[00:00:05] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield ReMax team presents real Estate and More.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Bay Area real estate is different than all of America and why? What's up with home buyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market? And much, much more.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Now, here's your host, Michael Hatfield. Welcome to the Real Estate and More show. I'm thrilled you're joining us. For today's episode, we've got an incred guest lined up, a veteran former US Congressman who's here to discuss the state of our nation, and it is changing. So with that in mind, a good friend, repeat guest. He's going to share his firsthand experiences from Capitol Hill and offer insight into what it's really like to be an elected member. And now, looking at all of the issues and topics at hand, being that we've had a change in administration, a change in economy, we've had inflation, had a lot of things going on. So please join me in welcoming back to the show the honorable Bill Baker, former U.S. congressman and longtime political figure. Welcome.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Oh, it's great to be here with you, Michael.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: It's great to see you, sir. You know, interestingly, a lot of people don't know that, but you were born and raised and grew up in Oakland, is that not right?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Yes, it is. The first 25 years.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: The local guy.
Of particular importance is to realize that in Congressman Baker's toolbox, he has been a budget analyst from the California State Department of Finance. He served six terms as a California assemblyman, and then he was elected to United States House of representatives, serving California's 10th district to the 103rd and the 104th Congress. Wow. Two terms. Wow. What do you think about doing that? Do you remember a lot of that stuff?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: It was very exciting, and it's an honor to serve. They call us America's chosen few. So, yeah, there's 450 of us and 100 senators. So they make big decisions when they're called on.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: You know, what's incredible is your background was in government, economics and finance, taxation and environment. So you've got a good blend of background to do this kind of job, don't you think?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Yes, it was. It was, again, like I say, exciting and an honor.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: I counted 87 bills that you worked on when you were there and sponsored as well. 87 bills, my gosh, yes.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: We did a lot of good work. Yeah.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Do you think that it was a little hectic being a congressman at the time?
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Well, it's more like the redcoats versus the Patriots. They'd line up and fire at each Other. So there's a lot of partisanship, and unlike the state legislature, there's a lot less that the individual can do in their first 10 years.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you did a lot. I noticed also that you stayed and hung out at all of those meetings. There was something like you were only missed a couple meetings out of something like 2,400 meetings that indicates that you were really serving your constituency.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Well, we were elected to do a job, and part of the job is showing up. And the same with committee meetings. If you ever see a committee meeting televised, you'll see 2/3 or 3/4 of the room empty. They're off in their office making phone calls, meeting with constituents, doing things they think is important. But they signed up for those committees and they never show up.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's no good. You know, incidentally, 2,424 roll calls out of 2,462 possible. That has got to be something like a 98.5% attendance rate. Unbelievable. I never made it to school in my days that much. Congratulations on that, sir.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: No, it was wonder. And again, that's part of the honor of being a congressman is to show up and cast your vote. I was also probably the 17th most Conservative member of the House in a district that was decidedly liberal.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Wow, that's incredible. Well, we've went from the most liberal of liberals administration to the. I would say conservative now. And we're looking at that to help guide us into the time, moving forward in our time on the world. So I'm interested in the part about the economy, inflation. People don't realize, but inflation has been absolutely terrible. But they don't really realize it because the areas that affect most people, energy and food, are excluded from the computation. So now energy is where we're going to focus on with the new administration. What do you think with that?
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Well, energy is the key to all the economy. Everything runs on it. From the produce that you buy in the store, it all comes on a truck. What we have to do is increase our energy supply, lower the costs, which that does, and then sell overseas. Europe is begging us to sell liquid natural gas. And by fracking we can do that. But if you have a philosophy of the previous administration, you won't increase our energy and our prices go up. I noticed that the pumps yesterday was still in Danville. 450 a gallon. And nationwide, it's in the threes. We just, we have so many regulations, so many environmental regulations, we're not using our water correctly. As President Trump demonstrated as he turned on the spigot from the federal water.
