representative from Rochester.

And let's let Simon a follow up where he left off.

You said that you'd b interested in a consumption tax and potentially a sales tax increase.

I do seem to recall ten years ago on the ballot there was a similar proposal from Governo Snyder that resoundingly failed when it was put forward to the president.

No, I didn't say I would be interested in that would be my preference.

There's a there's a big difference in how the and how the to apply to the to the end user.

Yeah.

What we've heard from the governor has sort of been a scattershot proposal in terms of, you know she's not committing to anything but like little tiny funding mechanisms for people to chip away at the problem.

We've seen a wholesal tax increase on marijuana, even taxing online digital ad rather than doing a broad based corporate income tax.

Can you conceive of a reality where we're sort of picking away at the problem through these sort of edge cases?

Well, I think for the governor that's politically wise, right?

You kind of fracture where you can get pushback and you're breaking up, you know, the momentu behind that kind of push back.

And so you spread it around a little bit.

But, you know, as a Republican in general, philosophically, I want to keep as much money in the pockets of the people that already own it, because when they spend it on themselves their own money on themselves, it has the greatest economic impact.

There's a there's an interest in thrift because it's their money and there's an interest in quality because they're going to be using the goods and services themselves.

So in general, that's my preference where I would like to go.

If revenues have to be raised, I would like to have them in areas where the consumer can impact those by economizing and have some control, as opposed to every time you make an extra buck, there's more more money going out the door.

Representative.

Speaking of finances and the budget, I'm so curious about your thoughts about when the budget is actually going to get done this year and if you have any concerns about what Speaker Matt Hall and actually we spoke with Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, both right after the speech who both are basically saying they don't see July 1 as the deadline and they're willing to to push up until October 1.

What do you what do you how do you feel about that?

Well, you know, that's an issue really above my pay grade.

I'm one of 110 members of the House.

Ideally you want to see the budget done in a timely manner.

So everyone that's depending on those dollars has some certainty on what's coming and when I our side of the aisle in the House will present a budget and and and ideally that will be on time or in plenty of time with the deadline.

How far that is away from what the other side of the aisle or what the governor wants to see.

You know that's going to be determined about how long the two sides come together.

But do you have sort of, as you said I mean, school districts, right.

We're talking so much about.

Sure.

They want to have those numbers by July 1.

I understand it's above your pay grade, but as an interested party as 110, what's your what's your hope?

Well my hope is that we can provide the states residents, the states entities that that depend upon these budgets as much certainty in their ow budgeting process as possible.

And we can get through this and reach an amicable agreement very quickly.

Representative, you come from a metro Detroit district that Democrats in past elections had made inroads in, especially among women in the Oakland County area.

Yeah, your seat was targeted by Democrats in the last election and last three elections.

What do you think has made the difference in those elections and what do you thin Republicans have to do to to win that type of seat again in the next election without Trump at the top of the ballot?

Mine is a relatively unique situation.

I've been a I've been a rather public figure in in Rochester Hills in Rochester for for three decades now.

So I had a significant advantage over anybody that was running against me and trying to tell people who I am or what I'm about.

And so a lot of tha is finding the right candidate philosophically, particularly in a in a 50/50 area.

And I tell people all the time my my title is representative.

I'm not sole decision maker for my district, my political instincts are probably to the right of where my where my district is.

But that's not my job.

My my job is to do the best that I can for my district and to represent their interests as much as I possibly can and still be within the framework of a partizan Lansing.

So it's finding the right candidate.

I have an advantage in that I'm older.

I first ran for state office.

I was 65 years old.

I know that.

I don't know everything.

I know that I'm not right on every issue.

And so there's always give and take.

And I was talking to Tim earlier.

You know, I sold medical no practice insurance for 32 years, helped physicians get through allegations of negligence and lawsuits and claims.

And it's always give and take.

You're never goin to get everything that you want, whether it's Lansing in the courthouse, out on the street, you know, in in the stream of commerce.

Do voters understand that?

Not necessarily just, you know, what you're talking about is this ideal of how government is supposed to work, but it doesn't really work that way right now?

Well, maybe it doesn't work that way because not enoug people are focused on the ideal.

And all I can do is present, you know, to to the voter who I a and and where I'm trying to go.

If and if that's not the right personality type, the right individual, the right leadership for that community, then I'm not going to be elected.

But it's a lot better than getting out and presenting a, you know, a false persona.

Then they're not electing you.

They're they're electing some rep, some representation and the view that you put forward.

And it's just it's just not that's just not a good way to go.

So having said that, in that soliloquy.

I did go on for a bit, didn't know what was the other.

Let me just be honest with you.

I have shadows in my brain of Bill Milliken.

