Welcome to this week's edition of the Republican Study Committee's Right to the Point podcast. We've got a lot of things to talk about. I'm joined by a phenomenal guest who I'll introduce momentarily, but our audience is growing. So if you know somebody that likes good conservative politics, that wants to see conservative policies, to see our economy grow, our national security strengthen, and not have the debacle that we saw during the Biden administration, please let them know about the Right to the Point podcast. But today, Mike Herodopoulos from Florida, a phenomenal member, somebody who spent a lot of time in Florida politics, in the state Senate in Florida, but a great member here who's solution-oriented, somebody who comes from business, understands conservative politics, is joining us. Mike, thanks for being here. Great to be here, August. Thanks for the opportunity. And this is an exciting time. I mean, what a first year the president has had back in office. It's the great American comeback. And I love the priorities that you're putting forth once again with a second reconciliation where we're making this government more transparent, more accountable. A great contrast to, of course, the opposition with the Democrats. The contrast are never ending. And we're going to talk about a lot of those today. Before we jump into the reconciliation piece and the ideas that the Republican Study Committee is leading, give us an intro of you and where you grew up and kind of your professional career. We want to meet you. Well, as a lot of folks, I'm almost like an army brat. My father was actually in the FBI. My first taste of politics, sadly, was the ab scam case. He was one of those guys busting those corrupt congressmen and senators here in Washington, D.C. But we moved around. Arkansas and New York, where I probably grew up. But I moved to Florida when I went to college. Experienced a winter in Florida and obviously never left. My profession before I was elected in the state legislature was actually a college instructor. at our local college. I taught United States history and politics, wrote a few books as well, was elected to the statehouse back in 2000. My first vote I ever cast was making sure that, but of course, President Bush defeated Al Gore, eventually moved over to the state Senate, as you mentioned, and earned the position as the president of the Senate. It's the equivalent of the majority leader here in the United States Senate. So I led that Senate. And my governor was actually Rick Scott. He and I worked on transformational programs with health care, with welfare reform, changing our pension systems. And of course, we have a balanced budget and a growing economy. And that's what we want to do here in Washington. Just like Texas is a fiscally responsible state, we want to make Washington, D.C. a heck of a more like Florida as opposed to Washington. And one other thing I've got to add, my wife, as you know well, Stephanie is actually the chief of staff to the Surgeon General. So she's working with the Maha movement, making sure that people have better information for their health care future. So back to something you said. you've had an amazing career. How many people do you think in this country actually know American history? Unfortunately, not that many. I think maybe 25% of the people know a decent number about American history. And so when I speak, just like we're doing today, I want to make sure that people understand the basics, why we formed the nation and why the Constitution is so vital. So when you take my class, whether it be in my early days in eastern Florida or later the University of Florida, I made it a point of making sure that people understood the rich history of America and why capitalism-free markets work and why the rule of law is so essential. It's what separates us from the rest of the world. And I also try to do things, even though I'm pretty conservative, as you know, I want to make sure that people understand both sides of the issues, because sometimes people are indoctrinated at colleges. I don't think that's fair, even though I have the ability to indoctrinate, usually counter to what most college professors do. People deserve to know both sides of the story and have an informed decision. That's why I love these kind of podcasts. It's not a bumper sticker or a 30-second TV spot. It allows you and I to have a real conversation and contrast our options for the future versus the Democrat options for the future. And we hope they pick the quote, and I would say the American way. Well, I love just the professional background that you bring to this because I think you do – for those that don't know Mike and this is your first chance to meet him, go look him up. Look at the district he represents. See the work that he's doing because he represents that governing conservative, somebody who brings a realistic but yet good perspective that takes care of the American family, believes in national security, wants to see a strong economy. And it's a perfect segue to what we have released this week at the RSC. So the RSC since July 5th, and thank you for being such an integral part, part of the steering committee, part of the leadership board. But we've been working, as you know, you've been working hand in hand with me and several others