Power Politics Episode #6 - A Mishpacha Podcast

in today's program is this really doomsday for democracy also if President Biden runs for re-election which is expected will Kamala Harris still be his running mate our special guest today is Congressman Josh gottheimer a New Jersey Democrat who toils day and night to make America bipartisan again and of course our influencer of the week and our fearless forecast so we're going to start today with doomsday demography we've heard the term for decades to scare Israel that if they don't accept a two-state solution then Israel will be overwhelmed by the Arab birth rate that's proven to be false the Jewish Arab demography hasn't changed since the 1967 war in fact in 2022 there was still a 68 Jewish majority in the combined area of Judea Samaria and pre-1967 Israel now we're hearing cries of Doomsday democracy that if the Netanyahu government passes its judicial reform plan that will spell the end of democracy and we heard her most recently from Anthony blinken Secretary of State when he came here last week to uh visit Israel he basically lectured uh dentanyo very sternly from what I understand that it would be much harder for the U.S to support Israel if Israel is seen in American eyes as a less Democratic Society and of course the Biden Administration would be the judge durian hangman deciding whether that was true or not now there's no way of knowing if BB pushed back and how he push back but Maury if I were in that meeting I would have pushed back with a poll that came out in the Texas Tribune from the lyceum poll this is a annual poll that's taken to uh basically take the Pulse of Texans remember Texas is uh America's second most populous state it's very very diverse you might say it's the epitome of American diversity and this year's poll shows that Texans are losing faith in democracy so I want to give a few numbers quickly and then I want to hear your thoughts only 40 percent of the people polled in Texas strongly agree that democracy is the best form of government that's down from 53 percent from four years ago and only 38 percent said they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the way democracy is working in the U.S now here's the key for me while declines were apparent in the faith and democracy across all major age ethnic gender and political groups the declines were most apparent among political Independents Independence basically are the people who decide elections nowadays in America anyone who wants to win the White House anyone who wants to win a high election position you got to get the independent vote otherwise you're not going to win so if I were BB I would have told Lincoln that before you start getting nervous about our democracy you might as well start getting nervous about your own the study that comes to mind when you talk about this especially in Texas is that came out from governing magazine I believe some years ago which is that one in third Americans can't name their governor eighty percent of Americans can't name their state legislator now this is very important these facts because your state legislator is who decides your streets your schools your roads all the day-to-day things that bother you it's snowing where I am right now is this are the streets shoveled that's something that local and state municipalities deal with and the fact that Americans eighty percent don't know who these people are demonstrates to you the lack of civics education the the need to really learn Basics not politics not whether I should be a democrat or republican or independent but just a erosion of Education uh when it comes to Civics certainly I don't agree that in America the that there's a feeling or sense that democracy is failing or that Americans don't agree with democracy but I do believe that there's just such a tremendous lack of education and I think it extends when we're talking about uh Israel and we're talking about when it's utilized it's it's a very easy uh convenient way to debate and discuss items to basically throw around the ideas of erosion of democracy whether it's in America whether it's in Israel that there's this problem and I think that certainly in our own country we have to look at and examine it but I think really two points number one is there is is a problem in its Civics education in America but the second piece of it is is it's just a very dangerous thing whether it's America or other countries talking about whether or not democracy is still alive or well which I believe it is uh to do so in in sort of a simple or uh Road talking point it just doesn't work Maury I would say that there could be two things driving the people in the Texas poll one is election Integrity we know there's a lot of people who challenge the results of the presidential election maybe that's one reason they think democracy is failing because uh they feel that the elections are not as free and fair as they thought it also could be the political paralysis that we hear about all the time and people say okay if we can't get anything done in Washington then what good is democracy or how good is it working but these again this is civics education Civics education which is just basic stuff like yes it's important to learn about FDR trying to pack the courts it's important to learn about uh Truman trying to to break labor when he was he was President like it's important to learn about these things because if you read the newspapers then they would say that there's democracy is at risk I don't know if there's a president in America where there hasn't been the opposition saying democracy is at risk because of what they are doing at that moment and so I just think that Civics education is what most of this comes down to because there is a feeling of either that politics and