Live from Music Row, Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed marketing guru, Craig Huey of The Huey Report in studio to describe his recent trip to California where he witnessed the overwhelming homeless condition and vibes of oppression.
Leahy: In studio, our very good friend, a recent California refugee, a very successful businessman with a database marketing company, Mr. Craig Huey. Good morning, Craig.
Huey: Good morning, Michael. How are you?
Leahy: Craig, I have failed the test of being a good host in previous times here when the coffee that I’ve made for you and the container in which it’s been held have not been top-rated.
Huey: Well, that’s true. But, Michael, you have really achieved a great accomplishment, this coffee is great. What is this coffee?
Leahy: (Laughs) It’s called liberal tears.
Huey: Perfect.
Leahy: By Black Rifle Coffee. And you can get it at liberaltears.net.
Huey: That’s awesome.
Leahy: It’s important to me that when guests come in studio, they have a pleasant experience, and I’m a good host.
Huey: Or a little energy.
Leahy: A little energy. And so the coffee is good today. You like it? Drinking it as we speak. (Huey chuckles) So now, Craig, you’re always so much fun to talk with. I lived in California for a period of time, but I got smart earlier. (Laughter) I left 31 years ago.
Huey: Yes. Which was probably a good time.
Leahy: And you left, what, two years ago?
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: But you have a hugely successful database and marketing company here now, based in Nashville.
Huey: In Nashville. And no regrets.
Leahy: How could anybody regret living in state income tax-free Tennessee? But you do a lot of traveling.
Huey: Oh, yeah. And occasionally you give us the reports from your travels, particularly back to California.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: How bad is it getting there?
Huey: Worse.
Leahy: It’s even worse.
Huey: It’s even worse. (Leahy chuckles) You know, I am so astonished by instead of seeing improvements, I see declines. I got to tell you, I was traveling through Los Angeles just recently.
You’re talking about a week ago. I made a trip to Arizona and made a trip to California. And in that time, I was so beyond discouraged, really discouraged, because I love California.
Leahy: It’s beautiful. There is no more beautiful place in the world.
Huey: Or weather.
Leahy: Or weather than California. But they’re ruining it.
Huey: The politics have ruined the state of California. I had to leave California from a business perspective because of its anti-business policies. I left as a personal matter because of the crime, the homelessness, and the high taxes in a state that you cannot live in or retire in, you cannot build a business in anymore.
Leahy: And now there are people, the Silicon Valley oligarch billionaire types, they can live there. And the Hollywood types, who are worth over $10 million or so, can live there. But what did you experience in Los Angeles last week that was an indication of the further decline of California?
Huey: I was around an area called Griffith Park, and it’s a beautiful area, except the homeless control the Griffith Park area. The homeless are just encamping there with their tents, and it’s become like many cities with nobody doing anything about it. And then I watch the news.
I take a look at what’s going on in the local area and it’s one attack by a homeless person against somebody walking down the street, threatening somebody at a school or church, intimidated because these people are all around harassing the people trying to come into the church. It is a nightmare for people living there.
Leahy: It really is. For like an average, an everyday person who’s trying to basically just make a living and take care of their family.
Huey: Oh, it broke my heart as a business owner to see all these retail stores. I told my wife, I looked at my wife, Shelley, I said, Shelley, can you imagine walking to one of these retail stores with all these homeless camped out in front? It wouldn’t be safe for you.
Leahy: Not exactly what you call a pleasant shopping experience, is it?
Huey: No. Not at all.
Leahy: And then you come back to God’s country, Middle Tennessee beautiful and the people are nice and no state income tax. I don’t know if I mentioned that.
Huey: I talk about the fact that there’s oppression. There’s a feeling of oppression.
Leahy: Oh, yeah, in California. And there’s a feeling of freedom and liberty in Tennessee.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Craig Huey” by Craig Huey. Background Photo “Franklin, Tennessee” by Brandon Jean.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss the changing definition of infrastructure and the intended destruction of the middle class.
