The Matt Long Show - 9/24 Should legislators receive a salary?

0:00Congratulations, you have found the podcast for the Met Long Show. This podcast is a replay of my daily radio program which can be heard live on HillCountryPatriot.com at 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, Central Time. This program is Christian Conservative Texas politics with a focus on citizen engagement. I hope I am informative and I hope to encourage you to get involved and get engaged. Alright, we are back and thank you for staying tuned. You're listening to your information station in the HillCountry of Texas and to your host, Matt Long. I think I'll be sticking

1:00around for Lorraine today. I haven't heard the final word yet but that's what I understood yesterday but we'll see. Stay tuned. Yesterday I talked about a story about the Texas Ethics Commission considering raising the per diem of Texas legislators. You know, they get paid $600 a month which is not a lot of money and then they get a per diem when they are in session as well and all the numbers that people have been going through and does not include special sessions. And so you've been hearing different numbers in the stories and I know Harley was covering one of the stories in his last half hour and all those numbers are only if there is not a special session. That number increases during when a special when they have a special session they also get to the

2:00per diem. And so I'm just curious if the several times we've seen legislators walk out from both parties by the way in the house. It's been Democrats most recently but the Republicans did it back a few years ago but when they walk out and break the quorum I guess if they're not there that makes it they don't get the per diem I don't know anything about that. And by the way have we heard anything about the punishment of those who broke quorum in the last legislative session. Remember they were all going to get punished? Well see we all tend to forget that because you know a few things have happened since then. I'm going to try to follow up on that and see if I can find out about that anymore. But let's talk about the pay for legislators. During the 1787 when our Constitution was

3:00being written there was an argument made by Ben Franklin that he said that there should that that that executives that was his thing executives of the executive part of the the federal government. You know you've got the legislative the executive and the judicial and he said that anybody in the executive should not receive any form of payment. Perhaps something to support. He had the idea of a per diem for maybe lodging and food while they were there but he was even concerned about that. And so I've talked about this over the years with friends of mine and you know every now and then and it's rare but I get into a conversation with one of my liberal friends from the northwest. They usually avoid these conversations because they don't have the ability to defend their liberal progressive ideas. In fact one of them said to me this was a few years ago and I said

4:03something about the progressives and they said they were progressives and I'm pretty sure they never knew what it meant and and I said well why and and the answer was well we want to progress don't we? Don't you want to progress? And I just I you know at that point in the discussion you just say yes ma'am you're right I want to progress how about them cowboys right or how about them to see hawks or how about them trailblazers and you change the subject real quick because you realize that you're up to you're you're up against a yeah a rubber brain or a concrete brain or something. So anyway let's talk then again the philosophy behind that was that the position itself would give you power and power is a pretty big motivator people will do pretty much anything for power and so already the

5:04executive department according to Franklin was going to be a place of power that people would look for because of the power not not for real true me real true attitudes that we think our servants should have but people would would try to get into those executive positions just for the power and then he said another issue that that really riles men's hearts he called it a passion is the lust for money the love for money and he said if we pay the executives then not only will the lust for power stand out but the lust for money will stand out as well. So I've gone through that talk with some friends mine over the years and it's very interesting because the reply to me was oh so only rich people should run for office and I had to stop and think about that one

6:09and it's and and what I finally came to the conclusion of and I didn't take that long but um the if you did not pay these people going to Washington or Austin then the only people that would be able to go to Washington in Austin you could call them the wealthy or or you could call them successful people people who've had been successful in their business they've done things right so now that they have enough money all right because of their success of their success in their business or whatever they were taken under taking over whatever whatever it was that they that sign was a sign of success well what kind of people do you want making laws and uh a abolishing laws which is what I think most of them should be doing most of the time when they meet in Austin or Washington and so the question is do you want to vote for somebody or have someone

