Good morning. It is Thursday, April 10th. Current time, 6.06 a.m. Alaska time. How was your drive to work this morning, Daryl? Slushy, sloppy, messy, wet. I can't think of any other words for moisture. It was a bit slow moving. The slush really grabs you once you're here in town. Out on the main roads, it's not so bad on the highway and stuff. But once you're here in town, yeah, that slush is out there. And it's springtime in Alaska. Oh, boy.
I know, at least it's not 50 below, right? You know Johnny Horton, my favorite song to sing this time of the year. Yeah, I was going to say, what can you do? You've got to accept. Look, I'm counting down the days. I have basically... 35 days before I can pick up my flower basket.
I knew that's what it was going to be. I thought it was going to be hanging your baskets, but picking them up. Yep. I knew that's what it was. I was going to say sometime, you know, March 15th on, I try to do it actually a little bit closer to Memorial Day. So I don't have to deal with them until it.
like really time to start to put them out. But yeah, I got to tell you, beautiful, beautiful baskets. They're gorgeous. Are those those big, beautiful baskets, like bigger and better than you've ever seen before? They are just blooming and blossoming. They're the most beautiful baskets in the world. I love it.
I mean, nobody makes better baskets than in Alaska. They're just better. You're right. You are absolutely right. We're all channeling our Trumps this morning. Big, beautiful coal. I just laugh that his EO has that in the title. It's so Trump. It is beautiful. I've got to tell you. You know what else is beautiful? I'm looking at the calendar for the Matu Burrow today, and I've got to tell you, they are busy. They've got to...
They got a ton. I'd like to put a little descriptor in front of the word ton, but they got a ton. of meetings today. So we are going to launch right into our public announcements this morning to go through.
There's really, for everybody else, there's really not a lot. But the Mount Sue Borough does have a lot. So as I name these, I will do it succinctly. But if you need more information on any of the meetings that I name out today, All you have to do is go to matzugov.us and you'll be able to find it on their website. The Board of Equalization has an appeal hearing this morning starting at 9 a.m. This is a Zoom meeting if you need information.
or I should say Microsoft Teams meeting. If you need more information, just go to the website. There's a Butte Fire Service Area Board of Supervisors meeting today at 10 a.m. That'll be at the Butte Fire Department Station 2-1. The Matsu Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission has a meeting at 4 p.m. this afternoon in the Assembly Chambers over at the Borough Building in Palmer.
The Caswell Fire Service Area Board of Supervisors has a... meeting today at 630 and this is going to be a joint meeting with the Willow Fire Service Area Board of Supervisors. The meeting will be at Caswell Station 13-1. So, again, that starts at 6-30 today. Also at 630, the Greater Talkeetna Road Service Area Board of Supervisors has a Zoom meeting. Again, if you need the link, just go to the MATSU's website, matzuguv.us.
Point McKenzie Community Council has their annual meeting at 7 p.m. That's going to be at the Point McKenzie Community Center. The Lazy Mountain Community Council also has their meeting. They hold their meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at Lazy Mountain Bible Church Fellowship Hall. So if you need more information, again, go to the website. The last one is the Greater Butte Road Service Area Board of Supervisors has their meeting.
at the Butte Community Building, again tonight at 7 p.m. That does it for all the meetings in the Mat-Zoo Borough. Again, if you need the website, just go to matsugov.us, and then go down to Public Meetings. You'll be able to click on any of the meetings I mentioned, and it will give you more information. As far as the city of Wasilla goes, there are no events that I see today. But just a reminder, they do have a vacant city council seat. It's seat C, as in Charlie.
They have an application period open from the 7th to the 18th of April, Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. If you're interested in applying, just go to the website, cityofwasilla.gov, download the application. And then you'll have to turn it into the clerk's office. Then the city council will decide who is going to fill that seat until the October 7th election. and then that will be done permanently, but they need somebody for the summer.
The same is true for the city of Palmer. The city of Palmer is looking for a person to fill their city council seat. Now, all the Palmer seats are basically at large, but you have to live within a city. limits of the city of Palmer and if you're interested in this position you only have until noon today to get your application in so if you if you're interested
Just go to palmerak.org, and right at the top, there's a banner right across the top. Just click on it. It'll bring you to the application. And, again, you have to have it into the clerk's office by noon today. So time is short. And then the mayor in Palmer will decide who is going to fill that seat. As far as fun things to do in the Mat-Su this weekend, the Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show kicks off tomorrow, Friday. It will start at noon. So Friday is noon to 6, Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 10 to 5.
Again, this is the Matsu Outdoorsman Show. Admissions, $10. If you have a military ID, $5. If you're under $12, And on Sunday, Sunday morning from 10 to noon, admission is free, being sponsored by Frontier Auto and RV sales. Early bird gets the worm there.
That's it. That's exactly right. So lots to do this weekend in the Mat-Su. Again, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is the Outdoorsman Show. And I'm sticking to it, Daryl. I've got to be honest with you. The Outdoorsman Show in the Mat-Su has been better than the Anchorage Show now for...
a number of years since COVID really. No, I did hear a bit about the outdoorsman show last night, listening to the Alaska mining and diving show that plays on the after evenings here with, with Nick from the Alaska mining and diving. Oh, I love that. It is fun and entertaining that pod.
is and also they were talking that alaska mining and diving is going to be there and they actually got i guess this giant trailer the like biggest trailer you're going to have ever seen i'm going to be sitting there it's going to be all black with no logos or anything on it because they haven't got it wrapped yet
And I guess they're going to be playing snow machine movies in it. Or, you know, snow type movies. Yeah, so that sounds almost worth it just to go check that out and find out what's going on with it. See, and if you go on Sunday between 10 and noon, it's going to be free.
Now, going to the show, I don't know if they're going to be showing movies that early or not because I didn't really catch what the hours for the movies were. But as you said, free and aren't my favorite thing going to be there? Food checks. Oh, yeah.
There's going to be food trucks, so it will be a good time. Like I said, I have been impressed. I've liked the Matsu Outdoorsman Show the last few years more than the Anchorage one, to be honest. So we'll see. We'll see. I heard a rumor that next year the Anchorage Show is going to be back at the Sullivan Arena.
Oh, now that would be, in my personal opinion, that would improve it greatly. The way the arena was set up and to be able to do the roundabout also with it. Yeah. It all just worked together. Whereas this new one. I feel disjointed and lost when I'm running. I always seem to miss room. I don't know. It just, yeah. Lame. Glam. And you know what I think it is also? The Outdoorsman Show in the Valley is in Alaska.
The Outdoorsmen Show in Anchorage is 15 minutes from Alaska. So, I mean... I've got to tell you, the moment you cross over the Connecticut River Bridge, I don't know what it is. But it's just, you could smell the freedom better. Well, you can see the shivering air right at the Burnt Butte, where the little Burnt Butte mountain is. The eagles are flying, the flags are waving, and they're the red, white, and blue flags. They're not the other flags.
You just feel freer out here. And I just saw you. I mean, everything just gets a little sweeter on the side of the Connect Rover Bridge. I'm just throwing it out there. All right, well, let's, I digress. If you want more information about the Outdoorsman Show, just go to MatsuOutdoorsmanShow.com, and you'll be able to find it. And for those of you Republicans that live in District 26, there is a District 26 meeting tonight.
at 6.30 at Jody's Great Room. So hope to see you there. For the Municipality of Anchorage, let's get back to public announcements for local governments. This morning at 1130, the Budget Advisory Commission has a meeting. It's going to be at City Hall in the Mayor's Conference Room, so that's up on the 8th floor. The Board of Ethics has a Microsoft Teams meeting at 4 o'clock today.
