Mornings With Gary Byron Podcast 3-9-26

0:00.com 100 years strong WDRC is the talk of Connecticut from Hartford, Windsor and Berlin and waking you up with Gary Byron and See let me give can you give me notice good Lord You should see what this guy does sometimes when I like when Like when when agnelli comes in on Fridays or every other Tuesday when when Dominic repeaty comes in on me eating the Like oh good Gary's got one more bite. Let's throw him on air right now my mouth is full. I'm taking my last chew Thank you. It's the it's the it's the at the moments in the in the show Where I I like to just test Gary, you know a mouth full of food and hey we're live Well, he was pretty professional. I thought he handled it really well taking a sip of my Guess who brought in creamer. Oh, thank goodness our new best friend, right? It was better than me a

1:03Connecticut landscaper warned lawmakers on Thursday that a proposed ban on gas-powered leaf blowers Could put small landscaping businesses out of work Drawing attention online after a committee chair dismissed his testimony During the hearing his name is Michael Sonello owner of Western Connecticut Pro Turf He testified before lawmakers on Senate bill 319 Which would phase out gas-powered leaf blowers and transition landscaping equipment to electric alternatives now the proposal would prohibit the sale of gas-powered Leaf blowers beginning in 2029 and ban their youth statewide By 2030 Sonello told lawmakers that his company is a small operation with just one employee and said the bill Could impose significant new costs on

2:04businesses like his saying quote I'm the little guy Let me tell you how Senate bill 319 affects me and quote Then he described the gas-powered equipment commonly used in Professional landscaping and explained why he believes electric alternatives are not capable of replacing them in commercial settings. Good morning It's Gary Byron 719 excuse me 711 on the old morning train. Where do they get your clock is the worst? I If you look at my clock folks. It says it's January 28th Saturday 70 degrees and it's 610 38 seconds 610 in the morning. I might not even have a clock in front of me Anyhow good morning. It's Gary Byron Welcome to the old morning train here as I like to say our first guest into the daily Connerton Memorial Company Is a manager of research over at the Yankee Institute. Let's welcome back live in studio. Yes. She'll be taking your calls very shortly

3:08Megan portfolio good morning. Well good morning, Megan. It's put a great way to start off my Monday And thank you for the the creams. I listen. I am a coffee addict. I know I heard you and I heard your desperation to the airwaves and so I said I got to stop and get this boy some cream You know what your aces your top your top on on my list Looking like a bumblebee this morning. Oh, thank you. Yeah, what happens if you get dressed in the dark Try not to wake up the dog. Oh, hey, you know dogs waking you want got to go out. He did So what's this with with gas power? I thought that You know legislators like to say that their business friendly. We know that they're not But they liked it least put up the facade that they are well They like to say their business friendly. They like to say they're all for affordability Okay, there's a lot going on with this bill. I saw it come across my screen a couple weeks ago. I'm like This is silly but I read it anyway. I mean, I have a I have electric

4:08Want equipment my my mowers fine. It doesn't I have to like recharge the battery halfway through and then finish and I do one of those Electric leaf blowers and it doesn't work very well. So I don't even yeah I've got an electric leaf blower that it's good for about 15 minutes and then I got to go and recharge it again So I kind of I was like what's this bill? So I started reading the bill and it actually gets worse than government coming in and mandating What we kind of can't use to do our lawn care? There's actually a provision in the bill that uses our public benefit charge to give rebates to people to buy electric One equipment. Are you know the public benefit? Yeah, they're taking our money and giving us a rebate on my electric bill So now I'm paying for credit card chargers. They're electric vehicles. They're electric bills Now we have to pay for people's electric lawn equipment. So that's bad enough So I'm already in a bad mood over this bill just because of that one. Give me $20 and then I'm going to give it back to you saying this I'm going to give you some money towards And it's yeah, it was your money to begin with but it's for our good. So the government will tell you this is for your own good

5:14So I So I was checking out the hearing and this guy my goal Sonella. I hope I sent his name right. Let me tell you something. I have never seen Such an amazing testimony from a member of the public like he's not a lobbyist. He's a lawyer He's a landscaper. I think he said he had one or two guys at work for him He put on this entire presentation and how this bill will affect his business He's like here are the electric ones here are the gas leafflowers. Here's the price difference Here's what I have to do as a business And you think they would have asked him any questions When he was done after his three minutes you three minutes is up. They shut him down The the chair the committee thought it was hysterical to crack a joke about this whole and the guy spent time putting this together This wasn't like you know, just a silly little test when he put it together Pike a PowerPoint explaining the situation and what it will do to a small business and the chair Rick Lopes Made a crack saying oh, this is the first time I've ever seen an infomercial at the legislature

