Speaker 1: Let's continue now, Billy Cunningham, the Great America. Of course,
Speaker 1: State Representative Adam Byrd, both getting in and around New Richmond,
Speaker 1: the Home of the Lions, is one of the leaders
Speaker 1: of the House of Representatives. In Columbus. Last week, Governor
Speaker 1: Mike Dwaine gave a State of the Union State of
Speaker 1: the State address, which I understand went on for about
Speaker 1: an hour and a half. Lots in there. This could
Speaker 1: be one of his last ones because he's leaving office
Speaker 1: at the end of next year. But until then, State
Speaker 1: Representative Adam Byrd, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show
Speaker 1: and the State rep.
Speaker 2: Bird.
Speaker 1: Before we talk about the taxes, all the new taxes,
Speaker 1: Governor Dewines said he wants to raise on almost everything.
Speaker 1: I want to talk with you briefly about Ohio dog laws,
Speaker 1: which you kind of a lot of us smile when
Speaker 1: I hear that. But in my younger days I did
Speaker 1: a lot of personal injury work of those who are
Speaker 1: not bitten by dogs, I mean chewed on and almost
Speaker 1: murdered killed by dogs, including losing thumbs and fingers and
Speaker 1: at dogs. We've had a rash of these, especially in
Speaker 1: Coleraine Township, which is the opposite side of the world
Speaker 1: from you. But a woman, an older woman, was killed.
Speaker 1: We had a little girl in Roselawn that was eaten
Speaker 1: alive by two dogs. We've had numerous other individuals in
Speaker 1: and around the tri State that have been disfigured by dogs.
Speaker 1: And I read out of a Columbus Dispatch story. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're aware of that dogs attack about seventeen thousand
Speaker 1: people a year in Ohio. And that's the tip of
Speaker 1: the iceberg. Because many of the dog attacks are not
Speaker 1: even report it. The actual total was double and triple
Speaker 1: that victims experienced disfigurement, death, amputations, psychological trauma, and huge
Speaker 1: medical bills. And dog owners often get a one bite rule,
Speaker 1: which is, well, your pit bull, your German shepherd can
Speaker 1: have one big bite. We'll let that go and pay
Speaker 1: a minimal fine and go out the door. What can
Speaker 1: you do to correct that? If anything, great to be.
Speaker 2: With you today, Bill, And this is a very interesting topic.
Speaker 2: And I do command the Columbus Dispatch for running this
Speaker 2: story because it's not something that I think a lot
Speaker 2: of us know about. And if you have a dog
Speaker 2: that you're not in control of and it is assaulting
Speaker 2: other people and disfiguring and maiming that that is that
Speaker 2: should be taken care of in law. And if if
Speaker 2: current law is not adequately protecting people from unsupervised dogs,
Speaker 2: we've got to take care of that, and we've got
Speaker 2: to amend a law. And that's why it's called the
Speaker 2: Ohio Revised Code, because we're revising it when we find
Speaker 2: out about issues that are not, you know, taking care
Speaker 2: of I know.
Speaker 1: You're a headquartered there in Claremont County by the Front
Speaker 1: Street grille, but here in Hamilton County, we had a
Speaker 1: dog warden who was called of the scene of this
Speaker 1: vicious assault on a mother of three. Her arms were
Speaker 1: chewed off, she had her legs bitten and it looked
Speaker 1: like she went through a looked like she went through
Speaker 1: accusin art. It looked like her life. Her life is
Speaker 1: over as she knows that she has years of therapy.
Speaker 1: And when called of the scene that dog Warden said,
Speaker 1: hamilty guy. Dog Warden said, well, I can't get the
Speaker 1: dogs because they're too vicious, And the neighbors are saying,
Speaker 1: what the hell are you saying? That's like a cop
Speaker 1: going to a bank robbery saying, well, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get involved in the bank robbery. Those robbers look
Speaker 1: too mean, so what in the hell, And I'm looking
Speaker 1: at that, I'm thinking that can't be the case. And secondly,
Speaker 1: we need strict liability on dogs. That is how many
Speaker 1: times when I had Little Schnorff in the Peanut Head
Speaker 1: and magazine, you'd open a door, they'd run out all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, and then you chase them down to
Speaker 1: make sure they didn't get hurt. If I had a
Speaker 1: Pitbull or a Master or a German Shepherd, I'd be
Speaker 1: a lot more cautious. We need strict liability. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine Adam Bird if one of the people in Coraine
Speaker 1: Township that tried to help that mother of three save
Speaker 1: her life and now she's maimed for life. If some neighbor,
Speaker 1: if a human being had done to her what those
Speaker 1: two dogs had done, they'd be locked up for years.
