Speaker 1: Iesuous right. He yea s America and Jery Holland for
Speaker 1: regious for nation. I God invasi.
Speaker 2: And this is wrong. This is Columbia's Morning News with
Speaker 2: Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point
Speaker 2: five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
Speaker 3: It is fifteen minutes after six o'clock. Good morning and welcome.
Speaker 3: We finally made it to Friday. It's February fourteenth. It's
Speaker 3: Valentine's Oh you did not, sir, forget. I didn't. I
Speaker 3: can promise you your significant other did not forget. You
Speaker 3: said you're ready. I'm good as ready as I need
Speaker 3: to be. Like I mentioned yesterday, my wife's down with
Speaker 3: the flu. So oh yeah, it's not feeling it better
Speaker 3: huh a little. Yeah, she's she's on the mend. Okay, good,
Speaker 3: but won't be doing anything special tonight. So just hopefully
Speaker 3: you're gonna be giving you the flu. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I kept it to the bare minimum.
Speaker 3: Yeah all right. So, uh, this week for me personally,
Speaker 3: I mean usually man, I come back from vacation. It
Speaker 3: seems like that first week back is last forever. This
Speaker 3: one's kind of fown on by here. Whatever your plans are,
Speaker 3: if you need to do anything outdoors. Yeah, you're sir
Speaker 3: tired to forecast? Do it today because after the day
Speaker 3: it's just nasty. And oh, hang on a minute, wait
Speaker 3: just a minute. What now the model is starting to
Speaker 3: ramp up. We have more winter weather on the way. Really, yeah,
Speaker 3: potential of a some models calling for a wintery mix
Speaker 3: for us come Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I just
Speaker 3: saw a couple of runs of the UH, the the
Speaker 3: euro and the GFS and yeah, they're they're showing the
Speaker 3: potential for snowfall for the Midlands the Columbia area next Thursday.
Speaker 3: When model says it could even be maybe like two
Speaker 3: inches of snow. Wow. Yeah, so we may not be
Speaker 3: done with winter weather, ye or sortatly. I done with
Speaker 3: the colder air. But do we get more snow? Hopefully
Speaker 3: no ice? And again depends on what mode you're looking at. Wintry, mixed, sleet,
Speaker 3: freezing rain. We don't want that. But are the models
Speaker 3: calling for just some snow possible for us?
Speaker 4: All right, but let's get through the weekend and then
Speaker 4: you can tell us what it looks like on Monday.
Speaker 3: I'll just this weekend looks to be a looks to
Speaker 3: be a wash out at least, but you know how
Speaker 3: that goes. That stinks. Yeah, it's opening weekend for college
Speaker 3: baseball the D one level across the state. Yeah, this
Speaker 3: is gonna be hard to get them all in. I
Speaker 3: guess all right, the rundown the big stories of hot
Speaker 3: topics for this Valentine's Day doze in SC. Well, there
Speaker 3: are some leaders over the state House Republicans who think
Speaker 3: that's a good idea. They want to establish a Department
Speaker 3: of Government Efficiency in South Carolina. It's hard to disagree
Speaker 3: with that concept, right.
Speaker 4: And yet at the same time, it just seems like
Speaker 4: a bit of a stretch. I mean, if we're that
Speaker 4: bloated at the state government level, then I mean there
Speaker 4: just aren't nearly enough agencies and organizations for it to
Speaker 4: get that point like it is federal. No. No, I
Speaker 4: mean I absolutely agree. If if we've got that kind
Speaker 4: of bloat, then then go to cutting. Well, but of course,
Speaker 4: you know, with the Republicans, if there's bloat, you're the
Speaker 4: ones who created.
Speaker 3: Exactly right, you can't blame that on the Democrats. Well,
Speaker 3: we do actually have bodies that are in existence right
Speaker 3: now here in the state that that served as somewhat
Speaker 3: the same function. But anyway, it's you know, it's a hey,
Speaker 3: it's it's the shiny new object exactly. And uh, you know,
Speaker 3: some folks over there want to say, hey, I have
Speaker 3: no issue. I don't think any of us do with
Speaker 3: making sure that that our taxpayer dollars aren't being unwisely
Speaker 3: and frivolously distributed here in South CARELA. And yeah, there's
Speaker 3: some of that, you know there is.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm sure there is. But is it worth spending
Speaker 4: a lot of time and effort and money.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: This seems like one of the usual state House suspects
Speaker 4: when they get to a point where they don't want
Speaker 4: to tackle what they need to tackle, they see what's
Speaker 4: up in Washington and then they recreate those headlines in
Speaker 4: South Carolina.
Speaker 3: But now, if if you're if you're serious about it,
Speaker 3: you want to do it, then sign me up to
Speaker 3: be elon musk. Okay, yeah, I'll be happy to yeah,
Speaker 3: be happy to. Yeah. We also have some over the
Speaker 3: state House that are pushing for a change to the
Speaker 3: US Constitution as it pertains to term limits. You know
Speaker 3: that that would be a constitutional change. It would require
Speaker 3: thirty four states to all sign on, and there's a
Speaker 3: resolution over the state House that says what we should
Speaker 3: sign on to that here in South Carolina. This again
Speaker 3: term limits. You know, uh yeah, this pops up all
Speaker 3: the time, and people get excited about it when they
Speaker 3: hear about it, and then it just kind of goes way.
Speaker 3: This will always be in the discussion and we'll probably
Speaker 3: never happen.
Speaker 4: I don't mean it in terms of how he's voted
Speaker 4: the last couple of days. But you turn on a
Speaker 4: TV and you look at Mitch McConnell and same on
Speaker 4: the other side, you look at Nancy Pelosi and you think, yeah,
Speaker 4: term limits need to be instituted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there are very very good arguments for that.
Speaker 3: Certainly now you mentioned the fluorting through your household right now,
Speaker 3: d heck. They're no longer d heck are they? The
Speaker 3: Department of Public Health. It's going to take me a
Speaker 3: long time to get used to not saying d HACK anymore.
