The Rod and Greg Show: Update on SAVE Act from Senator Lee; Should Trump Cap Credit Card Interest?

It's almost a daily occurrence, but they're backtracking again today on two issues, talking with Iran and ICE and TSA. Yeah, I mean, both of which they said would be a colossal failure or wasn't true. Come to find out they are. I just think they're like, I just think they just walk backtrack. Do they ever, do they ever track forward to not have to come backwards? I mean, everything that they say, you know, we could, it's not hyperbole to say it's propaganda, but honestly, I think the big news is when they admit that they just, well, I mean, lied. And even in the face of truth, they are very reluctant to ever admit they were saying the opposite. But I think now. uh you know while they were saying that they believed the whole network believed iran over president trump they were they were team iran yesterday yeah trump hasn't spoken to them iran has told us and we can trust iran that they have not had any have been engaged in any discussions with the administration or president trump while president trump was saying that they were inactive discussions or talks well and it looks like that now iran comes out and says guess what we've been talking cnn probably feels a little foolish. And Trump said in the White House today, he thinks he's now talking to the right people. in Iran. You don't know who they are. I mean, who's leading that country right now? It was actually an interesting dilemma, isn't it? They've taken out so much of the leadership. Who is in charge? Yeah, who is in charge? And Trump now said today that he feels like they're finally talking to the right people. He's got Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, involved in, I guess, backdoor diplomacy going on right now, not sure what it is. Apparently, the word is... that the administration has presented a 15-point peace plan to the Iranians to consider. I've read it. I've actually read that. And what do you think? I mean. Well, it's very thorough. And the immediate reaction, because that came out a little while ago, when I say a little while ago, I think late last week. Yeah. The first blush reaction from Iran was no. on any of them they were they were a no no on 15 points all 15 it was no thank you yeah so what what's being announced today that they've agreed i don't know that it's all 15 but i think it is at least the issues surrounding uh nuclear uh capabilities and giving up a nuclear uh weapons is what they say they found agreement on but let me ask you this Do you trust them? No. I mean, I don't think they've ever... Not in the least bit. Have they ever even... Have they ever said they were pursuing nuclear weapons? I mean, when have... I just think the tell with this regime is when you see their lips move, you know it's a lie. Yeah. So I don't know who they're talking to where they're feeling comfort or they feel like a deal can be made that they can trust. But, I mean, all you have to do is go back to February and the February where they're saying, we have no long-range missiles. Long-range missiles, we hate those. We don't want to any do with them.

And then, you know, they just, last week, over the weekend, they threw, you know, two 4,000-kilometer long-range missiles towards an island, Diego Garcia. which completely, you know, contradicted every word they've ever said about the range of their ballistic missiles and missile system. Yeah, yeah. You can't trust him. You know, I don't know who the president is working with, who the administration is working with, but hopefully in the coming days we'll find out maybe put an end to this conflict and get moving with things because I think it is impacting a lot of Americans, especially when it comes to the gas prices. And I think, I'm not sure when the American people will reach that point, Greg. where they say, I just can't afford to drive that much anymore. I'm going to have to cut back on my driving. I don't know when that's going to happen. But, you know, you're paying, like I said, yesterday I paid $419 a gallon. You know, if it starts knocking on the door of $5 a gallon, that's where a lot of people are going to be a little worried. It's not enough to get me to turn on the president in terms of not Supreme Way does because this is the guy that I don't see as a neocon. I know he hates forever wars. This is a very reluctant. uh commander in chief to engage and you've seen him even in his first term war in north korea about kind of antics that kim was playing and what they would do and that was enough to get them to settle down didn't happen with iran but i i think that if you could trade i mean let's face it the bide administration they had us at five dollar a gallon gas just because they wanted us to get rid of our gas power gasoline powered automobiles This is an engagement against Iran that if it puts that regime back 40 years in terms of their capabilities and their missiles, their nukes, and their terrorism, you go back four decades. I am willing, the gas price isn't the deal killer for me if that's what you're getting for it. Yeah, yeah. Versus Biden who just wanted you to sell your gas car and buy an electric. Well, we were talking a minute ago about trusting the Iranians. I want you to listen to this clip. Barack Obama's former CIA director, John Brennan, right? Who basically was on MSN now. You know, he's part of the legacy media anymore. We'll say anything. Nothing nice about Donald Trump. Listen to what he had to say when it comes believing the president when it comes to negotiate negotiating with the Iranian. Iran. Like, they are an authoritarian regime who's known to lie. But like... I'm confused. What is going on? Help me. Calm me down. Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do. That's crazy. Because he could not acknowledge the truth, even when it is, you know, he slapped in the face with it repeatedly. He tends to believe Iran more than he does Donald Trump. That is former CIA director John Brennan, who wants to believe Iran more than the commander-in-chief president of the United States. I mean, if that doesn't, if that's not Trump derangement syndrome at its worst. I don't know what it is because I got to assume if you've been the director of the CIA, you've seen things we haven't. You know things we don't. It's pretty, I mean, it's, I don't know how he could ever express any confidence in this regime out of Iran.

without regard to who is president. Now, the other thing, that was on MSN now, or whatever you call that network anymore, if anybody watches it. Now, here on CNN, of course, they're all complaining yesterday. ICE at airports, not going to do anything, not helping anything at all. What a difference a daymate. Here they are today reporting on what has happened at some airports around the country. Oh, to see it as Ryan Young. He's over at Atlanta, Hartsfield, Jackson International Airport this morning. Ryan, what do TSA wait times look like in Atlanta this morning? Wolf, I almost can't believe I'm able to say this. The times have dropped off tremendously this morning. People were waiting an hour in line. Now that is not the case. If you look at the main checkpoint here, there seems like a less than a dozen people. One thing I should note to everyone, Tuesday is a traditionally slow day here at this airport. It's a great day to travel out because there's not as much volume. So they knew today was going to drop off. But I don't think people thought they were going to see the numbers where they are right now. And that's TSA Pre. This is the main checkpoint. And we're seeing those numbers just fall off. Of course, the other thing that people have been asking about is, of course, what are the ICE agents doing who are walking through the airport? What kind of responsibilities they have here to the officers who are sort of... or walking through the airport now. They're patrolling the outside areas of the airport, keeping people safe, interacting with some of the people as they walk by. But for the most part, they have this defensive posture where they're just sort of walking around and making sure the perimeter is safe. The Atlanta Police Department also added extra security on this side as well. So they want to make sure the traveling public is safe. So far, the interactions between the people and the agents have been pretty nice. Isn't that an interesting story? Complaining about ice at the airports. And all of a sudden they're nice people. They're just walking around, paying attention to security. Lines are, you know, I love how we qualified it. Well, it is Tuesday, and Tuesday is not normally a travel day. They had to do that to say. Well, he said it was a high of a travel day, but no one expected the lines to shrink as much as they have. The Democrats thought this was going to be a scary situation. Nothing that they said, the leftists have said, is matched. But I saw a video today of some of these lines are still pretty long in some areas, and they're handing out water. Yeah. So if someone has to wait in line for a couple hours, they're like, we'll hold your place while you use the restroom. Yeah. True story. I mean, I'm seeing this happening. It just doesn't match the doom and gloom that and the fear that some have been trying to foment around the country about what you do when the Democrats in the Senate just want to shut down Department of Homeland Security and TSA. Well. We're, I think the president's finding ways to keep things moving. It is the Tuesday edition of the Rod and Greg show right here on Utah's talk radio, 1059, KNRS, along with Greg Hughes with you. Utah sender Mike Lee will be joining us next right here on Utah's talk radio, 1059, K&RS. Yeah, I saw them. I was in San Francisco last year, last December, and they were tooling around. No one's inside of them. The wheels of them. It's freaky. Yeah. I've never done that, but we don't talk about that in the 5 o'clock hour because apparently there was a bill approved by the legislature to help cities deal with it. I think they might be coming here. Yeah, maybe coming here. That might not just be in the People's Republic of California. We might be getting these driverless cars, but maybe I'm just a scarity cat. You know, maybe people are way more comfortable with those things than I am. All right. Well, let's talk with Utah, Sunder Mike Lee. He's joining us on our newsmaker line. Sunder Lee, how are you?