7:16in office who is um never been successful enough at anything all right they they haven't a massed any amount of savings or built a business or anything like that if they were unable to be successful in society then why in the world would you want them to represent you to make all those rules and regulations and laws if they they couldn't even be successful in their own life or their own business but they want to go to Austin or DC or whatever capital state capital there is and um I'm telling you if if you have if you vote for someone who depends on who who cannot afford to be in in Austin um who who would uh if there was no pay if they're you know six hundred dollars a month is pretty much the equivalent of no pay or little pay and I'm sure by the time

8:21the taxes are taken out of it that uh it's less than six hundred dollars so does that mean poor people can't run well yes it does it does and uh that means only people who have been successful should run um I think uh there's one more uh point to this and the there was no concern uh with Ben Franklin at the time about members of the legislature getting paid um he didn't that was not brought up and uh he did not say anything about that but I think that if he had a known where people like Pelosi and those others who used the power that they got remember the two passions that rule the hearts of men very very strongly one is the lust for power and the other one the lust for money I think if if he saw if he could foresee what would happen

9:22with legislators who would get rich because of their inside information and uh I think uh I think maybe it might not be a bad idea to go back to the uh our legislators not getting paid anything no salary no salary uh there was uh back in the early days of the United States there was a proposal to build a military military style barracks uh in DC and that way those who uh legislators who traveled in would have a place to stay they're in the barracks bunk beds in the barracks and uh that way they would you know they'd have their basic needs met um I don't know how smart would it be to uh provide something along that lines would it even be possible I don't know I don't know but I have to tell you that um that uh if uh if you can't afford if you cannot

10:28afford to to be a representative in Texas so what is that 140 days a year of course it requires more than that but if you have to have a full-time job or if you can't afford that then you have essentially I'm not sure how much worth you have to add to the legislature whether it be in Washington or or uh Austin now does that mean only rich people get to run if you want to use that language sure I disagree with you I'm gonna call it successful people that's the kind of people we want running our country and our state and our city we want people who have been successful in other areas and it doesn't mean to be that they've been successful because they oh you know they sold a bunch of widgets and made a lot of money but it means uh it could mean that but it also means those who um have worked and studied and know know their business and are our successful

11:35added those are the kind of people I want to represent me that's why I thought that Kyle Beaterman was such a great representative the guy's a successful businessman still is to this day a very successful businessman and uh he's the kind of brain that we need to have in the Texas legislature people who have been successful so not the rich but the successful so think about that one for a while folks we're gonna take a uh uh uh we break and uh we will be right back all right we are back it is Thursday you're listening to the Matt Long show I'll be up at the Texas Freedom Fest uh Faith the Texas Faith Fest there you go uh the Texas Faith

12:35Fest all day Saturday I hope you join me up there um it's gonna be it's gonna be an amazing day the speakers that are lined up are great you can go to Texas Faith Fest.com for more information get your tickets um and uh join me up there it'll be a lot of fun it'll be a lot of fun amazing speakers so Islam and Texas here we go again this is one of those topics I've just honestly uh talking about Islam and uh then talking about the elections both of them are wearing me out folks it's almost like I want to uh look look for a story about kittens and and puppies and uh uh yeah that's that's kind of where I'm at on a lot of this but we're gonna continue talking about Islam and Texas and I'll probably upset some people in here because uh I'm gonna point out that there are some well the defense that uh musli Islam supporters are going to show uh the defense they're

13:38bringing up has some validity to it and uh I have always said that um if you don't know the arguments of your quote enemy or the other side if you don't know their argument and cannot make their argument then you're gonna lose any kind of discussion with them and so very often on this program I will say here's what the other side is going to say and sometimes there's some validity in what the other side has to say so you need to be able to um uh to moat to get around that to uh deal with that when it comes up and so you need to know in fact uh debate coaches I'm sure if you asked Ted Cruz Senator Cruz who is a master at uh the debating and if you were to uh talk to him about it he would have absolutely 100% agree with me that you cannot win a debate no matter how good you are if you don't know the argument from the other side in fact I'm bet you Ted Cruz would tell