6:15And they all laughed and the poor guy who's sitting there taking time out of his day to testify Explaining what this will do to him Poor guy's face was like are you kidding me? You're making fun of me Like I'm just telling you what you are going to do to my life and my business and you're laughing at me Again one party rule 40 years you get snarty the power gets to you. Oh, it's I have it's severe For a while Gary. I have never seen it so bad between the e-serts without public hearings Now I you and I actually have a blog on it coming out with as soon as I get home What they're doing on Wednesday? There's a couple vaccine bills There's a home school bill and they're limiting public speech now if you're a lawmaker or if you're an agency head You you got those guys get to speak in the first hour of all the public hearings. That's fine Yeah, that's always been I'm paying these people salary. I want them back to work I don't want them milling around all day at the L.O.B. and they have interior waiting for their number to be called So I'm fine that they get that first hour But they're guaranteed to speak the people that this is affecting thousands of thousands of people across the state

7:20They get shut off. Isn't that crazy? How important to you how important do you think it is for people to show up in person in Numbers to testify if I had to rank the order of importance I would rank being there in person Telling your story and how this whatever piece of legislations affecting I think that's the most impactful Second would be writing and calling but do they read it? I don't know I mean it is public record. It's on the system. I mean, I don't want to I don't know I've never seen them not read it so I don't want to accuse them But come on are they reading all those testimonies? No, you can't how how we don't have there's enough time to read them all But they should but Number one going there and showing up and explaining what this If this is a good bill or bad or bad bill like if if this is something that is positive and will impact your life positive I think that's the best way to go. Well That's a matter of opinion because what you think will impact you positively The Democrat lawmakers who are trying to control you how you live your life

8:21Will put us a negative spin on and say no, it's negative And that's fine, but I mean their job is I mean their job descriptions in their title. They are representatives They are to represent us, but you but you you've got to know by now. I mean, that's not true It's I mean, it's supposed to be it's supposed to be true, but they're doing anything but they are they're setting their constituents right this session Absolutely, they've got a heart. They've got they're got their marching orders This is the marching orders should be coming from the people number one. No, it's coming from their party That's interesting. It says very sad. That's very sad. We didn't we just have how many no kings rallies Yeah, but that's what they like they like to project that I see and it's no kings, you know for the other side I mean, I say that flippantly, but I mean when you think about it what they're doing right now unless it's their own king It's when it's your own king. It's different. Oh, I say the liberal king is okay. Oh, okay. I didn't I didn't realize Yeah, some kings were okay. You got you gotta follow the you guys. Oh, I gotta yeah, yeah, you need a road map

9:27Find out what acceptable and what's not um, let's see here. Can I have to yes? I do I do up time here. We could do this Well, let's So set it bill 319 was one we're just talking about proposing Using funds from the state's public benefits charge. Let me get you know, I want to go back to that for a second before I Get to the your next story um The public benefits Is there anywhere? Do we know What amount it actually is and how much we are paying Collectively as a state Yeah, I don't know I and paying it down like when you get a credit card bill, let's say you put $5,000 on your I don't you got some car work done. I don't know all right So you put $5,000 on and then you start making payments and Every month when you get your new statement. Of course, they've got to take their cut, you know It tells you what your balances And then you pay a little bit more and then following month. Hopefully you you know, you get that number down and then

10:32The following month, this should be a little less it what these public benefits It doesn't tell you where where are we in paying off the public benefits? No, that's it. It's actually very interesting That's an interesting question. I might make a great article. How much are we paying how much do we owe? Oh my is it is it ever going away? It's see as much as they gave us the transparency with breaking it out on the bill It's still not that transparent Not transparent at all when it comes to the public benefits. No, there should be never ending number We should have a dashboard and would they beg you know, they're big into these dashboards and data when they should have deep should be having a Dashboard that shows where is this money going? How much are you collecting from us exactly what percentage is going to pay millstone What percentage is going to pay like why does everything have to be such a darn mystery? Okay, so that's an itemization and I like that But it goes back, but I'm still not getting my question answered is what what was what was the original number and incrementally

11:33Month by month meaning The collectives say I don't know how much are we paying this off on a monthly basis? I don't know if it's a payoff thing because they keep adding different programs to it that the utilities Companies have to pay for like when they give these new mandates like you need to give rebates For these car chargers It's ever sourced your UI that's giving us the rebate Um, then they come back to the state and saying you guys owe us X a billion dollars So it never goes away and when you add things like like this nonsense with the leaf blower It's never going to go down because other adding another incentive in there that that the utilities have to manage And then they're going to come back for pirat And this is why we keep getting you know, our bills going out part I mean part of the reason I'm used to inflation and all kinds of other things included in that Quasian, but I don't think it's ever going to go down because they keep adding things to take out of it Okay, that's But it's still I mean they like I said they broke it out and it's a little bit more transparent But it's still really not that transparent and you're right because you we could in theory we could have paid something off

