America's Talking - Episode 65: Out-Of-State Parents Say California Bill Ignores Their Rights When Kids Want Sex Reassignment

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Join The Center Square's Executive Editor Dan McCaleb & D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss: Out-of-state parents say California bill ignores their rights when kids want sex reassignment. Fed announces another rate hike to combat inflation, signals more on the way. Democrats block release of Hunter Biden financial documents in probe. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone and welcome to the American Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. American Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. I'm Dan McAaleb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Our mission is to fund high-quality public interest journalism that promotes accountability and fiscal responsibility in government. To support great podcasts like this one, please donate by clicking the link in the show description. Joining me again today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Casey. Doing good, Dan. How are you? Doing well, been on the road this week, but back in the home office. Happy to talk to you again. We're recording this podcast on Friday, September 23rd.

Casey, inflationary price pressures continue to impact Americans everywhere. A new poll released this week shows that Americans are falling behind the cost of women. Tell us about this. That's right. Last week on the podcast, we talked a lot about the consumer price index and the producer price index and how things like grocery prices were, you know, at the highest level in decades, you know, grocery prices are something like over 13% increase in the last year. We've seen a short, a temporary leveling off of inflation in some areas, but that's really only because gas prices have dropped, and we can talk more about that. But, you know, this is an interesting poll because the Biden administration has really tried to spike the football in the last

a few weeks about inflation saying, hey, we've got this under control. It's doing great. But this new NBC News poll found that 63% of those surveyed say their income is falling behind the cost of living. Another 58% disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy. And so, you know, there's often kind of a disconnect between what's happening in Washington, what people are saying in Washington, and what regular Americans are feeling. And so for all the speeches are different things and squabbling on Capitol Hill, you still have 63% of Americans say that they're falling behind. And the data bears that out, I mean, the inflation numbers that we've seen, even with the kind of the slowdown of inflation in the last couple of months, inflation has still increased

more than 8% for like consumer prices, for example. And American wages have not nearly increased that much. I mean, I think very few of our listeners, unless you change jobs or something would say they got, you know, a 10% raise this year. This is not not really what most people are used to. And so when prices go up eight or more percent, and when you go to the grocery store, and it's over 13% increase in so many of your goods. And that means actually that, you know, a 13% increase at the grocery store means that half of the groceries are less than that, but half or more. So some things at the grocery store actually much more than 13% increase. So the prices are going up and Americans are feeling the pain. You referenced gas prices,

of course, in June, the U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline or regular gasoline shot above $5 a gallon for the first time. And it sits settled down back into the threes across the country. So you would think with gas prices coming back down pretty grammatically that inflation would be also coming down, but that's not the case. It has leveled off largely because gas prices have come down from their all-time record high above $5 a gallon. But food prices are still going up. The price of other things are still going up, yes? Yeah, that's right. And actually, it's going to be really interesting to watch because gas prices actually went up a little bit this week for the first time in weeks. We saw an increase in some gas prices. So if that's a sign of, you know, a reversal where gas prices

start to take back upward or it's just a sign that gas prices are leveling out. I think we are going to see these inflation numbers increase because we're seeing prices go up on all kinds of things. That's still happening. And also, like we talked about last week, economists are saying that less and less of that inflation can be attributed to the pandemic, right? Or kind of outlier supply chain issues. You could write things off like automobile computer chips. It's not really being caused by. that anymore. It's more and more being caused by other factors. And one of the big factors that, you know, we've talked about a lot is federal spending. Of course, the war in Ukraine has an impact,

but these numbers are going up. And if the gasoline prices are leveling off now, which the, you know, the price increased as we suggest, then I think we will see those inflation numbers go back up. And, you know, there's a lot of ways we can take this. You know, have big impacts on regular Americans who are trying to fill up their car, but also there's political implications because having inflation start to turn around and go back up in September before a midterm election is about as bad a timing as you can get. And we talked a few weeks ago about inflation, these price heights on everything, impacting all Americans, including members of the military, whereas the military to address inflation was encouraging

its members to get on food stamps, get SNAP benefits to help pay for the rising costs of food. Now you're working on a story for this weekend that the military is doing more or doing something else to try and help its members. Tell us briefly about that. Tease your story from this weekend at the Center Square.com. Sure. To preview it a little bit, the Secretary of Defense has announced that they're going to be cutting grocery costs on things like military bases. They're We're also going to be cutting costs for moving and doing different things like that. But, you know, as you said, we just reported that the Army is like, hey, get on food stamps. And now they're saying, oh, wait, we're going to actually reduce grocery prices,

which is really an admission from the top that these prices are not sustainable and that, you know, average people really are having a lot of trouble just making their grocery bill every month. to try and quell inflationary price increases. The Fed continues to hike interest rates, another interest rate hike this week. Tell us about that. Yeah, this can feel a little bit won't balky to people. Maybe they don't always understand how it fully works. And I think almost no one does because it is kind of technical.

