Leftists disrupt NC legislature, get tossed out (12-03-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to ThePeteKalinerShow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] Joseph said, has Tony or Mike called in since the election? I haven't heard them. And I listen regularly. I figure that Mike is disheartened that America hates democracy. And I'm not sure Tony knows who won.

[00:00:45] Well, I think I saw Tony show up on the call screen board during Vince's show, but because the phones, I'm assuming that was a phone-related thing. He was not there. So I'm not sure.

[00:00:59] So last hour, we were going over how local and state building codes are preventing these temporary shelters from being set up in Western North Carolina, like these little tiny houses and Amish-built cabins and sheds, insulated sheds and such.

[00:01:18] And I got a message here for another message from Mike, who is a building inspector. He said, in defense of the local inspectors in the flooded areas, they cannot ignore codes on their own. The decision has to come at the state level. Your boy, Roy, needs to do something. Yeah, my good friend, Ray Cooper, the governor.

[00:01:40] Like this to me should be a no-brainer. And the fact that it has taken this long to somehow do something, to make a change here is astounding.

[00:01:52] But then again, you know, maybe if Western North Carolina had just located itself closer to the state capitol, then, you know, maybe people would pay attention to it a little bit more.

[00:02:03] It's their own fault, really. Setting themselves up way over there, you know, so far away from Raleigh.

[00:02:11] So maybe the people in Raleigh, no, I was going to say, maybe they don't know it exists. And I actually, I'm pretty certain they don't know it's part of North Carolina.

[00:02:21] So there's that. The North Carolina Senate voted to override, oh, hang on a second. I have some more emails.

[00:02:31] I got to get to these before because I don't want to leave these emails and then have to circle back like Pisaki might.

[00:02:36] Right. So Tim said, Pete, who said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the government and I'm here to help?

[00:02:46] That would be Ronald Reagan who said that, Tim.

[00:02:52] Let me see here. This is from Seth.

[00:02:54] At this point, it seems that the rules just need to be ignored.

[00:02:57] Deal with the fines or whatever else later people are going to die without shelter.

[00:03:03] Yeah. I mean, that's that's it.

[00:03:06] Like, I'm at that point.

[00:03:08] Do what you need to do.

[00:03:10] Right. You got a shed.

[00:03:12] Somebody is able to deliver a shed to you.

[00:03:16] Keep your mouth shut.

[00:03:17] Just set it up.

[00:03:18] You know, that's.

[00:03:21] I'm not advocating breaking the law.

[00:03:23] I'm just saying I would not enforce it.

[00:03:25] That's all.

[00:03:26] Scott says, call me old fashioned or even out of touch.

[00:03:32] But isn't that the whole point of having FEMA to cut out all the red tape?

[00:03:36] You know, in the event of an emergency.

[00:03:40] Right.

[00:03:41] So you can move more quickly.

[00:03:42] I know I'm an idealist, but ask Milton Friedman, as Milton Friedman once said,

[00:03:48] if you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, they would run out of sand.

[00:03:55] That's old Uncle Miltie.

[00:03:57] I do not know anything about the South Korean martial law, Susie.

[00:04:03] Well, I spent all of my time becoming an expert in deep water submersibles.

[00:04:10] And I feel like I I didn't have any time left over to, you know.

[00:04:15] To become an expert on the South Korean governance.

[00:04:18] I don't I don't know what's going on in South Korea.

[00:04:22] But apparently the president has like declared martial laws, locked the legislature out of the building and stuff.

[00:04:29] So not sure what's going on there.

[00:04:31] But it is developing in real time right now.

[00:04:35] All right.

[00:04:36] So the North Carolina Senate yesterday voted to override Governor Roy Cooper's veto of Senate Bill 382, pushing the legislation one step closer to becoming law.

[00:04:45] So the House is going to take this up the override next week when those lawmakers return for their final session.

[00:04:53] The Senate did theirs yesterday.

[00:04:56] The legislation passed quickly by the North Carolina General Assembly in mid-November allocates 227 million dollars more for disaster relief in Western North Carolina.

[00:05:08] However, it also had some major changes to state government powers as Republicans will be losing their super majority in the House.

[00:05:17] They still have in the Senate, but they won't have it in the House starting with the new year.