The people in the Central Valley are going to be able to grow food again. And that lowers the price of the food and increases the quality. And we just, we just need to make changes all over the place. We're over regulated, which is why inflation is so high. They regulated the heck out of the economy at the same time spending trillions more than we take in. Now, I don't know how the liberals do it, whether they do it with their own credit cards, but they spend more than they take in. In this case now it's several trillion dollars and we can't do that. I don't know how long they thought they could do it, but it's the pump priming that you use to get the economy restarted, only they used it every year.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Mm, my gosh. I noticed the other day we're talking about inflation and the television comes on and our new vice president was on television and he was saying, well, look at it this way. If you go and you buy a package of bacon at the supermarket, that bacon has been delivered by a truck that burns diesel fuel. Diesel fuel prices are high. The cost of your bacon is going to be high. So what do we do? We lower the price of diesel by more production on our home ground. And I was looking at this the other day. Under the United States of America, we have an estimated recoverable oil supply of something like 227 years.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Most in the world.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Most in the world. There's nowhere else that we have that. So why are we buying more expensive foreign oil from foreign countries when it's right here? Why would that be?
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Because the Democrats have adopted this green New Deal and they convinced the American people that it's carbon that's going to kill us all and the oceans are going to rise and we'll be buying waterfront property in Carson City. It just isn't true. It's based on fallacy. And the founder of Greenpeace, he is now flipped over and he's talking about how we have to be realistic. And part of realism is that, yes, we can slowly, as we've been doing, slowly ratchet down our pollution, but we're the cleanest nation in the world. And that's, you know, that's despite the number of cars on the road, the cars are getting cleaner. The number of people that are, that are using the production. Let's say you want to buy a new car, you buy a Tesla, it's made somewhere and they're using energy. And of course, nuclear power will become prominent again. Even though the liberals have us convinced we're all going to blow up. Nuclear power is a very clean burning power hydroelectricity, which they've stopped, that needs to be restarted. It's a clean burning fuel again. We've got to start building our energy. It's at the key of all of the economy. We're going to take a short break.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: We'll be right back. REMAX.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: The Real estate minute with ReMax expert Michael Hatfield Bay Area housing markets are always changing. What should we think of that, Michael?
[00:08:57] Speaker D: You know, Mark Twain said, I seldom saw an opportunity until it ceased to to be one. We live in the greatest housing market in the nation. But careful thought should be given each time one buys or sells a home. A good agent can help you grasp a great opportunity.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: Tell us about discount agents, Michael.
[00:09:15] Speaker D: Discount agents can list your home, but without telling my secrets, they're unlikely to do all we do for clients. It's an unnecessary risk to save a few thousand by hiring a junior agent and lose tens of thousands through a poorly done transaction. You don't know what you don't know. It's wise to hire someone who does.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: If you or someone you know is interested in buying or selling a home, call the Michael Hatfield ReMax team at 925-322-7775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com when your real estate needs are beyond the standard and you demand more than the status quo, look no further than the Michael Hatfield REMAX Accord team with offices in Danville and nine more Bay Area locations. Here's Michael Hatfield to tell us more.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: Do you have a housing problem such as you live in a three bedroom home with three children and need one more bedroom. You want better schools or your kids grown up, moved out and your home is just too large. Our team is a five star agent who serves our clients housing needs as our number one priority. Call us for a free buyer consultation to start working on your housing problem. Now let us help you to solve your housing issue, whatever your need may be.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: Call 925-322-7775 to partner buyer or seller needs with the Michael Hatfield Re Max Accord team. That's 9253-2277-7592-5322-7775. Come discover a new level of excellence in real estate with the Michael Hatfield team.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Now back to our show.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: His Energy.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: It was interesting when I used to fly international. I would go into the countries and I would see all of this smog everywhere and it's still that way to Some degree. And so I think, well, we're doing our part, but things don't happen quite as quickly as we would like. And like you say, we're the cleanest nation on earth in that regard.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: And I think we're 4% of the world.