Senator, thank you for joining us. Let me ask you, the word on the street is that an agreement on the Department of Homeland Security being funded might be on the table. What are the terms? And is it true that there might be a twofer in this deal that could also include your Save America Act? Yeah, look, there is a lot of a talk on a plan to resolve the DHS shutdown. This shutdown should never have happened. We should never have allowed DHS funding to be isolated. Nonetheless, there does appear to be a plan in the works that could end that impasse sometime this week. Knock on wood, we'll see how it unfolds. Now, there is a piece of that that I'd need to speak to directly, though, because there are some reports that are coming out or related to that discussion. that are trying to tie in Save America to that and suggesting that we could somehow address and effectively enact Save America on a simple majority threshold using budget reconciliation. Don't never trust any talk of a plan that relies on passing Save America later, because that's often Washington speak for never. Plus the voter ID and the proof of citizenship, which are the essential elements of the actual Save America Act. absolutely will not make it into a reconciliation bill. So that is a misdirection. It's hard to imagine how Save America could be passed through reconciliation. And by hard, I mean, essentially impossible. So that part of it's not going to work, but the rest of the deal has some potential of making it true this week. And it would be great if we could end the impasse one way or another. Give us an idea what your schedule is like right now with all of this. I mean, what you're seeing out there, what you're having to go through each and every day to keep this alive. Well, I've been spending a lot of time on the Senate for listening to and then carefully addressing the arguments made by my Democrat colleagues in opposition to the Save America Act. That's perhaps the biggest single chunk of my time since we've been on this bill, has been on the Senate for listening to, writing down, and been systematically addressing in a thoughtful, respectful, but nonetheless, forceful manner that the arguments they're raising. It sounds fine from a distance until you actually look at the bill. And they are uniformly mischaracterizing what the Safe America Act does. And in some instances, they'll go a step further and mischaracterize the legal and a constitutional backdrop against which it must be considered. And so that's taking a lot of time, but it's great. I'm not complaining about it. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it because the more they talk, the more it gives us a chance to ask them some crucial questions. Like, why exactly are you opposed to a voter ID requirement, which a whole lot of states, including something like 22, 23 Democrat states with Democrat U.S. senators in them have on the books.

And what exactly are you opposed to in terms of trying to establish that those who are registered to vote in U.S. federal elections are in fact U.S. citizens? What do you have against that? And what we get in response to that is never a direct answer to that question. It's instead a hyperbolic string of basically slurs engineered against this bill. saying, oh, this is Jim Croke 2.0. This is going to disenfranchised 21 million people. It will hurt women. All of those arguments are patently untrue. And you can prove them as untrue with the text of the statute itself, even as they are denigrating the bill text. Senator, there was a moment this weekend, I think it was this weekend, and maybe you can fill in the blanks or if I'm missing it, maybe correct it. There was a moment where I thought that the Democrats were saying Chuck Schumer was saying, the minority leader Chuck Schumer was saying, you know, hey, we like voter ID. We think you should have an illegal ID. We just think that the Save America Act is just too prescriptive. It's too difficult. The forms of ID they want make it prohibitive. But legal ID generally, well, we're okay with that. If I read it right, the Senate said, oh, we will give you an amendment for that. You can use your passport. You can use some other things. If it's a legal ID, you can use it. And the Democrats still blocked that. I think that's illuminating. If that is what happened on the floor, that's the whole real reasons and good reasons thing. They gave you some good reasons why they didn't like it when you called their bluff. The only reason left is that they just want undocumented people to vote. Did that happen the way I described in terms of them saying they like voter ID? and legal ID, but it's just your bill's too strict. And then when you said, well, here's some other forms you can use. They still hated it. That's essentially right. So starting last week, I believe starting on Wednesday, continuing into Thursday, first Chuck Schumer and then a number of other Senate Democrats started going to the floor and on media and on social media suggesting, yeah, we're just fine with voter ID. That's not a big deal. Of course they're going to say that because a whole lot of their states already have voter ID requirements. And I would add here, by the way, in the last Congress, the one that ended just before President or just after President Trump was elected, every Senate Democrat here at the time. And this is just over a year ago, keep in mind, was the co-sponsor of legislation that included a voter ID requirement in it. So that's why they know they can't really push back too hard on that one. So what we did in response to that one, John Houston and I went down to the Senate floor with that information. John Houston is my colleague. He's a senator from Ohio. He's the one that took the place of JD Vance when JD became the vice president. And he's also a former top elections official for the state of Ohio and former lieutenant governor.

And he offered up a bill, a separate bill to pass that by unanimous consent because the Democrats were saying were fine with voter ID. And what happened? Well, Democrats objected to it. And the Democratic objector in objecting to passing that by unanimous consent made arguments that curiously had nothing to do with voter ID, nothing to do with the legislation he was offering. They just objected and then talked about something else. Something's really weird. It's happening here. They refuse to engage with the actual facts about what the law actually does, even this pared down law that we tried to pass separately, planning then to go on and continue to debate the citizenship provision separately. Senator Lee, just as you, I mean, they keep on showing their cards just a short time ago on MS now. Cory Booker, a colleague of yours in the Senate, basically came out and said he raged that the SAVE Act would shrink the voting by about 5 to 10 percent. So is he saying about 5 to 10 percent of those who are voting today are not citizens of this country? Is that what he's almost admitting? Yeah. So you can read that one of two ways. Either that's what he's saying, and we've got that many people who are not citizens who shouldn't be voting. And if that's the case, then we got to get this thing passed now. We should not step that, wait to pass go and collect $200. We should do it now. Alternatively, if he's just airballing that, if he's just making crap up, then that is inexcusable too. But of course, he doesn't show his math. Anybody who wants to make that argument needs to show their mouth. Look, I like Cory Booker on a personal level that we're friends. This argument is not a good argument. And if you read it the first way that I presented, then we should absolutely pass it immediately. If you read it, the more cynical way of proving it, but it's not an argument against passing save America. On our any hour newsmaker line, Utah Senator Mike Lee, more of the Rod and Greg show coming up right here on Utah's Talk Radio 1059, KNRS. Not enjoying the weather as you keep rubbing it in as you intro the show. Well, we're stuck inside. I know we don't have windows here. We only have any windows. You stay connected to that weather app, so you're always talking about the weather. I have no idea what you're talking about. I love the weather. Yeah. Yeah, it's fun. It's actually rude when we're not part of it. Sorry. All right, we just had a chance to talk with Utah, Sunder Mike Lee, and joining us on our newsmaker line right now is Doug Truax. He's founder and CEO of Restoration of America talking about the Save America Act. Doug, thanks for joining us. Doug, first of all, are you surprised at how things are going and movement? There's very little movement. What do you think about all that? Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. And I really appreciate Senator Lee. I mean, this is such an important piece. And if I addressed it in that op-ed, I did. We have got to get this done now. And so, yeah, you're not seeing a lot of movement. But I really think time is on our side on this one because...

