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--:-- Host (John Bickley): This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Liz Truss was sworn in as the UK Prime Minister just days before the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Despite facing multiple challenges, including inflation, recession, and the Ukraine war, Truss does not seem deterred. We speak to a UK expert about England's new conservative PM.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 1st, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire. We should listen to Native American and Indigenous people who are the most impacted by this.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Atlanta Braves' visit to the White House prompted a statement from the press secretary about changing the name of the team. And the sports world has responded. And thousands of homeless people die on the streets of Los Angeles every year, many from drug overdoses. Some say federal homeless policies reward drug use.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): In the midst of war, recession, and energy shortages, the United Kingdom is undergoing a major change in leadership. The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, took office on September 6th, but her term in office was immediately overshadowed by the death of Queen Elizabeth II just days later.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Still, Truss has been quietly making a mark on British politics. Joining us to discuss why many are comparing the UK's new Prime Minister to Margaret Thatcher is Ted Bromund, Senior Research Fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.
--:-- Ted Bromund: Thanks very much for having me. I appreciate it.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, Liz Truss is very different from Boris Johnson. Can you tell us a little bit about her background?
--:-- Ted Bromund: Prime Minister Truss has come into the office of Prime Minister after a very rapid rise through the UK political system. She really made her reputation as the International Trade Secretary under the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And this was a position that didn't exist in the British government before Brexit.
--:-- Ted Bromund: That's right. She made a really brilliant start on negotiating new agreements with Australia, Japan, India, the Pacific Trade Bloc, the United States, big consequential agreements.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And maybe even more importantly than that, She was one of a very few conservatives who were consistently optimistic and forward-looking about Brexit and who took a really serious position towards making supply-side reforms to enhance the British economy.
--:-- Ted Bromund: Now, I understand she is a big proponent of free market economics, and very shortly upon coming into office she pledged to overturn the 2019 ban on fracking for shale in England
--:-- Host (John Bickley): But then very shortly afterwards she installed a cap on household energy costs
--:-- Ted Bromund: How do you square those two with her being a proponent of free markets?
--:-- Ted Bromund: One of them is a piece of free markets. The other one is a step by a politician who doesn't want to lose too many votes.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): It would be nice if politicians were always consistent and always upheld the right policies. Unfortunately, politics is frequently a matter of 60-40.
--:-- Ted Bromund: There are some fundamental differences between the UK and the US that viewers should understand.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): In the US, if you own a piece of ground, of property, you own what's underneath it. You own the mineral rights.
--:-- Ted Bromund: If there's coal or there is oil or you can frack, you know, salt mine underneath, whatever, you can dig down and you can harvest those resources. You get a direct benefit from it.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): In the United Kingdom, the crown, that is the government, owns everything below the surface.
--:-- Ted Bromund: The state owns all of the mineral rights. That means that if there's any fracking to be done, you don't really benefit from it because they're not your resources.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The government owns them. And that not only means that the government has to permit everything, It means that there is no room at all for private innovation of the kind that drove fracking in the United States because there's no private sector to benefit from it.
--:-- Ted Bromund: But it was compounded by this structure of British property ownership whereby the government inherently owned it all anyhow.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So what Truss has done is we can hope unleash some fracking in the UK.
--:-- Ted Bromund: And the UK, by the way, does have huge formations of shale and potentially massive reserves of natural gas.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, on September 17th, Liz Truss announced her new cabinet. And to great fanfare, for the first time ever, there was not a single straight white male or white man in her cabinet.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Would you say this was purposeful? And is there a woke aspect to Liz Truss's approach to government?
--:-- Ted Bromund: No, I think she's about the most unwoke person you could imagine with one or two exceptions.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): I don't think that Truss is the kind of person who would select her cabinet on that basis.
--:-- Ted Bromund: It really sort of reflects the nature of and the NPs that she had to pick from.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): You know, the difficulty that you have if you're prime minister is that you have to allocate people in the cabinet for all sorts of reasons.
--:-- Ted Bromund: It's not, unfortunately, just a question of who would be good in the job. It's also a question of who supported you when you were campaigning for office.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): All right. Well, the next election in the U.K. is less than two years away, so she doesn't have much time to win Britain's over.
