Full Transcript
1:16 Bob Neugebauer:
Welcome to the Idaho pulse. This is tea party, Bob, your host, for today, as we are going to be discussing Doge DOGE Idaho style with the President of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Ronald Nate, whom I am sure has more than a few words to say about our proposed Idaho Doge with will be made up of Idaho legislators and Governor Little's comments that Idaho was Doge before Doge existed. So, without further delay, let me welcome Professor Nate to the Idaho pulse. Would you like to get your we'd like to get your take not only on the governor's comments, Professor Nate, but about Idaho being Doge before Doge existed, and what you think about putting Idaho's proverbial legislative boxes in charge of the Doge in House.
1:58 Ron Nate:
The question gives the answer, Bob, hey, it's always great to be on the Idaho pulse with you. As you said, I'm the president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Our team here is hard at work during legislative session, keeping an eye on what the Legislature is doing, what they're doing with your taxes, what they're doing to your businesses and what they're doing with the state budget. So we are super busy. You know this January through March. But you're right. Doge is the buzzword. you know. You watch the the address to Congress by trump, and it's about Doge. You watch the news, and it's about Doge, you, you know, just Google it. And Elon Musk pops up. And so. yeah, that's a buzzword. It's very popular. Everyone wants to jump on the Doge train, but some are doging who don't know what doging is, and.
2:50 Bob Neugebauer:
Dodging? Or is that dodging or doging.
2:52 Ron Nate:
Well, some are dodging, and most of them are on the Budget Committee. But yeah, let's let's talk about Doge department of Government efficiency. And I think the misnomer there is the word department in front of it. So the bureaucratic type legislators, or the bureaucrats themselves when they see a word that's an acronym that says department in it. That means government. But, Doge, if you really look at the way trump is doing it, it's not really a government entity. He's got kind of a 3rd party, Elon Musk doing the work of finding all the waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government. pointing it out, and then hopefully, the action by the executive and legislative branch weeds it out. So that is the idea of Doge is that you have some outsider. Someone outside the process without special interest within the process. Look at the government, look at everything that's being done. Look for examples of waste. and if you looked at Trump's speech, he went on for about Oh, gosh! 10 min listing all the examples of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal government. Social security payments to people who are over 160 years old. I don't know about you, Bob, but nobody lives till 160, and so there are. There are names on the social security roles getting paid who obviously aren't alive. And it was shocking the numbers, hundreds of thousands above 100 years old or 120. And you're like, I'm not buying that stuff. So there's that. And he also listed about research being done to do transgender surgeries on mice and money, going to whatever countries it is for dance festivals or whatnot, but just tons of examples of waste. It made me think of our Idaho pork. Report that.
4:48 Bob Neugebauer:
You're talking basically about a forensic audit.
4:53 Ron Nate:
Yeah of Idaho's government. That's a good way to put it by somebody like Elon Musk, who has a lot of experience in knowing what waste, fraud and abuse can do to a business or any enterprise. If he doesn't point it out in his own enterprises, he's going to suffer by competition. He'll be put out of business, probably, but for some reason the Federal Government is rewarded for the waste, fraud, and abuse. They're rewarded with bigger budgets, more power and more influence. And so yeah, let's let's talk about what that really really means. And so if we're talking about trying to do that in Idaho. 1st of all, I would point out that we already have government departments, so to speak, that are supposed to do this. There's the office of performance evaluation. which is a department in Idaho that is supposed to evaluate all our, all our bureaus and agencies. There is the legislative research. You know the Legislative Council, where you can give them ideas for them to look at different programs to see if they're being wasteful. There's the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, which is the budgeting committee. They have the agencies report to them every year proposing their budgets. They are the Jfac. Is the overseers of the spending in Idaho. We already have layers of legislative authority on this, but has that resulted in government efficiency.
6:25 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, then, that begs the question. With a hundred 89 agencies in Idaho. how do they get to them all? And how do we get a valid accounting.
6:37 Ron Nate:
Well, Jfac. Is supposed to be that valid accounting. They're supposed to look at it and say, You know what? If they're spending too much asking for too much. We cut it back. but they don't. 55% increase in the last 5 years. And so if if Idaho were truly interested in identifying government efficiency. Then what or inefficiencies and getting it out of there? What they would do is they would go to some 3rd party entity. You know an Idaho Elon musk, so to speak, to have them look for examples. But I'll tell you this before I before I get into the bill itself. Let's go to what Governor Little has said about this.