This is an 80-20 issue. And the more time that we have where you can have. even moderate Democrats and obviously moderate Republicans who become more aware of what not necessarily your you know your listeners are are based conservatives and things like that but if you have more moderate Republicans and more moderate Democrats are saying what the heck is going on with this thing what are they actually talking about and they drill into it and they realize okay this is about voter ID which is a great idea nationwide and they they get more educated on I think the pressure is going to build Obviously our guys for sure, but there's also some, some, you know, Elissa Slotkin and these kind of, in these light blue states where it's possible that they get a lot of pressure. So I say we just keep pushing. I mean, this is something we got to find out right now. This is our time. I think a lot of people are forgetting that part of the reason, the huge part of the reason that Trump and everybody won in 24 is because everybody was still upset about 2020 and how things played out in that election. And so this is our opportunity to write some of those wrongs and to make sure that going forward it's harder for the Democrats to cheat, which is, by the way, is why they're so adamantly opposed to it because they know once we get this in, it's just makes it more difficult for them to cheat overall. You know, Doug, that's what I was going to say is that if I had a lie detector test that I could put every Democrat and everybody that counts elections in these blue states and put them on a lie detector, it would be this bill. Okay, because this bill is supported, as you pointed out, 80, 20, 85, 15 by all Americans without regard to political affiliation. This is widely accepted as photo ID is appropriate. They still argue against it. They don't have a straight-faced argument why. The only conclusion you can come to is they want it to be loose, the rules to be loose so they can cheat. So I feel like we're just seeing this. Do you think America is, it's dawning on Americans that... For an issue that's so intuitive to see them fight so hard against the Democrats, it's proof they cheat or they want to cheat. Are people connecting those dots? Well, it's definitely the case. And I think that... You know, the media did such a effective job for years doing the, oh, you're an election denier, which I probably have worn that moniker, what I'm being vindicated as we go for here with all the FBI raids and everything else. I think that there's a stigma around, oh, you know, the elections are fine and stuff. But everybody says, well, wait a minute, you got, you know, you don't have to have voter ID in some states, even if you are in a state that does. And then you're thinking, okay, well. If that's not the case in an important state, then that, you know, they could sway that state and it doesn't matter what happens in mind. And plus, you know, people realize, too, that, you know, Biden took one for the team and they opened the border. And there's probably still 30, 35 million illegals in the country. And whether they get them to vote now or later, it's immaterial to them, they're just seeking power. And so what they would want to do over time.

is if there's no voter ID laws, it makes it easier for anybody to vote. And so you start shifting those people over to voters over time, even if they're not legal. And then these races are tight. And then they're winning more and more. And I think that that's their long-term play. That's why I absolutely say we have got to fight it out right now. We cannot back down. Now's our time to do this. And if we don't pull it off, Republicans, I mean, it's like, it's hard to tell. base voters in the midterms. Hey, come out and vote. And by the way, I didn't get the voter ID thing done even though it was 80-20 and we had power. Yeah. Doug, you know what I think is so funny is they keep on showing their cards and they're open about it. I mean, there was an interview today on MS now where Cory Booker said, you know, if this passes, you know, there could be 5 to 10% of the American population that does not vote because of this law. So is he saying 5 to 10% of the people who vote in this country are illegal aliens? Is that what he's so worried about? I mean, they're showing their cards all the time. Yeah, right. That's what he's not saying, but they're couching it with like, oh, it's so hard for people to get an ID. It's like, I don't know. I've never met anybody that didn't have an ID, you know, in some form or fashion. But it does go back to prove you're a citizen. which, you know, they don't want that. And because of what you're just saying, look at Cory Booker in New Jersey, okay? Anybody's been around New Jersey for an extended period of time? I know there's a lot of legal there, right? And so it's like, this is part of their, I, my beginning of my political career was in Chicago. And I know what they do. They just like, they know, they just need somebody to come through and claim to this person. If there's no voter ID, they just say, yeah, you're that person, go ahead and vote. And yeah, okay, so maybe they don't sway some state race. But the down ballot races are tight all the time, you know, the smaller races and everything else, and they can sway those. So, you know, they're just like, the Democrat Party is just like a big conspiracy to gain power now, and they're going to do anything they can. So this is top of their list, and we're, you know, we're right over the target, and we just need to strengthen the spine of our guys because they've got to do it. This is why we voted them in. And all these senators are like, oh, I don't know. It sounds hard. It's like, look, you got the job. You know, you got all your DC cocktail parties and all your stuff you go to and all your power and prestige. Well, now it's time to deliver. So we don't want to hear the excuses. Just figure it out, you know, find it out, get it done. Absolutely. So, Doug, here's the thing. You got a list of co-sponsors, and that co-sponsor list really represents a majority of the Senate. Okay, so they're all Republicans. They say they co-sponsor it. If you have a Republican United States Senator who has co-sponsored that bill but opposes. the talking filibuster, which if you oppose that means you think it needs 60 votes, which they all know there is not 60 votes inside that chamber to pass this bill. Does their co-sponsorship mean anything for the bill if they will not, if they don't also support the talking filibuster to get it passed? Right. It's just, yeah, it's just, they just sign their name and hope for the best and hope, well, in their case, hope it would go away. Yeah. But I think that they definitely, we're in a place now where, you know, this is happening. You know, we're all having this conversation and there's more of it going on and they're like, oh boy, maybe I got myself in trouble here. And procedurally, you know, you ask anybody, you have 10 different people, you're going to get 10 different answers on how to do things procedurally in the Senate. But part of it is you guys just figure it out. And it's like, well, you know.

We all have to sit in our seats and they can come in one at a time and talk and stuff like that. Okay, fine. Understood that may be a problem, but you guys figure it out. You know, you're our guys. We put you in power. It's a big deal to us. And, you know, what is it on the Republican side? 955, you know, 100, 0. And so I'm just like, you guys got to figure it out. This is why we hired you. That's why you got elected. So, yeah, if you could, I'm sorry if you co-signed it and you didn't think it would go this far. Well, live with it now, you know. Doug Truex, he is the founder and CEO of Restoration of America, joining us on our newsmaker line talking about the talking filibuster, the weight and the long lines and everything else going on. And right now, members of Congress get special perks when they go on a plane, when they're flying home, right? They don't have to go through security checkpoints. They just walk right on, right? Well, Delta said, No more. Yeah, you know. Delta has told Congress, you want to fly on Delta, you fly just like everybody else. I love it. You know, it should be that way anyway. I don't know why they have these special perks. And I'm telling you, the only time they get that Senate ever gets serious about anything is when you take away their recess time. Take away the recess time. Or their perks. Or their perks. All right. We're going to talk about driverless cars in Utah. They're coming. Are you ready for it coming up next? Is it, what is it when we see cars driving around? By themselves? Without human beings in them. I've witnessed this myself. I got video. I took a picture. I showed it to you before the show started. Yeah. It's a real thing. I saw it in San Francisco, and apparently it might be coming here to Utah. Well, I think we're planning, or we're preparing for it, just in case it does come here. You know, we aren't there yet, but we're getting close to George Jetson. And the flying cars. Well, I just, I swear in the Jetsons, they were still flying those rockets. No, I think they flew themselves. Did they? I think so. Well, I think that- You just get in, they take you wherever you want to go. Well, in this session, this last general session that just concluded, I think they paved the way. Yeah. Cun intended. They paved the way. So there's some statutory language that allows for and contemplates driverless cars to navigate the roads of Utah in whatever. I guess they can do it by jurisdictions, county or cities or something like that? I don't know. Well, the. Senator Kurt Colomore, who is a Senate Majority Leader, sponsored a bill, not signed yet by the governor, but it basically, Greg, would create a path for recovery of people injured in autonomous vehicle accidents. Okay? You kind of got to be ahead of this game. Well, that sounds like the wrong thing to focus on. That sounds like a... Well, how do you govern him? I don't know, but starting with them getting hurt seems a bit morbid. I don't want to start with, I don't need the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. I want the fence above it. I want to know how I'm going to get around safely, not how I'm going to get compensated from the hurt. What they're trying to do is establish a liability framework. Okay. Don't you have to have, I mean, if you. I'm not an attorney. I was a lot waker. I'm not a lawyer. Yeah. If you're involved in an accident, okay, with an autonomous vehicle, who do you blame? Whoever owns that vehicle.

