Quotas. That's quotas. Enter it now, Bill Cunningham, the Great America,
welcome this war. It's Tuesday afternoon in the Tri State of weather prices
may come to the Tri State later today or tomorrow, plus about a week
from now, it's going to be a low of zero. So winns arriving
big time. But as you may know, yes, I recall yesterday I
had on Governor Mike Dwan for an extended period of time talking about the transgender
bill and also marijuana. And we have now the second most powerful man in
the state of Ohio politically, that is Speaker of the House Jason Stevens.
He controls the lower Chamber with an iron grip. There's ninety nine state representatives
and the Republicans have a super majority. And according to my sources deep in
the Capitol, there's going to be an effort tomorrow to override the veto,
and then the Senate might be a week or ten days await. But let's
get all the facts. Speaker Jason Stevens, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham
Show. And first of all, before we deal with marijuana, the Governor
said yesterday that the main reason he vetoed the so called transgender bill. House
Bill sixty eight dealt with the fact that he met with some family members whose
daughter slash son was going through the process, and he looked them in the
eye and he was told that if he didn't veto this bill, that somehow
their teenage boy or girl would commit suicide. And so the governor said that
the deaths are on the line. And I said to the Governor, mister
Speaker that you have Lieutenant Governor said you're wrong. Secretary of State said you're
wrong, Attorney General said you're wrong. Treasurer said you're wrong. The Speaker
of the House of Representatives, you said you're wrong. Most of the Republicans
in the House say you're wrong. In fact, everywhere I look, people
say you're wrong. And he said he's going to do what he perceives to
be right. So, first of all, can you tell the American people
as we sit here this Tuesday afternoon, what is the status of the possibility
of overriding the veto of Governor Mike dwain Well. Bill, I appreciate the
opportunity to be on the on the show today, and you know we have
sessions scheduled for tomorrow to two pm here in Columbus, and we will be
addressing the override of the veto there at the session. So outstanding, you
know, Snowmageddon coming in or anything like that, we look for that to
happen tomorrow. I would anticipate that you have whips that are walking around your
caucus and saying, who's in, who's out? Are you on what degree
between one to ten? Are you confident you'll have the votes to override the
veto and the House of Representatives? Is it a one, which is you
know, not very likely, or a ten very likely? Where are you
on the Richter scale? Oh? I think it's it's very likely. And
you know this this issue was not terribly difficult to whip people, you know.
And here's the thing is, the House is voted on this bill.
We voted on back in June, passed it over to the Senate. The
Senate modified it a little bit, and the same day that the Senate passed
it back in December, you know, we voted it to the Governor's desk.
So the House was voted on this issue twice before, and so you
know, both times well over sixty votes. And you know that's the threshold
fifty nine or sixty, depending on who he asked. But I don't think
it's it'll be over sixty. You know, when the V two override comes,
can you tell the American people? Can you respond to the governor who
said that I looked in the eyes of parents and teenage boys slash girls,
and they told me that they would die commit suicide if I didn't do this.
Now, you know, Mike de Wine's a family guy. I like
Mike. I've liked Mike for thirty years. I've caught some flak for that
over the years for many hard rock ribbed conservatives, But nonetheless I like Mike
de Wine. He's been to his I've been to his house, he's been
to mind. We've broken break we talk. You know, he's a good
guy. Well, how do you respond to his argument that he met with
people who said if I didn't do this, somebody's going to die. I
think there are you know, and I think this happens with a lot of
issues. There are good people on both sides of an issue. They just
have a different way of solving an issue or dealing with the issue. And
this is one that in the House we've dealt with for the past three years
as far as having many, many witnesses on both sides of the issue.
And you know, this House or this bill was vetted through committee. You
know, we voted it in the House. It went through the whole entire
process. And I will remind folks this is the reason we have the committees,
why we have testimony and the opportunity for people to hear, you know,
what may be wrong or what may be right with any bill, but
especially this bill. And I think it's important that this is a bill that
helps to you know, empower parents and it protects children, and that is
where we're at. And I think the you know, the members of the
House have spoken loudly a couple of times on this bill, and we will
have the opportunity to do that again tomorrow. And you know, it's part
of the political process and we will take that. And I think there's been
a lot of consideration, but you know, it's it's something that I know
our members still very strongly about that this bill needs to be in law.
