[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hatfield re Max team presents real estate.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: And more Bay Area real estate is different than in all of America and why? What's up with homebuyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market and much, much more. Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Welcome back to the real estate and more show. And I'm so glad you're here with us today. We have an exciting episode to go through. And on the show we have a veteran, a us congressman, to share his thoughts on what it's like to be an elected member in the House of Representatives. A wealth of knowledge. We have an exciting show planned, talking about important issues, his thoughts and on what is required to take on such a job. In politics. A lot is happening very quickly as we approach the 2024 presidential election in November and is good to hear insights of what may be going on in the nation's capital. William P. Bill Baker is an american businessman, a politician who serves six terms as a us assemblyman, two terms as a us congressman in the house of representatives. Here to share his thoughts with us on these important topics is former us representative, the honorable Bill Baker. Welcome to the show, Congressman Baker.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Well, thank you. It's good to be here.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: It's great to have you. Well, let's talk about your background. It's not just something you can, can do. Just start out in the House of Representatives. You got to earn your way to get there. And I believe you were a local boy right from the very beginning, were you not?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Sure. Born and raised in Oakland.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Of course, we didn't start there. We started in the assembly in the state of California for twelve years and then moved on to Congress. So we didn't begin there. I really began in the Coast Guard.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Wow. You learned the most in the military, huh?
[00:01:56] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: I'll be darn well. In your background, I noticed that you had something that is very admirable. Admirable. And that is the earning of the Boy Scout Eagle Scout Award.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: That's correct. And I'm still involved with Los Angeles, the Eagles in Spanish. We have a local group of doctors and lawyers and businessmen who meet regularly and they plan an annual dinner for the new Eagle Scouts.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Wow. That's incredible. And you know, I got a funny story. When I was with the airline, I was a check pilot and I had a guy, an ex military guy that flew the SR 71. And here we are, I'm sitting in the captain's seat, he's checking out as a co pilot. And I looked over at him and I said, you know, don, that's really something. I mean, it makes you really feel proud to tell everybody about being an SR 71 spaceship pilot. And he looks at me and he says, you know, I think I had more from being an Eagle Scout than I ever did from the SR 71. That's incredible.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Good for him.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah, well, good for you, too.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: You're always an eagle, always a Boy Scout, always.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: And it's hard to earn it, too. It not.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Well, it's a challenge. And once you do that, I know people who have gotten jobs. A local fireman was hired because he was an Eagle Scout. In other words, he set his goals and completed them. And they like to see that. Employers like to see that.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: That's just absolutely amazing. So let's talk about the assembly. You started really, about 1965. You started as a state senate file clerk, did you nothing.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: That's right. The daily file is the agenda for the day. So we prepared the agenda, and then I also called the role in the Senate.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: We did that for three years. It was an exciting time.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: So you get over your jitters of having to be in front of all of these politicians by starting out early and learning to call the role and know who they were and feel comfortable in that regard. That's a really great background, especially, you know, you were a pretty young age at the time.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Well, I was in early. Yeah, early twenties.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. And then you went from there, you became a budget analysis.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Budget analyst.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah. There we go.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah. For the Department of Finance.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: And under Brown and Reagan, both.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. Did you like that at all?
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Was it, it was fun. And it prepared you for the budgets in the, in the big house. So you really knew assembly.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: You really knew from that background what it would do for you. And then you were executive vice president with the California Contra Costa Taxpayers association.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Correct. And I'm still an active member in that organization.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: You still.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: They analyzed the tax increases and things proposed on the ballot. Wow. So we'll have a bulletin out for this year. It's a mile long.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Oh, my. And then in 1980 to 82, you became an assemblymande.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: And you did it. You did it for a long time. Twelve years.
Wow. You just liked it.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Oh, I loved it. Yeah. Because I was a budget analyst. I wound up on the ways and means committee as a freshman, which is rare. And that's the committee that did all of the budgeting, all of the taxing, all of the spending.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Wow. So that's just absolutely amazing to me. And then in 1993. What happened then?
[00:05:18] Speaker B: 92, I ran for the big house, as I call it, Congress, and spent four years there in Washington.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Wow, you must have really enjoyed that back and forth.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: I did not enjoy that as much as the assembly because you're basically part of a team and it's very partisan. And of course, we had Bill Clinton the whole time I was in there, so that wasn't a lot of fun either.
But I'll tell you a little story about how bipartisanship used to work in those days.
We were there in 94 when for the first time in 40 years, the Republicans took over the House and newt was elected speaker. He went to Clinton and said, mister president, we're going to approve budgets with only 2.8% increase in spending. And that's it. And I don't care if we shut down the government forever, we're going to do that. So he said, all right, all right. And so for three or four years, the budget was constrained on the spending side. It's never constrained on the taxing side. They love to tax and they love to spend. And so within two years, the budget was balanced. Spending was overwhelmed by the new revenues, and the case is still true today. Revenues coming into the federal government, that you can't believe, but they always managed to outspend it and add to the deficit. The deficit. Now interest on the national debt is as large as the defense budget, so it's just huge. And we've got to do that. We've got to cap their spending and allow revenue to catch up. You don't need new taxes, you don't need any bills. You just have to have restraint.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like your household bills. You know, if the wife is spending too much or you're spending too much, you just got to bring it in line with what's coming in on that paycheck. I can see the government is just a huge business, financially speaking. Is that not correct?