So you don't need a framework. Well, I guess you do if they ran a bill that went there. I just think that's the last place I'd want them to go. Like, what happens when you get hurt? It's just, I think it's just bad karma. I'd rather them talk about how they make them work. Well, how do you, what, what do you, how do you regulate them? I don't know. You're the lawmaker. You've come up with bills. If I was a lawmaker, I would just say that I would go into the enforcement of traffic laws and how you would tick it or if you found it violating the law, it doesn't, you know, it speeds or it turns right when it's, you know, runs a red light. I imagine these autonomous cars, okay, are perfect drivers. It's all computer programmed, right? Now, you've been in San Francisco, and apparently they have a lot of them there. They have a time. No, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. You've seen how they perform. Have you written in one yet? Heaven's no, I haven't read one. Would you ride in one? Not at this moment. I would not. Why? Because technology too early? Yeah, because here's what happens. They work perfect until they don't. Okay? And you know what don't means? Don't isn't like, oh, I just will pull over the side and not work anymore. They stop in the middle of like places you're not supposed to stop, okay? You know this for sure. I'm telling you, I saw the videos of it. They got steep hills there in San Francisco. One of these things stops in the middle of the road and a steep hill. Very problematic. Didn't have enough power to get to the top? Is that what it was? I guess, but it was stopped. It was creating all this traffic. They work perfectly until they don't. And when they don't, that's the part that has me, well, I want to watch that play out a little bit. Let's let everyone else be the guinea pig. I'm not, I'm going to watch that play out before I get inside one of them. Okay, you'll be around, but 20 years from now. Where will we be with driverless cars? I think they'll be predominant. However, I think that's, I worry about that because if you think about our workforce, think about how many professional driving jobs we have, whether it's deliveries, whether it's buses, whether it's chauffeurs, whether, I mean, there's just a lot, a lot of people whose profession includes driving every single day. Uber drivers, even the side hustles people have of Lyft and Uber. If everything goes automated, where do all those? There's a lot of jobs connected with driving. So we shouldn't do it because we'll lose jobs? I'm like, you know, I worry about, I'm like the horse and buggy industry and the candle maker. You know, I'm just worried about these cars and this electricity. It's very worrisome. Now, I don't know how the, I think it displaces a lot of jobs. You just got to figure out where the new jobs are going to come from. Because aren't you worried with AI and everything else that we are going to technology-wise, we're going to progress ourselves right out of gainful employment? I think we will adapt. Now, there may be some changes. There may be opportunities. You know, I have, what, I've got two or three of my grandchildren are in robotics classes. And I've told them, study, man, because you're going to rule the world someday. They might, but what if the robots know how to make themselves?

You've seen the Terminator. You know how this works. You're getting too freaky. I don't know. I'll tell you what. You don't think. If you told me that AI would be doing what's doing today just five years ago, I didn't see it coming. I didn't. I didn't see it. But on this. Yes, on this. Now, one of my sons has a Tesla. It drives itself if you wanted to. So he took me for a ride with it one day. He said, Dad, you want to drive itself? I said, yeah, let me see what he can do. And he told him where it wanted to go, and it drove us up there. It got off the interstate, on a ram, turned around, and came back the other way without any issue. Now, it was freaky. From start to stop? Start to stop. It was freaky. But I'm going, kind of cool. I mean, even the car I drive now, when I go a long trip, and yours does this as well, I put it on cruise control. I have to steer it, but it slows down, it speeds up. If I want to change lanes, it'll change lanes for me. So that's almost a driverless car. My car will do the driverless. It'll change lanes. It'll see when to change the lane. It'll turn signal on. It'll move over. It'll pass. It'll get back in the travel lane. And my steering wheel has like a green light when it's working. Yeah, it does. Yeah. And then it'll go red if it's quitting on me so I know. But it also has this little thing that watches if my head turns away from it. It tells you not to. Yeah. It's very bossy that way. It's very bossy that way. And so if you have to keep looking forward, what's the point in having it drive? I mean, why do you do it then? I don't know. I drove it from here all the way to St. George just to try it. And it worked. You didn't like it? No, I liked it. I liked it. See? But. But, I had to look out. Always a butt. It was so fussy about me turning my face. I'd have to, like, look out my peripheral if I wanted to see something because I couldn't turn my eyes. So I'd try to look out the corner of my eyes at things because if I didn't, it would yell at me. Really? Well, I just flash and tell me to look at the road. Look at the road. Tell me what to do. And you should be looking at the road. I don't want to be told what you do. I don't need my car tell me what to do. I don't need to, I don't want to be boss around. All right. Now you have seen him, but you haven't ridden in one yet. A driver? Driver this week. I have not gotten inside of one of those things. And you wouldn't. Not today. Nope. I won't do it. Well, down the road you may. I will have to see. I look for pattern recognition. I want to see how these things work. They work perfectly until they don't. I want to see what their listeners think about driverless cars. You seem very cavalier about this. It sounds like you're ready to jump right in one right now and just go for your life. Wake up. It is the future. What are you talking about? It is the future. I got my concerns. And legitimate concerns, as do I, but I think the future is going to be very bright for driverless cars. Yeah. You aren't buying into that one, are you? 888-5708010 on your cell phone. Dow Poundt 250. Say, hey, Rod, leave us a comment on our talkback line. We've got some callers already wanting to weigh in on the driverless cars, Greg. Yeah, let's go to Dean and Bountiful. Dean, what do you think of these driverless robotic cars that are going to drive you around?

If you're lucky. I'm with you. I don't trust him right now. Here's my question. Let's say one of these driverless cars is going too fast or existing conditions or somehow it's malfunctioned. How do the police pull them over? Yes, these are questions. Dean, I'm picking up what you're putting down. I do not know what happens next. That's what happens next moment we need to all collectively understand the answer to. Well, I would imagine they would have a sign on the car if I'm driving improperly call this number. And they control it. Nah, that's not going to work. I'm still stuck in that car. You know, well, it's breaking the law. They aren't going to break the law. They aren't going to break the speed limit. They're going to turn right. I don't think they will. Sometimes the posted speed limit isn't those speed limit you should be going on. Now we're on to this again. Because there could be congestion. Mr. Speedy. No, I'm just saying the congestion. It does. How does it know? All right. Your calls to your comments coming up. 888-580-1010 on your cell phone. Dow Pound 215 and say, hey, Rod, or leave us a comment on our talkback line right here on Utah's Talk Radio 1059. Canteress? Vehicles that drive themselves. You just sit in the back seat, or I guess you can sit in the front seat on the passenger side and enjoy a car that takes you wherever you want to go. Lawmakers are gearing up for it. They're smart. They're looking for ways to control. You know, how do you respond? People are injured if they're in one of these autonomous cars. They're looking at it. We're talking to you about it. I mean, folks, here ready. I know Hughes, you hate this idea. But I think it's coming. Am I allowed to be set in my ways? Is this something that we can still do? I'm getting a lot of grief from people. Well, you should be. You should be. That I am just a backward person because I am expressing my concern. I'm being told that this is a selfish and a short-sided position that I hold. I just want to, you know, I should be able to be set in my ways. I think I've lived in long enough life that I can say, okay, I like this version, the one where you drive your own car. I like this. Yeah, so why do I have to be the one that change and want, you know, these robots and these autonomous cars? I just, you know, can we just have some, I just don't know. I'm glad San Francisco wants to be the guinea pig and they've been doing it for a while and that's good. I mean, we'll learn from that. So goes California. So goes the rest of the country. Well, please. Don't you know what they're doing, kid? They fuck you with cell phones. That's what it is. That's what it is. They're fucking with the cell phone. Yeah, exactly. You know, start with the cell phones. It's gone downhill from there. Yeah, we're talking about Utah lawmakers. They approve some illegal framework, so to speak, for driverless cars, hoping to attract companies here to Utah. I think they're coming. We want to get your thoughts on this. 888-5708010 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or leave us a comment on our talkback line by downloading the IHeart Radio app. Let's go to the phones. Yes, let's go to Russell and Shremontan. Russell, welcome to the Rod and Greg show.

