Nick Craig Subs for Pete (10-11-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the Pete Kaliner Show on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Nick Craig.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I host the Carolina Journal News Hour, which you can hear weekday mornings, 5 to 6 a.m.

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: right here on WBT.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: 704-570-1110 is our phone number.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll grab some of your calls coming up later on in the hour.

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_00]: This might be hard to believe, but this is the headline.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you know and could you believe that a firefighter application could be racist?

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that is the case.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that's actually happening and did happen here in North Carolina.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: In Durham.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: We know the political leanings and the political makeup of Durham.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the blue cities, blue counties across North Carolina.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They are now going to have to pay nearly $1 million to 16 applicants.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: That were rejected from becoming firefighters after a test was used to weed out job candidates.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Was found to be unintentionally discriminatory.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The city announced this earlier in the week that they had settled a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: That accused the Durham Fire Department of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is a written test that has been administered by the Durham Fire Department since 2015.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Almost a decade at this point.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And what's the point of the test?

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's to screen applicants for entry-level firefighter jobs in Durham.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's the name of the company that makes this test.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, they do this for fire and police and EMS groups all over the country.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called the Fire and Police Selection Incorporated.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the name of the company.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And they develop and deploy and sell tests that are used by all of these local agencies all over the country.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So you might be asking yourself, how can a test possibly be racist?

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what the test looks at.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: There's five sections.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Reading ability.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Mathematical reasoning.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Map reading.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Writing ability.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And human relations.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Those are the five different areas in which this 100, I think it's about 100 questions or so, 100 question test deals with.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Reading ability.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, obviously, if you're working in public service, which is what you would be doing as a firefighter, your ability to read is very important.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Math.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll get into some of the examples of these questions in the test that the DOJ found, quote-unquote, unintentionally racist.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Some mathematical reasoning.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: There's 20 items on that or 20 questions on that.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Map reading.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a big one.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You get a call into the fire station.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: You've got to report to a certain area of town.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Being able to navigate to that area in an efficient and effective manner.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty important.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Writing.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Your ability to document what went on.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, you go out and you deal with a car accident or a fire or something of that nature.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to file reports after the fact.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty important part.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And then, I'd argue, one of the biggest portions.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Human relations.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You're interacting with people.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And in some cases, on the worst day of their life.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: A house fire.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: A tragic car accident.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You're dealing with individuals when they are at the lowest of possible lows in their entire lives.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So, being able to interact with these individuals that are struggling.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: These individuals that may have just had a near-death experience in a nasty car accident.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Does any of that sound out of left field?

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Does any of that sound like it's above the pale of what an entry-level firefighter should have to test on?

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you go on Indeed or LinkedIn and you'll find job applications that are way more complicated than that.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: According to the maker of the test, again, this entry-level test by Fire and Police Selection Incorporated.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It aims to, and I quote, measure the skills, abilities, and personal characteristics that compromise a successful firefighter.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The test takers have two and a half hours to answer 100 multiple choice questions.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: In those five categories that I just talked about.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It's all multiple choice.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So, what are some of the questions that are in this test?

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the questions that have led the Department of Justice to expend federal resources and federal dollars at the expense of, of course, you and I.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: That they claim are racist.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's one of the questions, and the math section, as you can imagine, is the toughest.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the question.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: A firefighter determines that 350 feet of hose is needed to reach a particular building.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: If the hoses are 60 feet in length, what is the minimum number of lengths for the hoses needed?

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the test takers are allowed to write out a calculation on the test booklet.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if they're allowed to use a calculator or not.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But they're allowed to use a pencil, a pen, and scribble some notes.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So, you would look at this.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: At 60 feet.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Five lengths would be 300 feet.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, it says you need 350 feet of hose.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The simple math that you would just write those numbers and calculate that out.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So, in total, you would need at least six lengths to meet the 350 foot that is required by this question.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I am awful with math.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Terrible.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I was never good at it.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: This is not an overly complicated question.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll note, it's multiple choice.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The answers are this.

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Three lengths, four lengths, five lengths, or six lengths.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Those are the possible answers that you can get.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: If you can't come to the conclusion that three lengths at 60 feet is nowhere near 350, then you're probably not prepared to be a firefighter.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a firefighter.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be one on the radio.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_00]: These are very, very easy questions.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So, here's another math question for you.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Office sprinkler heads spray water at an average of 25 gallons per minute.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: 25 gallons.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: If four sprinkler heads are flowing at the same time and at the same rate, how many gallons of water will be released in 15 minutes?

