Welcome to the party, pal. The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. That was just BS. It is time to get a new perspective. We know just what you need and we've got just the cure. Open wide and prepare for steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't. Fathom it.
The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Oh, yeah. Live around the world on the Internet at MichaelDukesShow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translation. Greetings from the subtropical paradise of Homer, Alaska. Good morning, my friends. Welcome to the Michael Duke Show. It is hump day. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's that beautiful day of the week where we can see. I'm looking. I can see it. Firearms Friday from here.
It's going to be good, man. It's going to be good. We're rocking and rolling. Tomorrow signifies the end of my first week of full broadcast ownership. It has been exciting. I actually, yesterday, I actually ran out of things to do for a few minutes. It literally has been... 12 to 12 plus hours a day of running from one thing that broke to another just to make sure you know you know how it is and uh yesterday uh mid-afternoon all of a sudden i looked around and realized
Nothing was on fire for a second. And I was like, huh, maybe I can go. So I went and did some some some do work, some stuff that I've been had had on the list for a while that wasn't urgent. And it was it was exciting. It's exciting. It's exciting to see the end of the road. You know what I mean? Anyway, it's a good week. Today is hump day, and we are, today is actually the, yesterday, today, week one ended. Last night, this morning is week two. So anyway.
What's on the program today? Well, we've got a lot of stuff going on. We have got a full boat, a full slew of headlines to discuss this morning. We're going to go through some of those. We're also going to talk a little bit more. I kind of got stuck yesterday on this discussion and topic of leadership in the state. That what we're really lacking is... is leadership. Because if we had true leaders, and this is in a variety of areas, whether it's political leadership,
You know, thought leadership in the form of newsmakers or news takers, journalists. If we had some leadership there, we would be asking some very hard questions in the state of Alaska and potentially. being able to dodge the bullet of this fiscal situation that we're in right now. And so I think we'll continue to discuss that. This morning, we're definitely going to pick up that topic with State Senator Mike Schauer, who's going to be joining us in our two today.
for his first visit of the year. It's something that we love to call the shower hour of power. He's going to come on board with us in hour two, and we're going to... We're going to talk about it. So it's going to be fun stuff. So we'll jump in on that and talk with him about those and then whatever other topics that he wants to delve into as well. in hour two. So I'm loving it. I'm loving it a lot. So we're going to be doing that in hour two this morning. Working on some other guests as well.
um, for tomorrow and Friday. Um, I'm hoping that on the, the, uh, the first big Friday, I know that we're going to have Chris Chang and Willie waffle. So that'll be fun. But, uh, We'll let you know as we get closer to that what's happening and where we're going on that. All right. So headlines, headlines. Who's got your headlines? That would be me. We've got some interesting ones.
Some that are going to play into our discussions on leadership and everything else. We're going to get to those here in just a moment. But first and foremost, I guess we should hit some of the headlines around the state. If you're feeling like you just, you know, you're just coming out of this storm and you're like, oh, this is great. You know, now it's.
We can get back to regular weather. Well, hold your coffee. There's going to be a second North Pacific storm that's going to hit the state tonight. The first one finally left southern Alaska. You know, it finally is now leaving and it left us in a bit of a winter meltdown. With temperatures in the 40s in many areas, especially down on the peninsula, currently right now outside the old studios, it's like 39 degrees and rainy. But looks like this new one.
is going to continue. This second round could drop more of the same, which would be rain and potentially freezing rain and wind and snow on the south central area. And no word on what it's going to do up north, but I imagine it will yo-yo you guys up in the Fairbanks area like crazy as well. Because I know somebody said yesterday in the chat room that it was 33 below.
like the day before, and then it was 30 degrees the next day or two days later. So welcome to Alaska. If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute. It'll change. That's what it's been like. But anyway, new winter storm is going to be hitting hitting the south central area tonight and then may pursue its way up to other parts of the state. So that's the that's the that's the big weather news for you guys.
Also, just when we were watching New Year's Eve, we watched The Godfather. I haven't seen that movie in 30 years. And then... We watched The Godfather 2 sometime this last weekend or whatever. I came in and my wife and my son were watching it. So I watched the end of it. But then I saw the trailer and every time I see it, all I can hear is Al Pacino saying, you know, just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in, right?
Sorry, it was a long winded way of talking about this story, because the first time I saw this headline, I'm like, wow, I thought we were just out of that. And that is the fact that April 1st is the first day to file for the Anchorage election. Because, yes, Anchorage, those weirdos down there, up there, I guess, now that I'm down below them, those weirdos up there, their elections.
are going to be in the spring. And so we just got out of one election cycle, the national election and the ballot measures and the dark money and the... And now we're getting into the new municipal elections. And filing, and I'm sorry, filing begins on January the 10th, which is two days from now. The election itself is on April 1st. So I misspoke earlier, but I mean, so we're about to get into another round of hot and heavy. And I got to tell you, Anchorage has got some serious.
Serious issues right now. I mean, they are this assembly, which never saw a dollar that it didn't want to spend. Never saw a dollar that it didn't want to spend. is looking for every way they can to fund programs for this and that and the other thing. They upped the tariffs by 800%. Is it 800? Yeah, because it went from like 56 cents to $9 per ton or something. At the Port of Alaska.
Which, of course, doesn't just affect the Anchorage area. It affects all of us other yahoos out here in anywhere because something like 85 or 90 percent of all freight comes through the port of Alaska there in Anchorage. And so they upped that. That was number one. Then on top of that, they have now proposed a new sales tax. in Anchorage. I don't know if you saw that. They proposed it. They were like, oh, yeah, we got to, you know, I mean, so they've got to do all this. And they were.
they were probably going to do a special election. And they said that they were going to, it would establish a... 3% tax on most retail goods and services. Two-thirds of the tax revenue would be used for property tax relief, and the remaining 1% would go into a trust that would pay for public building amenities like Trailside facilities and recreation centers. I mean, these people cannot read the room. I mean, there is a massive outflow of people from Alaska.
There is problems in Anchorage with with, you know, out migration from Anchorage to other parts of the state. But, you know, most and most noticeably to the Mat-Su. And these guys are out there trying to. Now, the only good part about this proposal. which came from the Felix Rivera and AEDC, the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, is that it did have a seven-year sunset on it. So it would only be in place for seven years.
This was the initial proposal. Then other assembly members proposed four more versions of the tax. And. And of course, it has to go to voters. That's the good news. But as of right now, yesterday, the assembly postponed voting on all the competing ballot measures and they'll. I guess they've postponed it for now. They're not going to be looking at it. But they say that the estimated property tax could generate $180 million a year.
Now, their budget is already over half a billion dollars, right? That's a pretty significant amount of money for something like that. So anyway, sales tax, you know, they're already talking about that. And of course, they're they've got their elections coming up. But this is, again, just a group that they. trails and recreational centers hey guys you got people leaving you got you got you know oh and by the way some of those alternate
plans that they proposed, by the way, just in case you were wondering about the other four plans. Alternate versions of the proposed call for attacks. was between 1.5% and 3%, with less or none of the money going to property tax relief. I just don't even know what to say to that. I mean, I'm glad I just don't live in Anchorage. That's all I can say right now. I just don't even know what I can say.
But this is what they're doing. They're looking right now for any available revenue. And this is, of course, this is the nature of government. We've talked about this many times. This is the nature of government is to basically consume. any available funds and to look for any way to consume available funds and to basically grow and expand to justify their existence and everything else. It's the nature of the beast.
And of course, we've seen that at every level here in the state, at the municipal level, cities, and now the state of Alaska who wants to be everybody's sugar daddy and can't figure out that, you know, arithmetic is a thing. And even at the national level, where we've got politicians who are in utter denial that we could be facing something horrifically bad. But that's where we're at. That's where we're at right now.
You know, it's astonishing. All right. Well, we're up against the break. We've got more some more headlines. And we're going to. We're going to peel through some of these while we're on Anchorage. We'll continue with Anchorage for a minute, and then we'll move on to Fairbanks here in just a minute. But we're going to continue. Don't go anywhere.
The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We'll be back with more. Don't forget to check us out on Facebook at facebook.com slash MichaelDukeShow. Let's do that, shall we? We'll return. In just a moment with Common Sense Radio right here. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand. Oh, and it's free. Like America used to be. Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay, my pretties.
Anthony said, are we trying to get to make pirates? 800% tariff increases at ports is how we get pirates. Might need to update my resume. I'd look fabulous with an eyepatch, but I'd have to switch the parrot out for a raven. Don't think a parrot would hold up for the winter. Yeah. I mean, it was, it wasn't just like a minor. We went from 50 cents to 70 cents. We went from 50, I think it was 56 or 59 cents to $9. It was like, what the. What? Uh.
Kevin McCabe is in the chat room. He said they're also very proud of their new tariffs on goods coming into the port, which is a tax without representation, by the way, on every person who buys goods in the state. An assemblyman told me the other day, if you don't like it, then don't use the port. Oh, if only we had Port McKenzie and a rail line to Port McKenzie. If only we'd been thinking about this, right? Right. Right. Right. Um...
What's this? Jerrica says, Mr. Dukes, please look into what the Houston mayor is doing. He's pushing through a proposal for an airport comparable to Merrill Field. Big enough for 737s to land and take off there. Literally no one in the community wants it, and he has threatened lawsuits against people who speak against him or his plans. It's the embodiment of tyranny. He's running Houston like a dictator. Well, okay. Dang. You know? Um...