Speaker 3: I wasn't sure which what to call it, and I'm glad,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess we'll call him DPH anyway. One
Speaker 3: and thirty influenza hospitalizations this past week alone. Hospitalization so far,
Speaker 3: we've had close to fifty five hundred people hospitalized and
Speaker 3: thirty seven people have died as a result of the
Speaker 3: flu here in South Carolina. Hey, good news, Northeast Richland
Speaker 3: County travelers. The hard Scrabble Road project, the project that
Speaker 3: seemed like it would never end. Maybe Devin here, but
Speaker 3: maybe getting close to wrapping up here. Give him a
Speaker 3: couple more months, as Dot to complete the last two
Speaker 3: miles of this. This has been going on since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: This is crazy.
Speaker 4: That's a long drawn out project.
Speaker 3: But Dot says, maybe months away from getting it done.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, he's in or FK Junior confirmed as
Speaker 3: Trump's Health secretary. That vote fifty to forty eight yesterday.
Speaker 3: So let the fund begin here Maha for everybody. Matter
Speaker 3: of fact, it looks like Trump's establishing a new AMU
Speaker 3: Maha Commission. Of course RFK Junior will head that up.
Speaker 3: I don't know how to any different from what he'll
Speaker 3: be doing at at at DHS. But but whatever, Cash
Speaker 3: Battel has cleared a key confirmation hurdle. He got out
Speaker 3: of the Senate Judiciary Committee party line vote. Duh. Really yeah,
Speaker 3: so uh, this nomination moves on, and really I'm you know, this,
Speaker 3: this is going to happen with cash battel and you know,
Speaker 3: one of the one of the things that's got to
Speaker 3: a lot of people in DC apparently calling defense attorneys.
Speaker 3: Is is he going to release the Epstein files? I
Speaker 3: bet he will.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Trump came through with it yesterday. He talked about it
Speaker 3: this past Sunday on Air Force One heading down to
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl, that he would do it sometime this week,
Speaker 3: and he has now done it's signing a memorandum yesterday
Speaker 3: reciprocal tariffs.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Now, there's a lot of handwringing over this one. Main
Speaker 3: Street is concerned, National Retailers Federation warning of higher prices.
Speaker 3: Trump even himself saying, yeah, that could be higher prices
Speaker 3: in the short term, but long term is the payoff.
Speaker 3: Wall Street didn't seem bothered by this. Yesterday, stocks on
Speaker 3: the brink of new record highs futures pulling back a
Speaker 3: little bit this morning. We could spend the whole morning
Speaker 3: and then need more time talking about how many times
Speaker 3: now in the last couple of weeks judges have got
Speaker 3: involved in at least temporarily halting Trump executive orders here.
Speaker 3: I mean, the list goes on and on and on
Speaker 3: a federal judge late yesterday issuing an order compelling the
Speaker 3: White House to lift its three week funding on a
Speaker 3: free funding freeze, I should say on US foreign aid
Speaker 3: Biden appointee I think was responsible for that. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: better believe it. Meantime, another Biden appointed judge directing the
Speaker 3: White House to keep funding hospitals that performed child sex
Speaker 3: change operations.
Speaker 4: Okay, you know, I don't understand this, this whole brewhaha.
Speaker 4: I mean, on the one hand, you've got Democrats yelling
Speaker 4: out this is a constitutional crisis. The you know, Elon
Speaker 4: Musk and Donald Trump are running wild, and then at
Speaker 4: the same time they're celebrating these judges who are executing well,
Speaker 4: they're doing things that obviously the Republicans don't agree with.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, it is the balance of power.
Speaker 4: You've got the judicial branch versus the executive branch, kind
Speaker 4: of one balances the other. It can't be both. It
Speaker 4: can't be a constitutional crisis and you think the system
Speaker 4: is working at the same time.
Speaker 3: That's talking about both sides. You mount exactly, exactly, U. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you got fourteen states attorneys general suing Elon Musk over
Speaker 3: what they're calling unchecked government power.
Speaker 4: Have you seen the doge clock? No, Oh, it's awesome.
Speaker 4: I mean it's it is. Let me let me see
Speaker 4: where it stands right now. You, you personally, you as
Speaker 4: a taxpayer, you've already saved three hundred three dollars and
Speaker 4: ninety two cents just individually, just individually, and each have
Speaker 4: said every US taxpayer. Yes, Wow, they have saved forty
Speaker 4: five point five nine billion dollars so far. They are
Speaker 4: two point three percent toward their goal.
Speaker 3: Well, they say they save that, but the problem is
Speaker 3: judges keeps saying no, you can't do that. Well, it's
Speaker 3: still working, all right. That more coming up here on
Speaker 3: this the Friday morning Valentine's Day edition. Love is in
Speaker 3: the air, No Columbus, Well love it. It'll be his
Speaker 3: morning news now hear about it. We've had multiple Democrats
Speaker 3: politicians talk about it, threven people and incited violence.
Speaker 2: One on three point five FM and five sixty am
Speaker 2: w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David
Speaker 2: and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM
Speaker 2: and five six w VOC.
Speaker 3: It is six forty one. Good morning, and good to
Speaker 3: have you along for Valentine's Day, Friday, February fourteenth. I
Speaker 3: am Gary David. That is Christopher Thompson right over there.
Speaker 3: So much going on, I mean, so many things to
Speaker 3: talk about, and we'll be talking about a lot of
Speaker 3: them today. Doze in South Carolina. We'll get to that
Speaker 3: a little bit later on this morning. This this this concept.
Speaker 3: RFK Junior confirmed by the Senate fifty to forty eight
Speaker 3: as the next Secretary of the Department of Health Human Services.