Speaker 1: How come dog owners can have dogs that do this
Speaker 1: and there's no penalty at all?
Speaker 2: You got me all pistol you're about, I know, and
Speaker 2: I don't really feel responsible for that. But anyway, to
Speaker 2: your point, there are multiple issues here. One is the
Speaker 2: dog itself and what are we going to do about that,
Speaker 2: and are we going to continue to give them one
Speaker 2: free bite where we you know, make them bite a
Speaker 2: second time? And then secondly, are we going to do
Speaker 2: something about the owner of the dog who doesn't properly
Speaker 2: control them and doesn't provide safety for their neighbors around
Speaker 2: a dog that you know they're they're they're not keeping
Speaker 2: on a leash, they're not controlling, and so you've got
Speaker 2: two separate issues there.
Speaker 1: I now, secondly, I don't know if you saw this
Speaker 1: out of out of New York City, a massive new
Speaker 1: study shows that the serious mental side effects following gender
Speaker 1: affirming surgery, this story goes honesty. I'll have the report
Speaker 1: here that after studying this issue for more than fifteen
Speaker 1: years that those Americans who feel, especially if they're miners,
Speaker 1: that as a parent you have to allow hormonal treatment
Speaker 1: and then gender affirming surgery, that the mental problems after
Speaker 1: the surgery are worse than before. Suicides after are worse
Speaker 1: than before, alcoholism drug use is worse after than before.
Speaker 1: Can you tell the American people as we sit here
Speaker 1: this a Monday afternoon, what is the status as we
Speaker 1: speak about a fourteen year old boy who believes because
Speaker 1: of the culture et cetera, that he's really a girl.
Speaker 1: And what is the what are the laws in Ohio
Speaker 1: that either stop, prohibit, or encourage parents to take a
Speaker 1: child and go through a sexual mutilation. What is the
Speaker 1: current state of the law?
Speaker 2: Sure, Bill, And you know you bring up the word
Speaker 2: gender affirming care that phrase right there, I reject that
Speaker 2: because there's nothing affirming or caring about mutilating the body
Speaker 2: of a young person. And so you've got to really
Speaker 2: question parents who are willing to take their child down
Speaker 2: that path. And when you talk about suicide issues, Bill,
Speaker 2: you know other increased suicide issues reflective of this of it. Yes,
Speaker 2: but that's because of what you just said. Because after
Speaker 2: they have gone through the process of chemical castration or
Speaker 2: actual physical removal a part of their body that they
Speaker 2: have deep from regret and remorse, and they you know,
Speaker 2: there's no going back from it at that point, and
Speaker 2: so you ask, what can we do in Ohio. Bill,
Speaker 2: We've already done something. We've had Hostile sixty eight. And
Speaker 2: you may recall that that your friend Governor Juwaian detoed
Speaker 2: that bill and then we had to come back as
Speaker 2: a state legislature and come back and override his vetot
Speaker 2: and establish and restore the safety of our under eighteen
Speaker 2: aged people here in Ohio. Now you can still go
Speaker 2: get you can go get the surgery or get the
Speaker 2: chemical castration at age nineteen or age eighteen, but we
Speaker 2: don't allow that in Ohio anymore if you're underage.
