Nick Craig In For Pete Kaliner (03-18-2025--Hour3)

[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 thepetekalendershow.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] 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 Pete Kaliner Show, Brianna Kramer, reporter over at carolinajournal.com, joins us. Brianna, thanks for the time. You were just at this press conference down at the GA.

[00:00:58] What is the RAINS Act and why is it relevant to our listeners this afternoon? Yeah. Hey, Nick. 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.

[00:01:25] 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.

[00:01:34] So really what they are trying to do with the RAINS Act is kind of have a little bit more authority over the executive branch in North Carolina and really the different rules and regulations that come out of the council of state's offices that the General Assembly doesn't necessarily have control over.

[00:01:57] And there's like some big regulations that sometimes 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. Representative Alan Chesser held the press conference this afternoon and this is how he explained it to North Carolinians. The people of North Carolina deserve to know what regulations cost them, especially when they're affecting their day-to-day lives.

[00:02:25] Doesn't matter if you live in Murphy, Manio, 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 grab.

[00:02:53] To be clear, it's a returning power to the people and their representatives. Polling shows this idea has strong bipartisan support and for good reason. It's about trust, transparency, and accountability. I urge my colleagues in the General Assembly to support the NC Raines Act and give North Carolinians the oversight that they deserve. Talking about the oversight that they deserve, Brianne, it looks like as I'm reading this legislation for things coming out of the executive branch,

[00:03:21] or really any member of the Council of State, that has an economic impact of over a million dollars over a 12-month period, there would be some sort of review process for that? Walk us through it. Yeah, so it's really interesting. They were describing why this is necessary in the state government. And they explained that we have roughly 110,000 regulations in the state of North Carolina. And they have a really high success rate of going through the executive branch,

[00:03:49] around a 98% 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 restraint

[00:04:17] on anything that could have an economic impact of over $1 million. 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 $1 million. And so the General Assembly would have a role to play in creating government regulations. Well, and obviously, you know, we talk about two different things,

[00:04:45] and we talk about this a lot on the Carolina Journal-NewsHour. 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. Brianna, 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. And that's what they're saying is that, you know, you have the General Assembly,

[00:05:12] 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 without going through the state legislature as well. And so there's really no representation right now is what Republicans are arguing.

[00:05:37] And so by giving the General Assembly this authority, they're taking away 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 their direct voters.

[00:06:06] Now, I heard some comments and reading your story that you had up last week over at carolinajournal.com, listening to the comments from Representative Alan Chesser at this press conference that took place in the 1 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?

[00:06:33] Yes, and that's actually what 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 rain in on, you know, Josh Stein and Democrats in the Council of States.

[00:07:00] But what Republicans said to that was that you actually have a 5-to-5 Republican-to-Democrat representation in Council of States 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 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

[00:07:30] 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. Yeah, these regulations oftentimes can be overburdensome and have a huge impact on your day-to-day life. Brianna Kramer from carolinajournal.com is joining us this afternoon on the Pete Calendashow. Brianna, 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? Yeah, you can go read the latest on carolinajournal.com

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[00:08:56] Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. 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,

[00:09:24] 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 U.S. House. You had Hakeem Jeffries, currently the minority leader in the House,

[00:09:54] but Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, blasting him in a comment on social media. Hakeem Jeffries 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

[00:10:22] 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.

[00:10:50] In the case of the NBC News poll, it's like 35 years they've been doing the poll since the early 1990s. And for the CNN poll, it goes all the way back to 2006. And in both of those polls, it is the lowest approval rating ever for Democrats. And so for Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries is kind of irrelevant, right? Republicans in the House don't have to work with him. He is in the minority.

[00:11:19] 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. The Republicans don't have to work with Hakeem Jeffries and they're not going to. But in the Senate, where you've got, of course, the 60 vote threshold, things become very interesting for Chuck Schumer. The way that it's set up right now,

[00:11:49] Chuck Schumer is the one that essentially gets to decide whether things go through or not under the regular process with that 60 vote threshold, that 60 vote margin. And so he decided that he was going to encourage 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. Now, he was on and making his media tour today. He was on a couple of different shows.

