 Aloha and welcome to Ehana Kako. We're here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kili Ikeena. Well, we've entered into the second 50 days of President Trump's leadership over the United States of America. And who would have thought it would have created such a furor in the relationship between the United States and Hawaii of all places? You'd think we'd be concerned more about the relationship between D.C. and China, Beijing, and so forth. But in our media, at least here in Hawaii, we're looking quite a bit at the impact of the Trump presidency on the 50th state. But is there a special impact or a disparate impact upon the 50th state? Or is it just incidental? I've got someone who can answer that question and delve into some of the things that have taken place from Washington, D.C. He's the director of the Grassroot Action Hawaii, or Grassroot Hawaii Action, which is our partner organization working on Washington, D.C. issues on behalf of the state of Hawaii. And welcome him to our program today, Andy Blom. Andy, welcome from the cold, cold East Coast. Has your weather gotten any warmer in the last few weeks? Aloha. Actually, this is the first day of spring, and it crept up to 60 degrees. And you notice that I'm trying to bring on weather by wearing my Hawaiian shirt while you look like you're from Washington, D.C. I've got our roles mixed up here. We've got a symbiotic relationship. So what is Washington, D.C. saying about Hawaii and its reaction to the Trump presidency so far? Frankly, not as much as Hawaii is saying about Washington, D.C. Hawaii has not been singled out for anything. There's certainly dissatisfaction with Judge Watson and your attorney general, Chen. But nothing that's happening has been directed at Hawaii. These are cuts that are an example or a definition of how President Trump thinks the country needs to go. And he doesn't go, oh, this will hurt North Dakota, or this will hurt Hawaii, or this will help Florida. He's working on a national level. So there's less import upon the nation from Hawaii's reaction to President Trump's policy so far than we like to think, perhaps. Let me go straight to what you mentioned. Attorney General Doug Chen. We're dealing here now with the President's immigration policy, which in some ways isn't as different from his predecessor's policy as some would like to think. But let's start off by defining it. What exactly is Hawaii reacting to in terms of President Trump's immigration policy? It's a little hard to understand in some ways because this policy in general is popular. And what Hawaii is reacting to is the same seven nations that President Obama restricted immigration from. Trump was restricting immigration. His second executive order allows people with valid visas and valid green cards, immediate access, but puts a much, much stronger vetting process in and puts a stay on immigration from seven, well, six nations that have severe terrorist ties. And this is part of his America first. Let's protect America. Let's take the steps. But this is not a giant leap from anything President Obama did. Now, Attorney General Doug Chen sued the President and Derek Watson, the federal judge, granted an injunction to stop nationwide or globally, actually, the implementation of Trump's policy. What do you think of it? What do people in D.C. think about that? Frankly, I hate to say this. As a Hawaiian, this hurts me. They think they're being silly. It's hurting. It is hurting Hawaii's image in this way. There's so much coverage about the first suit and so much coverage about the fact that Trump Trump's Attorney General presented strong constitutional arguments that the Ninth Circuit Court didn't listen to. They revised executive order specifically to the complaints that were brought up in the lawsuit. And despite the fact that it was revised exactly to those complaints, it was immediately challenged and immediately stopped by the judge. And the attitude up here, for the most part, is these guys are just showing off their dumb why are they causing the problem. Now, this has raised a renewed discussion of the value of the Ninth Circuit as it is currently composed. Why don't you bring us up to date a bit about that discussion? Well, there was a story today, actually, that five of the justices on the Ninth Circuit, because they did not do this on both, said that Trump's second order met constitutional muster. So even within the Ninth Circuit, they're recognizing this. The Ninth Circuit is overturned more than any other circuit court. They're overturned 70% of the time when they go to the Supreme Court, which is just frankly ridiculous. But now there's legislation in Congress to break the Ninth Circuit into two separate courts, just to break them up because of the succession of bad decisions. That raises the whole question of politicization of the Ninth Circuit. And this may be a little tabloidish, but what are the thoughts about the fact that President Obama here in Hawaii had visited with Judge Wastson the day before he issued his ruling? That could be coincidental. What are people saying about that? President Obama is drawing a lot of very unfavorable comparison to the way George W. Bush handled transition and courtesy to his successor. And there and actions like no one knows or can prove that President Obama influenced that decision. But the coincidence is very strong and it creates a very bad taste in people's mouth that he's out here tinkering and they feel that the role of an ex-president is certainly to give the new president the chance to prove