we've talked about this on the podcast before which is that politics is is really bad now and there's a stalemate and I know we're gonna hear from our guests today about whether that's actually true or not um and and there's a feeling also that you know is democracy a danger others I just think again education education education by the time you hear this program President Biden will have given his State of the Union message in Congress it's likely that he will announce his re-election plan sometime around the State of the Union speech I would imagine at this point after rather than before and certainly not added I think that would be inappropriate and there are also reports that both he and vice president Kamala Harris have already scheduled the first appearances to launch the re-election campaign but last week Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who's one of the leaders of the Progressive Democrats and vice president Harris is one of them too so Senator Warren seemed to cast some doubt whether Harris will be Biden's running mate the second time around let's give a listen to what she told an interviewer from WGBH which is Boston's public radio station I really wanted to fog to what makes Biden comfortable on his team I've known Kamala for a long time I like Kamala I knew her backwards she was an attorney general and I was still teaching and we worked on the housing crunches together so we go way back but they have to be a team in my sense is they are I don't mean that by suggesting I think there are any problems I think they offer so Maury uh Senator Warren sound a little bit vague is is she someone who's well connected who's trying to uh tell us something that we don't know yet or is she angling uh maybe to be uh Biden's running mate if he runs again I I don't think there's any insights here I I would be shocked as I think of the entire political Community as I think the world if Biden were to get rid of Kamala Harris I don't think as much as her polling has been bad and we talked about her in a Fearless forecast previously the look and feel of getting rid of a vice president uh is this is not he does not have the height of popularity as FDR did FDR frequently exchanged vice presidents and removed them you had a situation with Nixon and uh and Agnew where he had to to get rid of Agnew like this is not the same situation so I don't think this is like a pair of shoes where you change a pair of shoes and nobody sort of knows the difference this is a very big deal to remove and change and replace a vice president and he does not have the approval rating to sort of just do it haphazardly and he does not have a problem with Kamala Harris uh where there is a scandal or an issue which requires replacement it just this is not this would be unprecedented so I believe that this is classic like DC spin just to get a conversation going you know it's uh like you said it's fairly unprecedented but not totally as you mentioned that the FDR did change Vice Presidents twice and his third term and his fourth term also if you go way back to the beginnings of America the old Republican party under Thomas Jefferson so they dumped Aaron Burr as vice president in favor of George Clinton also in 1864 Abraham Lincoln replaced his vice president Hannibal Hamlin with Andrew Johnson what I found really fascinating about that is that Hamlin and Lincoln apparently never met until after they won the election together and nowadays you have the conventions and the president the vice president they raised their arms high together in the victory salute at the convention but in those days the travel obviously was a lot more difficult than it is today and the president the vice president never actually met I do want to say one more thing though that this almost happened to Biden himself and worry I would say this could be one of the reasons why he wouldn't do it in addition to the reasons that you said if we remember there was a book written on the 2012 campaign called Double Down by two Washington Post reporters and it made a big fuss at the time because they wrote that the Obama Administration officials were considering swapping out Biden with Hillary Clinton for the number two spot on the 2012 democratic ticket obviously it never happened but it could happen and uh sometimes you have to expect the unexpected although I would agree with you I don't know what Elizabeth Warren had in mind it sounded as if she uh fumbled the ball a bit on that because you know there's no reason for it to cast doubter aspersions on the president but I I do think she was indicating some discomfort with the fact that uh Biden and Harris may not be totally on the same page and that maybe it was her way of warning that they really need to get their act together if they're going to be a strong team in 2024. yeah we talked about this last week I did this on my forecast which is that the idea that Kamala Harris is sort of doing a 2.0 a tour so it's very possible she picked up the phone and called her friend Senator Warren and said you know let's float that and see how the media reacts and the media reacted pretty negatively to it so you never know what this and in in it reminds me of the story I'll close with which is I was when I was working in in DC upholster walked in the elevator with the congressman I was with dropped a nasty rumor with people in the elevator and then walked out and I and the congressman looked at him said what was that gossip he's like well I like to spread some gossip around DC and see how far it goes and travels so like DC loves that that's that's just classic DC Spin and throwing stuff into the uh ether and seeing what happens I want to Welcome to the program um a incredible public servant he's from the New Jersey's fifth congressional district which