Speaker 1: The Armstrong and Jetty Show. I need to stop looking
Speaker 1: at Twitter for the day. It has ruined my soul.
Speaker 1: My soul has been ruined for the day, and on
Speaker 1: a Friday, and this early in the day. That's a shame.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? So much to talk about?
Speaker 1: With lanh Chen David and Diane Stephy, fellow in American
Speaker 1: Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, the director of
Speaker 1: Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford University, and a candidate for
Speaker 1: the California State Controller's Office, recently endorsed by both the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Times as a Republican for the Love of
Speaker 1: Heaven and the Orange County Register. It's Lon chan Lan,
Speaker 1: he are you hey? Great to be with you, great
Speaker 1: to have you so something we're discussing earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: and I will take pains to keep this on an
Speaker 1: academic level. You have a president who is not terribly
Speaker 1: popular and really quite old and unlikely, extremely unlikely to
Speaker 1: run for re election. In fact, I've predicted he wouldn't
Speaker 1: finish his term. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. You
Speaker 1: have an extremely unpopular vice president whose qualifications to lead
Speaker 1: the nation are in doubt. To say the least. I
Speaker 1: think we are a nation that is headed toward a
Speaker 1: real crisis. Do you share that worry at all? Well,
Speaker 1: I have a particular concern around the economy now, and
Speaker 1: I think as both of you know. You know, in
Speaker 1: my my prior life, before running for this office, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time thinking about economic policy and
Speaker 1: a lot of time thinking about the course of our economy.
Speaker 1: And we got used yesterday. You may have covered this
Speaker 1: that the economy is actually shrinking, that that that the
Speaker 1: size of our economy is decreasing. And you add that
Speaker 1: to the inflationary pressure that a lot of families around
Speaker 1: the country and particularly here in California field, and we
Speaker 1: have some real severe economic challenges. And of course, what
Speaker 1: if the President decide to go and do well. He
Speaker 1: decided yesterday to talk about student loan forgiveness, and he's
Speaker 1: really at this point now engaged in politics as opposed
Speaker 1: to policy, because if he were really serious about dealing
Speaker 1: with inflation, really serious about dealing with our economic condition,
Speaker 1: he would not go out and propose, you know, hundreds
Speaker 1: of billions, if not trillions in new spending, which is
Speaker 1: part of the reason we're here. By the way, guys.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason we have eight and a half
Speaker 1: percent inflation, why gas and milk and everything else we
Speaker 1: buy costs more, is because we have put trillions of
Speaker 1: dollars of stimulus into this economy in the last year
Speaker 1: and a half two years, and so it's just not
Speaker 1: serious anymore. And that's the problem, is that the folks
Speaker 1: in Washington, they don't seriously understand the challenges of the
Speaker 1: economy is about to face. And so if it's not inflation,
Speaker 1: it is going to be recession. And that's a horrible combination.
