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Speaker 2: It is a busy day in the North Carolina General Assembly,
a press conference happening in the last hour as it
relates to a bill calling for government transparency in regards
to the executive branch and a whole bunch of other
transparency efforts across the state of North Carolina. Joining us
this afternoon on the Peak Calendar Show, Brianna Kramer, reporter
over at Carolina Journal dot com, joins us. Branda, thanks
for the time you were just at this press conference
down at the GA. What is the Rains Act and
why is it relevant to our listeners this afternoon?
Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, nix, So the Rains Act is being discussed
this afternoon in Raleigh at the North Carolina General Assembly.
It was in the House Regulatory Committee this morning and
it did pass through, and then state legislators just held
a press conference one hour ago talking about the Rains Act,
which has been filed now in both the House and
the Senate, and leaders are going to push this forward
together in both chambers, so very good likelihood that this
is going to be a big push in the next
couple of weeks. So really what they are trying to
do with the Rains Act is kind of have a
little bit of more authority over the executive branch in
North Carolina and really the different rules and regulations that
come out of the Council of States Offices that the
General Assembly doesn't necessarily have control over, and there's like
some big regulations that can come out of the executive branch,
and they want to be able to monitor these rules
and put some checks and balances in place to kind
of rein in on the executive branch.
Speaker 2: At Representative Alan Chester held the press conference this afternoon,
and this is how he explained it to North Carolinians.
Speaker 4: The people of North Carolina deserve to know what regulations
cost them, especially when they're affecting their day to day lives.
Doesn't matter if you live in Murphy Maneo or the
greatest county in the state Nash. This bill requires agencies
to quantify those costs and explain why they can't quantify them.
We understand that some of these things are hard to explain,
but it does not mean we don't make an effort
to explain to the people why we're doing what we're doing.
This allows for robust public debate and preserves the regular
legislative order. This is not a power graph, to be clear.
It's returning power to the people and their representatives. Polling
shows that this idea has strong bipartisan support, and for
good reason. It's about trust, transparency, and accountability. I urge
my colleagues and the General Assembly to support the nc
Rains Act and give North Carolinians the oversight that they deserve.
Speaker 2: Talking about the oversight that they deserve, brand it looks like,
as I'm reading this legislation, for things coming out of
the Executive Branch, or really any member of the Council
of State that has an economic impact of over a
million dollars over a twelve month period, there would be
some sort of review process for that. Walk us through it.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's really interesting they were describing why this is
necessary in the state government, and they explain that we
have roughly one hundred and ten thousand regulations in the
state of North Carolina, and they have a really high
success rate of going through the executive branch, around a
ninety eight percent success rate of just getting approved through
the regulatory process that just exists within the state government.
And so this really inhibits taxpayers and the citizens from
kind of being represented by their state legislators when they're
trying to hold someone accountable for the rules that affect
our everyday lives. And so they kind of took that
into consideration and wanted to put in some kind of
restraints on anything that could have an economic impact of
over one million dollars. And so the check that they
are proposing is having the General Assembly give them an
approval arm within the regulatory process of anything over a
million dollars. And so the General Assembly would have a
role to play in creating government regulations.
Speaker 2: Well, and obviously you know that we talk about two
different things, and we've talked about this a lot on
the Carolina Journal News Hour. You have regulation and then
you have laws, and laws go through the process of
the General Assembly through the various committees. Most of the
time there's public comment and public hearing, Brandon, many of
the times when we talk about these regulations that come
out of government that doesn't go through that similar process
at all. Essentially, it's the stroke of a pen and
it's done exactly.
Speaker 3: And that's what they are saying is that, you know,
you have the General Assembly and everybody throughout North Carolina
is represented by their elected officials. But then you have
the executive branch and you have a lot of staffers
and a lot of people you don't know of who
are implementing regulations over us, and you know that may
be taxing with how going through the state legislature as well,
and so there's really no representation right now, is what
the Republicans are arguing. And so by giving the General
Assembly this authority, they're taking away that that lack of accountability,
and they're giving that to state legislators because right now,
any kind of regulation would go through a commission, and
the commission is appointed by the Speaker of the House
and the President pro tem of the Senate, and so
that's not including everybody in the General Assembly, and they're
direct voters.