7:19 Ron Nate:
I almost said Governor Otter, but it's not. It's little.
7:23 Bob Neugebauer:
Have been close.
7:23 Ron Nate:
Little Otter whatever. Okay? And so he he claims on Fox news. When was this? Oh, late last year, that Idaho was Doge before Doge existed. Now that's a fascinating statement. He left out some words, though. Can I add the words back in.
7:43 Bob Neugebauer:
Absolutely.
7:45 Ron Nate:
Okay, instead of Idaho, was Doge before Doge existed. Here's the words that need to be added in the Idaho Freedom Foundation was Doge before Doge existed. We have been here for 15 years. We have been diligent and hardworking at pointing out all the waste, fraud and abuse in Idaho government. We've done series of pork reports. We evaluate every budget. We rate budgets negatively that are wasting money. Yet the legislature keeps voting on them. We point out the bills that are bad. Yet the legislature keeps voting for them, and the governor keeps signing them. We point out all the inefficiency in the rules and the multiple layers of bureaucracy and the tendency to overspend. Yet the legislature still keeps doing it. So you have to have somebody point it out. But then you have to have the will within the body and within the executive branch to cut it out, I will give Governor little credit, and the legislature credit for reducing the amount of regulatory pages, you know, getting going through the regulations, and getting out all the unnecessary and and overlaps and and conflicting language in the regulations. You know. He points out that we've reduced the administrative code by about 22 0, sorry! 3,200 pages. We went from 8,500 pages down to 5,300 pages. Great! Now, I ask you, this. has Idaho seen a benefit from it.
9:13 Bob Neugebauer:
or we've just gotten rid of old outdated regulations which we should always be doing. I don't diminish that at all. But has it really removed regulations on business, or just pages of regulation that were unnecessary and kind of overlapping. Well, I haven't seen the big benefit to businesses. You ask businesses. You know what regulations were taken away from you.
9:39 Ron Nate:
I don't think any businesses can identify it.
9:43 Bob Neugebauer:
All they're doing is they're all they're doing is throwing out old newspapers. As far as I'm concerned.
9:43 Ron Nate:
And that's fine. And so yeah, let's let's get the clutter out of our administrative code out of our statutes. Fine. Let's do that. But let's do meaningful reform, too, in getting rid of regulations that are harming Idaho businesses, getting rid of taxes that are being a ball and chain to Idaho businesses. And so that's what the Idaho Freedom Foundation is. We are the Doge. We just need people to listen to their doge. which brings me to the next point. And the point that you bring up is that because Doge is so cool, you, you carry a lot of weight. You get a lot of a lot of public applause for saying that you know what I want to do. Doge in Idaho. Yeah, that's cool. What they're doing at the Federal. I want to do what Trump's doing. And so some legislators took it upon themselves. I think Jaron Crane is the sponsor of the bill, wrote a bill called. It's H, 364. And it's the Idaho Department of Government Efficiency Act. And so what they're going to do get this.
10:46 Ron Nate:
Okay. they're going to create a committee, a Doge committee that consists of 3 Senators appointed by the President of the Senate.
10:55 Ron Nate:
3 representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House.
11:01 Ron Nate:
and then 3 members of Jfac. And that is that Budget committee I told you about. That will be appointed as well, so we'll have 9 legislators on a Doge committee.
11:13 Bob Neugebauer:
Can I ask you a question? Let me just stop you for one second.
11:16 Ron Nate:
Go for it.
11:16 Bob Neugebauer:
So you've got 3, 3, and 3, but they all appear to be appointed by the people who have been hiding the bills in their desk drawers.
11:28 Ron Nate:
Steve. Bob Newgebauer gets it, you know. The the 80 year old gets it, you know. And so you're you're looking at this going okay. Well. aren't aren't 3 representatives, 3 Senators and 3 members of Jfac. Aren't they already in the Legislature? Don't they already have the power to do something about what's going wrong. Do they really need to form this committee which will meet outside the legislative session at least twice during the year? By the way, there's an expense to that. They get paid talk amongst themselves amongst legislators kind of like they do during a legislative session, and try and identify waste fraud and abuse in the government, in the government that they helped build. Now, how incentivized are they going to be to say, you know what we are spending too much in health and welfare when they are the ones who voted for those budgets.
