Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
Speaker 1: novel before you found half sound of sound of statist,
Speaker 1: no mask, no Metro need one. We have a few
Speaker 1: extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep the
Speaker 1: DC area moving. Find out more at well mata dot
Speaker 1: com slash doing our part, Tom, Yeah, I know it's
Speaker 1: tough to keep your chin up, isn't it that Jimmy
Speaker 1: Kimmel joke that we played on the show in which
Speaker 1: the audience people in America have no concept the difference
Speaker 1: between their taxes going up or down or their refund
Speaker 1: going up or down. It's just dis and hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: democracy won't work. No, No, it's doomed. It's doomed. Sooner
Speaker 1: you accept that this is are you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: happy life. Well, let's prolong your suffering for just a
Speaker 1: moment or two about trying to make a little sense
Speaker 1: of the world with Lanha Chen he Is David and
Speaker 1: Diane Steffy, research fellow with the Hoover Institution director of
Speaker 1: Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford and Ladies and Gentlemen, the
Speaker 1: host of the podcast Crossing Lines with Lanha Chen. We'll
Speaker 1: have a link so you can find that easily. I
Speaker 1: have a feeling that's really, really good, Loni. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1: Hey guys, good morning, happy, happy rainy Wednesday. Happy twenty
Speaker 1: two trillion dollar budget that day as well. So listen,
Speaker 1: why don't we start with how about four words? Okay,
Speaker 1: Green New Deal, don't so how long do we have?
Speaker 1: Where would you like to start? You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I tell people that they should just go and read
Speaker 1: the Green New Deal because there's all this uh ankst
Speaker 1: on the left up it's being this characterized that the
Speaker 1: conservatives are out to demonize this thing. So you know,
Speaker 1: I just went and they said go and read it,
Speaker 1: so I did that. I went and read it, and
Speaker 1: what I discovered, apparently is that we should not be
Speaker 1: flying from Hawaii to California anymore. We should all get
Speaker 1: in votes. And by the way, those boats can't give off,
Speaker 1: you know, can't have any carbon footprints. So I'm talking
Speaker 1: about canoes. So we have to canoe our way from
Speaker 1: Honolulu to San Francisco. Now that is the vision of
Speaker 1: the Green New Deal, because they don't want to have
Speaker 1: any airplanes anymore. And by the way, they don't want
Speaker 1: to have any cars any any regular gas uh consuming cars.
Speaker 1: So everyone needs to have an electric vehicle. And oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, as if that weren't enough, we need
Speaker 1: medicare for all too. Well. Here's here's what here's what
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out. And you're the perfect person
Speaker 1: to understand it because you've been in campaigns. You understand
Speaker 1: the politics of it all. Is this similar to Trump
Speaker 1: saying I'm gonna build a thirty football in Mexico. Is
Speaker 1: gonna pay for it? I mean, just an over the top,
Speaker 1: outlandish promise to to show everybody I care about this issue,
Speaker 1: knowing that it will fall short of that. Is that
Speaker 1: what AOC and others have done with the Green No
Speaker 1: Deet New Deals. That the politics of it because nobody
Speaker 1: they don't actually believe they're going to pull this stuff off.
Speaker 1: I think there's some percentage of them to do. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think I think AOC and a few of her
Speaker 1: counterparts in the far left progressive way of the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party actually think they have a shot at at a
Speaker 1: good chunk of this. But but for other Democrats. I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing about this. This has been embraced not
Speaker 1: just by the far left. There is a tendency amongst
Speaker 1: some in the mainstream media in particular to say this
Speaker 1: is actually not representative of the mainstream Democratic Party. Well,
Speaker 1: why is it then, that pretty much every declared candidate
Speaker 1: for the presidency from the Democratic Party supports the Green
Speaker 1: New Deal Corey Booker, Cambella Harris, Elizabeth Warren, uh Susan
Speaker 1: Gillibrand why is it that they're all co sponsoring this thing?
Speaker 1: So clearly it's got some traction. Clearly some of them
Speaker 1: believe it. But even if it's just a messaging tool,
Speaker 1: I think it's a very dangerous messaging tool because it
Speaker 1: allows us then to normalize some of this, to normalize socialism,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think we should do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the the green parts of it are utterly fanciful. And
Speaker 1: I'm a guy. If we could eliminate fossil fuels in
Speaker 1: the internal combustion engine tomorrow, I'd be in favor of it.