Speaker 2: Now I heard some comments and reading your story that
you had up last week over at Carolina Journal dot com.
Listening to the comments from Representative Alan Chesser at this
press conference that took place in the one o'clock hour
this afternoon, he mentioned that this is not a power grab.
Is that what's being claimed by some folks on the
political left, that this is an attempt by the Republican
led General Assembly to grab even more power from the
governor and the executive branch.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that's actually what I was discussed during the
committee meeting this morning. There was a little pushback. It
didn't pass unanimously because they had some Democrats not in
support of this, and one of the main reasons was
Democrats saying that you're actually creating burdensome and problematic extra
layers that get in the way and calling it, of
course a power grab because it really is going to
reign in you know, Josh Stein and Democrats in the
Council of State. But what Republicans said to that was
that you actually have a five to five Republican a
Democrat representation and Council of State seats, so it's going
to affect everybody. And they also said this was introduced
many years ago when we did have a Republican governor
as well, so it's not really supposed to be targeting
any any political party. This is just trying to say that,
you know, we want representation in this regulatory process. And
interestingly enough, it was also brought up that if we're
going to do this at the state level, maybe we
should also be doing this at the federal government level
as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these regulations oftentimes can be overburdensome and have a
huge impact on your day to day life. Branda Kramer
from Carolina Journal dot com is joining us this afternoon
on the Peak Counter Show. Branna, you're going to be
doing a write up of this and tracking this as
it works its way through the North Carolina General Assembly.
Where can folks read additional details?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can go read the latest on Carolina Journal
dot com and we'll have a new story up this afternoon.
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Speaker 2: Turning our attention to some national politics this afternoon, Chuck
Schumer is really right now facing probably one of the
toughest fights of his political career. This all surrounds his
decision and his comments throughout the middle and latter parts
of last week over this continuing resolution where he broke
ranks from Democrats in the House and told and requested
his Senate colleagues to vote in favor of the GOP
led CR that would keep the government funded through September. Now,
there's been many comments and many points made of Chuck
Schumer's decision. He was blasted immediately by both the current
and former Speaker of the US House. You had Kim Jefferies,
currently the minority leader in the House, but Nancy Pelosi,
the former House Speaker, blasting him in a comment on
social media. King Jefferies holding an entire press conference last
Friday to throw stones and shade at Chuck Schumer over
his vote and his encouraging vote for his Senate Democrat
colleagues to vote in favor of this CR. And as
we sit here this afternoon, he continues to face very
sharp attacks from his party and the base over his
vote to advance this CR. And it's a very interesting
political predicament that Chuck Schumer is in. As we talked
about yesterday afternoon, Chuck Schumer is reading the tea leaves
right now on the political pulse of America. Two polls
out over the weekend, one from NBC News, the other
from CNN show that Democrats approval rating is the lowest
that it has ever been. In the case of the
NBC News poll, it's like thirty five years. They've been
doing the pull since the early nineteen nineties, and for
the CNN pulicles all the way back to two thousand
and six, and in both of those polls it is
the lowest approval rating ever for Democrats. And so for
Democrats like Chuck Schumer, King Jefferies is kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Republicans in the House don't have to work with him.
He is in the minority. All you need is a
simple majority to pass things through the House. They don't
have to work with him. His thoughts, his party's thoughts
on things in the House, for a larger part of
the issues that we'll be seeing over the next couple
of years, is mostly irrelevant. It just doesn't matter that
Republicans don't have to work with the King Jefferies, and
they're not going to. But in the Senate, where you've got,
of course, the sixty vote threshold, things become very interesting
for Chuck Schumer. The way that it's set up right now,
Chuck Schumer is the one that essentially gets to decide
whether things go through or not under the regular process
with that sixty vote threshold, that sixty vote margin, and
so he decided that he was going to encourage Senate,
his Senate Democrat colleagues to vote for the continuing resolution.