through the organization to come up with a bill that makes the American dream affordable again. And we're proud to have released this this week. But what I thought we'd do is I've got the framework that we have here. And when you talk about affordability, Republican policy is far better than anything Democrats could put out. In fact, everything we're doing is trying to undo what they've done under Obama and then Biden because it was disastrous for 12 years. They sent inflation through the roof. They have a regulatory framework that makes it almost impossible to build things, that they can use time as a weapon, that they can come after you with lawsuit after lawsuit. So what we're doing here, I'll just briefly read the framework, is making the American dream affordable again, restoring the American dream of homeownership, delivering health care freedom and a lower cost on drugs and other needs, cutting energy bills, rebuilding the American family, reducing wasteful government spending, and codifying President Trump's executive orders that also do many of the same things. So let's kind of get into it. I mean, tell us why we need a reconciliation bill. And what does that mean? Maybe explain it to our audience. I think a lot of people are frustrated. They always say, well, you have the presidency. You have, of course, the House and Senate. Why don't you get these things done? Well, unfortunately, the reality is in the Senate, you need 60 votes, a super majority. And we can't get that because the Democrats are simply against President Trump. They've proven it over and over again. No matter how good the policy is, they're going to vote no, thinking that somehow they'll get back into power. So reconciliation, and I'll use it this way, is it's a backdoor way of passing a budget, passing good legislation without needing that 60 vote threshold. And so what I love what you all have done is that this is a policy-oriented organization, not politics. And candidly, I think the Democrats are sometimes better than us at politics. We care about policy because good policy means good politics. That's what we try to do in Florida. It's one of the reasons we have a super majority of the House and Senate and dominate statewide elections because our policies are working. We're not a good grade of politics, but people recognize it's a better place to live and that's why people want to move there. So I think it's vital that we lay out a clear agenda and we show that contrast. And the big picture contrast that you've shown here is that the Republican plan is give power back to the individual let them keep more of the money they earned The Democrat plan historically as you pointed out the last four years is send more money and power to Washington We have better solutions than you And I think that one arrogant and it counter to the American way. And I think you've got a fantastic job of leading RSC and showing here's the policy options that we can get done. Unfortunately, it takes budget reconciliation, a simple majority, to get things done. I'd love to do it in a conventional way, but the Democrats won't let us do it, but that's not going to stop us from finding success. Well, we've been pushing House leadership and working with the White House. Obviously, we need the Senate, but we've got to coalesce around ideas. So let's kind of talk about, you know, some of these specifics here. You know, when you think about the average age of the American first-time homeowner, it's 41 years old. That's just unbelievable. It's way too late. I mean, we want the families to be able to build early. And that's a centerpiece of conservatism is celebrating the families. Unlike what Catherine Clark, the number two Democrat in the House said, she said, families are for leverage. We believe that they're our greatest asset. So talk to us a little bit about, you know, we'll go through housing and the affordability of homeownership. Then we'll go to healthcare and then we'll go to energy and kind of wrap it up with some of the other ones. But just talk to us specifically about homeownership and some of the things we can do, not to necessarily interject ourselves into the market, but to set the conditions so that it's once again achievable. Well, one of the things that crushed American families last four years is just the interest rates going from 3% to 7%. Where I live in Central Florida, near Kennedy Space Center, the average house, sadly, is about $500,000. It's very expensive. And when you have an interest rate going from 3% to 7%, that's $1,200 more a month, almost $15,000 a year, just in interest payments to get some idea on this. And what we've already seen in the last year since President Trump's backing off as we're leading both the House and Senate is because we've been more fiscally responsible, you've seen interest rates tick down a bit. I think they'll continue to come down as we make the better decisions, including this reconciliation process. That's one part of it. The other thing is you mentioned 41 years old. I mean, you're already well into your career thinking about retirement after maybe working 15 or 20 years. Our daughter, who's in her late 20s now, she can afford the payment. What she can't afford is a 20% down on obviously a $500,000 house. So we're going to look at different options for