Timmy says, I'm excited for Greenland to become a U.S. territory in the Gulf of America, U.S. name change. What about Canada becoming part of becoming? Did you see that, too? I mean, I was laughing. My daughter was like, my daughter was over at the station doing some work and she's like, what the what?
I mean, it's just so hyperbolic to to all the things that the president elect has been saying right now. I just every time I look, I just go, what? Now, the Greenland thing is interesting because Harry Truman actually suggested. during his term that we could basically subsume Greenland. We've had a presence there, military presence in Greenland since World War II.
But the people of Greenland, what they're really looking for is autonomy. They're looking for independence from Denmark. But, I mean, it's interesting. The Gulf of America thing, I mean, that's... What are you going to do? I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do. I'm going back here. Dumping grounds, millions of illegals. I see Henry's talking about the illegals again. I mean, I know illegals in the country are a problem. I'm not saying that they're not. Okay.
I think I'm all caught up here on all this stuff right now. Okay. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Man, Greg says Port McKenzie is going to get busy. Well, you would hope it would. But the problem with Port McKenzie is that it has no rail line to it. So it's not like you can bring a container ship over to McKenzie. And just it's not like you've got two identically competing ports across the inlet from each other.
One is fully ready and has got, you know, rail access and containers can be just offloaded and everything else. And the other one is kind of standing out on the lawn at the end of a, one of the most dangerous roads in the state. KGB is Canuckusa Bay Road is a, you know. So, yeah, I mean, if we had been smart about this, and I'm not saying that, you know, some people like Kevin McCabe and others weren't trying to do this, you know, we needed to, we need a rail line out there.
But we'll have to see. Jeannie points out that we have Seward and a railway. It just makes it harder. I don't know. I'm not that familiar with the Seward facility, but I don't think it's as big. We'll see. We'll see what's going on. Paul says I'm snowed in, not in Alaska, but in Kentucky. Sorry, Paul. Sorry, Paul. All right, here we go, guys. Let's get back to it.
The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell, do all the YouTube-y things. Only 11 of you have liked this. What, you don't like me? What? The Michael Dukes Show. Not your daddy. Wait, sorry. Not your daddy? Ooh, not your daddy's talk radio. Whew. I was scared for a second. Thought we were going down. Here's Michael Dukes and the show.
Okay. Somebody in the chat room brought up the Greenland thing. You know, whether we should subsume Greenland, whether Canada should become the 51st state. And, of course, the Gulf of America thing, where it was the Gulf of Mexico and now the president. There's so much hyperbole flying around on this stuff. I mean, I literally think that the president. elect is just trolling the nation at this point not not not everybody but i mean he just you know
It's like some of the times you just say things that are out. Now, the interesting thing about Greenland, and I just mentioned this during the break, but the interesting thing about the Greenland thing is that he's not the first president to suggest it. Harry Truman. actually suggested it after World War II. And we've had a presence, a huge military presence in Greenland since World War II.
They're actually a colony or fiefdom of Denmark. The people in Greenland, they just want autonomy. They just want their own freedom. I don't know if they'd want to become part of America, and I don't know. That's something we'd want to add. But anyway, yeah, just all this crazy stuff flying around. My daughter was just she was she's like, what is the what?
And I just I just had to laugh because I think sometimes the president elect is just out there going. I think he's just throwing stuff out there. to get the more grist for the machine. Let's change Denali back to McKinley. Let's change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Let's take Canada. and make it a state let's do let's do greenland and we'll do with military force and you know it's just like sometimes i wonder but there you go there you go um
All right. We were talking about Anchorage before we went to break. Sorry, I got sidetracked there. Can I just again say how grateful I am that I don't live down in Anchorage?
Not only do they have these ridiculous new revenue proposals going on and everything else, I noticed this when I went back on Sunday night and then Monday morning right before the show and I was looking at... any story that i'd missed over the course of the vacation time that i was on and it was like shooting um attack another shooting Police shoots, robber shoots. I mean, there was like shootings every every week. There's two or three shootings now in Anchorage. And I'm just like.
Wow. Now, yesterday, Anchorage police officers shoot a suspect following a report of an armed robbery in Midtown. They said it was on 2 p.m. In the 500 block of Northern Lights, they didn't identify the business that was attacked during the robbery, but officers did arrive. And the suspect was armed with a handgun trying to get into an ATM. And the guy didn't respond, and they finally shot him five to eight rounds.
with only two rounds actually striking the guy. So somebody needs a little more range time. Anyway, that was just the latest. I mean, it's just, I just, you know, I'm not... You wonder why I go forth armed. And then up in Wasilla, a 38-year-old man was shot and killed at a home in Wasilla following a string of attempted break-ins on Sunday night, according to troopers.
emile hampton was pronounced dead at a house in meadow lakes uh they said they responded to the area at 10 30 p.m on sunday for the report of a suspicious male acting erratically while they were responding to the complaint The complainant reported that a shot had been fired striking the suspicious male. He had attempted to enter the vehicles and buildings on their properties prior to him being shot. They are investigating.
But again, this is the part of the problem like with Wasilla is you make a phone call and how long is it going to take for the troopers to get there? Luckily, this homeowner was able to defend themselves in this regard. acting erratically in Wasilla, in my experience, is code for how about a little meth. And so luckily they were able to do it.
Again, you wonder why I carry a gun in Alaska? Well, here's just two stories back-to-back, one in Anchorage, one in Wasilla. And I'm sure there's probably one down here on the Kenai somewhere that we could find as well, and probably one up in the interior. But, uh, it's just, uh, you know, go forth arm folks, constantly vigilant, head on a swivel, situational awareness, all that kind of stuff. Be paying attention to everything that's going on.
All right. Let's get up to Fairbanks. And I want to talk to Melissa about this. Melissa, who's a friend of mine and a listener to the show. I know she's. checks in most mornings in the chat room on her way by. But she's quoted in an article from KTUU. talking about the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District's consolidation plans. I don't know if you heard this. If you're up in Fairbanks, you probably did. They have decided that they want to close.
Five schools. Five schools are recommended for closure. The closures come as part of a consolidation plan because they have a $16 million budget deficit. and a 15% drop in student enrollment. That's a wicked, wicked combination. I guess my first question is, how did you get a $16 million budget deficit? Walk me through the steps of how you got to that part.
the 15% drop in student enrollment is not unexpected because that is, I mean, that's, that's, that's how they do things. That's, you know, that's the trend right now and has been for years. The trend is that student enrollment is down in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Meanwhile, homeschooling and unit study and all the other types of independent learning have seen an increase. But...
Here you go. The schools recommended for closure include Hunter Elementary, which is, boy, that's a blast from the past. Hunter Elementary has been around since I was a kid. They're only at 66% capacity. Midnight Sun Elementary at 61% capacity. Pearl Creek at 70% capacity. Salcha Elementary at 80% capacity. And Two Rivers Elementary at 7% capacity.
So that is the that's the that's that's the five schools that they're talking about. They say that they're not going to close them and sell them off. They're actually going to repurpose them. And doing that, they said that they would still see savings from the large elementary schools in the $1 to $1.2 million range every year. they would initially be a higher amount of savings, up to $1.8 million, and they would step down over a five-year period to about $1 to $1.2 million per year.
If they keep the buildings. And of course, then the good news is, is that if the enrollment turns around, they could reopen them. But Melissa Burnett is quoted from the KTUU last night. saying that she has concerns about the closures, but there were positive aspects of the plan. Now, these are the two things that I thought of when I saw the list.
yesterday or day before these are the first two things that i thought of and we just didn't get a chance to talk about it but two of those schools salcha and two rivers are they're way out there okay Two rivers, I mean, not as much as, but Salcha. You're out at Salcha, which is out by Harding. For those of you who don't know the Fairbanks area, Salcha is out by Harding Lake.
I mean, it's, you know, 49, 50, 55 miles out of town. And they're talking about having to transport these kids all the way. into town yeah and yet the school by the way that's what that's that school is at 80 capacity So I know in Anchorage we were talking about some of the schools there have below a 50 percent capacity and people are still fighting about whether they should be closed or not. This is a school at 80 percent capacity. And.
And you're going to move those kids where and how long are they going to have to be on a bus? Because according to what Melissa, well, I'll just read what Melissa said. She said, my concerns with Salcha and Two Rivers, you know, transportation times for students who'd be transported to Weller.
Or to Anderson Crawford, those are big concerns considering the ruralness of those schools and the communities that they're in. With Salcha, you have families all the way out towards Birch Lake, which is another, what, 20 miles out beyond Harding Lake? And she said, what does that drive time look like? Having those kinds of answers that we can truly give those rural communities a good, solid footprint is what's going to happen and what it looks like. She did say that.
that this is it. She said, if the board does vote in favor of closing all five or a different combination of five schools, she says, there's no more closures. This is absolutely it. Now I'm going to have to. Melissa and I are going to have to talk. First of all, you never say never. You never say never. Because what if... Can I play the what if game here for a minute? What if...
The state continues its fiscal meltdown. What if we don't get all these increases in education funding that everybody's pushing? What if the student enrollment continues to decline? They had a 15% drop in enrollment this year. 15%. What if it's 15% next year? That's cumulative, right? So now over two years you've got a net. What is that? Is it 20?
3% or something, 15% of a whole, and then another 15% of the same remaining whole, and then another 15% of the remaining. I mean, if you keep going at between 5% and 15% decline in enrollment over the course of five years. There are no more closures. This is absolutely it. So she and I are going to talk about that. But, I mean, this is the new reality.