12:21 Bob Neugebauer:
They are the ones who approved them.
12:23 Ron Nate:
Yes, it's it is putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. Actually the foxes in charge of the foxes. Right? It's like they are the wolves and they and they're they're going to manage the other wolves. Okay? Well, great. I mean, it's I. You know, I posted on online. You know, my, me and my wife did a video. And we're looking at this going. I just cannot believe. You know, it's it's just this lack of reflexive thinking, you know, lack lack of reflecting on, you know. Okay, if we're going to monitor government and get the waste out. how do we do this, we'll form a committee made of people who created that waste to try and get rid of the waste. And let's wait and see who they put on the committee. Are they going to put on the the Radical Conservatives who vote against these bloated budgets? Are they going to put on? Maybe a Jfac chair. Are they going to put on? Oh, a senior senator that's that's been been there for 12 or 20 years, and is is seasoned into the process of deferring to to leadership and deferring to the will of the committee and the and the the big spending that they do. I just I look at this, and I shake my head. I go. I know you want to call yourself Doge. I know you want to be department of Government efficiency. But it's yeah, you missed it by that much, as Bob Euchre used to say. Right, you know, it was just a bit outside. You almost had it. But then you went to exactly the force of the problem to be the solution to the problem. It's not going to happen.
13:57 Bob Neugebauer:
But isn't this the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result? But in this case it's putting the same people in that have been doing the same thing over and over again for the past. Who knows how many years? And we get the same result. Am I correct or not?
14:16 Ron Nate:
We shouldn't be surprised getting the same result. Oh, I almost forgot. Another feature of this that I should have pointed out is that this 9 Person committee would create 3 subgroups. and the subgroup would be one regulator accountability, 2 budget accountability also known as Jfac. I'm just saying, and 3 government operations and oversight. So we're going to have 3 subgroups of this efficiency group that's going to meet several times a year. Spend money on this to evaluate what they themselves have been doing in the legislature. Lo! These many years.
14:56 Bob Neugebauer:
Sounds a little silly to me, but who am I? I'm just a taxpayer.
15:00 Ron Nate:
I know. Well, credit goes to some of those representatives who voted against it, and said, You know what we are for efficiency, but we're not. For what should we say? The show we're we're we're not for, you know. putting a spotlight on some legislators like there's some paragons of efficiency when they've helped create the problem that they know what's up. They know it's a it's a virtue signal to say we're going to create a government efficiency committee made up of us, and and somehow make a difference. Well, again, I'll point out Idaho Freedom Foundation. That's what we do. We. if they would just listen a little bit more. We point out all the problems in the budgets, these enhancement budgets that are coming through. And they're getting voted on. They're called enhancements because they're growth in the budget. The maintenance budgets have already passed. They're called enhancements because they're growing government. Every enhancement budget that has any positive dollar amount in it, and not a cut should be should be voted against.
16:08 Bob Neugebauer:
So what drives me.
16:09 Bob Neugebauer:
Yeah, go to drives me crazy. Okay, is the fact that you've got accolades being placed on Governor Little for doing such a great job of managing Idaho by our President. who, I don't think, realizes how badly managed the State is.
16:31 Ron Nate:
Yeah, I you know I don't see the Governor very often. We saw him at the state of the State address. He, you know, pops up like a groundhog every now and then at some Ayaki event, or something like that. But you don't see much of him, and when you do, you know, you're just like he doesn't really have much to say. He's really a I don't know. Can I say Geno, government and name governor and name? Only I don't know but it's a.
16:57 Bob Neugebauer:
Call them talking heads.
16:59 Ron Nate:
You know, and here's the sad part about it is that Idaho is a conservative state and full of conservative constituents, conservative citizens, and I think the Governor could be as conservative as he wanted. He could be desantis. He could be desantis squared and not have to worry about reelection, but we're wasting the opportunity for Conservative leadership in the Governor's office because he's catering to special interests. I you know. what would it be like if we had a Conservative leader in the Governor's office, who said, I'm going to lead out on school choice, not have something. Sit on my desk for a week and wring my hands over it. Send me emails. I don't know what to do. No, somebody who would lead out on school choice, somebody who would lead out on grocery tax repeal, somebody who would lead out on actually cutting regulations, not just pages, but actual regulations. It would be amazing we could set an example for the entire country, and the Governor would be reelected overwhelmingly.