Since then, he has been getting torched, as I've mentioned,
from his own party.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: He was on and making his media tour today. He
was on a couple of different shows. He was on
CBS's morning news program. He was also on the Illustrious
View program. And this first clip is from CBS this
Morning with Chuck Schumer going back and forth with Gail
King over this vote and over the Democrats for the future.
Speaker 6: Take a listen, Hakim and I. We have a day
of action on Medicaid in every state, in every corner
of the country. Democrats are talking about they're going to
Medicaid centers, They're going to people who would be described.
Speaker 7: And Senator Biale don't have faith in the Democrats.
Speaker 6: Well, let me say this.
Speaker 2: Wow, Gail King roasting Chuck Schumer. Well, Senator, people don't
have faith than the Democrats. This party is dealing with
a major political issue right now, where you've got individuals
that are not in favor and individuals that do not
believe and do not trust their own party. And for
Chuck Schumer, he is in a very very interesting position.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: I heard the framing from Hakeem Jefferies that you know,
after all this is said and done, it's really the
Republicans that we're going to shut down the government, not
the Democrats. That's not going to fly anymore. This idea
of you being the party in the minority, which Democrats
are in Washington, d C. And you guys spiking the
football on Republican led continuing resolutions and blaming the GOP
for a government shutdown, It's just not going to happen.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: You can preach it from the mountaintops of MSNBC, you
can scream it day and night on CNN, it doesn't
hit with the American public, doesn't resonate with them. And
I think that's why you're seeing some of this approval rating,
some of these approval ratings as low as they are
as the Democrats continue to struggle with this identity crisis
that's existing right now, voters very much upset with the
results of the election in November and not sure where
to go forward with the party. Schumer has postponed a
book tour that he was supposed to be going on
due to security threats, not risks coming from Republicans or Conservatives,
risks from his own party. This is a remarkable situation
that is unfolding publicly. And I say remarkable because I
truly mean it. Democrats fight their battles behind the scenes.
They work out their issues, they work out their disagreements
behind closed doors, and they emerge a unified front. That
is how the Democrat Party has been incredibly sick successful
in their operation of government over the last couple of years.
They've been able to have their disagreements come to consensus,
come to conclusions privately, emerge and say this is our
path forward. We as Democrats are going to sing off
of this sheet of music. Everybody's marching and walking the
same way. This is really the first time in a
very long time that you've seen something like this go
on in the Democrat Party. Now, if you are a conservative,
if you're a Republican, this is just another Tuesday, right.
This is very typical for the Republicans. Those fights always
spill over into the public and they always just turn
into it in many cases, just a complete and total
laughing stock for the party, not for the Democrats though,
and so Schumer's facing this criticism. He's doing the TV
tour to try and rehabilitate his image. I guess now
the idea is he's not going to go anywhere, or
the idea that Democrats are going to oust Chuck Schumer.
I don't see that happening in any way, shape or form.
But this criticism is pretty legit. And it's not just
coming from the radical elon Omar aoc Rashida Talib wing
of the Democrat Party. This is coming from Hakeem Jeffreys,
Nancy Pelosi, individuals that have a large amount of pull,
a large amount of influence within the operation of Democrat politics.
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Speaker 2: We are discussing a mutiny within the Democrat Party up
at Washington, d C. As Democrats continue to set their
sites in on Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority leader in
the United States Senate, over his decision late last week
to vote for the Republican led Continuing Resolution that has
sparked an encl credible amount of outrage amongst Democrats. You
had to Keem Jefferies, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democrats
calling out Schumer in his decision to vote in favor
of the CR. And as I was mentioning before the break,
Chuck Schumer is in a really tough spot right Hakim
Jeffries can say whatever he wants from the House, his
opinion and what he does in the House is irrelevant.
Republicans have the majority, and as long as they stay together,
as long as Republicans work together, what the Democrats want,
what the Democrats think, what they care about, it's for
the most part pretty irrelevant. It doesn't really matter what
they want to do. He's got control of the Republicans
rather have control in the House, so it's kind of irrelevant.
