Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to describe laboratory states that have become the Trifecta Death Star for its residents.
Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael, and all-star panelist and good friend Carol Swain. Carol, tell us again where you are going to be tonight?
Swain: I’m going to be in Franklin at Generations Church on Church Street, along with Pete Hegseth from Fox. Don’t blame him from being from Fox. He’s a great guy. And Michael Knowles from The Daily Wire.
Swain: Yes.
Leahy: Who’s been very controversial because he’s actually said true things.
Swain: And the focus is gonna be on public education. It’s an event that’s hosted by Moms for Liberty. Tiffany Justice, the founder of Moms for Liberty will be there also.
Leahy: I met Tiffany. She’s a very nice person, very smart person. Yes. She’s from down Florida, right? Yes. Did she came up to that event where you were that you hosted called The American Dream.
Swain: Yes. A little bit ago.
Leahy: Crom, I want to turn the attention to what’s going on in some states. And in some states, we have what we are known as the Trifecta Death Star. (Darth Vader theme plays) Do you like that?
Carmichael: (Laughs) That was good. That was good.
Leahy: That’s when you have a state where both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats and the governor is a Democrat. Once you get the Trifecta Death Star, the state is pretty much going down. (Swain chuckles) Do you like that Carol? Do you like that phrase?
Swain: I do. (Carmichael makes Darth Vader sound)
Leahy: Very good Crom. So it happened in Michigan and it’s happened in California and now regrettably, it’s happened in Minnesota. So what happens when you get the Trifecta Death Star?
Carmichael: Michael, there are two stories here. One is California and the other is Minnesota. Both of ’em are interesting, but the one in California really surprised me because I learned something when I read the article. California actually gets a tremendous amount of rain every year, but they let it run off. They don’t capture it.
And there are seven states in the western part of the United States that pull water from the Colorado River. There are two reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, they’re huge reservoirs, but they both are at historically low levels. And so there’s a great battle now among these seven states as to how that water is going to be allocated.
But the other six states don’t get the amount of rainfall that California gets. And so it’s really up to California to put in the infrastructure to capture the rain. What happens is these storms come in, they dump enormous amounts of rain, but then they let them run off into the oceans. So they don’t make any attempt to capture it in reservoirs.
And so that’s a huge problem out west and it’s gonna become a growing problem now in Minnesota. The California legislature and the Governor’s office have been controlled by Democrats as you say, for probably 20 years.
And so consequently, the legislation that comes out of that state is nonsensical. And then the legislation that could make sense is absent. Minnesota has only recently become a state with a governor with Darth Vader as the governor….
Leahy: There is a Trifecta Death Star in Minnesota as a result of the November 2022 election.
Carmichael: And that’s the first time that’s happened. Now what they’re talking about doing in Minnesota, according to The Wall Street Journal is talking about passing a global tax. So if you’re a company headquartered in Minnesota they’re going to tax your global income. How many international companies that are headquartered in Minnesota would stay in Minnesota if they’re going to have to pay a tax only because they are in Minnesota? And it won’t be a little tax, it’ll be a huge tax. And so it’s almost like these folks, I know they’re for gun control and all that, but it’s like they want to hoist their feet up on the desk and pull out their six-shooters and blow their feet off. What they’re doing is just incredibly self-destructive.
Leahy: Self-destructive.
Carmichael: Yes.
Swain: The framers when they drafted the Constitution, set up this little thing called federal federalism. And so the states can be laboratories and it gives us an opportunity to allow states to experiment with whatever kind of policies they want to experiment with. If people don’t like living in Minnesota or California, they vote with their feet.
And so those states can be to the benefit of people who live in states that are well governed when you have some that are laboratories for what can happen to the nation if you continue to give power to Democrats. I’m glad they’re getting an opportunity to display to the whole world how horrible they are.
Leahy: Do you think Carol, that there will be a lot of corporations now that are based in Minnesota that say, hey, I might come to Tennessee?
Swain: Absolutely. I don’t necessarily want them to come to Tennessee, but they will be moving, they will be voting with their feet and they’ll take their tax dollars with them, and the state will be worse off because of that.
Carmichael: What happens is that once a corporate entity decides it’s going to move from one from a particular state primarily because of over-taxation or overregulation, which is a huge decision.
Leahy: A company with a lot of people there and infrastructure, buildings, and plants.
Carmichael: And typically even truly wealthy people. They have a lot of infrastructure where they’re living deciding to finally move from one state to another state for tax purposes or regulatory reasons, what you do is you look you say, okay, I’m going to move now. Where do I want to move?
And so a really deep survey, a really, a lot of work is done to determine what, where are the low tax business-friendly states? Which ones do I want? Give me five, and then I will then pick from those five. And Tennessee will almost always be among those five.
Swain: And Texas as well.
Carmichael: Texas gets there and Florida gets there.
Leahy: Basically everybody’s going to be moving to Texas, Tennessee, and Florida.
Carmichael: And then you have some other states that are pretty friendly but the weather may be problematic. Like for example, Nevada is very tax-friendly but it’s desert and they have all these water issues that I was talking about. And then another one is Wyoming.
Leahy: Very beautiful, and very tax friendly. But not a lot there.
Carmichael: But beautiful but cold. Not a lot there, but cold. And New Hampshire is another one that’s very tax friendly.
Leahy: But cold.
Carmichael: There is another story on your Trifecta deal and this is about New York.
Leahy: This is great. Great minds think alike. I was about to say, where in the United States do we have the Democrat Trifecta Death Star and that New York is one.
Swain: They’ve pretty much destroyed New York.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Carol Swain” by Carol M. Swain, PhD. Background Photo “Laboratory” by Trnava University.