14:45me you need to be able to make the argument for the other side once you're able to do that then you know how to beat them at their own language in debate so here we go so if I step on your toes this is because I want you to know what the other side is saying and what they're doing so the the this is from an article in the texan.news it was written by Meredith Dyer and the title is islam and texas lawmakers on both sides speak out so the topic of islam and shri'elah and texas continues to gain traction um I heard one of the um um uh in fact it may even be in this article but I heard it somewhere that one of the uh folks uh one of the folks on the other side on the islam side said yeah we thought all this would go away after the primaries and yes it was a uh a

15:46primary uh tool used in the primaries but uh no it ain't going away it's not going away and many many texans are have their heads on a swivel uh for this one we managed to revise the state's social studies standards in fact three of the uh one of the panels on saturday is going to have three members of the state board of education including the chairperson um and they're going to have this discussion I believe it is the opening uh discussion on saturday morning so we had uh we had different things happen locally we had the muslims only water park event and then there was the islamic games athletic competition and then we've had the foot washing stations at the airport so there's been a lot of talk about that well the biggest one that started it all was the meadow or epic city by the way just to let you know that epic city is still 402 acres empty all right there there's

16:54nothing on it uh they've been applying for permits one of their permits would uh uh there is a temporary injunction on one of the permits and uh because it uh they believe that uh that there's fair housing documents is going to be um uh fair housing laws are going to be uh broken once this place is built and the first thing that comes to mind is how do you charge someone for a crime they haven't committed yet now if the meadows or if epic city has already uh sent out their housing documents and I've heard that they had and I've also heard interviews with um with uh the uh leader the islamic leader in there and he said look anybody can love and come live in our community I mean that's basically what he said anybody can come live there so he says it's not going to be muslim only well

17:59our gut feeling for most of us is it very likely is going to be but if their documents right now say it's opened anybody and they're not showing any violations and their documents as of now because nothing's been built then um it's going to be tough to stand against that so and uh let's see here what did Abbott say at the republican national convention I was there he said Abbott declared that Texas would fully ban sheree law saying that Texans are not waiting on Washington DC and he talked about his uh designation of the muslim brotherhood and the council or care council of american islamic relations as foreign terrorist organizations I don't know that he's done anything besides declare that have he do we have any clubs or groups that are meeting that can be go and be arrested um also during that same uh speeches at the convention Ted Cruz stood up and said uh talked about

19:03the red green alliance um I have not listened to there's a podcast that uh Adam Curry and uh pastor Jimmy Prud bridge church do together and I believe the topic last week was red green alliance last Wednesday um I'm gonna go listen to that but what is that the red green alliance the red is the communists and the green is the islamists coming together and uh yes they are all uh working on the same page and uh so that is uh two two uh two armies so to speak that are now coming together to defeat uh defeat the rest of us uh Ted Cruz said they are united because they share the same enemies they hate Christians they hate Jews they hate capitalism they hate the constitution and they hate America that from Ted Cruz so in March uh representative Brent money out of uh greenville

20:08republic and he founded the sharia free texas caucus and he defined uh sharia as the islamic legal and ethical framework derived from the Quran and Hadith which has fueled centuries of oppression including violence against women children and non-believers who refuse to submit money continues and says texas has always been a beacon of freedom forged in the fires of end of dependence and rooted in unyielding Christian values he uh told the texan earlier this year he said we defiantly declare we will not stand by as islamic influences seek to transform our great state into another conquered territory this caucus will fight until our last breath to ensure texas will remain sovereign Christian and free uh this article says by the end of June uh money said that

21:13uh caucus had around 50 members so 50 members out of what is our count in the texas house it's like in the upper 80s i think 80 something is uh is our uh republicans so there's 30 some odd uh so far that have not uh joined the caucus um i think i'd like to see the list of who is on that caucus so as i predicted as i predicted and others i'm not the only one but uh i wasn't afraid to say it and i get pushback i'm not kidding you in fact i had two discussions over the weekend uh with different people about this very idea so what did the democrats and the how did the uh uh democrats and the those who are backing the muslims uh what did they do in the texas house they launched a

