administration argued it shut down funding for thousands of aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review and whether
or not they should be eliminated. But the judge says the Trump team failed to explain why a blanket suspension was necessary before these programs were more thoroughly reviewed. Okay, well, so the review will go on and the freeze apparently will not, at least for now. A big surprise mentioned
this earlier. If we were to sit down right now and go over every single executive order that Trump is issued, every initiative, and every time now a judge stepped in and filling up the stop sign, we'd be here all day. But now US Agency for International Development.
Which is an independent agency. Yeah, it's I mean, it's you know, there are certain of these departments that Congress has the rights to oversee per the Constitution. It would seem to me that the Chief Executive could make a decision on this agency and not be questioned by a judge.
One would think. But it's right there in the name US Agency for International Development. So explain to me how this happened. Now comes out that the USAID has awarded funds to Tides Foundation and Tide Center. Are you familiar with what they do? Amongst other philanthropic programs, the Tides Center and Tides Foundations or foundations one that fund. They fund left leaning groups that provide attorneys and other legal
support for people accused of unlawful conducted protests. And in some cases the sponsor groups have held activist under federal investigation, meaning that our own government and our own taxpayer money is funding a movement trying to undermine its own law enforcement. The Tide Center is a fiscal sponsor for Palestine legal legal defense and advice to anti Israeli activists facing so
called repression from university's or law enforcement. We heard a lot about the Tides Foundation back during the summer of all the protests on college campuses. So here we have the US Agency for International Development handing out money to a leftist activist organization here in this country who is defending and helping leftist activists. That's wrong on so many levels, so many levels. This is a group that's anti cop anti Israel. That's wrong on so many levels, so many levels.
This is a group that's anti cop anti Israel, and why is USAID handing out money to them? Well, here's the kicker. Wait for this one. This money has been being handed out across a number of administrations, and a majority of the funds that USAID marked for TIDES organizations were actually distributed under the first Trump administration. Now, I don't know if they kind of cloaked it in a way where it wasn't real obvious. I don't know, or
nobody was paying attention. But yeah, so far, foreign aid agencies the State, between the State Department and USAID, have awarded twenty seven million dollars to the Tides Foundation and Tide Center. Again, the group is helping leftist protesters avoid jail.
That doesn't tie in with what our foreign policy objectives are, so that money should.
Not be going there.
No, less, unless this particular organization had this massive catastrophe and we offered, out of the goodness of our hearts to step in the No, our money should not be going there.
I mean, imagine for a moment, if we were to find out, if the Democrats found out that USAID was giving money to groups who were defending j six protesters, demonstrators folks who broke into the Capitol. Imagine the outcry. But this is again just another example of things that have been going on, and this has been going on for a number of presidential administrations, including the first drop term.
We have no idea. I don't think the government has any idea sometimes where they're just throwing money left and right here and there to whomever, not even knowing what it's being used for. There's been zero accountability. That's why everyone was so excited about Doze. I think even some Democrats were excited to see, Okay, let's see where all this money is going, and let's see where we can save taxpayers money. Democrats would wouldn't want to do the
same thing with the savings as the Republicans. But how I don't see how anybody in government would be against making it more efficient and saving the taxpayers money, at least not publicly. And these judges who keep standing in the way. I mean, AID was established by a president, it is funded by Congress, but it is administered by the President of the United States.
And as Secretary of State. So I don't know where a judge gets off telling the president he can't do something with that particular agency.
Well, we're seeing a play out right now? Are we in short order too?
Man?
And just now not quite four weeks on the job. How many different lawsuits filed? How many for judges say nope, big red stop side, can't do it. But the fight continues.
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
We are right now in reciprocal nation. We are going to if it's India or if it's somebody else with low terrorfs, we're gonna have the same We're gonna whatever India charges, we're charging them. Whatever another country charges, we're charging them. So it's called reciprocal, which I think is a very fair way. It's eight sixteen, good morning. Well, the President yesterday rolling out what he told us he would on Air Force one this past Sunday, and that
is reciprocal tariffs. Okay, Trump saying this plan will create a level playing field. We'll just change charge the same rates that they're charging us, no more, no less. Well why not, you know, I mean in India, he pointed out there as traditionally the country that charges the highest tariffs on their exports. So, in what logical world would you pay an enormous tariff to any other nation to import goods yet not charge them a likewise tariff the
level of playing field on your exports. It really is another example of America being taken advantage of for way too long. Now, if you're a country that well can't necessarily produce the things you need, and we can't produce everything we need, get it. But I mean, my goodness, can we not take care of ourselves for the most part. We hope that we can. What again, this is a this is an idea, and the terraces have been around forever, but the whole you know, refrain that America is not
an exceptional country. They started back in the Barack Obama years. We've just you know, we've quite honestly, this is this is a this is a snapshot of a broader picture here. Yeah, we we've just backed off and you know, let we have let countries take advantage of us in all sorts of ways for a long time. Now. Now in the short term, does this mean we may pay higher prices? Well, yeah it does. And Trump said that yesterday prices could go up somewhat short term, but prices will also go down.