represents Bergen and Passaic and Sussex and a bunch of other incredible counties he's on the financial services committee he's on the homeland security committee uh he is my congressman so uh I'm super excited to have him on uh he's known as a leader in America not just in New Jersey not just in Congress but really literally there's nowhere you go where there's a major issue happening where Congressman Josh gottheimer is not part of it and he is one of the things he's most known for and what I want to get into it right away with him on is he's the co-chair of the bipartisan problem solvers caucus and I remember being in shul where someone says to me have you met Congressman got Heimer because he has this crazy thing going on there's a couple years ago he's been this is his third term where the bipartisan solvers problem solvers caucus has 29 Democrats 29 Republicans maybe it's more now and they're actually trying to do this impossible thing thing which is solve problems Congressman let's get right into it what are you doing with this thing how are you solving America's problems in a bipartisan way so first of all it's great to see you thank you for having me and you're right it's crazy we're actually trying to govern I mean you think people send you here uh they elect you and all these people keep coming here and then they just scream and yell at each other and don't try to actually get their job done uh so it's uh we're taking a different bent as you pointed out and that's been my Approach since I got elected of fake trying to figure out ways where we can sit down Democrats and Republicans at the table break bread uh and uh develop relationships and trust and figure out where we can get to an 80 agreement versus insisting on 100 or nothing and and uh We've it's been incredibly successful as you said the interest in the caucus has only grown every Congress we're now we're just finalizing our class for this Congress there's so many people interested which is great it's a high class problem but we're just trying to figure out now you know you have to you can't just join you actually go through a process where you have to engage with the other members talk about your commitment to governing and to working together to Civility and putting country first and so uh the numbers will grow but in a divided Congress like we're facing right now with just a 4C Republican majority very similar to last Congress we are forcing Democratic majority there's a lot we can get done by working together like we did the last Congress Congressman can you walk us through a sample conversation that you might have with the Republican and uh how you would try to get that Republican on board uh about any issue about any issue you know I I think mine though it's a it's a really good question I've never been asked that question before you know I I uh if you get the award for the day um uh you know my general belief of what's important and and getting to an agreement whether that's in the last covet package under President Trump which we helped negotiate the problems horse we led the house negotiations that was for the second round of PPP and and resources for the the original covid vaccines um uh and then you know last Congress we got bipartisan legislation across the Finish Line on China chips you know building ships the United States of America on uh the bipartisan infrastructure bill which I helped write and pass um um comes into gun safety legislation uh legislation to support our veterans legislation is poor law enforcement fund not defund law enforcement on all these areas you know every conversation that I find effective starts not with me speaking but with me listening because you know around here people spend a lot of time talking and not enough time trying to understand what's actually important to the other side that you're negotiating with uh because you know often I find that and I was like I've made this mistake myself I have uh you know I've read something publicly I've seen something out there and I just presume what the issue or the hang up is for the other side and then when I actually I sit down and have a constructive conversation um I realize and listen and do intense listening I realize wait a second actually that's not the their big issue is solvable it's not actually the issue I thought we could solve that problem and that's often how the deals get done because we you know we we are able to get past the issues that the other side is having this week there was a terrible incident in New Jersey a show was firebombed and I saw that you were one of the first people not the first elected official on the scene there now um can you talk through as a as a as as someone who's um a member of the community is someone who is also been dealing with anti-Semitism since uh since you've been elected before you've been elected you've been at Rutgers campus dealing with some of the issues that happened there you've been all over you've seen the many layers of it can you walk our listeners through what what is happening and what are our elected officials doing and what should other elected officials be doing um that you're not seeing well I mean I think you you both know better than anybody uh just the heart-wrenching Surge and anti-semitic attacks not of course only in New Jersey but around the country up a third year over year according to the ADL um Nationwide of 25 in New Jersey New Jersey the second highest number of incidents in the country second only to New York these are all record numbers so you know we've got a broad a really broad crisis going on when it comes to anti-Semitism last week I I introduced uh in a significant bipartisan way on on Friday Holocaust remembrance legislation to ensure that we teach that we understand and what we're teaching our