Hour 3 - Why History Matters

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Welcome back in hour number three as we are rolling through getting ready for America 250 in two days. We are joined now by one of our buddies who regularly is out there in the world trying to make things a little bit better. He is Congressman Jason Smith. He's the author of the one big beautiful bill. We'll get into that and more here in a moment. But Congressman, let's start here. I'm sure I started off the show earlier talking about the three socialists who won in New York and the fact that that earlier this week was resonated also in Colorado. where another socialist one, knocking out a 15-term incumbent in the process, four sitting Democrat congressmen and women have now been eliminated by socialists who lean much closer to communism than they do to capitalism in terms of looking at the political spectrum. What does this tell us as we get ready for the midterm? What was your reaction when you saw four sitting Democrat congressmen and women lose to these Democrat socialists? You know, not surprised at all, Clay. It's probably because... of my colleagues that I serve with in the House of Representatives. Being a Democrat socialist is being a Democrat of today. And that's what we experience in Washington when it comes to working with who's taking over, who's guiding the ship when it comes to pushing Democrat policies within the House, within the Senate. It's so disturbing to me, Clay. If you look at just these candidates that's winning, for example, In New York, one of the future individuals that I will be serving with in Congress says that she uses the American flag as a napkin. I mean, this is just crazy of the rhetoric and the beliefs that these individuals have that's going to be having a voting card in Washington, D.C. It should concern everyone. No doubt. And we're talking about the economic situation in general. One of the reasons that I think Democrats are lurching far to the left is there is discomfort with the economic conditions. You're trying to rectify that with the big, beautiful bill. I've been talking about on this program that the most important thing that people feel is that their wages are outpacing inflation because that's how we end up with more dollars in our pockets. What is your opinion?

of where the economy is now, what do you expect the economy will look like as we get closer to people making their decisions in the midterms here come November. First off, Clay, when it comes to wage growth, something to be very thankful for that just in the first year under President Trump, our wage growth has increased more than all four years combined under President Biden. So that is at least a step in the right direction. We need to continue for wage growth to increase and increase faster. That will be extremely helpful. But imagine if we wouldn't have passed the one big beautiful bill or the working family's tax cuts. signed into law on July 4th. And in fact, we didn't pass this legislation. Every single American, every single American would have faced on average a 21% tax increase on top of what they've been dealing with with the inflation tax that was created of over 20% by the Biden administration and their spending sprees that just put. basically jet fuel on on the flame um and so like i I think about the waitress, Clay, that came up to me in southeast Missouri in Frederictown, Missouri that said, Congressman, I just want to say thank you. I just filed my taxes. I'm getting a refund of over $10,000. This is a single mother with three kids who's a waitress and who works overtime. She said, because of this refund, I will now be able to pay for my rent for a year plus some groceries. That... That is affordability. And it's because they get to keep more of their hard-earned dollars instead of the government spending it. What do you think when you see in New York City, you were just talking about hard-earned dollars back in your pocket, the idea that Zohran Mamdani and everyone else is selling in New York City that rent freezes in some way make things better. The economic data on this is that rent freezes don't work at all. In fact, what they do is pull the number of available units out of the marketplace because a lot of landlords say, I can't make money. based on these dollars that I'm expected to be renting these units for. But what does it say that the solution that Democrats are offering actually makes everything that they're concerned about worse? Well, the Democrat solutions when it comes to the economy are completely wrong on every front, whether it's the rent freezes, whether it's every single Democrat.