12:38And rather than that number going down we added something new The breakdown of itemization what I think would be very better I think it would be helpful. I mean, I love transparent. I mean, it's I mean, I'm economist So I mean transparency for me makes my job easier. I don't have to foyer every stinking thing But I think the people I mean people ask all the time people know it the public benefit charges And it's still a mystery to us. We still don't know We're told oh the X amount of percentage is going for the millstone. Okay. What about the rest of it? I want to know about the rest of it. Yeah, and what percent and don't give me statute numbers tell me what is this? How long will you foyer something? How long does that take it depends some some agency It I mean, I don't want to throw the agencies under the bus some of them are really good And if it's a real simple thing that they've already got reports on other Dealing with the municipalities is sometimes a nightmare especially like the cities. I'll foyer something in 10 years Okay, let me think a 60 second break. We'll come back. I got a different story for you more with Megan portfolio right after this

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14:41Number one for breaking news for Torrington Litchfield and Thomas 10 a.m. 6 10 and FM 104.5 the talk of Connecticut 23 minutes after seven o'clock our guest is the manager of research and policy over a And and analysis I should see over at the Yankee Institute A Megan portfolio should be taking your phone calls momentarily if you wanted to call and get into the queue 860 243 1360 Connecticut lawmakers say they want to make Energy more affordable their latest proposal could do the opposite Starting at the gas pump house bill 51 56 would create a state climate superfund Requiring fossil fuel companies to pay billions of dollars for greenhouse gas emissions dating back nearly three decades supporters They frame the plan as holding polluters accountable and opponents warn it

15:44functions as a large retroactive Tax that would ultimately be passed on to drivers to homeowners and businesses Industry groups say the impact could be immediate and measurable With one analysis estimating the policy would add roughly 33 cents per gallon to a gallon of gasoline diesel or heating oil um What does this climate superfund actually do other than add 33 cents a gallon So this is by the way just to be clear this is in addition to our All the other excise tax and in a federal tax and yeah, this is on top of the tax Not in lieu of the taxes we currently have in addition to Don't you remember when the sessions started and they were all talking about affordability And we got to just about the energy prices. Well, I guess they are Yeah, they're in the wrong direction Only in Connecticut. I well I shouldn't say so a couple of states actually have this. I know there's a few states that have this and it's that's called the climate superfund

16:49Climate slush fund. It's just another energy tax What they want to do is basically sue the oil companies For billions of dollars and put it in a fund that they hand over to deep So now the executive branch is going to get this little slush fund that they can use for new for the environment now Every single person in this the supply chain has come out and said if you do this your prices are going up The oil companies said it the businesses that buy the oil and sell the oil said it The business community in Connecticut said it So what we're looking at is another 33 cents at the pump For gas for our car for oil that heats our home another 33 cents And it's interesting with the gas per gallon per gallon. Yeah, we're at the pump We only pay two state taxes on it. We got the petroleum gas receipt tax, which is like 8.1 percent and then there's another gas the exercise tax in the federal tax too

17:49And then you add the federal tax yeah, we have three tax and now they want it now they've tried this before a few years ago Remember that TCI yeah, it's like every few years they want to create these like random programs where they want to tax us are you When you open up the session and tell us you're gonna deal with affordability and energy prices But the legislation you're putting out does the opposite What's going on over there so It's an election year for for a lot of people and this is an interesting bill to put put up in an election year I have a feeling This this bill look I don't know anything. It could pass. I don't I bet it passes committee I don't think it gets called this year But I think it would be back next year I think this might be the second or third time I've seen this one and you're right the bad it's bad timing and not just for the legislative branch but for the executive branch as well Um You mean Lamont would have to sign that in you're giving your opponent ammunition you're giving you're you're giving them a freebie but you're giving them a mailer

18:49Well, then we need to let them know like this is not except like at this now No, but anyway, you know what though it would just come back in a different form next year And then we do the same thing. I mean you We can beat bad bills in the state Even if you're not in the majority party even if you don't have two thirds of the seat in the house and in the Senate We can beat bills we've beaten taught many times that they tried to put tolls on our highway How many I mean how many times I beat they've been trying to move many good thing Patrick Sasser and Laura Devlin Yeah, and Henry Martin for that. I mean aren't absolutely With us later. Yeah, I used to I used to roll with the Pat Sasser back in the day. He rolled with him. I don't mean okay All right, tie your roll, huh? But I mean, it's it's our responsibility to tell these knuckleheads and hardford No, you need this is ridiculous is absolutely no, it's up. I mean the business communities already come out against it so they're Hardline on it, but you know, we need to let them know with can you afford another 33 cents per gallon at the pump? It's not even a matter of whether you can afford it or not Where does it end endeavor ends if we don't stop and 33 cents by the way wow