children in schools across the country about the Holocaust basically a full audit of Education around showa and what's being taught is it being taught where is it being taught unfortunately it's very spotty in a lot of places in the country um and what's being taught of spotty and as a result what I worry about especially as the generations past that were you know sought with their own eyes experienced it themselves that as that distance grows the the understanding of you know why you and I may resp respond and have deep concerns about certain tropes about certain comments about you know the significance of a swastika and when extremism wherever it comes up however it lies politically or misinformation is spewed the impact that it can have and the risks and the long-term danger it can impose um Jewish people frankly like any hate targeted to any community so I went to the temple last week uh or sorry this week in in Bloomfield I like I often visit a lot of schools where there's been an incident or if it's in a school I'll talk to the superintendent of the principal immediately you know whether it's in northern New Jersey or frankly anywhere in New Jersey as the Jewish member of the delegation I'm the only Jewish member of the Congressional Delegation you know the the number one thing I always start with is okay so how are we using this moment how are you using this moment if you're a school or Temple to teach and to prevent this from ever occurring again because the initial reaction is often let's just make this go away let's sweep it under the rug because you know it's too hard to talk about or I don't want people to think that this is what it's like here so let's just try to make it go away as fast as possible and I I often think that's exactly the wrong reaction to have that a school should take a moment to say how do we learn from this in the case of the temple are we a as the shul prepared God forbid it were to happen again B is every Temple of tool in the area properly protected and safeguarded as this this Temple by the way had done a phenomenal job getting non-profit security grants and and other resources to have cameras in place the door here where they the um or the moth off cocktails thrown through or time to thrown through actually had protection on the glass so it wouldn't go it didn't go inside the temple it hit the the glass the glass shatter but then it bounced basically bounced back couldn't get through the fire thank God but are we doing everything possible and we're forever and the other thing that I've learned is we have to speak out about these things and not just Jews to your point right that I really call on when these things happen all elected officials and all community members and people from all different faiths you know leaders from all different faiths to speak out and I push for it very hard and sometimes listen my colleagues you know look at me and say again we're again we're doing this you know and I say you know and and frankly my answer is yeah until they stop we're going to keep doing it and I you know I don't let these things go because we can't afford to and I feel very strongly about that Congressman unfortunately there's also a lot of hate and uh violent acts on the international level uh you've sponsored H.R 340 which is the Hamas International financing prevention act and also HC resolution 7 which condemns human rights abuses in Iran so my first question what will H.R 340 do that isn't being done now because I understand that Hamas is already considered a terror organization so I'm wondering what layer your resolution might add that we don't have right now what's ensuring sanction anyone who does business with a random problem with a lot of sanctions that we've imposed as a country is they've gone for a period of time they roll off they usually have Windows uh of time and then there's certain business you can do that's allowed certain business that is not allowed under these sanctions this particular Bill ensures that anyone who does business with Hamas or or Palestinian Jihad that it prevents it precludes people from engaging in German and doing business and helps fill a hole that was a gap in the system you know and and you know again part of the challenge if you look at Iran I'm sure you've seen the discussion is we're always looking and saying when are certain sanctions we say rolling off like one of these sanctions going away and so you have to just constantly be Visual and as a legislature to make sure that sanctions don't fall off and broadly speaking of you know I I have several pieces of legislation that I've introduced several piece of legislation we've passed standing up to Iran now introducing legislation as you point out supporting people in Iran who stand up to their government in support of human rights violations that are going on you know and sorry in support of protecting human rights against the violations that are going on I have been a very vocal very vocally critical of Iran since before I was in the electives of Congress and had a very you know I I was aggressive in my beliefs that the Iran deal jcpoa was banned for the United States of America for uh our national security obviously it put our allies at risk I think Iran as we've seen in the you know even in the last months with their deepening ties to China and Russia has proven that they are consistent liars and uh and they the the fears that many of us had about not just their nuclear program but frankly their Terror program and this is where going back to your question on sanctions right their Terror program has never ceased their support for Hamas and Hezbollah and Palestinian Jihad and others and their weaponization which as you know from everything that's been publicly reported their breakout period their time