[00:05:23] So there was also a disruption in the two disruptions actually in the Senate gallery.

[00:05:29] So first off, as these debates usually do here, here is the clerk reading the governor's veto message.

[00:05:37] Governor Roy Cooper objections and veto message.

[00:05:41] Senate Bill 382, an act to make modifications to and provide additional appropriations for disaster recovery to make technical clarifying and other modifications to the current operations appropriations act of 2023 and to make various changes to the law.

[00:06:03] This legislation is a sham.

[00:06:06] It does not send money to Western North Carolina, but merely shuffles money from one fund to another in Raleigh.

[00:06:13] This legislation was titled disaster relief, but instead violates the Constitution by taking appointments away from the next governor for the Board of Elections, utilities commissions and commander of the North Carolina Highway Patrol.

[00:06:28] Letting political parties choose appellate judges and interfering with the Attorney General's ability to advocate for lower electrical bills for consumers.

[00:06:39] Instead of giving small business grants to disaster counties, it strikes a cruel blow by blocking the extension of better unemployment benefits for people who have lost jobs because of natural disasters.

[00:06:54] Finally, it plays politics by taking away two judges elected by the people and adding two judges appointed by the legislature, taking away authority from the lieutenant governor and the superintendent of public instruction and more.

[00:07:11] Therefore, I veto the bill.

[00:07:14] Therefore, I veto the bill.

[00:07:14] Roy Cooper, governor.

[00:07:15] The bill, having been vetoed, is returned to the clerk of North Carolina Senate on this 26th day of November 2024 at 1027 AM for reconsideration by that body.

[00:07:29] Mr. President.

[00:07:30] Mr. President.

[00:07:31] Senator Raven, for what purpose do you write?

[00:07:33] Uh-oh.

[00:07:39] Folks, this is not a football game or a concert.

[00:07:43] The applause will not be tolerated.

[00:07:46] You're welcome to be in here, but we need silence.

[00:07:51] So that's Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson presiding over the Senate chamber as the lieutenant governor does.

[00:07:57] I ran that soundbite so you can hear the entire message from Governor Cooper, why he opposes it.

[00:08:04] Key provisions, including stripping the governor of direct control over the state board of elections, transferring that authority over to the state auditor, who will be Republican Dave Bullock, come January.

[00:08:16] The Senate overrided this veto in a 30 to 19 vote along party lines, and they had to, at one point, go into recess because there was a crazy game of kickball that had started up.

[00:08:32] I'm kidding.

[00:08:32] Just kidding.

[00:08:33] It's a different kind of recess.

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[00:09:36] So the Senate debated the override of this gubernatorial veto.

[00:09:41] Actually, they did not really – they didn't actually debate it.

[00:09:45] It was called to the floor.

[00:09:48] And when they start off by reading, you know, the governor's veto message, you get these Democrat activists.

[00:09:53] By the way, this is a replay of the Moral Monday movement, the MoMo, from a decade ago.

[00:09:59] I can go into the history of that at some point.

[00:10:03] Well, real briefly, I'll just say the Democrat Party had been completely obliterated in 2010.

[00:10:08] Scandal, corruption, running budget deficits, withholding tax refunds.

[00:10:13] I mean, just a whole litany of mal-government.

[00:10:17] And so they were ousted.

[00:10:19] Republicans took over.

[00:10:21] The party had suffered scandals.

[00:10:23] They were about to lose their own headquarters building because they couldn't pay the rent.

[00:10:27] A couple of executive directors had to resign or get fired in scandal.

[00:10:32] And so it was just a mess.

[00:10:34] And so in steps, the repairer of the breach, Reverend William Barber, NAACP guy, North Carolina chapter.

[00:10:45] And they start organizing these Moral Monday protest marches.

[00:10:51] They take a page from the Wisconsin Disruption Playbook.

[00:10:55] And they flood into the legislative halls.

[00:10:58] They flood into the chamber.

[00:11:00] They scream.

[00:11:00] They chant.

[00:11:01] They get dressed up as genitalia.

[00:11:02] And they shut down the legislature so the Republicans cannot enact their priorities.

[00:11:08] Arrests are then made.

[00:11:10] Nobody's ever really made to suffer any real consequences for it.

[00:11:13] They just get kind of released right back out.