17:42 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, I look at this as something that happened many years ago, and I'm going back almost 2 decades when I believe personally, in my opinion it was lobbyists who took over our legislature. And the governor, the governor, not just the governor, but that whole thing that wraps around the governor. I don't think the governor makes these decisions. These decisions are being made by the big lobby groups. And I've been. I've been feeling that way for years.
18:07 Ron Nate:
Well, all you got to do is go and look at the contributions to Governor Little's campaign to the friends of Brad Little Pack, and you see it is the rich and famous, the you know, the Who's who in corporate cronyism and the Workforce Development Council to run the launch program which offers training to high school graduates, training them to be good corporate employees, and he staffs that council with his corporate cronies who want the free training of their future employees. It's it. Hello, Dots! Are you connected.
18:22 Bob Neugebauer:
So how do we stop this.
18:27 Ron Nate:
Power to the people. we do our research. We put it out there, Idaho Freedom Foundation will be expanding in the next year doing some other stuff, some more exciting stuff to get the word out even better. I can't give too much away, but we're going to be doing some cool things this year, and hopefully be able to provide the the messaging and the tools and the information that Idahoans need in order to make the best decisions when it comes election time and the best decision when it comes legislative time, where they can reach out to their legislators and let them know what's what. And so we we need an engaged citizenry.
19:11 Ron Nate:
Government government should fear the people. The people should not fear their government, and if the Government ever stops fearing the people. That's when you head down the road to tyranny. And right now I think our government is a little too comfortable. I know the Governor's way too comfortable. you know. He looks at his approval at 70%. And I don't know how that happens. But that's what it is, because people just, you know, when they don't see negatives. They don't see positives. They're just like, Oh, little yeah, I know little. It must be good, you know. And so that's that's it. We need to educate the populace, get them engaged, get them at the Capitol, get them talking to their legislators, and and hopefully we can make some change that way.
19:55 Bob Neugebauer:
Ron. I hope you can do something about it, because I've been trying for 15 years, and I can still walk down the street of Boise, and ask the 1st person I meet who's your legislator?
20:08 Bob Neugebauer:
They can't tell me.
20:11 Ron Nate:
I can't tell you how many emails I got as a State representative where they called me Congressman. And that's okay. You know, they got a word wrong or whatever, but I think that a lot of them had the impression that I was in Washington, DC. No. your State representative and your State Senator determines more about your life than those guys in Washington, DC. So you should actually be more in tune to what's happening here in Boise, or even more, your own City hall, your own county building, because those are the ones who have the biggest impact on you. Do you want your city to come to you and say, you know what you need to spend $15,000 to redo the sidewalk in front of your house, because we said, it needs to be done. That's that's how impactful your city leaders can be on you like that.
21:01 Bob Neugebauer:
Let me tell you something. I live in a very remote area. In in Meadow Creek, and we have a development here. It's a pud of 500 properties of 300 houses. I will bet you that if I asked any of the Board of directors of this organization who our representatives are in Adams County, they could not tell me.
21:30 Ron Nate:
Yeah, yeah. So we do the Idaho Freedom Index. And we try to distribute that out. You can go to idahoefreedom.org and see it online, you can order a printed copy of the Idaho Freedom Index. We also do a little brochure size one a little tri-fold you can have in your pocket, so you can know your legislator scores. you know, all the time, and you know I want to see those all across the State. Not only should you know who your representatives and Senator are, you should also know how they're voting, and until the people are much more aware of that. we're going to keep doing the same thing over again.
22:13 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, I'll tell you. I will do whatever I can up here to help your cause. whatever that might be. I get involved in an awful lot of the political antics that go on up here. But anything you send up. In fact, we we are again publishing the Idaho Freedom index in the Newsletter in our Newsletter. So any way we can help, we're we're there for you, Buddy.
