Well. A lot of Public Policy as well. A bit about your funding if you might and only because people will ask are you directly affiliatedwith the coke brothers . Yes, we sure are. With charles coke, david coke passed away last year but yes , we are very much in affiliation and were proud of that affiliation. When it comes to matters of policy one of the key ones taking place on capitol hill is the matter of a relief package. Various price tags being thrown around from the senate and the house side and when it comes to those price tags, you have some concern about whats being suggested . We do. But congress has appropriated and the president signed into law trillions of dollars in spending already. Much of that needed by the way. This is an unprecedented situation with the pandemic that has an economic hole that is unprecedented in our nations history so much of that was needed, was necessary and we supported but at this point, its difficult to justify another multitrillion dollar spending bill. Especially if it includes what the house version included back in late spring which is trillions of dollars from bailing out states and localities and that has nothing to do with the pandemic but more to do with their irresponsible spending and pension policies for many years. States will say in some cases because of school cost and because of testing costs and because of everything related to covid we need this physical health but you would fight against that. Its important to note they have received trillions sof dollars already and in fact several studies are out showing that hundreds of billions of those dollars already appropriated arestill in the pipeline. There still unspent and its important that any legislation that Congress Passes the timely so that it can help right away. Be targeted specifically to the impact of this pandemic and the resulting return economic difficulties and then also temporary. We should not be now looking at longterm entitlements and new programs because weve got to focus on the here and now so thats what weve pushed for. It is important to note again there are hundreds of billions of dollars already appropriated that are unspent erthat are Still Available to these states and localities and so much of candidly what theyre asking for and theyve been open about this is not related to first g responders or hospitals or others. Instead, its simply for operating expenses that in many cases for many years theyve been irresponsible in doing. So thats our focus at this point but there have been good things that the government has done getting rid of a lot of regulation and redtape. Done that in many respects to let Healthcare Providers for example save lives and they also through the Paycheck Protection Program and other efforts like that that are targeted to Small Businesses have done good things as well. We just think at this point it doesnt make sense to spend trillions more. The house comes in at nine so you can talk to our guests and ask them questions until then you republicans 2027 48,001 and independence 24274 8002 and if you are wanting to text us you can do so at 7488000 three. To fill us on the senate side one of the things themajority leader would like to see if this idea of Liability Protection. Is that something, what would you think about that prospect of being included in legislation . Its important to get some kind of Liability Protection for schools, or churches, synagogues, mosques, often for small momandpop businesses that are trying to survive and they know usthat an avalanche of lawsuits from personal Injury Lawyers are coming. So Liability Reform or protection is important to let these schools and to let these churches and mosques and synagogues and businesses able to open and provide the services and their communities to individual americans without that threat hanging over them that they are going to be relentlessly sued into bankruptcy. So we need to get thiseconomy going again. We need to help people get back to their normal lives. Im out on the road a lot in south carolina, North Carolina this week and americans want their normal rmlives back and one thing going back to normal is the threat that so many churches and schools and Small Businesses have of being sued into bankruptcy and being wiped out by these pandemic related lawsuits that are coming unless theres some iskind of Liability Protection. As far as several states considering more stayathome orders are we really posing those,restricting against businesses . Would you advocate against that . Where would you stand on . We urge government to be cautious. Responsible but cautious. Its important to note that there is a healing cost to shutdowns as well. Weve all seen the studies. The rise in depression, a rise in suicide, drug overdoses. A lot of children who are struggling with those as well. Hunger issues because schools arent in that the way they been before. So its important to note that there is a cost in human terms to these fall shutdowns as well. And wwe also are looking at states and a lot of folks are focusing on texas and florida but the state with some of the fastestgrowing infection rates is the state its been shut down most stringently for the longest period of time, certainly among the longest times and thats california so there is no single approach that seems to be working for better than others seso we would urge caution at the state level and we think the administration has done the right thing by not having onesizefitsall policy on shutdowns or other measures from washington dc because whats happening in nebraska is very different than new york. Whats happening in oregon is different from whats happening in georgia so these dates and localities know best what to do and how to protect their citizens while still getting the economy going so i do think the administration deserves credit for not imposing