[00:11:15] Most of their charges end up getting dropped.

[00:11:17] Just a complete farce.

[00:11:20] And the media is there for all of it.

[00:11:22] Constantly giving it coverage.

[00:11:23] Because the Democrat Party could not mount any kind of a challenge against the Republicans.

[00:11:29] So decimated was it.

[00:11:31] That this, uh, uh, this, uh, uh, Barber and this movement, they filled that need.

[00:11:38] They filled that vacuum.

[00:11:40] And they're back.

[00:11:42] They're getting the band back together, everybody.

[00:11:44] Okay.

[00:11:45] So here is how the, quote, debate on the floor went.

[00:11:49] Sir, any discussion or debate?

[00:11:52] Okay.

[00:11:54] No?

[00:11:56] Hearing none of the motion before the body is that the Senate, is that Senate Bill 382 become law, notwithstanding the objections of the governor.

[00:12:08] Mr. President.

[00:12:09] It's voter suppression.

[00:12:10] Sir, the heist.

[00:12:12] It's disruptive and out of order to the legislative process.

[00:12:18] She's being removed.

[00:12:21] Oh.

[00:12:25] Clear the gallery.

[00:12:26] That's it.

[00:12:26] Just clear the gallery.

[00:12:27] Everybody's got to go.

[00:12:30] Everybody's got to go.

[00:12:31] Clear the gallery.

[00:12:32] It's not going to be tolerated.

[00:12:34] Everybody out of the pool.

[00:12:35] Mr. President.

[00:12:37] You can't clear the whole gallery.

[00:12:39] A lot of the people here are being respectful and here to see what's happening.

[00:12:44] This is the people's house.

[00:12:45] That's Natasha Marcus.

[00:12:47] Should not clear the whole gallery.

[00:12:51] It's undemocratic.

[00:12:58] Okay.

[00:12:59] So that's how that sounded.

[00:13:00] He cleared the gallery.

[00:13:01] And then after the recess, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson addressed the protest.

[00:13:08] Well, folks, it was mentioned during the melee that I was disrupting the process of democracy.

[00:13:14] But I want to make a point.

[00:13:17] Democracy has a process.

[00:13:19] And that process has to be followed.

[00:13:21] And part of that process is to be orderly.

[00:13:25] To do things right and in order.

[00:13:27] And in this body, the entire time that I've been here, and as I observed long before that, our process works.

[00:13:35] And in order for it to work, we must be united in ensuring that everyone that enters this chamber does things right and in order.

[00:13:45] There is a time for protest.

[00:13:47] But it's not in the halls of this chamber.

[00:13:51] It's not inside this chamber.

[00:13:54] And anyone that sits in these seats that tolerates it should not be here.

[00:13:58] Because we have to keep ordering here.

[00:14:00] I don't mind hearing these folks' voices.

[00:14:02] But I won't tolerate it on this floor.

[00:14:04] And no one should.

[00:14:05] Now we're back to where we were.

[00:14:08] We were at the point of discussing or debating House Senate Bill 382.

[00:14:13] Is there any further discussion or debate?

[00:14:16] And there wasn't any at that point either.

[00:14:19] The vote was taken.

[00:14:20] The veto was overridden.

[00:14:21] All right.

[00:14:22] Hey, real quick.

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[00:14:52] Okay.

[00:14:53] Back to the North Carolina Senate.

[00:14:55] Yesterday, after the disruption over the Hurricane Helene funding bill,

[00:15:03] and I can go into more of the details.

[00:15:05] I did a deep dive on this stuff, I think, last week or maybe the week before on what all is in the bill

[00:15:12] and what it means and the historical precedent and all of that stuff.

[00:15:16] So that veto got overridden.

[00:15:19] There are also some efforts to get constitutional amendments put to us, the voters,

[00:15:28] in the next election cycle to be on the ballots for us.

[00:15:32] I guess this would be probably, well, I don't know, maybe 25, but probably not, probably 2026.

[00:15:40] And one of them is to take the, there exists currently a constitutional cap on the income tax.

[00:15:49] And you'll recall that this came up to voters a couple of years ago.

[00:15:54] We voted to take it to 7%, which is where it was when it was first implemented decades ago.

[00:16:02] Then it got bumped up, and so Republicans wanted to take it back down.