--:-- Ted Bromund: Ted, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Ted Bromund: Absolutely. Glad to do it.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Ted Bromund, Senior Research Fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Coming up, the White House revives the Atlanta Braves name change controversy. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter available exclusively to Daily Wire members.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code morningwire to try readers past membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): We have the White House attempting to revive controversy about teams named in honor of Native Americans. First, will the Atlanta Braves be changing their team name anytime soon? It appears no.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Executives for the Atlanta Braves have been adamant there will be no name change in Atlanta.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Terry McGurk, the team's chairman, is on record saying, quote, We are so proud of our team's name, and the expectation is that we will always be the Atlanta Braves, unquote.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, John, having said that, owners of other franchises have made similar statements in the past, but eventually backtracked due to public pressure.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Washington Redskins is a great example. They gave in to corporate demands to change their team name in 2020. They are now the Washington Commanders.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And the Cleveland Indians baseball team changed their name a year ago to the Guardians.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Right. Two high-profile examples of teams changing their names to something more sort of generic amid pressure from activists.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Yes. How has the MLB handled the Braves question so far?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Well, it's a good question. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred pointed out that many American Indian tribes support Atlanta's baseball team, stating, quote, The Braves have done a phenomenal job with the Native American community in that region, and the Native community is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the use of the celebratory chop.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The chop which was borrowed from the Florida State Seminoles.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Exactly, via Deion Sanders. I knew you'd bring that up. I have to.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, Richard Sneed, the principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which is located in western North Carolina, defended the Braves as well in 2020, Stating, to me, the Washington Redskins name was probably the only team name I could look at and say, that's derogatory. That's a racial slur.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): But all the rest, they're an affirmation of the honor, strength, courage, and the warrior spirit of the native people.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, Atlanta is the same city that Major League Baseball relocated the All-Star game from last season, correct?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That is correct. The league relocated that game from Atlanta to Denver, Colorado due to voter laws passed by the state of Georgia.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Then Democrats said those laws were racist.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Many critics of the move pointed out, though, that Colorado's voting laws are in many ways more restrictive than Georgia's and that Georgia's voter turnout has been at historic records.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Did that topic come up in President Biden's address to the team?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): No, President Biden congratulated the team.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): He made a joke about knowing what it's like to be counted out in Georgia, referring to his election victory there.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And then he spent a good bit of time praising former Brave star Hank Aaron for overcoming racism.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So even in a short ceremony to honor the World Series champions, the president didn't miss an opportunity to bring up race. Or to tout his victory.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Exactly.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): David, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Crane & Company co-host David Cohn.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Around 2,000 homeless people a year die on the streets of Los Angeles. In fact, homeless deaths have doubled in many cities across the country in recent years, and drug overdoses are the biggest driver.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): One reason for this surge in deaths is that many government programs actually incentivize people to use drugs, especially among the homeless population.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Here again to discuss is Judge Glock, the Director of Policy and Research at the Cicero Institute.
--:-- Judge Glock: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Well, the federal government runs several housing programs for the homeless, and it gives preferences in those programs to people who have what they call a substance use disorder, meaning an addiction to drugs or alcohol.
--:-- Judge Glock: It also tells governments and nonprofits to create a scoring system for who gets this housing And those systems award extra points as they known to people who can show they using more drugs
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And how does that work?
--:-- Judge Glock: Most of the local governments across the country adopted a survey for the homeless. It's called VI-SPDAT.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): It asks homeless people about their problems and awards them points towards free or subsidized housing if they have more of these problems.
--:-- Judge Glock: So you can get a point if you share a needle for injecting drugs or if you've run drugs for someone else.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): You can get another point if your drug use got you evicted from your apartment or if you got put in a drunk tank or jail.
--:-- Judge Glock: With enough points, you can get a free house, possibly for life.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So this scoring system incentivizes the most dangerous behavior.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Yeah, it's kind of shocking the extent to which the government tries to reward the very worst kind of behavior among the homeless.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So the VI-SPDAT for homeless parents gives extra points for, say, leaving your kids unsupervised, for having them miss school, having them even taken away by child services.
--:-- Judge Glock: One of the most shocking ones, the Massachusetts has its own scoring system for its federal housing programs for the homeless. And it gives people four points if they're abusing drugs right now, but only one point if they've been clean for at least a year.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): There's a bonus two points, though, if someone's overdosed in just the past year.
--:-- Judge Glock: So what's the rationale for this scoring system?
--:-- Judge Glock: The basic argument the government makes is they're looking for the most, quote-unquote, vulnerable people.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And that means finding people with the most problems.
--:-- Judge Glock: But that theory just underestimates the degree which people respond to incentives.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): If you're telling people you get better housing and more services if you abuse drugs and commit crimes, people do that.
--:-- Judge Glock: We at Cicero talked to one homeless man, Ira, in Austin, who told a caseworker that if he had been a drug abuser, he might have gotten subsidized housing.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And the caseworker basically agreed with that.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): How widespread is this practice of prioritizing services to people who are actively using drugs?
--:-- Judge Glock: There's a surprising number of programs like this.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): For one, there are special federal programs to sign homeless people with addictions up for welfare, social services, and food stamps.
--:-- Judge Glock: Special what they call outreach programs for people with addictions.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Medicaid funds a lot of programs designed to give support to people with addiction, too.
--:-- Judge Glock: For instance, in Los Angeles, a woman on Medicaid who has, say, three overdoses in a year can get free child care, transportation, help applying for other benefits.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Like in all of these programs, the government just ignores how it's actively encouraging people to abuse drugs, and thus it's contributing to this increase in overdoses, especially among the homeless, but basically among any part of the population that's poor and in need of these services.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): All right. Well, Judge, thanks so much for coming on and talking about these issues with us.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Judge Glock, Director of Policy and Research at the Cicero Institute.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Other stories we're tracking this week. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles Thursday in retaliation for Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to the DMZ.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Harris toured sites at the DMZ, met with service members, and received an operational briefing from U.S. commanders.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): According to a new report by Reuters, several major advertisers, among them PBS Kids, Mazda, Forbes, and Dyson, have suspended marketing campaigns or removed ads from parts of Twitter after they appeared alongside tweets soliciting child pornography.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Virgin Atlantic Airlines will now allow its pilots, flight attendants, and ground staff to wear non-gendered uniforms.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Staff will also be able to wear pronoun badges.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Well, thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