himself, to exercise his vision and to bring in his cabinet, to take to take command as the president. And there's questions being raised up here about the propriety of what Mr. Obama did. On the whole, this is beginning to hurt Obama's reputation. It's beginning to hurt the Democrats up here. Because one of the things this election showed was how dissatisfied people in the middle were from the behavior in Washington. And Mr. Trump's approval ratings go up a point or two every week. So, frankly, there's two things. It's not very courteous, but it's also not working. Well, about a week after Attorney General Dugchin went to court and then when Judge Watson issued his ruling, President Trump issued his skinny budget with massive budget cuts for all states across the nation. But there has been some conjecture here in Hawaii, and I don't know if it takes place anywhere else, that there was a bit of retaliation here on the part of the administration against Hawaii for its position it took in the court. And would you simply validate that or put that to rest? Well, first of all, these cuts go absolutely across the entire nation. So, you know, whatever Hawaii is experiencing, North Dakota is experiencing, Florida is experiencing, California is experiencing all the states, and it was the majority of them that went for Mr. Trump. They're all experiencing it. There's no Hawaii. Again, I fight for this here, and I try to make Hawaii visible as much as possible. But Hawaii is not important enough to be singled out in a federal budget that way. And more than that, the budget is a reflection of what Mr. Trump feels his mandate was and what he's promised to do. And that is to dramatically downsize government to deregulate the mess in Washington to begin to cut the thousands of regulations that tie individuals' hands, that ties companies' hands, that ties up everybody now. One of the first things that's happened is cutting the waters of the United States regulations that President Obama put in. This is a very good thing for Hawaii because what it did was give the government the right to come in and tell anybody who had any water on their land what they could do with their land. You're talking about the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act, yes. It's actually a fancy name for the U.S. But now that's been repealed by President Trump. This is a very good thing for Hawaii. So we should be cheering for the things that President Trump has done for Hawaii. But you just deflated my sense of self-importance or Hawaii's sense of self-importance by saying that we're not actually being singled out by the Trump administration and there's no retaliation for the behavior of Hawaii, but that this budget is part of a rational plan that actually, in and of itself, had nothing to do with Hawaii but has to do with a program, an agenda of the Trump administration. That's what you're saying. Exactly. And the State Department by 29% was not directed at Hawaii. Cutting the EPA by 30% was not directed at Hawaii. Raising the defense budget by 7% is a good thing for us. That's right. It is. And usually raising the defense budget is something that Hawaii's politicians and media give high praise to. But in this case, what we're seeing in our local newspapers and what we're hearing from our local politicians is how terrible it is that social services are being cut, that education is being cut, that public programs such as PBS Broadcasting as well as soft diplomacy such as the East-West Center are being cut. In fact, that news takes about three quarters of all the news, but very little news is given to or attention is given to the fact that maybe we'll be able to protect ourselves from being blown out of the water by North Korea. Yeah, so you're not that far. You're now within ballistic missile range of a genuine lunatic who executed someone with an anti-aircraft gun. This is an unbalanced person with nuclear weapons. I would love to see a much more developed missile defense system in Hawaii. I think it would be great for everyone. I think more military jobs and not only more, but one of the things that this is going to do because North Pacific is so strategically important because China is misbehaving, North Korea is misbehaving. One of the things that this budget is going to do is see that the military presence in Hawaii, not always expended, but is solidified. So we're not going to be on the list of base closings and we're not going to be losing a really key component of our economy. That's right. Well, we'll come back after a short break and I'll ask you a little bit more about the positive impact of President Trump's policies upon Hawaii. Everybody, you're watching Andy Blom, our Executive Director of Grassroot Action up in Washington D.C., our sister organization. I'm Kayleigh Akina with the Grassroot Institute here in Hawaii and we'll be right back on Think Tech Hawaii's Ehana Kako after this short break. They'll go away. Hi, I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia. I'm the host of Working Together on Think Tech Hawaii. It's a program where we discuss the impact of change on workers, employers, and the economy. So join us every other Tuesday from 4 o'clock to 4 30. We're live in the studio on Working Together in Think Tech Hawaii. Take care. See you soon. Bye. Aloha. My name is Reg Baker and I'm the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday at 2 o'clock. We highlight businesses and individuals that are successful in Hawaii and we learn their secrets to their success. I hope you can join us and listen