And I know as soon as I saw this, you know, the Facebook crowd was out there just, you know, lamenting about how could you close the school where my children have gone and I went and my grandparents went and my great, great, great. grandparents went and how could you do that and you know i i even had a friend who made a comment on facebook in a different post that said
You know, if we if our school closes, this is going to put a strain on our family because we're going to have to send our kid to another school or we'll have to whatever it was juggling something. And yeah, I mean, but that's that's life, right?
I think that this is the emotional investment of the parents a lot of times more that it's projection more than the kids. I remember when I was a kid, we changed from joy to Barnett. I went from joy school to Barnett school. I was in second or third grade, I think. And I mean, it was just a thing. I just went to a different school. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't a, I don't even remember the reason why.
But it just happened. I wasn't upset that I didn't get to go back to my old school. But you see these parents and they're like, oh, my child is so distraught. And I'm like, because you're distraught.
and you're projecting it on them and winding them up over it. It's just a school. Maybe a little bit more inconvenient for you, maybe 10 minutes further away, maybe this, maybe that, but there comes a point where you can't... be all things to all people you can't do everything you can't have every school building available and open all the time
So, I mean, but Fairbanks has actually been pretty good about this. Although, again, again, the Facebook and the public crowd is the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth online to me is just mind blowing.
But we'll see. We'll see where it goes. I'm trying to get Melissa back or getting Melissa on the program to talk about this. We'll see if we can do this maybe tomorrow. We're working on that. So we'll see where we go. All right. We're coming up. I got one more segment and we're going to talk about. leadership and the lack, I guess you say the lack of leadership here in the state and some prime examples of that right now.
We will return the Michael Duke show broadcasting live across the state of Alaska. More common sense, Liberty based free thinking radio. When we return. What is that? Common Sense. Regularly heard on American radio. Michael Duke Show. Okay. Whew, man. I had more stories than I was, I kind of got sucked into that one, didn't I? But yeah, I just, when I looked at that, I was like, ooh, Melissa, I don't know if you should have said that. This is it.
this is it no more closures this is absolutely it um i don't think that's how that works just i'm just trying to point that out i don't think That is how that cookie crumbles. All right, let me get back over to the headlines. 15 of you now liked it. There's like... 75 of you between Rumble and Facebook and YouTube and everything else. And only 15 of you. How many are on Facebook right now? Can it show me? 49 of you on Facebook.
Only 15 have liked it. 16 have liked it. Are you going to make me beg? That's just... That's unpleasant. All right, let me go over here. Kevin says, talking about President Trump's thing, he says, let's rename Denali, the Gulf of Alaska, by Greenland, Annex Canada, the art of the deal on full display again. yeah i mean that's the thing he just it's it's just hyperbole right that's just the oof uh brian says kgb road is far from dangerous it's the morons that love to tailgate that are dangerous
The Brian, I'm not saying that the road itself is like full of ruts and it will drag. I'm like, it is a dangerous through way. And you're right. It's mostly because of the people. But it, that's, that was a dumb argument, Brian. I love you, but that's a dumb argument. Okay. Let's see. I'm scrolling through what's going on. Squirrel, says Frank. That's what we yell to distract. Trump just throws stuff to distract and see how the media will react. I know, that's exactly it. He loves to.
you know and of course with justin trudeau stepping down now it's it's interesting um Yeah. Pete says a lot. When I said the cops, you know, fired eight rounds and only true struck the suspect. Somebody needs some more range time. Pete says a lot more range time. Um, let's see. Anthony says, my only worry if someone breaks into my home isn't whether or not I'm safe. It's that I grabbed the wrong weapon platform in the dark half asleep.
and make a mess, I have to deal with abstract. If I accidentally grab this box-fed AR-style shotgun and start throwing buckshot down the hall, I'm ruining my relationship with the cleaning companies. Oh man. Um, anyway, uh, Richie also says, he says he thinks I'm onto something with the trolling, uh, trolling the left and the loony bin. I get it. Yeah. Let's see. Homeless shelters. Good morning.
Harold says you could solve all these school closing by announcing the state will open a new Alaska Department of Energy and announce 100 percent state ownership of the LNG gas line. Weren't you just saying yesterday, Harold, that the gas delivered at the end of the pipe would never be economical? Isn't that what you were just saying? Has it been part of the problem?
that the investment into the pipeline has never been economical for a $44 billion pipeline to develop, you know, that when gas is, you know, when you got to deliver gas and it's, you're delivering it, what? $18 per MCF or something, and the market is down at $12, $11, $10, somewhere in there. And how is that going to solve the school closing announcements?
Again, I think Harold's taken a page from Trump's book on the whole hyperbole thing. David Boyle says, when students migrate to correspondent schools, the district loses money because correspondent schools only get 90%. So in many districts, the B&M student is worth about two times the value of the correspondence students. Thus, the districts lose a lot of money. David, we should talk about this. If you have time tomorrow, we should come on and talk about this.
If you're listening, David, still, this was, this comment was 10 minutes ago. So David, if you're still on, we should talk about this. Let's see. One senator in Anchorage wants a $1,900 BSA increase. Yeah, no. I mean, yeah, exactly. Okay, I'm just going through. It's just a building, said Pete. Yeah, I know. 17 seconds here. I'm way behind on the comments. What do you mean it never affected you? Did you ask your friends? Yeah, I mean, wait, I'm supposed to have friends? You have friends?
Public enema number one. Oh, wait, sorry. Enemy. Public enemy number one, which makes more sense. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a pain in the Michael Duke show. Oh, man. Welcome back. Oh, baby. Common Sense Radio. It's what we do every day right here. Monday through Friday, anyway. We were just talking to the chat room about this school stuff and everything else going over all the topics from the last segment. If you if you want to be part of the cool kids club, the.
you know, you can be part of the six o'clock club. You are, if you're listening to me right now, you're already officially a member of the six o'clock club. because you got up before 7 and you listened to the program. But if you want to be really one of the really cool kids, you can join us on Facebook or YouTube or Rumble and be part of the conversation there as well. There's a lot of people in there hanging out.
chatting, chitty chatting. We've got 70, 75 people, I guess, uh, between all the platforms talking about all the stuff we're talking about this morning is a great place to be anyway. um, leadership in the state of Alaska. That's where I wanted to go. So first of all, um, Do I even want to get into this? I guess I will. Dunleavy, the administration has now suing the federal government over the ANWR lease sale that's scheduled for Friday. I don't know if you saw this. The state on Monday.
filed in federal court to sue the Biden administration over restrictions on the gas sale lease at Area 1002 in Anwar. The ADN article goes through kind of the whole history of the thing, but the most interesting paragraph in the whole article about the suit against the Department of Interior. was this was this comment and i just again i want to go back to this leadership issue to the whole discussion we had yesterday about how the governor started off strong and then immediately
rolled over, went on himself and said, don't hurt me, daddy, and has just done the expected thing ever since. You know, and in some ways, I guess I'm being a little hard on Mike Dunleavy. He's a great guy. And maybe I shouldn't expect more. Maybe I shouldn't, you know, because, again, he did get slapped down hard with the recall and everything else. And there was total freakoutery going on. I understand that.
But that's the hard job, right? That's what you have to do sometimes. Somebody has to be the adult in the room to tell the teenager that I just can't buy you that Xbox because we don't have the money. Right? Somebody's got to be the adult. So maybe I'm being too hard on him, but I don't think so. Okay. So anyway, I mean, I like the guy. I just...
I'm disappointed in his stance. Let's just put it that way. But here's the statement. This is the one thing out of his whole, this is a big, long article from Alex DeMarban over at the ADN. It's a good read. You should go read it. It gives you a lot of details on it. But this is the, this is the, Alaska Governor Mike Denley, we said in a statement Tuesday that the lawsuit is important in part to help provide a source of future money for the Alaska Permanent Fund.
State needs more money. State needs more money. Uncle Sugar gotta get paid. That's the... Anyway... But again, continuing with our discussion on the lack of leadership, there was another announcement. James Brooks over at the Alaska Beacon has got this article up. I got to tell you.
I think it was Dermot Cole that also on his blog yesterday, I read a piece on his blog where he was talking about this same thing. And Brad Keithley was discussing this with us yesterday morning on the weekly top three. Remember. Remember how they said that the Gas Line Development Corp, AGDC, that they were going to close down by the end of the year. Remember that?
If they didn't have something substantive in place, if they didn't have, they were going to close down by the end of the year. And then crickets happen. And then what happens on Monday? Frank Richards, the head of the AGDC, got up and had a press conference in Anchorage with the governor and said that it is in secret. secret, super-secret, double-secret squirrel, indemnified negotiations with an energy company to lead and fund the project. Now, where have we heard that before?
Just cast your mind back for a minute. Think, think back. Oh, that's right. Governor Walker. Remember when Governor Walker was in secret negotiations? with a company to do a bunch of stuff that never happened or never transpired. And then later on he was in, remember it was going to be China was going to underwrite a bunch of stuff. Do you remember all that?
Does anybody remember? Anyway, AGDC is in secret squirrel negotiations with an energy company. He declined to share any details on the potential agreement, including the name of the state's partner. You're going to have to trust us on this. We didn't close down our office because we finally succeeded in the 11th hour when you weren't looking. We are now negotiating with a secret entity.
We promise this time it's really going to work. At the news conference, Frank Richards said, quote, I'm announcing that AGDC has reached an exclusive framework agreement. With a qualified energy company to privately lead and fund the development of the Alaska LNG project. Now, I don't want to seem too, I don't want to seem too reflexively bitter about this. I would love it if some private entity actually is going to stand up and develop an Alaska gas pipeline. I really, I would love that.