to be will have full nuclear capability is within weeks if they want it and so that imperils our national security our fight against Terror the same thing security of our key allies in the region and so I think from a legislative perspective I will continue to be aggressive I've LED many public statements and letters to this Administration over the last two years with Democrats and Republicans you know reminding them that doing business with Iran uh is in my opinion unacceptable and these deals that had been on the table are unacceptable um and I'm glad that we're in a position that we've pulled back as the administration's pulled back but you know I think it's proven out uh why especially given their recent interactions and support and weapons that they've sent to Russia is there anything more the US government can and should be doing to support regime change in Iran well I I think we've been right now very involved in supporting those who are standing up to the government there I know a lot more in a classified setting that I can't really talk about but um I you know I I believe the United States is is taking a lot of the right steps uh on the ground I want to get back one question please a follow-up on the problem solvers caucus uh we have new Congressional leadership now both in the Republican side and the Democratic side you've got uh speaker McCarthy you've got uh Hakeem Jeffries who leads the Democrats are they more favorable would you say than the previous leadership to uh the goals of the problem solvers caucus and do you think it'll be easier or harder for you to work in this regard it's a great question uh you know I have a good relationship with uh leader Jeffries I especially spent a lot of time over the years talking with him about us as a relationship and the importance there and my co-chair of the problems are as caucus who I co-chair with Brian if it's Patrick from Pennsylvania the Republican uh who's one of my dearest friends he he's got a very good relationship with with speaker McCarthy those are good things that we have those relationships but both of us are not afraid to disagree when we have to to stand up when we have to you know um I would say uh the last leader Nancy Pelosi um sorry there the Bells Are Ringing for votes speaker Pelosi you know we had moments where we had we worked together one we legislated other moments where you know she wasn't exactly sending me uh Hanukkah Guild because my job is I don't work for a national political party I work for the people I represent and I believe deeply in two-party Solutions which you know is not always what aligned with our leader leadership and both Brian and I understand that but you know the the good news is we have a very good Open Door relationship with our leaders and I don't hide things from our leaders when we're working on things like we are right now on the debt ceiling in a bipartisan way you know I let our leadership know that we're working um the relate the conversations of course are confidential the but I let them know that what we're what we're doing and I think that's a good thing but I'll tell you now we've I'm not afraid to stand up but we have to and vote against the party when we have to and because you know I don't feel you know that I work for that I work for anybody but the people I represent the uh I know you have to get going with the vote I have a did you have a final question we haven't I have a final question well go ahead Morgan so I just have one quite a final question for you which is we have a lot of of young listeners um we have a lot of and I know you've spoken to a lot of uh students in general and colleges and things like that we talked about earlier in the program the fact that there was a Texas study about um how much uh almost like an erosion of of democratic excitement about the idea of democracy people just don't trust the elected officials people don't trust government people don't trust things what would you say to people to to listeners uh who feel that who feel like this is just I think it's very unique what you're doing and what you're trying and attempting to do but I also I'm sure you hear from a lot of people being like roll their eyes and say yeah sure you're trying to do that good luck to you so there just seems to be this overarching like cynicism and pessimism and is it is it Civics education is it what what can you say give us some inspiration to leave what can you say is it getting better what what does it take let's just say that not everyone is constructive of having as constructive a conversations right I mean like right I mean that you're are asking substantive questions and having a real discussion here about issues the unfortunate reality is that if you watch cable news or watch social media or watch you know you know Clips on social media or read social media it's all driven by trying to get clixt or uh and even a lot of our news is so driven Now by just getting that two-second engagement and to make money right because this is you know these cable shows and a lot of the social media channels are not in the business of uh it's not they're not the Red Cross they're trying to make a profit and they've decided the best way to make a profit is to put as incendiary headlines as possible and information on there because that will draw more more followers and more engagement you know when when Brian and I work together and govern right and actually get things done and I told you you know the Litany of some of the things we got done legislation we got across the finish line by sitting down Democrats Republicans in the house and we work with a group in the Senate the problems are caucus every week committed to the idea of actually governing of of taking that 80 percent the bomb throwers the extremists who are