I think, guys. I really appreciate it. I have some opinions about this matter, because I've been telling my kids, I'm 42, and I've been saying, you know, in your lifetime, I think they're going to make a case where it's too risky a lot of humans to drive anymore. Because I think that's what's coming is they will be able to prove it with technology that humans are the majority cost of risks for accidents, collisions, and all that. And so I think about that. In their lifetime, I think they're going to make a case of, well, you don't have the right to drive anymore. My first prediction is I worked in the trucking industry and for one of the largest truck manufacturers in America. And they're already at that point. Like we're watching our newest trucks. They'll steer themselves. They have such amazing radars and collision systems. Like we're so close already. And so I see that technology coming. And my prediction is I think at first they're going to do it with the interstate highway or the freeway system because that makes the most sense. And that's that I'm not opposed to that as well because I think overnight you would solve so many. accident problems and even congestion that if you made it a some sort of a requirement the vehicles had to talk to one another man they could make some good things happen where vehicles don't collide no more you know that they could they could do some good things and so i i see at first that that's where that's going to be required or you you have to have driverless vehicles or minimum technology that allows it to take over right because The safety implications are huge, but I'm doubtful in my lifetime that it's going to be 100% everywhere because we only have private roads and streets. Yeah, and I just don't think technology knows every blade of grass or pebble yet, right? Yeah, you're right on that, Russell. But can't you admit this new technology is making our roads a bit safer? I think it is. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, but here's this, too. What's going to happen to the insurance industry overnight, too, if this happens? Your race will go up. They'll go up. They'll just go up. Or it could go the other way, too. I mean, I could see them run to Congress and log in and say, hey. This is going to bankrupt the insurance industry because what if we free up accidents or something? But like you're saying, though, I think it would compensate saying, well, if it's going to be driverless, then somebody's got to own that of if your technology allows collisions somehow, who's going to pay for, right? But I mean, I imagine also the other side of saying, let's hop in the car and tomorrow morning we'll be in Vegas, and I'd try out for that in a heartbeat. All right. Russell brings up a good part. The only part that he said that I hadn't thought about before is if you were prohibited from driving. Can you imagine if they limited your right to travel and to go around? You cannot. You have to use this, you know, you have to use the driverless cars. And then once you do that, it can be controlled. I mean, you, they could turn them off. Let me tell you what. That will only happen if the Democrats are in control. I agree. Republicans would not allow that to happen. Republicans will not. So if the Democrats get in control, forget your driver's license. Yeah, you might like. So let's go to Stephen now. Let's hear from Stephen who's on I-15. He's in the belly of the beast. On the commute home, Stephen, welcome to the Rod and Greg show. Thanks for taking a call, guys. You know, I think this is coming, and Utah, sadly, to say, is way far behind. I travel decent amount for work, and in Phoenix,

They've had these vehicles operating commercially in the downtown area for Phoenix for probably five years now. Now, they do limit them to downtown. I was just in Vegas last weekend. They have them there. And they have some control test cases where they're able to watch them and say, okay, you can only operate within certain zones so we can kind of control certain aspects just to see what's happening. I work in engineering and architecture, and we see a lot of our automation already. And, you know, this has been going on for almost 20 years. I've got a new client this year. We'll have clients have new projects this year. They're looking at, you know, building a road, building roads and laying pipes this year. with these automated heavy equipment based off of machine control models I built for them and then send over. We'll set control what they can know what they're doing in the field and where they're at, and they're going to be slipping concrete this year testing it, whereas in the last five or ten years they've been testing excavation, and now we're looking at, you know, removing certain workers from the workforce because the machines can take care of themselves. And when we use AI in our industry in the office, our conversations always center around, you know, we're able to move so much faster because we have AI. We're not looking at firing people yet. But, you know, in McDonald's, they're rolling out buildings that are completely automated now. Wow. Two years ago, the lived in Walmart was testing drone deliveries for prescriptions. Yeah, yeah, I've heard about that. I work with drones, and I know for a fact that our drones are already communicating with the helicopters that are flying around the hospitals and some of these other air bases that I work near at, so I know there's communication going on. And the question really just comes down to how do we get all those equipment to talk to each other? Yeah. In the case of these cars, you know, Europe has been testing these vehicles for almost 20 years. At the federal level, it was restricted about 10 to 15 years ago because the technology wasn't advanced enough to guarantee enough safety. But in California, they're already having some questions about it because the models that the vehicles use allow the vehicles to kind of make some judgments when there's no one in the car. And so you'll have illegal U-turns and the cops pull the car over in the car, response to the cops, they pull them over. But they're like, who do we write the ticket to? Who do we hold responsible? How do we update the software? Yeah, Stephen, I've got to cut you off there. I've got to get to a break. But interesting, it is happening around the country. We're just a little bit behind the times. He works in engineering and architecture, and a lot of his work is happening. That's absolutely fascinating input there. All right, more of your calls coming up. Your comments on this here on Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, K&RS. Let's just get back to those calls right now. Let's go to Bill from In Pleasant Grove. Bill, thank you for holding. Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Yes, hello. I am a retired educator. I now work a couple of days a week as a ride share driver. The majority of people, this subject does come up, the majority of people. who ride with me, who talk about this, want a human in the car, no question. But besides that, I spent three weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area last Christmas with the terrible storms and everything else. There were numerous power failures in San Francisco because they're not maintaining their infrastructure. No surprise there. But... When power went out in large districts all during the Christmas holidays, all the Waymo's stalled. They stopped wherever they were. They just stopped, hundreds of them. In intersections in the middle of the road, service vehicles could not get through. Utility trucks could not get through. Emergency vehicles could not get through. The technology just has not matured to this point yet. It's coming. but the technology really isn't there yet. If an emergency occurs, they just don't know what to do. They just shut down. And I saw this in real time in December. So definitely the case. I think in the future. Thank you, Bill. They'll figure this out in the future. Oh, it's coming for sure. I mean, look, my hesitations are, you know, it's just, it's new. Well, you want to go back to the days of a horse and buggy for crying out a lot. You know, it's simpler times. Simpler times. Why is that a bad thing? Okay, let's go to Pat and Pleasant Grove. Pat, thank you for holding. Welcome to The Rod and Greg Show. Yes, can you hear me? I can. Okay. I'm just on my car audio. I've got two daughters. Both of them have a genetic disease, which started taking their... vision oh no and uh this is the car of the future yeah i've driven a tesla self-driving and you don't know what kind of relief that would give the one daughter that has not lost her license it's still she's still in the process of losing her vision and it's hopefully stabilized for now but uh the driverless car is something that will happen. I've got a second cousin whose husband has been working on the driverless car for the last 20 years. Wow. Wow. And it will be here. And you don't know the relief it is when my one daughter can get in a Tesla with her family. And... go across town at 35 miles an hour. Yeah. Which she's allowed to do. Wow. There are advantages, Greg. Well, and let me tell you. You know, I heard Pat's story, you know, for people who can't drive because of issues.