22:39 Ron Nate:
Oh, that's great! I appreciate it. Well, I'll give you some good news, too, is that if you do look at the Freedom Index scorecards. Today you'll see that there's there's more legislators in the nineties. you know, 90 percentile and above than I think I can ever recall that we we have been working the primary and general elections, and we have increased the proportions of Conservatives. I'm not talking Republicans. I'm talking Conservatives. There's a difference House and Senate. And so we're seeing more. No votes on on killer budgets in both the House and Senate. We're getting closer to having that real impact where the majority are are on the conservative end of the spectrum, and that we can really start killing these overspending budgets and killing these overregulations. We are making progress there, and I think the Freedom Index is key to that, because it tells you how your legislators are voting. So we need to get get rid of the big spenders get rid of the big regulators, get more Conservatives in there, and we'll see some results.
23:47 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, I think you also need to figure out how you're going to stop these bills that are good bills from being put in Chairman Straws, because that's the real key. You don't need a governor to put a veto out there. You've got X amount of chairmen of these organ or particular entities in our legislature, they stop them cold.
24:15 Bob Neugebauer:
How do you change that.
24:16 Ron Nate:
Interest. All they need is the special interest they don't need to convince, you know, 36 house members, or 18 Senators, or even the governor. They just need to convince that one chair, and that's why legislators want to be the chair. Because once you're the chair, all of these special interests come and shower you with their praise and their opportunities to go to the governor's cup. And and because if you're their friend, if they're your friend, whatever these special interests. Getting a chairman to stop a bad bill is much easier than getting the votes they need in the House and Senate to stop a bad bill.
24:56 Bob Neugebauer:
In other words, they're buying the votes.
24:58 Ron Nate:
And buying the votes. And maybe I said that a little bit wrong. These special interests are not really interested in stopping bad bills. They're stopping the good bills for Idaho and letting and pushing the bad bills through. And so, when special interests rule, the chairman is a powerful feat when special interests are diminished in their power. Then the power goes back to the people.
24:24 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, I'd like to see the power go back to the people. The unfortunate thing is, I'm not seeing very much of that happening with all the work that the Mbla is doing and the other Conservatives in the Legislature. While I see we are gaining some ground with the Conservative voting. we're not really gaining much ground with the actual passage of conservative legislation.
24:48 Ron Nate:
That's right. I'll tell you a couple of things on that. 1st of all. we did see a budget killed in the Senate which I haven't seen for a long time, and this budget died in the Senate first, st because it was a bad budget. It was the liquor division, big big increases in spending. but it also died for the benefit of the of the for the weird, weird thing that the number of Mormon senators who didn't want to vote for liquor division. So.
25:17 Bob Neugebauer:
Wasn't this to renovate all the stores, so they look better.
25:21 Ron Nate:
Well. every year the Liquor Division has a line item in there for saying, Hey, we want to remodel 10 stores every year every year, as in legislature, they're always asking to remodel 10 or 12 new stores. And so yeah, that was always in there. But you know, with these enhancement budgets. They have their base budget that should be part of their regular maintenance right? But the the enhancement is they want to grow. They want to make the stores fancier. They want to, you know. I don't even know why Idaho's.
25:52 Bob Neugebauer:
Doors are a monopoly. You can't go anyplace else.
25:56 Ron Nate:
I know it shouldn't even be a role of the of the State government in our in our Constitution. It says that temperance and morality of the people ought to be promoted by government. I do not see. Maybe I'm slow or something, Bob, but I do not see how state-run liquor stores promote temperance.
26:17 Bob Neugebauer:
It seems to me like they promote tempers, not temperance.
26:21 Ron Nate:
Yeah, if they were promoting temperance they would they would run the liquor stores and say, Please don't buy from us. Please stay away, please. But no, they have banners on their doors paid advertising that says, enjoy.
26:34 Ron Nate:
mix, drink, enjoy.
26:36 Bob Neugebauer:
You know, it's funny. Many years ago I took a trip down to Utah. and actually, I think it was St. George even, and I was staying at a place down there on a golf course. and we went out to a restaurant. and I asked them where I could get a bottle of Johnny Walker, and where a liquor store was. This is well, you go down this road, make a left here. and then you're going to see a sign that's turned inward towards the Mall.
27:08 Bob Neugebauer:
Isis turned inwards. How am I going to see it?
27:12 Bob Neugebauer:
Well, you have to kind of drive around because they don't want you to know that that liquor store is there.
27:21 Bob Neugebauer:
So I mean, I I state level here. They're trying to have temperance. But let's everybody go down and buy a bottle and have some fun.