(Joe Manchin clips plays)
Leahy: (Sighs) Joe Manchin, the Democrat Senator from West Virginia. Now, that clip to me, Crom, sounds like he’s cheerleading for this 2,700-page bill. The ‘infrastructure bill’ that was just released late last night by Chuck Schumer. Forced to release it, by the way, because Breitbart got an unauthorized leak of the bill that they released about an hour before.
That’s why it got released. It’s filled with all sorts of special deals and money going to special interest groups. And yet Manchin is presenting it as everybody’s bill. What’s your reaction to that?
Carmichael: Now we’re talking specifically about the so-called physical infrastructure bill, not the human infrastructure bill. We’re talking about the one that’s the $1.2 trillion dollar bill correct?
Leahy: (Chuckles) Well Crom, it says it’s physical infrastructure.
Carmichael: I’m just talking about the other one is ridiculous.
Leahy: This one is equally ridiculous.
Carmichael: I know, but is this the one that actually includes some money for roads and bridges?
Leahy: There is some money for roads and bridges. Some.
Carmichael: Manchin is incorrect when he says a D or an R because the people from New York and the people from California are getting the lion’s share of this money. It’s – not much is coming to the people of Tennessee or any city or state in the South, including West Virginia.
West Virginia will get a little bit. And I suppose Manchin thinks that if he brings home $100 million dollars worth of bacon for West Virginia out of $1.2 trillion, then the people of West Virginia will reward him.
Leahy: He may be thinking that – yes.
Carmichael: So this is the problem, by the way. Another thing I did over the weekend, Michael, was I carefully researched every road and bridge in the continental United States and Hawaii and Alaska.
Leahy: You were busy.
Carmichael: Is actually in one of our states.
Leahy: Amazing.
Carmichael: Except for Washington, D.C., except for that little tiny area. We have a great legislature, let me say that. But even back when Democrats were in charge, even back then, there’s no way that Democrats in the Tennessee legislature could have passed a Tennessee ‘infrastructure bill’ on the backs of the taxpayers of just Tennessee, that included this type of ridiculous stuff that’s in a federal infrastructure program.
This is why historically – and I only have to go back to the 1950s when our interstate highway system was passed with a defense appropriation – our Congress did not believe that under the Constitution it had the right to actually spend money on roads or bridges. Didn’t think it even had that right.
Leahy: Had to kind of invent a right.
Carmichael: They had to invent a right by claiming that in a case of a war, we need to be able to move troops and equipment quickly around the country so we needed to have an interstate highway system to move military equipment.
Leahy: That was clever and true, but a very small part of what it’s used for. You do occasionally see some troops going through.
Carmichael: Occasionally you do. But the point is, is that once that happened, then the dam broke, and then anything goes. Now you’ve got the Democrats claiming that infrastructure is infrastructure.
Leahy: Healthcare is infrastructure.
Carmichael: Everything is infrastructure.
Leahy: When everything is infrastructure, Crom, nothing is infrastructure.
Carmichael: That’s right. There’s nothing in the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to spend money on infrastructure. It all started where Congress did have the authority to spend money on the military. This is what happens when you start changing the definitions.
And then you get into this three-point-five or five-point-five or seven-point-five, and nobody really, really knows how much this so-called human infrastructure thing will amount to because it is an entitlement.
Leahy: That is exactly right. It’s not an infrastructure hard asset. It’s entitlement to a special privileged group.
Carmichael: No, it’s not. The group is so large that it will become impossible to sustain. Now, I want to be clear about this, because when Medicare was passed in 1960, that was an entitlement.
And they estimated that Medicare by 1988 would cost $8 billion dollars. By 1988, it was $80 billion dollars. It didn’t change the fact on whether or not it passed and whether or not it was there.
Leahy: Let me just interject you for a moment. We’re now in 2021. There are three particular things that happened between 1955 and 1965 that, in essence, have helped destroy the budget.