But the top level view is when inflation gets really bad, the Federal Reserve increases interest rates. and increased interest rates mean the economy suffers, but inflation gets under control. That's like the whole theory in one sentence. And so the Fed has, because inflation has been so high, they've announced interest rate hike after interest rate hike. They've been actually really aggressive. You know, economists I talk to said that the Fed waited too long to do anything. And now that they're doing something, they're doing, you know, a lot, you know, more than

being a lot more aggressive than maybe even people expected. So they announced another three quarter of a percentage point increase. And the Fed said that it's very likely there's going to be more increases coming. I can find the quote. It said they anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate. That is bureaucratic Fed speak for. We're probably going to hike interest rates more. And any economists you talk to says this will have a negative impact on the economy.

And it's kind of viewed as like a necessary evil. It's the it is the medical treatment for inflation. that has really bad side effects, but inflation will kill the economy, so you have to do it. So this is another rate hike. Another one is coming. This is part of the reason we've seen mortgage prices or a mortgage demand for mortgages go down so much. Mortgage interest rates have really soared in the last few months. And the number of Americans who are trying to get a mortgage and buy a house has really plummeted. So this has real immediate impacts, but it also has the impact of it's, it's, you know, the conventional wisdom is that it is going to be harmful

to the economy and economic growth. Yeah, so the cost, essentially when you raise interest rates is radically as the Fed has this year, the cost of borrowing money gets more expensive. And that's not just for mortgages. That could be for car loans, for example, if you're out shopping for a car and you're not able to pay cash for a car. You have to borrow money and get a car loan. That cost is going up as well with the interest rates going up. Don't you guys in Chicago just kind of go just find one on the street and take it? That's what I've been reading in the news.

Carjackings are definitely up in Chicago. There's no doubt about that. The interesting thing about that is it's teenagers that are largely dry. Really? But that's another topic for another prime. Of course. Casey, let's focus on the economy and the inflation and these rate hikes. So we should anticipate additional rate heights from the interest rate hikes from the Fed is what you're saying.

Yeah, and it's interesting because the Fed is often pretty veiled or cryptic in signaling what they're going to do. Of course, whatever the Fed says can have huge economic implications. I mean, the Fed has so much power. So they are very careful in what they say. And they try to telegraph things in advance. But they're being pretty clear, more clear than I've often seen them saying its ongoing increases are basically likely going to be appropriate. So that is as much as I've ever seen the Fed say, we're definitely going to do this. They don't speak in absolutes usually.

So I think it is going to come. and, you know, I think it also shows that the economic experts at the Federal Reserve are really buying this kind of political argument that inflation is handled. You know, it's kind of this political meme right now that, oh, inflation's fine, like, it's been dealt with, but then why is the Federal Reserve still raising interest rate? I think if you look into the data, like we've been talking about, you know, food prices, for example, have continued to soar. I mean, just getting much higher.

If anyone who is monitoring their grocery budget, they're seeing this happen. So regardless of what the top level, you know, inflation numbers say that's been kind of messed up or, you know, warped by the gas price stuff, the Federal Reserve seems to think inflation is still a big problem. It's going to be a big problem for months to come. Let's move on, Casey. Another story you covered this week related to Hunter Biden, the son, President Joe Biden. His financial dealings overseas have been under scrutiny for years. since before the 2020 election. But a lot of information has been withheld by the federal government on this. Republicans have been trying to force out some of this information. But the Democrats block it this week. What's going on here?

Yeah, this is interesting. The Hunter Biden investigation is kind of the investigation that never seems to happen or nothing ever seems to come public, even though there's a lot of curiosity, a lot of interest. Of course, the social media companies, very, famously or infamously censored stories about Hunter Biden and his laptop right before the election. And a lot of that information turned out to be true. And that, you know, that was really controversial. So that's added to the swirl of hype and interest in this. But getting information about

what's actually going on in this investigation has been extremely difficult, even for Republican lawmakers. And so James Comerie is a Republican from Kentucky, who's the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. You know, they do a lot of investigations, of course, on the oversight committee. And they have, and I've been covering this, you know, over this year. They've been reached out several times trying to get documents related to the Hunter Biden investigation. And one in particular are something called suspicious activity reports. Now, this is the Treasury Department and how they keep up with different financial dealings and bank accounts. and the Republicans on the Oversight Committee have asked for these suspicious activity reports,

basically a red flag on someone's account. And there's reportedly media reports have said there's 150 of these reports related to Hunter Biden. So that's a lot. That's a lot of suspicious activity reports. But Republicans have been asking the Treasury Department for it again and again. And the Treasury Department has just kind of been bureaucratically stonewalling them. And so this week, they introduced a resolution. That will basically be the equivalent of a congressional vote forcing out these documents

and Democrats on the committee blocked it. Right. And so the resolution will not pass. These documents are going to remain hidden, at least for now. I think this will be one. It's really interesting that congressional Democrats are willing to kind of cover for this Hunter Biden investigation because that's the kind of thing you don't want to have to defend, I think on the campaign trail.