younger people to get that home ownership, which is so essential. It's your biggest investment you're going to make in your entire life. And one way we can help is being just fiscally responsible. And the positive chain reaction to that is lower interest rates. And as you've laid out in some of these proposals here, we want to work with banks so that maybe they offer more options for people to get into that first out, tax incentives, et cetera, much like you have an incentive for a 401k, we should do the same darn thing for homeownership. The NEST Act, a fellow Floridian, Kat Kamek, which basically says you can save money with a tax benefit to that money. So similar to an IRA, but a home savings account and the NEST Act then protects that and allows people to make that first down payment. I think it's a brilliant idea. And again, that 20% is tough because if you don't put 20% down, You have that PMI penalty, which is an additional fee that you're paying monthly. And it's a real challenge. And so by doing it this way, it's a win-win because what do we invariably do when we're younger? We spend extra every dollar we have. But if there's an incentive where that income is not taxable and you could actually accrue that savings more quickly, so you catch up with the market, which is very challenging at this time. Let's switch to another policy area, which is health care. And I know that your state is similar to mine, but throughout all the 50 states, health care is expensive. People don't necessarily know what they're getting. You don't know who you're paying. There's a middleman that takes a lot of this, the money that should rightfully go to the American patient, not to some insurance company or middleman. So one of the central themes of the health care side of reconciliation is transparency. It's competitiveness. It's being able to buy across state lines. And kind of talk to us about what it means specifically in Florida, but for all Americans, on why the conservative approach will actually save us money and get you a better quality of health care. Well, first and foremost, I come from a unique background. My wife, as I mentioned, is a medical doctor. She works with, of course, RFK Jr. now at HHS, our health care agency here in Washington, and they're trying to create, just in general, more choice. You, the consumer, making that decision. Going back to the fundamental idea I talked about before, Republicans want to allow you to keep more of your money for you to make the most vital decisions in your life. Like a brilliant idea, right? Yes, and it's the American way. That's what the founders believed in. And so what we are trying to do is pretty simple. Health insurance is not necessarily health care. Health insurance right now, when you get that tax credit under Obamacare, it doesn't go to you or I, let alone the folks watching right now. It goes directly to the insurance company. Part two of that equation is it's in the best interest of the insurance company to deny you care because when they deny you care, guess what? They make bigger profits. And so you see this uneasy relationship. President Trump and the RSC is correct. We're trying – let's change that relationship. If you put the money into your pocket, it's called OPM. OPM means the Democrat version. Our version is you decide how to best spend that health care dollar, and you have unique needs. If you have a preexisting condition, you might choose one type of policy. If you're a younger person, you're going to choose a completely different one, or maybe you have some catastrophic coverage. God forbid something really disastrous happens. That flexibility is essential. And that's, again, it's pushing the idea of not just freedom, but it's what works. I mean, every time – the more the federal government has gotten involved in the health insurance business, the more prices go up. Anytime you subsidize something, the price actually goes up, as we've seen with housing costs and now, of course, with health care. And so when we make the system more flexible, that's where the marketplace wins. And we make insurance companies compete against each other as opposed to all knowing they're going to get a certain amount of money no matter how good the quality is for the actual patients. A blank check approach telling the insurance companies that the government will pay whatever you charge. So just keep raising the rates. And they have. That doesn't work. And that's why I'm proud of the Republican Study Committee, because we, you mentioned maybe we're not as good at politics, but we have good policy. And I think good policy equals good politics. And we, what we're doing on health care right now is transformational. We do have the ideas. This is a mechanism for us to get it done, where I think people are, you remember growing up as a kid, I mean, I would watch my mom write a check at the pediatrician's office. You knew what you got. If you didn't like the service you got there, you could go somewhere else. But we've got to get back to something that is similar to that, where you know what the cost is. And you know that if you want to go next door, it might be a little bit less, but maybe you don't like the quality. So you might spend a little bit more, but at least you have the choice. And that's what this bill is really trying to do. And I think we're going to get there. And I think to add to your point not just choice but as you brought it up earlier transparency When you go to the hospital right now you have no earthly idea what the bill is going to be in the mail in a few weeks And there no real control over it And that the game that they too often play I want to have that ability to say what the real price Put it up on the board. And there's actually, when you talk about elective surgeries, prices have gone down because people know they're literally shopping for that. Now, you can't shop for an emergency room situation. Let's not confuse that. