Episode 332 Scott Adams: Wondering Why Wall Funding Can’t be Negotiated in Public

Date: 2018-12-11 | Duration: 13:17

Topics

President Trump has a strong motivation to call it a wall. Dems have a strong motivation to prevent Trump accomplishments Both sides are in complete agreement, only what to call it is disputed

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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> This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

## Transcript

[0:09]

bumbum bumbum bumbum hey everybody get in here is breaking news that news is breaking hard I hope you're all watching over on c-span they've got the Google hearings and the CEO of Google is doing these hearings and behind the Google CEO is an activist just as the the as the monopoly millionaire guy as activism goes got some real good activism so look for the monopoly man behind the CEO of Google at the hearings today but let's talk about wall funding so the president just have a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in which they started sort of negotiating in public in front of the press and Nancy Schumer said you know let's not negotiate in front of the press blah blah blah now if you're not

[1:12]

press blah blah blah now if you're not up to date on what the problem is with the wall funding I would like to explain it to you in a two-person skit in which I will play President Trump and the part of everybody else Nancy and Chuck Schumer will be played by Dale and it goes like this we need strong border security I will shut down the government I also want strong border security well I was a strong border security I want strong border security and I'll give you money for it well I want money for strong border security oh yeah I'm shutting down the government for that you're not gonna get money for strong border security instead what we've offered you is money for strong border security if you don't

[2:13]

strong border security if you don't I'm gonna shut down the government or something like that now of course this substituent substantive conversation about border security has really turned into an argument about whether they can or cannot use the words wall I suppose if you call the defense everybody to be happy but the Democrats can allow the president to have a political victory and here's the question I ask myself why can't they negotiate in public I can see lots of topics that you would not want to negotiate in public for example trade negotiations you definitely don't want to do that in public decisions on national defense you did not want to do that in public discussions about how to

[3:16]

that in public discussions about how to change a law you know that's in discussion that's to brainstorming you don't want any of that stuff in public because people will just be throwing in ideas it's too early there are lots of things I would not want to see negotiated in public but this one thing the question of the wall and border security I really want that negotiated in public why not you could make a good argument there are lots of things to not negotiate in public and the public is better served by that but this is not one of those this is a situation that the public is perfectly capable of understanding and all the brainstorming has been done we know what all the options are you know we know we basically understand the entire topic thanks to you know talking about it for three years so as a citizen I request of my

[4:19]

so as a citizen I request of my government that this absolutely should be negotiated in public period the the border security should be negotiated in public and I want to see how they get around they'll the other choice of words whether it's a a wall or a fence I want to see the President of the United States ask Chuck and Nancy in public do you think that a solid wall and a fence are equally good protection I want to see him say suppose we have different solutions for different places but for the important parts where there's the biggest problem is it okay if we use the best technology how about if the president simply said this negotiating in public well Chuck and Nancy neither you nor I are experts on

[5:19]

Nancy neither you nor I are experts on construction of walls and fences and and what to do how about we make this deal give us X amount of money and our experts will decide where it needs to be a wall and where it needs to be something else why don't we not act like we're good at that because we're politicians and why don't we let the experts decide where to put a wall I would love to see this negotiated in public Trump is likely an expert well he's not the Trump knows construction but who's it who is an expert on building you know barriers on the border that's a pretty pretty small expertise
and the other thing that was hilarious about this is I saw that the press whatever you call it talking to Pelosi

[6:20]

whatever you call it talking to Pelosi and Schumer afterwards imposing Schumer were arguing these technical budget things you know it sounded like well we've offered a CR like last year but the continuing resolutions of the process and I'm just listening to it going I really don't know what you're saying we don't care about these budget details and then the president says we need a wall
it's like watching him you know club baby harp seals it's just not a fair fight wall good communicating good persuasion it's visual it's you know everybody knows what a wall is Chuck Schubert well we promised last time and why isn't this as good as last time when last time we did a CR and you all know what a CR is but sometimes you do these in packages and we had agreed last year

[7:21]

in packages and we had agreed last year so why isn't the stuff we agreed with last year all versus we did a wall this is not a fair fight so let's negotiate this wall thing in public and if the president doesn't want to do it with Nancy and Chuck how about proxies I would love to see somebody else who actually knows what they're talking about negotiated in public how about just a you know a Republican who knows what they're talking about and a Democrat who knows what they're talking about let's have them debate it now the worst way to do that would be to put them on a two-minute segment on one of the new shows they yell at each other they interrupt and then time runs out I want a good hour show could be on c-span or something in which somebody who actually knows what they're talking about maybe

[8:21]

knows what they're talking about maybe they've got some backups with them you know somebody who can do some fact-checking in real time and you've got a moderator and you say all right all right should we have a wall everywhere what do you two say about that and and do you agree this some walls are good in some places do you both agree with that right in fact I'll do it how about I do it I will moderate the wall budget questions I'm actually qualified for this my my corporate jobs for years it was exactly this it was negotiating budgets so it was my job to talk to the department heads and negotiate how much their budget was and make it all work under the larger budget so I could do that I'll moderate and and here's the thing I'm not even sure I have a bias I

[9:22]

thing I'm not even sure I have a bias I don't think I haven't necessarily a bias on this topic because to me it's a technical question it's not a political question it's just what works you have both sides agreeing that they want something that works for border security so the the critical part of the disagreement is no disagreement at all everybody wants good border security so I don't have any kind of political bias that would be relevant because everybody is on the same side to begin with there are just some questions about how much would it cost a long would it take is a wall as good as a fence just technical stuff I could have this solved in 24 hours put me on camera with two experts who can do know what they're talking about well how this all sorted out in 24 hours the only people who can't have solve this are the people who have a political

[10:23]

this are the people who have a political stake in it so the president has such a strong you know political motivation about calling it a wall and the Democrats have such a strong political political motivation to not call it a wall that's actually the only remaining problem do you get that that our government is displaying a level of incompetence that I don't believe we've ever seen this might be the new highest level of incompetence at least one that we can understand as voters we don't understand everything they do is he can you can't really tell if they've done something wrong if you don't know exactly what there and what's the right thing to do but in this wall situation we know that both sides agree we know that the money is available you have two people agreeing with each other as hard as they can that's a very unusual situation they

[11:24]

that's a very unusual situation they just want to use different words for things if you have a situation in which people agreed on the fundamentals and the only thing they were arguing about is how you express it and what you talk about and how you persuade and what words you use that's all it's down to who would you call to help you solve that problem yeah you'd call me I'm not qualified to do everything you know there the list of things I'm not qualified for it is infinite the number of things I am qualified to do compared to all the things that people can do it's very small right my total total you know a collection of skills is very small compared to all the things one could be skilled at but this this is exactly what I do this is what I do I figured out how to people who are in complete agreement can present their you

[12:27]

complete agreement can present their you know present their their case in a way the break in the coal there was a didn't coming call alright first time watching me live well just gets better and better doesn't it Trump promised Mexico was going to pay for the wall well that wasn't really the important part of the wall was it so apparently money isn't no longer than the problem because the Democrats have have pros they you know they promised money all right that's all I had to say about today and I will talk to you later