not into common sense and being reasonable they focus on the 20 percent of fighting right the 20 so we focus on 80 they spend all their time in the 20 of disagreement right and they spent all their time there screaming and yelling and screaming and yelling and attacking each other and it's better programming on cable news right because the fight Mike I got a 10 year old boy I take him to the Devils game within two seconds he looks at me and goes dad when's the fight when are they going to fight at the band we've been here 30 seconds right you know you didn't even get your hot dog yet have you been here 30 seconds right and uh that's the problem now right so then people young people especially right they live a lot on social media online right they they you know may not all have uh the time to listen to this full conversation and they then just see all these guys are like clowns all they do is fight they focus they focus on like the Margaret Taylor greens and the aocs right the extremes that the freedom caucus and the squad that's what they see and they see the extreme positions and then there's all of us here that actually are governing and getting it done and passing the infrastructure Bill to build you know the help build the fix the roads Bridges and tunnels in New Jersey uh and our water infrastructure and right in broadband and the things that you know they Experience day to day or the gum you know Common centralization report are veterans and those exposed to burn pits which we got done that that and stand up to China those are things that have to get done for our country to protect our country to stand by the people who are standing by us pay by our First Responders and our firefighters and law enforcement and make sure that we're safe right but I get it if they don't get to see all that they just assume it's all the fighting and and that could be very frustrating to folks like me because you know people so you the you know I'm glad you're more you've been great about talking to me about the problem solvers caucus when I tell people that and they're like really that's happening they can't believe it is why don't you get more attention I say because no one goes down to by the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial with a uh a sign that says work together get it done right that's like just not what people show up to Washington about right they show up to like the you know to to throw bombs at each other and and that's to just say unfortunate reality of of the world we're living in and we get a focus on anti-Semitism and talk about that unfortunately after an incident right like you had it takes just a disgraceful incident like what happened this past weekend to bring the conversation to the fore but it shouldn't be that way but that is just kind of the reality that we're living in but I'll tell you right now I'm not going to stop doing my job fighting for the people I represented for the issues I represent whether it's supporting U.S Israel relationship which is key to our national security whether it's fighting anti-Semitism all the issues of investing in our infrastructure supporting cops you know the things that we've done I'm not going to back off of you know even if it gets less attention because I I didn't come here to just scream and yell and get nothing done like what's the point of doing that amazing thank you very much Congressman godheimer very very inspiring I I you know feel very strongly about this as you can see so so thank you so much for having me thank you for the extended time that you gave us we appreciate it very much it's interesting if you look on my wall there's there's things that we've gotten legislation sign on into law right to me that we delivered that's actually the measuring stick you know I'm the considering been by the Luger Center George I'm the most bipartisan Democrat in the whole Congress and the result of that work of working together is actually what you deliver for people to help people's lives right and that means you have to sit down with people I sat down with uh Jared Kushner and Van Jones and Akeem Jeffries on Criminal Justice Reform and the only way it got done was advice working together same way on infrastructure bill is by sitting down late at night and working together um and it takes a lot of work but the people watching they should know that they've got elected officials who actually want to do the work for them them so thank you for having me guys more you might take away uh my big takeaway to that interview is listening not talking listen to what the other person's saying and you have a much better chance of getting things done I think my takeaway is is exactly the same I think it's great that our first elected official we had on the podcast is someone who's trying to get stuff done bipartisan not partisan politics he's just talking about topless and I think for our listeners that's going to be their takeaway as well okay so now we've come to the influencer of the week and as we're actually doing this recording it's a Wednesday and we're waiting a decision from the Federal Reserve board if they're going to raise interest rates of course by the time our listeners hear this uh the news will be quite old however uh it's clear to me that Jay Powell the chairman of the Federal Reserve board is the influencer of the week the FED is the largest Central Bank in the world the most influential Central Bank in the world America's economy is the largest and most influential economy in the world everyone follows the lead of the U.S everyone follows the leader Jay Powell basically has the whole world in his hands when it comes to interest rate decisions which affect the strength of the economy which affect the rate of inflation which affect unemployment and eventually