19:52I mean no no, I mean and some people Oh my 33 cents if it were three cents I'd still have a problem of course and also that just opens the door You know what I'm saying that opens the door starts with three cents and then well in this case 33 cents and then what and then what two years We're gonna add another two cents and oh, it's just another two cents and they just keep doing it and now it's 30 Collectively It's insane. All right open phones. I have two lines open 860 243 1360 open phones you and Megan portfolio next Make sure you like we're talking Connecticut on Facebook Instagram and Twitter and stay up to date and Connected with the talk of Connecticut have them 103.3 Hartford and 104.5. Let's feel this week is big It's big Jerry big Well, I don't have to be so big all the time Yeah

20:55What what He some water Oh my goodness, you like our freedoms, right? You got to like our freedom. Yeah, how do you not like it's were Americans Something Connecticut our freedoms They seem to be eroding Year by year incrementally not not all That once that would be too obvious that would be blatant. That's not how they do it Kind of like implementing communism or social it's it's done incrementally say if it's done abruptly Well, it's too noticeable when you use big pushback, but incrementally. That's this that's the formula that the Dems I have been utilizing here You want to keep your freedoms, right? You want to protect your freedoms Then if so everyone listening this is going to be an important hour And I wouldn't leave the radio

21:56Um, because you need and you need to get active Just like our next guest into the daily Connerton Memorial Company, and if you chair, he represents Bristol Plainville, Plimit, Harwinton, Plainville in Thomaston Let's welcome back to the show stage 7 Henry Martin, Senator good morning Good morning, Jerry It's going to be a big week, Gary. It is it is You guys were cracking me up here Hahaha Well, good It's going to be big It's going to be big, Jerry big He's never seen before it's going to be big Well, like, does this always happen in Connecticut Man, it never stops doesn't Henry It certainly doesn't Gary Democrats are holding a controversial public hearing on a few bills this week um and act establish and it's eight one of them is HB5044 and act establishing vaccine standards. Another is SB 450 enact concerning the standards of care for immunization.

22:59And we're going to get to a gun law bill in a little while. They're attacking homeschoolers. And by the way, these earrings are on Wednesday. The Democrats are holding a, these controversial public hearing bills, which attack homeschoolers. They give vaccine authority to an unelected bureaucrat. They attack law-biting gun owners. Oh, my goodness. Talk about this, Henry. Yeah, it's going to be a big day on Wednesday, Gary. I think they're already talked about stopping some of the public hearing at midnight. Some are doing 12 hours, I think. But Democrats are at it again. They've been doing this for years. And it just this year, it's, we're going to be seeing one busy day. This Wednesday regarding some pretty controversial issues that we've addressed. And we've spoken about in the past. You mentioned about the erosion

24:00of our state here. They've been going on in decades. And you're absolutely right, Gary. It's done incrementally. They get their nose underneath the tent. And then it's more to come after the initial enactment of whatever statute that they put forth. In particular, this vaccination one, it is ongoing. It is a challenge to really undermine a lawsuit that's been pending since 2021, which is they brought three families, brought a lawsuit against the state of Connecticut. And there was a recent ruling on parts of it, which they dismissed. However, there's a certain part of it that is moving forward. And they

25:00sustained the argument that they should move forward. And now the state attorney general's office wants to circumvent that part of the law that is allowed to be moved forward of the not the law, but the argument to force a lawsuit that is going to be moving forward. They are doing sort of an end around. And if this bill goes through, would basically not elongate the decision or the lawsuit in itself. So yeah, what's going on? On homeschooling, Democrats are targeting both parental and educational freedoms, right? Yeah, you know, they've been at this. This has been pushed by the Child Laboratory Office.

26:05There has been a working group. Not only even called it a working group, I think it may be, I'll be gone that way, but basically this group was put together by a few members of the House Democratic House legislature. And they tried to collect or they did collect information from the homeschool parents and wanted to hear their argument about why we should not have oversight on over the homeschoolers parents and their programs and so forth. And I think what happened out of that meeting was basically just collecting information, pretty much to one-sided on their part for that they can come back this session with a people legislation that they could push forward and continue their agenda of taking

27:11away some freedom here. That's going to lead into vaccines. Democrats want to insert state government into medical decisions for you and your family while curtailing your religious freedoms. Do I have that correct? Yeah, you know, there's an argument. You know, you're taking away our freedom to decide whether or not whether or not we want to vaccinate our children. And there is a religious exemption within that, within our laws, and then also, but you know, they're taking away the religious exemption, but yet they're still not taking away, but they're allowing the medical exemption to move forward or to still apply. Wow, wow, you know, but you know, this what's happened here with these legislation locally is really a blatant way,

28:16a blatant way of just stopping a lawsuit that's currently in trial and it is moving forward. And they usually don't do that, Gary. You know, there's something pending in the lawsuit, as particularly in this magnitude, the past speak as differently that they don't create legislation to circumvent a lawsuit that has been brought about for the state of Connecticut, but yet they've decided to do that with this piece of legislation. Pretty arrogant, to some extent. Well, I think just trying to prevent it from trying to prevent another lawsuit from occurring is it is. Well, it would stop a further loss. Yes, but particularly this law should be pending, it would literally stop it in the cracks. Okay. And then let's not

