Station:   KLZ, 56o AM

Show:      Freedom 560

Guests:    Woods

Link:        http://freedom560.podomatic.com/

Date:       May 14, 2015

Topics:   Common Core,  Partnership for Assessment of  Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), Mom’s Bill, Senator Owen Hill, Senator Vicki Marble, House Education Committee, Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement, Senator Cory Gardner, Establishment Republicans, Liberty Movement, Constitutional Conservative

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HOST KEN CLARK:  So, what’s your take on this [TPP] thing, Senator?

COLORADO STATE SENATOR LAURA WOODS: Well, it is an absolute train wreck waiting to happen. And when you described Mark Levin’s expose on how you can read it, you know what it  reminded me of?  When they put Common Core in place in this country, they did it behind closed doors. They brought evaluators together. You could come in and read it. You couldn’t talk about it behind – outside of that room. You had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And you basically had to come out of there saying you liked it. So, if Common Core is any indicator of where TPP is going to end up, we all ought to be screaming from the rooftops.

CLARK:  Well, Common core, as bad as it is, is not going to be nearly as devastating to the United States economy.  Now, it will have devastating effects on future generations, the education of our kids, etc.  But the TPP, as they’re debating it right now, that’s going to destroy our municipalities.  When you have foreign entities able to sue our cities, our counties, and our state governments over regulation, I mean, what municipality has the money and financing to take on Japan?

WOODS:  Yeah, not one of them. And I agree with you, Ken, on that point.  I think that Common Core and TPP are equal evils in their own realm of our society.

CLARK: Yeah, I would agree with you on that.  And, I mean, we’ve been battling Common Core, and Senator Woods, I know you have been a voice out there trying to fight Common Core and the TPP, as well, but there’s [only] so much as a state – I mean, we can pass a resolution, I suppose, that says we won’t do that.  But you haven’t been able to get that done, as Common
Core is concerned, because we simply don’t have the votes, yet.

WOODS: That’s right. We still have too many Democrats and squisy Republicans [inaudible]. We had squish Republicans committees that killed the Mom’s Bill and Democrats who refused to run the Mom’s Bill when Representative Justin Everett tried to bring it in the House.  So, Senator Marble and I sent it back to the House, and they killed it in the House Ed[ucation] committee. So it’s — , yeah, we haven’t been able to get anything done yet.

CLARK: Well, and – but you, you’ve at least got the conversation started.

WOODS:  That’s right

CLARK: And one thing I love about Common Core in particular, is that it is a bipartisan issue.  You’ve got Democrats, Independents, and Republicans that hate it equally.  Why we can’t get the legislators to hate it equally is beyond me, Senator.

WOODS:  I agree whole-heartedly. And you are right: this is not a partisan issue in any form.  Every – EVERY parent that came in to testify at our hearing, testified against Common
Core, except one guy, and he was a teacher in a school and he came in and said he liked PARCC, he liked Common Core. Leave them alone. But, with that exception, everyone else testified against it. And you’re right, it’s just the impossible situation we’re up against of getting legislators, and the governor, to understand what this is doing to our kids.

CLARK:  Senator, I opened up the show today asking a very simple question:  What, today – and this is obviously a 35,000-foot view, and it’s not every single one.  This is a massive generality, but what’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats today, when you’ve got guys like Bennet who are trying to negotiate and potentially stop the TPP, and then you’ve got Gardner who is walking lock-step, and they’re marching whol – I mean, full-blast into the flame to pass TPP?  I mean, it’s backwards! It’s upside-down! What happened to – I’ve got nothing, Senator

WOODS:  [chuckles]  I’ve pretty much got nothing as well, Ken, on that question.I heard you open the session with it, and I think that for the establishment Republicans –and there is no doubt in my mind that Cory Gardner is one of them, there’s not a lot of difference. Where we see a difference is between conservatives and that group of people.

CLARK: Well, you’re absolutely right about that.  And thank you for being a voice of reason in the Senate.  And thank you for standing up for what you do in the Senate.  And I’ve just got to ask you, as long as I have got you on the air with me, how was your first year?  Was it what you thought it would be?  Was it anything like you thought it would be

WOODS:  It was – it was what I thought it would be, with the exception of about 4 days. And I can count four days that I wondered why I had agreed to run for this seat. But it was a tremendous privilege to be there, and an honor,  and a huge responsibility. And you know, we don’t – those conservatives up there, those liberty minded, Constitutional conservatives, we never take that for granted.  And we don’t forget who put us there.  It’s the people that voted for us, you know, and supported us and our campaigns.  And we don’t forget that we’re up there to represent there.

CLARK:  Well, hopefully at the end of 2016, we’ll have a much larger caucus for you to caucus with and stand together with.  So, that’s going to be our goal

WOODS:  That is our hope, and it may be our only prayer