Speaker 1: Why the hell wouldn't I be. I mean, let's let's
Speaker 1: cut down pollution as much as we can, but it's
Speaker 1: utterly unrealistic. I mean wildly unrealistic. The social reordering stuff
Speaker 1: of it is absolutely terrifying, as it forcefully advocates near
Speaker 1: complete control of the economy, near complete confiscation of revenue
Speaker 1: and redistribution of it. It's communist well, house wages, healthcare,
Speaker 1: education for everyone, right, yeah, and and I mean job guarantees. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, very very strong support for unions in there
Speaker 1: by the way, which you know, it's probably a controversial topic,
Speaker 1: and there's something wrong with unions per se. It's just
Speaker 1: they're talking about taking every workplace unionized and and some
Speaker 1: of this stuff that The reason why people have a
Speaker 1: difficult time with this is because, on the one hand,
Speaker 1: if the goal is to address climate change, then there
Speaker 1: are a set of policies that that suggests. And you
Speaker 1: understand why they want to promote, for example, alternative forms
Speaker 1: of energy. They want to get rid of nuclear, they
Speaker 1: want to get rid of co Okay, you can understand
Speaker 1: that at least on space. But then there's this total
Speaker 1: almost non sequitur where they're talking about, as I said,
Speaker 1: health care for all, housing for everybody, job guarantees, family
Speaker 1: and medical leaf paid vacations, full retirement security, and you know, again,
Speaker 1: I think the challenge here is some of this actually
Speaker 1: sounds good to people. I think they started listening to
Speaker 1: that ess actually not a bad idea, and I think
Speaker 1: that's the siren song of of socialism quite Frankly. Lani
Speaker 1: Chen is the director of Domestic Policy Studies at Stanfords
Speaker 1: podcast is Crossing Lines with Lon hie Chen. How do
Speaker 1: you like um McConnell's idea of putting it up for vote,
Speaker 1: to get everybody to do on the record voting for it.
Speaker 1: I think it's genius. You know, Miss McConnell is, whatever
Speaker 1: people think of it, He's a great tactician, and he
Speaker 1: understands the politics of this and forcing Democrats to go
Speaker 1: on the record with where they say, I mean, we
Speaker 1: know where all the Republicans are. They're not going to
Speaker 1: get a single Republicans vote, that's for sure. But but
Speaker 1: looking and saying where do you stand? Are you really
Speaker 1: in favor of this? And and they it's a text,
Speaker 1: it's a legislative text. It's not a binding statute or law.
Speaker 1: In the same way that Dodge Frank or Obamacare was.
Speaker 1: This is a little different. That is a sense of
Speaker 1: a Congress resolution. But it's going to force people to
Speaker 1: take a position on it. And I think that's actually
Speaker 1: really smart because then you can't have Corey book or
Speaker 1: reasling out and saying, oh, not actually was I wasn't
Speaker 1: really for it, you know, I just said I was
Speaker 1: for it, but I but I didn't mean it. Did
Speaker 1: you say it was normalizing communism or normalizing socialism, socialism socialism?
Speaker 1: How since you since you teach this sort of stuff, Well,
Speaker 1: I think you guys alluded to it. It's first of all,
Speaker 1: it's confiscatory and redistributed. It's the notion of taking well
Speaker 1: been redistributing it to equalize the distribution of wealth in
Speaker 1: a forceable manner via government and coercive control. It's about
Speaker 1: the government centrally planning redistribution and and and beyond that.
Speaker 1: There there are also elements of socialist policy in the
Speaker 1: form of central economic commands. So when you have sort
Speaker 1: of a central strategy that government puts together to dictate
Speaker 1: how certain parts of the economy behaves, that is socialists
Speaker 1: as well. So there are many different dimensions to this,
Speaker 1: and obviously we can get into what the implications of
Speaker 1: it are, but Fundamentally, it's about where the locus of control.
Speaker 1: Is that with the people or is it with the government.
Speaker 1: Having set through thousands of hours of this in college,
Speaker 1: is this going to be on the test. So so listen. Uh,
Speaker 1: we are privileged to have people listening to the Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty Show all over the country and UM. And
Speaker 1: I frequently point out that the reason you want to
Speaker 1: pay attention to Cali Unicornia, the Golden State, UM, is
Speaker 1: that it is the the leader, certainly the leader in
Speaker 1: America of utterly unrealistic, unicorn riding fantasy government. I mean,
Speaker 1: for instance, they're pushing again to have children be allowed
Speaker 1: to vote in California, teenagers because you can get teenagers
Speaker 1: to fall for virtually anything that makes them feel good
Speaker 1: and sounds good. Yeah, that's that's what I'm in favor of.
Speaker 1: And also you get a scheme going like the bullet Train, UM,
Speaker 1: which you know, just the brief outlines have passed by
Speaker 1: an ill advised ballot measure they said would be thirty
Speaker 1: nine billion dollars if it were ever built, if it
Speaker 1: were ever completed, forty years from now, it would be
Speaker 1: to billion dollars. And I'll go to my grave saying,
Speaker 1: and nobody would write it, and when nobody would still
Speaker 1: want it um but the changing of one governor to another,
Speaker 1: one man said, now this is a bad idea. And
Speaker 1: after all of us, all of the citizens, all of
Speaker 1: the activists, all of the court cases, all of our
Speaker 1: efforts to kill it, just a new God's off And
Speaker 1: now it's off. What does that say about government in America?