Speaker 1: And so, if you're twenty years old and you've been
Speaker 1: listening to the popular culture and you suddenly want to
Speaker 1: go from Bruce Jenner to Missus Jenner and you're over
Speaker 1: the age of eighteen, you can do it. In fact,
Speaker 1: I would say, look, if that's what you want to
Speaker 1: do with your own body, no other other bodies involved,
Speaker 1: unlike abortion. If you want to go through gender affirming care,
Speaker 1: get hormonal treatment, et cetera, have at it. It's your body.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, but know that this massive study. Let me
Speaker 1: share with you a couple of findings. One massive study
Speaker 1: of more than one hundred and five thousand who had
Speaker 1: gender affirming surgery found some disturbing trends. Published in the
Speaker 1: Journal of Sexual Medicine of the AMA track to one
Speaker 1: hundred and seven thousand patients age eighteen and older with
Speaker 1: gender dysphoria, researchers assessed their mental health two years after
Speaker 1: the surgery and found the transgender person suffer from quote
Speaker 1: heightened psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, partially due
Speaker 1: to stigma and the lack of gender affirmation. Twenty five
Speaker 1: percent face more depression. There was eleven point five percent
Speaker 1: more suicides, which is said, and similar trends were examined
Speaker 1: for males and females. Alcoholism rates want up, drug use
Speaker 1: one up. In other words, going through the process is
Speaker 1: worse than not going through it. So maybe there's something
Speaker 1: at stake here other than one's genitalia. It could be
Speaker 1: a mental disorder.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, you know, you bring up
Speaker 2: gender dysphoria, and I believe the studies show that if
Speaker 2: you were experiencing gender dysphoria, that the natural cure for
Speaker 2: that is to go through adolescents, to allow your body
Speaker 2: and your hormones to go through life naturally normally. And
Speaker 2: as you age and as you change through those formative
Speaker 2: adolescent years and the hormones start flowing, that your gender
Speaker 2: dysphoria issues that you previously experienced are naturally going to
Speaker 2: go away. But to your point, if you're twenty one
Speaker 2: and you still want to do this. I'm sorry if
Speaker 2: you're eighteen and you still want to mutilate parts of
Speaker 2: your body. I believe we should allow adults to make
Speaker 2: those kinds of decisions for themselves. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: the right one to make, but the law in Ohio
Speaker 2: allows an eighteen year old to make that. Well.
Speaker 1: Sweden a liberal haven. Sweden National Board of Health and
Speaker 1: Welfare sets guidelines for care determined earlier this year that
Speaker 1: the risks of puberty blockers and treatments with hormones quote
Speaker 1: currently outweigh the possible benefits for miners. Therefore it will
Speaker 1: be ceased, and the NHS in England, which is in
Speaker 1: the midst of an independent review of gender identity services,
Speaker 1: recently said there is scares and inconclusive evidence for support
Speaker 1: of clinical decision making for miners with gender dysphor you.
Speaker 1: They stopped it two and so we're about ten years
Speaker 1: behind these so called advanced countries in Sweden, England that
Speaker 1: I've tried this beginning about twenty five years ago, and
Speaker 1: they're telling us it's not working.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: If you're in California, a representative Adam Bird, or you're
Speaker 1: in Chicago, Illinois, or Boston Massachusetts. Guess what, it's a
Speaker 1: free fire zone. In fact, parents have told me Adam
Speaker 1: Bird that if my sixteen year old wants to become
Speaker 1: a different gender, I'd rather have a living son than
Speaker 1: a dead daughter, which is a nice phrase untethered to reality. However,
Speaker 1: the doctor might say has got to be done, the
Speaker 1: children's hospital might say it should be done. The government
Speaker 1: will pay for it. And so if you're in one
Speaker 1: of these blue areas, you're in a difficult situation. Correct
Speaker 1: as a child. And in California, if the child goes
Speaker 1: to school and starts identifying by a different gender and
Speaker 1: wear's different clothing at school, the school can't tell the
Speaker 1: parent what's happening at school. So if you're in a
Speaker 1: blue area, what the hell do you do?
Speaker 2: So you go You got to get out, Billy, You
Speaker 2: got to get to a red state because they are
Speaker 2: not going to protect children the way the state Wihio
Speaker 2: protects them. And recall also bill that in Ohio you
Speaker 2: as a if you're a teacher, you cannot hide the
Speaker 2: gender transporia conversation that you might be having with a
Speaker 2: student from the parent. If you have it one time,
Speaker 2: you know you can have a one time. But if
Speaker 2: you talk more than once about it too, in any
Speaker 2: kind of counseling session, you have to tell the parents.
Speaker 2: And you cannot call someone's boy or girl by an
Speaker 2: opposite gender name at school without letting the parents know.