Have a driverless car get in and tell where to go. So, and I think some disabilities that would prevent someone from being able to navigate an automobile are growing. So the population this would help in all seriousness would be a miracle to many lives and many people. I'll give you that. And to be real honest, the ones that like you showed me today in San Francisco, they're ugly. Well, yeah. They've got the big things on the top of them. They're all that will change. Technology will get there. We're talking about driverless cars here in the state. The lawmakers are looking at setting up a framework to protect those of you who may be involved in an accident with an autonomous car. But they're coming, folks, and we've heard some callers say, look, we're behind the times. They've got them in Phoenix. They've got them in Las Vegas, certainly in San Francisco, and we're kind of getting your reaction to all of this. We'll go to your phone calls, but we have a call or a comment on our talkback line. Let's listen into it. Hello, Rod and Greg. This is Steve from Leighton, Utah. So if people that want to have a car that drives itself, they should get a license that only allows them to be inside a vehicle that drives itself and not have the ability to drive a full vehicle. And what do they call it, Department of Motor Vehicles? So all the little bikes that are electric, they should have a license with that too, Department of Motor Vehicles. Those bikes have motors in them. Thanks. Steve's right. I have any bike. Yeah, you should have a license for that. No, I don't need a license for any. Do you drive it on the roads? Yes. Well, then it's a motor vehicle. Oh, wow. It's motorized. It's powered by me. No, it's a E by you. No, it has a motor. Does it have a motor? Does it have a motor? Does it have a motor? Does it have a motor has a motor. I don't know if you do. We have a, it has a battery. It doesn't have a motor. It doesn't have a battery. Yeah, cars have batteries. But they also have a motor too. Well, I think E-bikes don't have motors. I think it's a motor vehicle. And I think all motor vehicles should have a license. Yeah. Should we go back to the phones? Let's. Yeah. Okay. Carl's a very patient. Carl in Salt Lake City, thank you for holding. Sir, welcome to the Rodding Greg Show. Greg, I totally agree with you, and I'll tell you why. It should have a quadruple redundancy on knowing where other vehicles are. You literally know how a aircraft, a commercial aircrafts have, but it has a transponder to literally communicate with the runway when it's coming in for a landing, have that a transponder on every car as well as the LIDAR and everything else that it literally judges distance from. And if it literally gets a discrepancy on the distance between the things, it goes with the ones that would automatically figure it's too close. And it would all, you know, start slowing down. I have a friend of mine that three years ago had a three-year-old Tesla. And he said, it's been getting a lot better than it was when it was brand new. It's been getting a lot better. And I'm like, I'm thinking myself, Carl, don't say nothing. But I'm not sure I'd like that. In about five blocks.

Bernie Sanders likes. Yeah, well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk about that is Phil Kirpin. He's president of the American commitment. Phil, you've been writing about this, and you say the president has launched a reckless war on credit cards. Exactly, what is he doing and why? Well, he's endorsed two different proposals, basically they would put very stringent price controls on the two ways that credit card companies and banks make money from their credit card products. One is a 10% annual interest rate cap, which interestingly, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were for a 15% until the president decided it should be 10, then they instantly... switched his 10. The president wanted to do it for one year to kind of help people dig out of the hole from the inflation bulge. under Biden, but of course, you know, you can't embrace leftist ideas, but try to do them on a temporary basis. You get outbid immediately, and Bernie Sanders responded to the president's one-year proposal by saying, okay, great, but let's do it for six years. And, of course, I'm sure they would want to make it permanent. And then they also want to put price controls on the swipe fees that merchants are charged when they run a credit card transaction, which can be, you know, one and a half to three percent or so, and that's what pays for all the awards programs and so forth. They want to essentially kill the revenue for credit cards. And if you do that by government regulation, then credit cards will no longer be available for most Americans, especially if you did that 10% interest rate cap. Most industry estimates I've seen suggest that the new cutoff for who would be credit worthy would be somewhere around a 740 credit score, which is to say 80% of Americans would no longer be able to have credit cards. Their cards would be canceled or their limits would be. nothing. And I think that would almost certainly tip us into recession also. So I think this is a very dangerous proposal. The president mentioned it once a couple months ago, then he didn't mention it again. So, you know, you might say maybe it was the trial balloon and we're in the clear. But I'll tell you, Rod, when you have a bad idea that's been associated with the far left and suddenly you have a popular Republican president saying he likes it, it makes me very nervous because somebody could pop up at any time and you could get. you know, enough support from across the aisle to actually get attached to something.

Well, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are no, you know, weather veins for us on this program. So duly noted. Phil, let me ask you this question because I have heard some frustration about credit card companies generally or just there is people have said, you know, when the Fed lowers their rates, the things you look at are your auto loans, interest rates go down, your credit card rates go down. People are arguing, and I'm open to this not being true. I hope it's not. that there is a what they call an interest rate harvesting, that when you see the Fed go down in terms of interest rates, your credit card interest rates are staying the same, and that there's just a, there's a greater profit margin or a vehicle for profit amongst the credit cards, whereas credit cards are kind of the vehicle for consumer spending, but if they get bogged down on too high of interest rates, it's problematic. Is there interest rate harvesting amongst our credit card companies when the Fed rolls their rates, they kind of stay the same? Typically what happens is for the people who already have cards, they're pretty hesitant to drop them unless you call and ask them to. And so when you do have the, when the market moves down, you could probably get a new card from someone at a lower rate. But the cards that you already have, you probably have to call and tell them, hey, can you low my rate? I'm going to switch to a different. And then they often will. But it all depends on... profile and your credit background and so forth because remember we're talking about unsecured loans. Credit cards are unsecured loans. It's very different in a way from a car loan or a home loan in that there's no collateral to repossess or foreclose. And so they've developed pretty sophisticated models to try to, you know, determine what the non-payment risk is. And they've got their own cost of capital. They've got their administrative costs and they're over-ed, their labor costs and so forth. But then they've got this non-payment risk. The non-payment risk, doesn't really change when the overall interest rates and the economy change. Their own cost of capital does, and so you would expect to see a little bit of a reduction, but a lot of it still depends on how much risk you present individually as a borrower, how much risk they think there is that you will not pay back what you borrow. And so, you know, that unsecured nature and that individual risk model is why typically... the rates will stay pretty high, at least if you look at it on an annual basis. But, of course, it's a little more common. The annual percentage rate can also be pretty deceptive because, of course, you know, if you pay by your due date, you pay zero interest. That's right. And if you carry it balance for another month or two past that, you're going to be paying, but you've got to divide that annual rate by 12, and then multiply it by the number of months you're carrying that balance, which I hope is less than a year. And so the actual amount of your interest you're using, if you're using the cards responsibly, it's going to be a lot less. than that annualized rate. So there's a lot that goes into it. But what I point out when people complain about this is this is a super, super hyper competitive market. If you've got reasonably good credit and your, you're, you're, the best want to do bit, you can call where you can oil. A lot of the new cards even have zero percent. It's going to happen. So if you're in a situation where, you know, you really need access to credit, you're going to be carrying a balance for a while because there's something. tell people look look to open a new card that's got a zero percent promotional rate on to give yourself that breathing room but it's such a competitive market that there's a lot of deals out there uh there are a lot of deals out there without uh you know