And then, let's see, PTAB, the Public Transit Advisory Board meeting, has a meeting at 530 today. That will be, again, at City Hall in the Mayor's Conference Room, so that's on the 8th floor. And the Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals has been canceled for today. So if you need more information on any of these public meetings in Anchorage, just go to muni.org. Click on the Mayor's tab, and then click on the Events tab, and that will bring you to boards and commissions.
As far as the Anchorage Assembly goes for today, April 10th, I see a rules committee meeting at 1 o'clock. That's going to be at City Hall in Conference Room 155. There's a joint meeting of the Anchorage Assembly and the Native Village of Akluna that's going to be at 4 p.m. at City Hall in Conference Room 1. Daryl, Daryl, Daryl. I'm surprised you didn't have, like, um...
slot machine music or something. I had many different thoughts and then my next thought was this is these guys are so in the fog out there we need a fog horn to guide them because they are so lost. Well, that meeting, you know, Daryl, I know you're going to miss it because you have to be back at work by 4 o'clock. But it is at 4 o'clock, so, you know, you can always go back and watch it on repeat. Oh, I will. If anybody wants information on this.
Just go to muni.org, then click on the Assembly tab, and you'll be able to find it. As far as the Kenai Peninsula Borough goes, we do have two meetings. At 2 o'clock, there's a tourism industry working group from 2 to 3 at the Kenai Peninsula Borough admin building, which is located at 144 North Binkley Street Inn. Also, there's a South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area Board meeting from 6.30 to 7.30 at South Peninsula Hospital Conference Room.
That's at 6.30. The committee of the whole meeting starts at 5.30, so just FYI. That's it for the Kenai Peninsula, but if you want more information, just go to kpb.us. As far as the city of Kenai goes, we have two meetings. We have a Council on Aging Commission regular meeting. It starts at 3 p.m. They do have in-person and Zoom links as well. But if you want more information, including the agenda, just go to Kenai.city.
And then there's an airport commission regular meeting tonight as well in the city of Kenai at 6 p.m. Again, for more information, just go to Kenai.city. There's nothing in Sildatna that I saw on the calendar for today. The last one we have is an ADA advisory board meeting for the city of Homer. That's going to be at 4 p.m.
Of course, if you need more information, including their agenda, just go to cityofhomer-ak.gov. That meeting, of course, is going to be at Homer City Hall in the council chambers. And that does it for our public announcements for this morning. So we're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning. When we come back, we will get into the headlines of the day. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Thursday morning. Steady traffic right now.
current time is 6 23 oh my goodness I have to tell you Daryl it's it's going to be fun to see what comes out during this during this Because, yes, we're all watching the markets. Yes, we're all watching, you know, the big development deals that are happening. We're talking about national security, all of that stuff. All that stuff. We're excited for all that stuff. We're seeing the borders get closed.
Daryl, you've seen the price of eggs come down. You and I just had this conversation off air this week. So you're seeing the price of commodities and goods come down. But, you know, the media, they just refuse to acknowledge anything good. Especially, so as you said, we were talking about me saying the price of eggs have come down. I noticed it. Even the eggs at Costco have come down in price.
And yet this morning on national news, now it wasn't on the news that our station plays, but on another network's national news. Egg prices are still rising. What are you talking about? Well, okay, these are coming from the people that told us Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. So this is excellent disinformation. Yeah, these are the people that told us Joe Biden was on the top of his game.
And that he was totally fit. He could outrun them all. He just was so mentally sharp. And he would never pardon anybody. I mean, of his family. Over and over. I mean, you can't believe these people. They lie, Daryl. They lie. I just thought it was hilarious, like I said, because we had literally just talked about how, yeah, I noticed I was able to buy eggs last week. at the beginning of the week. And it was like, wow, I get to have eggs again.
And because it came down, I have a threshold where I'm not willing to pay over a certain amount. And so it was like, I can buy eggs. And then I hear this article and I'm like, what are they talking about? And not only that, but the number they talk about reaching, weed blew past like two months ago. So I'm just like. Hey, be happy with that number. Yeah, well, you know, here's the reality. What we're going to see is we're going to see lots of winning, and we're going to have to use our own.
Our own intellectual skills to interpret what's happening, because you can't trust the media. That's just, in Amy's world, that's just a fact. You just, you can't. And I think it's good to be discerning. I think it's good to use a little bit of critical thinking. I don't care what news source it is. I don't care if it's Fox or if it's CNN. Whoever you're reading, you just have to, you know.
Read it, understanding each is biased, and then the truth usually is somewhere in the middle. So, you know, that's part of the reason why every single time I cover a script story, I tell you what news source I'm getting it from. Because, yes, the vast majority of news sources that I pull from are conservative news sources. But even for the same article, for the same issue, I will still read two or three different sources just to see.
You know, because it is quite fascinating to see the difference. And we'll get into it in the next segment. But the Trump tariff discussion is hilarious. It is so funny to watch. I mean, they can't give him a win in anything. They just can't. They can't do it. But, you know, yesterday Caroline Levitt, this is a Daily Caller article. She said Americans would be quite interested to hear Biden's hidden Robert Hur interview. Yes!
I want to hear it. Me too. Yes, it's like Kamala's interview where they chopped it up and made her sound intelligent, and her actual answer, she sounded like a complete floundering fool. But Caroline Levitt, the press secretary for the White House, She said on Wednesday that Americans would be quite interested to hear the long-buried audio of former President Joe Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hurd.
She says she doesn't have an update on it, but she can certainly check. That was in response to a question she had. that she had been posed to her. But then she said, I think the American people would be quite interested to hear the tape. Biden's Justice Department appointed her in 2023 to investigate the former president's handling of certain classified documents. despite concluding that Biden willfully retain classified national security documents.
Heard declined to charge Biden criminally. And I want to point out, he retained these after he was senator. He retained them after he was vice president. They were not talking about his authority when he was president or afterwards. Because, again, the only people that can retain that information under the Presidential Records Act is who, Daryl? The President of the United States.
Thank you. It's very common sense here. But the former special counsel declined to press charges against the then sitting president and noted in his report that Biden presented himself, quote, as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. End quote. Then he goes back in a little bit later in the report. He actually wrote, based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.
it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him by then a former president well into his 80s of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness. Let's be honest. That should have flagged the Justice Department of maybe he's not capable of doing his job. Oh, of course they knew. Come on. Of course they knew. I mean, this is the best you're going to get out of the Biden DOJ.
They're not going to say he lacks capacity to be president, so there's no way we can prosecute him. But if you read between the lines... That's basically what they're saying, is he lacks capacity to be able to be prosecuted. By proxy, you could assume he lacked capacity to be president of the United States. Yeah, exactly. Right. And so, I mean, that's why the her the her testimony in front of Congress and this report was such a big deal. It's because.
Anybody with two working brain cells could read between the lines and understand what her was saying. But that's the same reason why, just like with the Kamau Harris interview, you know, the news organization refused to reveal the full tapes before the election because they knew she was going to look like an idiot. And so they didn't want to release the interview because they knew they had edited it. And now it's come out, and we can see the before and after, and the reality is.