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: So even if we stopped everything, it would not make a major effect. Every four years, they put on one of these. So they held it in China. They shut down all production for one week. And during that epic time that the people were there, the air was still bright yellow. It was just a cloud hanging. And in five or six days, that will be over the United States because they're not contained in China. India has no environmental protections. So we're. We're really beating a dead horse thinking we can get it all out of the United States. That doesn't mean we can't be more considerate. And I had many green bills, if you will, wetlands bills. And I think we should continue on the way we are going, which is to clean up the economy. But we don't do it by harness, by harassing our folks that are trying to build energy supply. So the economy will get going again.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And the other. The other thing that I keep thinking about is, you know, so many of our citizens just want to make a living. They want to enjoy having a nice place to live and to be home and so forth. And in order to be there, you have to earn a living. If you don't earn a living, that nobody's going to give it to you. I mean, I know that there's the. The programs that help people, but you still have to earn it. And our whole economy is based upon production of goods and services. And so I think about that, and I think about inflation and inflation. I don't like seeing the amount of money that is involved with trying to buy a loaf of bread anymore. It's not like it used to be. For sure.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: That's right. I think people just look at your own budgets. People are stopped vacationing because it's too expensive. The hotel's more expensive, the gas is more expensive. Everything is. So you cut back. If, if the President is successful in lowering the price of energy, people will once again plan their vacations. Hilton will be happy, Everybody will be happy. And we have to spur that. It's economic growth, and President Trump has focused on that. We need more economic growth. And it'll work.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I think so. You know, one thing that comes back to me is that before the change and before the election, the administration was looking to tax citizens even More, they had a tax on perceived wealth and unrealized gains on your retirement, if you had any. That's not a good idea. And it's also a detriment to the economy, in my view.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: If you want to spur the economy without inflation, lower taxes. And when the President says he's going to lower corporate taxes, that's because he wants to attract more corporations to America. He wants to bring people in and bring the production back in. Apple has already agreed to do it, and they're very liberal. They're doing it because they think it's smart. It builds our country, and that's where most of their sales are. And they're contesting with China, too, on who's stealing whose secrets. And they're happy to be back here. So President Trump's going to make it easy.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: I hope so. Last time you were here, you were saying this country really needs a strong leader. That doesn't mean we have to like the leader's personality or anything about him. But in my view, you need someone that knows how to operate one of the biggest businesses in all the world, and that is the status of our economy and everything that makes our country go around that we all tend to be dependent upon.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: The whole world needs a new leader. Before President Trump, after his election, but before he was sworn in, foreign leaders were lining up to meet with him. They don't. They didn't like working with a guy who's hiding out in the basement. They want someone who's going to come right out and tell them how they think and how his plans on trade are going to benefit both countries. And he is a master negotiator. He has more energy than the ever ready Bunny. I don't know how he does it, but he applied the same fervor to building hotels and building property. That's what made him a billionaire, because he dedicated himself. Now he's going to dedicate himself to make America great again. In fact, if I can just interject this, he swears that the bullet that nicked his ear and that barely kept from killing him, it was God's will that he live in order to make America great again. Yeah.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, interestingly, when the actual government was founded in the United States of America, all of the authors of the government went out into the orchards and they prayed.
Obviously, in this world, we have a greater power, far greater than we are as people. And when you go out and you started on that, to just believe that you can get that divine support is really important, in my view.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Well, Congress opens every day with a prayer. And if you get the right pastor appointed, the right priest, the right whoever, you're going to start out on a positive note. Yeah.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Let's talk about foreign aid for a minute. Every time I look at the list of 176 countries that the United States have been providing foreign aid to, I'm thinking, who is monitoring this? And the last numbers I have were from 2023, but yet 2024 had the Ukraine. I know billions and billions and billions of dollars have went out of our economy elsewhere.
Thing that you learn important element of economics is that you need to keep the money circulating within your economy in order to better your economy. If it goes out of the United States for whatever the purposes are, then it's no longer taking care of some of the needs that we have, such as the disaster of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, the disasters of the fires down in Los Angeles, and.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: So what do you do? You know, what do you do in this case?
