GLENN: One person said to me -- they were sitting -- and I don't want to get specific. They were sitting in a room, and they said, A, nobody like me would be in the room before. I'm a die hard constitutionalist. Blah, blah. And just bottom line thinker. And was in a room with the Trump people and with the people in Congress that make the decisions. And at one point, they all looked at him and said, "What do you think?"
And he said, "First of all, nobody would have ever asked me what do I think openly in the room." And he said, "I said, well, what needs to happen is Congress needs to do X, Y, and Z, and then that just stops all of these problems." And he said, "The room stopped, they looked at the attorneys, and the attorneys said, yeah, that would work. And then the leadership said, okay. Let's do it." He said, "He walked out going, what the hell just happened?"
(laughter)
So, I mean, I am hearing tremendous reports. Now, I am still skeptical because I am gravely concerned about the First Amendment. I am gravely concerned about, are we going to rule constitutionally? Are we going to put the power back in Congress, or will this be a guy who writes edicts?
JEFFY: Eh, don't worry about it. We'll just get things done.
GLENN: I know.
STU: For example, Jeffy, on that point, you know, Trump said that they're going to -- that the administration said they're going to start building the wall via executive order.
GLENN: Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
STU: Now, they're not going to pass any legislation in Congress.
PAT: I will say legislation is already in place.
GLENN: Already in place.
PAT: 2006, already in place.
STU: Right. But then there was legislation after that saying that we're not going to do that.
PAT: I don't know that they specifically said we're not going to -- they said we derailed it. But they could have gotten it back on track.
GLENN: Yeah, I think they just said, "We're going to do it this way."
PAT: Which was the weirdest.
I mean, it just shows how Republicans aren't conservatives. But, still, he could do it.
GLENN: Anyway --
STU: Why would you need an executive order to do something that already exists?
PAT: I don't know. I don't know.
GLENN: I don't know. I'd like to read into that one.
STU: Well, let's just -- hold that one off.
I think the interesting thing about the Trump administration, from my perspective, is that he's going sort of all out on everything. And so the things he connects with me on, he goes further than a Mitt Romney would.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: And it's really exciting. It's really exciting to me.
GLENN: Today's examples, listen to this.
STU: This is a story in the Hill, and they're talking about spending cuts. This is the proposal. This has not been passed or even proposed yet, but this is what they're talking about.
The Departments of Commerce and Energy would see major reductions in funding, with programs under their jurisdiction either being eliminated or transferred to other agencies.
PAT: That's great.
STU: The Departments of Transportation, Justice, and State would see significant cuts and program eliminations.
PAT: Good.
STU: The corporation for public broadcasting would be privatized.
PAT: Oh, my gosh.
STU: And this one speaks directly to my heart and soul.
PAT: Wow. NPR would be privatized.
STU: Yes. Yes.
GLENN: Let's get back to that in a second.
PAT: Yeah, you got to love that.
JEFFY: Oh, no kidding.
STU: While the National -- I almost want to say it with the Barry White voice.
GLENN: You're going to make me cry. I think I know what you're going to say. You're going to make me cry.
STU: Just think about this for a moment. The National Endowment of the Arts would be eliminated entirely.
PAT: Oh, can you imagine what Hollywood will do then?
JEFFY: Oh, my gosh.
STU: Oh, God, do I love that.
PAT: That is the dagger through their heart.
STU: It's like literally my number one cut in the entire government.
PAT: Oh, that's great.
STU: Because of the fact that it's so stupid. It's like people love art. It's the one people everyone will donate to all the time.
PAT: Then fund it. Then fund it.
STU: They will all do it for free. They don't even need funding to do art because everyone likes doing art anyway, yet we still dump money. It's a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but it's such a stupid government role, that I would love if they would eliminate it.