I would celebrate it. I would be excited about it. It's something that I've wanted for years, but I was also rational enough to realize that the economics were just not going to work out on it. But here it is. An exclusive framework agreement. I don't know exactly what that means, but it's an agreement to have an agreement, maybe.
He said, I expect a formal announcement of the definitive agreement in the next few months. Did they just extend the life of AGDC for another year? Is that what they just, you know? Dunleavy has been skeptical about the gas line, but in the article they're saying now he believes actual progress is being made. You know, we've been talking about a gas line in the state of Alaska.
for over, well, it's more than 50 years. In the article, they say 50 years, but I remember sitting in Jim Whitaker's office, Jim Whitaker, who is the former FNSB borough mayor, but was also involved in the Alaska Port Authority, the Fairbanks Port Authority, for years. He actually had a framed, behind his desk, he had a framed newspaper. It was a piece of newsprint. It was the front page of a newspaper.
And it said gas line, I think it said, if I remember correctly, it said gas line next year. And it was from 1958. That's how long they've been working. That's how long they've known that there's gas on the North Slope and how long they've been saying the gas line will be here next year. Dunleavy also said he intends to introduce legislation this year that will incentivize gas production in the Cook Inlet. Wait, didn't we just, again, let's cast back into the way past, and who did that again?
Oh, right. The tax credits, the billion dollar tax credits that we have. We finally had to stop because we were losing hundreds of millions of dollars paying for all this incentivization to the. Yeah. OK. So we're going to do that again? We're going to do... Oh. Anyway, Dunleavy went on to say...
That at least here's one bit of good news. He said one energy source alone will not be sufficient to meet the state's needs. He said hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar, coal and nuclear power are all options for the state. Thank God somebody actually mentioned nuclear.
He said, I have no doubt the large gas line will be disparaged and questioned. I questioned it for years, to be perfectly honest with you. But there's some real concrete steps going forward. And I think we're entering a phase of reality for this pipeline. I'm not disparaging the pipeline. I want a pipeline. But I am being realistic in the, is it even feasible economically? without some influx of money from the state or the Fed or somebody else, is it doable by a private entity?
Which should be the question that everybody's asking, because that's the only way to really make this work in the long run, is a private entity. I don't want the state, I don't want the state, no, I don't want the state owning it. I don't want the feds, you know, have you been to the DMV? Have you been to the post office? Is that what you want running a gas line? Right? Is that what you want?
No. Anyway, I guess we'll see where this goes. But yeah, I mean, oh, by the way, what they didn't mention in this article.
is that agdc also made an agreement with adia to pay 50 million dollars towards the pre-feed that's the front end development engineering and development and uh they didn't ask the legislature governor's gonna just stuff it into the supplemental budget they're gonna beg forgiveness rather than ask permission so there's another 50 million dollars we talked about that a little bit yesterday
But that's part of this whole deal here. He's got a framework agreement with a company, but apparently they wouldn't pony up the $50 million for the feed. The state's going to pay for that. Tell me how this framework agreement works again. Tell me how binding it is. Hour two is dead ahead. Mike Schauer is going to be joining us. The Michael Luke Show. Common Sense Radio. We've got a framework agreement. Okay. Okay. A framework agreement. What is that?
what does that mean um what what exactly does that mean um anyway a framework agreement All I can think of is, again, all I can think of is the whole Walker thing where, again, they had a secret squirrel agreement and all this other kind of stuff. legislators couldn't know what was going on and anyway it's one of those things um jeffrey haven't seen jeffrey in a while happy new year jeffrey he says my son bought his house with the quality of the school in mind
And I understand that people buy a house based on how close it is to the local school and everything else. But again. That's life, right? Things change. We have to understand that if there's not enough money or if the capacity is too low, sometimes you've got to consolidate. It may make your life more inconvenient, but it's not the end of the world.
I mean, if it's that big a deal, sell your house and move to another district, right? Or should we just keep a school open at half capacity? And, you know, I mean, I understand that there's a lot of... emotions that can be tied up into this. But in the end, it is what it is. All right, let me go over here. I got to get, get, get, get missed shower.
Uh, all right. Let me, let me get, let me get this all, excuse me while I whip this out here. Um, let me get this all squared away here. See if we can get Mike shower on the line here this morning. Hey, look at that. Worked first time. It's always good. It's always a good sign. Hello. Hello. How are you this morning? Hi. How are you?
Happy new year. Well, yeah. Welcome to my world. That's how we, that's how we roll around here. That's how we roll around here. Um, how were, uh, how was your new year? Oh, it was good. I was with family. So we were, uh. All together with kids and grandkids. That was great. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. It was relaxing, quiet, which was fine, actually. It was fine. Fine. Just fine. Wow. Convince me more.
Well, why don't you go get a cup of coffee for a minute and I'll be back to you here in just a second. Okay. And then we can be ready. I'll spend myself up. Yeah. Yeah. Would you spend yourself up? I mean, I know that I'm looking forward to the end of the show. Because at the end of the show today, there's a fresh BB's Bakery donut sitting out on the front counter with cream-filled chocolate stuffed whatever.
Uh, that I'm just, I can't, I can't wait. It's my occasional treat. And so I'm looking forward to the end of the show today already. You don't get that until the show's over. No, it's reward for doing the show. It's a reward for getting up early and doing the show. So there we go. All right. All right. I'll be right back to you. Go get some Java, my friend, and we'll do it. David says, Michael, see you tomorrow. David, let's shoot for our...
Melissa just said that she can come on tomorrow as well. So let me see. David, why don't you come on? Well, why don't you email me, David, and we'll work out. the six or seven o'clock hour tomorrow on the show, depending on where you're at and what's going on. So we'll do that. Okay. Two friends, no more, just two. Okay. Man, I am so far behind on the comments at this point. Just FYI, another shooting in Anchorage this morning. Every day now. Every day.
Did you just make that up? No. I'm scrolling through here. Wait, somebody actually reads what Dermot Cole writes, said Kevin. Well, somebody sent me the article, so that's why I read it. Usually I don't read Dermot Cole because I usually... vehemently disagree with him and i hate his snarky tone um um going through the thing and a bridge drill baby drill dig baby dig um Micro nukes, said Jeannie. Yeah, exactly.
Jennifer Johnson, millions of bogus gas off millions of dollars to bogus gas office since 1980. There has been. Yeah, you're exactly right. Millions of dollars have been poured into the various AGDC, the Gasline Corporation, the Fairbanks Port Authority. Millions of dollars. They've been trying to do this for years. Okay. Frank says, I don't understand why there's an emotional attachment to schools. I don't either, but maybe it's just me.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. Donuts from Jason's Donuts, said Chris. Oh, donuts from Jason's are also not bad. But if you're down here, BB's Bakery. If you're in Homer, BB's Bakery. It's a chocolate-filled, you know, whatever you call it. It's a chocolate shell. The thing must weigh a half a pound. They put a bunch of cream in it. Nothing worse than getting a cream-filled donut and it only has cream in like one corner of it, you know. So good. So good.
I can't wait. Try BB sausage gravy and biscuits. Best I've ever had, said Brill. I have, and it is delicious. They are good biscuits and gravy. Absolutely delicious. I had that three or four weeks ago. Okay, I do have my issues. Okay, good. I think I'm all caught up. Look at that. I'm all caught up.
I'm clipping your Dermot analysis. He blocked me for memeing him, said Joel. Joel said, I'm clipping your Dermot analysis. Go ahead and clip away, my friend. Clip away. All right, here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio. Put that thing back in its holster. We haven't gone anywhere. I don't understand. Check out themichaeldukesshow.com for information on how to get access to the podcast. Welcome to the party, pal.
The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. That was just BS. It is time to get a new perspective. We know just what you need and we've got just the cure. Open wide and prepare for steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world.
Live around the world on the Internet at MichaelDukeShow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. Good morning, my friends, and welcome back. To the Michael Duke show. It is just another beautiful hump day. Wednesday. Ready to do this. Get on the downhill slide to Firearms Friday. And as we normally do, we are ready to talk to State Senator Mike Schauer for what we lovingly call.
the Shower Hour of Power, where we get a chance to talk to Mike about woodticks, lunatics, and politics. I don't know if that's a thing, but that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Let's get in here and get him squared away with us this morning. State Senator Mike Schauer joins us on the phone. right now good morning senator how are you my friend how how how is how was the new year and everything else well a happy new year to you
Thank you. It was fine. Is that a little better? Yeah, I asked him during the break and he's like, it was fine. I'm like, is it fine, fine, just fine? Or I mean, is it like, wow, sell it to me, man. Give me some enthusiasm. yeah like when your wife you ask her is everything okay she goes fine you're like oh yeah no no exactly if my wife ever says i'm like how you doing fine i'm like oh god what did i do my well what happened help me now help me help me
Yeah. Um, no, not that kind of fight. It was fine. It was kids, grandkids at great time. We were just, it was relaxing. We're just enjoying time together. So yeah, it was cool. it was cool cool just cool nothing spectacular it was just a nice relaxing new year's yeah that was pretty yeah it was pretty cool It was good. All right. Well, we're glad to have you back for this beautiful Wednesday. The topic for today, my friend, has been, well, actually a topic for the last couple days.
has revolved around leadership and i want i want to give you your head so you can talk about the issues that you want to talk about but i want to start this first because again For those who don't know, Mike Schauer, military background, fighter pilot, Air Force. Colonel got the whole, you know, you're, you're part of that culture. You understand the importance of leadership, right? I mean, that's the leadership is critical to any organization.