You know, it was a totally different answer that they aired. Totally different answer and just her. I'm trying to think ahead of it because I edit a lot of stuff. I go through and edit it, move it around. And what they did was literally just so deceptive because a lot of when she was talking, she'd be like, and. And you can't see me, but I look around at space. If only you guys could see Daryl's facial expressions. If only you could see them. It was a nightmare.
And they say, oh, it was basically the same. It was not. I mean, it sounded very, very different. And so I kind of chuckled because Anybody wear the working brain cell, especially, especially if you really wanted to believe the media that Biden was just so sharp after that debate. It was very obvious to the country, hence why Biden ended up getting pulled. Even the Democrats could no longer defend him. Because...
You know, they tried to tell us Bidenomics was working. No matter what, they try to convince you it's working, it's working, it's working. That 10% inflation every month is not really there. It's good for you. Don't believe your lying eyes, but after that debate performance, it was so bad. It was so bad.
All right, well, let's go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we will get into some more of the – we have some entertaining, I think, conversations to have today. So we're going to take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, 522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 637. Well, the U.S. House has passed a bill to limit rogue judges from pausing Trump's executive actions. Yeah, but here's the thing. In order to pass the filibuster in the Senate,
They've got to have 60 votes. There's no chance. The Democrats in the Senate. are going to vote to stop their lawfare against Trump. You know, honestly, I think there's more of a chance that the Democrats will vote for it than there is at least it will. Oh, Lisa won't vote for it. No chance Lisa will vote for it. Yeah, I was going to say so. You might get somebody like Fetterman. Yeah, exactly. I mean, some Democrats would go over, but not Lisa. No, no. No, not Lisa.
According to New York Post, House Republicans passed legislation Wednesday aimed at limiting the reach of so-called rogue judges who have passed some of Trump's executive orders from taking effect. The No Rogue Rulings Act. cleared the lower chamber on a vote of 219 to 213, with one Republican, Representative Michael Turner of Ohio, joining the Democrats and opposing the legislation.
We took on the activist judges and their rogue rulings. Now it's on to the Senate to send this to the desk of the president. That coming from Representative Darrell Issa, who sponsored the bill. He wrote that on X. So the legislation generally would prohibit district court judges from using nationwide injunctions to extend to non-parties of lawsuits and fast-track appeals process by appointing three judge panels.
at random to hear cases involving the same dispute in different jurisdictions. It would also allow the panel to issue an injunction that would otherwise be prohibited. So at least they're putting a process in place. But here's the reality. This is one of those things that both sides look. During the Biden era, you know, there's no question that, you know, Republican judges, there were a couple different times that
They issued injunctions against Biden as well. So I'm not saying it doesn't happen on both sides. But what I am saying is it is significant, the number that Trump has dealt with, than any other president in history. I mean, it's not even close. We were talking about this the other day, and I have it here. I just have to find it. But when you look at the history of the different presidents,
Trump, far and out way, by like, almost seven times has more injunctions against him than any other president. Okay, nope, that's not it. I'm looking for it here. I almost got it. Oh, dear. Tomorrow I may have to wear my fancy new shirt for you. Oh. I have a great shirt. Sorry. I'm looking through my pictures here. All right.
Here we go. Here I have it. So when we talk about injunctions halting presidential policies, George Bush, during his presidency, remember he was there eight years, had six. Obama had 12. Trump in his first term had 64. Oh. Biden had 14 and already Trump's been there. You know, since January 20th, and we're not even until April 20th yet, already Trump has 15. And this was as of two weeks ago. Yeah, not even in, we haven't hit the 100-day mark yet even, and he's got 15.
And 64 in his first term? 64. Not even close. This shows judicial activism. I mean, this shows right there. The activism. Look, the data doesn't lie. It's obvious. The data is what it is, right? So I think Congress is right in doing this. I think the next stage is there's another bill that is being proposed. potentially that could get past the 60-vote threshold. Andy Briggs out of Arizona. He has a bill that effectively could remove a jurist for failure to remain in good behavior.
And his particular bill, the way they're doing it, would circumvent the 60-vote threshold in the Senate needed for conviction after a judge is impeached by the House. You know, we'll see what comes of it. We'll see what comes of it. But as Daryl rightfully pointed out, you've got some never-Trumpers that are Republicans, at least one that we know of in the U.S. Senate, and she comes from Alaska.
And the rest of the world is finding that out because she is making sure everybody everywhere knows she does not support Donald Trump. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, I will give you a little bit of levity this morning, and I want to thank one of my friends, Scott, for sending me this audio clip. So funny. Senator Kennedy, I have to tell you. He is one of the most entertaining senators that's out there. I love Senator Kennedy. And there was a group of senators that sat out
sat down with Sean Hannity in D.C. this week, and they talked about all kinds of topics. But one of them came up is the leader... Who is the leader of the Democrat Party? And Sean Hannity asked, you know, about AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. and asked about her in Senator Kennedy, like, in Senator Kennedy fashion. I've got to be honest with you. This is so entertaining. This was his response.
What do you think of the new leadership, Jasmine AOC and Bernie? I consider Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to be the leader of the Democratic Party. I'm entitled to mine. As I've said about her before, I think she's the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle. I plan for dealing with her. dealing with her is called Operation Let Her Speak. I love it. I was wondering about that.
I think she's the reason there's directions on the back of a shampoo bottle. Like, who comes out, who writes his material? I think it truly is him. I think it just off the cuff comes from him. He is so funny. He is hilarious. I listen to him talk, and I just, like, I want, I always want more. You know, it is entertaining, it is funny, and he makes you laugh out loud. Like, laugh out loud.
But if you think about what he's saying, he's not wrong. The more Democrats speak about their asinine policies, right, absolutely ridiculousness, When they start talking about it, the American people are like, no. No, we don't believe that men should be in women's sports. No, we don't believe men should be in locker rooms with our daughters and our wives. No, no, no. We don't believe we're going to be on the side of trying to defend MS-13 gang members.
or Trendy Aragua gang members from foreign countries being in our country. No, we don't think we're going to defend that. no, no, we don't think we're going to defend spending to the levels that is going to make us all bankrupt. I mean, the more they talk, the better it gets. To his point, I think he's 100% right. But in Senator Kennedy fashion,
He delivers it into a comical, hilarious way, but he makes his point. And he's also got that great Louisiana Cajun accent to him that literally just makes you smile as soon as he starts talking. Yeah, he does. He does. It is so funny. All right, let's go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show, 522-0650.
At current time, 649. In just a few minutes, just after the 7 o'clock hour, I expect Senator Mike Schauer is going to be calling in, giving us an update from Juneau. So we'll talk to him in just a few minutes. But, you know, Daryl, yesterday we saw this huge announcement coming out from Trump about the tariffs. It sent the markets absolutely just, you know, they shot up. I mean, 2,800 points, something like that. Let's play that Geraldo clip. You can get it ready.
But I was looking at the Daily Caller yesterday, and Geraldo Rivera, who we all know is a liberal, but, you know, sometimes he gets it right. He says that... I believe in him. You will? Just a second. He believes that President Trump got him, basically. And what he says is he suckered China in. Geraldo actually praises Trump for brilliant tariff moves. Let's go ahead and play the audio, and then we'll talk about it.