Number one, the highway spending bill that you just referenced under the Eisenhower administration. Number two, when John F. Kennedy allowed federal government employees to unionize,
Carmichael: He didn’t just allow it, he signed an executive order. And then, then, well, then it became legal. He legalized it with the executive order. And then Congress then passed a bill.
Leahy: And you had the Medicare. This all happened 1955 to 1965.
Carmichael: Well, 1968, because Medicare and Medicaid was great society stuff.
Leahy: No one at the time realized the import of all this.
Carmichael: That’s right. That’s right.
Leahy: And look what happened.
Carmichael: Now here’s what’s interesting. I’ll be very quick about this – in Britain, just on health care, they’re going to increase the payroll tax from 12 percent of employee pay to 13 percent of employee pay. The employer part, this is just for healthcare, is now 13.8 percent. I want to talk about the implications.
Leahy: More regulation, more crushing of small business.
Carmichael: And more taxes on the middle class.
Leahy: There you go. Crushing the middle class.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Crom Carmichael” by Crom Carmichael.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed former Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell to the studio to discuss her successful campaigns, losses, and the winding road to Speakership.
Leahy: We are with our good friend, the former state of Tennessee Speaker of the House, Beth Harwell. You know, I didn’t quite realize how long your career was there. 30 years. That’s pretty long.
Harwell: It is. And as we mentioned, one of the things wonderful about our state governments is a part-time legislature.
So nobody makes a living doing it. You do it as a part-time. And I think that’s a wonderful thing.
Leahy: It’s great because it keeps the state legislators connected. One of the things that I’ve noticed, there’s a correlation between the states in which being a state legislator is a full-time job and budget deficits.
Those states where it’s a full-time job have high budget deficits and those states where it’s part-time, they don’t.
Harwell: Right.
Leahy: You’re smiling like, yes, I see that this is obvious.
Harwell: And one of the things I used to tell my members all the time, is the best government is the one that lives within its means. And so we balance our budget every year. And that’s a wonderful thing.
Leahy: Your family’s here. Your husband’s in business?
Harwell: Yes. He is a business owner here in town. And then I have three children, all grown. My last one is a senior in college this year.
Leahy: Now, what kind of business is your husband in?
Harwell: He’s in the toy industry. He produces and manufactures toys.
Leahy: So he’s got a real job.
Harwell: He’s got a real job.
Leahy: And a small business.
Harwell: And a small business. He used to tell me if I ever voted against anything that helps small businesses I couldn’t come home. So he’s a strong advocate for the entrepreneurial spirit.
Leahy: Has the entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses been crushed of late by the increasing amount of federal and state regulations on businesses of all sizes?
Harwell: Without a doubt. We saw that happening during COVID, these businesses were devastated by all of this regulation.
And it’s going to be a hard, hard comeback for a lot of them. But beyond that, anytime we can free up, people have a misconception that government creates jobs. That’s not true.
The entrepreneurs, those small business owners are the ones that create jobs in America. And if we want to get our country back on track, we’re going to have to do everything we can to make it compatible to be a business owner in the United States.
Leahy: You ran first in 1988. Lost. What was that like losing?
Harwell: Well, it never feels good. I learned a lot from the experience. I learned a lot from the experience.
Leahy: How much did you lose by?
Harwell: It’s one of those times where you really worry about voter integrity because it was a close election.
Leahy: It was that close?
Harwell: 61 vote difference.
Leahy: 61 votes.
Harwell: So, you know, every time you run into somebody who just said, oh, I meant to go vote. But then you feel like going for their throats because every vote does count.
Leahy: And you just smile and say, well next time.
Harwell: Next time. (Chuckles)
Leahy: (Buzzer sound) You should have voted for me. What did you learn – when you lost – that helped you win in 1990 for the state House seat here in Nashville?
Harwell: I think the difference was organization, but also being very committed and involved in my community. I’ve gone to school here, but I got more involved with different groups and organizations.
And I think that I’m connected to the community even better because people want to vote for somebody who has lived here for a while and understands their needs and understands what they care about for their children. And that gave me an opportunity to do that.