Speaker 3: The list goes on and on, the reciprocal tariffs from
Speaker 3: imposed as of yesterday, and and what that effect is
Speaker 3: going to have on on on all of us. So
Speaker 3: big stuff, but you know what, all of that really
Speaker 3: pales in comparison to this topic we're going to spend
Speaker 3: a couple of minutes on right now, artificial intelligence. So
Speaker 3: Vice President Vance was in France earlier this week and
Speaker 3: it was a big symposium. They were talking about artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3: How many times have you, I know, I've done it
Speaker 3: a bunch. You think about AI and the machines and
Speaker 3: all this, and the image conjures up in your mind
Speaker 3: of the Terminator movies, right little, yeah, yeah, Oh, I
Speaker 3: do it all the time. James Cameron, who directed that
Speaker 3: first Terminator moving back in nineteen eighty four, is actually
Speaker 3: a part of a group of people that are studying
Speaker 3: and you know, consulting and talking to people about all this.
Speaker 3: And he was talking recently at the Special Competitive Study
Speaker 3: the Projects AI and Robotic Summit. He made the argument
Speaker 3: that AI today is a scarier scenario than what he
Speaker 3: presented in The Terminator forty years ago. He says that
Speaker 3: for no other reason, it's no longer science fiction. It's happening.
Speaker 3: He's sounding the alarm. He's part of the board of
Speaker 3: Stability AI, which is a UK based artificial intelligence company,
Speaker 3: and he's issued to warnings now not about rogue AI
Speaker 3: launching missiles. Remember that was a whole the backdrop what
Speaker 3: Sky now was called sky now. I think in the
Speaker 3: in the Terminator movies, the machines took launched a war
Speaker 3: on the humans. He fears though, that the emergence of
Speaker 3: an all encompassing intelligence system embedded within society, one that
Speaker 3: enables constant surveillance, manipulates public opinion, influences behavior, and operates
Speaker 3: largely without oversight, is a scary prospect. That is scary,
Speaker 3: very much so. And he says it's it's happening, he said.
Speaker 3: You'll be living in a world you didn't agree to,
Speaker 3: you didn't vote for, and you're being forced to share
Speaker 3: with a super intelligent entity that allows the goals of
Speaker 3: a corporation. He points out, in this case, an entity
Speaker 3: will have access to your communications, beliefs, everything you've ever said,
Speaker 3: and the whereabouts of every person in the country through
Speaker 3: personal are that's happening right now.
Speaker 4: Well, the influencing on the public, I mean we saw
Speaker 4: that during the election. I mean, you've got all these
Speaker 4: bots out there, the algorithm algorithms that you know, read
Speaker 4: your behavior and then send you certain things to make
Speaker 4: you think something else.
Speaker 3: Sure, but let's let's let's bring this to on to
Speaker 3: just the level of Okay, what do you do when
Speaker 3: this happens? One example, here in this country, our government
Speaker 3: operates on getting taxes from working individuals. Right, So now
Speaker 3: the talk is what happens. James O'Brien wrote an opinion
Speaker 3: piece on foxnews dot com. What happens when so many
Speaker 3: jobs are eventually taken over by AI. You got people
Speaker 3: that aren't working and needing what government benefits, but so
Speaker 3: many people aren't working, what happens to the tax base
Speaker 3: in this country. I mean, the way our government makes
Speaker 3: money is to get taxes from working human beings. Well,
Speaker 3: what if that job is replaced by artificial intelligence? Where
Speaker 3: does the tax money? Where? Where does that Where does
Speaker 3: that revenue generating tax base come from? This has to
Speaker 3: be considered. No one idea is that, well, companies, corporations
Speaker 3: that employ this AI that somehow they're they're they're they're
Speaker 3: they're levied more taxes on it. But this is something
Speaker 3: I hadn't thought about. And yeah, and worst case scenario
Speaker 3: here is is that a lot of people lose their jobs.
Speaker 3: And so it's it's it's a double edged sword. Not
Speaker 3: only does the tax base start to dry up, but
Speaker 3: now these are folks who are going to need government
Speaker 3: assistants more than likely some of them at least. That's
Speaker 3: a double a double whammy right there. Man. If we
Speaker 3: see widespread unemployment as a result of this, what do
Speaker 3: we do and what do you do? In the tax
Speaker 3: base shrinks so much that now we've got people who
Speaker 3: who can't even get government benefits that would maybe deserve them.
Speaker 3: This is just a this is not a good scenario, man,
Speaker 3: not good at all. So of everything that we talk
Speaker 3: about here, everything going on in the world today, Quite honestly,
Speaker 3: what's all said and done, it all does pale in
Speaker 3: comparison to this issue. And how many times have we
Speaker 3: said this. You can even talk about it all you
Speaker 3: want to. You could talk about putting restrictions on it
Speaker 3: and this and that, but it's already out there. It's
Speaker 3: already out there. You don't put that cow back in
Speaker 3: the barn. And yet it has the ability to bring
Speaker 3: a lot of good things. You know, is AI the
Speaker 3: way we cure cancer one of these days.
Speaker 4: AI is working on doge now now.
Speaker 3: But the downsides are potentially very, very devastating for the
Speaker 3: of the entire planet, for the human race. I mean
Speaker 3: not trying to be hyperbolic here, but we again part
Speaker 3: of the problem. We just have no idea. But how
Speaker 3: rapidly it is advanced in such a short amount of
Speaker 3: time is really stunning. Okay, So that's something else somebody's
Speaker 3: got to work on. You know, if so many people
Speaker 3: lose their jobs and suddenly, you know, don't pay taxes anymore,
Speaker 3: but but need government benefits because they've lost their jobs
Speaker 3: to AI, what do you do? Then? Hopefully there are
Speaker 3: much brighter minds than mine working on those sorts of
Speaker 3: issues right now and trying to figure it all out.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three
Speaker 2: point five FM on five sixty am w VOC. Once again,
Speaker 2: here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
Speaker 3: What Tyler didn't mention there, he stopped it next Wednesday
Speaker 3: because next Thursday is kind of iffy right now. There's
Speaker 3: a chance of either a frozen some mixed precipitation, or
Speaker 3: maybe just some plain, good old snow for us. Next
Speaker 3: Thursday is the day that some of the models are
Speaker 3: calling for that, so we'll be keeping an eye on
Speaker 3: that over the next couple of days. Morning, Tallia, It's
Speaker 3: fifteen after seven o'clock is Valentine's Day, Friday, February fourteenth.