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Well, foreign aid was started first of all to help the poorest of the countries. Then we began paying people like China. Well, what do we expect from that except mischief? So I think you could get along without foreign aid. The theory that we're going to buy people's loyalty with a few billion dollars is just ludicrous, and yet we continue to do it. And I think President Trump is going to review that thoroughly. And I think there'll be a lot less of that giveaway program and a lot more than, like you said, moving in when there's a disaster and helping them regardless of their country. And I think we've done that in Israel. We've done that in many countries.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: You know, one of the acts that I have to applaud is the people in Suannanoa, North Carolina, have just, they were just neglected. I understand that FEMA was not there in the way that they should have been. And then you had humanitarian organizations come in to help, such as, you know, Samaritan's Purse and Convoy of Hope. And just to think about how much they contributed was unreal. And then they were forgotten by the US Government to a large degree. And, and now they're back in there. They're creating the bridges, recreating the roads. But what's more important is that they are providing homes for people that have totally lost everything in that condition. Now we have another same condition down in Southern California. It's great that the humanitarian organizations are there, but now it's also good that the government is coming back and getting involved in these Type of disasters.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Well, this is why the appointees that you, you know, the biggest controversies now on who's going to run this organization and who's going to run the FBI is transparency.
There were rumors that in North Carolina, if you had a Trump sign in your front yard, they'd pass you by, they wouldn't give you any help. That kind of partisanship is just stupid. And I think we found out in Los Angeles where very rich liberals lost their home and they began to see where the rubber was meeting the road, that all of these stupid green policies that kept enough water from the hydrants that hurt the effort to put out the fire and it just kept going. And I think we'll change. I think you're going to see tremendous change. The mayor of Los Angeles has to go. She couldn't make the right decisions at the right time.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: She wasn't even in the country.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Well, that's, that's another thing. Yeah, I think she thinks she's an international representative of Los Angeles. But, but anyway, we're going to have to have new leadership. And you mentioned that, that there is a new sheriff in town and the foreign leaders are really lining up to meet with him. We're going to take a short break.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: We'll be right back.
[00:20:38] Speaker D: There's a shortage of Bay Area homes for sale and you've been watching home prices rise year after year and now your home is worth a great deal more. And you're thinking time for something new. Why not sell before interest rates and market conditions change everything? You'd like experts who can help you get the best deal possible. Negotiate on your behalf and work hard to ensure a smooth transition. List your home with us. If you're buying or selling a home, call us now.
[00:21:05] Speaker E: Working with Michael and Nancy. I was a first time home buyer and I was very nervous about the process. I didn't really know what to expect. Michael and Nancy were able to take that fear away from me and answered all of my questions. They were right by my side the entire time and they really helped me find the perfect home for me. And I'm so thankful for excellence in real estate.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: Call the Michael Hatfield remax team at 925-322-7775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com D R E 01493761 now back to our show.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Because they know he means business and they know they can make a deal and it'll stick.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: You want to expound on that a little bit?
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Well, you mean with Russia or with China?
[00:21:51] Speaker A: With Russia and China.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: He's scheduling a meeting right now with Xi in China. And I think that's most important, that he knows we're serious, that we don't want his eavesdropping, we don't want his enforcers in the United States running little.