Speaker 2: So we have a lot of protections here. This is
Speaker 2: a protective state. We care about children, we care about
Speaker 2: the family, and we're not going to allow those kinds
Speaker 2: of things to happen. We have a restroom bill in
Speaker 2: Ohio that says you have to go if you're a male,
Speaker 2: you got to go in the male restroom, if you're
Speaker 2: a female, you got to go in the female restroom.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to protect the family, protect kids,
Speaker 2: and these blue states aren't doing it right now, Billy,
Speaker 2: And if I was recommending to a parent, get out
Speaker 2: of there before they try to take your child away
Speaker 2: from you. Now.
Speaker 1: Lastly, on tax increases, the governor proposed lots of new
Speaker 1: taxes last week in the State of the State Address,
Speaker 1: including on cigarettes booze, and he wants to double the
Speaker 1: tax on marijuana, which will drive too many into the
Speaker 1: dark market. One of the best things that's happening now
Speaker 1: with marijuana. There's about five to eight thousand people working
Speaker 1: otherwise weren't working in the marijuana, the processing, the growing,
Speaker 1: and in the storefronts, et cetera. You also have about
Speaker 1: a billion dollars this year in twenty twenty five coming
Speaker 1: out of the pockets of drug dealers and going into
Speaker 1: the pockets of the people of the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1: The governor wants to double that tax. Is that going
Speaker 1: to fly?
Speaker 2: I don't see it, Billy. I don't know. If you
Speaker 2: watched the governor state of the State of draft yesterday,
Speaker 2: Basically he spent about one hundred minutes outlining his priorities
Speaker 2: and his budget, and there were a couple of times
Speaker 2: where he got very tepid applause. And that would include
Speaker 2: additional taxes on cigarettes, additional taxes on marijuana and online gaming,
Speaker 2: and so doubling many of those taxes. And you know,
Speaker 2: most Republicans, most conservative leaning people, aren't big on the
Speaker 2: issue of increasing taxes. And and even though you know,
Speaker 2: personally I am, I'm not a fan of cigarettes, especially
Speaker 2: because they are you know, they shorten people's lives, and
Speaker 2: they they they put people on Medicaid, and there's all
Speaker 2: kinds of things that are that go along with cigarette use,
Speaker 2: but still I'm not going to support it. I don't
Speaker 2: believe Republicans in the Ohio House are going to support
Speaker 2: any kind of tax increase for these things.
Speaker 1: Well, he's talking about a one percent tax increase in marijuana,
Speaker 1: and I don't drink, I don't use cigarettes, never had
Speaker 1: pot in my life, and I don't gamble online. Line
Speaker 1: those up. This is so called the sins In other words,
Speaker 1: we're going to punish you for sinful behavior. Does Ohio
Speaker 1: have a revenue problem? What does Ohio have a spending
Speaker 1: problem to increase all these taxes? Which is it do
Speaker 1: we have Do we spend too much or collect too
Speaker 1: little in tax.
Speaker 2: Well? I think that we always are concerned about efficiency,
Speaker 2: and of course Ohio we're we're we are. We have
Speaker 2: to we have to spend what we take in. We
Speaker 2: can't spend more like the federal government can can. And
Speaker 2: so the issue of taxing, we we we have reduced
Speaker 2: taxes over the last two general assemblies built. We've reduced
Speaker 2: income taxes for the state of Ohio. And right now,
Speaker 2: I believe our priorities are property taxes, and our property
Speaker 2: taxes are going our skyrocketing because property valuations are skyrocketing,
Speaker 2: and we've got to do something about that to the
Speaker 2: best of our ability. I do think that skyrocketing property
Speaker 2: valuations are going to go down because as we experience
Speaker 2: the trump UH years, the trump UH the budget, I
Speaker 2: think that that he is going to take care of
Speaker 2: inflation pressures, and when that drops, I think property valuations
Speaker 2: will drop and will ease some of this. But in
Speaker 2: the short term, we that's got to be our new
Speaker 2: renewed focus in in Columbus. We've taken care of some
Speaker 2: income taxes by dropping them. It's time to bring some
Speaker 2: property tax really to ohiolands, and we need to do
Speaker 2: that quickly.