a draconian dcbased onesizefitsall policy. Co thit would have probably gotten good, good coverage but it would have been the wrong thing to do, too heavyhanded so theyve done a good job letting states and localities make those decisions. When it comes to the response of another Coronavirus Relief package being considered have you heard directly from the white house or Senate Republicans about this and have you had a chance to share your views . Weve been speaking to the white house on a consistent basis and to the senate, a lot of Senate Republicans especially since they were in the majority on that side. And there is some disarray on the senate and white house side. Theres just no question about that but its more important for them to get it right and to try and rush something in order to meet a deadline that theyve set or to try to speed it through too quickly because again, often you can do thewrong thing that can end up hurting the country and limiting our ability to get this economy going again. While dealing with this pandemic so we have been in talks with them and what we urged them to do is number one project house plan, that pelosi built the 3 trillion was stuffed full of a Christmas Tree list of unrelated to the pandemic ideological measures spending. Ive had those bailouts we talked about earlier for states and localities and just as an example illinois which has one of the most chronically underfunded pensions in the country if not the worst. They would openly say we want this bailout money to shore our pensions t. Thats not fair to states like wisconsin and indiana very close to illinois in past years have bitten the bullet and actually funded their pensions. Thats not fair to them so we are glad that thats dead on arrival. Thats important as a first step. A this and theres a lot of talk about education money. You mentioned schools earlier, thats a vital concern. I have moms and dads earlier talk about that in the carolinas about their concern and the worry that they need to get the children and again a responsible way back into school. But any education money, lets let it follow the families. Families are having tough decisions to make about what to do with their children, whether to go ahead and go along with Public School plans that are being formulated or perhaps whether to go with homeschooling or the private option so this is a difficult time for parents. Lets make sure any Education Funding follows the parents wishes either as stipends or the ability with education accounts to let them make more of those decisions rather than again washington just throwing a bunch of money at Public Schools. We have calls lined up in the first one on ourdemocrats line. Tonya is first with tim phillips of americans for prosperity. Good morning. I think Mister Phillips is just giving us talking points and many of them dont make sense. For instance he says its not fair for a state thats in trouble to get more than another state. However when the first stimulus money came out, much of it went to businesses that had no business receiving thatmoney. There were big businesses and many of them theyre talking about havingto pay it back. So there i guess is in the eyeof the beholder. Many things are fair. Were in the middle of a pandemic in this world and when we could have stopped it , the president refused to take the testing products from the world health organization. Then wound up and turned out tests that werent accurate and were working. Host we will let our guest respond. Guest you may be surprised to hear i completely agree with her on the idea that bailing out industryspecific big businesses is the wrong way to go. We think thats a bad idea to. Government help should not be cronyism where it picks up big winners and big losers based on their lobbyists or how much political contributions they make so tonya, im with you on that and americans for prosperity is there as well. We want to see it evenhanded and focused on the smaller businesses that dont have a big backup system in place r so we have constantly said during this process lets not reward specific industries again that have the best lobbyists, the best connections. Lets not have government picking winnersand losers so we agree with that. Aid should be specifically targeted to those struggling and often those are the smaller businesses. A momandpop operations with three, four, five, eight employees and not be the pocketed corporate interests that were with you there. And its important to not go that route again. A lot of the industries have their hands out. Washington, its a feeding frenzy where lobbyists are in there wanting to get what they would call their fair share. Its not their fair share but theres a big lobbying frenzy going on right now and weve seen coverage about that with folks cashing in and lobbyists getting big deals and thats wrong and this is a terrible time when america is struggling. A pandemic we havent seen p since 1917 , 1918 and 1919 and an economic crisis that unprecedented and not is not the time for afrenzy of lobbying and special interest money. From horseshoe North Carolina , carol, you are up next. Good morning. I just have questions about all of this. It seems like the people in the states that open first are all getting punished because they went to bars and they went to the beaches because theyve been closed up for several months and all of a sudden most states have the big increase if you noticedflorida , georgia, all those states and also they did an interview of a guy in line at one of these Testing Centers and he had been through three times to get himself tested so these esnumbers, theres no way of telling if these numbers are true or not. Theyre just numbers on tv. What proof do we have as the American People that these numbers are true and these are all positive cases of corona and all of these people that are positive