voted against these tax cuts. Not just, not one Democrat voted for no tax on tips or no tax in overtime or no tax on social security. Not one Democrat up here voted to increase the child tax credit to $2,200 per individual in making that permanent. Not one Democrat, Clay, created the Trump investment accounts that allows every child born in America to receive a thousand dollar seed money where they have an ownership in today's economy. things that really affect average everyday Americans, but they're not supporting these policies. What do they want to do? They want to raise your taxes. They consistently say that. You look at some of the liberal states, like New York, like California, they would not honor the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime. Those different tax provisions, they would not recognize in these liberal states, which definitely hurts their people. So when we look towards the fall, I know that soon Congress is going to be on recess. There's a lot of the angst over the SAVE Act, and I share that. What is, if anything, going to be accomplished in Congress between now and the midterms in a big picture sense that's going to, in your view, help to make the case that Republicans should remain in control about the House and the Senate? The absolute most important pressing issue that concerns me and keeps me up at night is funding government. Funding government has to be done by October 1st. That's just five weeks before the election. I'm hearing my Democrat colleagues right now, Clay, saying that they're going to shut down government. Right now, in June, they were saying they're going to shut down government. And why? Because they see that it's a political opportunity that if they can shut down government, that that will help them going into the election. And that concerns me. I think the United States Senate, Clay, has to have some serious heart-to-heart conversations with my Republican friends over there. Because if the Democrats try to shut down government and not allow a continuation of funding, at the very least, they better do whatever it can. to pass government funding. I think that in regards to the filibuster, the filibuster should be out of the window if there's a lapse in government funding. If there's a lapse in government funding, they should change those Senate rules to allow a 51 vote margin to pass anything. And if you did that, you would make sure that the Democrat senators and the Republican senators wouldn't ever... allow there to be a lapse in government funding. So that is actually the most important issue right now to me is making sure that we have a plan and that we fund government and we don't allow the Democrats to do what they've done twice already in the last six months. And both of the last two times in the six months were the longest shutdowns in the history of America. So they're willing, able, and I think prepared to shut down government again. We need to be smart about it.

Yeah, you know what's interesting about that that you mentioned at Congressman is Virginia was kind of a test case for them, right? And in November, I think they found and believe that the overall turnout last November in Virginia, when everything was shut down, worked to their benefit. And so it's kind of a test case, right? That's exactly the case. It did benefit them without a doubt in Virginia, the Virginia elections because of the government shutdown happening. And they believe that it would benefit them once again. And that's why when you talk to most Americans, they're like the Republicans control the White House, Republicans control the Senate, and Republicans control the House. Why can't they fund government? But it's because of that little crazy rule that you have to have 60. votes in the United States Senate to fund government when we only have 53 Republicans. So if the Democrats refuse to come to the table, they can shut down government unless the Senate Republicans decide to change the rules and under provisions. If you recall, Harry Reid changed the Senate rules when it came to confirming judges. It used to require 60 votes to confirm a judge. They changed the rules, made it 51. Maybe they should do that with funding government as well. We're talking to Congressman Jason Smith. Okay, much less seriously in the big picture, but still something that people are very focused on. I know in your state and in many states out there, what is Congress going to be able to do with college sports? There is a bill right now that is in the Senate. I know there's been the Score Act on your side of the equation. Is Congress going to be able to get an antitrust exemption done to allow college leaders to put rules back in place? Where are we headed here? You know, I actually, Clay, just had a hearing on Tuesday in the Ways and Means Committee in regards to all the different issues within sports, whether it was the NIL issues. And what came up there, we had Mr. Ocho that actually testified gave a lot of different examples that these players that are getting these NIL agreements, they don't understand their tax consequences. They may receive like a million dollars. and they don't know that they're going to be stuck with the tax bill 30 to 40%. And so they'd spend all this money, and then they're left there like, oh, no, with this tax bill. They're not informed of it. So there's different taxing issues from that sense. We also looked at the tax subsidies and incentives that's going into... public, public bonds that fund new sports stadiums. We looked at the accounting mechanisms for sports teams owners on how that they deduct their expenses. We looked at issues that the Atlanta Braves and the New York Knicks were having in regards to they're only allowed to deduct the top five.