29:18forget, there's still, by the way, before I get to the next bill, it's HP 5044. That's an act establishing vaccine standards. It's a house bill 5044. And the other one is SB 450. That's Senate bill 450 and that concerning the standards for standards of care for immunization. But now, onto guns, Democrats want more restrictions on lawful gun owners while doing very little to address criminal misuse of firearms and the entire mental health issue altogether. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Here's another piece of legislation. I think it's, again, they're overreaching. They are expanding what's currently already banned. And they're trying to, and they're in their way, trying to include more guns that would be prohibited from being manufactured or sold or purchased

30:23here in the state of Connecticut. Okay. Yeah, just a little bit more on that. Yeah. You know, the, you know, they don't seem to be what they have never, I should say, really focused on addressing the statutes or implementing the current statutes that we have regarding those that are using guns illegally. Every piece of statute that has come forward in the past, and I've been there, has really been towards the intent is to try to curb gun use. And they are successful, but they're successful at the price of their only addressing it towards those that are law-abiding citizens, and not towards those that use guns illegally. You know, we have statutes currently that

31:23doesn't allow a gun to be, what's the word, modified. Oh, okay. Yeah. The legals modify a gun, but yet here's another statute here that addresses a modification of a currently gun or pistol that is currently legal. This statute would change that and include guns that are currently legal and under the guise of a preferable pistol is the creating a ban towards any gun that can be modified. Well, most guns can be modified. That's the fact. So, Democrats, they want to create, I don't just get this, they want to create new legal risks for law-abiding gun owners who have followed the rules in the law for years.

32:26Um, all I can see here is you get what you vote for. So, when is the hearing on that, Will, is that also on Wednesday, Henry? Yeah, I think it is. I think you hit it for the home scores. Yeah, the, the home schoolers, the immunization and the gun bill all on Wednesday. I think it is. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure I'll have to check on that when I get off the phone. So, let me, before I take a, I got to take a 60 second break here in a moment. Before I do that. And then when we come back, we'll change gears a little bit. But what's your message to people? I think it's important to get, like, they're listening to you every single day. They're hearing with the good and the bad. It's happening up to the Capitol. And in the order to make a change if they're stop things, it's imperative that they call their legislator. I don't care what part of the state, whether or not they are Republicans or Democrats, but obviously this is coming from

33:29the Democrats. You need to speak directly to them. Get on the phone, email them, text them if you have their cell phone number. But you have to put up the argument to stay and stop the overreaching. Stop taking away our freedom. Stop taking away our rights, our rights that we, we have as, as a United States citizen state in the state of Connecticut. Exactly. You've, you've, you've, you've just heard it folks. You heard it from a state senator himself. You've got, it all begins with contacting both your state representative for the House and your state senator for the Senate. Henry state right there. Let me just take a quick 60 second break and then we'll just change gears just slightly more with state senator Henry Martin right after this. My sister was recently struck with a disorder that left her paralyzed. I stopped by Euro American home care and the person I spoke with understood my issue with compassion. Within days I received caregiver profiles to review for a match. The challenges were huge, yet my Euro American caregiver met every need and exceeded expectations with kindness and compassion.

34:32With Euro American home care for you and Berlin, it's all about compassion and patience call 860-829-0208. I'll line at home care at the number 4, the letter U dot com. No one ever likes calling their insurance company. It usually means there's a problem. When there's a problem, you don't want to talk to a stranger. You want your agent. The agent who knows you. That's Michael Van Audekerk and his staff at State Farm of Newington. State Farm has been the number one auto-insurer in the US every year since 1946 and right now they're offering a rate decrease. So when a problem arises, you'll be relieved to call State Farm of Newington 860-666-1037. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm of Newington is there. Never a dull moment. The talk in Connecticut 103.3 and 104.5 wants your opinion. Call 860-243-1360. All right, it's 24 minutes after 8 o'clock. Our guest is State Senator Henry Martin. You serve on exec norms, right? Executive and legislative nominations committee.