27:33 Ron Nate:
Yeah, true. And anyway, we got off track. That's the one budget they were able to kill simply because of the subject matter. And it was a bad budget. So those 2 things combined for the perfect storm to kill a Budget bill in the Senate there are more and more no votes on bad budgets in the House. I think we had one that was like 42 to 28, or something like that today. So that's a better sign. But it shows that we're getting closer to having an impact. I say none of these enhancements should pass. And so if we can get to that point where you know what agencies just say it's not worth it to run the enhancement budget because they never pass. Anyway. Then we know we've achieved conservative government fiscal responsibility.
28:21 Bob Neugebauer:
How do you get the public to listen to what you have to say?
28:25 Ron Nate:
Well, you, you start a podcast, you call it Idaho pulse.
28:29 Bob Neugebauer:
You, you.
28:30 Ron Nate:
Thank you. Yeah, sure. There you go.
28:32 Ron Nate:
And so you you you look at your allies. You look at Idaho Freedom Foundation, what we're publishing and what we're doing. You tell your friends about it. You spread the news about the freedom index. You have them listen to the Idaho pulse more, and the Gem State Patriot. Can I say that on here.
28:50 Bob Neugebauer:
Of course.
28:51 Ron Nate:
Okay, the Gem State patriots, a great publication. So it's all good stuff. We're doing our best. But we need an engaged citizenry. I encourage them to do it. Hey? I got something else to talk about. If you have time.
29:04 Bob Neugebauer:
Please go ahead.
29:05 Ron Nate:
Okay, I. I spent some time in a house committee this morning, and the topic was Senate Bill 1023. It was about Idaho medical freedom. and I don't know if you remember this, but on the tail end of Covid it takes a while for Government to leap into action right? A lot of us conservative legislators were frustrated by the Government doing shutdowns on normal businesses, doing lockdowns, you know, all shutting schools, but then keeping the liquor stores open shutting churches, and the mask, mandates and everything. And so the Coronavirus stop act. I think it was Ben Adams that ran that bill a while back, just says, you know what we're going to stop it with the mandates and with the, you know, with the forced immunizations, we're going to prohibit businesses from enforcing Coronavirus vax mandates, and it was very specific on Coronavirus. Well. the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, which passed in the House Committee this morning takes out the word coronavirus vaccine, and puts in there medical procedures. You know, medical, invasive medical things that you cannot mandate any medical procedure on anyone or medical device or or vaccination. So you cannot force someone to get a vaccination who doesn't want one. You can't make that a condition of employment can't make it a condition of going into a store or into a school, or into an entertainment place. So it translates what we stopped during Covid, the Covid vaccination into all of your medical freedoms. And so it was. It was interesting. Of course the Democrats were against it, but also were a few of the the Republicans. There were 3 Republicans who voted against medical freedom against the people of Idaho. It was Lori Mccann Lori Mccann that I'm sorry. Go ahead.
30:18 Bob Neugebauer:
Ben Furman and Representative Josh Wheeler, along with the Democrats, voted against medical freedom. I was shocked. And so I'm like, man. They're just asking for a primary opponent and but good news is is, we had 8 8 Republicans, 8 other Republicans on there, who understood the importance of freedom and individual autonomy to make your own decisions without the force of government putting making you take an experimental or unproven vaccination, or any any other kind of medical intervention.
30:55 Bob Neugebauer:
Do these people understand the class action suits that are currently being put together for those who have required those vaccines and the millions and millions of dollars that they're going to win because of all of these covid injuries that are now taking place. I don't think they understand that.
31:16 Ron Nate:
I don't think they understand it either, and I don't think they understand the extent of the intrusion that this had on people's lives, that the Government says you know what you have to get vaccinated, and if you resist, they say fine, resist. But then you can't go into a store or into a government building or into a school. So it's kind of a backdoor way of doing a mandate saying. Great! You don't have to get vaccinated, but you just can't live your life. If you're not, you just can't go and be a normal person if you're not vaccinated. And so I remember the videos from Germany and Europe that showed that people were scanning their vaccination QR. Code before going into a store, that they wouldn't be allowed into the stores without the proper scan. Show your you want to buy shoes, show your papers.
32:07 Bob Neugebauer:
You know, it's funny up here our commissioners actually passed a resolution that any that business, any business that required vaccine or masks. Would get a $2,500 fine from
32:21 Bob Neugebauer:
the the commissioners from the county. and we had none of that up here. None of it.
