United Liberty - United Liberty Podcast: Recent Episodes
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“Congress should be cutting spending, reducing the regulatory burdens that are crushing the economy — freedom works, and it is time we put it back to work.” — Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Just a couple of days after President Barack Obama laid out his agenda for the next year in his State of the Union address, I sat down with Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican who represents California’s Fourth Congressional District, to get his thoughts on the proposals being pushed by the White House, the Senate’s refusal to pass a budget, ObamaCare, and a few other issues.
On the State of the Union, Rep. McClintock, who has been among the staunchest defenders of economic freedom and the Constitution in Congress, was dismissive of President Obama’s agenda. “[W]e heard this song before,” he noted. “I think that his words have to be measured against the last four years of his deeds.”
He rhetorically asked, “What have been his policies? Higher taxes, much higher spending, out of control deficits, crushing business regulations. And what have those policies produced? Family take home pay has declined over these past four years, the unemployment rate is higher than when we started — it would be much higher except for the millions of Americans who have given up even looking for work.”
“What did he propose? More of the same,” Rep. McClintock stated. “Taking bad policy and doubling down on it doesn’t make it good policy.”
When it came to Senate Democrats’ failure to pass a budget, Rep. McClintock explained that it “will take an election where the American people are paying close attention,” noting that 2010 was such an election. “Unfortunately, I think they lost that focus in 2012,” Rep. McClintock surmised. “The only good news I can offer on that front is the American people are about to get a college-level course in Obamanomics. And at the end of that course, I think they’re going to be a lot sadder and a lot wiser.”
On healthcare, Rep. McClintock firmly believes that “ObamaCare will undo ObamaCare,” adding that it’s “a system that will ultimately collapse of its own weight.”
“You remember, they called it the Affordable Care Act. It’s supposed to bend the cost curve down,” Rep. McClintock recounted. “Of course, the Medicare actuary is now telling us [that ObamaCare is] going to increase our costs by $300 billion above what we would otherwise be spending.”
Rep. McClintock’s concern about America’s future doesn’t end with economic issues. He was critical of the lines that have been blurred between war and peace, indicating that the problem goes back to the beginning of the war on terror. Rep. McClintock expressed concern over President Obama’s drones program, explaining that it’s a ”violation of every tenet of American due process.”
With the gun control proposals popping up in Congress and in state legislatures across the country, Rep. McClintock explained, “We have a lot of practical experience with gun control.”
“It is extremely effective at disarming law-abiding citizens. It is utterly ineffective at disarming criminals and madmen,” Rep. McClintock explained. “So we end up in a society the law-abiding population is defenseless and criminal population is fully armed. That’s a very unstable situation.”
And on the talk of a “civil war” inside the Republican Party, Rep. McClintock noted, “From the very inception of the Republican Party, the central principle has been summarized in a word — freedom.”
“The closer we have adhered to that principle, the better we have done,” he explained. “The further we have drifted from that principle, the worse we and the country have done.”
Be sure to check out Rep. McClintock on Facebook and Twitter.
Jason and Brett spoke with Harmon Kaslow, producer of Atlas Shrugged: Part One, in an interview about the upcoming release of the film.
In the interview, they discuss the long road from film rights to the silver screen, what fans of the book can expect, how fans can get the film to their city, and a few things about the film itself.
To listen online, click here. To download an .mp3 for later listening, right-click here and then click “Save As…”
The music in the intro is “Hookers on the Rag” by Blair Crimmins and the Hookers.
Herman Cain visited the Bloggers’ Lounge yesterday for a few moments. He gave us a quick introduction and took a few questions, including a couple from me on his support of the bailouts (he gave a woefully inadequate answer).
After making the rounds, Cain came by for a quick chat with me on campaign finance, free trade and spending. You can download the podcast here (3.3MB/3:39).
Stand by, I hope to have a couple more of these tomorrow.
Last year, Brett and I sat down to put together some of our thoughts for a podcast for 9/11. Not necessarily to memorialize it, but to share what we’ve learned from it.