I don't know what you'd call them. But anyway, cabals. And they try and enforce their laws on our citizens here who are Chinese. We have to. We have to change that. And I think we'll change our trade relationships with China, too. And the same with Moscow and Hamas, all of our adversaries. Iran. I think he's got plans and he's going to do it.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: I'm looking for the Ukraine, Russia conflict to be settled. I think that it's going to be settled imminently. That's my gut feeling.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: I don't think Russia's benefiting, and I know Ukraine isn't. And I think you're going to see a peace deal very soon. And I don't know how we draw the lines. That's going to be very difficult. But Russia has no business there that they want to reestablish the Soviet Union. And we can't allow that to happen, because if they get away with stealing Ukraine, then they'll move on to the next one. Poland is right next door. They don't want to be part of Russia's dreams anymore.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: I know that China's economy is horrible right now. It's desperate. And because of, I would say, and this is my opinion, a lot of the funds that Russia had as part of the their economy has went to the conflict with Ukraine, and that has put that country's economy in a worse condition than it's been in a lot of years. So if you have two of these big countries suffering, it only stands to reason that if you can resolve conflicts and you can work together as people that are legitimately working together, it's going to be beneficial for the entire globe.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: When, during President Trump's first administration, he put the squeeze on Iran and they were unable to fund all of these terrorist groups, which three or four nameable. And it worked. They just didn't have the capital to fund this. As soon as he left office, Biden actually gave Iran money and he loosened his grip on freezing their oil production and freezing other means for them to get money and fund these terrible organizations. And the result is, right before our eyes, the terrorists in Lebanon began shelling Israel. The Hamas did that horrible thing in October, and it just unwound. You got to have strong leadership and fortunately, now we have it, and I.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Think it's all based right at the beginning on our economy. So if our economy is doing well, then we can be in a position to where we can help other nations of the world to do better, economically speaking. So we're right back to that petrol again. You know, it's just right back to it. And I understand that Russia as well as China are both, as you pointed out, more amiable to discussions and coming to the table and not just dictating what. What is to be done.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Yeah. China, of course, has a plan of taking over the world and becoming what the United States is with their currency. And you notice that they've dropped that attempt to replace the petrodollar and the. And the US Dollar as the currency of the world. China was going to try and, like a bunch of thieves, they couldn't decide who was going to be the replacement, whether it was going to be Russia or China or Iran, the Middle east people. And no, it didn't work. So now the dollar's back, and President Trump has announced that anyone who wants to replace the dollar will no longer do business with the United States. And, of course, many of the nations, including Canada, are dependent on the United States for their livelihood.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Wow. Isn't that something? Well, some of us know that in order to have an electrical car, you have to have electricity. Where does that electricity come from?
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Well, right now it comes from petrochemicals, and no one knows this but the United States. In California. I'm sorry, in California, our grid is 25% coal from Utah and Idaho, and it's 10% nuclear. And then there's a lot of petroleum in there, gas and oil, 10% of it is green. The wind. The wind, which is having tremendous problems on the east coast, chopping up whales. And then the.
The. Not. Not. Not just nuclear, but gas and oil and clean burning coal. And we've got to get back to that, and I think we will. And you won't see pollution go up that much. That's the wonderful thing.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: So oil is used to generate electricity by burning it in the power plants, which creates the heat that boils the water into steam. And this steam is what turns a turbine to generate the electricity. Essentially, the chemical energy stored in oil is converted to heat energy, which is then converted to mechanical energy by turbines and finally into electrical energy. So it looks to me like anything that you have, electrical is generated by oil.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: And we have so much of it, like President Trump always mentions, we're the number one owner of the oil in the ground more than Saudi Arabia, which is. We were brought up thinking Saudi Arabia had a monopoly. The United States has it. But we have to find clean, good ways of bringing it up. Even in Alaska, even in parks. You see it along the road in Bakersfield. It's not polluting. But no one cares about Bakersfield, so it's okay to do it there. But Alaska has a ton of it and so do they in Texas.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Unbelievable. You know, the Institute for Energy Research has reported they estimate there is 1.66 trillion barrels of recoverable oil underground in the United States. 1.66 trillion barrels recoverable oil, which is the equivalent of 227 years at the current rate of consumption. Why do you think that under previous policy, I don't get it. Why shutting off what we're using was a good idea. Where did that come from?
[00:28:36] Speaker B: It came from their political philosophy. And that's all green. We're going to shut everything down. And I think secretly a lot of these greenies hate our economy and want to shut it down. And of course, the way to do it is to stop transportation and stop other key facets of our economy. And we can't let that happen. And I think President Trump will find ways of producing energy that will not pollute America, but will get our economy going. And with that economy moving, the deficit and the budget will come down greatly.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: I've been unable to get all of these questions answered. So many questions, so many things to think about. Congressman Baker has so generously offered to come back next week and finish up with these questions. So stay tuned for our next special guest. Thank you, Congressman Baker.
[00:29:28] Speaker D: Please remember to go to our new YouTube handle, my real Talk show. That's My Real Talk
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