largest salaries because of the provision that was passed in the American Rescue Plan by the Democrats several years earlier. But then you have to look at whether it's a score act, the different NIL provisions. There is a big need and a lot of things that have to be addressed. But I do think Congress can find a true bipartisan path to help. get this all resolved because it is definitely making a huge impact in our economy. It's making a huge impact just across America. No doubt. We appreciate the time, Congressman. Have a great July 4th celebration and we'll look forward to talking to you again sometime soon. Happy, happy fourth, Clay. Take care. No doubt. I want to tell you all about the incredible work that's being done by our friends at Tunnel to Towers. Right now, they are making a tremendous difference when it comes to the work that they're doing on behalf of so many people that have put so much on the line here in the 25th year of 9-11. This month, they're sending a steel across America nationwide tour. It's going to be in Northern California, Washington, and Utah this month. It's open to the public. Travels throughout September as a symbol of reverence and resilience at landmark locations, sporting events, town squares, moments of connection for those who live through 9-11 and educational opportunities for those too young to remember. Speaking of Too Young to remember, we came through in Hawaii when we were taking off a couple of days ago. from Hawaii out at the Big Island airport, right after you go through TSA security, they have a American flag with the name of every individual who died on 9-11. We stopped and we stood there, and my 11-year-old, he said, I had no idea how many people died on 9-11 until I happened to be standing right in front of this. image and you could see in the American flag all these different names and he said wow that there were so many people I said yeah now he was born in many years after 9-11 he's just 11 years old And they're not really teaching 9-11 very much in his school. He's heard from me about 9-11, but seeing that in front of him face-to-face, it made him realize just how many lives were lost on that day. And that's exactly what they're trying to do to connect with the younger generations, people who were born long after 9-11 and don't remember. It's been 25 years. There are kids graduating from law school who have no actual remembrance of 9-11.

11. Go to t2t.org to learn more about the steel across America tour and to donate $11 a month to tunnel the towers. You can amplify your impact with a car or land donation. That's t, the number two, t.org, t, the number two, t.org. T, the number two, t.org. Level Your Brain Mental Mugging with Clay and Buck. Welcome back in as we are rolling through the Clay and Buck program. A lot of different talkbacks rolling in. And let me start to play some of those as we get ready. And then I'm going to get you all fired up for July 4th at the bottom of the hour. I was talking about why communists are winning. This is an unidentified Florida listener, 927 WMMB radio. Cut B. Hey. Well. Hey, Clay, it's Jay from Charleston, South Carolina. I was just thinking, you know, and I've been saying this for years, back when Facebook first came out about, what, 20 years ago, that everybody's comparing their lives to whatever their friend's lives are like, but they only show you the good stuff. They only show you the trip to Disney World. They only show you all the, you know, all the vacations and all the, and this is my great dog. And they don't show you the bad stuff, man. You know, that's what life's all about. uh that's definitely true and social media is a highlight real and many people take it as a legitimate reflection and i think that younger kids get that um But my goodness, it is, I really do believe that no one has really contemplated how much difference social media has made in the way that people feel in a way that never happened with cable, didn't happen with television in general, certainly didn't happen with radio. Jeff in Ohio. He's super fired up about the excitement from the U.S. men's soccer team. Cut H. Hello, Jeff from North Canton, Ohio. I just wanted to throw a thought about the men's World Cup soccer, and that is none of these guys are making this political. They're out there playing a game, doing it for the country, and I wonder if our support for them is almost like a reverse support because of what the women's soccer team did a few years ago at their World Cup and how it was all political. We just want to watch our team succeed. don't care about the politics. Just go out, work hard, do good, and we'll support you. I think that's totally true. The U.S. men's team is doing everything different than the U.S. women's team did by the time they lost and shanked Megan Rapino did to the right side, her penalty kick.

