Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch

President Trump has made his choice for Supreme Court, and I think it’s a fantastic one.  Neil Gorsuch is an Originalist, meaning he believes the Constitution says what it means, and not what 9 Justices think it means this week. If the government can redefine the law on a whim, how are we, the people, supposed to know what the law really is?

And conservatives have talked about cutting red tape and getting rid of useless regulations for a long time. It looks like that idea’s time has come. In fact, it’s been tried on a smaller scale and it’s worked incredibly well. Listen in for who did it, how it’s helped, and how it’s getting done here.

Mentioned links:

The Red Tape Reduction Act

Doug Black [Wikipedia]

Cutting Red Tape in Canada: A Regulatory Reform Model for the United States?

Canada Cuts Down On Red Tape. Could It Work In The U.S.?

Trump signs executive order requiring that for every one new regulation, two must be revoked

Trump Nominates Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

Partisan Standoff Leaves Supreme Court Seat Empty for More Than 350 Days

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Is this the future of marriage?

There’s a new take on the whole marriage, “Love Wins” debate, and it’s taken quite a technological turn. Who are you to pass judgement on it? Well, if you have stood up for the traditional definition of marriage, you can.

And I have some questions to keep in your hip pocket in case someone suggests that socialism is a better system.

Mentioned links:

‘We don’t hurt anybody, we are just happy’: Woman reveals she has fallen in love with a ROBOT and wants to marry it

Employees again receive wage increase

Episode 82: The Supreme Court “Hobby Lobby” Case

Jon Bon Jovi’s charity restaurant opens in NJ

The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation [Wikipedia]

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:57 — 8.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Costs? What costs?

So, how’s that fantastic government program, ObamaCare, doing? You know, that program that would let you keep your doctor or your plan if you liked it, or reduce your costs by $2,500 dollars per year? The program that, overall, would save us all money? Well, the Washington  Post has  an update, and it seems that the “Affordable” Care Act isn’t very affordable, even for the government that created it. In fact, it’s having to use a 1950s-era law to come up with the money to pay insurers.

And someone you know was trashing ObamaCare recently. See who you can figure out who it was in Name That Quote!

Mentioned links:

Obama administration may use obscure fund to pay billions to ACA insurers

Bill Clinton bashes Obamacare as ‘crazy system’ on campaign trail

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:14 — 9.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

The Clinton / Trump debate

I took some notes during the September 26th debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It was the first time to have a good “compare and contrast” between their policies. I took so many notes that I had to split this into 2 episodes!

It may seem like a lot of time to spend on one debate performance, but we finally got to compare and contrast policy issues directly between the two candidates. For the most part. So I think this is worth the time.

Mentioned links:

The first Trump-Clinton presidential debate transcript, annotated

Why Hillary never makes Equal Pay Day pay off

Top 1% pay nearly half of federal income taxes

Hey, Barney Frank: The Government Did Cause the Housing Crisis

The successful Clinton economy was based on tax cuts. No, really…

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:41 — 9.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Who could have predicted this? Well, someone did.

The city of Chicago hit something of a record in May of 2016, but it’s not one they’re proud of. If we’re really concerned about what’s going on there, we need to have all the facts at our disposal, and we need to consider that perhaps doing more of the same will only get us more of the same.

A “prophet” made a prediction back in the 1990s, and now we’re here seeing that, yes, he was right. But will people listen to his advice (which, to be honest, wasn’t original with him), or are we too set in our ways to change?

Mentioned links:

Fatal shooting of boy, 15, closes deadliest May in Chicago in 21 years

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms (Note this is from 2012. I did not mention the year in the podcast, making it seem more recent than it was. However, the issue is the same today.)

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Can we get out from under our debt?

Sure, the US has a lot of debt, but if we really worked at it, paying it off a little at a time, couldn’t we pay it off and be debt-free, avoiding a Dave Ramsey intervention? Actually, the answer is, “No”. It is mathematically impossible, given the size of the debt, how much money there is in the country, and how we can’t possibly get the budget under control. Confused? You won’t be after listening to this episode.