Speaker 1: If anybody remember us back to the late nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: it is a horrible combination for our economy. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: who's making these decisions? Speaking on Twitter? Has he been
Speaker 1: being led by the Twitter left? Who cares about the
Speaker 1: college because the average American thinks it's insane to bail
Speaker 1: out the college student loan debt and at a time
Speaker 1: when the economy is shrinking and inflations at record highs.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, it's a what an insane policy decision? Well,
Speaker 1: it is. You know. It is interesting because when Biden
Speaker 1: campaigned for president, he campaigned as somebody who would bring
Speaker 1: people together and try to find relatively central solutions, and
Speaker 1: so far we have seen a lot of pretty far
Speaker 1: left policies. I mean, this thing on student loan forgiveness
Speaker 1: is the latest example of something that is embraced by
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren but causes Kirsten Cinema and
Speaker 1: Joe Mansion to cringe because it is not It is
Speaker 1: an example of another set of policies that do not
Speaker 1: speak to the economic challenges that American family these are
Speaker 1: facing right now. The fundamental economic challenge that American family
Speaker 1: space right now is they have a difficult time affording
Speaker 1: the gas they need to put in their cars to
Speaker 1: get to work. And and you're out here talking about
Speaker 1: something which is, you know, I think frankly a a
Speaker 1: political campaign issue. Joe Biden needs to figure out a
Speaker 1: way to fire up the progressive left because that is
Speaker 1: the only way he believed that he bailed himself out
Speaker 1: of a very very poor midterm election cycle. So he's
Speaker 1: trying to motivate the progressive left, and he does it
Speaker 1: by proposing policies that I'm pretty sure seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of people look at and they say, why are we
Speaker 1: doing this? Why are we not figuring out a way
Speaker 1: to get this economy on track instead. So this is
Speaker 1: more a philosophical question than a policy question. But as
Speaker 1: most political messages, especially these days, have to be extremely
Speaker 1: simple and blunt to break through, are this is it
Speaker 1: possible that voters are beginning to grasp the subtlety of
Speaker 1: when the government acts as Santa clause, there are economic
Speaker 1: effects that hurt you. Do you think people are connecting
Speaker 1: those dots? You know? I don't know. I hope they are,
Speaker 1: because I think it's fairly obvious why we've seen inflation
Speaker 1: and prices explode so much over the last six months. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think it's important for people who who believe
Speaker 1: that to be the case, and I certainly do to
Speaker 1: make that, to make that clear that the reason that
Speaker 1: we have record inflation, the reason why families are having
Speaker 1: a tougher and tougher time making making ends made. And
Speaker 1: by the way, the housing market, which has undergone a
Speaker 1: massive expansion over the last two years, is headed in
Speaker 1: some places. I fear for a massive correction, uh, precisely
Speaker 1: because of the economic conditions and the broader inflationary conditions
Speaker 1: we face, and with interest rates rising, it's gonna get
Speaker 1: harder and harder for people to afford houses. And also,
Speaker 1: by the way, people who carried out loans UH that
Speaker 1: have adjustable rates, they're going to get hit very, very
Speaker 1: hard because of the rising just rate. So there's all
Speaker 1: sorts of things happening in this economy that I think
Speaker 1: is really kind of a toxic mix. And uh, and
Speaker 1: folks just need to recognize that we didn't get here
Speaker 1: by accident. Okay, it's not like, you know, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: makes us sound like Vladimir Putin caused inflation, and that's like, listen, buddy,
Speaker 1: I got used for you. You caused it, you and
Speaker 1: people who decided that we were going to put it.
Speaker 1: I said, trillions of dollars into this economy. You caused it.
Speaker 1: So long you're the guy who's putting all those stickers
Speaker 1: in the gas pumps, then you're the guy with the
Speaker 1: Biden sticks. I did that next to the numbers on
Speaker 1: the gas pumps. By the way, here's here's a simple idea.
Speaker 1: Why don't we give people a very clear sense when
Speaker 1: they sell up their gas take how much in those
Speaker 1: uh gas fees per gallon are because of taxes? And
Speaker 1: no kidding, no kidding, Why don't we just give people
Speaker 1: a clear idea of that so they can get a
Speaker 1: sense of how badly they're getting hosed every time they
Speaker 1: put a gallon of gas into their cars. I'm against this.
Speaker 1: I'm against this sort of thing as a libertarian, but
Speaker 1: I would like it to happen like the same way
Speaker 1: that they have calories next to the food now and
Speaker 1: the menus and be awesome. On the phone, every gas
Speaker 1: pump it told you how much of the price was taxes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean and and and then it'd be great if
Speaker 1: we could figure out where that money all actually went.
Speaker 1: Because what we're told in California is it's going to
Speaker 1: build better roads. I don't know about that. I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. I've driven around on these roads recently.
Speaker 1: They're not so good. So you know, it's it's this
Speaker 1: is the stuff that drives people nuts, though, is that fundamentally? Uh?