Leahy: How much did you win by when you won?
Harwell: Over a thousand I think. So it worked. It worked.
Leahy: And pretty much every time since then you were considered a pretty safe seat.
Harwell: Yeah. I have an area of Nashville that is changing quite a bit. Or did. I’m no longer in this district but it’s their district and it’s changing a little bit.
And when I left, it was possible for a Democrat to take my seat. And in fact, that’s what happened.
Leahy: Yeah. They won, not by a lot, but they won. And they had a lot of money and high name recognition.
Harwell: Absolutely.
Leahy: So you start in 1990 and in 1990 the Republicans were in a minority.
Harwell: A super minority.
Leahy: Super minority. And you are a woman, right? What was that like?
Harwell: Not only was I a Republican, which put me in the minority, but I was a Republican from Middle Tennessee, which was almost unheard of at that time.
All of Rutherford County was Democrat, Sumner County, Democrat. So it was very odd to have a Republican from a Democratic area.
So I wasn’t even an East Tennessee Republican. So I was the bottom of the barrel. But I was able to work closely with my colleagues and develop a good relationship with them.
And I think we moved from being the super minority to being the supermajority. And I think we’ve handled that supermajority well.
Leahy: So there you were, a first-termer in a super minority and it was not exactly a friendly environment for you. Was Jimmy Naifeh the speaker? Who was the speaker at that time?
Harwell: I think Ed Murray, and then Jimmy Naifeh came in next.
Leahy: Now you got to tell us some Jimmy Naifeh stories (Harwell laughs) because there are styles of being a Speaker. And there’s the old-style Tammany Hall boss-type guy. I think that was more Jimmy Naifeh’s style. Am I right in that?
Harwell: He ran the place with a pretty tight fist, there’s no doubt about it. And in fact, when I was elected speaker, someone gave me a little bracelet.
One of my colleagues did and it said, WWJD. And I said – I looked at the person, I was kind of surprised – I said, well, thank you so much, and, I didn’t realize that you were a follower of Jesus.
That’s wonderful. Thank you. I’ll wear this. He said, no, no, no, that’s not what it stands for. What would Jimmy do?
Harwell: What would Jimmy do. (Laughter)
Leahy: Now that’s a funny story.
Harwell: Because he was tough. He was tough.
Leahy: Well, do you have any colorful Jimmy Naifeh stories that you can share with us because he was the powerful, tough leader Democrat when they had a big majority, and he wanted it his way. And if you didn’t follow his way, you were out in the gall, right?
Harwell: Yeah, he did do that. He controlled his committee chairmanship pretty well. I remember the income tax was a big debate because he really pushed to get that through.
He was the one who held the board open trying to convince people at the last minute to vote that way. But I think one of my favorite stories and I’ve told him this.
When I was state Republican Party Chairman, which I was four years, that’s when we took the Senate for the first time. And we sent out brochures all the time. That was back in the days when everyone got their mail and they opened up the brochure.
And Jimmy called me into his office one day and he said, Beth, I do believe there are more pictures of me in the Republican brochures than there is anyone else because we used them as a means to take control. But anyway, he had a lot of good qualities as well.
Leahy: He’s still with us.
Harwell: He is.
Leahy: But not politically active.
Harwell: Not to my knowledge.
Leahy: Well, it’s hard once you’ve been the boss to be a soldier, right? And he was the boss. Ironfisted, no question about that.
What did you learn as a member of a super minority, a freshman, and a younger member of the Tennessee General Assembly that helped you move up and become speaker?
Harwell: Well, one, I was Republican Party Chairman so I helped a lot of the members down there get elected. They don’t forget that when you’re there for them, they try to be there for you as well.
And the second thing I think is that I really chose to become a Republican. When I was in college and when I began as a professor, I sat down and read the platform of the Democrat Party and the Republican Party and I thought, I’m a Republican.
I knew it because I read what they stood for. And so what I wanted to make clear to the members as we’ve made that transition from being just the minority party to being the governing party of the state is that we don’t forget what has brought us to this point.