in because we always have a pack of information on successful stories in Hawaii. Aloha. Welcome back from halftime. This is Kayleigh Akina on Think Tech Hawaii's Ehana Kako, which means let's work together at the Grassroot Institute. We think it's better to work together rather than apart to build a better economy, government, and society. So thanks very much to Think Tech Hawaii, a great broadcast network led by Jay Fiedel and a terrific team producing at least 30 hours of original content broadcasts from Honolulu all across the nation and the world. We're talking with Anderson Blom or Andy in Washington D.C. who heads our organization up there for Grassroot, working on issues such as the Jones Act, federal recognition of Native Hawaiians, and a good number of other things that have to deal with just making the United States and Hawaii work together into the best way possible. Andy, we were talking a bit about President Trump's second 50 days as we begin to assess his impact upon the state of Hawaii. Several negative comments have been made in our media and the press with regard to immigration policy as well as to federal budget cuts. But you also see some advantages in terms specifically of the realignment of the budget around its priorities. So what are those priorities and how do they benefit Hawaii? Well the priorities and let me start with Ehana Kako because one of the big problems that's going on is exactly what you're describing which is hysteria on the left and hysteria on the right. But we appear to have lost the ability to stop and look at anything objectively or most importantly to work together. And it's really important we begin to come together. We have a nominee for the Supreme Court who everybody in the Judiciary Committee when they pointed him to the circuit court, every Democrat spoke wonderfully highly of them and now we're going to have endless attacks. So why can't we move past the partisanship and look at what's actually happened. What's actually happening is President Trump really believes that the federal government has gotten out of hand. It's gotten away from the people. It's not responsible to the people and that it's spending a great deal of our money on things that we don't have a say in and wouldn't choose to spend our money that way. I have actually a couple of hundred nieces and nephews in Hawaii and they all work very hard for every dollar and so there's hysteria that President Trump has cut the endowment for the arts. But I really don't think any of those nieces and nephews and I certainly don't want to give a dollar of my tax money to people who are putting a crucifix of Jesus in a jar of urine or who are putting a painting of the Blessed Mother with dung thrown on it. You know so when Trump begins to take these actions he's responding to a large voice of helplessness from average Americans who say we're tired of Washington deciding how we have to think, deciding where our money goes, deciding as we don't matter. And when we get out to Hawaii, yes, he's cut the national endowment for the arts. For centuries art was supplied, you know, artists were funded by patrons and by selling their work. The government didn't support the, you know, didn't pick winners and losers in the arts. The government, why is the government, why are we in Hawaii paying for a radio or television network? We're not paying for CBS or Fox or well probably country music television is not a big deal in Hawaii but you know why does one network get subsidized by your tax dollars? This is a rational cut. You were talking in the first segment about the purposes of President Trump's budget values, in particular one is his desire to quote deconstruct the administrative state, end quote, which refers to the fact that we've seen a phenomenal transference of power from the states up to the administration of the federal government and nowhere is that more evident than in the sprawling regulations of regulatory agencies that take federal laws and then just proliferate the subsidiary laws one in being the Clean Water Act. Would you explain how the repeal of the Clean Water Act or Waters of the United States as it's affectionately called helps to dismantle the administrative state and return power back to the state itself and to its own counties? and to the people and it's ultimately this is a very excellent example because what it did is an example of just how broad these regulations are written and how much power they give the government and you vote for people to go up to Washington to pass laws these are all all of the deconstructing the administrative state are not laws passed by your congresspeople and your senators they are laws invented by people in federal agencies so some bureaucrat decides we're going to have a new law in the Waters of the United States which means any piece of property that has standing or running water on it has to have approval of the Environmental Protection Agency before anything can be done on that property now what that means is if you collect a lot of standing water when it rains you can't build a shed in your backyard without the EPA approving it but that's the extent to which this overreach has gotten it's extent to it and it's not an extreme example you have a stream running through and you want to divert a little to irrigate the uh yeah well i happened to like my guava tree but yeah okay there's you can't do that without EPA approval well now you can because president trump has killed that regulation but there are regulations upon regulations upon regulations right that make