And so that puts Schumer in the Senate in a
very very precarious situation. Does he stonewall everything that the
Republicans want to do and deal with the negative media
press of which there will be for things like a
government shut down, or does he step across the does
he work with his colleagues in the United States Senate.
Does he attempt to work with the Trump administration to
get something done? Now, of course it's not going to
be everything that the Democrats want, but they're in the minority.
And so the report this morning is that he had
to cancel a book tour that he was planning due
to security risks and security threats. As Democrats are setting
their sites in on Schumer and there were reports of
mass protests that were set to take up at these events.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, our favorite Barista Democrat representative from New York,
called Chuck Schumer and his decision a betrayal of the
Democrat party. Also went on to call it quote a
huge slap in the face, brutal for Chuck Schumer. Definitely
the largest political backlash that he's received from his party
thus far. Seven oh four or five seven eleven ten
is our studio hotline. That's seven oh four or five
seven oh eleven ten. Let's head on over the line.
Speaker 6: One.
Speaker 2: Chris is hanging on the line this afternoon. Chris, you're
on the Peak Counter Show with Nick Craig. Good afternoon.
Speaker 5: I'm really digging you Nick here, You're a great addition
to the family here. Even though I'm partial to Jason
Lewis where he'll fill them sometimes, still you're a great
So anyway, let me get right down to it. In
relation to Schumer's reason reasoning for voting, was he correct
when he said that Trump would have more power than
he would have right now? Was that true? He's like
he's saying he could cut down whole groups of things.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: Or was that just a The claim that Schumer made
was in his justification to the public and to his
Senate colleagues, was that if we shut down the government
by not voting for this cr we give Trump more power.
And I think there's some truth to that.
Speaker 5: Okay, good, okay, So kind of the party's kind of
messed up. So let me let me what it really
quickly explained? Kind of the play I kind of see
here in relation to kicking the can down the road
continue resolutions and stuff like that. So what I saw
is Trump comes in and doge and there's two things
going on with those. There's stopping current payments near the
end of the last Contunion resolution in November whatever it
was December, and then also the savings of the payments
that hadn't been made, right, So so we have the
promise of the future, no spending, and then we have
money in the bank for surplus, a little bit of surplus. Right,
So when when you get to the Cotunga Grace Resolution
th September, we have a humongous surplus at this point
in time, and then at that point in time, we've
seen what can be cut and we get a full
through budget from the Republicans. And is that what I
see is that we get a big surplus on top
of being able to now we need reconciliation. I don't
know if that implies that we what we do with that.
If we give it's just a simple majority, we win
in that too, right, Yeah, And I mean.
Speaker 2: I think yeah, And Chris, I appreciate your calling and
I really appreciate your kind words. It means a lot.
I think what you laid out there is pretty spot on.
I mean, let's be honest with this. I don't think anybody,
myself included, I'm not a fan of continuing resolution. I mean,
the idea that our government has to operate under CRS
constantly is incredibly frustrating. However, with this guy being in office,
Trump at this point in time, less than two full
months and already dealing with a government shutdown, it would
be incredibly tough for Trump to continue with any of
his agenda, with any of the agenda that got him
the massive electoral victory that he had in November, with
the government shutdown. Now, from Schumer standpoint, when he makes
the argument, we've got more leverage, we've got more power
with the government open than closed, I think he's right
about that on two fronts, both from the physical elements
of the government and the second part of it, from
the perception of it. This government shut down, if it
did happen, would have fallen exclusively at the feet of
Senate Democrats, a party that, as we saw over the weekend,
is struggling big time as it relates to their polling
and trust from their own voters and from the American
public as a whole. So this idea that you're going
to go in vote or vote against the cr and
shut down the government and then what make demands of
the administration try and win favor with the American public
When you just voted to shut down the government, it's
too pronged. There You've got the physical part of shutting
down the government, and then you've got the public perception battle,
which is a very important piece of this equation. And
I think, if anything, the public perception is probably a
large reason why Schumer changed his tune earlier last week.
He was I'm not going to vote for a CR.