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about primary care, They're everyday things that we're having to make choices on. And look, when you talk about a health care plan, in my state, it's between $1,700 and $2,000 a month for a family of four. I mean, that means before you even have to start paying the co-pays and deductibles, you're spending $25,000, and that might be $6,000 or $8,000. So you're spending $30,000 before you get the benefit of, quote, health insurance. I'd much rather see a system where you pay for some basics, a much lower premium. And then, as you said, the things in between, you can go out and shop when your everyday health care needs, whether it be scripts or vaccines, you name it. And then you have that back-end catastrophic coverage that you have much like with your car insurance. You know that if there's a big accident, they'll cover that big accident. But the repairs in between, you might pick up because it makes for a lower premium. We've got a system that was completely constructed by Democrats, and it's a house of cards. It doesn't work. And this is our chance to fix it. We could talk all day long on health care and housing. Let's quickly talk about energy because prices of energy have gone up. The Biden administration declared war on fossil fuels, and they declared war on the reliability factor of good low-cost sources like oil and gas, like coal, and other things. As we translate those into electrons and they power our homes and our businesses, how does this bill address that? And what are you excited about as far as in the terms of reconciliation? Well, as you know, I look to you on these issues. And this is your bailiwick. This is the heart of Texas. And those energy issues are so important. We've seen the mistakes made by major nations like Germany and others who invested the wrong way. And their citizens are really paying for it, to say the least. And we want to offer incentives in a smart way. And we want to find that right balance. And so what we're trying to lay out with your bill here now with RSC is, again, opening up that opportunity where American resources can be maximized. It has been lacking for years. As you know, the Biden administration and prior to that, the Obama administration literally cut off that opportunity to take advantage of our own God-given minerals that were put into our ground. And now that President Trump is opening back up, you see prices come down and investment go up. And so this is the future. And to add one more element to this is that we all know about pumping your car full of gas, but there's a whole new one. That's AI revolution that's happening. We must win the AI war. I think it's a new Manhattan project. But that's an expensive proposition to use a lot of energy for AI to be fully utilized. So we need to put it at this all-energy solution, and that will include all the above, whereas the Democrats just want to say you can only do it their way, and the only way to do it in their mind is to have subsidies. We offer tax incentives. they want to spend your money on projects that can only don't work here, nor have proven to be around the world to be unsuccessful as well. It's a great point. It's not a choice. We have to win the AI race, but we also have to maintain good, low energy prices, which is another reason the RSC is so important because Lee Zeldin, a guest of the RSC that has given us a lot of perspectives from the EPA about how we have a clean environment. conservatives love conservatism and love to conserve. So we protect our environment, we protect our earth, we protect all of that, but we're also realistic about it and we take care of our people. So we, gosh, we could spend the entire time talking about energy. But what an important topic this really is for our, for I'd say the next decade plus. We're going to get to some football here in a second and we're going to talk national championship. But before we do that, let's talk about another policy issue, which is Washington's addiction to spending. $35 plus trillion in debt. You know, the first dent that we have made in this was the reconciliation, one big, beautiful bill where we actually were able to cut a trillion and a half dollars, which was very difficult to do. But we made that decision. Talk to us about what the RSC budget, not to be confused with budget reconciliation for our listeners, but what our annual budget means to you as a member, to you as a conservative? Well, I think we share the long-term goal of having a balanced budget. Get back to common sense because we have a balanced budget. The citizens of America have more money in their pocket and you actually grow a stronger economy. And