[00:16:07] So you would not be able to raise the personal income tax on individuals above 7%.

[00:16:14] We're not at that, by the way.

[00:16:16] We're at like four something, I think.

[00:16:19] And so like four and three quarters.

[00:16:21] And so what the Republicans want to do is to take that down now to 5%.

[00:16:26] And here was the debate between Republican, yeah, yeah.

[00:16:35] So this is Republican Paul Newton.

[00:16:36] Since about 2010, the GOP has stepped into the control of the North Carolina legislature.

[00:16:45] What they came to was a democratically controlled, previously democratically controlled body that had about almost an 8% income tax rate on North Carolinians and a $1.7 billion deficit in the budget.

[00:17:04] So the GOP set up to reform tax policy.

[00:17:12] We moved the personal income tax from a sliding scale to a flat tax.

[00:17:16] We greatly reduced the personal income tax rate, which currently stands at 4.5%.

[00:17:22] The personal income tax rate, again, nearly 8% in 2010, 4.5% today, and scheduled to be reduced further.

[00:17:29] We're also on track to eliminate the corporate income tax.

[00:17:33] These tax reforms have done wonders for our state.

[00:17:37] Every time we reduce the income tax rate, we hear a hue and cry of, you're taking availability away from the state.

[00:17:46] That could be money that could be used for other things.

[00:17:49] The reality is, as we've reduced taxes, we have increased the revenues of this state.

[00:17:56] In 2010, the budget was about $20 billion.

[00:17:59] Now it's about $30 billion.

[00:18:02] 8% tax rate, 4.5% tax rate.

[00:18:05] So the old saw, if you will, that this is devastating to the financial needs of our state to continue to reduce taxes is flat wrong.

[00:18:15] And the other thing that's really, really important for us to keep in mind, this is not our money.

[00:18:21] We're talking about taxpayer money.

[00:18:24] We're talking about the money North Carolinians work to earn.

[00:18:29] So they should have a right to decide the maximum that they're going to be taxed by us, government.

[00:18:36] And I think it is irrefutable that government tends toward spending, spending, and more spending.

[00:18:45] True.

[00:18:45] So all we're doing with this bill is recognizing the reality that government has a tendency to grow.

[00:18:51] Therefore, we have this opportunity, with a tax rate that's currently 4.5%, to simply give North Carolinians the option of saying,

[00:19:01] you know what, the most you can tax me is 7% today.

[00:19:05] I think going to 5% makes sense.

[00:19:08] It's their money they should choose what the maximum tax rate is for them in North Carolina.

[00:19:15] It's as simple as that.

[00:19:16] So all we're asking today with your vote is to allow North Carolinians to choose for themselves the maximum tax rate that they'll be taxed here in North Carolina.

[00:19:26] And that would be 5%.

[00:19:28] So I'd appreciate to ask you for your support on this bill.

[00:19:32] Democracy, you might say.

[00:19:35] Letting us decide what the most of our income should go to the state.

[00:19:43] That's democracy.

[00:19:44] Democracy.

[00:19:45] All you lovers of democracy.

[00:19:47] All you proponents of it.

[00:19:49] Bleating on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about it.

[00:19:56] This is what democracy looks like.

[00:19:58] To borrow the chant from the fascist Antifa folks that swarm the streets whenever they don't get their way on anything.

[00:20:06] Right?

[00:20:06] So this is asking people, hey, how much of your income should go to fund state government?

[00:20:14] Now, Democrat Craig or Greg Meyer.

[00:20:17] He said he would not support this.

[00:20:19] He predicted revenue shortfalls and economic ruination.

[00:20:24] Senator Newton referenced an old saw.

[00:20:28] But I want to tell you that while we have been very fortunate over the last 10 years to take advantage of a strong economy and large population growth that has kept this state afloat.

[00:20:41] Not to mention the federal funding during COVID.

[00:20:44] I'm not concerned about any old saws, but I am concerned about the buzzsaw that is about to hit this state.

[00:20:49] Oh.

[00:20:50] If you look at fiscal projections of where we're going.

[00:20:53] Hmm.

[00:20:53] Hmm.

[00:20:54] I note this, the population growth and a strong economy.

[00:21:00] How how does a state get that?

[00:21:03] Did you know that California has lost population?