Oh, moderate Republican.

Do you consider yourself a moderate Republican?

I my recreational readin since since my sophomore year in college has been economics history, social sciences, psychology.

Milton Friedman.

Thomas Sowell.

Charles Murray, Jude Wanniski You know, you go down the list if you have that kind of a home base and you understand that that's your starting point, That's not your end point.

So when something doesn't fit into that box, that conservative theory box, if you're going to grow or become a more interesting person, you you ask for more.

I need more information.

Please help me.

I tell people all the time I reserve the right to get smarter, you know, and and and typically reward those people that help you get smarter.

Right.

So juxtapose that to what's happening in the White House.

Well, that's what's happening i the White House is pretty broad, if you like to narrow that down to.

Yeah, go ahead.

You know, you are obviously someone as well ran on economic theory.

What we're seeing from the White House now is a protectionist international trade policy that's, you know, a broad school of economic thought from all across the ideological spectrum says this raises prices for consumers.

It led to at least less inefficient economic outcomes for markets.

Broadly, is are you is this somethin that you're concerned about for you're not it's not a great history of tariffs in the United States.

You're going going back to, what, 39 or 30, the Smoot-Hawley.

But one of the things you do have to understand, ideally free trade, free and fair trade.

But when when you're dealin with players that have stacked the deck, the deck against you, there might need to be adjustments.

Understand, to act at the receiving end.

Consumer habits are not static.

They'll you know, when prices go up, they'll purchase less of that and they'll they'll find alternatives.

And so so we'll see how this all shakes out.

But in general, when you're taking money out of people's pockets that already own i and shifting it someplace else, you're going to end up with a less efficient marketplace.

So from what I'm understanding here, you're thinking these tariffs are a bad idea.

As I said, we'll see how it shakes out.

If they are actually implemented.

We've come up to this line in the san before and walked back from it.

We'll we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

But the idea of reciprocal trade policies, that' something I'd be interested in.

Well, will allow our trade partners do right to write their own trade policies and we'll just mimic them.

I think you might see some adjustments being made then, but our you know, ou our economy is now $29 trillion.

The US something like that.

It's huge.

What' Canada, two and a half trillion.

You it's much easier for us to absorb any kind of any kind of tit for tat.

And so I think that's that's why many of these other countries take it take it much mor seriously and might be willing to make concessions when these kinds of discussions or even threats are made in the primary race for governor of the last time out, whom did you vote for in the primary race for governor?

I believe I voted.

I'm not I don't think I remember who was I think I voted for Bill Schuette?

Oh, it was Tudor Dixon.

Are you talking abou '22 Tudor Dixon, Perry Johnson, I didn't.

Kevin Ricke.

The usual Yeah.

I voted for, I voted for Tudor Dixon.

I had some interest in, in, in, in Mr. Ricke because he had the ability to fund much more of the, of the campaign and was not going to be as reliant upo upon donors and raising money.

But it just it there just didn't seem to be a lot of traction there and, and, and yeah.

So I went with is there someone you'd like to see run Republican run in 26.

Yeah.

You know, I really haven't given that an awful lot of thought.

I've had I've had some interaction and actually quite a bi of support from Senator Nesbitt.

And so I appreciate his workings here in Lansing.

My guess is that I'm hearing that that Mike Cox is going to jump in.

You see Kevin Rinke pop up at different events every now and then.

But yeah, I, I don't know.

I think I think what you need is someone with strong name recognition, the ability to raise money or that has money to come in and get started because the if whether it's Secretary Benson, some of the others that have decided to run.

Mike Duggan?

Well well, that's it.

That's an interesting that's an interesting point that we can come back to.

But the Democrats have simply done a much better job of raising money than Republicans have and of nationalizing the fund raising ability compared to wha we've been able to put together.

So you did the forward promote.

Just quickly, Mike Duggan, what do you make of the race?

I think it was extremely clever of him to come out as an independent.

It garnered national news and it gave him all sorts of exposure, free earned media exposure.

He has a lot of time left to come over and file as a Democrat.

And I don't I don't know if he will or not, but I think that was a brilliant move on his part.

I've had the opportunity as eight years and the City Council in Rochester Hills for as the Council president volunteering and you know and work projects and in the city of Detroit I've met I've met the the governo the mayor a number of times and I've sat in on a number of presentations he's given.

I think he's done a very good job, an undeniably good job in the city, which which was a huge a huge amount to bite off in to for anyone as a representative to put a ribbon on this, What do you want to be when you grow up?

Retired.

On that note, thank you for gracing our our program.

It's good to see you.

You're welcome.

Thank you for the invitation, everybody.

Have a nice weekend panel.

Thanks.

Good show, guys.