Speaker 3: I've already been chastised once for singing this morning, so
Speaker 3: I won't do that again. I didn't chastise you. Oh
Speaker 3: it was a severe chastise version, I guess I did.
Speaker 3: We can go back to the table, go on, No, no, no,
Speaker 3: that's okay, because then we'll walk to hear your singing again.
Speaker 3: Real right, when I was younger, I could sing, I
Speaker 3: think when I hit about twenty three, I suddenly couldn't
Speaker 3: sing anymore.
Speaker 4: Just sing it chake when you performed there back in the.
Speaker 3: Day, of course I did. Of course you did. Ill
Speaker 3: to go back in time. Oh the good old Shaky's days.
Speaker 3: Uh all right, do we need doge in South Carolina?
Speaker 3: Well you've got some lawmakers in both chambers that are
Speaker 3: talking doze, yes, c all right. So again it's we've
Speaker 3: been in the rundown last hour. You know. Dose thing
Speaker 3: is the is the bright shiny object, and uh hey,
Speaker 3: you know I'm I'm all about I'm all about getting
Speaker 3: rid of government inefficiency. I think everybody is. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna find too many people to say, yeah, no, I
Speaker 3: just love giving my money to the government at all
Speaker 3: levels to just go ahead and waste it.
Speaker 4: You know, nobody wants that.
Speaker 3: Nobody wants that. But do we have that big of
Speaker 3: an issue here in South Carolina? Is the question that
Speaker 3: we need something like doge here? I can't believe I
Speaker 3: actually heard a TV reporter talking about this, and a
Speaker 3: very good TV report too, and called a dogie. Yes,
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yes, call it what you want. It's
Speaker 3: got everybody, everybody's attention, certainly so you have on the
Speaker 3: House side, excuse me, on the Senate side, Stephen Goldfinch. Okay,
Speaker 3: stop right there, Yeah, yeah, okay, he probably only wants
Speaker 3: a certain number of government regulations cut and they all
Speaker 3: relate to sea walls on the coast.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's a one trick pony.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Goldfinch yesterday saying what you will find at the
Speaker 3: state level burden over burden, some regulations, duplicated regulations, regulations
Speaker 3: that are hurting our business and our families and friends
Speaker 3: here in South Carolina. Okay, regulatory reform is one thing.
Speaker 3: All about that. Absolutely, do we have a I.
Speaker 4: Mean, we're looking at doing that right now. You just
Speaker 4: told us yesterday. They're talking about taking out some of
Speaker 4: this speed bumps that are in place right now for
Speaker 4: us to build a new energy plant.
Speaker 3: Exactly. You've got a companion building the House of Representatives
Speaker 3: with a proposing a similar commission that the Senate's idea
Speaker 3: is a commission of ten members appointed by the House,
Speaker 3: the Senate, the Governor, and the Department of Administration. None
Speaker 3: of these members could be lawmakers, right, so there'd be
Speaker 3: no lawmakers involving all that, thank you. That'd be defeating
Speaker 3: the whole purpose from the get go with yes, it would,
Speaker 3: So you bring it outside, folks, I've already volunteered my services.
Speaker 3: The commission would assess state spending, determined potential spending cuts, consolidations,
Speaker 3: or regulatory streaming. And I assume this would be much
Speaker 3: like the those commission in d C. It doesn't actually
Speaker 3: have the power itself to make these cuts. It just
Speaker 3: has the power to point them out. Oh wait a minute,
Speaker 3: then who makes the cuts? Back in the state House? Again,
Speaker 3: we are okay, I'm not sure that would work out.
Speaker 3: You know, do we have an overburden or over bloated
Speaker 3: workforce when it comes to the state. I don't know.
Speaker 3: But again, this is this is something that's got everybody's attention.
Speaker 4: They should always be focused on what makes government more
Speaker 4: efficient and and you know, for us as taxpayers, they
Speaker 4: should always be worried about, you know, what works best,
Speaker 4: and what's what's not wasteful, and what regulations don't stand
Speaker 4: in the way of our state's success. I just I
Speaker 4: just don't know if there's that big a problem at
Speaker 4: the state level versus you know what Elon Musk is
Speaker 4: tackling at the national life.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's it's it's it's it's not even apples and oranges. Now,
Speaker 3: we do have already some some institutions in size state
Speaker 3: government that are tasked with this sort of thing to begin.
Speaker 4: With, the oversight commissions and committees. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, we're already doing this how successfully I
Speaker 3: couldn't tell you. Now. Democrats critical of this, and they
Speaker 3: got a point. They say, hey, you Republicans, you you
Speaker 3: already oversee state financial management and have for a long
Speaker 3: period of all the time. Yeah, and if there's any
Speaker 3: you know, if there's any waste and inefficiences going on,
Speaker 3: and it it's your fault to begin with. Very again,
Speaker 3: very different than Washington d C. Although hey, it's not
Speaker 3: as though Republicans in Washington d C. Aren't responsible for
Speaker 3: a great deal of waste and egregious spending as well,
Speaker 3: because they are all right, So this this, this is
Speaker 3: this idea the Senate build at least is right now
Speaker 3: headed to the full Senate Finance Committee, and if approved,
Speaker 3: the report would be due in October, but would not
Speaker 3: impact it until the next budget cycles.
Speaker 4: So is this going to cost us money? Eli's doing
Speaker 4: this for free? Is this going to cost us money?
Speaker 4: Here in South Carolina to do this report and involve
Speaker 4: all these other people.
Speaker 3: And I just changed my mind. I don't want to
Speaker 3: be on the scene.