32:26 Ron Nate:
Yeah. Well, in Boise. I think it was the Boise City Council or the Boise Mayor that was saying that you know with the mask. Mandates. You have to wear a mask in businesses, too, and the businesses, if they allow you to be in their business without a mask. We're going to sanction the business. So they made these businesses, these little deputy enforcers of a city policy. It's just not right.
32:50 Bob Neugebauer:
You know, I spent 5 years in the coatings business, and I said it right at the beginning that even these N 95 masks. Yeah, they were not protective enough of these viruses. They were so small.
33:02 Ron Nate:
Yeah, you you can't do it. The Cochrane report, COCH. RANE. Cochrane report, February of 2023. This. Now notice, it's 2023. So it's years into the covid thing. They did kind of a meta study, looking at all the studies about masks and their efficacy, and they found out that there was no real evidence that masks stopped any transmission or kept anyone safer. In fact, several of the studies might be. Many of the studies showed that there was actually increased transmission by wearing masks. And that's because when you're wearing a mask, you're always touching it, you're always adjusting your face, your hand. It's it's it's person to person contact that does this. It. You know this airborne thing trying to stop it with a with a construction dust mask. It's just not working, it's just it didn't make sense. And Fauci knew it. Fauci knew it the whole time, because right.
34:01 Bob Neugebauer:
Oh, sure!
34:02 Ron Nate:
He said. We're not going to make people wear masks that would be silly. But then, gosh! 2 weeks later, it's mask mandates from.
34:09 Bob Neugebauer:
Even for the children in the schools, and you know what they're like trying to put masks on and touching their face. I mean.
34:15 Ron Nate:
that was the dumbest thing I ever heard of in my life.
34:19 Ron Nate:
I know, I know, but you know that was the world we used to live in, and this Senate Bill 1023, hopefully makes it the world we don't have to live in again, you know. You should not have to do an intervention, whether it's a mask or a vaccine to get on a plane.
34:36 Bob Neugebauer:
Do you think this bill has a good chance of passing.
34:40 Ron Nate:
It's already passed the Senate. It passed the House Committee today. It'll be on the house floor tomorrow, or the next or sorry Monday or Tuesday, and we're going to be watching that vote. If any representatives think that they can get away with voting. No, on that and not, and it not becoming a campaign issue. They got another thing coming, and then it falls to the governor.
35:05 Bob Neugebauer:
Yeah. And he's the one who didn't he call a legislature in session to relieve himself of any liability.
35:13 Ron Nate:
Yeah, yeah, he did. By the way, the legislators got a letter from Iacki, Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, special interest, crony, capitalist organization. who who lives in the Governor's ear, and they send a letter to the representatives saying that they should vote against 1023. So when this finally crosses the house floor and ends up on the governor's desk. What will the governor do? Is he going to listen to Ayaki or to the people that'll be fascinating. I'll tell you what, if he wants to run for reelection in 2026, that is a telling vote. We're going to be looking at that one, too.
35:54 Bob Neugebauer:
Gene. Maybe I could run against them. Then.
35:58 Ron Nate:
Are you making an announcement.
36:00 Bob Neugebauer:
No, I'm only that's cool.
36:03 Ron Nate:
I've had my day in the sun.
36:09 Bob Neugebauer:
Ron, I really appreciate you coming on again with us today. You have been again. Very insightful. Thank you for the Freedom foundation.
36:19 Bob Neugebauer:
Thank you for all you do. I can't.
36:20 Ron Nate:
You.
36:20 Bob Neugebauer:
I can't tell you how enamored I am with some of the things you guys are doing. and we're in your corner. Anything we can do to help. Let us know.
36:32 Ron Nate:
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you whenever you're downtown. Come and stop by. And I I said that I the invitation is open for all your listeners to downtown Boise. We're in the Hoff building. Come and stop by, say Hi! To us, and and let us know what we need to be working on for you. We're we're excited about freedom. We're excited about protecting rights, and all of us together can keep the legislature in line. I think.
36:59 Bob Neugebauer:
From your lips to God's ears.
37:01 Ron Nate:
Thank you. My friends have a great day. Thank you.
37:03 Bob Neugebauer:
You, too, have a great day. Bye.
37:05 Ron Nate:
Button.