What are the basic principles that we can’t let go of? Limited government? A government that is closest to the people is the best.
I mean, those basic core things, what made the Republican Party strong in this state and it’s the only way it’s going to remain strong now.
Leahy: Now, the big income tax fight 1999, 2002. Governor Sundquist kind of went back on his pledge of no taxes. This was the famous horn honking period of time where you stopped the state income tax. You and the killer B’s. Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, and Martha May Beavers.
Harwell: Yes, that’s true.
Leahy: They stopped it, as did a talk show radio host here.
Harwell: Absolutely. That was a huge part of it.
Leahy: What was that like?
Harwell: That was a very tough time. We were strapped for money at that point. The state is doing very, very well now. My word of caution for our state now is not to expand its budget because it fluctuates, especially when you rely strongly on a sales tax.
You’ve got to prepare for the bad times because they’ll come. The economy kind of goes up and down. So we really had to sit at the table and work out a strategy to balance our budget. And we did so without a tax.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio who identified a coalition of left-wing groups in Nashville actively organizing to get out the vote for Democrats.
Leahy: In studio with us, Craig Huey. The man who’s leading the charge against the Californication and the Georgiafication of Tennessee. Craig, during the break, you told me about an effort to oppose this referendum that will roll back for a 34 percent property tax increase. It’s a coalition of lefties called Save Nashville Now?
Huey: Yes it’s called Save Nashville Now. And basically, what it is, it’s left-wing groups and the Chamber of Commerce.
Leahy: Which is now a left-wing group.
Huey: And the unions.
Leahy: This is like a match made in hell.
Huey: Right. It’s terrible. Lots of money, lots of organization, a lot of political consultants telling them how to get out the vote, how to identify their voter, and get it out.
Leahy: This referendum to roll back the 34 percent property tax increase that our tinpot dictator Mayor John Cooper, that’s my friendly name for him and his left-wing minions on the Metro Council passed. There is a referendum that the Davidson County Election Commission scheduled now to be on the ballot on July 27.
There are, in fact, several legal efforts to stop that. Our friend Jim Roberts says they’re not going to succeed. He thinks it’ll be on the ballot. I think he’s probably right. That’s going to be voted on July 27th. Now, this alliance out of hell from the Chamber of Commerce and the unions and these left-wing groups are funded by the Democrat National Committee and other usual left-wing billionaires. They’re putting together a big campaign to oppose this rollback. Tell us who the left-wing groups are.
Huey: The left-wing groups include Equity Alliance.
Leahy: You know, (Huey chuckles) nothing says left-wing social justice like the Equity Alliance. I think this guy who’s involved in it was a former member of the Community Oversight Board who was a convicted felon and resigned suddenly. I think he may be affiliated with that group.
Huey: It’s a left-wing organization that’s dedicated to the mobilization of the voters. And then Stand Up Nashville, which, again, they’re trained on how to register and get out the vote.
Leahy: So Stand Up Nashville has been around for a while. Isn’t that this group that kind of held up the soccer stadium guys and got, like, $100 million community benefits agreement.
Huey: And part of what they do are these lawsuits and legal actions. They have a team of lawyers. That’s part of their strategy because they know it works as intimidation.
Leahy: And they basically threaten lawsuits against the soccer state guys. And again, that itself was a bad deal. But nonetheless, taxpayers are footing the bill for that. And then they gave a whole bunch of money in this. It’s kind of like a community development arrangement or something like that. Community benefit agreements are what I think it is. They got around one million bucks to play around with.
Huey: Well, see, here’s the thing. They are going to put together an organization to defeat this initiative. The people who want to pass this initiative, the business owners. I mean, I’m a small business owner. And the fact that I moved to Nashville, not knowing I was going to be hit with this extra tax, that’s horrific.
Leahy: So if you had perfect information when you moved from California you would have set your offices up, not in Nashville, but probably in Williamson County?