corporate profits as well and as long as uh basically with every fed meeting everyone is waiting with baited breath to see exactly what he decides and when he decides and how much he decides to move then he is the influencer certainly of this week it's a it's a very good pick the uh it's everyone's waiting and we'll see what happens everyone's waiting the whole economic world my influencer of the week is a name that I don't think most of the listeners know it's Governor Spencer Cox of ill of Utah it's Governor Spencer Cox of Utah and Governor Cox is um my influence of the week because the governor passed school choice legislation which provides Universal school choice funding for anyone to send their kids to a private school non-public school but this the reason why he's my influencer over the week is because there's a lot of language right now about school choice and about a Revolution coming which is a very meaningful for people sending their kids to yeshivas which is very something that I've been hearing eating text about and people are really excited about it but I think the governor of Utah is the person because he didn't just pass school choice legislation he passed it while giving a six thousand dollar uh Inc a per teacher increase to the public school teachers as well which is very clever and that's dynamics that work that's that's how you create bipartisan environments that's how you win that's how you get things done and literally the next day or a few days later I'm sorry governor dewine in Ohio he announced major school choice legislation and there's talk about more coming which helps families so I think the governor of Utah is my influencer of the week just because it is it is a a wrinkle on something that really uh our communities care greatly our community cares greatly about uh and it's something that I think is is really starting to to see a revolution occur to me you can't pay a good teacher enough they deserve everything that that they can possibly get now time for my Fearless forecast so I don't think that this forecast is quite as Fearless as some of the ones I've made recently but uh I do say that sometime in the next week that the Israeli government is going to pass the first reading of the judicial reform plan and it's going to pass with a wider margin than anyone expects and I'm also uh beginning to understand why this is so important I did a little homework today and both Esther kayutu was the president of the Supreme Court and anat baron and again both of them are two of the most liberal justices on the Israeli Supreme Court they hit their mandatory retirement this year in October they hit 70 they both have to leave that's the law and next year next October Uzi vogelman who's at the deputy president of the Israeli Supreme Court and who's also an extremely liberal Justice that hits his mandatory retirement age so basically you've got three huge vacancies in the next a year and 10 months and you know anyone who gets control of the selection committee is uh going to have a tremendous opportunity to uh either keep the court and its liberal bent or to turn it around and make it more conservative so that's why the Nintendo government has to move now and they have to make sure that they can beat back the opposition because this is their once in a lifetime chance just like Donald Trump had to uh remake the court in their own image and if they don't do it now they'll never have the chance to do it so I say they're going to move on this very fast my Fearless forecast is called I doubt it with the debt ceiling I doubt it I'll talk there's a lot of media attention right now on it will McCarthy blink will Biden blink in 1917 the first debt ceiling was created during World War One it was raised 74 times from 1962 to 2011. 18 times into Reagan eight times under Clinton seven times under George W bush and five times under Obama when you look at that when you think about that there's never been a situation where they haven't raised the debt ceiling so it's a great talking point it's a great story the media feeds off of Crisis and it's a great thing to say it's a debt ceiling no one wants to hit the ceiling right Benjamin no wants to hit the ceiling but I'm saying I doubt it I think this is all talk they're gonna raise the debt ceiling way before June uh and so I I think it's a great narrative a great first test for a republican house in a Democratic president but I doubt it I think this is over in a few weeks and we're not going to hear about this anymore they're going to raise the debt ceiling my question is is why they have to take votes on it all the time they may as well just go to some unlimited debt ceiling so that they don't have to do it basically people are going to continue buying American bonds to finance the U.S debt and uh you know this threat that comes up every year which is just you know real political football is basically to me it's a waste of time you know borrow what you need until you get to a point where the economy gets growing again and revenues start out pacing spending and then maybe you can do some spending cuts as well and try to get the budget under control or at least better control because in America we like the drama even though we know like like in you call it why do you have to have the American football because just like we like to pretend there's 32 teams in the NFL in America and every year the Kansas City Chiefs of the Patriots make it similarly we have to pretend we might not get the debt ceiling for Yemen but here we are hope that wraps it up for today once again thanks for joining us and please uh listen in and we look forward to hearing your comments your thoughts again if you have any uh ideas for guests or any topics that you'd like to hear us discuss please drop us a line let us know