22:18caucus another caucus it's a house caucus what is the topic of their house caucus it is the house religious freedom caucus i'm telling you and i'm going to continue to tell you and i get the dirtiest looks i get the nastiest looks from people uh the accusation in their eyes is that's like oh you're just defending islam no i am speaking god's honest truth to you that the first amendment will for a long time protect islam and that it's going to and and people get so mad at me and they'll say but you know it's not a religion it's a political movement it's a cult and i go yes ma'am yes sir i agree with you it is right but the vast vast vast majority all of the world for many many years has

23:19recognized islam as a religion so if you take that attitude that somehow i'm going to win this argument by declaring and even show oh even in their own words and i've people say it's right here in their own words they even call it a political movement and uh it you can say that all you want but if it's gonna it's gonna hit the first amendment so what we have to do is to find the only way to deal with this is to find laws that are broken laws that are broken and the first city that comes out or the first county that says oh we're not going to let you build a mosque because it's it's a work because we don't want a islam here we don't want muslims in our town so we're not going to let you build a mosque that's not going to fly that's not going to work and and i know that's frustrating and anger's people in fact people it's somehow i'm i'm part of the problem if

24:21i don't just stand up and scream against islam and we got to chase them all out of here we got to get rid of them yes i agree with you on that and we had to we need to do it by law and we need to honor do that by honoring by honoring the our founders of our country who who made sure that religion was protected in the choice of who you worship is protected and no it's not a suicide pack it's only a suicide pack or if you if you allow it to become that so that you we're gonna have to take it on in fact chip Roy was the one and he's not in this article i don't have that article in front but chip Roy said that he made the list of legal issues that you could go after mosques and islam but they were all legal issues they had nothing to do with the religion of islam

25:28and so just let you know that just as predicted this these guys are going to stand on the first amendment religious freedom caucus and i almost guarantee you that by the time this legislature meets in january that that religious freedom caucus very likely will have more members than the sharia free texas caucus all right folks y'all stay tuned and we'll be right back after this short break all right we are back you're listening to the matlong shon hill country patriot so happy to be here with you it's the fourth quarter let's wrap this up on a thursday and like i said i think i'm going to be sticking around covering for Lorraine today and if not then she'll walk in a

26:33year old here her voice at the top of the next hour so we the story that broke a couple of days about bowfranch and he's a candidate and the he saw a picture of a ut football game that had a bunch of brown people in it and he made a really dumb statement about the makeup of ut and you know we're being overrun i'm not quoting him but you know the story i'm talking about if not you can find it but it was a really stupid thing to bow for bowfranch to say and i'm still going to vote for him and but like i said the other day we discussed bowfranch's background before the primaries where he had been kind of a big mouth up in northeast terrick county so anyway someone Susan my good friend Susan thank you Susan for sending this to me uh she sent me all of the statistics on the

27:39University of Texas at Austin all of their diversity statistics first of all let me say i don't even think diversity statistics should exist i mean what we need to have is uh how many students got a good job after they graduated from ut that's about the only thing that i think we should look at at ut and if you can pass their exams and get in i don't care where you're from from i don't care i know they have a policy of taking the top students in uh Texas schools um get automatically accepted into uh the Texas collegiate system and uh so there's already that advantage if you did really if you do really well in high school in Texas you're guaranteed a slot at ut all right so let's talk about um even though i don't even though i don't think diversity has anything to do with this let's see where bowfranch came down on that number and is it real is uh ut overrun with foreign

28:45students who are brown so we've got at ut uh 41,000 undergraduates there's a total of a little over 50,000 51,000 total students uh 20% of those are grad students uh and the 80% are under grads and so let's take a look at that uh the male to female ratio the women outnumber the men on uh on undergrads so boys if you're in college at ut uh the girls outnumber you they are about 56% and the men are just below uh 43 or 44% so as far as racial and ethnic backgrounds let's take a look at this there is uh the biggest uh piece of the pie is uh a third 36.6% a little over a third of the