We, you know, I blocked Hunter Biden documents. It's like, why did you do that? And the other thing is when Republicans take the majority, if they do, as it's expected, then is that investigation going to kick into overdrive? Yeah, well, that was my next question. We have an election, of course, in November. Democrats have a slight majority in the House. The Senate is 50-50 with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris,

the tie-breaking vote there. if Republicans do, in fact, let's say just we take the House, can we expect to see a release of some of these documents? You can definitely expect to see the investigation ramped up big time. I think it's going to be hard to force out a lot of things. You know, Congress, you know, the House will have some power to really put the pressure on, especially agencies like the Treasury Department, which are not supposed to be politicized. and they have a harder time evading congressional oversight the way some other things can. But, you know, these investigations are so, I don't know, they can often be disappointing

because it's like the, you know, the famous bridge to nowhere. A lot of these investigations are kind of the investigation to nowhere. I mean, they're a lot more for media hype. And so often they don't actually yield real results. When you think about things like Benghazi or different, the Mueller investigation, with just years and years of media coverage, hearings, pomp and circumstance. And ultimately, it's like, you know, nobody's really hardly ever gets held accountable, especially at the highest levels.

I mean, sometimes people do. And there have been people, you know, go to jail for different things or coming or a lot of fire. But it often takes years and sometimes nothing even incomes at all. So these investigations can be kind of 50-50 on whether they really yield anything, but you don't really know until you do them. Moving on, Casey, parents' groups across the United States are rallying against a bill in California that's on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk that would allow a court essentially to revoke parental rights over a child, a child's decision to have transgender surgery. What's going on here? This is a little crazy story. Yeah, this is honestly, it's kind of a consideration.

confusing story. It took me a while to kind of work this out. But the backdrop is that several states have done things to kind of ban transgender, either like surgeries, gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers for minors. I believe in Texas, they're calling it child abuse. You know, they're really limiting what can be done to those under 18. And so California has kind of a typical fashion, I guess, you know, it's Texas versus California. But California has trying to make themselves the equivalent of a sanctuary state for transgender kids. And so they have passed this new law that says if a kid comes from a different state to California to get a transgender surgery, to get puberty blockers, to get these different things,

then a judge can temporarily revoke the parents' rights over that kid. Wow. Yeah. And that the judge can prevent extradition. and that that I mean, there's a lot, I'll stop right there

because there's a lot we can talk about right there. But the law prevents extradition and it, it claims this is going to be a really interesting constitutional issue. But by saying that it,

you know, suspends parents' rights temporarily over the kid and that other, the laws of other states don't have, you know, any jurisdiction. I think it's going to be

a real constitutional crisis. Can, California really do that. If you're a parent from Texas, you live in Texas, your kid is a Texan, does California law in this instance really have precedent over, you know, Texas law? So I think there's going to be some questions there. But of course, parents' rights groups are very upset about this nationwide. They sent a letter to Gavin Newsom calling on him to veto the bill. I believe he has until the end of the month to make a decision on that. I don't think it's likely because this bill the Senate bill passed along party lines, basically, Democrats in favor, Republicans against.

And so now Newsom has to decide if he's going to sign or veto it. And I mean, we can go into some of the parental objections, but this letter that parental groups around the nation sent to raising constitutional concerns, parental right concerns. Of course, this is getting into all the transgender argument about how, you know, Puberty blockers, for instance, can have a lot of long-term effects on kids. Even if they come off of them, there's things about infertility. Of course, these transgender surgeries can be quite permanent for someone who's underage to make, someone who's not allowed to buy alcohol or join the military or has to get parental permission

to get married, but they can go to California and get these surgeries. So, yeah, so essentially, let's just provide a specific example. a 12-year-old or a 13-year-old from Oklahoma can decide that their transgender have an advocate take them to California against their parents' wishes. And then a California judge, if Newsom signs his bill, could essentially strip the parents' rights away and allow this 12-year-old or this 13-year-old to undergo, whether it's transgender surgery or, puberty blockers, things like that. That's essentially what this bill, Governor Gavin Newsom's some signs that would allow. Yes.