we've seen what these horrible situations, whether it be in Minnesota or California, there's so much waste and fraud. It is ripe for opportunity. So there's plenty of money and the system to help the people who are truly in need. And what you're pushing forward here, just like you did in the first reconciliation with your leadership at RSC, we gave a whole menu of options to move the ball forward. And we know that it's not an overnight success. I call politics the art of the possible. You are putting together this menu in which hopefully we can get enough members to support this because we have such a thin margin. But having that transparency is so important. And when we expose the wasteful spending, people realize that they're not in it to try to help people sometimes at abortion Democrats. It's about power. And we see that in Minnesota and California. And I think you're going to see other states exposed in the same regard. When you open up that transparent angle, you see that how people have gamed the system. And it takes away from the fabric of America because people work hard to pay their taxes, 25, 30 percent, whatever it might be. And here they see going to people who are obviously defrauding the system and the government turns a blind eye to it. And if I do nothing else here in Washington, D.C. would be where make this more transparent, expose things. And I used to use this saying in Florida, sunshine, we have called sunshine state, right? Where the sunshine, good ideas prosper and grow in the sunshine, bad ideas should wither and die. And it seems like the Democrats want to hide the ball. We're willing to put all of our ideas, not only on paper, like you've done so well here, but in the in the budgeting process, you can see where the money's going and to see if it's going to those who it was truly intended to help out. I love that analogy, by the way. And when you go back to Nancy Pelosi's days, she passed her reconciliation bills in the dark of night. Not a single committee actually passed any of the provisions out of it. It was several thousand pages. And I remember famously what she said. Oh, yeah. Well, what's in it? She goes, I don't know. I guess we'll have to pass it to find out. Well, that's not the way we do business. Exactly. That's lack of transparency right there. So just as a highlight, I mean, the budget that Chair Beth Van Dyne released this past week is a 10-year balanced budget. It was endorsed by the House Agriculture Committee and by the Farm Bureau because we listened about the things that we really needed to do, which was let take care of farmers and ranchers because we know that a national security need But let get rid of the fraud as our good friend Brad Finstad from Minnesota briefed us on the fraud is so rampant And I think California and New York probably have double triple quadruple what we seeing in Minnesota People want to trust the government, and they don't trust it right now. And I've said this publicly. I think this is literally organized crime. And we used to use the same tools to go after these folks just like they did with organized crime. Going back to my dad's days when he used to arrest mafia guys and gangsters. gangsters. We have to expose this because when you take away that, again, as I talk about the fabric of America, people are watching right now and they see this fraud. And it is rampant. And then any politician turns a blind eye. It takes away what makes America so special. And this is our job to restore that confidence. There is a role for government. I am not an anarchist, let alone a libertarian. I'm a person who believes there's a role for government, but there should be a small role for government. And then you, the individual, have the power and responsibility to take care of your family so you have those extra dollars so you can do it and make those difficult choices. Because when you send it here to Washington, there's a heck of a lot of overhead. And a lot of times they're worried about the politics as opposed to the policy that you and I've talked about today. That's why this podcast is cool, because your analogy of organized crime is exactly spot on. And RSC is like, we're the conservative conscience. We are governing conservatives that want to come and we have solutions. We've got ideas. We'll throw the ideas against the wall, see how many people we can get around it. But eventually we're going to craft something that's really good, as opposed to what Democrats did, which was blank check, NGOs start, a daycare in Minnesota starts, no accountability, zero transparency. Nobody knows what's in the bill because it didn't go through the process. We took, for the one big beautiful bill, we took so many arrows for the things, but we were transparent about it. Exactly. You know, and at the end of the day, when people get their tax returns back, they're going to say, thank you for doing what you did to have those tax cuts, to save a trillion and a half dollars of fraud, waste and abuse, and to get the institution back into trust. And I love being a part of a movement that will do that. That is, we have nothing to hide. We want people to comment, debate, have a dialogue, come together. That's why this group is great to be a part of. We have talked about so many important issues. Let's talk about one of the