Huey: I don’t want to get anybody upset with me, but I will speak the truth and that is I tell companies in California all the time, move to Tennessee, and I tell them, don’t go to Davidson County. Don’t go to Nashville. You have to go outside. And that’s because of what Cooper has done.
Leahy: Yeah. Don’t you wish somebody told you that? (Laughter)
Huey: Yes. But I’ve got a lease.
Leahy: You got a lease. (Huey chuckles) Downtown Nashville, a lot of good things about downtown Nashville.
Huey: I love it. I love it. I’m in a historic building. We got everything we need.
Leahy: But you’re gonna get pain. You are going to get dinged.
Huey: I’m going to see the initiative passes. There’s a group called Speak Up Tennessee. You’re going to see them involved in this too because they understand how to mobilize the voters with data and identification.
Leahy: Where does all this money come from? It just says that this is sort of a truism. But I’ll just tell it to everybody. If you are a conservative nonprofit group and you are trying to raise money, lots of luck because it’s going to be, you know, it’s really something. It’s hard to do it because the reason it’s hard to do is that the wealthy people on the right just aren’t generous. But there are exceptions.
Huey: There are exceptions, yes.
Leahy: But on the left, they are going to give you tons of money.
Huey: Because they’re trying to transform America.
Leahy: Exactly.
Huey: The government is our God. Their religion is to be able to expand the coercive power of the state over the lives of the individual. They want to take away individual freedom. And they basically want to have an elite control of us.
And the fact is, they are dedicated to donating these groups between foundations. And the Chamber of Commerce is involved in this. You’ve got these business elites and top corporations doing this against the small business owner.
Leahy: As a graduate of a top business school, I can say this. If you think that most Fortune 500 companies support free markets, you are dead wrong. They want monopolies.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: They want power.
Huey: They want favors.
Leahy: And they structure it so that they can maintain those favors. And as a result, they end up getting barriers to entry. All sorts of small monopolies. They want to crush small business guys. There’s no question about that. You’ve experienced it your whole career.
Huey: All my career I’ve seen this happen and we’ve got to stop that in Nashville.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star National Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to outline his latest article which addresses the Biden death tax that would kill 800,000 jobs.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by the very best Washington correspondent in the country. The Washington Correspondent for The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network, Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil.
McCabe: Good morning, Michael. A pleasure to be with you.
Leahy: Every time I turn around, you’re breaking a new story. Your story was filed and published yesterday at The Tennessee Star. GOP’s Top Dog on Ways and Means: Biden’s ‘Death Tax’ Scheme Kills 800K Jobs. Tell us about that.
McCabe: Well, Kevin Brady is the ranking Republican on Ways and Means. He was the chairman from November of 2015 until the Republicans lost control of the Chamber after the 2018 midterms. He was the key guy writing the 2017 tax bill. Kevin Brady is from Texas.
He has a personal and emotionally vested interest in the state tax because his father was an attorney who was shot and killed in a courtroom when Brady was 12 years old. And he watched what the estate text did to his mother and his family.
And he became sensitive to how it was affecting other people in his area because there are a lot of people with small businesses, small farms, and ranches in his district. And in the 2017 tax bill, the House bill eliminated the estate tax.
The estate tax or death tax is you pay taxes all your life and whatever is left over when you die, the government wants to tax it again. That’s why it’s called a death tax. It is opposed by the life insurance lobby. And when that 20 17 House bill went to the Senate, the state tax was put back in by Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota with the help of John Coon.
John Coon, who ran I don’t know if you remember this, Mike, but John Coon defeated Tom Daschle, who was the majority leader. He was a Democratic leader in the Senate. He defeated the sitting majority leader of the Senate. And his campaign pledge 12 years ago was he would eliminate the estate tax.
But when the Republicans had the chance to get rid of the estate tax in the 2017 bill, Coon and Rounds put it back in. And they were able to raise the caps so that going into this tax year and the state tax doesn’t affect you unless you have an estate over 11 million for an individual and over 20 million for a couple.