Speaker 1: You know, there's probably a lot of Claremont County residents
Speaker 1: on a fixed income that make less than fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year. Their house is worth less than a
Speaker 1: half a million, probably a lot less than a half million.
Speaker 1: And I heard one of your colleagues said there should
Speaker 1: be either no property tax or very little if you
Speaker 1: have less than fifty thousand dollars in income and your
Speaker 1: house is worth one hundred thousand dollars a year and
Speaker 1: you're in a situation where we have skyrocketing property expenses.
Speaker 1: Is that happening in Claremont County.
Speaker 2: By the way, Oh my goodness, Bill, yes it is.
Speaker 2: We had one of the highest increases in property valuations
Speaker 2: in the state of Ohio. It was like forty three
Speaker 2: percent a year ago. And so that is very painful
Speaker 2: to grandma and grandpa. You know, you've brought up people
Speaker 2: of low income, how about people of no income or
Speaker 2: retired income, and we're asking these people to pay skyrocketing
Speaker 2: property taxes through opall of their own And you may
Speaker 2: recall back in the presidential election that Kamala Harris talked
Speaker 2: about unrealized capital gains tax. That's essentially what we do
Speaker 2: in Ohio with our property taxes. Bill, if your house,
Speaker 2: if you purchased a house for one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: and now it's value at two hundred thousand dollars, we're
Speaker 2: going to tax you on your property at two hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: even though you've not technically realized any kind of game there.
Speaker 2: And that's something that's got to stop.
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully, if the governor doesn't maintains this and wants
Speaker 1: to double the tax on the so called sins, that
Speaker 1: you and the legislature can overrule him, like you did
Speaker 1: on the transgender care. I think Children's Hospital in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: by the way, is complying with state law, which is
Speaker 1: a positive right.
Speaker 2: It is, And I believe you're right. I believe that
Speaker 2: they are complying. I believe that hospitals all over the
Speaker 2: Ohio are doing that. Could they be referring to people
Speaker 2: to out of state? That they could be And you've
Speaker 2: made mention of blue states that are doing these things,
Speaker 2: and I suspect there might be some referrals to their
Speaker 2: clients to go out of state, but I don't believe
Speaker 2: it's happening here. And and so you know, you got
Speaker 2: you got governments want on your show all the time.
Speaker 2: Maybe you should mention to him about your opposition to
Speaker 2: some of these tax increases.
Speaker 1: I will do that next week for the week there after,
Speaker 1: getting ready for Reds baseball coming up a week from Thursday.
Speaker 1: But Adam Bird, you're the best out there. I want
Speaker 1: to buy you a hotty Toddy maybe some chicken wings
Speaker 1: at Front Street Grille at some point this summer.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, I think Governor Dwaine's going to be
Speaker 2: in town for Reds opening Day. Maybe you can interviewing
Speaker 2: live or that's something like that.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: He loves to come to Red's opening day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna pin him to the wall on this one. No,
Speaker 1: we don't have a revenue problem. We have collect enough money.
Speaker 1: We have a spending problem in Ohio. That's why. But
Speaker 1: Vake Ramaswami's gonna bring dose to Ohio. By the way,
Speaker 1: thirty seconds remaining. Do you like the Vike Ramaswami or
Speaker 1: David Joes for governor?
Speaker 2: Like them both? Bill, I don't like tough primaries. These
Speaker 2: are both good conservative men that have that have been
Speaker 2: conservative warriors and there's a lot to like about both
Speaker 2: of them. And you know, once got to Trump endorsement.
Speaker 2: One's been elected four times statewide and has has defending
Speaker 2: conservative values across the state of Ohio multiple times as
Speaker 2: attorney general. So you know that's where we're at. It's
Speaker 2: going to be a tough primary for sure.
Speaker 1: And Adam Bird, God bless you and God bless America.
Speaker 1: Adam Byrd, thank you very much for coming on the
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Stake Rep.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Great to be with you, sir, love being
Speaker 2: with the great American.
Speaker 1: God bless America. Thank you. Let's continue with more news
Speaker 1: coming up next at your Home of the Reds. Getting
Speaker 1: ready for Reds Baseball a week from Thursday on news
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