I believe that he suckered the whole world into believing that he was going to go down in this, you know, this Harry Caray, this suicide mission. Do you think it's the plan all along? I think it will. With him, it's... so much as spontaneous, but I believe it evolved. I mean, Monday, so many people were feeling terrible pain. The markets were tanking. There was no end in sight. People were watching their 401ks, their IRAs disappear. The whole nation was, I think, trembling.
over the uncertainty of where we were going with this. He was picking a fight with the entire world. So I said Monday, I said, isn't it the problem of China? Why are we... Getting everybody, UK, European Union, Japan, etc. China's the problem. I couldn't understand it. But then I, you know, this morning, tell New York story quickly. I'm at the Regency Hotel with a dear old friend of mine, David Sherrill, who does the stocks. Erica and I, my wife and I, are together. You're a broker?
He was my broker. Of course. We're talking about, oh, my God, this is awful, but we're doing the right thing. You have to have courage. You have to stick it out. I went to my Twitter followers. I said, please don't sell. Sunday and Monday, please don't sell it unless you absolutely have to.
And then, you know, look what he does. Surprise. You know, this is why Trump is triumphant. This is why you can't beat Trump. Great breakfast, by the way, at the Regency. You know what's interesting about it? The president, you're talking about going to your Twitter followers. He went to his, I don't think it was Twitter, it was probably his own platform, Truth Social, right after the market opened today. And he said, great time to buy. What a tease.
But when he said that, everything was gloom and doom. Right, but he knew he was going to make this announcement, apparently. And he knew, of course he knew. Then he says, oh, by the way, I have this ace at spades. There it is. Is that a little shady to you, though, that kind of thing? You know, I think when you're dealing with these giant forces, China's been cleaning our clock for a long time, making a lot of money on the U.S. Trade in a lot of different ways. Dumping product.
You know, not taking hours at all. You know, how many Chevys and Fords and Buicks are riding around in Beijing? I wonder. Not very many. They used to like Buicks, but go ahead. No, I think that what he did was brilliant. And a lot of people are heaving a huge sigh of relief. Yeah. Okay, so, you know, okay, I got to be honest with you. A little bit of chicken little, the sky is falling. I don't think the nation was trembling. I got to be honest with you.
I didn't worry about it at all. I did not check not one time on any of my investments over the past week. Look. The reality is, if you don't have the stomach to be in the stock market, you probably shouldn't be in the stock market. Investing in the stock market, in my view, is a long-term gain, right? especially if you're looking at the overall average, you know, you're not in it. I'm not a day trader, so this is not where it's going to break the bank.
You know, it's going to go up. It's going to go down. It's going to go up. Nobody's freaking out. Nobody was freaking out in the media about Joe Biden's, you know, up and down, up and down. And it was far more significant, frankly. And so, you know, I don't think the nation was trembling, but Geraldo was right. This is the art of the deal. Trump yesterday, this is why the markets all of a sudden went up significantly. Trump posts on true social.
Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world's markets, I'm hereby raising the tariffs charged to China by the United States of America 125%. effective immediately. At some point, hopefully the near future, China will realize the days
of ripping off the USA and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 countries have called representatives of the United States including the Department of Commerce, Treasury, and USTR. to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary tariffs that these countries have not.
At my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape or form against the United States. I have authorized a 90-day pause. and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So that's what Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday. And that's why the markets went berserko. They were very excited. But you have to remember.
These are the big money investors that significantly shape what is happening in the minute-to-minute of the markets, the buy-offs, the sell-offs, those types of things, right? So if you have money in your 401k, it's going to go up, it's going to go down. But here, and Trump listed it in his true social post. This is not just about. what they're charging us, a lot of this is it's the whole deal, right? When he talks about currency manipulation, that's what China's good at.
When you talk about all the other, look, we talked about this yesterday. When China entered the WTO, the World Trade Organization, there were all these things that China was supposed to do and rules they were supposed to follow. They don't. And there's no accountability for them. Because people get cheap goods from Timu.
Like, oh, now the Americans are hooked. We have it in them. We can keep screwing them over. And Trump's like, no more. But what he's been able to successfully do is he's been able to successfully get, you know, 75 other countries to say, oh, no. We don't want to mess with the U.S. We want to be your partner. And they're coming to the U.S. saying, let's make a deal. And so he's been able to solidify our allies, many of them, and he's been able to helpfully isolate China.
bit more which puts him in a better what negotiating position so this is all the art of the deal just relax it'll be fine i said this yesterday it will be fine all right we're going to take a quick back break when we come back senator mike shallow will be Welcome back. Current time is 724. We're talking with Senator Mike Schauer. Senator Schauer, in the last segment, you were telling us about you were giving us perspective over the savings account and what's the staggering show are those of the.
Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy Dubosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. I'm in Palmer, Daryl's in Anchorage, so between the two of us. You know, we feel like we've got a good swath of the population covered. You can always listen to us on the radio. If you want to listen to us live on the radio, it's at 6.50 a.m. If you want to stream us, there's two different ways you can do it.
You can do it through the iHeart Media app, or you can do it through our website. You can just go to 650keni.iheart.com. And either the website or the app, you can also find the podcast for the show. So if you're not an early riser or if you miss a show and you want to go back and listen to a show,
You can download the iHeart Media app, or you can just go to our website, 650keni.iheart.com. And if you go to their website this week, there's a little bonus. Oh, it's not just a little bonus. It's a big bonus. You get the chance to win a pair of tickets. to Tom Segura on April 24th. Drawing will be next Monday. We'll have the drawing. Our big boss here in Anchorage will do the drawing. He's a funny comedian. It's a great way to spend a weekend night.
coming up here. I would highly recommend it. All you've got to do is simple. Go to our website. Go to promotions and contests. You'll see it. Giant banner says Tom Segura. You click on it, it'll take you to the place to fill out for all the information. Perfect. So that's 650keni.iheart.com. Joining the show now, he is one of the good guys, one of my favorite legislators to talk to because he is... Super, super entertaining, direct, and knowledgeable. Mr. Mike Showers, good morning, sir.
Good morning, Amy. I bet you say that's all your guests, don't you? Just the ones I like. You know, I say this about you all the time. I don't know if you remember this, but the very first time I talked to you was right after you got appointed by the governor. And I laughed because everybody's like, who's this Mike Schauer? Who's this Mike Schauer? And I had my old radio show.
And I called and I got a voicemail, you know, I was like, no answer or whatever. And then I, or I called and I didn't get an answer. Anyways, I talked to my dad, and my dad actually used to know you because my dad was an FSR for Boeing on the development of the F-22. And so then I call you back and I leave a message. And by God, when I drop the old Chief Hyatt name, Then you turn around and I got a call back. I totally name dropped in order to get the first interview with you.
That's funny. I do remember that, actually, talking to you for the first time. And your dad. Yeah, no, it was great. And I've got to tell you, what an adventure it has been seeing you in the State Center. Oh, an adventure it has been and continues to be. Strangely, ironic. Well, you know, it seems like every session we have the same type of drama. They wait to the end. There's always a debate about the budget. There's always a debate about the BSA. And there's this.
This tension between the Senate and the House, which I think is natural and inappropriate, you know, how are they going to do it? Do they have the votes? How much of our PFD are they going to take? You know, I keep hearing the rumors out there that the base student allocation increase is going to be $1,000. And I go back to this, how are you going to afford this?