29:45students are white whatever that means uh his spanning 26.3% is the next largest slice of the pie the third largest slice of the pie down at 23.5% is Asian and then there is a small slice and it doesn't show the percentage of it um but it looks about the same size as the 4% or 5% here we go here's a number uh blacks come in at uh or African-Americans come in at 4.8% multi-ethnic 4% unknown 1.6 and then there are a total of 25 out of 40,000 25 native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders by the way they only get that data when you fill out the form and you put down what your race is and i'm going to tell you what i've been doing for years and i would recommend that uh when there is the other line at the bottom just put human in human race what race are you human and uh and and

30:52continue on and uh that is uh that way you'll never be able to do these silly numbers i guess i would fall into the unknown that was 1.6% of unknown they didn't know what their race was they didn't even know that they were human and humans not even on the list here of options so there you go and Lorraine just walked in so there you go i didn't i guess i've been saying all hour or not all hour but didn't know if you're going to make it back or not Lorraine is here safe back all right let's get back to uh the breakdown of grad students uh we're going to stick with undergrads um then let's talk about uh let's see we've got the racial demographics we've already we just went through that uh how about uh the uh racial ethnic diversity among faculty 82.9% or white um uh 7.7% are black asian is 7.2% and then whatever is left over that would be

32:00multi-ethnic and uh what have you but let's now talk let's see male and female we've already done that there are more girls uh at ut than there are boys but the teachers there are more men than uh women teachers at uh ut a little bit more not much and uh so let's see where and this is where uh bow french was talking about the uh taken over uh all these brown people from foreign countries taking over ut um ut graduates are undergraduates uh 93.2% come from texas 93% come from texas uh california 2% new york a little over 1% new jersey gets it in there a little under 9% and illinois a little under 0.6% 0.9% new jersey and 0.6% for illinois let's see we'll get

33:05through the age we don't need to look at the age um but what about the international students here we go international students at ut um why did that not come up uh here we go the international students at ut 10.5% 10.5% so the picture that bow french was looking at um only covers 10.5% of international students we already know that our um we already know that our uh yeah just lost track of what i was going to say so um that oh yeah i know it's because say we already know that in the uh if you graduate in uh the top i believe 10% of your high school please don't hold that number to me but if the you automatically are accepted into the uh texas uh schools uh higher

34:11education schools so there we go now you want to ask bow french about this i i think i agree with with the point bow may have been trying to make but i'm not too sure on that um but uh as far as the the way he did it i think that was a horrible way to do that but uh he has always been known for um shooting now shooting off at the mouth and so that doesn't uh that should not surprise anybody if you want to meet bow french and talk to him about that he will be at the thursday october 8th that would be the regular meeting of the fredrick's berg t-party the monthly regular meeting and uh he will be there um on october 8th and i'll remind you on that as we get closer um but uh

35:11susan wanted me to make sure that we saw all of the true data on what the ut system in students looks like i would be willing if i were to break down the graduate level i think we would have probably a higher number of foreign students in that uh then we do in the undergrad but i don't have those i don't have that data or their numbers in front of me so there you go another event coming up thursday also thursday october 8th man you can start early um you want to meet steve toth representative toth he is running for congress in district two and he's coming into fredrick's berg uh well it's not it we're not we don't live in his district but uh he's got a lot of support here i know kyle beaterman supports him and uh there are other people i know locally who big supporters of steve toth and so they're uh it's a little fundraiser thing they're coming in

36:15uh steve toth is coming into the hill country because uh well there's a lot of money here and there's a lot of supporters and so um that is uh he's gonna be here and all of that is also thursday october 8th but that is going to be early uh that will take the meet and greet will be from four to six so you can go to the meet and greet at jack's chop house and cut out uh you know a little early and then you could uh go over to go over to um the uh frenchburg tea party at st. Joseph's home all right folks uh we all stay tuned for lorraine and uh we'll see you back in here minyana

37:23oh aha