Speaker 4: I'm asking I don't know.
Speaker 3: Well, if you can find ten people that you know,
Speaker 3: kind of know what's going on and wanted to donate
Speaker 3: their time, I think it should be Yeah, never mind,
Speaker 3: I withdraw my name from consideration.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I mean you just mentioned in the last hour
Speaker 4: talking about the d heck and it changes. I mean,
Speaker 4: we wrestle with this all the time at the government,
Speaker 4: at the state government level. Is you know how to
Speaker 4: make it more efficient? Which was a long drawn out
Speaker 4: argument last year involving d heck and how to break
Speaker 4: it up and what belongs with what and who should
Speaker 4: be in charge? I just I feel like a lot
Speaker 4: of this we're already doing and those just just the popular,
Speaker 4: popular term.
Speaker 3: Right now, Well, let me let me just float this idea. Yeah,
Speaker 3: why don't why don't we do this? Why don't we
Speaker 3: start by just having a commissioned study what exactly happens
Speaker 3: to all the budget surplus money we wind up with
Speaker 3: at the end of every fiscal year.
Speaker 4: I can answer that without a study, we figured it
Speaker 4: other ways to spend it.
Speaker 3: M ways that apparently we in the budget didn't think
Speaker 3: we needed to spend it.
Speaker 4: True, although some of it goes to the Rainy Day fund.
Speaker 3: Well sure that's and some of us come back to
Speaker 3: us here in recent years, true, some of it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: how about just a breakdown of Yeah, where where does
Speaker 3: the money go at the end of the year, when
Speaker 3: you've taken in way too much tax money from us
Speaker 3: and you money you didn't have allocated to be spent
Speaker 3: on certain things. Where did that money go? Let's just
Speaker 3: start with that right there? How about that? The hottest talk.
Speaker 3: The reason I'm calling.
Speaker 4: I believe that we're all laved here working for the government.
Speaker 2: One on three point five FM and five sixty AM
Speaker 2: w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David
Speaker 2: and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM
Speaker 2: and five sixty am w VOC.
Speaker 3: Seven forty one. Good morning and happy Valentine's Day tea
Speaker 3: and happy Friday as well. All right, So the fight
Speaker 3: in the courts continues over usaid. A federal judge late
Speaker 3: yesterday issuing an order telling the White House to lift
Speaker 3: its three week funding freeze on US foreign aid, which
Speaker 3: is what USAID was supposed to be all about right
Speaker 3: in the order of the judge Amir Ali noting the
Speaker 3: Trump administration argued it shut down funding for thousands of
Speaker 3: aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review and whether
Speaker 3: or not they should be eliminated. But the judge says
Speaker 3: the Trump team failed to explain why a blanket suspension
Speaker 3: was necessary before these programs were more thoroughly reviewed. Okay, well,
Speaker 3: so the review will go on and the freeze apparently
Speaker 3: will not, at least for now. A big surprise mentioned
Speaker 3: this earlier. If we were to sit down right now
Speaker 3: and go over every single executive order that Trump is issued,
Speaker 3: every initiative, and every time now a judge stepped in
Speaker 3: and filling up the stop sign, we'd be here all day.
Speaker 3: But now US Agency for International Development.
Speaker 4: Which is an independent agency. Yeah, it's I mean, it's
Speaker 4: you know, there are certain of these departments that Congress
Speaker 4: has the rights to oversee per the Constitution. It would
Speaker 4: seem to me that the Chief Executive could make a
Speaker 4: decision on this agency and not be questioned by a judge.
Speaker 3: One would think. But it's right there in the name
Speaker 3: US Agency for International Development. So explain to me how
Speaker 3: this happened. Now comes out that the USAID has awarded
Speaker 3: funds to Tides Foundation and Tide Center. Are you familiar
Speaker 3: with what they do? Amongst other philanthropic programs, the Tides
Speaker 3: Center and Tides Foundations or foundations one that fund. They
Speaker 3: fund left leaning groups that provide attorneys and other legal
Speaker 3: support for people accused of unlawful conducted protests. And in
Speaker 3: some cases the sponsor groups have held activist under federal investigation,
Speaker 3: meaning that our own government and our own taxpayer money
Speaker 3: is funding a movement trying to undermine its own law enforcement.
Speaker 3: The Tide Center is a fiscal sponsor for Palestine legal
Speaker 3: legal defense and advice to anti Israeli activists facing so
Speaker 3: called repression from university's or law enforcement. We heard a
Speaker 3: lot about the Tides Foundation back during the summer of
Speaker 3: all the protests on college campuses. So here we have
Speaker 3: the US Agency for International Development handing out money to
Speaker 3: a leftist activist organization here in this country who is
Speaker 3: defending and helping leftist activists. That's wrong on so many levels,
Speaker 3: so many levels. This is a group that's anti cop
Speaker 3: anti Israel. That's wrong on so many levels, so many levels.
Speaker 3: This is a group that's anti cop anti Israel, and
Speaker 3: why is USAID handing out money to them? Well, here's
Speaker 3: the kicker. Wait for this one. This money has been
Speaker 3: being handed out across a number of administrations, and a
Speaker 3: majority of the funds that USAID marked for TIDES organizations
Speaker 3: were actually distributed under the first Trump administration. Now, I
Speaker 3: don't know if they kind of cloaked it in a
Speaker 3: way where it wasn't real obvious. I don't know, or
Speaker 3: nobody was paying attention. But yeah, so far, foreign aid
Speaker 3: agencies the State, between the State Department and USAID, have
Speaker 3: awarded twenty seven million dollars to the Tides Foundation and
Speaker 3: Tide Center. Again, the group is helping leftist protesters avoid jail.
Speaker 4: That doesn't tie in with what our foreign policy objectives are,
Speaker 4: so that money should.
Speaker 3: Not be going there.
Speaker 4: No, less, unless this particular organization had this massive catastrophe
Speaker 4: and we offered, out of the goodness of our hearts
Speaker 4: to step in the No, our money should not be
Speaker 4: going there.