This is not again, one of these quick fixed solutions. It's going to take a little while to work through and we have to be prepared for that. But you know, so far, and notice this, so far, when Trump comes goes on the offense for whatever the whatever the topic is, whatever the reason is, whatever the country is, so far, he's he's pretty much one.
He's back to the other nation into a corner where they respond and give him something he wants.
Yes Wall Street didn't seem to be too bothered by that yesterday, had you had the indexes hitting near record highs yesterday, So this didn't really bother Wall Street too much, matter of fact, yesterday not at all. But you've got the h the National Retail Federation warning that we may soon be seeing higher prices because of these. These reciprocal tariffs don't go into effected till April, so you we've
got a month and a half here to negotiate. The uh in our ref's executive vice president of Government Relations saying well, we support the President's efforts to reduce trade barriers and imbalances. This scale of undertaking is massive and will be extremely disrupted to our supply chains. Well that is in the short term, that is true. I guess it's going to become a war of attrition. Huh, Okay,
who can outlast the other guy? I would I would argue that we're in a better position here to outlast most any other country when it comes to such a thing. And listen, if you're India, for example, traditionally charging the highest tariffs on your exports, I mean, how high do you think you can go? You know, we start charging your tariff, we are you're gonn to do raise your
tariff to counter our tariff. Maybe we find out we don't really need some of these things after all, Maybe we don't really know those cheap Chinese products.
Well that's the goal, obviously, is to force people to buy more of what we make here in America. And you just hit on that, you know, some of these other countries, it's not that big a deal. That's why Wall Street didn't react. It's the tariffs and the Chinese. That's the one biggie that everyone's concerned about.
Sure, because we love our cheap Chinese stuff, don't we. We do. We for a long time we've loved it now. Aside from that, on the economic front, of course, again, the CPI came out the other day. The inflation gauge ticked up unexpectedly in January. Again, Trump didn't take office till January twentieth, So hey, no, he didn't bring inflation down on day one. Nobody could do that, of course, But we still again, this is gonna take it while
to turn things around. We're still having problems. The Federals are Bank of New York yes day releasing a comprehensive report on credit conditions here in America and finding that all in all, that we Americans are having a harder time managing our rising debt burdens, and in some cases haven't been this overextended since just after the Great Recession. Fourth quarter of last year, overall debt levels increased to
eighteen point zero four trillion dollars. Credit card balance is top one point two try and that's up seven point three percent from Q four of a year before. This all result again of bid noomics and the housing market. Home sales last year numbers are in lowest level of nearly thirty years, and just in December of twenty twenty four, alone, nearly seventy three thousand homes that were put up for sale were taken back down off the market. That year
over year is a sixty four percent increase. Yikes. So we're still dealing with all this and we have a long way to go. There is no magic bullet here. But I mean, you see what just a lack of any attempt to do anything has done for us, other than just keep spending our money and giving out free stuff. It's gotten to the points to the point where we are right now. So yeah, things need to happen. They need to talking about.
You've got to keep talking the good job, the stuff that matters.
I think I've been listening to y'all in the eighteen.
Year plus Round one on three point five FM at five sixty am w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
It is eight thirty nine, Good morning, Good to have you along. And it's Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, and it's Friday. Ah. Now, I tell if you've told us a couple of days ago your wife's been now with the flu here recently. Somehow you've avoided.
It, somehow I have, and somehow I hope to keep doing it.
Yeah, right, it is. Uh, it's really rammed up. Last week alone, one d and thirty flu cases reported by hospitals. People were going to the hospital one thousand, two hundred and thirty going to the hospital with the flu. Wow, so far, we've had close to what fifty five hundred people. I guess this flu season that if at least showed up at an e R temperatures one hundred and three, one hundred and four. You know, for folks like us, that's dangerous. Man, A little kid can handle that. Okay,
we don't do so well. So uh yeah, if you're feeling that, you are not alone but a long shot. Haven't heard a whole lot about COVID. Had heard anything about COVID? Yeah, I mean nothing. I hopefully you know, a couple of years ago, if you had the flu, you were we did have been sure it was COVID. Right these days, who knows? We may have people with COVID think it's just the flu. Well, I don't even worried about it. If you get tested, they'll test you for both. So do they okay, yeah, but.
It's it's odd that we've had this wave of the flu instead of COVID this year.
We get a simple head cold a couple of years ago, and we're sure that we had COVID right, we were going to die. Thankfully were past all that. Now good news for folks on the northeast side of town. The hard scrabble road widening project. Now, if you don't live out in that neck of the woods, maybe you weren't familiar with this, but they have been working on this since twenty seventeen. Let me double check. What year are
we in now, Oh, yeah, twenty twenty five. DOT says that they are working to complete the final two miles of the widening project.
If you drive that stretch every day back and forth, bless your heart.
They say they're months away from potentially being done here. They expect to wrap up this summer sometime. How ironic is it? A road widening project?