The answer is simple, Amy. I'll say this on the... process you're talking about so it has every year has been an adventure right but let me give some numbers real quick to put it in context i think it's important people hear it I have a lot of people listening this morning. So the first thing is, if you go back to 2013, we have the, as you know, the CBR, SBR, kind of our savings account. One's constitutional, one's statutory. At the peak in 2013, we had about $17.5 billion.
billion dollars in those two accounts and in the era at its peak in 2018 we had about 13 and a half billion so we had about 30 billion dollars in addition to the royalties taxes everything else the state gets every year you know coming into the the state coffers
So over the last about 12 years or so, we've had $30 billion. Now, a couple of years ago, in two different years, around 2018, 19, 20, 21, somewhere in there, I don't remember the exact years, but we put $4 billion in two different years. in early inflation proofing. That's fine. Okay, whatever. Stay for the future. I get it. So that's $22 billion.
And today we have under $6 billion in those two accounts. So if you do the math, that's about $16 billion of that $30 billion. That's now down to about $5.5 billion total that we have spent to get here from there. to here in addition to all the other money we get all of the federal money which is more than we spend we get about 60 percent of our overall state spending from the federal government
So $30 billion is now down to under $6 billion. We've spent at least $16 billion plus of that to keep kicking the can down the road to get here. And we are now at a point where we are in deficit spending and we don't have enough to draw those. accounts down because then we're in danger of not being able to operate. We have big fire years. We have other things happen.
So the people need to understand when you're talking those numbers, Amy, when you say it's not affordable and how much the PFD we're going to take, they need to understand the context of what we're saying. We're not making it up. There's a lot of money in different accounts, but if you take those, right, like we draw the ERA down to nothing or we start taking what's left in the CBR, we may not be able to operate, and that hurts next year and the year after that, right, keep draining it down.
And from the PFD discussion for people, because remember, that goes into the private sector. We're going to talk about BSA in a second. I just wanted the context before we got to it, that number, so that people understand where we're at. The PFD was statutory for all those years, and as everybody knows, for the last decade, that's been taken.
And we're taking more and more of it. Even though you've got Democrats and the coalition and others here in the legislation, we've had flat funding. Government hasn't grown. If that's true, you're going to have to explain to me how we spent $16 billion extra. to get here just to keep the can being kicked further down the road.
While we were getting all the federal money, and by the way, Amy, one little hidden secret, $24 billion of COVID money came into this state, most of which we can't really account for. It went to education. It went all over the place. People had billions of extra dollars over the last five years. So the PFD went from statutory to a 50-50, and now they were saying this year we'll go to a 75-25, 75% to the government, 25% to the people.
But if you do the math, now look where we are. We're probably talking like an 8614, some weird number like that, because to balance the budget, the only way they can do it is give it to a small sector of the public. education system the state government teachers the education system right it's not just teachers it's superintendents administrators all the other stuff and take that away from the entire public sector, the 650,000 Alaskans.
especially the poor, the disabled, the elderly, even kids who have it saved for their future. We've got to take that from all of them to put it in this public sector. Now, in context so that you have all those numbers. We're about $6 billion of income this year and over $6 billion in spending. We were about $400 million short of being able to pay our bills last week from what I saw on the numbers, the current numbers. Now I want you to add that. I said all that for this reason.
You asked about the $1,000 BSA unaffordable. That's $257 million more of spending. You still have people pushing for defined benefits that could be $70, $90, $100 million plus a year. So if we're already $400 million upside down,
We've already spent most of our $30 billion that we had in savings going to kick the can to get here, plus COVID money that doesn't exist. We're $400 million upside down in a budget that's about $6 billion of state money that we're spending. And now you want to add a quarter of a billion dollars more to that? That puts us at nearly two-thirds of the billion dollars upside down. So when we're saying we can't afford it and how we got here, a $1,000 VSA, I want people to hear this.
Because the NEA and the unions and others are out there telling people that, hey, by the way, you know, we need $1,000. We need $1,800 BSA we're hearing from people. You understand that when you say that, folks, that that is money that we literally do not have unless we take it completely from the private sector. We're pretty much going to wipe out the PS. And there's nowhere else to turn to. And the next question you and I both know, well, just tax.
The state population is small. The workforce is anemic. The average income is about $77,000, $78,000 a year. Now, you want to take more income tax than that to support a few thousand state workers? I understand education is important, but the point is, Amy, that a $1,000 BSA is unaffordable. Everybody in this building knows it.
The House sent it over, and the Senate may put it out today so that some people can say, I voted for a $1,000 BSA. And everybody's going to go, yay, good for you. That's great. Ask them the second question, how are you going to pay for it? Exactly. Everybody also knows in this building, the money does not exist to do that without wiping out something else. Every other lever we pull has some impact. Take the PFD, that hurts the private sector, the poor, the elderly, et cetera, et cetera.
Right. If you pay taxes or we increase taxes, that's going to hurt investment when we are trying. desperately to get this state moving in the direction of a resource development mode and operating and increasing that so we have more money down the road, more jobs, more future for those kids. coming out of an education system. I know I'm on a rant here.
No, but it's a good one. You got me fired up. You know, I got to tell you, when we have this conversation about the BSA, I have been saying this all along. When you want more spending, how are you going to pay for it? That's my very first question every single time. How are you going to pay for it? Then we get into the details, but I think it's even worse than the $257 million you're talking about because now they've also built in.
like inflation escalators into it over the years. And so it's just going to grow and grow and grow. And then when you talk about adding, look, I mean you perfectly summed it up. not only will your PFD be gone. I mean, just assume that's going to have to happen because there's not the money to pay for it. But then we're going to be talking about an income tax. We're going to be talking about a sales tax. We're going to be talking about all these other things.
And it makes it even worse because the population is so small, you're really going to make it unaffordable for anybody to live here. So basically, you're bankrupting every Alaskan in order to give a golden parachute to a few. That's exactly right, by comparison.
state workers are a small amount of the population, and we're going to do it anyways. And I'm just looking at this, Amy, and going, everything we do has consequences. We've now focused everything in this building down here on the public sector. And no conversations. Everything here is like, well, I'll hit this and hit that. I had a long briefing about LNG last night. I watched it until like 8 o'clock last night.
And it was all about, you know, hammering Glen Farm and AGDC. And maybe they're good questions because I think a lot of them were. But at the same time, like. So we're going to do what? We just don't like this one, so we don't build a pipeline, so we don't get more royalties for the state and more jobs for Alaskans. We can't give Don Levy and Trump a win, right? We just can't do it. We can't give him a win. And I go back to this education one, too, because...
Look, I think every one of us want to see our kids get a great education. I'm a product of the Anchorage School District. My kids are products of the Anchorage School District. So is my husband. And as I look at it, I think, I look at the charts over the years of the amount of money we have thrown at education and the millions and millions and millions of dollars in increase, well, it's really billions of dollars, increased spending in education.
When I look at that, I don't see the results. I don't see the outcomes getting better. The reality is money isn't the issue here. Clearly money isn't the issue because otherwise billions of dollars ago we would have seen improvements. Am I missing something? No, and you bring up an excellent point, which is money has its place, right? And I want to be crystal clear, crystal clear.
There is not one legislator, Democrat or Republican, minority or majority, that opposes putting some amount into the BSA. That is such a lie that I continue hearing be spread. I get the emails, oh, you want to cut education, drastic cuts. We've never cut spending here on the BSA $1, ever.
