Station:    KFTM, 1400 am

Show:       Big Morning Show with John Waters

Guests:    Buck, Ken

Link:        http://www.kftm.net/talk-show-guests.html

Date:        August 22, 2018

Topics:

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HOST JOHN WATERS: [00:00:12] Coming up on 8:48, now, on the Big Morning Show here on The Media Logic Radio Network. I’m John Waters, and this morning I’m joined via telephone by one of my favorite guests each month, Congressman Ken Buck. Good morning, sir!

BUCK: [00:00:29] Good morning.

WATERS: [00:00:29] You know, you were throwing out nice things to me before we went on air. I thought I would do it to you on air. So, there you go. Now we’re even.

BUCK: [00:00:41] Well, thank you!

WATERS: [00:00:42] Well, we were visiting a little bit beforehand. You are back here in Colorado. And I know that any time you can get out of Washington D.C. has got to be a good day.

BUCK: [00:00:53] You know, the less days of the year Congress meets, the less trouble they can make. So I think the August recess is a good time — and it’s a great time for me — to visit with constituents around Colorado. I was down in Rocky Ford in La Junta and visited with lots of people about the agricultural and [inaudible] down there. And I enjoyed a few melons, as you can imagine, while I was down there.

WATERS: [00:01:22] Well, and I saw some video of you doing some seed spitting, too.

BUCK: [00:01:29] I did not win. And I’m a pretty competitive person, so it was quite a blow to my ego. But I did — I did my very best with a very small watermelon seed.

WATERS: [00:01:41] Well, as you were visiting around the state — and in particular, in the agricultural communities — I’m sure that trade and the Farm Bill–things like that — came up and were topics of discussion.

BUCK: [00:01:58] Yeah, obviously, the Farm Bill is a issue and an important issue for the district. And I voted for the Farm Bill. I think it’s going to make some good changes that we really need, especially on the food stamps side of the Farm Bill. But I think the Farm Bill has a lot of support from the agricultural community. And trade is a fascinating issue, John. We have a serious problem with China. The world has a serious problem with China, and President Trump is stepping up to deal with that. And we need to make sure that we do our very best to help our farmers and ranchers with any retaliation that China takes and targets our agricultural community.

WATERS: [00:02:42] You know, as I watch the news about trade, and whether it’s with China or other countries and the tariffs and such, Congressman, what — one of the things that has jumped out at me — and correct me if I’m wrong — is that the biggest issue seems to be a lack of backbone in some cases. And what I mean by that is that we’re so scared of losing what little we have that we’re afraid to go for more.

BUCK: [00:03:15] I think that’s right. And the reality is that China needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs China. There are many other countries that that we can trade with. And I think the other countries in the world have had enough of China cheating, just as we have had enough with cheating, and so I’m hoping that a coalition develops that can put pressure on China to conform with trade laws.

WATERS: [00:03:45] Once again, Congressman Ken Buck [is] with me this morning, via telephone. Let’s talk about a couple other things. Before Congress went out on the recess, you were able to pass the Water Bill.

BUCK: [00:04:00] That’s correct. And the Water Act is really a pretty simple, straightforward tax bill — if there is such a thing. But what it does is it allows ditch companies to sell more water to non-members of the ditch companies and use that excess revenue at reduced tax rates, so that they can improve their infrastructure, their ditches, their bridges, their pipes, and in so doing save farmers and ranchers money. And it was a bipartisan bill. We got well over 400 votes for that bill. And I — it was a compromise that we worked out with the California Democrats, because they were concerned about water diversions, and this bill actually helping [with] water diversion in California. Once we dealt with that issue, it was a — it is a bipartisan bill now, and I hope that it sails through the Senate, and is successful in the Senate.

WATERS: [00:04:58] Uh, you know, it always makes me wonder, Congressmen, even with over 400 votes on this, what were some of the reasons why Congressmen didn’t vote for this? I mean, it seems like it — it just makes so much sense and is so logical that, you know, I can’t see any reason why you would vote against it.

BUCK: [00:05:25] Yeah, ‘common sense’ and ‘Congress,’ even though they start with the first few letters in common — or they have the first few letters in common — those two things don’t match. But I don’t know that there were many votes against. There may have been some people that didn’t think that we should change the tax code. The overall impact on the deficit is in the millions to billion [dollar] range. It’s very small, in fact, when you look at the trillion dollar debt we’re accumulating. So, there may have been somebody that disagreed with the — any bill that creates [inaudible]. But, for the most part, we were really pleased to have overwhelming support on this bill.

WATERS: [00:06:14] Congressman Ken Buck, my guest this morning, I want to talk about one more thing before we get away this morning. And that is, when you come back to the swamp — Washington D.C. — this next month, one of the priorities will be the new tax bill.

BUCK: [00:06:33] That’s correct. The Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady, came out with me at a town hall about a month ago and talked about the tax reform 2.0 And it’s really cleaning up some of the issues from the tax reform bill [of] last year. And what he plans on doing is having a tax reform bill — a much smaller tax reform bill — that deals with some of the issues that are able to be identified, some of the unintended consequences of the major tax reform bill. And so, instead of waiting 25, 30 years to change the tax code, we really have an economy that’s moving so quickly — and growing and changing — that I think Kevin is absolutely right to make sure that our tax bill reflects the complexity of our economic needs.

WATERS: [00:07:30] Yeah, it’s a golden opportunity, for sure, as the economy is moving so quickly. In fact, I saw an interesting report from Fidelity Investments that the rate of investors who are becoming millionaires through their investments in the stock market is growing so rapidly that it’s unprecedented, actually, how fast people are accumulating wealth through this economy. Boy, that just — that “rising tide lifting all boats,” I guess, [can be applied] in this particular case.

BUCK: [00:08:09] Absolutely. [We] continue to hear from employees that their salaries are increasing, that employers are giving bonuses, that the competition for labor is increasing, consumer confidence is increasing. I think that this administration has done a great job with changing the regulatory environment to make it more business friendly. And I think the economy is reflecting both the lower tax rates and the changes in regulations.

WATERS: [00:08:42] Yeah, well, good news all the way around. Now, if we can just get a wall built along the southern border, we’ll be sitting well.

BUCK: [00:08:52] I think that’s right. I think that immigration is a major issue. We need to have border security and that’s certainly something that — it’s a disappointment from July that we didn’t get a immigration bill passed in the House. But we’re going to continue to work at that. I’m on the Immigration Subcommittee, and it is something is occupying a lot of our time right now.

WATERS: [00:09:13] Congressman, it’s always a pleasure to visit with you. I appreciate it very much, and we’ll look forward to visiting again next month.

BUCK: [00:09:20] Thank you very much, John. We’ll talk to you [later].

WATERS: [00:09:22] Buh-bye. Congressman Ken Buck, my guest this morning here on the talk show.