Well, the argument of Mike DeWine is one of conservatism by implication. He
seems to be saying that mister Speaker, persons like you are somewhat insensitive when
it comes to parental rights and the government involved. He said, look,
if the sixteen year old boy girl wants to begin hormonal therapy to become transgender,
if the doctor says yes, it has to be done. If Children's
Hospital in Cincinnati Piches the top in America and nationwide, and Cleveland Clintic,
he's got all the big hospitals lined up with him. So he's got the
hospitals, dwind does the doctors, he's got the parents, and he's got
the patient. And he makes the argument, who are you to step in
between a parent and a teenager when it comes to medical care that the hospital
and the doctors all say are reasonable and necessary. So can you respond to
the argument that you're like a liberal all of a sudden in which you want
government to make decisions for individuals and not parents and teenagers. Is that value?
I don't agree with that argument at all. I think there are plenty
of cases as you look around in society, and we're talking about children here.
We're not talking about adults. This is about children, and there are
many cases, you know, whether it's you know other places in the law
where kids have to go to school or you know, there's certain requirements that
we that we put our protections, if you will, around children. And
I think it's an important it's an important part of raising our kids. Right.
And so to say that you know, a parent can decide to you
know, do whatever, you know their kid needs this, that or the
other thing. I think it's when it comes to these types of life changing
issues that will have ramifications well into adulthood that we should allow. You know,
adults should be the ones making those decisions for their own selves, not
a child of any age having that uh decision in some ways be made for
them by their parents. So speaker Stevens forward for me, you don't view
yourself as a liberal. You don't view yourself as something that once government to
make decisions, Uh, the mine set. It's up to the it's up
to the patients and the doctors, not up to government to tell. And
I said to the governor, look, you have all kinds of rules and
the regulations Jehovah. Witnesses may say, you know, my kid can't get
a blood transfusion. You go to court to get the blood transfusion. There
might be some parents who say, you know what, my kid's never going
to be vaccinated against smallpox. Well to do a bunch of stuff, you
got to get your childhood vaccination. A lot of parents say, my kid
doesn't belong in a child safety seat. I believe in kids roaming around and
making their own decisions. Well, government says you can't make that decision.
You have to do that. So there's all kinds of things. But of
course DeWine said somehow this is different. Now, Speaker Stevens, did what
happened on Friday change your view at all? Because Governor DeWine said on Friday
issuing an executive order that I would imagine for everyone in the state of Ohio,
you can't have surgical intervention until there's all kinds of procedures through hospitals or
whatever be involved. Did that change your opinion at all? When Governor Mike
DeWine added a little extra on Friday, Well, I think you know it
was a step in the right direction. But I think what's important to remember
is is when the legislature puts it in, you know, it becomes part
of its law, and you know, an executive order is just that,
you know, depending on who's head of the executive branch that how that is
implemented. So I think it's important for the law to be on the books
and you know, as we work through the rules process, you know,
that's part of you know, how we how we administer the laws. I
think that's important as well. But I do believe that having this state of
Ohio that would tell an Ohio adult, that is, someone over eighteen that
they cannot go through hormonal replacement and they or they can't have surgical change.
Would you support a law for an adult Ohio one to be restricted and transgenderism
when it comes to hormones and surgery? Would you support that or not?
Yeah, that's a great question. Bill. I think it's important that you
know, people have their freedom to do what they want to, but also
in these kind of situations, I think it's also important that they have to
have some sort of you know, some sort of counseling and some sort of
you know, the pros and the cons and all of that sort of thing
before you know, adult makes that decision. I think that's you know,
the best practice of any kind of medical care. But you know, what
we're talking about in this issue is, you know, it's about kids,
It's about people eight under eighteen, and I think that is important. But
you know, as you know, somebody forty years old that's you know,
full grown and wants to do whatever. That's pretty much. You know,
I'm pretty uh pretty. You know, it's America, right, You get
to do what you want to do. You know, is we we we
say where I'm from. You know my unofficial our unofficial mottos, you're not
the bossomy. So you know, once you get to that, once you
get to that level that I think it's a much different question than what you
know happens to a twelve or thirteen year old in this situation. Now.
Secondly, Speaker Jason Stevens of the leader of the Ohio House of Representatives,
I spoke with the governor yesterday about marijuana. He was less than kind when
it came to the House of Representatives, namely you and not acting more quickly
when it comes to marijuana. He said, there's products being sold in gas
stations that have allucinogenic effects that kids can buy. That give you an example.
I had a county prosecutor tell me they went to the Bengals game against
the Browns on Sunday and there was marijuana being smoked in the smoking section.
Wherever you can smoke a cigarette, you can smoke marijuana. And that was
upsetting to some and so we have basically little or no rules when it comes
to marijuana. You can smoke marijuana right now in Ohio. You can grow
marijuana from from seed to joint. It takes about three to four months,
however, but you cannot actually legally buy it. And the governor wants you
to act quickly? Will you heed the governor's call? Well, I will.