And so the last couple of days we've been talking about leadership in the state. And let me just say this. The leadership in the state is lacking. And I mean leadership from a political leader standpoint. You know, from legislators, governor, but leadership from thought leaders like newsmakers, news takers, you know, journalists. There's there's just been no leadership because the one thing that we're all we're hearing about.
from the opinion pieces and the news articles and everything else is how we just need to spend more. We could fix the things in Alaska if we just spent more on fill in the blank, whatever the soup du jour is for the day. The problem is, is that nobody, although I will say Larry Persily mentioned it in one short sentence in his last opinion piece this week in the ADN, when he then went on to talk about, forget about the PFD and just spend it on government.
Nobody else is talking about the fact that we have a $1.56 billion deficit this year, that we're already talking about potentially a $200 million supplemental budget. For this last fiscal year. So that's one point seven five billion dollars. And that the 10 year forecast projects more of the same for the next 10 years. And my question to you is, Mike.
Because you and I talk about this occasionally. We've talked about this occasionally. Some other guests, some other politicians that I bring in, when I bring the topic up, they will talk about it.
But I don't see anybody out there that every time they get a mic stuffed in their face, every time they go on Facebook Live, every time they get up on the floor, every time they're quoted in the newspaper or have an interview, they're not starting off with, we have a fiscal crisis that needs to be addressed.
rest and we've got to acknowledge it otherwise it'll never be saved and we'll just crash into the wall what say you well michael you and i have been talking about this pretty much since i have been in the legislature We talk about it all the time. I have put in, cumulatively, somewhere north of $2 billion worth of reductions to state spending.
What has happened from that? Nothing. None of mine have ever made it past any of the legislative sessions on the floor. None of my amendments have ever passed for that. Not when I was in finance. Not when I put them in on the floor during the budget debates. There are a few that talk about it. You're right. I mean, Representative Carpenter was one that, you know, harped on the reality often. Him and I sat down.
many many hours discussing this very topic but you go back to you know my friend When you are one or two or a handful out of 60 or 61 or more to include the courts, you always seem to rule in favor of more government, bigger government.
You have a press that is generally complicit on the left side of the political spectrum that is, of course, more government, all about government, and spending that money. I've told you that I've had legislators come up to me and tell me, mike if you don't spend government money you don't have a constituency because what's one of the biggest blocks of voters that stick together tend to be public employees right because they lobby the very officials that work in government for more money
Like public, you know, the different public unions. And I've said that before. Public unions are very powerful in the state. Unions are very powerful in general. The public unions, public sector, I should say, unions, not private.
Because that to me is, again, I draw a line there. Private unions should be able to do whatever they want with their employees. Government shouldn't have much of a role with any of that, but public is very different. I don't know, Michael. I mean, that's the thing. This has been... a topic you and I in this program have harped on for years, and I'll say this is probably the biggest problem, is collectively as a state, because it's not one person, and I agree on the leadership side.
It's not one person. It's not a governor, lieutenant governor. It's not a Senate president, a House speaker, because individually, even a couple of those aren't really going to be able to do it. It has to be a more collective will. between many people that want to get this done. And so you take examples for, let's talk about Florida, right? Where you have a governor that has been, in some cases at least, reducing budgets and doing some good work.
But there is also a very red legislature behind that governor that has, you know, because the governor can't enact the law, right? He can push him. He can file him. He can do things. But if the legislature won't cooperate, it's not going to happen. Right. Well, Santa's has had a very strong legislature, a supermajority, in fact, in Florida.
that has backed him up and filed those bills and passed these things. They've worked together. That did not happen in Alaska. When's the last time that happened in Alaska? I don't know, maybe the 90s, 2000s? When we had kind of a, you know, a whole, I don't remember the exact year when there was a, you know, legislature that was, for example, just all Republican and Republican dominated Republican control where some of that might've happened, but let's just.
Let's just take that thought. And let me read something I got yesterday, because I think you'll find this fascinating with this very topic. Okay. How germane to this. How germane. How germane. Here's an observation. Germane Tito? That's right. That's right. So the operating budget increased from $3.475 billion in fiscal year 2006 to $12.2 billion in fiscal year 2025. This represents a growth of approximately 251% over that 19-year period.
Capital expenditures. The capital budget grew from $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2006 to $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2025. This increase of about 133% during that same 19-year period. Let's look at this, Michael, and talk about it. You know how many times I've had certain long-serving legislators sit up on the floor in the Senate and the House and say, well, the government hasn't increased spending at all. It's been flat.
In fact, if you include inflation, there really hasn't been an increase in the budget at all. You're really going to tell me that? You're going to tell me that that's what deflation has been in the private sector over the last 19 years? It's been 251%? Really?
That's your story? You're going to stick to that one? Here's my point, Michael. Those are numbers, right? Those are just facts. And the capital budget, I'm not going to spend much time on because you and I both know and your listeners are smart.
it goes up and down every year based on what's available and and the federal government and things so that's a different number but the operating budget is the one to pay attention to because the operating budget is the one that means people it means employees it means defined benefits it means obligations and liabilities for the government moving forward that our kids and grandkids are going to be stuck with because those are like all things they're they're hard to get rid of
if not impossible, it seems to get rid of. So when people tell us, oh, the government hasn't really increased spending, yes, it has. it is increased by 251%, you know, depending on what numbers you want to use. And they'll try to twist things and say, well, you know, for example, you just said it. Well, we have this $1.5 billion, $1.7 billion deficit. That's partly because the governor and his budget put in a full statutory PFT.
All right. So let's just link those two together, shall we? Because they never want to do that. Their contention is going to be, well, we're in deficit spending because you're supersizing the PFD. No, the governor is still following that law and putting it in. But if we have. a deficit because we're following the law on the PFD, then what they won't acknowledge but should be acknowledged, the reason that we're in that deficit spending is because the cost of government has gone up, so much so.
that we have had to take ever more of that permanent fund dividend to pay for that increasing cost of government. They're linked together, Michael. You just have to get people to acknowledge it. But like you said, Dermot Cole, ADN, the news reporters. Most all Democrats, apparently some Republicans, well, obviously some Republicans, and a slew of others, the unions that rely on that state funding, right, that government funding, they're not going to say it.
That destroys their own narrative, Michael, if they acknowledge that the cost of government has gone up dramatically, is continuing to go up. And if you add the federal government at 36 plus trillion now. not including the well over 100 trillion, I think it's 117 or 120 trillion of unfunded, you know, liabilities, obligations of the future. I mean, Michael, the numbers are staggering so much as we just kind of.
it's kind of like now you get to that point where you go, you're immune to it, right? You're like, oh, well, yeah, 120 trillion. Yeah, big deal. You know, it's like when it was like 10 billion, you go, okay, I can acknowledge that number. We can deal with it. But 100 trillion, you go, that's too big. I remember when I was in high school and the government was talking about...
you know, something, you know, billion dollar bills and how shocking that was a billion dollars. Oh my gosh. People were, they couldn't wrap, you know, and of course now a billion is chump change, right? I mean, a billion today is like, you know, it's chump change. Oh, $2 billion. You know, they $6 billion was siphoned off in fraud during the, or 60 billion, I guess, in fraud during the COVID thing. Oh, that's, you know, we'll get to that one day. 60 billion.
And now, like you said, a trillion here, a trillion there. It's all, the numbers don't even mean anything to anybody anymore. No. And then how much of that? Because it's all being put on the credit card, right? That was maxed a long time ago. And we just go back and keep increasing the limit on our credit card.
put it in terms that we understand that we as regular citizens have to deal with you have a house expenditure you got a house mortgage or you know a rental place that you're living you have an electric bill you've got a gas bill you've got maintenance costs in your car you've got food you know all these different things and you have a credit card right if you are exceeding the cost that you can afford to live on because here's
what you put out every month for expenditures and here's what you make. And then you have a $20,000 credit card and you've maxed that sucker. And then you go, man, I need 25. So they, they increase it at 25. They're happy to do that because they're going to put you on the hook and they're going to charge interest and they're going to, they're going to hammer you. Yeah.
more than happy to increase that limit on you. And you keep doing that and keep doing that. That means you are getting to the point, Michael, you are way beyond your ability to pay your bills. And somewhere down the road, there's going to be a reckoning for you as a citizen. You're either going to lose your car.
lose your house. You're going to get kicked out of your apartment. You're not going to be able to pay. The bills are going to turn off your power. That's what happens to us as people, as citizens, but not the government, because the government, my friend, is too big to fail.
Right. That's dogs coming in and going, you know what? Rip the bandaid off. You and I have said that on the program for years there. Rip the bandaid off. Just do it. Yeah. Look at it and go, we are spending more than we have. Just cap it. Yeah. Cut it off at the.
and let it bleed out. Because if you don't do that, you're going to do what we're doing right now. We're going to keep leveraging the future on our kids' and grandkids' shoulders until there will be a reckoning. Well, we're making it worse. That's the worst. That's the problem.
The inevitable crash will be worse because we've expended all these resources up to that point. We'll talk about that when we get back. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Bay's Free Thinking Radio. Running on 100% pure beard power. Oh, also some coffee. We dip our beard in coffee. Ha, nice beard. The Michael Duke Show.
Okay, in the break right now, State Senator Mike Schauer. Sorry, Mike, I didn't mean to run over you there, but we were getting late. No, it's fine. I'm used to it. Yeah. We were just talking about this yesterday. I mean, I was reckoning. You remember when, what was it? Was it 10 years ago that Greece had an economic meltdown?