us responsible to the government on things that should just belong to us or to the state you know keeping uh keep going with your example of the Clean Water Act it's no secret that we've had a real struggle here in hawaii to grow the agricultural industry in fact this last last year we saw the shuttering of hawaii cane and mawai cane and sugar hawaii cane and sugar on mawai the last of the cane uh plantations and and that affected about 70 plus percent of all the agricultural land on mawai now i went on tour of that land and saw with my own eyes that uh virtually every uh several yards you have an irrigation system an irrigation ditch built into that land and right now the plan to try to convert that land to diversified agriculture or other uses is is facing all kinds of struggles not the least of which had been litigation because of the Clean Water Act and so here we see how something president trump has done actually re-empowers hawaii to make its own decisions about its own land and use it as is needed and that's a that's a very important distinction as well it affects individuals in their property but also the land and water in wisconsin is not like the land and water in hawaii and these are decisions that need to be made at home the hawaii is a very unique and special place it does not need to have to live by regulations that are passed to work in north dakota or florida well andy one of the state is deconstructed that's right we control what happens in hawaii that's right well andy one of the reasons that you're sitting there in dc is because we sent you up to to work on one of the issues that is close to the heart of grassroot and that is the repealing modifying or whatever you do exempting ourselves from a 1920s shipping law called the jones act and i don't want to take precious time to go into detail about that but many of our viewers understand what the jones act is and if there's any question for those of you watching just go to our website grassrootinstitute.org that's grassrootinstitute.org and search for jones act you'll find a complete library of articles describing what that is suffice it to say that shipping law and set of laws from the 1920s has resulted in the raising of prices here in the state of hawaii and uh what i wanted to ask you andy is now into the second 50 days of the trump administration do you see any new pathways for bringing about some kind of reform or updating of the jones act something we've been working for for quite a while well not in the next 50 days unfortunately because frankly things are crazy up here there's new executive orders every day and there's some real big ticket items like the health care act that have congress completely taken up however we now have a republican senate and a republican house which dramatically increases our opportunity to get jones act reform passed and i think that we have has the year weighs on and we get into this more seriously we already have some legislators who are very interested in advancing the legislation and we're going to have a much better chance of creating a good jones act reform for hawaii there's a coin toss frankly with president trump and that is that he wants to buy american and build american and that makes it difficult to reform the shipbuild part of the jones act but he is very very concerned over and over and over again about the individual americans and individual americans being able to not just exist but to prosper to make their lives better economically with tax cuts with programs against the government out of their hair with lower rates so we just don't know yet whether he's going to see the jones act as a regulation that's gotta go that's a hundred years old and burdens the people of hawaii or is he going to be hard-nosed about yes but we have to build american ships well yes about this it'll be important for reformers like yourself and the rest of us at grassroot institute to be able to show that an appropriate reform of the jones act even if it does touch the us build requirement will actually build our economy will actually result in more jobs will actually strengthen the nation and beyond that president trump's commitment to the building of the united states military including the united states navy will add more than enough jobs to the and build our military shipbuilding industry exactly and that's a the fact that he wants to go from 180 to 300 or 350 ships those shipyards are not going to be turning out any jones act ships in the near future they're going to be very busy and expanding which helps our argument frankly and your point is very valid that to the extent that he sees that this helps american jobs helps american economy and helps the people of hawaii you know i think we have an excellent chance but it's you know we're taking a different path and we live with a different president but the you know the opportunity is better than it's been in eight years so very good well andy i want to thank you very much for representing the grassroot movement in washington dc taking our needs and values and making them known to legislators congressmen senators and others and uh... thank you for wearing aloha shirt today it's a great thrill to wear an aloha shirt i just wish i had if you could sense the sunshine through the sky here i'd really appreciate it very good well thank you very much my guest today anderson blom executive director of grassroot hawaii action sister organization of the grassroot signing off i'm kelly akina until next time on a hana kako on the think tech hawaii broadcast network aloha