I will say this. I've been to a Bengals game before the uh
before before the marijuana was legalized, and you can certainly smell it in the
parking lot before as well. So you know, these are things that have
happened well before. You know, the legalization was voted upon, and I
think what's important is is it's balancing the you know, the will of people.
Fifty seven percent of the people voted for it. It's something that you
know, as you get into the details of the law, you know that
was voted on. You know there's a lot of runway, if you will,
before it can be sold as recreational. It's all the way up until
June before people can't even apply and for a license to sell it, and
it's not issued until September, maybe even October, so there is some time
to deal with that. What I think is important and what we've tried to
do in the House is to be very deliberative on what are we actually doing,
because here's the thing, in my opinion, if we if you know,
marijuana is going to be legal in Ohio, recreational marijuana, But what
is important is to have that business structure done in a way so that it's
done effectively, because if the business ructure of the recreational marijuana is not done
correctly, you know, the black market is going to grow anyway, right
or if you have the tax rate be so high that nobody's going to want
to buy legal marijuana, they'll either drive to Michigan or they'll do it on
their own. And I think some of those issues, you know, we
can deal with either through the rule making process or you know, taking time
to look at it. And even even within the Republican caucus too, we
have a wide array of what people's opinions are all the way from you know,
they voted to know and want to ban it forever to you know it
should be legal, you know, as legal as can be, I guess.
So really coming to that conclusion and coming to that consensus to change a
law that the voters voted on, you know, I would rather err on
the side of being more deliberative and taking our time. And you know,
we've had legalized marijuana, I guess for over a month now in Ohio,
and you know, we're still you know, the sun still comes up,
and we still want to deal with that. But there's still plenty of time
to address the issue and legislatively addressing it at this point, you know,
I'm sure you know, as time goes on, you know, every GA
in the future, there'll probably be tweaks to the industry and that sort of
thing. But to do an absolute overhaul within you know, a few minutes
after the people have spoken, I think being deliberative about that and getting consensus
from all sides is more important than hurrying up and pushing something through that may
be more harmful than good. So, Speaker, you're saying that Governor says
get it done now or in February, there's an article in the enquire about
how slow this is going. You're saying, this likely we'll not already done.
Well, it's already done. The people spoke in November. And it's
not that it's not done. I mean that would be my point is it
is done. It's just what needs to be done to change it. And
I think some of the issue as far as the debate that we've had is
what to do with the tax revenue. And you know, the way the
legislation was written, it was it was more written towards you know, state
bureaucrats being the ones that kind of administer the money. This is a general
statement whereas you know, if I was wanting to change shit, I would
think it would be more important that the local communities, you know, where
the where the stuff is sold, should be the ones receiving the tax money
and not not the bureaucracy in Columbus. So that's been some of our conversation,
you know, behind the scenes, is what's best because if the local
communities are generating that tax revenue and they're going to have to deal with whatever
the fallout may be, that they should be the ones who control where that
money is spent. Now, lastly, about a minute remaining, Speaker Jason
Stevens Ohio House representatives, the abortion issue passed over many of our objections.
But nonetheless, the people have spoken. And I had on all the great
debates on Issue one, back and forth, fifty seven percent said abortion on
demand all the way up and through birth. That's the way it is.
And some said that during the debate, well, this doesn't affect parental notification,
this doesn't affect the fetal tissue remains issue, it doesn't affect the sonogram.
And I'm thinking, wait a minute, when I read Issue one,
it seemed to wipe those things completely away, as a speaker of the House,
with state Issue one, which is abortion on demand forever through birth,
do those other aspects of the Statutes of Ohio remain when it comes to parental
consent notification, fetal tissue disposal, et cetera, or all those things done?
You know, really is that is going to probably be up to the
courts to figure out the details of each one of those as how it applies
to the to the new constitutional amendment. You know, I don't have any
intention. I don't believe the Republican Caucus has any intention to remove any of
those laws from the books. So I think, you know, over time,
those will be tested in the courts. And I think also over time,
you know, we will see the impacts of this constitutional amendment and you
know we'll we will have to deal with those as a society really and you
know, well we will. You know, it's just one of those things
where you have to say, we'll see, but really, you know,
as sore as the legislature dealing with the issue, I think it's it will
it will be sometime in the very distant future that before we will have to
address that because most of those issues will go through the courts. Uh,
you know, over the next several years, I would I would guess,
and we'll see how those work out. Speaker Jason Stevens hah Ohio House of
Representatives, thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show and responding to what
the governor said yesterday. Speaker, thank you very much, absolutely, thank
you, Bill, have a great day. Thank you. Let's continue with
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