Speaker 3: I mean, imagine for a moment, if we were to
Speaker 3: find out, if the Democrats found out that USAID was
Speaker 3: giving money to groups who were defending j six protesters,
Speaker 3: demonstrators folks who broke into the Capitol. Imagine the outcry.
Speaker 3: But this is again just another example of things that
Speaker 3: have been going on, and this has been going on
Speaker 3: for a number of presidential administrations, including the first drop term.
Speaker 3: We have no idea. I don't think the government has
Speaker 3: any idea sometimes where they're just throwing money left and
Speaker 3: right here and there to whomever, not even knowing what
Speaker 3: it's being used for. There's been zero accountability. That's why
Speaker 3: everyone was so excited about Doze. I think even some
Speaker 3: Democrats were excited to see, Okay, let's see where all
Speaker 3: this money is going, and let's see where we can
Speaker 3: save taxpayers money. Democrats would wouldn't want to do the
Speaker 3: same thing with the savings as the Republicans. But how
Speaker 3: I don't see how anybody in government would be against
Speaker 3: making it more efficient and saving the taxpayers money, at
Speaker 3: least not publicly. And these judges who keep standing in
Speaker 3: the way. I mean, AID was established by a president,
Speaker 3: it is funded by Congress, but it is administered by
Speaker 3: the President of the United States.
Speaker 4: And as Secretary of State. So I don't know where
Speaker 4: a judge gets off telling the president he can't do
Speaker 4: something with that particular agency.
Speaker 3: Well, we're seeing a play out right now? Are we
Speaker 3: in short order too?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: And just now not quite four weeks on the job.
Speaker 3: How many different lawsuits filed? How many for judges say nope,
Speaker 3: big red stop side, can't do it. But the fight continues.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three
Speaker 2: point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again,
Speaker 2: here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
Speaker 3: We are right now in reciprocal nation. We are going
Speaker 3: to if it's India or if it's somebody else with
Speaker 3: low terrorfs, we're gonna have the same We're gonna whatever
Speaker 3: India charges, we're charging them. Whatever another country charges, we're
Speaker 3: charging them. So it's called reciprocal, which I think is
Speaker 3: a very fair way. It's eight sixteen, good morning. Well,
Speaker 3: the President yesterday rolling out what he told us he
Speaker 3: would on Air Force one this past Sunday, and that
Speaker 3: is reciprocal tariffs. Okay, Trump saying this plan will create
Speaker 3: a level playing field. We'll just change charge the same
Speaker 3: rates that they're charging us, no more, no less. Well
Speaker 3: why not, you know, I mean in India, he pointed
Speaker 3: out there as traditionally the country that charges the highest
Speaker 3: tariffs on their exports. So, in what logical world would
Speaker 3: you pay an enormous tariff to any other nation to
Speaker 3: import goods yet not charge them a likewise tariff the
Speaker 3: level of playing field on your exports. It really is
Speaker 3: another example of America being taken advantage of for way
Speaker 3: too long. Now, if you're a country that well can't
Speaker 3: necessarily produce the things you need, and we can't produce
Speaker 3: everything we need, get it. But I mean, my goodness,
Speaker 3: can we not take care of ourselves for the most part.
Speaker 3: We hope that we can. What again, this is a
Speaker 3: this is an idea, and the terraces have been around forever,
Speaker 3: but the whole you know, refrain that America is not
Speaker 3: an exceptional country. They started back in the Barack Obama years.
Speaker 3: We've just you know, we've quite honestly, this is this
Speaker 3: is a this is a snapshot of a broader picture here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we we've just backed off and you know, let we
Speaker 3: have let countries take advantage of us in all sorts
Speaker 3: of ways for a long time. Now. Now in the
Speaker 3: short term, does this mean we may pay higher prices? Well,
Speaker 3: yeah it does. And Trump said that yesterday prices could
Speaker 3: go up somewhat short term, but prices will also go down.
Speaker 3: This is not again, one of these quick fixed solutions.
Speaker 3: It's going to take a little while to work through
Speaker 3: and we have to be prepared for that. But you know,
Speaker 3: so far, and notice this, so far, when Trump comes
Speaker 3: goes on the offense for whatever the whatever the topic is,
Speaker 3: whatever the reason is, whatever the country is, so far,
Speaker 3: he's he's pretty much one.
Speaker 4: He's back to the other nation into a corner where
Speaker 4: they respond and give him something he wants.
Speaker 3: Yes Wall Street didn't seem to be too bothered by
Speaker 3: that yesterday, had you had the indexes hitting near record
Speaker 3: highs yesterday, So this didn't really bother Wall Street too much,
Speaker 3: matter of fact, yesterday not at all. But you've got
Speaker 3: the h the National Retail Federation warning that we may
Speaker 3: soon be seeing higher prices because of these. These reciprocal
Speaker 3: tariffs don't go into effected till April, so you we've
Speaker 3: got a month and a half here to negotiate. The
Speaker 3: uh in our ref's executive vice president of Government Relations
Speaker 3: saying well, we support the President's efforts to reduce trade
Speaker 3: barriers and imbalances. This scale of undertaking is massive and
Speaker 3: will be extremely disrupted to our supply chains. Well that
Speaker 3: is in the short term, that is true. I guess
Speaker 3: it's going to become a war of attrition. Huh, Okay,
Speaker 3: who can outlast the other guy? I would I would
Speaker 3: argue that we're in a better position here to outlast
Speaker 3: most any other country when it comes to such a thing.
Speaker 3: And listen, if you're India, for example, traditionally charging the
Speaker 3: highest tariffs on your exports, I mean, how high do
Speaker 3: you think you can go? You know, we start charging
Speaker 3: your tariff, we are you're gonn to do raise your
Speaker 3: tariff to counter our tariff. Maybe we find out we
Speaker 3: don't really need some of these things after all, Maybe
Speaker 3: we don't really know those cheap Chinese products.