35:37The new purer commissioners came before you guys last week and you continue to emphasize getting the public benefits charges off of our electric bills. I just have one question when it comes to that and I brought it up last hour with Megan Portfolio who was our guest from the Yankee Institute. You know, we'd like to see an itemization of the breakdown on the public benefits where exactly are our dollars going. You know, it goes to Milestone. We know it goes to green energy. I get that. We know it goes for paying people who couldn't pay their bill during COVID. But what I don't know is what's what's the overall total and then collectively when we all pay our united illuminating bill or ever source bill, that number should go down. Well, how come we're not seeing the balance every month in our statement from our utilities? So you're talking specifically, I'm not mistaken here. You're talking about the part of the program of the public benefit V

36:44that includes the the amount of money that is paid towards those that have hardships. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm speaking specifically on the public portion of our utility bill, whether it's UI or whether it's ever sourced. What number did we start at? And we've been paying this public benefit portion out for a couple of years. Has it gone down at all? Like usually, if I'm going to get a credit card and I spend 10,000 on my credit card or whatever to hell, make up any number. And every month, I pay something towards it. Yeah. Now, I'll get in every month when I get my new statement, it reflects my payment and interest and all that. So in other words, I know what my balance is every month. And you know, it goes down providing. I don't continue to use the credit card. It goes down. So using that as an example, what was the original number for the public benefits that we have to pay off? And then after a couple of years of paying,

37:45where are we now in this? What's our balance now? Does it? Yeah, yeah, it's not. It doesn't work that way, Gary. It is. It is a pro that public benefit V is our various programs throughout that are that deal towards renewable energy. And part of it, that's part of the program itself is made up of like 51, 47 different renewable programs in addition to those that are hardships. And then in addition to the purchase power agreement that we have entered into with the Milestone plant. So it's a compilation of various programs. So we will never see that go down significantly. You may see through the purchase power agreement,

38:45you may see reduction in the fee because if we buy five cents of what power from Milestone at five cents, which currently we did, you may see your fee go up in the future by increasing to seven cents or we may enter into purchase power agreement based on four cents a kilowatt hour. Now regarding the hardship cases, that's been ongoing for years. And that's basically it's something like an interest. You know, we go ahead and we pay these fees to to ever source. But it's only after we do an audit of how many from the past winter were included in that and how much work was there of the total amount that were in that hardship program. And then the balance it has to do with renewable programs that we have it began with one or two

39:47that pure of hadn't had done. But through the years, through the year deep has inserted its own programs towards renewable programs. So it's never ending. At the end of that. Do you recall very quickly? Do you recall how the STF fund would use to be flush? A slush fund. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It used to be a large amount of money. Until we started to transfer costs from the general fund or the budget, general budget, over to the STF fund. Right. And then all of a sudden those expenses outperform the income. So different than what's happening. Right. Okay. All right. I got you. Henry, thank you for your time in explaining everything. I appreciate your time with us this morning as well. We'll talk soon. You bet. You got to. All right. Open phones are next. And I got a little explanation about these public hearings and how it can really be beneficial. So don't go anywhere. Gary Byron and Joe, the producer, have the pulse of hard for 103.3 and Lichfield 104.5.

40:54What is the result when the Republican party, the longtime champion of free market principles, discards them to embrace many of the state-based solutions of the Democrat party. You've got something that you're going to say is an oxymoron, but bear with me. What you have, my friends, is conservative socialism. Now, hold on, bear with me. We're seeing a Republican administration embrace industrial policy with gusto. The White House has used its trade and regulatory authority to take a big cut of one of US companies, semi-conductor exports. Right. Forced an equity stake on a major tech company to become its largest shareholder while proposing price controls in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to

41:54financial services. Teriffs are often lifted or imposed according to the political position of a company or the connections of its lobbyists. Regulatory threats and the blockage of mergers, they have been used to punish news organizations and talk show hosts for their free speech. Um, nowhere is the leftward turn of the Republican party more apparent than an anti-trust. Good morning. It's Gary Byron, 9-11 here on this Monday morning. I am thrilled to have you on board the old morning train our next guest into the daily Conerton Memorial Company, interview chair, is president of the anti-trust education project. He's also the author of a brand new book. It just came out all about four or five weeks ago. Uh, it's entitled the new paradox

42:57anti-trust and the threat of conservative socialism. Let's welcome back to the show, Robert Bork, Jr. Robert, good morning. Good morning to you. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, it has been a while, but you were a pleasure the last time I chat with you. It's been a while. I know you got a new book out and I wanted to get you on to promote that. We'll talk about the book in a little bit before we wrap things up. I want to talk about it's almost a contradicting of terms. You use the word paradox. That's exactly what it is. Conservative socialism. Please, uh, the the airwaves are all yours. I've got to hear about this. Well, I wrote the book after waking up at the end of the Biden administration and suddenly realizing the Trump administration was just as bad as the Biden administration when it came to anti-trust policy. They didn't reverse the major moves of the Biden administration of Lena Con to basically remake

44:05capitalism. There was a, you know, policies in place that they just checkmarked the box and say, oh, we'll keep that. We'll keep that. It's okay. And they continued some of the litigation against the major wealth-producing companies that keep America strong. And I just thought, what is going on here? And so this book really is, uh, points out that paradox of conservative socialism and calls for the return to the neutral consumer welfare standard. Don't close your eyes, close over. The consumer welfare standard, which basically said, if consumers are not being harmed, then what business in America does shouldn't be the subject of litigation or or attacks by the government. In fact, you know, these are, they are continuing the same sort of linkered policies