needing government regulation. Phil, you know, we all know that price controls do not work. Are you surprised that Trump is even thinking about this idea? Is he doing this to show people that, you know, he's concerned about their cost? He's got the midterms coming up. Are you surprised the president would even think about doing anything like this? Well, you know, this is a president who is not, you know, I think he prides himself on. you know, traditional Republican ideology, right? Yeah. And so he sometimes throws his ideas out. Yeah, or maybe any ideology. It could be, but he loves tariffs. I mean, I think he, you know, I think he knows a lot of people are struggling with credit card debt. He's seen the numbers out of the New York Fed and so forth. Although, by the way, you know, a lot of the reasons we're setting records in overall consumer debt is that we had so much inflation. If you inflation adjusted, it's not really inflation adjusted. It's actually relatively flat, but I think he's seen some of these big numbers, and he's saying, you know, what can I do to at least lean on some of the banks to lower this, even if we don't actually pass a bill or do something regulation-wide? And so I think some of it was jaw-boning a little bit to put a little pressure on them to lower rates. But I also just think, you know, he doesn't necessarily think two, three, four steps ahead or down the road a number of years are where I think, late. He wants to do something. You know, he sort of... sort of thinking, right? I want to save people money. I'm going to try to lower their interest rates. I'm going to start talking about this. The problem, as I said, is, you know, you might think, you know, it's a one-time temporary thing. It's not going to have a huge disruptive effect on the market. We're trying to get people out of the hole they're in because of Biden. And that's certainly how we framed it. But, you know, how do you bid against people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie and Elizabeth Warren who literally don't care if they destroy the private industry, right? They can always say, you know, longer, make it permanent, do it forever. And they've even said, if we destroy private consumer lending, it's okay, we'll replace it with a government program for consumer lending. We'll make every post office into a short-term lending center, and it'll be wonderful. And, you know, if you're, if you don't care if you destroy a private industry, you're always going to go further with regulation. And so there's sort of populist messaging. I think it's a losing game, but I think the president's not necessarily thinking past, you know, let me try to get, get people some relief. I'm a little bit sympathetic to that, but I think it's a big mistake in this. Phil Kirpin joining us on our Any Hour Newsmaker line. I'd tell you what, Greg, what a colossal mistake that would be to make the federal government a lending institution. Yeah, no way. Nope. It's not going to happen. All right, more coming up. It is The Rotting Break Show with you on this Tuesday and Utah's Talk Radio 1059, KNRS. I don't know if he's still performing. When he did, he would sit in a chair. Is he no longer performing? Yeah, he finished out a while ago. Did he? Yeah, his health has declined. And I think he had some back surgeries or something. That's what it was? He has not been able to hold drums. And if you think about an artist like him who was as good as he was to not be able to do something that was basically it's the engine for all his fame and as an artist. Didn't a lot of their music show up on Miami Vice? Yes. I love it. You would know that. He appeared on Miami Vice. He was a guest. Miami Vice reruns. I am, yes. But it's starting to decline. I'm on the downward slide. It's, you know, it's, I don't care what your favorite TV show was when you were young. The last couple seasons start to.

It's where the whole saying Jump the Shark came from. It's on Happy Days. Really? When the Fawns jumped the shark in the tank and they're like, that went too far. It's not that. They've completely lost the theme of happy days. And so that became Jump the Shark is when you've just gone too far. So every series kind of does that at the end. They kind of fizzle out. And you know what it is? They don't know how to end it. I think that's it. How do you hit it? I mean, you couldn't kill Sonny Jasmine Crockett. No, they just, you know, they just decided, they just had a, they just decided to their own ways. But they could have done a sequel, you know, we could have done 20 years later, where are they at? You know, we could have had that. Have you seen Don Johnson yet? No, yeah, I think he's aged well, actually. How about the other actor who was with him? Oh, Tubbs, he looks, he's got a big old beard and he's gray now, but I think it would be a fun, you know, special. Uh-huh. They still do the ABC specials at night? Sunday night specials, movies? I don't think so. Yeah, well. That ended about 20 years ago. Didn't stream it. Do a Miami Vice, you know, what happened? Where have they been since? All right. Earlier today, we told you that the American people are just getting frustrated with Congress. I mean, guys, just go do your job, figure out something, get, you know, get the Department of Homeland Security funded again so we can get the TSA folks back. Ice doesn't have to be there anymore. Now we've heard that Delta. is telling Congressman, you know that special privilege you have when you fly Delta, like you pass the security lines, just go right in, get your seat in the airplane? No longer on Delta. If you can't take care of the regular American flyers, and guess what, we are not taking care of you. And now they want to go in recess. I think, yeah, it's 16 days. They are going to take 16. You have people that are not getting paid. And that's Senate. Instead of getting this done, they're going to take 16 days of vacation time while there's people that are going without a paycheck. And I honestly, this is where if the Democrats weren't so insane, if they could just be normal in any way, Republicans would be in grave danger. of losing majorities in both the House and the Senate because, you know, you can, they can keep complaining or saying that, you know, Trump's going to hurt us or help us in a midterm. How about do something? Do something that earns your own keep for being reelected or elected as a Republican over a Democrat. They're not doing it. I am telling you we have the majorities and the fact that that Senate is going into a 16-day recess with the mess that's going on right now. It's, I think it's inexcusable. I really do. I think it's, I think it's terrible, terrible. And the people that, you know, I'm sure there's senators, Republican senators that are upset that they're going into recess and would probably easily. And I think Mike Lee, Senator Lee would be one of them that would want to stay and get this done. But for those that are pushing for their own time off, shame on them. Really. Yeah. They have no empathy. They have no appreciation for everyday Americans that serve this country in some capacity in Department of Homeland Security that they are just going to leave on basically. working employed without compensation. And I don't know how people think bills get paid that way. Yeah, yeah. Well, Liz Peek, a good friend, wrote a great column today in Fox News. And here's the title. Voters tell Congress, do your job and end the DHS shutdown. Do your job. Do your job. Do your job. They shouldn't be paid, honestly. She brings up, Greg.

The White House has made a lot of concessions already to the Democrats, but it's not enough for them. They want even more. And, you know, the American people should just call every Democrat and say, do your dang job. Get things done. You know what? And I hate to do this. I hate to splash this on the congressional staffers, but I think that they would understand it a lot better if not one member of Congress ever saw a check if they couldn't keep that. If you're, if you're power of the purse, you're constitutionally. pretend, you know, your separate and equal power is the power of the purse and you can't keep government open, then you don't get a paycheck. And your staff doesn't, okay? And if they don't, if we did that, you'd never see another day of government closure. You'd see them pass a budget guaranteed if it was going to hit them, the members, and their staff. They wouldn't close it down. You know what? Never going to happen. It's never going to happen. And let me tell you what, Greg. I don't think the American, I don't know what it is about the American people. But you've seen stuff like this, the shenanigans that have been going on or the past several weeks on this funding. And you don't hear a huge public outcry. Yeah. This is what frustrates me. Come on. The American people, like Liz Peaks, says, do your job. We put you there. You've got one job. Fund the government. And they can't even do that. No. This is why when I say, we know, we need war powers act. Man, we would be. We'd be in, this planet would be an ashtray before they could get the votes to do anything to defend this country if you wanted Congress to, and they should actually constitutionally do it. They're the ones that are supposed to declare war. They can't keep Department of Homeland Security open while we are in this conflict with Iran. When we let, since four years letting known, that we know for fact, known terrorists have been allowed across that border uninterrupted and we can't, they can't fund the Department of Homeland Security. It's inexcusable. We've had two terrorist attacks that happened on the same day while this closure has occurred. We've got these nightmares, the nightmares going on at the airports right now. And the Democrats are just okay. They're okay with it. And I, if I'm a Republican, I just sit there and I keep working. And if they want to go home, go home. We're going to vote here. And I would not leave the place until you got something done. What if the Democrats all went home and the Republicans stayed? They'd control the Senate. They'd have the votes, wouldn't they? Yeah, and I'd just say, you know, we don't have to do them at Filibuster. If they're gone, they're not here to even vote no. So, yeah, let's just do it. Maybe that's what they should do. Interesting. Yeah, earn your keep. Do your job. Yeah. All right, more coming up. here on Utah's Talk Radio 105-9, KNRS. Our so-called allies in this battle with Iran. Yes. I mean, you know, it started with, was it Spain? I think may have been first one, maybe in a different country, who said, no, you can't launch your operations from our country. I think you're right. I think Spain was the first. Was it Spain? Then England jumped in and said basically the same thing. The president said, hey, where are the allies here? Yeah. I mean, what? Since World War II, we've had your back.