Speaker 4: Well that's the goal, obviously, is to force people to
Speaker 4: buy more of what we make here in America. And
Speaker 4: you just hit on that, you know, some of these
Speaker 4: other countries, it's not that big a deal. That's why
Speaker 4: Wall Street didn't react. It's the tariffs and the Chinese.
Speaker 4: That's the one biggie that everyone's concerned about.
Speaker 3: Sure, because we love our cheap Chinese stuff, don't we.
Speaker 3: We do. We for a long time we've loved it now.
Speaker 3: Aside from that, on the economic front, of course, again,
Speaker 3: the CPI came out the other day. The inflation gauge
Speaker 3: ticked up unexpectedly in January. Again, Trump didn't take office
Speaker 3: till January twentieth, So hey, no, he didn't bring inflation
Speaker 3: down on day one. Nobody could do that, of course,
Speaker 3: But we still again, this is gonna take it while
Speaker 3: to turn things around. We're still having problems. The Federals
Speaker 3: are Bank of New York yes day releasing a comprehensive
Speaker 3: report on credit conditions here in America and finding that
Speaker 3: all in all, that we Americans are having a harder
Speaker 3: time managing our rising debt burdens, and in some cases
Speaker 3: haven't been this overextended since just after the Great Recession.
Speaker 3: Fourth quarter of last year, overall debt levels increased to
Speaker 3: eighteen point zero four trillion dollars. Credit card balance is
Speaker 3: top one point two try and that's up seven point
Speaker 3: three percent from Q four of a year before. This
Speaker 3: all result again of bid noomics and the housing market.
Speaker 3: Home sales last year numbers are in lowest level of
Speaker 3: nearly thirty years, and just in December of twenty twenty four, alone,
Speaker 3: nearly seventy three thousand homes that were put up for
Speaker 3: sale were taken back down off the market. That year
Speaker 3: over year is a sixty four percent increase. Yikes. So
Speaker 3: we're still dealing with all this and we have a
Speaker 3: long way to go. There is no magic bullet here.
Speaker 3: But I mean, you see what just a lack of
Speaker 3: any attempt to do anything has done for us, other
Speaker 3: than just keep spending our money and giving out free stuff.
Speaker 3: It's gotten to the points to the point where we
Speaker 3: are right now. So yeah, things need to happen. They
Speaker 3: need to talking about.
Speaker 2: You've got to keep talking the good job, the stuff
Speaker 2: that matters.
Speaker 3: I think I've been listening to y'all in the eighteen.
Speaker 2: Year plus Round one on three point five FM at
Speaker 2: five sixty am w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News
Speaker 2: with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on three
Speaker 2: point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
Speaker 3: It is eight thirty nine, Good morning, Good to have
Speaker 3: you along. And it's Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, and it's Friday. Ah. Now,
Speaker 3: I tell if you've told us a couple of days
Speaker 3: ago your wife's been now with the flu here recently.
Speaker 3: Somehow you've avoided.
Speaker 4: It, somehow I have, and somehow I hope to keep
Speaker 4: doing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, it is. Uh, it's really rammed up. Last
Speaker 3: week alone, one d and thirty flu cases reported by hospitals.
Speaker 3: People were going to the hospital one thousand, two hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty going to the hospital with the flu. Wow,
Speaker 3: so far, we've had close to what fifty five hundred people.
Speaker 3: I guess this flu season that if at least showed
Speaker 3: up at an e R temperatures one hundred and three,
Speaker 3: one hundred and four. You know, for folks like us,
Speaker 3: that's dangerous. Man, A little kid can handle that. Okay,
Speaker 3: we don't do so well. So uh yeah, if you're
Speaker 3: feeling that, you are not alone but a long shot.
Speaker 3: Haven't heard a whole lot about COVID. Had heard anything
Speaker 3: about COVID? Yeah, I mean nothing. I hopefully you know,
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago, if you had the flu,
Speaker 3: you were we did have been sure it was COVID.
Speaker 3: Right these days, who knows? We may have people with
Speaker 3: COVID think it's just the flu. Well, I don't even
Speaker 3: worried about it. If you get tested, they'll test you
Speaker 3: for both. So do they okay, yeah, but.
Speaker 4: It's it's odd that we've had this wave of the
Speaker 4: flu instead of COVID this year.
Speaker 3: We get a simple head cold a couple of years ago,
Speaker 3: and we're sure that we had COVID right, we were
Speaker 3: going to die. Thankfully were past all that. Now good
Speaker 3: news for folks on the northeast side of town. The
Speaker 3: hard scrabble road widening project. Now, if you don't live
Speaker 3: out in that neck of the woods, maybe you weren't
Speaker 3: familiar with this, but they have been working on this
Speaker 3: since twenty seventeen. Let me double check. What year are
Speaker 3: we in now, Oh, yeah, twenty twenty five. DOT says
Speaker 3: that they are working to complete the final two miles
Speaker 3: of the widening project.
Speaker 4: If you drive that stretch every day back and forth,
Speaker 4: bless your heart.
Speaker 3: They say they're months away from potentially being done here.
Speaker 3: They expect to wrap up this summer sometime. How ironic
Speaker 3: is it? A road widening project?
Speaker 4: One road, one road, one.
Speaker 3: Stinking road, and I guess what it's all said and done.
Speaker 3: We're talking about seven miles of one road.
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of components to it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 4: But the problem still one of the problems with a
Speaker 4: project stretching that long is then it goes over budget
Speaker 4: and then we all pay big time.
Speaker 3: All right, But how ironic that a road widening project
Speaker 3: has reled to this many issues with traffic now for
Speaker 3: seven almost eight years. Okay, we got to move a
Speaker 3: foot over the state House to make a change to
Speaker 3: the Constitution, not ours, the United States Constitution and term limits. Okay.