45:10to fossilize capitalism as as the left did. President Trump's economic policies, well, they've often been described as a form of state capitalism, or I've even heard right-wing socialism by critics, especially involved unprecedented government intervention to direct the economy. So there's some, um, what there's like key actions that are include like like taking large direct stakes and private companies like Intel, and that comes to my industrial policy, which is state capitalism. That's right. Using golden shares to control corporate mergers, like U.S. steel, for example, right? Right. Increasing protectionist trade policies. And there's been critics from the right, such as the Kato Institute, and they argue that these methods mimic Chinese style state

46:10capitalism, while supporters view them as just simply necessary measures to secure American industry and competitiveness. So do you agree with that? I agree that they are not, I disagree that they are necessary measures. I agree that the Trump administration is pioneering the worst kind of conservative socialism right now, taking, as you say, taking ownership stakes in large companies, you know, using antitrust to bully corporations into, I don't know, maybe giving money to the to the ballroom at the White House, you know, or to, you know, in the first Trump administration, I guess we should have seen this coming. The president turned his lawyers on AT&T when it tried

47:11to buy time Warner, because time Warner owned CNN, and he was, you know, wanted to make sure they suffered, and he was unable in court to block it. And ultimately, though, that whole thing fell apart, and I used to time Warner on the block again. Well, you don't see it on CNN, just got bought, out by CBS buddy. Yes, yes. And, you know, you just know that every time one of these deals sort of stalls and then goes through, there's some deal made with the White House. And, you know, the president has been firing his antitrust, some of his antitrust people who aren't, who want to enforce the law as it was written, and not do these deals. So he fired just in the last couple of weeks. He fired the head of the antitrust division, the Justice Department, two of her senior deputies quit. A couple of other people are also fired fired. I hear that the FTC chair is trying to leave.

48:12Now that would leave one FTC commissioner out of possible five. So it's, you know, this policy of antitrust, this law and antitrust laws are really have become a weapon under, under Trump, that I never would have thought happened. Well, okay. No, and I have a tendency to agree with you on that regard. The Biden administration has set out guidelines for mergers and acquisitions. You referenced him and his administration on this a moment ago, where it's one of the only guidelines that the Trump administration kept from the Biden administration. It barely mentioned consumers, but denied many reasons for the Department of Justice antitrust division in the Federal Trade Commission to stop any merger cold, right? Yes, yes. And I have to give the Trump administration credit. They are not stopping every merger cold, but they are harassing corporations that have

49:19mergers, generally speaking, that they don't like for political reasons. And using the law as a cudgel for political purposes, much like the Lina Khan and the FTC did under under Biden. But these guidelines were so ideological and political that they were denounced by what 17 former chief economists of the Justice Department? Yes. Oh, yes. There was no consideration of economics to make decisions about enforcement. That was that was erased by the Biden administration. Both parties, right? Yes. And now both parties with the acceptance of the continuation of those guidelines, which mentioned the consumer, which used to be the focus of the antitrust division of the FTC mentioned and mentioned the consumer a lot. Now they're just footnotes, literally footnotes in these guidelines. We're talking with Robert Borg Jr. He is the president of the

50:25antitrust education project author of a brand new book, the new paradox antitrust and the threat of conservative socialism. So now the Trump administration regulators have embraced these guidelines with no changes while continuing what the legacy antitrust actions of the Biden administration. We've covered that. But they've also jettisoned the consumer welfare standard as like it's guiding light, a policy that judged every business deal, not by political connections or ideological purity, but by benefits for working consuming Americans. That's exactly right. The consumer welfare standard was the creation of economically oriented lawyers and academics back in the 60s and 70s. And my father wrote a book called the antitrust paradox in 1970,

51:31which then the Supreme Court was used in a case in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court adopted the consumer welfare standard. So since 1979, when that case was decided, the consumer welfare standard has been the operating system of our antitrust enforcement policy until Biden. We all hoped that the Trump administration would be sensible and return to the old standard, which had been so successful in helping to create wealth and stock market was did very well under that. And the creation of new products and services, all because business was allowed to operate more freely. Then now it's not. So it's kind of a shame because if we're ever going to get out of this debt that we're in, we need these companies to continue to innovate and create

52:36wealth for their shareholders and for many people who have pensions that are built on the stock value. What I find fascinating is you look over on Capitol Hill, you've got Republican senators long seen as rock solid conservatives. They're actually aligning with Senator Elizabeth Warren to endorse government schemes to control the internet and to widen antitrust enforcement to make virtually any significant business deals impossible. But that won't be a correction. Won't that be, that sounds like the fossilization of capitalism, doesn't it? Yes, exactly. And you know, you mentioned Elizabeth Warren and of course, Senator Amy Klobuchar had a bill in the, during the Biden administration that went nowhere that would have changed the basis of antitrust enforcement and been a real rock on the back of