We've helped pay for your security because you didn't want to contribute, but you don't show up and can't support us. And now that they know they got 4,000-kilometer long-range ballistic missiles, you know, a simple thank you, President Trump would be nice. Honestly, it shows how inept they are that they have no defenses and they were not going to cooperate on any kind of action towards Iran. Come to find out, they were the most vulnerable to Iranian attack. Our closest ally. which used to be the UK. Where are they now? I don't, I think that country is gone. I don't think it's, I don't think Europe is gone. Yeah, it's not the place that history has told us about that has been recorded. It's not the people that our soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder with and two world wars. That place is gone. Yeah. I don't know what that place is over there now, but it's not, it's not the United Kingdom. It's not, it's not Britain the way it used to be. And you can throw the rest of the Europe's, you know. Western Europe in there, too. They're just not the same. Well, let's talk about the fall of Britain, the warning. Is there a warning there for America? Joining us on our news bank of line right now is Lou Aguilar. He is a novelist, a screenwriter. He wrote about this. He's a culture war correspondent. You know, Lou, thanks for joining us. You write about the fall of Britain. The America has always had kind of an on and off relationship with Britain. How would you describe the relationship right now? Well, it's funny. It's mostly off, on and off, but it's been mostly off for a while. Because, I mean, the poor British people, they've been through so much. And no matter who they elect, they get pretty much screwed. You know, conservative government, people just keep coming in. Just nobody stops anything. And it's interesting because when I wrote the piece, I hadn't yet learned about the... the death of the great Mend Dayton, one of the great spy writers of all time, you know, like along with Ray Kare and Fleming and some others. But they wrote about a time when just pretty much the British school was pretty much keeping after World War II was pretty much keeping Britain and Britain free. from incredible communist infiltration. The sad part is that... They seem to have just gone over to the enemy without firing a shot. Wow. And it's, yeah, it's really sad because as I quoted, an incredible piece by Jim Jordan Peterson, who was so right. I mean, they have no idea, the government, the leadership, have no idea what they're doing to themselves and what they're doing to us. You know, as, you know, fellow culturalists and lovers of British literature and art and music. And it's just, it's very depressing. And it's so avoidable. But all of Europe seems to be surrendering and they're, they're at the head of the line.

So, Lou, you tell a very personal story about even your own experience, becoming a citizen, and it's a beautiful story. Thank you. And it shows that, you know, it's worth going through. And you've talked about how that bar has seemed to lower. So you're pointing to what could be happening in the United States. What I would love you to share with our listeners is this crazy story about this Indian restaurant in London. It's incredible. I can't, when I read it, I couldn't believe that this is what was happening. But share with our listeners how this, the owner of this restaurant had a type of meat that was, he felt was a humane way to, you know, get the meat, kill the animal, bring the meat, and found himself on the wrong side of the law. Well, the thing about it is how, how hostile the leadership. It has become towards the people. I mean, toward, you know, the people that survived and thrived under so much. And now, just for speech, for speech you're being arrested. And, of course, the nadir of the whole thing happened with this restaurant run by this Sikh, the Sikh owner. And they were talking about Halai, which is. Halal, which is a pretty, some people like to, some people don't like to describe it as kind of cool. They say that you stab an animal. This is the way the Muslim orthodoxy prefer their meal. From, from animals that have been stabbed once and bled to death, they say it's been, it's. It's painless, but I nobody believes that. And, and it's just, it's just cool. They just, they're just allowed to bleed and, uh, and pay it over and this restaurant, this Sikh owner. said, no halal served here. And, and just that. I mean, it's, it's, he might as well have said, you know, no, no, no, no blacks, no Indian served here here. And that's how, that's how it was taken by the Muslims. And they just, they just pounded this guy for years, like five years till his restaurant was, was, it was already out of business when this happened. And, and they just, They just harassed and gathered outside and threatened and yelled. And the police showed up and they arrested him, the owner, for, you know, for just hate speech, basically, for just his policy. That is a nation that is, I'm afraid it's so far gone that I don't see it coming back. I just don't. Well, yeah. There's a guy running for Restore Britain right now, Rupert Lowe. That's a party, which is getting a lot, a lot of support. Is it enough or we'll know soon? But my God. And as far as the United States is concerned, I mean, first, we could have been, had take Kamala Harris one, we'd be.

rocketing to that state right now you would be lou is there any sign you mentioned this party that is gaining in popularity but how big a lift is it going to be to bring britain back to where it used to be where we had this strong relationship and the people they were morally good i mean how long is i what is it that going to take well if you can if you notice I mean, the parallel is very obvious, which is Donald Trump's promise to, to, you know, to ouster all the illegal immigrants. Yeah. Look how he's battling, you know. It's like every step of the way, it's the left, the power for the left. is gained by a greater number of a legal or immigrant immigration vote. So let's say by some miracle low, and by the way, he's the only chance. Yeah. If he's not, if he doesn't make it, forget it's over. It's totally over. And, you know, they've got low. They've got Elon Musk behind the scenes trying to do his part, you know. But if they don't make it in, but even if they do make it in, You know, you've got London, you've got the Mayor Khan, who's, you know, a radical Muslim. You have Prince Charles. And, you know, you have the English royalty, defenders of the faith, the Christian faith. You have them bowing down to, you know, blessing mosques. It's just, it's, I don't see it. It's quite a lift, as you ask. Lou Aguilar, joining us on our newsmaker line talking about the fall of Britain. And it's a warning to America. And Greg, you and I agree. I just think because of the mass immigration that took place in Europe and in the U.K., they're both lost. Europe is gone. I think the U.K. is gone. I do too. It is hard for me to understand how they wouldn't instinctively, just forget about trying to help. Just for their own protection, they wouldn't immediately engage and assist the United States in what they're doing. It makes, I mean, there's. It threatens them more than it does us. It does. All right. More coming up. Final segment with Roder and Greg here on Utah's talk radio, 1059, KNRS. Heidi Hatch over at KUTV is tweeting out tonight, Greg, that Aaron Mendenhall, apparently, who cannot come up with her own interesting thoughts, taking a cue from, I believe it's a community in Georgia, where she is going to shut off all the water. to the new ICE detention facility on the west side of the valley claiming it's because of the drought. Right. Unbelievable. Well, you know, this is why Salt Lake City can't have nice things. This is why you have urban renewal and urban decay happening within the same city block. It is a lack of leadership. You have people that would love to invest and build the city. Protect it. You've got a great chief of police that... that wants to protect it. It's committed to public safety, but then you have antics like this. And that's, it's unsurious. It's an unserious move by a city council that's really just wrapped around the axle of identity politics and social justice and everything else. But really moving the needle and doing the heavy lifting and doing what leaders do. And that's sometimes making unpopular but important decisions. They don't know how to do it. They play to the crowd. Yeah, this city has no innovative thoughts.

This thing about yanking the water from the detention facility. Yeah. Community in Georgia did it two or three weeks ago. Yep. They're just looking for ways to just pander to their base. That's it. They're very, very small base. And I'll tell you, I was on the clock when it was impacting the state and our state resources to try and have public safety in our capital city. And, you know, it was an issue. I mean, everyone that's homeless wasn't born in Salt Lake City, but when you have a city that doesn't deal with lawlessness at all, it becomes a magnet for it. And you're going to see with them trying to keep ICE from having any kind of law enforcement capacity here, and you have... you know, some of these things that they're doing, it just draws in the criminals. Yeah. It draws it in because there's no consequence. Yeah. So, you know, it's not, it's not hard. It's pattern recognition is a pretty reliable, you know, life skill if you pick it up. I was surprised a little bit the last week the governor says he kind of supports this. Yeah. I think he should. Yeah, I think he should. You know, he was a little upset that he wasn't given a heads up on this. Yeah. You know, but the fact that he supports this. The concern I have heard, you work with the sheriffs, is that they're going to offer some pretty good money to work there. It is a tricky deal. They may be losing some support the various counties. Well, I'll tell you this, and this happens in law enforcement generally, but there's a lot of this where they're taking from each other's jurisdictions. And that doesn't help anybody. You need to see that tide lift and bring more employment into these fields, not take from each other. And there are some models out there where they've built facilities where people have, they've brought in people from outside to relocate here for a facility like ice. That should be the focus. Thank you, Mayor Mendenhall. Yep. Let's just open in and not give them any water. Why not? It stays like you give me any road money. How about that? Head up, shoulders back. May God bless you and your family and this great country of ours. We'll talk to you tomorrow.