in a big upset loss that they had. Penny in Pennsylvania, she's got my back cut G. Clay, Patty from Pennsylvania, that guy who called and said that you look like Bill de Blasio clearly has never seen that guy because he is extremely unattractive and you clearly are not. So I think that guy just did that to get under your skin. So just ignoring his sense because he, that guy has no idea what he's talking about. Oh, thanks Penny. Look, good ranchers. It's a lot of you. There are many of you that are going to be grilling out for July 4th coming up on the long holiday weekend. And if you haven't tried Good Ranchers already, trust me, we love it. We eat their steaks all the time here. They also have hamburgers, chicken, bacon. July's a great month to treat yourself to Good Rancher products. This month also happens to be National Grilling Month, whether it's burger, steaks on the grill, back? backyard barbecue. You want to get Good Ranchers hooked up. And this July, Good Ranchers celebrating all 50 states, $50 off your first order. Go online. Check out this company. You're going to love them as much as I do. Good Ranchers.com. My name, Clay, for $50 off anything on the site. That's good ranchers.com. My name, C-L-A-Y. That's good ranchers.com, C-L-A-Y. Welcome back in Sweet Home Alabama, the song there. One of the best songs to define a state of all time. according to my always humble opinion. And I gave Rocky Top, Sweet Home Alabama, Country Roads, the Hawaii song, whatever that song is, that they play with a ukulele, California Love, which is a great song, as my top five songs directly connected to a state. We got a lot of people who disagree. I'm right. Most of you who disagree are wrong. And speaking of right versus wrong, I wanted to have some fun here with one of the opinions that came out from the recent Supreme Court decisions, in particular Clarence Thomas, who... Really, I thought, summed up things very well in his six to three opinion. He was in the six three majority saying, hey, you know what? We can't allow all of this insanity to continue where boys are pretending to be girls and beyond. And Clarence Thomas in one and a half pages said, I just want to read this because I think he got to the essence so quickly. The court correctly holds neither Title IX nor the Equal Protection Clause prohibits states from offering sex-separated athletics. A man does not have a legal right to compete against women just because he believes that he is a woman. I join the court's opinion in full. I write separately to make two points. And he says in particular that...

The reason that I love history on, and I was a history major in an undergrad, and I continue to read history every day in my life, is because to me, history teaches toughness. And it teaches the understanding that whatever you are dealing with in your life today, in your present circumstances, People before you have dealt with much more difficult challenges and they've come through them on the other side in a better place. And you will too. And if you look at what those guys studied, I talked about a few years back that I got to go to Italy, took my family to Italy. And I've talked about this before, too. I think traveling to Europe is important because it makes you see history on a broader scale. Western civilization on a broader scale. There are bars in London. You can do a pub crawl with bars that are all older than this country. Think about that for a minute. They have been serving beers in bars in England. longer than our country has existed. You go to Boston, you go tour as you should. Many of the historic sites connected to the revolution. The homes, Paul Revere's homes, downtown Boston, the homes that we consider to be old are new in much of Europe. And the reason... Why our country has endured, why we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country, is because our founding fathers looked at everything that had happened in human history and tried to craft a more perfect government than it ever existed before, learning from and building upon all of Western civilization. They were taught a common core of history that they could all understand, comprehend, and interact, utilizing. I was talking about going to Rome. The Pantheon is my favorite building in all of Rome. It's over 2,000 years old. Great majestic doors opening in the ceiling. It's one of the truly majestic buildings to visit anywhere in the world. And what I loved about walking into that building over 2,000 years old, is that Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, if they walked into that building, That building was 1,700 years old when they walked into it. That building had existed for so long and looks no different to them than it looks to you and me today.

When our founding fathers toured Europe, they looked at everything that had occurred in Western civilization. They studied ancient Greek. They studied ancient Rome. They looked at what had happened in England, what had happened in France. They knew all the history of Western civilization. And they said, based on all of this recorded history, we're going to try to found a new country in this crazy wilderness, in this new land, and we're going to build a framework of government that is designed to withstand the ages and learn from all the failures of the past. And they did it. And the result is that we now all live in the wealthiest country that has ever existed in the history of the world, in a country that is a force for good like none other in the history of the world. And all of us, every single one of you that is listening to me right now that is an American citizen, the greatest gift that we could have ever been given. Whether we're white, black, Asian, Hispanic, whatever your background is, is to have been born in America. A country of such extreme wealth and goodness. that people risk their lives every single day still to just try to step foot on the soil that every single one of us was fortunate enough to either have been born here or to have at some point become a citizen of and yet many americans are not proud of this country why because we have failed when it comes to teaching history All of history is a collection of good and bad decisions by flawed men and women just like you, just like me, just like all of us. Somewhere around 2008, 10, 12, 14, 15, there was a calculated decision. I think it came from many of America's enemies. to decide that American history should focus on the failures of this country as opposed to the successes. Now, every single one of us that is alive today is going to make a huge number of decisions on this day, on this month, on this year, all throughout your life. Many of them are going to be good, but unfortunately many of them are going to be bad. The hope is that if you string together enough really good decisions, they will cancel out many of the bad decisions that we made. If you look at history in America and you go back and you look at the history of Western civilization, America represents the fulsome success of Western civilization.