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And, again, you simply, and you can simply, do this math, do this equation on the workbook.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You have two and a half hours to do this.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: The possible answers for this one.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: 100 gallons.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: 315 gallons.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: 375 gallons.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And 1,500 gallons.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not overly complicated.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Four heads.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: 25 gallons.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: 100.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Times that by 15.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You get 1,500.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just simple process of elimination.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And this is not like a cherry pick of certain questions in the book.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: These are the toughest questions.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Everything else is just basic common sense.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is an entry-level test.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And you might be asking yourself, why do they do a basic entry-level test for something like this?

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: In the case of the Durham Fire Department, a test that they have been administering for close to a decade at this point.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's a lot of individuals that apply.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: They have to have some level of entry in which they actually start going through the applications.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And so their process is pretty simple with this.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody applies.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody takes the test.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And what they do is anybody that gets below a 70 on the two-and-a-half-hour, 100-question test, anybody below a 70 is immediately rejected.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, if the spots are tight and there's way more applicants than positions that are needed to be filled, then they start chopping out the individuals with the lowest grades.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That is according to the city of Durham, that is their process for going through this test and how they choose their applicants.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_00]: There are no—I scrolled through the study guide for this test.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: There are no questions that ask anything in regards to race, religion.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't ask that stuff anyway, and it doesn't.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet the federal government, the Department of Justice, is spending your and my taxpayer dollars suing a city like Durham of all places.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: As far left, as far progressive as you could possibly be over a test for entry-level firefighters.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely remarkable.

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_00]: John has been hanging on on line one.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_00]: John, thanks for calling the Pete Calendar Show.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_00]: What's on your mind?

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, Nick.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Appreciate you filling in.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Sounds like we've got a great show.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, you know, the left talks about the inflation in this country is on par with the rest of the world.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I beg to differ.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: My daughter moved to Vienna a month or so, well, two months ago.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_02]: First thing, she was shocked at how reasonably priced things were there and how inexpensive food was.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_02]: So I think Vienna is an industrialized nation.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, just we have to really check the accuracy of what the left is promulgating out there with regard to inflation.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, sure, John.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an easy excuse.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and let's be honest about it.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I have any idea what inflation rates are in Zimbabwe.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't keep track.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't keep tabs on that stuff.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not relevant for anything that goes on in my day-to-day life.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's an easy excuse, right, because most people aren't going to argue that fact at all.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet when you actually do do the numbers and actually look at some of the global comparisons, it's not like you're comparing apples to apples with these countries.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: The United States is very unique in our economic setup and the way that we go about our lives and everything associated with that.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really hard to say, oh, well, it's equivalent in every other industrialized country.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And the reality is, John, as you're noting, I don't think people actually buy that, do they?

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, sure.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_02]: That caller, Jim, I think was his name.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he's just drinking the Kool-Aid, and that's a talking point for him, and he thinks it's justified.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't realize that the overspending of the Fed here, which throws the dollar supply out of balance with the productive capacity of the nation, that's what's causing inflation.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he's either too dumb to realize that or doesn't want to realize that.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So the Inflation Reduction Act is part and parcel and delivered this inflation that we've got.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_00]: John, how dare you make the accusation that the bill named the Inflation Reduction Act, which spent more federal dollars, did not reduce inflation?

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_00]: John, I can't believe you're calling in and making such a ridiculous point this afternoon.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to lash myself.

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Fifty lashes.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for the call this afternoon, John.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate you calling the Pete Callender Show.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Open phone lines at 704-570-1110.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: When you look at all of this, and right now that we're talking about inflation, but when you look at really anything and everything that we're dealing with right now,

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: whether it's inflation, whether it's crime, whether it's illegal immigration, how often do you find that the conversation actually gets to the root cause of the issue?

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not an economist.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: We had a Ph.D. economist on the show in the 1 o'clock hour.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm an economist.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But inflation is not a very hard thing to understand.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The federal government has allowed inflation to run amok because of their own inability, and that's the inability of living within their means.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really as simple as that, the same way that if you and I go out and spend double what our yearly income is, we're going to have loads of credit card debt or loads of loans.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't spend double of what you're making and have any money.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to borrow it.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And the federal government, and again, Republicans and Democrats alike, and I truly do believe this, and hopefully I'm wrong.