I'm not going to vote for a CR, to then
saying now, oh, we've got to vote for this thing,
and he himself and nine other Democrat senators in fact,
came along and it passed with sixty two votes. Government
is open and funded until September, and you've got Democrats
spiraling out of control about this very issue. I've got
a clip from CNN last night with Scott Jennings, who
is just phenomenal on their late night show, going back
and forth with a Democrat lawmaker from New York about
the continuing Resolution. I'll have that coming up here in
just a few minutes. I'm Nick Craig, host of the
Carolina Journal News Hour on WBT, in for the Great
Pete Kallaner a Newstock eleven, ten ninety nine to three WBT.
Speaker 1: All right, if you're listening to this show, you know
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Speaker 2: We are discussing this afternoon the ongoing mutiny within the
Democrat Party as Chuck Schumer has found himself really under
the crosshairs of individuals within his own party over his
decision to vote for the Continuing Resolution that was proposed
by both House and Senate Republicans, and of course the
Trump administration last week. And now you've got Schumer who's
having to cancel book tours. He's taking heat from Hakeem Jefferies,
Nancy Pelosi, AOC, a lot of big time names and
very influential people within the Democrat Party. Now, this was
a bit of a discussion last night on CNN. Scott Jennings,
in his typical form, was battling back against the liberal
hosts and panelists on the CNN Show last night. Take
a listen to this back and forth exchange.
Speaker 8: You know, the proposals they're bringing are horrendous enough for
us to do that, and we should do that.
Speaker 7: What's a fright us about the CR It continues putting
in the government that it is a cut.
Speaker 8: No, yes, it is if you do not if you
do not consider the cost of doing business, if you
do not consider that the cost of living, for example,
has gone up, that everything has gotten.
Speaker 7: Now you're changing it's not a cut, you're being a.
Speaker 2: Cut and I appreciate Scott Jennings calling him out there.
That's typical Democrat reframing an argument. They claim, oh, it's
a cut, and instead of arguing the point as to
why it's cut, he goes, well, everything is more expensive,
so it's like a cut. Typical Democrat reframing of an
argument when you call them on their nonsense, it is a.
Speaker 7: Cut, continues government at the same levels. It's not a cut.
You voted to shut down the government. You voted to
lay off every veteran in the federal government. You're making
a passionate plea for why Democrats didn't shut down the government.
And now Chuck Schumer can't even have a book tour
because Democrats are so enraged that the government was And
I'm just confused because last week I was told that
people going and expressing their First Amendment rights was part
of their democratic and civic duty, and now Chuck Schumer
can't even have a book. Actually think that that Democrats
are in agreement with you in the sense that they
probably think Chuck Schumer should, yes, exactly.
Speaker 9: Take the weeks ago show up, and take the show
up and take the l as a well, no one's
saying he can't have its.
Speaker 2: Guy show up and take the l You mean show
up and be harassed by Democrats and have threats of
violence thrown against him and his family. It's not showing
up and taking the al. He doesn't want a radical
leftist mob threatening to kill him showing up and add
his book tour. I don't think that's a realistic framing
at all.
Speaker 9: He can do whatever he chose to, but once again
another example of him deciding to hide. I would love
for him to go on the book tour so that
he can answer the questions of the American people. Security
risk perhaps may be true according to what Abby has
said and what his office is saying.
Speaker 7: Who would be the security risk though I don't know who.
Speaker 2: And the Democrats I don't know who the security risk
could be. You mean maybe the same people burning tesla's
throughout the United States right now. Maybe some of the
same cast of characters that were chanting about how much
they love Hamas the Iranian backed terrorist organization on college
campuses last year. You know, the deranged left that loves
burning cities to the ground, threatening violence against their political opponents.
You think maybe those are the individuals that might have
shown up to Chuck Schumer's book tour to voice their
concern and of course, you know Democrat. Oh, he's got
to take the l he's got to face the American people.
He's got to face his voters, a crazy radical leftist
mob that hates him now because he didn't vote to
shut the government down. No, thanks, great work there, Continuing
from Scott Jennings, all.
Speaker 1: Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so
much for listening. I could not do the show without
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