GLENN: Let's start with Mulvaney. Yesterday, are you -- have you had your cigarette? Have you rested enough to be able to set this up for us?
STU: Very private question. To be perfectly honest.
GLENN: I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry.
STU: Mick Mulvaney did an impromptu -- just covered yesterday. Kind of with -- in the middle of Spicer's deal. And he's the director of the budget, OMB.
PAT: Okay.
STU: And he's also a guy who we've liked for a really long time. He's a really good congressman, freedom caucus type of guy, has always been ready. And he was going through the budget and he was saying things that you've never heard anyone --
GLENN: Actually say before. Or at least outside of your circle of friends. Now, I just wanted to say this: If you are a new listener of ours, I want you to know where I stand on climate change. I don't believe in the manmade climate change. I was a guy who used to piss Stu off, or at least gravely concerned because Stu has been on this -- on this science route for 20 years. He's a stats guy. And when Al Gore first came out with his movie, he was -- you know, Stu was like, this is crazy.
And I said, I want to see it. And Stu, I think you -- I bet you lost 10 pounds.
STU: I actually eat more when I'm stressed. So I probably gained 10.
GLENN: I went. And he not, oh, Glenn's going to buy into this and I'm going to have to kill myself. And I got out of the movie and said Stu, the hockey stick thing is very compelling. I want to look at the math.
And we looked at the math, and I'm a guy who's completely green at my home in -- in Idaho. I am more green with my farm and my ranch than I'll bet you Al Gore could even imagine.
I just don't believe that CO2, because I remember the little thing where -- (sighing) and the trees go -- (sighing).
We all forgot that.
So this, if you are -- if you're a global warming person, this may make your head pop. Listen.
MULVANEY: Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward. We're not spending money on that anymore. We consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that, so this is a specific tie to his -- to his campaign.
PAT: Oh, my gosh. Tell me that's not great.
STU: To a room of reporters to say that, because you know, even -- very good argument, even if you are an activist, to say, well, the government spending billions, trillions of dollars globally to try to solve this problem is probably not a good expenditure of money. They polled this issue, and it is dead last in priorities for the American people. You know, there's --
GLENN: It's not only that. It's just not effective. Look at -- look at Space X. You want to go to space? Give it to the private industry. We're going to have men on the moon again, and it won't cost the United States government a dime.
STU: Right.
GLENN: If it's -- if it's really, truly, a priority, very smart people are -- believe in this. And they're in Silicon Valley, and we're working on ethics to make us more green, and it's good. I'm adapting some of those things. Tesla. Who will not have their home run on a Tesla battery when it is available?
STU: It's available now.
GLENN: I mean, one that's really available. I mean, when it's reasonably priced, and when it really --
STU: What we will do is do what's best for our families. Right? And when Tesla, which, by the way, has with automobiles in many ways, people really like them. So they want to go buy them because their great.
GLENN: Right. What I mean is, I will put the tiles up on my roof, and I will have a solar -- I can't wait. It's available now, but it's not reasonable now. When it's reasonable, I'll be there. That's not coming from the government. That's coming from a guy who believes this stuff, who can change the world. That's the way it should work.
STU: And we should point out that too much money has come from the government on some of these projects, on Tesla and many others. Another solar company went bankrupt yesterday. And, you know --
GLENN: How much did we owe to that one?
STU: I don't know. You see the headlines so many times. Sometimes you skip the stories. But the point is --
GLENN: All of that changes when the batteries change. When we were going to invest in one thing, and I, again, don't believe we should be, but if we were to invest in one thing, we should invest in research on batteries. When the batteries change, everything changes. Right now, your biggest problem is not the solar panels. Although the solar panels can be smaller than anything else, and more -- everything else, and more efficient. It's the storage, the batteries.
STU: And that is what Tesla is trying to solve. And home they have a home battery you put why your garage now, which is there and works.
GLENN: It's not --
STU: It's constitutional to the point where the --
GLENN: When the battery is right, a Tesla, the one problem that I have with the Tesla is, I can't just go -- I can't just go anywhere I want. It's got, what, 300 miles on it before the battery is dead?
STU: 300.
GLENN: So 300 miles before the battery is dead. That's just not for me. I'm just not comfortable 300 miles. When you get the battery to extend its life, now you're 500 miles, 600 miles, now that car is perfect for everybody.
STU: Or there's an infrastructure to charge it quickly. And that is happening. Right? We're in the process of that occurring. It just takes time. But I mean, you know, this is the type of thing that I -- because you look at many of the scientists, who would be considered skeptical, and they will say, all things being equal that, you know, what we've done with CO2 will have some effect on the climate. Will it be catastrophic? The answer, their answer is no. And that makes them into science deniers. The issue is, look at electric cars, for example. These innovations come, and 10, 15, 20 years ago, no one would have believed that a conservative talk radio show has come on the air how many times, dozens, and talked to you about how awesome the Tesla is. Right?
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: These innovations come, and the right is often considered to be antiscience, when what we are saying here is that innovation winds up solving these problems without the government spending trillions of dollars.
GLENN: It's the one reason why I'm against universal basic income, and I haven't heard anybody -- we're going to have a conversation on this with some people who are really discussing universal basic income for the right reasons, not socialist reasons. They say that jobs will -- 50% of people will be unemployed within the next 20 years. If -- 50, 60% unemployment rate is really horrible.
Well, my feeling is, yes, that's true. However, that's kind of what people said, you know, with the cotton gin or with manufacturing. Everybody was always like, we're you're going to make these chairs? You're just going to push them out on an assembly line in a big factory? What happens -- they got other jobs.
Everything changes. So there are many things that we're concerned about that work themselves out. I just have a hard time with the CO -- I don't know what happened. Do they even still teach this in school? Do they still teach the -- that it is a circle, that we breathe out, and the trees breathe in?
STU: Right. Of course. Yes.
PAT: And the main problem, I think, with the climate change crowd, especially Al Gore, that they've gone from this will become catastrophic if we don't do something about it to it's catastrophic right now. And we know it's not. It's not catastrophic right now.
GLENN: Listen -- now remember, I am a Bible-thumping catastrophist. Okay? That's the problem with the left. I'm a Bible-thumping catastrophist who's saying the world is going to end. Al Gore.
REPORTER: What is your take on the man the President chose to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who just last week said he doesn't agree that carbon dioxide is a contributor?
PAT: I know.
STU: He's so pretentious.
PAT: It's so quaint, isn't it? "These people are so stupid. But they're so stupid, they don't know how stupid they are. That's the beauty of it."
AL GORE: At some point --
PAT: At some point --
AL GORE: A false belief collides with reality. A nature hike through the book of revolutions.
PAT: We're seeing every night now on the news a nature hike through the book of Revelation. What? What?
JEFFY: It's the worst.
PAT: So like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping through downtown Dallas right now? You're not seeing on the nightly news --
GLENN: Do you know why you haven't seen that?
PAT: Why? Oh, boy.
GLENN: We're going to get into this later.
This is from the Daily Mail. I'm just going to give you the -- M-A-I-L.
PAT: Not just --
GLENN: I'm just going to give you -- I'm just the going to give you the headline. Mammals shrink when the earth heats up.
PAT: Oh, boy? Horses.
GLENN: Horses the size of cats.
[Laughter.]
JEFFY: That's going to be tough to ride.
GLENN: Wait until you hear this -- the reason why you're not seeing or how are you doing the four horsemen of the Apocalypse --
PAT: You don't see the horses anymore. They're too tiny.
GLENN: They're very, very small.