We discussed where we were that day and our thoughts on the state of the country, our rights in the aftermath and the wars that have taken place as a result of the “war on terror.” I also recommend two books by Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes and Imperial Hubris, on terrorism and al-Qaeda in relation to our foreign policy.
You can download the podcast here (39 minutes/35 MB).
Here is some coverage from that day. You can read my own recollection of that day over at my personal blog. Please share your own recollection in the comments.
This week, Jason and Brett gathered a crack team of drinkers, fiscal conservatives, or both to “celebrate” the recent record-breaking $13 trillion national debt.
The discussion covers:
- The BP Oil Spill
- Alvin Greene wins DEM SC primary for US Senate
- Questionable Vote Totals Researched
- Democrats not moving forward with next year’s budget
- Liberals Don’t “Get” Economics
To download the podcast, right-click here and choose “Save Link As…” The introduction music is once again “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.
This week, Jason and Brett speak with former Alabama GOP chair, Marty Connors, and Alabama Eagle forum Executive Director, Brooklyn Roberts.
The discussion covers:
- Elena Kagan: Next Supreme Court Justice? Discussion
- US faces same problems as Greece, says Bank of England
- State Aggression and Defensive Action
- US drug war has met none of its goals
- DHS to States: Pleeease Spend This Money!
- Obama to Seek Line-Item Veto Power to Trim Spending From Bills
To download the podcast, right-click here and choose “Save Link As…” The introduction music is once again “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.
This week, Jason and Brett speak with former Cato’s Former Director of Budget Studies and author of Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government, Stephen Slivinski.
The discussion centers around the Republican Revolution of 1994, how the GOP traded principles for power, the big spending, and how the fever of fiscal conservatism from 1994 compares to the tea party movement today.
To download the podcast, right-click here and choose “Save Link As…” The introduction music is once again “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.
This week, Jason and Brett speak with Mike Hassinger & Doug Deal, both far too infrequent contributors here at United Liberty.
The discussion covers these news stories from last week:
- Arizona Immigration Bill
- National Immigration Reform
- Crist’s party switch a ‘Hail Mary’ pass?
- ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Repeal: Gates Warns Congress To Wait
- Bestiality Law? Florida Takes Another Shot At Passing Bill
- Boehner: 100 seats in play for GOP
- LaHood: Texting While Driving an Epidemic
To download the podcast, right-click here and choose “Save Link As…” The introduction music is once again “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.
Also, you can subscribe to the RSS of JUST our podcasts here, or you can find our podcasts on iTunes here.
We’re kicking the United Liberty Podcast off again this week with Jason and Brett speaking to Radley Balko, senior editor at Reason magazine and blogger at The Agitator (a favorite of ours here at UL).
The discussion centers around the alarming trend in police militarization and the murders Kathryn Johnston and Johnathan Ayers. We also discussed Cory Maye’s case (video here) in Mississippi and Radley’s work in exposing the questionable methods of Dr. Steven Hayne, a forensic pathologist whose tesitmony at Maye’s trail was essential the death sentence handed down by the jury.
Maye has since been granted a new trail by Mississippi Court of Appeals.
To download the podcast, right-click here and choose “Save Link As…” The introduction music is once again “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen.
Also, you can subscribe to the RSS of JUST our podcasts here, or you can find our podcasts on iTunes here.
Special thanks to the Daniel Adams of the Libertarian Party of Georgia for allowing us to use his hotel room to conduct the podcast.
Continuing our “Liberty Candidate Series” of interviews, Jason talks with Chuck Donovan, a Libertarian candidate running for United States Senate in Georgia.
In the podcast, Jason and Chuck discuss some of his issues with the voting record of Sen. Johnny Isakson (the incumbent Republican), the aftermath of ObamaCare and free-market health care solutions, immigration, cap-and-trade and the economy.
You can download the podcast here.
The introduction music is “Silence is Violence” by the always lovely Aimee Allen. You can subscribe to the RSS of JUST our podcasts here, or you can find our podcasts on iTunes here.