And they basically the country went bankrupt and the, you know, they have the EU basically put its foot down and said, we're not bailing you out anymore. And they had all those austerity. And remember, the people were like rioting and protesting the austerity. And I'm like. Where do you think the money comes? This is what has to happen. I know it's upsetting that you've been getting X, Y, or Z, whatever it was that you were getting, and now you're not going to get it.
But austerity, it's not because somebody didn't want you to have it. It's because there's no more. I mean, at some point we have to face a fiscal reality. And I think that my fear here is, is that the legislature. has gotten so good at kicking the can down the road that all these people feel like...
You know, we're playing musical chairs and they won't be here when the music stops. They'll be they'll have moved on, gone, retired, moved to Hawaii or wherever else, you know, doing whatever. They won't be there when the music stops and everybody's scrambling for a chair. It doesn't matter to them. And that's scary. That's really scary. But that, Michael, is exactly where we're headed. Again.
You and I are like the clarion call, right? We've been harping on this, screaming from the mountaintops for some time. And it's almost like, oh, Chicken Little, you know, it's never going to happen. I'm like, no, it's going to happen.
It's just a matter of when it's going to happen. It's just we're accelerating it. But I go back to what I read to you a couple minutes ago. We have absolutely increased government spending. And it's like we're increasing the rate of spending inside the government. And when you add to that, they go.
what have we done to get here the easy low-hanging fruit has always been the dividend and the courts the judicial system the judges have allowed us to now basically break the law and do whatever we want consistently multiple times whether it's a single subject rule whether it's um initiatives that are allowed to have 26 separate topics in them with dark money from outside the state by the kindles and the others and the
the left-wing groups, Arabella advisors dumping money in the state, whatever it is, they've allowed it to happen. And so we've taken that low-hanging fruit. And that's been one of the biggest arguments I've had against touching the dividend was that when you couldn't touch it. it was money that one went to the private sector that was a boost that helps the middle class the poor all that stuff helps the private sector but it kept our hands out of that cookie jar
Once they took the lid off that cookie jar, we have continued to take more and more cookies and soon there will be none left. And when they look at it now, like I said, we're on that trajectory. They want to put in a divine benefit plan.
And take us back to that and spend more money. They want to spend even more on education. They're going to keep going, Michael, until the size of government has grown and taken every penny of the current income it has available to it. And we're going to hit that limit. When we hit that limit, because it's the operating budget, because it's people and contracts and unions and things we can't just get rid of, what will happen next is they're going to then go, now we have to tax.
And my question has been consistently, we've said it for years on this program and everywhere else, is who are you going to tax? Alaska has a tiny, small, anemic private sector. with very few people working in it so you're not going to get much money there you can try to soak the tourist if you will maybe in the summertime with a sales tax but best you're going to do on that
And you can go after the few businesses we have up here, mostly resource development, and look at them and go, there goes Alaska again. Why do you want to develop that place? Why do you want to do business there? They're just going to come after you and take your profits and make it not worth it. you know the point is is we're going to spend everything we have in this legislative body it doesn't matter who it is you keep people keep saying well let's just keep voting them out that's great
We've changed out about three quarters of the legislature in the last 10, 12 years. We're still doing the same thing. It hasn't changed. And so I don't know what else to say, Michael, other than until we hit that brick wall, I don't know that there will be a reckoning.
I don't see a dodge happening in Alaska where you got an Elon and Yvette coming in and they're going to clean house and the legislature is going to work with them. I mean, that's not even you're already in the resistance of the federal government. So I don't know. Maybe that is the answer, Michael. Just let it happen. Run the car right into the brick wall at full speed. And, and then we'll, we'll have to go. Gotta go. Gotta go. Gotta go.
Public enema number one. Oh, wait, sorry. Enemy. Public enemy number one, which makes more sense. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a pain in the Michael Duke show. We're continuing now. State Senator Mike Schauer is our guest. We're talking about leadership. We're talking about what's going on in the state. A lot of good points made by Mike here in the last segment. But I want to go back, Mike, to where you started with your response, which was, you have been talking about it.
Ben Carpenter was talking about. I know Kevin McCabe has talked about it. I know that, you know, I can name a handful of legislators who've talked about it either all the time or part of the time. The problem is, is that the movers and shakers, the people who have the reins of control, are not talking about it. So as leaders in a small group who don't have...
leadership positions who don't, you know, who don't have the bully pulpit, who don't, how do we fix this? I mean, first of all, I will say this before, and I apologize, but let me, before I get you to answer that, let me just say this. I think the governor. failed in his leadership in producing a budget that had a yes he included the reason we have a deficit is that he included a full pfd okay
Great. That's part of the reason why we have a deficit, but it is the law. So kudos for him for that. But then he didn't balance it by cutting other parts of the budget, which to me would have been the position of a leader. If you're going to propose a budget that follows the law, then you have to balance it. You have to provide it with, you have to, that's where the leadership, the legislature can ignore it.
That's totally their purview. But you, as the guy who's supposedly the captain of the ship, with 60 people each with an oar pulling in different directions, you at least should be pointing the boat in the right direction. I'll let you answer now. Well, I think that is correct. I mean, that's what a leader does, right? Even in tough times, even in fact, maybe that is the most important time.
for strong leadership is when times are tough, right? Because if times are well and there's prosperity, leadership is not so important because everybody's happy, there's lots of money, the economy's booming, people are all as well, and it's not that big.
big of a deal right you can have a uh what we used to call melba toast right kind of milk toast leadership whatever when things are well you don't really need it but when things are bad that is when you need a churchill right i mean because if you have a neville chamberlain during world war ii you're in big trouble pal um dealing with the you know with germany and the axis powers etc and you're the only lone power standing you know uh at the gates but
Leadership matters more when things are tough, when things are not going well, because that's who's going to steer the ship through the troubled waters. Right. So. You're not wrong. And that leadership is more important when we are in troubled times than we are in troubled times. And I can't speak for the governor because I know that.
it it always you know you you often get asked questions and i know we're kind of just we're basically chewing our way through this problem here as we're talking about it but you know the governor did do that 2019 his first budget did that it it took big chunks and tried to cut it and then he got just crushed for that and the recall and i'm not gonna say you know why the governor is put the budget out of the way he did i haven't talked to him i don't know
He might have his reasons, and I will ask him when we get a chance to sit down and talk over this session. But, you know, after that first one, he hasn't really done that again. And, you know, maybe he just doesn't want to have that fight. Maybe he's, I don't know, maybe his plan is to accelerate it, hit the wall, you know, let it happen. I don't know what it is. I agree with you that, and I'm not the governor.
My goal would be to have a balanced budget and still have, you know, follow the law, no matter what it is, just put it out there. And the reason I would do that is because that is what you would need to see happen every time. to drive the narrative, to steer the ship. And if the legislature decides to come back and add hundreds of billions of dollars, right, or hundreds of millions of dollars, I should say, that's federal government, right? I skipped that one real quick.
But if you're going to add hundreds of millions or even a few billion to it and you're not going to follow the law, well, I would just continue to point that out because that's the narrative. That's the bully pulpit. You talked about that, Mike. Sometimes that's the best you can do. If the legislature does what it does, well, then, you know, you're one last counter to that. As the governor, as you come in, you line out of veto.
And you keep it as low as you possibly can. And then you have that one last battle, right? Because people always get just veto. That's great. Until legislation comes in and overrides your vetoes. And then it is what it is. that's the the form of government we have and you have people often on here right how many times have we talked on the program well just do this i'm like that sounds great except that's not the system of government we have
It's you're not a dictator as the governor. You're not a dictator as the Senate president or the House Speaker. We still have a procedure. We still have rules and regulations that we live under. Right. um and hopefully following the law we know that that doesn't necessarily happen in alaska we've seen it well we we talked about that in the last segment right with the judiciary and how they've allowed us to blow off things and not follow those those laws right but
That being said, you still should strive to do that because that's what a leader, that's what somebody in elected position should do, should be following the law. So, yes. I agree. That's how I would try to do it if I was in that position, because you have the bully pulpit and you fight that battle. But at the end of the day, you may not win.
all of those battles you may not know any of well no and i understand that yeah i mean look i'm not saying that he should have done it and if he did it it would solve all the problems i'm saying i'm just i'm just saying i agree with you though on the leadership side that's the bully pulpit to use it
And you swing where you can. I have a chance to make those same arguments, right? I make them on the floor. I put in amendments. I do my best. I talk on social media and on the radio with you and others and trying to make that point.
do my best in the position I have, which is very limited, obviously, in what power you have. And people are like, well, if you're a Senate president, no, not really. You can affect a few things, but you still have a majority, right? You can get rolled all the time. I've watched the Senate president get rolled.
before the committee chairs get rolled i mean it happens so the point is yes you use the tools you have available to you you do your best you're not always going to win those battles but you can still try to drive the narrative and the governorship is a very powerful one right because you do have the microphone you have people in front of you the press will generally respond and report um you know so you can get you know a bigger slice if you will bigger words out right um so that it does matter
I think in that sense. But I guess I go back to, I don't know, you know, what we're ultimately going to do to fix this other than perhaps, you know, hit the accelerator and run this thing into the wall.
um because unlike the federal government we can't just print money here that's one of the things that has gotten us in trouble right we've been the world's reserve currency we've been able to print money we've been able to basically just accelerate way past that credit card we ever should have been able to do and other countries like Greece ran into that brick wall
And they couldn't just print money and force everybody to deal with their currency and make it happen. And unfortunately, the United States has been in a position for too long where we've been able to do that. And that's allowed us to spend our way into oblivion. So I don't know when that brick wall comes and when we hit it. Maybe the brick nations and the push away from the dollar and off the gold standard.