[00:21:07] New York has lost population.

[00:21:10] Right.

[00:21:10] Why do states lose population?

[00:21:13] Why do states not have strong economies?

[00:21:16] What does that do to?

[00:21:18] Gosh, he's so close.

[00:21:19] This gets to the Democrat budgeting and financial philosophy, which is see a penny, spend a penny.

[00:21:26] And I would also point out that these predictions of economic ruin and, you know, catastrophe, they never materialized 15 years ago when the Democrats were saying that very same thing when Republicans started enacting their reforms.

[00:21:43] All of these predictions were made, yet they still make the same predictions every single time that the tax issue comes up and the rate comes down every single time.

[00:21:57] And at some point, I implore the North Carolina political press to stop using these people for their sound bites as if they are experts like the budget and tax center.

[00:22:10] They have been wrong on this forever.

[00:22:14] For the last 20 years, they have been wrong.

[00:22:18] They want to be able to tax more.

[00:22:22] And their their argument is, hey, if we have a bad economy, we need to be able to raise income taxes on everybody.

[00:22:29] Like what?

[00:22:31] So when people are most hurting, that's when you're going to hit them with more taxation.

[00:22:35] What's for the people?

[00:22:38] Just take all the seats, guys.

[00:22:40] Kirk writes in, Pete, why is it always the left who engages in this disruption crap?

[00:22:45] I can't think of a single instance of those on the right save that January 6th nonsense.

[00:22:51] Yeah.

[00:22:53] It's a it is a common tactic of the left to disrupt legislative proceedings when they're not going to get the vote to go their way.

[00:23:02] They are children throwing tantrums.

[00:23:06] So in this debate on the Senate floor yesterday between Senator Paul Newton and Democrat Senator Greg Meyer.

[00:23:17] Over the tax, the giving us the voters the ability to put a cap on our income tax at five percent, it's currently at seven percent.

[00:23:27] It's a constitutional amendment.

[00:23:29] We would have to vote on it.

[00:23:30] So this merely advances this question to the voters.

[00:23:34] It's saying, should we ask the voters?

[00:23:37] And Democrat Meyer does not want the democracy.

[00:23:42] He doesn't want people to be able to vote on this.

[00:23:44] The impact is already being seen as true.

[00:23:48] Over the last two years, 96 counties have raised property taxes because we are shifting the tax burden from taxes that are paid in corporate and individual income taxes to counties having to pay for services, which they can only do primarily do with the use of the ad valorem tax.

[00:24:11] Ninety six counties raising property taxes.

[00:24:14] In 2024, there were 17 counties that raised property taxes more than 10 percent.

[00:24:25] Imagine what counties in western North Carolina with very low yield on ad valorem tax increases will have to do if they have to pay for the recovery based on their property taxes rather than help from the state of North Carolina.

[00:24:39] All right.

[00:24:43] All right.

[00:24:44] Paul Newton then responds.

[00:24:45] That is almost verbatim the same saw that we heard when we removed when we lowered we gave the public the opportunity to lower the maximum income tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent.

[00:25:00] Doomsday didn't happen.

[00:25:01] Revenues grew.

[00:25:31] Revenues grew.

[00:25:32] We are uniquely benefited because of our tax and regulatory policy in this state.

[00:25:39] Right. The tax policy is the reason why people are fleeing states like California.

[00:25:45] Well, and the crime.

[00:25:46] But people would rather work hard and keep their money and spend it how they see fit.

[00:25:53] And they want a state government to live within its means.

[00:25:57] And so when you ask people, how much should we tax you?

[00:26:01] And they say 7 percent. Look, they could vote this down and say, no, leave it at 7 percent.

[00:26:06] But they could also say, no, cap it at 5 percent. Live within your means.

[00:26:10] Because Newton said correctly, the tendency of government is to spend.

[00:26:14] The tendency of government is to take, is to grow.

[00:26:17] And the tendency of the population is to is to cede their rights and their money to the government.

[00:26:26] That's why you have to constrain it.

[00:26:28] All right. That'll do it for this episode.

[00:26:30] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:26:45] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:26:47] And don't break anything while I'm gone.

[00:26:49] We'll be right back.

[00:26:49] Then we'll be back.

[00:26:49] Thank you.