There has never been a freer, wealthier, more prosperous country in the history of the world than the United States. That's because we learned from all of the failures of past history. It doesn't mean that we were without sin or without failure ourselves, but it does mean that the story of America over its scope is one of transcendent beauty and ascending excellence. the likes of which has never existed in the history of humanity. We are the greatest country to ever exist in the history of the world, and we were founded on the unique principle of excellence rooted in the study of Western civilization by all of our founders who would have been eloquent in talking about... everything that happened in Greece and Rome and everything that had happened in all of Western civilization, because that is how they came to build the framework of this country via not only a declaration of independence, but most prominently the Constitution. How many people understand that? I don't think enough. And that is because there has been a calculated decision to try to make American history look like it is rooted in failure and not success. That's the entire basis of the 1619 project. America in the view of the 1619 project and many other people out there is a country founded on sin and evil, and therefore none of its history can be celebrated because if it's rooted in sin and evil, then there isn't any redemption. The Civil War isn't about a struggle to bring more rights and freedom to everyone, regardless of their background in this world. Instead, it is the story of American slavery. That's why they rooted in 1619, not in 1492 when the new world was discovered. When I come back, I'm going to tell you something that I learned in Hawaii that I think ties all this together. But I want all of you at some point in time over the course of this upcoming celebration. I just want for you to think for just a few moments about how amazingly successful the founding fathers were. And they weren't just willy-nilly haphazardly picking. The decisions that they made and packing it into the Constitution, they were brilliantly analyzing all of the flaws of government throughout human history and trying to craft a durable governing document that would allow America to succeed where all other countries in the past had failed. And they did it. It's remarkable. It's incredible. And the result is that we live in the greatest country that's ever existed in the history of the world. And yet, many out there still don't realize this. History matters. Not because it just gives you strength to understand what everyone else has overcome before you, but also because it gives you an opportunity to sit back and contemplate.

Man, because of their knowledge of history, our country exists and we have the freedoms that we have today. History doesn't just teach. It also creates. And oftentimes, I think we miss that. The creation of this country was based on the historical knowledge that thankfully all of our founding fathers had and were conversant about. We come back. I'll take a couple more of your talkbacks and we'll close it out, take you into America 250. But I want to tell you about our friends at Rapid Radio's. They've got a great offer right now. If you go to Rapid Radio's.com and use code bundle, you will get hooked up. with an incredible offer. If you love Rapid Radio's, back in the day, if you remember GI Joe radios, they were awesome, they were super fun, they were super exciting. Well, what if you had GI Joe radios like that, and they work nationwide, and you could connect with everybody, and you could get a free radio when you buy two. If you buy four radios, you get two free radios. You buy two, you get one free. If you go to RapidRadios.com code bundle. That's Rapidradios.com code. bundle. Miss the show while you're on the go. Wind down your day with the daily review podcast. Find it on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Oh, one of the fabulous connected to state songs. You missed it. We were playing country roads earlier as we had the American soccer team celebrating. I am excited for America 250. I will be at Mount Rushmore tomorrow for President Trump's big speech. and I'll be on Sean Hannity's television program. I've never been to Mount Rushmore. Can't wait to be there. Should be an awesome day. A lot of people want to weigh in. Linda Green Valley, Arizona, who helped to get the airports taken care of back in the day. Linda, I'll let you have the final word before America 250. Well, Clay, all of this history things that you're talking about ties in with what I told producer Greg. I had a conversation with three young ladies, 25, 20, and 19 a couple weeks ago. They all believe that the socialism that's coming to this country, they believe, is going to bump them up to the same life that their social media influencers have. These girls don't know where anything comes from. They don't know history, and they think that socialism is going to bump everybody up economically, and they just don't understand. Amen. Linda, you nailed it again. Teach your kids' history. Capitalism in this country is the greatest of all time.