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd love nothing more to be wrong about this.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in my late 20s.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The current economic situation is not making the end of my 20s and my early 30s.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to make it a very prosperous time for me economically.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So I hope I'm wrong when I say this.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't truly believe that there is an appetite in Washington, D.C. to get government spending under control.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great talking point.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The Republicans in this case are more guilty than the Democrats of talking the talk.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats just, they're flat out, they'll just tell you, yeah, we're just going to spend more money.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to give every first-time homebuyer $25,000 for a new home.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: $25,000 for a down payment.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll give them credit for that.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't sit here and pretend that they're going to solve this problem by adding more individuals to big government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Giving coverage to illegal immigrants that have swarmed in through Kamala Harris' wide-open Swiss cheese-looking southern border.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00]: At least they're upfront about it.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Versus the Republicans who constantly talk about it and don't actually do anything.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's, to their credit, there's good reason why.

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't have a salient discussion about the federal debt, the federal deficit, the amount of money we spend, without one thing.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's cutting entitlement programs.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: If you look at a pie chart of the money that the United States spends every year, over 70% of it is, from the second that the calendar year starts, 70-plus percent of it is entitlements.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Whether that be Social Security or health care.

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So unless you're serious about that 70%, you're trying to bail water out of the ocean.

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't work.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And unless we've got individuals that are willing to talk about that, which I understand why they don't, it's politically very toxic.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody wants to vote for a guy or a gal that says that they're going to look at Social Security.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It's politically toxic.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So they don't talk about it.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Or when they do talk about it, they just say broad strokes like, oh, we're going to cut the deficit.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to cut government spending.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Really?

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you going to dig into Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security?

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Because if not, you're not actually serious about it.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's head back to our phone lines.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Howard is hanging on on line one.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Howard, welcome to the Pete Callender Show.

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Good afternoon.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, can you hear me?

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Got you loud and clear.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_04]: I hear you're 29, and maybe that's part of your thoughts.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_04]: But I'm getting tired of people calling Social Security and Medicare entitlements.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_04]: Now, Medicaid and Social Security, SSI, things like that are.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_04]: But I've worked 40-something years.

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_04]: I've paid Medicare, and I've paid Social Security.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm still paying Medicare.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_04]: I don't look at that being an entitlement.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yes.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In your case, you talked about working and paying into the system.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: But how is it not an entitlement?

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you automatically receive the benefits if you're eligible based on age.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_04]: But I'm paying for it.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_04]: It's not something they give me.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Correct.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You paid for it throughout your working lifespan.

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't understand why.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_00]: If it's not an entitlement, then what is it?

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, it's something, a plan that I paid for, and I'm getting money back.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you have a choice to pay for the plan?

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Also, I pay tax on it.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Plus, I have to pay tax on Social Security.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm still paying for Medicare every month.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Understood.

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a choice on if you're paying into Social Security?

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_04]: I don't understand your question.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're working and you're working at a company, do you have a choice whether or not you are enrolled in Social Security?

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You said that you paid into it and then you're getting the money back, indicating it's kind of like something that you can do at your own luxury.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_04]: No, you're not.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_04]: You don't have a choice.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_04]: You have to pay for your Social Security and your Medicare.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Precisely.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So as long as you've worked, I think it's what, eight years or something like that?

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_00]: As long as you've worked eight years, when you hit 62, you are then therefore eligible for Social Security.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_04]: It's 10 years, but I work 40-something years.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Correct.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But if I work 10, I'm also eligible for Social Security.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_04]: Right, but at a cheaper rate.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, at a lower rate.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, sure.

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_04]: They're based on 35 years.

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess in this case, Hal, we're going to have to agree to disagree on this.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I think programs like Social Security are, in fact, benefit programs.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate your call this afternoon at 704-570-1110.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's head on over to line two.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Preston, welcome to the Pete Calender Show.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on?

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Hey there.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Can you hear me, Nick?

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha.

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_03]: I just had an observation.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_03]: You're doing a great job, by the way.

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_03]: An observation and a question.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_03]: My observation is, Kamala gets asked.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like it's one of three answers.