One road, one road, one.
Stinking road, and I guess what it's all said and done. We're talking about seven miles of one road.
But there's a lot of components to it.
Yeah, it is, it is.
But the problem still one of the problems with a project stretching that long is then it goes over budget and then we all pay big time.
All right, But how ironic that a road widening project has reled to this many issues with traffic now for seven almost eight years. Okay, we got to move a foot over the state House to make a change to the Constitution, not ours, the United States Constitution and term limits. Okay. The House Judiciary Committee earlier this month narrowly approved a resolution which proposes congressional term limits and amendment to the US Constitution. For this to happen, it require thirty four
states to sign on. I'm I'm really doubtful this ever happens. But as you mentioned earlier today when we brought this up briefly, mister Thompson, just look at Mitch McConnell, look at Nancy Pelosi.
Yeah, I'm not talking about their votes. I'm talking at them. I'm talking about the fact that, yeah, that they have trouble doing their jobs.
Oh yeah, I mean Diane Feinstein was basically on her deathbed and she was still in the Senate.
We had that story of the congresswoman from Texas who was in fact in an assisted living facility.
It had been for months and months and months, and.
Her staff was carrying on and her family was letting them do it, because everybody benefits when you've got a family member in Congress.
So I've gone right, all right, So on the nominee front, RFK Junior is in Tulca, Gabbard is in all this week. RFK Junior's vote coming yesterday fifty two forty eight. Again, as we mentioned Mitch McConnell, he voted against RFK Junior, but the Republicans voted for him. Democrats again, So welcome to Maha. And not only did the RFK Junior about to tackle the physical needs of the country, but he
even brought up a spiritual crisis as well. Interesting and one of the things I haven't paid a lot of attention to the MAHA movement quite honestly, but one of the a sleep expert is backing the MAHA push to potentially push back school start times in America, saying that kids aren't getting enough sleep. You know, kids growing up from thirteen to seventeen teenagers should be getting eight to
ten hours of sleep every night. So they're talking about, you know, maybe wanted to push back the start of the school day.
Here's the problem with that, right, It's pretty easy to figure out.
Yeah, I mean if you're having to get up at seven o'clock now to get to school on time, and they push it back a couple of hours, well fine, you would just stay up two hours later. You stay up at night before.
And they're before they changed it with electronics. There are a lot more distractions than we had growing up. Yes, you know, if our parents forced us to bed, there wasn't a whole lot to do. We probably went to bed.
Yeah, right, remember those days. What was what was your bedtime as a youngster? I mean as an elementary school student? Elementary? Yeah, probably eight? Yeah, I think mine was about that too. Yeah, and you're like that was like devastating, man. Yeah, I mean especially during the summer time when it was still light outside. Well, no, we didn't have that during the summertime.
Well, I'm all right, but once the time changed, right, you know, you were still in school in the spring, I guess I should say. Yeah, I mean unless you were underneath the covers listening to the radio and listening to a baseball game, or you know, reading with a flashlight. I mean, there was nothing else to do you went to bed that was Now a kid's gonna have a smartphone and they can stay up for hours.
Well, then again, mom and dad could put the smartphone away. True. Do you remember the first time you stayed up till midnight? Yes, me too, I do. Isn't that weird? Yeah? It was a New Year's Eve.
All my cousins and I were to our grandparents house, and I stayed up to watch whatever happened on Johnny Carson that night. And but I by twelve oh one, I was out like a light, like a light home. Yep, I remember vividly. I didn't sleep over to friend's house, and you know, all restrictions were off that night. Man, it's a Friday night. We stayed up until pass mid I thought, Man, I've entered a whole new world. Now I was probably seven years old. Whatever, okay?
Anyway, Oh, and since we're on the topic, don't don't even bother to ask me how they came up with this. But a new survey says, if you've wondered what's the best time to take a nap, the answer one forty two in the afternoon. Why one for two? Don't know? H Most people who nap. On average, nap for about fifty one minutes. But if you nap too long then then then it can lead to problems.
Well, I think that time depends on what time you get up. Well, yeah, when you have your last burst of caffeine, because that's got to have time to leave your body.
And whether or not you're still working at one after Yeah, exactly, I mean, I have no idea they came that with that time one, two, but whatever. Now, again, based on the schedule that we keep around here, and I'm not going to speak for you, but my advanced age, you know, I've I've got to the point where I've got to get one. And quite honestly, it's oftentimes about that time of the day, maybe a half hour. I'm like that. If I go for more than thirty minutes or so, man,
I feel awful for the rest of the afternoon. Where do you do it? In your chair? Oh? We have one of those couches with a reclining thing. That's that's where I do it, right it, yep, right there? Okay, So if you ever wondered, now you know, just tell the boss. Gary said that research shows one is the best time to take a nap, so that's what I'm doing.
And don't text Scary at two pm.
No, you won't get an answer. She probably won't get an answer anytime the day anymore. I just ignore it anyway,