they not have any symptoms,they may not end up in the hospital. All this t is political, it looks like being drummed up to keep the president from being reelected. It is interesting to watch people go after states that pressed to reopen their economies to try to get commerce going again , to try to get people their normal lives back. It states like florida, georgia, texas they are being hit hard by some in the media and some in the political world but itsimportant to note and i mentioned this earlier california which has had an opposite approach , a stringent lockdown that has been only ease so slowly for folks in california, their spike. Their infection rate is spiking through the roof at this point. So there does seem to be some ideological games being played here with the states that have worked to get folks back to normal. I tell you what i see so consistently and i was in georgia a week ago. Theyre going doortodoor socially distanced but doing doortodoor work with one of our sister organizations and what people want is their lives back. And what a normal return and i want to do it in a responsible safeway absolutely but its easy for experts in washington dc and others to opine about simply shutting everything down and waiting it out whether its thmonths or even to 2021. Most experts always seem to have their jobs. I have an income source. So Many Americans dont have that right now. Theyve been hurt by these shutdowns and the shutdowns were needed in some respects no question. But now is the time again to continue looking for ways to responsibly get people backto normal , get our livesback and get this economy going again. Lee in rockville maryland, high. Good morning pedro, good morning Mister Phillips. Id like to ask you about the federal budget deficit. Prior to the pandemic, prior to last winter we were looking at trillion dollar annual deficits as far as the eye could see and the Republican Party, the party of fiscal responsibility was just rolling over and accepting this. The deficit hawks like mulvaney tand ryan were just saying trillion dollar deficits, thats fine. How do you account for that . How do you account for these in normas budget deficits prior to the pandemic that the Republican Party was just acquiescing to . Guest the most consistent failure of both parties over the last 20 years without doubt has been in the area of deficits and overspending. Government overspending. If you think bipartisanship is dead inwashington just give them abig spending bloated deal and bipartisanship does seem to come back around. Youre right about that , the caller is right in that even with an economy that was growing pretty well in the first two and half years, three years of the trumpet ministration due to tax cuts and good policies that were implemented there was still a deficit being run around 1 trillion and thats frightening youre in good Economic Times to have a deficit that big on a budget thats barely over 4 trillion. Thats too much by the way. So both parties failed during the bush years. Spending was out of control during the obamayears. Spending was out of control when the democrats were fully in charge, when the republicans were fully in charge and spending went through the roof , deficits went up and then with split control we seen the same issue. Where worried about. Deficits are the kind of thing you can always put off until tomorrow but a lot of times allocations want to think it does print Economic Growth and the ability of the private sector to get Funding Capital to go out and do what needed to do to create wealth and create jobs for folks so these deficits are so dangerous or not approaching the estimates are around 27 trillion in debt at this point read at a devastatingly high number. And it does hurt our country and at some point in the near future going to be paying more interest in the debt that we are putting towards defense or education or other really important priorities, infrastructure for example for the countries so we would urge both parties here because in all candor both parties have failed. To think about the deficit and debt as they make these decisions. That is important. Host philip is with americans for prosperity and he serves as president. Theres a viewer in texas about Liability Protections and he says this. Liability protections are designed to shield bad actors from the full consequences of their actions and its anticapitalists to allow them, how do you respond to that . Guest i would say those fearing the lawsuits the most likely are again what i mentioned earlier. Eschurches, synagogues, mosque. They are going to be targets of lawsuits without question and these churches and synagogues and mosques want to provide ritual services, to folks often most in need in their communities. Theyre going to be on the front line getting wiped out if we dont get some kind of Liability Reforms and Small Businesses without the ability to hire big lawyers and go through the appeals process are going to be hammered if we dont get Liability Protections and i mentioned the schools earlier. Going to see a raft of lawsuits towards schools which will mean taking money away from educating our children to pay what will be massive settlements so easy to say its just about protecting big business or Something Like that but the truth is that big businesses are the ones with the deepest pockets often to be able to fight those and by the way they have every right to do that and it should do so if they think its a frivolous lawsuit but im telling you where going to need Liability Protection or otherwise youre going to literally lose any kind of economic recovery due to these payments that will pull money out that we need to educate our children to provide faith and religious support and Community Support for people, churches and mosques and synagogues that do that in our schools which need to be ed