Ask Hoffman, ask Stedman, ask the men that have been here for decades telling you. You don't have to believe me. Believe the finance co-chairs. I say their names because they've been finance co-chairs for a long time. They'll tell you flat out. We've never cut one penny.
from the bsa ever and for many years we've been adding extra money even though the teachers and the others and the parents never get told that because this is fear-mongering right it's getting them scared to call in and say you're cutting education no we're not those are decisions made by the local school boards we can't control that
We give them the BSA and a lot of extra money over the last few years, and then the school districts do what they do. We can't control that at all. But your point is, which is important, is that there's not one legislator here that opposes. increases to the BSA to get this off the table to make it permanent for stability. What we are asking for, the difference is, and you said it, is policy inside of that BSA increase, things like CTE education, things like education.
Sorry, the dog is a... That's all right. I love it. This is an Alaska senator. I love it. But we are not seeing the policy increases of things that we need to see that are going to help with the metrics to increase the education outcomes and opportunities for our kids. So they're going to put $1,000 BSA on the table. And they're not going to have any policy in it, which the governor is required.
to make this work wants to see a lot of the republicans are wanting to see so you're going to put the money in with no metrics no accountability no transparency no increase the performance that we know works in every other state like we did with three by nine a couple years ago Yeah. Let's just throw more money at it with no policy. I know. And most reasonable people say, what's the return on my investment? If I'm going to give you this money, what am I going to get for it?
And if I'm not getting better results, then maybe I'm not excited about giving you any more money until we find something that's going to actually improve the results. It makes a lot of sense to me. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We're talking to Senator Mike Schauer. We'll take a good break. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. Current time is 724. We're talking with Senator Mike Schauer. Senator Schauer, in the last segment, you were telling us about you were giving us perspective over the savings account and what's the staggering number that is just mind boggling to me. is when you point out in 2013 between all of our savings accounts, we had... basically $30 billion that was accessible to the legislature in one form or another to be able to spend. And now those savings accounts are under $6 billion.
If you're passing a budget that's relying on savings, it is deficit spending. You're not spending as much as you're bringing in. And you look at a potential $1,000 increase to the base student allocation for education. That's just one massive bill that I just don't think we can afford personally. But then you turn around and then there's this whole move to go back to this retirement plan that's a defined benefit plan.
And between the two of them, even if you institute all the taxes you want, you know, taxes on income tax, sales tax, take away the PFD, I still don't think it'll be enough to cover their bill. No, Amy, I can tell you right now. So remember I said the statutory, you know, we wiped that out. We're 50-50. That was part of the fiscal policy working group I was on to balance the budget, have a spending cap, all those things five years ago almost, that's still sitting and collecting dust.
Now they were talking about a 75-25 PFD. This year, only 25% of the people in the private sector economy. Now today, if you look now, they say, well, maybe an 86-14. I'm like, how about a 92-8? How about nothing? Because that seems to be the direction we're on, and you're not wrong. That's where they're going. That's where they're going. Yeah, it is. It is. They'll take it all to the public sector because that's their constituency for a lot of legislation. That's just reality.
But let's talk about one more number here with this. So if you look at that defined benefits, you talked about that some are now pushing here in this building and going back when the rest of the world is going away from it because it is unaffordable and it doesn't work as well.
And people want 401Ks, especially the younger generation, because cash is king. They're not stuck in Alaska for 10 or 15 or 20 years. They can pick up that 401K and go somewhere else if they want, another job, another state. But here's the thing. A recent foundation report came out. What they're using right now is a 7.25% return, and the average has been closer to 6%, plus or minus. I've talked to armed board members, the ones that run our retirement system, to ask them that.
And what that would mean over the next 10, 12, 15 years, whatever timeline you want to use and pick a different number. Because that means that's how far off they are, over a percent. of the returns, which doesn't sound like much to most people, but over time, it is huge. And they said it could be up to 11 billion. extra dollars to put this thing on the hook.
This is exactly what happened to the last thing. See, you're getting my blood pressure up now because this is exactly why our current retirement system is because the actuaries were completely wrong. They were completely wrong. And that's why we have a current system right now that is billions of dollars in the red. Again, when they don't have good fiscal numbers and they're relying on bad information. But look, when Dunleavy first won.
When they started peddling this crap, they were trying to tell us there was a zero fiscal note. And I said, that's not even possible. And so we pushed back hard because it didn't make any sense. And so they keep just kind of fudging the number just to get it through. If you're already identifying, they could be off by as much as a percent. I mean, over time, that's staggering. And that's why it just drives me crazy when we start talking about spending in Juneau because, again,
It's like they're living in Never Never Land. It's fanciful. They're not dealing with reality. Amy, it's not even fanciful. I've confirmed these numbers with the armed board members that I know. We ran through the Reason Foundation report. We looked at the numbers. These are historical numbers right from our folks that do this for a living.
It's what's in the bill for what they're expecting to return. And you said it. In addition to that, what could be on the hook, $8, $10, $11 plus billion extra, the thing we got rid of to find benefits in 2006 and went to the 401k like the rest of the world or most of the rest of the world is doing. billion dollars in the hole, like you said, from the previous defined benefit plan that ended in 2006.
So 20 years later, we're still about $8 billion in the hole on that plan. And now they want to take us to another defined benefit plan that could put us another $10 or $11 billion on the hook in addition to what they're saying it does. And then you add what we talked about with the education spending, where we are with deficit as a huge state government by comparison to population. We've spent our savings down to a minimum number to be able to operate.
And we can't just tax our way out of this, right? Because as Churchill said, trying to tax your way to prosperity is like standing in a bucket and trying to pull yourself up. What are we going to do? I will tell you my best solution is you actually hire people in the legislature that can do basic math. I mean, I'm just throwing it out there that your revenues cannot exceed your expenditures on a consistent basis. I get it.
if one year we have a massive earthquake and we have to have a capital budget to fix things. Like, there's exceptions to that, in my opinion. But on a consistent basis, you can't build your formulas. which are going to drive you into deficit spending every single year. It's absolutely ridiculous. You know, Senator Schauer, my time with you always feels like it's never enough, and I only have about a minute and a half, but I want to touch on this.
One of my biggest concerns going into this legislative session is watching the Trump because Alaska has been given a golden opportunity and one of my biggest fears is the Alaska legislature is going to let it slip through our fingers. Do you think that's a realistic concern, or what are your concerns or opportunities that you see when it comes to resource development in this state?
Well, I agree with you, Amy. Based on the history here and what I've observed for the better part of a decade, I have concerns that we will... squander this opportunity I had an op-ed last week or the week before in the ADN saying that very thing resolutions to slap Trump on the wrist because we don't like him or whatever it may be I don't care if you like the guy or not it is irrelevant what matters is like you said he has handed us a silver platter and said, go forth and prosper.
Alaska, open yourself up. I'm here for you. Here's all the things. I want you to go look at an ANWR. I want you to do this over an MPRA. I want you to build mines. I want you to do all this stuff, and let's build it. And let's go for it. I mean, Senator Sullivan said it was a crown jewel to have the president mention your state
primary big project in Alaska gas line that would not only provide gas and cheap energy for us in Alaska, but to our allies across the Pacific and make us money and give stability. And yet he mentioned that in his State of the Union address. That just never happened.
So my point is, you are correct, and I have that same concern, that the legislature may in its own way squander these opportunities because we're more worried about... spending state money on various constituencies, whether it's education, as important as it is. Right. But these different things and we go, well, we just want to take it from the oil industry because what's our standard answer? Let's just tax the oil industry. The golden goose. We've done that for decades.