Speaker 1: You have government making excuses, you have governments saying well,
Speaker 1: we're doing all this stuff for you, and people turn
Speaker 1: around and they say, no, actually, I think you'll make
Speaker 1: it harder. And right now, in many cases, unfortunately for
Speaker 1: too many families, Uh, things are not going well and
Speaker 1: they're and they're not going well, because of bad decisions
Speaker 1: by our policy name hey, speaking of bad decisions by policymakers.
Speaker 1: We talked about this story earlier in the week, and
Speaker 1: I understand you have some thoughts on it um. The
Speaker 1: San Francisco Chronicle did a great job of looking into
Speaker 1: the results of the hundreds of millions of dollars taxpayers
Speaker 1: have spent to deal with the so called homeless problem,
Speaker 1: and the results have been horrible. People dying of opioid deads,
Speaker 1: people staying homeless, and increase in homelessness of fifty six
Speaker 1: percent after spending all that money. How did how did
Speaker 1: that report strike you in two minutes or less? If
Speaker 1: you can pull it off, well, it reminds me of
Speaker 1: what happens when you don't have effective oversight in in
Speaker 1: in a city or in a state. And in California,
Speaker 1: there is no problem where the lack of oversight has
Speaker 1: has been a bigger cause of things getting worse than
Speaker 1: our homelessness crisis in San Francisco. They spent a lot
Speaker 1: of money in l A. We know they in one program,
Speaker 1: they're spending eight hundred thousand dollars per unit of housing construction,
Speaker 1: and the problems are getting worse in the state of California. Overall,
Speaker 1: we've allocated twenty billion dollars for homelessness and over the
Speaker 1: last three years, and every California and I speak to
Speaker 1: and everything that I seek suggest the problem is getting worse.
Speaker 1: So you tell me what what what's the problem here?
Speaker 1: The problem them is there's nobody who's saying, hey, you
Speaker 1: can't keep spending this money if it's not solving problems.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna spend money, it better solve problems. And
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's one of the reasons why I'm
Speaker 1: running for for Controller in California because as Controller, my
Speaker 1: job would be to provide accountability for every single dollar
Speaker 1: this state spends. And I will tell you, in homelessness,
Speaker 1: we are not solving the problem. We are spending an
Speaker 1: awful lot of money, and we need to get back
Speaker 1: into the problem solving business again. We are not only uh,
Speaker 1: we are not only hurting people who are homeless by
Speaker 1: not giving them the ability and helping them figure out
Speaker 1: how to get down of that situation, but we're making
Speaker 1: it worse. And people are literally dying in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: They are living in rat feasts infested hotels because because
Speaker 1: the City of San Francisco can't get it back together,
Speaker 1: and because the mayor there doesn't want accountability, all right,
Speaker 1: and and they have repeatedly refused to have an oversight commission.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you it's about time somebody was up
Speaker 1: up there calling balls and stripes and saying, you guys,
Speaker 1: can't keep doing this. You can't keep spending good money
Speaker 1: and sending it after bad So that that I think
Speaker 1: is really the fundamental route of the problem is we
Speaker 1: don't have an independent fiscal watchdog. We have too many
Speaker 1: lap dogs. And that is why, that is why Alan
Speaker 1: he Chan is running for California State Controller. Lan he
Speaker 1: always enlightening, Thanks so much for the time. Good to
Speaker 1: talk to you, great to do with you, guys. And
Speaker 1: of course, one of the most insidious parts of that
Speaker 1: lack of an oversight or accountability or whatever is that
Speaker 1: for ideological reasons, those on the left continue to ignore
Speaker 1: the fact that we have an enormous drug crisis, and
Speaker 1: that's at the heart of a lot of what's going
Speaker 1: on with the so called homeless crisis. But just in general,
Speaker 1: nobody ever looks at the results of government programs. He
Speaker 1: just he's somebody proposes them, they passed. You spend a
Speaker 1: bunch of money and then no where ever checks to see,
Speaker 1: hey did that work or not. You just keep doing
Speaker 1: it right. You don't even like get as far as
Speaker 1: getting a dishonest answer. Nobody even asks the question. You
Speaker 1: miss an hour. Grab the podcast Armstrong and Getty on
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