[00:07:15] Speaker B: It should be, but it's not. It's not? No, because they never have to balance.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: So the politics become involved, involved.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: And then, you know, as the bank will call you, if you spend more than you take in, and you'll wind up in big trouble with the government is just put it off till next year and goes under the national debt. And the problem, of course, is multiple, but other countries will stop buying our financial instruments, our bonds, and they won't have faith in our debt. And so that will bring the parade to a halt. But I think before then, with this new bipartisan team that's developing with Robert F. Kennedy and JD Vance and, and Trump. I think you're starting to see some interest in changing the federal government the way it behaves. And it'll be interesting. They're talking about healthcare and what they can do for children, areas you wouldn't talk about in a campaign. Coming up, they want to make some changes to the federal government, and it's high, long overdue.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So that would be more fiscal responsibility, which we don't really have fiscal responsibility, unfortunately. So in your view, what have you seen over the last eight years or so with our economy? What is the biggest points that you can look at and say to our listeners?
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Well, we have our ups and downs, as you know, with the stock market and with the economy.
And I'm, of course, a financial advisor. So I'm very interested in how the finances work and whether they work right now.
I think we're in a good position, and it's because of the tax cuts, not tax increases, that stimulated the economy eight years ago.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Wow. So I'm especially interested in what may affect our housing industry.
Being a realtor, residential and commercial, we're looking for things that happen or may happen in the bills and legislation that may affect our homebuyers and sellers. So what are your thoughts and opinion regarding the Democrats proposal, proposal to tax so called wealth and the unrealized gains?
[00:09:38] Speaker B: That is disastrous. And that if you can picture yourself as your house, as your biggest investment, and they tax it every year because you have unrealized gains.
I bought my home 50 years ago in the nineties, 90,000. It's worth millions now. If they tax that every year, where am I going to get the cash for that?
And you have to have adequate income. And so stocks, if you own a portfolio in your retirement account of stocks and bonds and you bought them ten years ago, they're obviously higher or you wouldn't have kept them and they'll tax that gain. Well, you have to sell something in order to get the money. And it's going to be very difficult for people.
When you think about the wealthy. Oh, it's just the wealth tax, but it's only going to affect the wealthy. It's going to affect everyone and in a very negative way.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Taxing the unrealized gains on a home is egregious.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: It is, because it's not liquid.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And the point being is it can change because every day in the real estate market, the market goes up, the market goes down, and there's 50,000 various markets, real estate markets in our country. So now we're going to say the market out there is the pretty stable. I mean, it might grow a little bit here, there, a little bit there, but here in the Bay Area, you know, the market is very erratic. It can go up and a large degree. And if you get taxed at that point, you're broke.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: I imagine you'd be taxed each year based on its value, but you never know your real value until you sell it.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: You're absolutely correct. You know, you get a realtor and appraiser come in, they say your house is worth this, and then you put it on the market and you can't sell it because the actual market or the buyers that show up with money in their pocket and ability to pay for it are not there. And it just happens. So to me, it is not a good thing to see a wealth tax and call it a wealth tax because it's a misnomer. It's not true.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Well, Michael, just a few years ago, people were having bidding wars on your front porch. Yes. I want this house so badly, I'll pay 300,000 more than the listing.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Now we're scurrying around trying to find a buyer who's liquid and wants to pay 6%, which is a wonderful interest rate, but it's not the three that we're used to.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
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Well, let's get back to the US House of Representatives and how it works for our listeners. Let's talk about the US House of Representatives and, you know, what does it have? 435 members maximum?
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Can you enlighten us on that? They serve what two year terms?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: They're reapportioned every ten years. And California lost one. Thanks.
We take in hundreds of thousands of people over the border, but we still managed to lose the wealthy and the intelligent who are leaving this state because of all of its taxing policies and its crime and the other problems that we're having. The bumpy roads going here in Danville from, let's say, Diablo Road south to Pleasanton is just a washboard and there's no excuse for it. Our taxes are high. Our gas tax is high.
They should be able to fix the roads. But this state has been under mismanagement for many years.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Yes, I totally. I have to support your thoughts on that. And so now the House is responsible for making and passing federal laws.
I know the House of Representatives is one of two different houses, the Senate as well as the House. And the House right now is virtually controlled by the democratic party. Is that still true?
[00:14:23] Speaker B: No. The House is run by the Republicans and Michael is the speaker of the House and he's doing a good job. They have about a five or six vote majority.
It was run for years and years as Democrats, but now it's republican and with a fair reapportionment, it'll become more republican.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: Now, how partisan is Congress?
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Very, very. Yes. It's like two teams lining up and shooting at each other.
