[speaker001:] okay uh could you give me your thoughts on uh on any trends
[speaker002:] well uh longer term trends I think that uh like past oh ten or fifteen years uh there there there seems to be a a trend and maybe it's longer than that of of politics is is strictly a what can I get for me or what can I get for my group and not what's best for the whole uh kind of a thing uh does that make any sense or
[speaker001:] yeah um you're talking about the uh political action committees and uh
[speaker002:] I mean the yeah political action committees that and I think it I think it ties in with the the budget deficit that uh the Congress and and uh is is they get they get reelected by what they do for their districts uh in terms of bringing in and bringing in money and and uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] in order to bring in money for their district they've got to vote to spend it in other districts and and uh the heck with the overall uh deficit and it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] districts is geographical but it can just as well be interest groups in terms of of uh whether it's Social Security or or anything that that uh it's it's what what you get for your constituents one way or another not what what's necessarily good overall
[speaker001:] yeah we're uh we feel it up here in New England because we're small states so we don't have the represent and representatives that
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] that the larger states have you know like like Texas and California um but we've got we have political clout only because of the tenure of the people that are in there like for uh uh the sub
[speaker002:] yeah like Texas yeah yeah
[speaker001:] building you know Gratin and they're building down in Newport now
[speaker002:] yeah okay but you
[speaker001:] but once uh somebody's got to do it somebody's got to build the subs and I guess Virginia can do it also in fact I've got a a
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] the latest contract that was awarded Virginia sued or has got a lawsuit against uh Gratin to stop construction because it was unfairly obtained or something like that you know
[speaker002:] yeah and uh yeah but let's see you you do have uh long time uh long time power people there in terms of I mean Rhode Island's got uh
[speaker001:] right this um
[speaker002:] Powell and Chaffey and and and been in the senate forever and uh
[speaker001:] Powell yep yep yep but when those when those people leave uh the power's going to go um there isn't really anything here because we're not really big enough so the economy is going to going to suffer I think because the the
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] the base that New England always had the textile base the uh the uh costume jewelry base most of that now has moved out here to overseas to overseas or down south so we're prone to
[speaker002:] yep yep
[speaker001:] um uh recessions like the rest of the country were before we were kind of stable uh the political power is the only thing that can stabilize it at least I think up up this neck of the woods
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah
[speaker001:] but there's too many now uh political action committees and where the money is coming from is coming from those states that have the big industries that can afford to contribute to those
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so those are going to get uh uh the squeaky wheel gets the oil they're going to they're going to catch it and somebody has to do it somebody has to do the work like Boeing or General Dynamics or wherever wherever they happen to be you know you've you've only got a few plane factories or
[speaker002:] yeah well well I guess I guess I'm a little more cynical than that I'm not I'm not sure that it that all of it has to be done even but uh
[speaker001:] well I I think they should be outlawed myself the the the packs I don't think they should be
[speaker002:] uh but well in it well I but I I mean in terms of of not necessarily all the planes that the government buys they really need or not necessarily well in in in in particular uh planes and I
[speaker001:] true
[speaker002:] you know I see this here in in Texas that that uh got uh oh I can't even remember which of the companies it is but they've they've got a they've got a tilt rotor uh plane that they've developed and they want to sell but developed for the defense department department and defense department is saying well no we we don't we don't really need it it's going to be too expensive and it's not going to do what we need and
[speaker001:] oh like the yeah yep yep
[speaker002:] the the Texas people are fighting to have it built for just to just to keep and create jobs here
[speaker001:] right yep
[speaker002:] rather than because it's uh you know they they they certainly use the words well it's needed but but uh
[speaker001:] yeah look at look at the tanks now look at that New Abrams tank
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I have no idea what the cost is uh five million ten million
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] for each one now you can make you can make a a missile or or a hand held rocket that can take one of those out pretty effectively
[speaker002:] yep
[speaker001:] what what do we need all the tanks for I mean you can make you make you can make probably a thousand rockets for each tank
[speaker002:] right yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and you can give a thousand rockets of a relatively uninvolved uninvolved untrained uh person and he can take he can take one of those tanks out
[speaker002:] yep
[speaker001:] but yet I'm not sure who is it Chrysler that makes the tanks or one of one of the
[speaker002:] I think I I think maybe so and I think that or
[speaker001:] and I don't think we really need all that hardware and again and again like the Stealth bombers and and some of these things they they put on their drawing boards and they never fly or they never they never run right
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah yeah
[speaker001:] um is it because of of political clout
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] rather than need I think in a lot of cases yes
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] but we don't have a watchdog agency to the military overlooks their own testing
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] which is good for us I mean it creates you know we generate a lot of income at TI because of the military contacts
[speaker002:] right right right you know that's true too but do you see any other trends or particularly interesting events that come to your mind
[speaker001:] um the savings and loans crisis
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] the political trends there are are most most of these people are lawyers that are now in in uh the government whether it's state or local most of them I guess you've been reading about the problems we've had in Rhode Island where the governor closed down a lot of the the uh credit unions and banks
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because of uh it was privately insured but but stated
[speaker002:] well it certainly did certainly did when he first did it but I haven't heard about it for a while I was at are there
[speaker001:] yeah there's still a lot of people that uh still can't get their money out
[speaker002:] can't yeah
[speaker001:] um they still have to pay their their bills like their mortgages and things they slip them under the door to the bank and but yet they can't get any of their savings so it's it's it's a little bit difficult but most of the people there the trend was that on almost every single board of the institutions that were closed they were state legislators
[speaker002:] huh yeah
[speaker001:] so they had a conflict of interest because they tried to get through uh a bill stating that they had to have federal insurance rather than private insurance and it was squashed
[speaker002:] yep yeah