53:37creative, creating companies that create wealth. And that would have actually given access to a lot of their data and their their business practices to the Chinese. Well, that died. And now it's back. Under the Trump administration, it's back and people like Chuck Grassley are supporting it. So there you go. Something is, something is in the water up there. Yeah. All right, we have conservative socialism. Let me do this. I got to take a 60 second break. When we come back, just a couple of quick comments that I want to talk about your book, more with Robert Bork Jr. right after this. You've built a good business, but be honest, could it run without you? I'm built a Christophero with integrity benefit partners. Most owners don't really know what their company is worth or how much value is trapped inside it. That's why we created the Freedom Blueprint Business Value Assessment. In just 10 minutes, you'll see where your business stands and what's standing in your way. Start your free assessment today at integritybenefitpartners.com

54:40forward slash clarity or call me at 860-521-401K because real freedom begins with knowing where you stand. Looking for affordable, independent living for seniors discover the workman, a trusted Torrington community for over 50 years. Located at Midgen Avenue and Forest Street, the workman offers private apartments three delicious meals a day, housekeeping, engaging activities and more, comfortable, affordable, independent living done right. Come see why so many seniors call the workman home. Learn more about pricing and availability at the workmanct.com or call 860-482-0016. The workmen were comfort, community and care come together. When you hit our button in the morning, AM 1360-FM 103.3, we hit you back with Gary Byron and news and talk without an agenda. 24 minutes after 9 o'clock, our guest, president of the Antitrust Education Project, author of a brand new book entitled The New Paradox. Antitrust and the threat of conservative socialism we're

55:40talking with Robert Bork, Jr. Conservatives got to wake up to what is happening, and how much is really at stake? You got to strange, I'll call it an afterlife of the Biden Antitrust policies that are in the Trump administration. It must be reversed in order to defend a free market system. I think it's integral to the American way. Before I get to your book, I mean, if you want to comment on that statement, please, I mean, that's just my take on it. Hard to improve on what you just said. It is a strange afterlife, and who would have thought that the administration's so roundly discredited on so many things would see that it's most socialist anti-capitalist policies would still be here. The president has written thousands of executive

56:43orders. He's appointed new personnel, and nothing in this area has changed. He's done so many other good things. We can be happy about it, but when it comes to something that is so important to our future economic growth, as cash prices are now going up because of this war, we need every other sector, every other policy in the economic policy to be lifting our economy and making more jobs. The companies that they're going after, some of them are big tech companies, but not all, are really the big job creators. What did we have last month? We lost 92,000 jobs. We need to be doing everything we can to support the economy, not drag it down. That was on the front cover of the Wall Street Journal this week, and the 92,000 jobs. No one's talking about that, but I read that

57:44on Saturday. Let's talk about your book before I let you go. The new paradox, antitrust, and the threat of conservative socialism. It's just a spirited call for conservatives to wake up and reverse the tide of conservative socialism. Please give yourself a plug here. Okay. Well, my co-author, Mark Davis, and I wrote this for the last few years and then had to change course because Trump came in and did the same thing that the Democrats were doing. It's an easy read. It's 156 pages. It's available on Amazon. That's the only place where you can get it. It's not in books to where I publish it myself using these new technologies. Maybe not new to other people, but they're surely new to me. Please, I think less than $10 if you buy the

58:46book and it's like 17 bucks if you buy the heart of the softback. They can buy the book for under 10 bucks. It's so interesting because your father had written a book by a similar title, and I've talked to myself when I was looking at the title of your book. I'm like, this sounds like an old book that is, and I'll be very truthful. I didn't read it, but I knew the title of it. What's your dad's, the name of your dad's book? My father's book was the one I was talking about earlier called the antitrust paradox policy at war with itself, and it was a critique of antitrust policy written basically started in the 60s and didn't get it finished until 1978, and it changed antitrust. It changed an area of the law like no other book has, and it was something like Donald Trump there. It's tremendous. There's never been a better book with it. It was huge. When I wrote this book, it really was looking at what's going on now. We find

59:53ourselves, as he found himself looking at a paradox, the law, we find ourselves looking at a paradox, basically in law and politics, where the Republicans who you think would know better are actually following the prescriptions of the law. Well, maybe your book will have a positive impact on this generation and this presidency. It looked for under 10 bucks. You can get the e-book. If you need the hard cover, it's about 17, and you can find it only on Amazon.com. That's the only place you can purchase it. Let me tell you, it's called the new paradox, antitrust, and the threat of conservative socialism. Robert Bork Jr., thanks for your time this morning and good luck with the book. It's great to talk to you again. I really appreciate it. No, the pleasure is all mine. We'll get you back on your outstanding. Thanks, Robert. Open phones are next.