So for most people, it isn’t really an issue. But because it’s still on the books, you can always tamper with the rates. If it’s been eliminated, trying to put it back in the tax soda is a much more difficult thing. And even at $20 million, which seems like a lot of money, if you own a farm and you have three combines that you paid $600,000 for and then you have some land and then you have a barn and then you have a house and then you have a shed and then you have some trucks.
All of a sudden, it’s very easy to get to $20 million, but it’s not in cash. So what ends up happening to family-owned businesses and farms and ranches is you have to sell the farm to save the farm. It’s just ridiculous.
Leahy: It’s crazy. What’s interesting here is how anti-small business and anti-middle-class American the Biden administration is. Crom Carmichael has some overall questions for you on what’s going on with that tax legislation.
Carmichael: Neil, there are three big pieces of legislation. The great big giant tax bill, and then two great big spending bills. The so-called infrastructure bill and the so-called family bill. What I see from where I’m looking is I don’t think the infrastructure bill will pass with anything more than what Republicans are willing to agree to. And I think the family bills dead to water and the tax bill is dead in the water. What are you hearing?
McCabe: I’ll tell you right now, everybody’s talking about how Biden is going to have trouble getting things through the Senate. I’m telling you right now that Biden is going to have trouble getting things through the House. And Kevin McCarthy is restoring the Whip.
It’s something he never did when he was the Whip. (Leahy chuckles) But as a majority leader, he’s finally putting the stick to these Republicans. And the Republicans stay firm. They’re only down something like three seats. If McCarthy convinced four Democrats to flip parties, he’s the Speaker of the House.
That’s how close this thing is. And you have a number of House Democrats who are frightened about what’s coming at them in 2022. This state tax thing is very dangerous because Brady told me that if this thing goes through, it’s 800,000 jobs out the window.
There’s no greater destroyer of family-owned farms and ranches and businesses than the state tax. And it’s insane how it’s just wiped out. When you look at the Midwest or these great farm areas and you wonder why do we have all these corporate farms and we no longer have family farms, it’s because of the estate tax.
And there are companies that suck up all of these farms at the estate sale. Going back to Biden’s program, what I think you’re really asking is have the wheels fallen off the cart for Biden? Yes. Biden has completely run out of time. I’ve said this over and over again. He has no more runway.
He just announced he was going to take the sanctions off of that German pipeline to Russia, the Nord Stream Two. Well, do we have an ambassador to Germany? No. Do we have an ambassador in the UK? No. We don’t have ambassadors in Canada, Afghanistan.
Japan we just nominated Rahm Emanuel. But South Korea, England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Vatican, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Australia, we don’t even have ambassadors nominated. Those are the easiest things to do.
Leahy: And he’s not doing it.
McCabe: There just isn’t time to get things done.
Leahy: Speaking of time, Neil, we have one political question for you. If you could wrap your mind around this one for us.
McCabe: Sure.
Leahy: In the Senate in 2022, the Republicans have a disadvantage in terms of the way the seats play out. But if you look at key states that are currently represented by Democrats, one state is New Hampshire. The incumbent is Margaret Hassan.
I think that’s how you pronounce it. H-A-S-S-A-N. Apparently, the Republicans there are trying to get the very popular governor, John Sununu Jr. to run for governor. The polls show him with a five or six-point lead. Will he run for the Senate in New Hampshire? Will he beat Margaret Hassan?
McCabe: Yes. And I wrote about this for The Tennessee Star. This is one of the three seats that the Republicans can flip to take back the Chamber. And Hassan, she barely beat Kelly Ayotte. And that’s only because the Democrats bussed thousands of students from Massachusetts who pretended that they had moved to Massachusetts and they did same-day registration and they lied and said that they were residents of New Hampshire.
They had just moved there that day. And pretended they were going to spend the rest of their lives in New Hampshire. And as soon as they voted, they went back to take their midterms.
Carmichael: Has New Hampshire changed that law?
McCabe: They have changed that law. A student ID is no longer accepted as part of their voter ID law.
Leahy: Hooray for New Hampshire!
Listen to the full third hour here:
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