There's a lot of things at play here. We could spend hours on this program talking about those different things at play, but they are in play right now. And other countries are tired of watching us be able to have false prosperity with a fiat currency and pump it up.
Well, they weren't able to do that. And countries like China and Russia and India and others are getting tired. They're tired of that. So that's why you see this push away from it. So, you know, and one last point, we said it a few weeks ago when we talked last is like, what's the most important thing, right?
Wink, wink. Because remember, I've asked you pejoratively on this program, well, what do you want me to do? Not you, but others. Well, they say, well, just do this, Mike. Do you want me to storm the gates with a rifle in my hand? How's that going to work out, right? To get your way.
to do that one most important thing because to everybody here they have that one most important thing whatever it is carbon credits abortion the pfd judicial reform election what's the one most important thing mike because to everybody here there's one most important thing and if you don't do that thing where you're just a terrible person How many most important things can you handle as a governor, as a legislator?
You pick and choose your battles because we can't solve them all. But everybody gets angry if you don't do that one thing is the most important thing. Well, let me offer a counterpoint to that. All roads. in your scenario there, all roads lead back to money and revenue. So whatever their pet project is, whatever their one thing is, is all going to lead back to, do we have the money to do it? And so my argument would be that is the most important that the primacy here should be on.
What are we doing with our money? Because all your projects that you ever, all you different guys are talking about and gals are talking about, those are all great, but how do we pay for it? So as far as the number one issue. that even is more important than your number one issue is the money and if we don't get a handle on it
We were talking right before the break. Like you said, the worst part is that the further we go, the further we kick this can down the road, the worse the crash is going to be at the other end. Because we will have expended so many resources to try and keep convincing people that the emperor is wearing clothes that we will have consumed all the resources we could use to rebuild if it just, like, crashed today. Right?
no mike i agree with that i'd rather crash the car now let's just run it right off the road into the tree because now we still have some ability to recover and rebuild and and make it stronger make it better right for our kids and our grandkids but The problem is, as we have said, if you take it to the very end and you crash, then you really have none of that left. Rebuilding becomes harder, tougher, more dangerous.
crashing the car early and running the ship into the you know into the iceberg early is the preferred method in my opinion i'd rather crash it right now rip the band-aid off let it bleed and let's figure out the way forward because we will We will find ways to have austerity measures. People will find new jobs. The economy will recover. It will take the appropriate path that it needs to. It's funny how it seems to just naturally heal itself, right? If you let it go.
if you don't have central planning and false fiat currency and false policies that continue that path of destruction economically, right? So letting the economy, the capital structure, the free market handle itself, it will. it will naturally go where it needs to it's like electric cars right you push them out there and you um basically use government money to keep it going subsidize it then you can have a false market for that
But without that government subsidy, somebody else's taxpayer dollars, they will fail. And that's where you're seeing the pullback now because the market is not naturally going in that direction because the people, the consumer.
The economy sees that and goes, you know, it's like a mind of its own, right? It has a mind. It goes, no, we're not ready for that. It's not the right thing. It's not a money-making venture. It's not economically viable. We're not going to do it. If you turned it loose without central planning.
i agree with you i would rather crash it early and see where we go but the problem is like said is that we want to keep propping up um that currency we want to keep propping up government we want to keep saying no no no we just we keep spending money we'll be fine we've got money to spend let's spend it as opposed to saving it or ripping it off and they're going to go back to mike i'm telling you that's why i keep linking it
keep linking it together in the discussion is you can't get away from the permanent fund dividend because the problem is, is that we have used that as the cookie jar and we are.
getting towards the bottom of the cookie jar. And frankly, as I have said, while I am pleased that Trump was elected because I see a pro-capitalist, pro-economic... pro-america administration which would also be pro-alaska for resource development the problem is is that you're going to see if they are successful with dodge you're going to see a reduction in federal money
which is going to hurt alaska because we take much more money from the federal government than we give it so that's going to impact us and um you're going to see i think fracking and other things take off with energy um independence in the united states once again which means the price of what was going to go down right right which means a lot hammered there so alaska my friend may be seeing austerity measures sooner rather than later which is back to our
philosophical point here right maybe we will crash the ship sooner rather than later and force us to fix it because that's that's kind of where with the federal government changes i see is actually probably going to accelerate that problem for us i'm okay with that my friend
I'd rather deal with it now rather than later. So maybe it's OK. Maybe that's the answer. All right. We got to continue here. State Senator Mike Showers, our guest in the next segment. I'm going to let him pick the topic for segment three. And we'll see where we go from here. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Back with more right after this.
We're broadcasting live through a series of tubes. Allowing all of these entities to provide streaming stuff going on the internet. Well, it's kind of hard to explain. Sorry. Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay, we're continuing here in the break. State Senator Mike Schauer is our guest.
I think somebody said that Harold had been replaced with chat GPT this morning, and I think they might be right because he's obviously not really listening to the questions that are being asked. How do we fix the economy, Mike? I know that's a broad question, but in the state of Alaska, what would be your fix as an airline pilot or as an airplane pilot? How would you?
In your mind, what would fix the economy in the state of Alaska? What would get the private economy going and bring us back on track? First point. You notice how I always avoid saying anything regarding airplane crashes with the economy. Do you ever notice that? Yeah. I talk about running the ship in the iceberg. I never ever mentioned crashing the airplane. Right. That's bad. Yeah. Bad mojo. We don't go there. Yeah. Just saying.
So, it is a broad question, Michael, but I still think that an important part of the economy, the economic landscape, if you will, is that when governments do what we are doing both in this and other states in alaska and others and the federal government you know overall when those governments make an unstable business environment when they are hard to measure how they're going to policy and regulation and law-wise regulate and affect the private sector economy.
It is very difficult to have a good booming economy, especially in one as dependent as we are upon federal government money and resource development that can be just turned off or on at a whim, right?
executive orders from biden shut us down 70 of them um or turned back on by trump what happens four years from now i don't know turned off again if it's another democrat so economic um and I don't want to say policies, but economic impacts by the government and its inability to get its act together, to prove to people that we can live within our means, that we're not going to...
Increased spending beyond what we have available, that we're going to be stable and sustainable matters because businesses look at that and go. Should we invest in Alaska? Should we dig? Should we drill? Should we build? If the answer is we don't know that Alaska is a good business environment, it's going to be very hard to have a booming, stable economy because.
The private sector is going to go not going to put money there. We're going to go take it somewhere else where we can make more money and have a stable environment. Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Idaho. Name the states that are doing well, that are booming because the businesses are going, nope, that's where to make money.
And, you know, businesses are not a charity, Mike. They're here to make money. And the federal government can be charitable with their money, right? Because it's not their money. They're writing checks with other people's money. It's easy to be charitable when it's not your money. So I hesitate to say the government has a fix. What does the government do? What the government really should do is to get the heck out of the way and become stable, live within our means.
Stay in our lane of creating budgets that provide the essential services that are needed, but also live within our means and not exceed those means. And then show everybody. that we are going to be stable and sustainable moving forward we're going to be good business partners and i think maybe above everything else we could do if that's all we did i think you would see more investment in the state i think the private sector could grow
with a federal government that was pro-resource development pro-alaska and a state of alaska itself that would live within its means if we would just do those things i think you would see a private sector that could boom and grow it was four years ago
before the malaise of the Biden-Harris administration. And it's not just that administration, but that's my point. It's almost more philosophical. Really, Mike, when you say, what can the government do? It's almost more what the government shouldn't do or what it should show. how it's going to operate.
so that people can have the sense of stability and the sense of calm that, yeah, we can invest, we can grow, we can build because the government's not going to come after us. They're not going to change their mind. They're not going to spend more money and need more taxes from us. We don't know what Alaska is going to do. Isn't that the thing? How many times have we said that in this program? Why would you invest here? Because you never know what the state's going to do.
Oh, they're going to come after us for taxes next year because they spent more than they have. Oh, they're going to have defined benefits back. Oh, they're going to increase education spending to be the most expensive in the nation. And what does a business owner do? Yeah, they're going to be coming after me again. Why would I do more here?
That's my point, Michael. It's more of a philosophical what the government shouldn't be doing or how it should be living inside of its means and creating that stability. That may be the biggest answer to me because. Passing a law, a stable budget, that's a part of it, but it's more what do people sense the government's going to do?
or not do right to me right well i mean i think the biggest thing is that if the government was living within its means it would mean more money in the private economy It would mean more, you know, more ability to invest because what we've got right now is we've got malinvestment because the government is trying to do everything instead of letting the private sector fill. Like you said, get out of the way. I think you're right. That's one of the most important things.
All right, five seconds. Here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell, do all that stuff. Here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Seriously humorous with a pinch of intellect. Pinch of intellect. Sorry. That is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes.
Yes, sir. We are continuing. State Senator Mike Schauer is our guest. The Schauer Hour of Power, which somebody pointed out to me, the acronym is SHOP. So we're going to go shop. We're going to shop today. He's a shopping fool. Senator Mike Schauer, I said I would give you the final segment to talk about any topic that you wanted to hit on.
Uh, so, uh, the floor is yours, my friend. Uh, what, what, what else is on your mind today? Or do you want to continue on your, your, you, you, you drive the bus here. Well, I think it's, you know, one of the things I've been paying attention to over the last few weeks, really since the election, is I am really focusing.
outside, if I go outside the stakes, we've been talking about that for the two-thirds of the program, is what else is going on that's going to impact us. Well, you have the federal government, right, with a Trump administration that's going to be very, I think, pro-resource development for us, so big for Alaska. But, and that's long term, right? Not short term. We're going to get hammered short term. We're going to, Alaska is going to be struggling. I just, I can.