most important ones, which is college football. So a lot of predictions out there. You're from Florida and you taught at the University of Florida. So I'm sorry that the Gators aren't playing in the national championship, but you do have a Florida team. And then there is Indiana. What a great story, right? It's a great story. I mean, the all time, if there's such a word, is losing us are the worst team in college football has the most losses of any school in the nation. And in two years, they turned it all around with two and three stars, beating four and five stars. Isn't that amazing? What a great story. And this guy, Zignetti, is a pretty interesting cat. But a great story. I'm rooting for Miami. My daughter used to go to school there, so I'm partial to her in the U. But you can't help but like Indiana and the turnaround. And it gives a team like my Arkansas Razorbacks, where I used to live, hope that maybe they can turn it around in a couple years as well. They could. I just win. Google me. I love that. Signetti, I mean, here's what I like about Indiana. I like the fact that you mentioned they don't have any five-star players. Very few four-stars. And yet the culture there is team. You see this guy Mendoza, and he always gives glory to God. He's always talking about his teammates. He's always talking about his family. He's talking about everybody but himself. and you think about that culture there where they have come together as a team. It reminds me a little bit about our conference. That's right. Where we were able to beat all the odds and get through the reconciliation process the first time and come together and unify. Everybody said, no, you won't be able to do that. You certainly won't be able to do it by July 4th. Well, we did. And we had a president that was pushing us on. but I really think that there's no team that's beatable, which is why I'm going to go for Indiana. I think ultimately they're going to be successful because they don't have one or two players to just rely on. It's the whole of the team that makes them great. And I think that's the movement. I hope what college football will take from that is that you don't have to pay players exorbitant amounts to win. You have to have a culture of winning where people are selfless, and then you'll see that you're going to win. And that's the culture that Signetti has created there. I think that's the culture that we are doing in Congress as Republicans, which is if we will quit being selfish and stop thinking about the one-liners on TV or getting legislation all the way to the finish line and then having one person that can blow it up, if we'll quit thinking about that and we'll all come together with our ideas, debated as hard as we can, then there's nothing that can stop us. And our policy will be good politics because you'll see a good team that has actually finished with those ideas. Well, and to give you credit, I didn't know what to expect here in Washington. When I came into the study committee, it's so nice to see that the leadership model, which you've set up, is one where you're a great listener. You're not a big talker. You want to get ideas. You want to kick them around. You want to really challenge each other, hold each other accountable as well. And the best skill we can all have as elected officials is talk less, listen more. And I really like the culture you've set up at RSC. I think it's why so many people want to join the organization that you lead at this point. We've got a great history, whether it be Steve Scalise, of course, the Speaker of Johnson, others before you. That's what people want to see. They want to see people who listen, who learn, and then act. And this is a blueprint for success. This is empowering the individual, bringing back the values and principles that made this country great. And you're a good representative for this. I mean, a lot of us freshmen came in not knowing what to expect. You join an impressive organization like this, and you think sometimes, oh, it's going to be top down. And it's been just the opposite. And I think people really appreciate it. And having this kind of conversation where you and I are just kind of telling it how it is. And I hope everyone listening realizes the real cultural change, just like in Indiana, that's happening here in Washington. We want to be more transparent. No one in Washington has ever been like that. And just like President Trump made the big great American comeback, we did the same thing with the economy this year. We've gone from a real bad one to a little bit better. And I think we're going to continue to grow this economy because we're investing in people with their own money for themselves as opposed to investing in more and more government, which I think will only erode potential success. I love that. And investing in the American family and not government. Guys, what a phenomenal conversation we've had with Mike Herodopoulos from Florida. the RSC's Right to the Point podcast is a great opportunity for us to talk about these things. So we've talked about a lot that has been unveiled and now is go time. Now it's time to act. But thank you for joining today. It's been a pleasure having you. And thanks for being a great, great member. Thanks, Josh. Thanks for your leadership. Appreciate it. Let's go get them.