Plus now, let's just go after him for more taxes. And then what does that do? If I'm a business owner, and I'll finish up on this thing and stop because of time, but if I'm a business owner, I've got to look in a 20- or 30-year timeline for investing billions of dollars in this state to build big projects.
and do things. And every few years, Alaska continues to change its course and change its tax structure from ACES to SB 21 to this to that. And we don't know what Alaska is going to do. And we don't live within our means and show people we can with a stable fiscal policy.
People look at the state and go, no, you're not worth it. I don't know what you're going to do. So we have to get our act together. We need to enact a stable fiscal policy so everybody can go, yep, Alaska is going to be good. We know we can go there. We know we can trust them. And right now, talking to business leaders that I do.
They don't. They don't trust our state to get its act together and live within its means. So you keyed on something very important. We have the opportunity of a lifetime, and for our kids and grandkids, because they're the ones that will benefit, or we could squander this. And I hope we don't.
because we need to be on the step right now, and it is critical to our future that we get these things moving now, because who knows who the next president is? We need to start building it right now. There's the old saying, remember? When was the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When's the second best day? Today. We need to start doing it now.
Exactly. I couldn't have said it any better. Senator Schauer, as always, we appreciate your time, sir, and thank you so much for calling in this morning. Look forward to talking to you soon, Amy. I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about in a couple weeks once we see where the budgets are going. Oh, I have no doubt. I have no doubt. All right. Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate you. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Turn up your radio. Here's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute. Every country knows that he's in a position of strength, and if they don't deal with him, it's going to happen again. And then because China... doubled down on dumb, dumb, and stupid because they need access to our markets. And this is what the president was betting on. Every country, the EU, all the European nations, Great Britain, and even China.
end, I predict, will come around. They need access to our markets and your money or else they're screwed. Their manufacturing starts to tank. Their economies start to tank. Their workers start rebelling. Their citizens start getting angry and trump bet on american strength to get this deal done and now he's free to negotiate check out the sean hannity radio show later today right here Now, don't get suckered into the same old free phone game by Big Wireless.
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A Sutton man accused of murdering his father remains behind bars. Grant Wells had his bail set at $750,000 during a court hearing on Wednesday. He stands accused of killing his father Nicholas Wells with a shotgun on March 27th of this year and then trying to burn down a cabin with the bloodied shotgun. inside before he was taken into custody. His trial is scheduled to start in June. Anchorage police and the FBI are continuing their investigation into the disappearance of a local man.
Numerous police and FBI agents were seen Wednesday combing through an Eagle River neighborhood where Tony Mac Kronos was last. And a new study finds a significant chunk of Alaska state employees are underpaid when compared with other employers. The study by the private contractor Siegel found that over a quarter of state Alaska employees are paid below market rate when compared with other surveyed employers. That's the latest. I'm John Fink.
Looking at the Alaska Total Traffic Cameras on this Thursday morning. Snow is the word of the day. Roads are wet and sloppy out there. Lots of slush around Anchor, so do be careful. It's going to drag you around. Also, some slick spots at the intersections.
Kids are starting to head school, so keep your eyes out for them. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchors Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean. This report is sponsored by Compassion International. Every day a child in poverty waits for a sponsor is another day of hopelessness. There are thousands of kids who've been waiting over a year. End their wait. Sponsor a child with compassion today. Just text the word radio to 83393. These times of...
or the week before, I can't remember now, we were talking about leadership in Alaska, and specifically the Alaska Republican Party, right? We're talking about elected leaders, and I kept saying, where's the leadership? And I have to be honest with you, Daryl. I listen to Senator Schauer talk, and I'm thinking... I wonder if Senator Schauer would consider running for governor. You know, I'm just saying, there's a lot of people that would love to see that happen.
Because they want somebody who is common sense, straight talking, and not afraid to say what he needs to say. And Bernadette got me thinking. Because she called in and she said, you know, the governor is the leader of the party in the state. Yes, we have a chair, but the leadership, and I was watching Trump at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner. That was earlier this week. I'm watching Trump. And I'm thinking about what Bernadette said. And I'm thinking about elected people.
You know the the top executive whether it's of your country of your state and seeing the difference in leadership and You know Trump's been trying to get a budget resolution passed. He got it through the Senate. It got hung up in the house
And here is Trump. We're going to play an audio clip for you. It's a little bit long, but he's the president of the United States. I want you to think about leadership. And when he's trying to get votes and he's trying to get people to kind of... stop playing tiddlywinks and get on board and get an agenda going because he promised it to the American people and all these different things.
This is how Trump responds when he's trying to get the Republicans. He basically calls them out. He says, come on, get on board. And that is something I think people need. So this is Trump at the National Republican Congressional Committee this week. Because it would be very sad if they actually changed their policies. We don't want that to happen.
But we're going to win the midterm elections and we're going to have a tremendous thundering landslide. I really believe that. And it's so important that we pass the big, beautiful bill because that's going to be. And I really think. And I really think we're helped a lot by the tariff situation that's going on, which is a good situation, not a bad. It's great. It's going to be legendary. You watch legendary in a positive way, I have to say.
It's going to be legendary. But I really think it actually puts pressure on those few Republicans that. You know what the alternative is? A Democrat bill... Or a chapter for the cut. You know, we have the debt continuation. And they have to do this. They have to get there. I think we are there. We had a great meeting today. I think we are there. But just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there.
You just got to get there. Close your eyes and get there. It's a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding. Just stop grandstanding. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. You know, their policy, the Democrats. is horrible. It's horrible. Think of it open borders. Just all of the horrible, stupid things they have. You don't have energy. You don't have anything. They've lost their confidence. Everything is bad. But the one thing, they always vote in unison. You don't see somebody that's holding up. I'm going to hold up.
And the alternative is hell. You know, the alternative is hell. So the Republicans just have one little thing the Republican Party has to do is get together and damn vote. If you're a single guy or a second guy. And you fight like hell for what you can. And then in the end, you have to vote because the policy is phenomenal. You know, they don't get every little ounce. It doesn't work that way.
And this bill that we're working on now is the best I think we've ever passed. Mike, wherever you may be, it's the best. I think it's the best thing. We'll get it passed. But I think it's going to be the most important thing we've ever passed. It's the best thing we've ever passed. And I do think that the war with the world, which is not a war at all, because they're all coming here. Japan is coming here as we speak.
They're in a plane flying, lots of them, all tough negotiators. But things that people wouldn't have given us two years ago, wouldn't have even thought of it two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, seven. They're giving us everything. They don't want tariffs on themselves. That's good. That's good. That's good. All right. So the point is, see, this is what's happening. We had this lock in Congress, right?
And Trump is moving for, what has he been talking about? No tax on tips. Making permanent the 2017 tax cuts, right? He was talking about no tax on overtime. He's talking about all these different policies. And as we talk about these policies, and he's talking about spending bill, as he's talking about getting together,
He's directly in front of these congressmen that are the holdouts. He's having individual conversations with them. He's talking to them on the phone. He's in front of them, and he's just like this, and he points out the obvious. Democrats are very good at voting in a block. Republicans, I think we have some more independent thinkers on our side. It's a little bit more difficult to do. I get it. But he's just like, stop grandstanding. Let's just get together and do this.
And now what do we see now? We see. We see Trump's big, beautiful tax agenda scores major victory in-house despite GOP rebellion threats. This morning, while we were on the air, by a vote of 216 to 214, Trump's bill passed. And a massive victory, according to Fox News, for President Donald J. Trump. and House Speaker Mike Johnson. The bill passed on Thursday that will set the stage for a massive conservative policy overhaul.