You can feel it. You can see how this is going to go. Not because of anything negative the Trump administration is going to do, but like I said, the price of oil and other things are going to impact us. Dodge is going to impact us, et cetera. That has to happen. But I look more broadly, I see when you look at things that are happening now, I don't want to circle or spend too much time on Islam, but Islam is still out there. It's like we've forgotten for a while.
that islam exists that it is an existential threat to this nation and to the west and to freedom in general because of its it's political because it's not a religion they always say that right but it's not it's a political you know um system uh that you know has religion woven through it but around the world they're on the march again and we're seeing the rise of these attacks and you're seeing isis
you know and others that are still out there al-qaeda affiliates etc that are back and and doing things so when you have a very strong country or strong leadership like trump you're going to see i think more of that we're already seeing it we've seen a couple army guys lately some weird stuff about that cyber truck in in las vegas tied with a guy down in new orleans i think you're going to see the rise of
um some of that rioting etc again because you can already see that that rumble of the democrats saying you know get in people's faces you know they always say that oh the right are the violent ones now it's the left you know i know that the right doesn't do these things the right doesn't burn cities to the ground right the right doesn't drive trucks uh into um you know crowds that they don't blow stuff up it's not it's
That's what we've seen out of the left over the four years of the Trump administration previously, right across the country, BLM, Antifa and others. So I think we just need to be aware. that we're probably going to see more of that again because that's what the left does it stirs up trouble it's not you can't i guess that's what i'm trying to say here michael is we don't want to forget that you know it's not just about alaska
It's not just our budget and the battle over the PFD and the things we're dealing with here, because everything outside of us still affects us. What happens with the federal government? What happens to the rest of our country? What happens to our allies? What China does? What Russia is doing?
the war in Ukraine, the money we're spending. I mean, all of these things are linked together because this world is too small. And so as I often do on the program with you and the listeners is, you know, continue to make sure that we are discussing things that may affect us. Not that. You know, you don't want to run to your bunker, you know, and it's not meant to be gloom and doom. It's meant to be be aware. Right.
it's that thing we talked about you know if we were to go to firearms friday what's your state of awareness you know if you live in you know and there's different color metrics out there for it like um you know you can go what white is you're just a sheep you're clueless you're walking to your your car is as a lady and you're looking in your purse you know while the van with no windows is parked beside your car probably not a good idea right you're clearly don't don't live that way
uh what the law enforcement will talk about is yellow right living in a state of what they call professional paranoia you're aware of what's going on around you and you know that something could happen so you're always prepared but you got to keep your heart rate low
if you go into red that's like battle right somebody's attacking you black is like it's so bad you shut down right you're back in combat right so my point is we need to live in that state of of professional paranoia it means that we are just aware of what's going on around us but when i say that i'm talking today right now this last segment is what else is going on
What's happening with Islam around the world? Watch that march. Watch what's happening in Europe right now, my friend. They are in big, big trouble. Look at the rape gangs. If it wasn't for Elon Musk and buying X and highlighting these things, all these things would still be hidden. Epstein, the island.
the list what's going on down in south america look at what's happening with that one president down there and the things he's doing that are just absolutely kicking it right now and changing that i mean just turning things upside down but in a positive way so
a lot of these things are very linked to us and what happens and so we should be aware of that right it's like we talked about i think one of our last things before we went on the holiday break um over the last couple weeks was you know looking at a gas line
I still think the gas line is a project that is needed for us, both internal use, but what it does as far as a stability issue, right? To me, the gas line... would be spending money that is not going to pencil out yet because it's a strategic thing right it's like building the port of pearl harbor because the war may come
And you can see it on the horizon. Everybody goes, well, why are you spending the money now? It's not happening right now. I go, no, I know. I know it's not. But the problem is you can't just turn it on tomorrow. It's like building F-22s, right? Oh, we need more F-22s. Well, if you're going to do that, you better start it 10 years ago because you can't turn. that on overnight it's going to take you 10 years to get it spun off well let me interrupt you there they say so are you suggesting that
The gas pipeline, the LNG, an Alaskan LNG line would be a strategic asset. And it's something that the government, federal or state should just build. And then is that is that the suggestion here? Well, we talked about that, right? So I don't want to spend too much time because that will crush the last few minutes of the program. But my point of that is that I don't generally, and you know this because we've said it for many years, is go build a bridge to nowhere. I'm not going to agree to that.
Just like I'm never going to agree to a new tax ever until I see the government live within its means with a spending cap and other provisions that make it balanced, right? Long term, in the law, not just policy, in the law. if you want to discuss building a gas line because you mentioned it towards the beginning of the program if you're going to discuss building it then the federal government and the state government may have to step up and provide some incentive whether that be some money
or other incentives to make it a viable project for now and i'm acknowledging which i've said because we have to acknowledge reality it doesn't pencil out economically no no company or companies are going to come in which we've seen for years now right it doesn't pencil out We're not going to come spend $40 billion to do that. We're not going to get money back. I agree. But if we believe and look at it and go, that is a strategic asset that we are going to need in five or 10 or 15 years.
then we better start building it. And the only way I see of that happening right now is for the federal and state government to cough up some money and other incentives to then get private sector partners to come in to go, okay, now we're willing to do that.
Because we're not just going to take the big hit. And sometimes, Michael, like I said, why are we building aircraft carriers? Those are just taking money, partner. They're expensive. So are submarines and F-22s and nuclear missiles. We're building that. because strategically as a nation we go that's something we're going to spend money on that doesn't pencil out the military never pencils out my friend until you go to war
Right. Or you could say in one sense, it pencils out because it keeps you from going to war because you're so strong. Nobody wants to fight you. So what I'm saying is, is I'm kind of applying that philosophical bend to a gas.
right it's like i look at that as a strategic asset of something that it doesn't really pencil out right now okay but it's probably something we need to figure out how to build because it's going to at some point but that provides us is going to be important all right we're down to two minutes here so i'll let you sum it here for the last two minutes shoot i don't know michael i mean now we're going to have to switch gears as we get into the legislative session what bills are being filed
you know how does the house the senate finally flesh out what does it look like um parsing through the governor's budgets so yeah we're gonna have plenty to talk about right i mean so yeah it's a little different dynamics in the senate i mean they still got all the votes they need to pass whatever they want
It's not really going to matter, but the dynamics are changing and pressures on some of the Republicans because it's not just three that shoved to the side anymore. So it's changing. We'll see. But I still predict that this session is going to be pretty. If you're a conservative, if you're a Republican that's not very left of center, you're probably not going to be real happy about most of what you're going to see out of legislative sessions.
Most likely. It'll be a little frustrating. It's going to be a little bit of an exercise in frustration, I imagine, for those of us who want a government that lives within their means. Because all we're hearing about right now is how... If we want the state to be successful, we need to spend more, right? That's what we're hearing right now from pretty much everybody who's got the pulpit. Yeah, well, you know, Michael, we have more voice this time, so we'll do our best to jump up and down.
work with the governor and hopefully hold the line on any bad stuff like bad election bills or whatever coming out and we'll put in the amendments to reduce spending. We'll put in bills to try. work with the governor and the much stronger minority in the house because they've got numbers right um so we'll see um but you know i
I don't predict anything fantastic because it's controlled by Democrats. And Democrats are anti-resource development and big government, big spenders. So that's the direction it's going to go. It just is what it is. It is what it is.
all i can hear is brace yourself gertrude here it comes um this is this is what we're looking for here in the upcoming session uh you with us next week mike yeah yeah i should be around okay no problems okay we'll chit chat all right we'll chit chat next week maybe i'll get let him have the whole topics for the show instead of driving the bus talk shop again we'll talk shop oh see i like that talk shop there you go
The shower hour of power. Out of time, folks. We'll see you Monday. Be kind. Love one another. Live well. All right, Mike. One final bite at the apple just in case there was something we didn't get to. Want to give you a chance real quick here before I got to go. There is nothing you and I can talk about in 90 seconds or less on this program. Unless it's bacon where we just eat bacon. I know.
I always smile when you say, let me just give you a brief answer. And I'm like, uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, I don't do soundbites because I hate them. Yeah. Because that's just very political.
and everything almost everything we discussed there is so much behind it there are so many things michael we could we could as we have we could pick one topic and spend the entire hour talking about it and we're still probably not going to get to the real depth that would be needed to really start talking about truly what the foundational issues are and what you might do to solve them maybe we could throw some stuff out but and we cover a lot of things i just it's it's hard to do that
and really do it justice right it's like looking at a picture and you go oh it's beautiful it was the most amazing thing look at this picture and you look at the phone and the picture on the phone yeah that looks cool it doesn't do it justice because unless you see it yourself and really go to that level of every pixel in your mind of what it is it's hard to
truly get to that depth that we need to so i mean i know i'm just making fun of your comment of like yeah a brief answer i i can't yeah i'm not going to do that that sells it short my friend i got it you know yeah i got it i know that i know that is the exact answer what you just said we were well it's one of the reasons
Yeah, it's one of the reasons why I do long form and I don't do short form because, you know, these issues are more complex than a soundbite. And that's that's what we need. All right, Mike, thanks for coming in. I appreciate you being part of it today. We'll see you next week. OK.
All right, man. You guys be good. See you. All right. See you later. All right, folks, we're out of time. I got to go. We're going to take off here. We got a conference call to get to. So we're going to bail out right now. Be kind, love one another, live well. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense Radio. Radio Skin. And now we are slimy lizard internet people. It's the Michael Duke show.