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_03]: It's either I start out, I grew up in a middle-class family and then into some word salad.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Option two is I was a former prosecutor and how she's tough on crime or order or something.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_03]: And then option three is the aspirations and dreams of the American people and launching into some platitude about that.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_03]: It's always one of those three answers.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_03]: But my question is, why don't Republicans ever push back?

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_03]: When anything comes up about the border, she always brings up the border bill and how it didn't get passed because Donald Trump or the Republicans or whatever.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_03]: But the reality is that border bill was like $118 billion and like $60 billion of it was for Ukraine.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So it really was not a border bill.

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And why don't they ever push back on that or say that?

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_03]: But I'll take it off the air and listen to your answer.

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Preston, before I answer your question, I should say that you should contemplate running for president.

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_00]: You seem to have all of the main talking points squared down.

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_00]: You'd be a valid and eligible Democrat nominee for president.

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_00]: So to your question, why don't Republicans push back?

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_00]: They do push back.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But unfortunately, the avenues in which they push back are limited.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to see that pushback in any major newspaper publication.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to see that pushback on any of the evening newscasts on the three-letter television networks, NBC, ABC, CBS.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to air that.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We have a couple of little news outlets, right?

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: We got Fox, Newsmax, OAN, and of course, Conservative Talk Radio.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And now, fortunately, thanks to Elon Musk, we've got at least one little carve-out in social media.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's great.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_00]: We got some stuff on X.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: There is a pushback, a huge pushback.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But the message just doesn't get out there.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And what you just mentioned with the border bill is exactly the same nonsense that they pulled with the Inflation Reduction Act.

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds great.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Congress is going to pass a bill, and its name is the Inflation Reduction Act of 2024 or 2023, whatever year they passed it.

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: It sounds phenomenal.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_00]: But what does it actually do?

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It balloons spending.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It throws money after wishlist programs.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's the exact same thing with the border bill, which I'm so glad you pointed out how that was also Donald Trump's fault.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The guy who is sitting in no position of power whatsoever has been out of the Hoval Office when that came up for over three years.

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He, single-handedly, he is so powerful that he could kill that border bill, which is what they claim.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet at the exact same breath, Democrats and the media will tell you he is the most incompetent, stupid individual that's ever existed.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Riddle me how those two things exist in the same universe.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_00]: How is he so powerful that holding no elected public office whatsoever, he can kill a cornerstone piece of legislation for the left in this border security bill,

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_00]: which, of course, we all know Joe Biden had the executive authority to solve this problem three years ago if he wanted to.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He chose not to.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet at the same time, he's so incompetent.

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't exist at the same time because they're not true.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And just little examples like that highlight the dishonest nature of the conversation that takes place.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Anything and everything that has happened in the last eight years is Donald Trump's fault, including COVID-19, killing the border bill, anything and everything.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet the people who are now in charge, the people who controlled everything for a period of time,

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Joe Biden had complete control of the House and the Senate for his first two years of his administration.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Couldn't get anything done.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Couldn't pass student loan relief.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Couldn't pass this.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Couldn't pass that.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's Trump and the Republicans' fault time and time again.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It's the same old sorry song from the left.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Got some messages coming in on Twitter.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You can follow me over there at Nicholas M. Craig or X.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry about that.

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Dina makes a great comment on our last segment.

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_00]: She says, if Donald Trump currently has the power to prevent Congress from passing legislation,

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: then what's the point of Harris being president?

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Trump will simply continue to control Congress, right?

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so easy to prove her wrong and ridiculous.

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly the case.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: This guy, during the last three and a half years,

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_00]: yes, he's been running as a Republican for president,

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_00]: but he holds no position of power in any elected office.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Is he a powerful figure?

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Does he have influence on individuals?

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Do the things that he say matter?

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_00]: But the idea that he somehow has the puppet strings of every single member of Congress

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: that's got an R next to their name is ridiculous.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And look at the first two years of his administration.

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_00]: He couldn't get anything done because the Republicans were stabbing him in the back

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and not letting him go forward with his MAGA agenda.

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an absurd point.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so easily disprovable.

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But like we talked about earlier, it's an easy excuse.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an easy answer.

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Why is the border wide open?

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_00]: If I'm the Democrats, if I'm Joe Biden, if I'm Harris, whatever,

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_00]: the answer is simple.

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not my own fault.