And charter school; we know what the political parties think of them, but what do parents think? Actually, they love them, or they want them. And if you’re Hispanic, Black, or poor, you really want them. Find out in this episode just how badly they want them.

Mentioned links:

It Is Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off All Of Our Debt

What are parents thinking about charter schools?

Charters Score in Cities

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:14 — 9.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

What causes the high cost of college?

In a new segment called “Reconsider This”, I’m revisiting the Flint, Michigan water crisis. There have been some good developments regarding accountability over this. While journalists are obsessing over the sole Republican in the chain of command (the governor), others are getting charged or at least looked at, including the Obama administration EPA.

Why is college tuition so high? The colleges would say that funding for grants and loans have been “cut” (even though government spending on education grants have skyrocketed). No, they real reason has more to do with colleges gaming the government-money system.

Mentioned links:

Criminal charges today in Flint water crisis

‘There will be more to come,’ attorney general vows after criminal charges filed in Flint water crisis

Lawyers file $220 million damage claim against EPA in Flint water crisis

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much

Evan Sayet

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:39 — 9.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

It’s your right to avoid NC. Baby, you were born to run.

Listener Brandon Klenzendorf asked me in the “Consider This!” Facebook group if the North Carolina so-called “bathroom law” was a similar situation to Georgia, and from the looks of it, and the reaction to it, yup, it’s pretty much the same thing. The only difference is that North Carolina got the law passed. And of course, there are those using their right to choose how to run their business to protest the idea that N. Carolina business should be allowed to … choose how to run their businesses.

Do the rich pay their fair share of taxes? Since we’ve passed April 15th — the day that Americans settle up with the Federal government for their 2015 taxes — now’s a good time to find out who pays what. How much do the top 1% really pay of our federal tax revenues?

The 2016 Podcast Awards are taking nominations, so here’s what you can do. Go to PodcastAwards.com and put this show in the News & Politics category. The show name is Consider This, of course, and the URL is considerthis.ctpodcasting.com. You can only submit the nomination form once, so if you have other shows you’d like to nominate, fill them in as well before submitting it. Nominations close Saturday, April 30th at midnight, so do it this week.

Mentioned links:

The True ‘Trauma Trigger’ That the North Carolina Bathroom Bill Is Designed to Prevent

Petition: Springsteen Cancelling Concert is Like Bakers Refusing to Make Gay Wedding Cakes

Michael Moore’s NC boycott hypocrisy DESTROYED with a single tweet

No, Gays and ‘Transgenders’ Are Not Being Bullied. They Are The Bullies.

Americans Earning Six Figures or More Pay Nearly 80% of Individual Income Taxes

45% of Americans pay no federal income tax

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Does it have to be this way?

It’s a question I’ve heard before; would a change of political parties in our cities and states really make that big a difference? It’s a fair question. As I’ve noted here on previous episodes, Democrats have had a lock on many local elections, and our big cities are in decline where that happens. But would it be any different with a Republican at the helm?

I’ll talk about this, with a few examples, even one involving another game of Name That Quote!

Mentioned links:

The tweet used for Name That Quote

Five Years Later, Scott Walker’s Reforms Have Saved Taxpayers Billions

New evidence suggests that Seattle’s ‘radical experiment’ might be a model for the rest of the nation not to follow

Seattle City Council [Wikipedia]

Homicides in Chicago this year double same period last year

Read the rest of this entry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn

Drivers for the car-for-hire service Uber may not be so happy with the company. But the good news is that the free market, unencumbered by most government regulation, gives them both job mobility and income mobility. Why would some people want to stifle this?

Religious liberty is being eroded in this country, and if that goes, how much of the rest of the Bill of Rights is really secure? Talk show host Erick Erickson makes the case in his new book, “You Will Be Made to Care”. If you pre-order before February 22nd, you will get access to many other books, as well as interviews with people on the topic of religious freedom. This time, I except an interview of Christian author and apologist Ravi Zacharias. Bill Blankshaen asks Ravi about a rather large contradiction in how the Left deals with sexual orientation and gender. Are you born this way, or not?

Mentioned links:

Book website for “You Will Be Made to Care”

Uber drivers say that driving for Uber kind of sucks

Why taxi medallions cost $1 million

Read the rest of this entry