Yeah, that's how it's designed. That's how it's intended. That's part of the reason for all the outrage. And I do think that this is going to be, this is one of those pieces of legislation that is, you know, day one lawsuit kind of thing. You know, there's some types of legislation that as soon as it gets passed that's going to be challenged in court.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of them. And I don't know how that'll all shake out. But, you know, I'll read one of the objections from this letter. The parents say this bill blatantly violates a fundamental right of every parent in every state to direct the upbringing and care of their child. The legislation allows the taking of a child to California without parental knowledge or consent to obtain gender transition procedures. It goes, and permissibly gives California courts the power to strip custody from lawful and well-intuitive. attention parents, regardless of where they live, who may have legitimate concerns for their child's mental and physical health. So that's the big constitutional thing there is how can a

California law, I think it was Oklahoma in your example, how can a California law strip the rights of parents in Oklahoma, right? That's going to be one of the big constitutional questions. Where are we as a society where we're even having a debate about this? Stripping their parents' rights away so a minor can make life-changing, a life-changing decision that they can't, They can't take back. Yeah, there's like multiple levels of debate about this. One is just overall the validity and helpfulness of transgender, you know, they're called treatments. I think there's a lot of reason, good reason for that debate.

I mean, you know, for example, on surgeries, a lot of the data shows that there aren't nearly as helpful in long term as they are short term, things like that. But even setting aside how people feel about transgender surgeries and things, then there's just a debate of can a kid, you know, be allowed to do things without their parents' consent? And I think there's so many issues in our society that, you know, are maybe controversial or not, or maybe even not viewed as good things, but we allow them, but then say you have to be 18, like something like gambling or smoking or drinking, you know, it's like, hey, people, I think people would largely acknowledge those aren't like social goods, but, hey, when you're 18, you can do them.

But the idea of someone underage being able to make such a big decision. and we saw something similar with abortions, you know, people having to get a permission for abortions or not. But even then, that's not the same as this because a transgender surgery is a permanent, it's extremely permanent thing to be making a decision at someone like 12, like you pointed out. So I don't know. I mean, can't you not even get a tattoo before you're 18? Yeah, there are. I mean, there are state. I mean, it varies from state to state depending on their state laws.

but yeah, you can't purchase alcohol until you're 21. You can't purchase cigarettes until you're 18, and that varies from state to state as well. But you can have service. So I just, yeah, I just looked it up. In the age of a, it's a misdemeanor for any person to tattoo or offer a tattoo to anyone under the age of 18 in California. That's, you know, that's an interesting, that's very interesting. We should include that in our report. on this topic.

We're almost out of time. We have time, just a brief amount of time for one last story. President Biden in his now infamous 60 Minutes interview that aired this past Sunday, said the pandemic is over, yet there are still vaccine and mask mandates that the federal government isn't reporting. But a judge struck one of those down this week. What's going on here? Yeah, this is really interesting.

I mean, this is hard, it's hard to tell if this is part of a coordinated strategy or this is one of those times where Joe Biden, you know, redefines our policy on Taiwan on the fly in a press conference, you know. I mean, he did that. He said something about Taiwan that the White House later had to walk back. He's had that multiple times where Biden has just kind of spoken out on really controversial issues. And then the White House comes and corrects him. And of course, that, you know, feeds into all the criticism about who's really running the country. Is it Biden's aides or is it him when he says something and then the AIDS, say, know that's not right. And people are like, yeah, it's probably the AIDS who are right. It's probably the White House staff who knows what they're talking about. Is this one of those

where Biden just kind of slipped and tried to say the pandemic is over? I mean, a lot of, you know, pandemic is much better. I think the question, though, is the pandemic has been used to justify so many government policies that when you declare it's over, you pull out the rug out from under so many mandates, so many rules. You take the kind of moral authority away. from so many, especially Democrat and liberal governors who have done things. For example, in D.C., there's a huge debate over a vaccine mandate for students, right? And so this has been really controversial. D.C. put in a vaccine mandate for students to come back to school.

And now they've delayed enforcement because, of course, you know, you can't even get your students to do their homework hardly, let alone, like, go get this vaccine. So they didn't get the vaccine. But, you know, D.C. is trying to enforce it. But when you say something like the pandemic is over and the president says the pandemic is over, how is the mayor of D.C. going to really have the moral authority to enforce something like a vaccine mandate on 16-year-olds, right? So that's a kind of a real world example of how these comments will have an effect on policies all the way down to the local level. Right.

Well, I was traveling this week. And I think most Americans think the pandemic is over. At least they act like it. very few masks I saw in my travels and in my stay in Atlanta is where I was at. And so I think maybe it is time to move on. But anyway, that's a conversation for another day, Casey. We have run out of time. Thank you, as always, for your insight on these very important stories.

A reminder to our listeners, you can find all of the CenterSquares podcast at America's Talking.com. Take a look. Please subscribe. There is no cost. This has been the America and Focus Podcast for Casey Harper. I'm Dan McKalib. We'll talk to you next week.