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's the boogeyman's fault.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And in this case, the boogeyman to the left has been Donald Trump for the last nine years.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no self-reflection.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no admission that maybe what we've done,

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: like crossing out executive order after executive order in regards to the border,

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_00]: day one when Joe Biden took the oath of office.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: No self-reflection that that may have caused it.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's Donald Trump's fault somehow.

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I will never understand how all of these things revolve around Donald Trump.

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Great tweet.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for the message this afternoon.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_00]: 704-570-1110.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's head back to line one.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Terry is hanging on the line.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Terry, thanks for calling the Pete Callender Show.

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on?

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Hi.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to make a comment from the man previously speaking about entitlemente.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And your conversation, your attitude kind of confused me or something like that.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But entitlements are actually in the government called, they're known as mandatory spending.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And that distinguishes the entitlements, you say, but it distinguishes it from discretionary spending.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Correct.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So we have worked.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is the time that we grew up and worked.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is what we've worked for.

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And we are entitled to it.

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And for those that just think, you know, just flippantly say what they do, I step back about that.

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not exactly the thing to say.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Terry, let me make my point clear.

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I wasn't clear enough with it.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So let me try and clear it up.

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_00]: No, you blasted the guy basically.

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_00]: What I was, I'm not saying get rid of Social Security.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying get rid of, as you note here, mandatory government spending.

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_00]: What my point is, is very simple.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to tell me that you are serious, and I'm not talking to you in particular.

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking to elected officials and individuals that are running for office.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to tell me that you're serious about our nation's economy, if you're serious about the $34.5 trillion that we are in debt,

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_00]: you have to at least look at these programs.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying cut them off completely and just revoke Social Security.

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not the point at all.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But you can't have a substantive discussion about $34.5 trillion in debt, which is, you know,

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: when 70-plus percent of the yearly budget is mandatory spending that is not going anywhere.

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_00]: That was my point.

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry I wasn't more clear with it earlier.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, the thing of it is they can do it without cutting Social Security or Medicare because we've paid in on it.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: They can do it in other means like all the people at the border.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I think just a rough estimate add up the last several years, probably about 20 million illegal, probably three-quarters of them criminal.

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we can stop doing those things.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Agree completely.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: And throwing money at stuff that absolutely doesn't make America stronger.

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's making America weaker.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But when you want to cut entitlements, we're the backbone right now.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: We're the ones.

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't blame the man.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel I felt slighted, too, by the way you came off because it's like, what?

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_01]: By the best generation of people, our parents, some of our parents were in World War II.

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Terry, my point with this is not to say hack and slash Social Security.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It's simply to state that if we aren't willing to discuss the future of a federal program and mandatory spending.

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_01]: We can discuss it.

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: But are those people coming over that about approximately about 20 million in the last seven years, are they entitled?

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: No.

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely not.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But you're talking about a very small fraction, what, maybe 3% of the budget?

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't revoke $34 trillion in debt by looking at 2% of the budget.

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not even – the government doesn't even look at it like discretionary.

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So just drop that part.

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That's just – it's absolutely not correct.

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate your call this afternoon.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, my point is not to say get rid of Social Security.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how many times I can say that.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not the point.

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The point is when you have individuals gallivanting around the country talking about how they're going to clean up our spending problem.

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Clean up $34 trillion – let me say that again.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_00]: $34 trillion worth of national debt.

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't ignore 70% of the spending.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, do you do something with it?

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here – I'm not running for public office.

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend that if you cut it, this, that – I didn't mention anything about cutting Social Security.

[00:30:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I said you have to be willing to look at it.

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to be willing to have the discussion.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that call illustrates the issue.

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's politically toxic.

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't even mumble looking at portions of our federal debt without people getting upset.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And rightfully so.

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_00]: You're right.

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_00]: You do work your entire life, and you're told that when you hit 62 or 62 and a half years old that you're going to get Social Security.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you.

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same breath, you can't also not be worried about the trajectory of our spending.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at a pie chart of what is mandatory versus what is discretionary, you can't make up $34 trillion in debt with less than 30% of the budget being discretionary spending.

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Which, by the way, you cut that out, you completely cut out the military.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And more than half of the discretionary spending is in itself just the military.

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I have all the answers because I don't.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But it proves how politically hard this is a conversation to have.

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's unfortunately why you get so many broad comments from individuals running for public office like,

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_00]: we're going to clean up federal spending.

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to clean up debt.

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to clean this.

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to clean that.