The legislation passed mostly along party lines on Thursday morning after a long night of negotiations between GOP leaders and fiscal hawks who were critical of some of the spending cut levels. Just two Republicans voting against the legislation, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, of course, and then Victoria Sparks of Indiana. I don't know who that is. No Democrats supported it as expected.
But there you have it. Trump's big, beautiful bill, his big, beautiful bill has now passed the House. They concurred with the Senate's amendment. So that will go to his desk for signature. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Looking at the Alaska total traffic cameras on this Thursday morning. Snow is the word of the day. Roads are wet and sloppy out there. Lots of slush. Our grief is unique. But you are not alone. You always have a place.
At MAD, call our 24-hour victim helpline at 877-MAD-HELP. Or visit mad.org.
dig into this a little bit. So I'm on Fox News' website right now talking about the bill that just passed the House. Now the Senate had made some amendments to it and so the Speaker Johnson just gave an impromptu little press conference, and he says, quote, I'm happy to tell you that this morning I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump's very important agenda for the American people.
Our first big beautiful reconciliation package here involves a number of commitments and one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs. End quote. John Thune added, we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum.
It goes on to say, congressional Republicans are working on a massive conservative policy overhaul. via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 to 51 votes, it would allow the party in power to pass significant fiscal and budgetary policy. Look, here's the reality. They've done this with a mechanism.
Remember, this is how Obamacare was basically shoved through, and this is also how the Inflation Reduction Act that spurred inflation, it was also passed through, so it's not really new. It drives me crazy that they keep saying that. But it says, you know, GOP lawmakers are also looking to extend Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
the provisions of which will expire at the end of this year. They also need new funding for Trump's efforts to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime wages. That's what I was just talking about. I mean, those are two big parts of Trump's agenda. If they don't extend his tax cut, Look, again, what will it do? It will stifle economic growth. And right now, whether it's in Juneau or whether it's in D.C.,
You have foot draggers that are trying to slow people down. They're trying to get any real change slowed down. Why? Because it's all about the 2026 election. Whether we're talking about midterms on the national level or we're talking about the governor's race on the state level. It's all about midterms. It's all about the 2026 elections. Some people just don't want to give Trump a win.
Some people don't want to give the Republicans in the legislature a win because these politicians are more concerned about getting reelected in next year's elections. than they are about, you know, actually getting some stuff done. And I'm not talking about all of them, but a vast majority. So this particular one for Trump, this is a big win for Trump. So a lot of headlines about that today because, like I said, this bill literally just passed while we were on the air. So this is very good.
You know, it's good news. What can I say? It's good news. I'm glad to see it. And then, you know, we were talking about this a little bit earlier in the show. Promises made, promises kept. Breitbart has the article out. Consumer prices fell in March. Defying predictions.
I love that they named it tariflation. But consumer prices fell in March. And do you see that on every headline on MSNBC or CNN? No. You know, Trump's in office literally for five minutes, and they're trying to place the blame of inflation and egg prices on Trump when they ignored it for weeks and weeks and weeks prior under Biden. So this is why I say, you can't trust the media.
You've got to do your own research, and you've got to have a little bit. I don't care what channel. With temperatures today warming into the mid to upper 30s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Welcome back to. dig into this a little bit. So I'm on Fox News' website right now talking about the bill.
passed the house now the Senate had made some amendments to it and so the house Speaker Johnson just gave an impromptu little press conference, and he says, quote, I'm happy to tell you that this morning I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump's very important agenda for the American people.
Our first big, beautiful reconciliation package here involves a number of commitments, and one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs. John Thune added, we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The Speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States Senators who believe that is a minimum.
It goes on to say, congressional Republicans are working on a massive conservative policy overhaul. via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 to 51 votes, it would allow the party in power to pass significant fiscal and budgetary policy. Look, here's the reality. They've done this with a mechanism. Remember, this is how Obamacare was basically shoved through.
And this is also how the Inflation Reduction Act that spurred inflation. It was also passed through, so it's not really new. It drives me crazy that they keep saying that. But it says, you know, GOP lawmakers are also looking to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts and jobs act.
the provisions of which will expire at the end of this year. They also need new funding for Trump's efforts to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime wages. That's what I was just talking about. I mean, those are two big parts of Trump's agenda. If they don't extend his tax cut, Look, I mean again, what will it do? It will stifle economic growth and right now whether it's in Juneau or whether it's in DC
You have foot draggers that are trying to slow people down. They're trying to get any real change slowed down. Why? Because it's all about the 2026 election. Whether we're talking about midterms on the national level or we're talking about the governor's race on the state level. It's all about. Midterms, it's all about the 2026 election. Some people just don't want to give Trump a win.
Some people don't want to give the Republicans in the legislature a win because these politicians are more concerned about getting reelected in next year's elections than they are about, you know, actually getting some stuff done. And I'm not talking about all of them. but a vast majority. So this particular one for Trump, this is a big win for Trump.
So a lot of headlines about that today because, like I said, this bill literally just passed while we were on the air. So this is very good. You know, it's good news. What can I say? It's good news. I'm glad to see it. And then, you know, we were talking about this a little bit earlier in the show. Promises made, promises kept. Breitbart has the article out. Consumer prices fell in March, defying predictions.
of tariflation. I love that they named it tariflation. But consumer prices fell in March. And do you see that on every headline on MSNBC or CNN? No. You know, Trump's in office literally for five minutes, and they're trying to place the blame of inflation and egg prices on Trump when they ignored it for weeks and weeks and weeks prior under Biden.
You've got to do your own research and you've got to have a little bit. I don't care what channel. They're trying to place the blame of inflation and egg prices on Trump when they ignored it for weeks and weeks and weeks prior under Biden. So this is why I say, you can't trust the media.
You got to do your own research and you got to have a little bit. I don't care what channel you're watching. I don't care if it's Newsmax. I don't care if it's Fox News. I don't care if it's CNN, MSNBC. You got to just kind of take everything with a grain of salt and say, what does the data actually show? And when it's showing consumer price is falling, I would say something, you know, it could be a variety of factors. Probably not just one thing. It's probably a variety of factors.
But the reality is... What you're not going to see, I can pretty much guarantee this when you're watching mainstream media or lamestream media. When you're watching them, anything that Trump does that is good. will be downplayed, not talked about, or spun in a negative light. Reversed. They'd love to reverse it. Exactly. And if he makes any mistakes, that's all they're going to talk about. That's it. That's all they're going to talk about.
But I'm telling you, Trump is running laps around them because... He did such a good job. Look, they've had a couple mistakes. Remember? We remember a whole signal gate. Like, that happened. That was a boo-boo. That was a mistake. We learned from our mistake. Things happen. But you know what?
into the tariff discussion and guess what everybody stopped talking about everybody stopped talking about I'm telling you this guy like I did not give him as much credit as he should have gotten when it came to how smart he is and how strategic he is He's running circles around lamestering media. Running circles around them. And the Democrats. It is. Oh, yeah. It's a thing of beauty. I got to tell you. I just love winning. I can't. I love winning. And I love the fact that the Republicans.
got together. Good for them. I hope it sticks. Alright, that does it for today's show. We will be back with you tomorrow morning at 6am. Until then, stay safe. God bless.