Speaker 1: On he it scars the hell out of me. Well,
Speaker 1: this is a big challenge we have is that we
Speaker 1: see this listing from side to side depending on who's
Speaker 1: in power. And and by the way, there's some now
Speaker 1: who say, look, Donald Trump ought to use executive action
Speaker 1: to get all these things done. I completely disagree with
Speaker 1: that because this notion that what was good for the
Speaker 1: previous party is now good for us because we have
Speaker 1: the reins of power sets a horrible precedent and and
Speaker 1: it creates this this policy change that goes from administration
Speaker 1: to administration. And we're talking about big, major projects. I
Speaker 1: mean your point about the Tutor train, about high speed rail,
Speaker 1: I mean this is a massive piece of government spending
Speaker 1: and and to be able to sort of just shut
Speaker 1: it off on a dime given a change in administration.
Speaker 1: While I'm glad that they're shutting it off, I think suggests.
Speaker 1: I think it's suggests, just just a we're in a
Speaker 1: horrible place when it comes to policy making. We don't
Speaker 1: believe in checks and balances, We don't believe in the
Speaker 1: proper roles of a legislature and a governor or a
Speaker 1: Congress and a president anymore. We want instantaneous change. We
Speaker 1: want someone to snap their fingers and make something happen.
Speaker 1: And indeed, that's the system of policy making we have.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, look, this train needs to go.
Speaker 1: That Merced and Bakersfield, California are perfectly wonderful communities, but
Speaker 1: those are the two terminal points of this train at
Speaker 1: this point in time. And and it's it's a ridiculous thing,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad it's going. Those you who are in
Speaker 1: the podcasts and the internet inner what do they call
Speaker 1: the intellectual dark nets or whatever it's called, You've got
Speaker 1: to check out Crossing Lines with long Hea Chen his podcast. Uh,
Speaker 1: just just before we let you go, you have one
Speaker 1: more question on the Green New Deal. Is this a
Speaker 1: blip one of those stories it's just a blip week long?
Speaker 1: Or is this a big one. This seems like this
Speaker 1: is a big one to me. I think it's a
Speaker 1: big one. I think it also depends on where the
Speaker 1: dialogue goes. You know, if if people on the left
Speaker 1: don't keep talking about it, then then keeople on the
Speaker 1: right will certainly keep talking about it. But if they
Speaker 1: will have the same level of energy, my spence is
Speaker 1: that this is just where the energy is at the
Speaker 1: progressive left, the Green New Deal is there, Uh, is
Speaker 1: there much? Then they're going to talk about it. So
Speaker 1: it will be will be part of the conversation going forward. Well,
Speaker 1: and and part of that that conversation. In our chat
Speaker 1: about socialism, I was gonna ask, has there ever been
Speaker 1: any country that on its that has had its momentum
Speaker 1: toward more collectivism? Go in the other direction, realize, Hey,
Speaker 1: we've gone too far. This isn't working. We need more
Speaker 1: free markets, We need less infantilizing our citizens and citizens
Speaker 1: by taking care of their every need. We need to
Speaker 1: go back along the road we came from. Well, I'll
Speaker 1: give you one example of China. Uh, you know, for many,
Speaker 1: many years, obviously you had a a Maoist socialist communist
Speaker 1: society and look at still a communist country. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, But in the nineteen eighties there was a
Speaker 1: leader named dump shel Ping who came along and opened
Speaker 1: up China and decided that what they needed was more markets,
Speaker 1: free enterprise and the influence of the West. And and
Speaker 1: sure enough, what happened to China's economy. It took off
Speaker 1: like a rocket ship. You had a massive increased and
Speaker 1: standards of living, massive increases in economic growth and prosperity,
Speaker 1: and you had the creation of a middle class. And
Speaker 1: I think the people the thing that people are scared
Speaker 1: about in China now is the reversal of that, the
Speaker 1: turned back towards a maliz state of socialists, uh fundamentally
Speaker 1: socialist system. So China is a great example of what
Speaker 1: happens when you introduce capitalist elements and capitalist of strictures
Speaker 1: into what had been a socialist society. You see economic
Speaker 1: growth and prosperity. Yeah, and generally when you're like Venezuela
Speaker 1: will soon and some of the Scandinavian countries in a
Speaker 1: more peaceful way of decided a lot of their schemes
Speaker 1: haven't worked, and they've re embraced the more liberty. But
Speaker 1: we'll see. Lanha Chen is the host of the the podcast
Speaker 1: Crossing Lines of Lani Chen, director Domestic Policy Studies at
Speaker 1: Stanford University and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution
Speaker 1: on he always enlightening. Thanks a million, Hey, thanks guys,
Speaker 1: good to talk. Check out his podcast Crossing Lines with
Speaker 1: Lanha Chen. We want him to see the love and
Speaker 1: uh and like coming on the show because we really
Speaker 1: like him. Stay that out loud makes us sound needy
Speaker 1: and well. We are needing. You're needy need good guests,
Speaker 1: strong and independent. I really like good guests better than
Speaker 1: the crappy guests. I'll name move. The crappy guests are
Speaker 1: going up. You're listening to the Arms, Strong and Getty show.
Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
Speaker 1: never before. To the Great Queen. You've found half sound
Speaker 1: of sounds of statist no masks, no Metro need one.
Speaker 1: We have a few extras at Metro. We're doing our
Speaker 1: part to keep the DC area moving. Find out more
Speaker 1: at Well nota dot com slash doing our part