Speaker 3: The House Judiciary Committee earlier this month narrowly approved a
Speaker 3: resolution which proposes congressional term limits and amendment to the
Speaker 3: US Constitution. For this to happen, it require thirty four
Speaker 3: states to sign on. I'm I'm really doubtful this ever happens.
Speaker 3: But as you mentioned earlier today when we brought this
Speaker 3: up briefly, mister Thompson, just look at Mitch McConnell, look
Speaker 3: at Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not talking about their votes. I'm talking at them.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about the fact that, yeah, that they have
Speaker 4: trouble doing their jobs.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean Diane Feinstein was basically on her
Speaker 3: deathbed and she was still in the Senate.
Speaker 4: We had that story of the congresswoman from Texas who
Speaker 4: was in fact in an assisted living facility.
Speaker 3: It had been for months and months and months, and.
Speaker 4: Her staff was carrying on and her family was letting
Speaker 4: them do it, because everybody benefits when you've got a
Speaker 4: family member in Congress.
Speaker 3: So I've gone right, all right, So on the nominee front,
Speaker 3: RFK Junior is in Tulca, Gabbard is in all this week.
Speaker 3: RFK Junior's vote coming yesterday fifty two forty eight. Again,
Speaker 3: as we mentioned Mitch McConnell, he voted against RFK Junior,
Speaker 3: but the Republicans voted for him. Democrats again, So welcome
Speaker 3: to Maha. And not only did the RFK Junior about
Speaker 3: to tackle the physical needs of the country, but he
Speaker 3: even brought up a spiritual crisis as well. Interesting and
Speaker 3: one of the things I haven't paid a lot of
Speaker 3: attention to the MAHA movement quite honestly, but one of
Speaker 3: the a sleep expert is backing the MAHA push to
Speaker 3: potentially push back school start times in America, saying that
Speaker 3: kids aren't getting enough sleep. You know, kids growing up
Speaker 3: from thirteen to seventeen teenagers should be getting eight to
Speaker 3: ten hours of sleep every night. So they're talking about,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe wanted to push back the start of
Speaker 3: the school day.
Speaker 4: Here's the problem with that, right, It's pretty easy to
Speaker 4: figure out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean if you're having to get up at
Speaker 3: seven o'clock now to get to school on time, and
Speaker 3: they push it back a couple of hours, well fine,
Speaker 3: you would just stay up two hours later. You stay
Speaker 3: up at night before.
Speaker 4: And they're before they changed it with electronics. There are
Speaker 4: a lot more distractions than we had growing up. Yes,
Speaker 4: you know, if our parents forced us to bed, there
Speaker 4: wasn't a whole lot to do. We probably went to bed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, remember those days. What was what was your
Speaker 3: bedtime as a youngster? I mean as an elementary school student? Elementary? Yeah,
Speaker 3: probably eight? Yeah, I think mine was about that too. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you're like that was like devastating, man. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean especially during the summer time when it was still
Speaker 3: light outside. Well, no, we didn't have that during the summertime.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm all right, but once the time changed, right,
Speaker 4: you know, you were still in school in the spring,
Speaker 4: I guess I should say. Yeah, I mean unless you
Speaker 4: were underneath the covers listening to the radio and listening
Speaker 4: to a baseball game, or you know, reading with a flashlight.
Speaker 4: I mean, there was nothing else to do you went
Speaker 4: to bed that was Now a kid's gonna have a
Speaker 4: smartphone and they can stay up for hours.
Speaker 3: Well, then again, mom and dad could put the smartphone away. True.
Speaker 3: Do you remember the first time you stayed up till midnight? Yes,
Speaker 3: me too, I do. Isn't that weird? Yeah? It was
Speaker 3: a New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4: All my cousins and I were to our grandparents house,
Speaker 4: and I stayed up to watch whatever happened on Johnny
Speaker 4: Carson that night. And but I by twelve oh one,
Speaker 4: I was out like a light, like a light home. Yep,
Speaker 4: I remember vividly. I didn't sleep over to friend's house,
Speaker 4: and you know, all restrictions were off that night. Man,
Speaker 4: it's a Friday night. We stayed up until pass mid
Speaker 4: I thought, Man, I've entered a whole new world. Now
Speaker 4: I was probably seven years old. Whatever, okay?
Speaker 3: Anyway, Oh, and since we're on the topic, don't don't
Speaker 3: even bother to ask me how they came up with this.
Speaker 3: But a new survey says, if you've wondered what's the
Speaker 3: best time to take a nap, the answer one forty
Speaker 3: two in the afternoon. Why one for two? Don't know?
Speaker 3: H Most people who nap. On average, nap for about
Speaker 3: fifty one minutes. But if you nap too long then
Speaker 3: then then it can lead to problems.
Speaker 4: Well, I think that time depends on what time you
Speaker 4: get up. Well, yeah, when you have your last burst
Speaker 4: of caffeine, because that's got to have time to leave
Speaker 4: your body.
Speaker 3: And whether or not you're still working at one after Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: I mean, I have no idea they came that with
Speaker 3: that time one, two, but whatever. Now, again, based on
Speaker 3: the schedule that we keep around here, and I'm not
Speaker 3: going to speak for you, but my advanced age, you know,
Speaker 3: I've I've got to the point where I've got to
Speaker 3: get one. And quite honestly, it's oftentimes about that time
Speaker 3: of the day, maybe a half hour. I'm like that.
Speaker 3: If I go for more than thirty minutes or so, man,
Speaker 3: I feel awful for the rest of the afternoon. Where
Speaker 3: do you do it? In your chair? Oh? We have
Speaker 3: one of those couches with a reclining thing. That's that's
Speaker 3: where I do it, right it, yep, right there? Okay,
Speaker 3: So if you ever wondered, now you know, just tell
Speaker 3: the boss. Gary said that research shows one is the
Speaker 3: best time to take a nap, so that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: And don't text Scary at two pm.
Speaker 3: No, you won't get an answer. She probably won't get
Speaker 3: an answer anytime the day anymore. I just ignore it anyway,