[00:12:19] 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 Gayle King over this vote and over the Democrats for the future. Take a listen. Hakeem 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 deprived

[00:12:49] and killed. Senator, people don't have faith in the Democrats. Well, let me say this. Wow. Gayle King roasting Chuck Schumer. Well, Senator, people don't have faith in 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.

[00:13:19] And for Chuck Schumer, he is in a very, very interesting position. Now, I heard the framing from Hakeem Jeffries that, you know, after all this is said and done, it's really the Republicans that were 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.

[00:13:48] It's just not going to happen. Now, 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. It 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

[00:14:18] 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

[00:14:47] 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 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.

[00:15:18] 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. This is very typical for the Republicans. Those fights always spill over into the public and they always just turn into, in many cases, just a complete and total laughingstock for the party. Not for the Democrats though. And so Schumer's facing this criticism.

[00:15:48] 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. 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 Ilan Omar, AOC, Rashida Tlaib wing of the Democrat Party. This is coming from Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, individuals that have

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[00:17:45] continue to set their sights 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 incredible amount of outrage amongst Democrats. You had Hakeem Jeffries, 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's

[00:18:14] in a really tough spot. Hakeem 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, the Republicans rather, have control in the House, so it's kind of irrelevant. And so that puts Schumer in the Senate

[00:18:44] 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 shutdown? Or does he step across the aisle? 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.

[00:19:14] 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 were setting their sights 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.

[00:19:45] Also went on to call it a huge slap in the face. Brutal for Chuck Schumer. Definitely the largest political backlash that he's received from his party thus far. 704-570-1110 is our studio hotline. That's 704-570-1110. Let's head on over to line one. Chris is hanging on the line this afternoon. Chris, you're on the Pete Calendar show with Nick Craig. Good afternoon. I'm really digging you, Nick. You're a great addition to the

[00:20:14] family here. Even though I'm partial to Jason Lewis where he'll fill on sometimes still. You're a great So anyway, let me get right down to it. In relation to Schumer's more power than he would have right now. Was that true? He's like, he's saying he could shut down whole groups of things. Was that true or was that just a The claim that Schumer

[00:20:44] made was and 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. Okay, good. Okay. So kind of the party is kind of messed up. So let me quickly explain the play I see here. In relation to kicking the can down the road of continuing resolutions and stuff like that. What I saw was Trump comes in and

[00:21:14] doge and there's two things going on with those there's stopping current payments near trade. 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 you get to the continuing resolution

[00:21:43] to 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 Trump. 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 it's just a simple majority we win in that too

[00:22:13] right? Yeah and Chris I appreciate your call and I really appreciate your kind words it means a lot I think what you laid out there is pretty spot on I

[00:22:44] 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's standpoint when he makes the

[00:23:14] this government shutdown 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 against the CR and shut down the government and then make demands of the administration

[00:23:44] try and win favor with the American public when you just voted to shut down the government it's it's two 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 to then saying yeah well we've got to vote for this thing

[00:24:14] and he himself and nine other Democrat senators in fact came along and it passed with 62 votes government is open and funded until September and you've got Democrats spiraling out of control about this very the continuing resolution I'll have that coming up here in just a few minutes I'm Nick

[00:24:44] Craig host of the Carolina Journal News Hour on WBT in for the great Pete calendar a new stalk 1110 99 3 WBT all right if you're listening to this show you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events and I know you do too and you probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources why well because it's how you detect media bias which is why I've been so impressed with ground news it's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage

[00:25:14] and verify information you can check it out at check dot ground dot news slash pete I put the link in the podcast description too I started using ground news a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom the blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right see for yourself check dot ground dot news slash Pete

[00:25:56] 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 Jeffries Nancy

[00:26:25] Pelosi a lot of big time names and very influential people within the Democrat party 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 you know the proposals that they're bringing are horrendous enough for us to do that and we should

[00:27:14] and and I appreciate Scott Jennings calling him out that that's typical Democrat reframing an argument they claim oh it's a cut and instead of arguing the point as

[00:27:44] he 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 party with the side I think that Democrats are in agreement with you in the sense that they probably think Chuck Schumer should take the spook show up and take

[00:28:13] the L is 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

[00:28:43] perhaps may be true according to what Abby has said and Iranian backed terrorist organization on college campuses last year the deranged left that loves burning cities to

[00:30:05] that