But you try and in the state, you try and get along with people on your committees and people that you meet daily. And in the state it's very easy to do. And I. I don't know now that they're so lopsided whether they still contain that bipartisanship, but we did. I got along really well with Willie Brown. Surprised most people. He was a very excellent speaker, but interesting fellow. Yes, he is.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: So anyway, he's the boss. As long as you realize that, then you get along fine. I'm.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Yeah, actually, I knew Willie Brown back in the days I had the supermarkets and he was friends with Reverend, a very respected reverend in the community in Oakland.
But anyway, I'd met him up several times and ran into him down the road 15 years after I'd last seen him. And he's just as affable as he ever was. Incredible. The leadership in the House includes the speaker, majority and minority leaders, assistant leaders, whips and a party caucus or conference. The speaker acts as leader of the House. But what does the majority and the minority leaders really do?
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Well, they whip up the team just like the whip does and get them to the battlefield and make sure they understand the bills. And if they have a position on those measures, they let you know it's basically an organizational tool. They help organize the Republicans. They also then assign people to the committees. So if you want to be on a certain committee, you put in for it and committees meet. The majority leader and others will decide who gets on what committee. And it's based on your strengths, your backgrounds, your knowledge, at least it's supposed to be.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Do they say, well, is it proportional to how many people that you represent in your constituency?
[00:16:52] Speaker B: No, they're all the same.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: They're all the same. Okay, interesting. Now, when it comes to the committees, how important are those?
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Committees are very important. That's where the bills are mocked up and laid out and they hear testimony from all the interested parties. Like in your case, the realtors would come before a committee and tell their view, and representatives of the buyers and sellers would be there and lending institutions, and from that develops the bill. Wow.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Well, I can see you've studied this for a few years, my friend. The committee of the whole house. What is that? It means that the whole house is together, or what does that actually mean?
[00:17:34] Speaker B: They meet all together. And it's rare they do it to hear the president, and they give an annual address.
And last year you saw Biden all amped up going to town and everybody was in the chamber. And so it's an interesting meeting, but nothing really gets done. You don't vote there. You don't do bills or do anything with the budget. You just meet and hear people. For instance, we used to have Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu come and address the entire congress, both meetings of the House and the Senate.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: So they would call a House meeting.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: At that time, both House and Senate would meet together.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Wow. Which is pretty rare, isn't it?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yes, it is.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. Now, a commission. What does a commission do in the House?
[00:18:25] Speaker B: I don't know if there is a commission. They have appointed certain committees to look into matters and special committees, but I'm not sure they have a commission. Commissions are mainly from the president.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: I see.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: And he would, he would appoint commissioners and commissions to study various things.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Well, you have to realize you're dealing with a neophyte over here. No, you're doing just government or whatever. But I'm having a fun time. So now, in an election such as the one we have and we'll see in November, can a person really make a difference with their vote? Does it really matter? It seems like, you know, you're just like, well, they're going to count these votes they're not going to count these votes. I mean, does it really, really matter?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Well, in certain areas, it matters a great deal anywhere. There's a swing district, a district that could go Republican or Democrat in the same with the governor and the senators race, the US Senate. I think we're going to see a huge change in Nevada and Arizona when they elect their senators and representatives. I think if people vote turn out, they're going to have a wonderful result. So it does matter. And we are, as the Democrats like to say, we're a democracy. Then they go ahead and appoint their nominee for president. But it is a democratic republic. The republic sets the framework and the democracy elects them. And fortunately, we have the states participating in the end. And so each state is represented by their population and their size, and it allows the smaller states to participate, not just the big five. Texas and California, New York, so forth. Illinois.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Wow. You got to understand all of that if you're going to be a public servant and run for office, do you not?
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Yes, you do.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: It's important you know where Nancy met you, right? Do you remember? She was the secretary to the water district in Dublin for like 26 years before I managed to get the hook and get her out of there to come and help me. Well, that was the original intention, but what actually happened was she came over and I started working for her.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: You have a very intelligent view of your role.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Well, what are you going to do?
[00:20:49] Speaker B: I was happy to meet her. And that's a, that's a great water district. They produce more reclaimed water than almost anyone they did. And we need to use more on our freeways, more on our public parks. We have to expand the use of reclaimed water so we'll have more fresh water for ourselves.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Very well. Put back on the budget thing for a second. Will the budget ever be balanced again? Do you think with this unity plan that there's a possibility it will get there at some point?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yes, I believe so.
You can't do it right away. For instance, the military has been so worn down, it has to be rebooted, and that's going to take a lot of money.
We're now being threatened. Fortunately, China has their own economic problems, so they're not able to take over Taiwan as they'd like to. We let, for some unknown reason, the Biden administration let Iran out of the box and they were broke and unable to do their mischief in the Middle east. Now they're funding every terrorist group they can. They're rolling in oil money. And why they decided to do that I don't know. It's an administration that needs to be replaced.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: A lot of people will agree with you on that one. Well, what are your thoughts, your opinion of our current foreign policy overall? I'll just expand on that.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: A little bit of, well, weak is what it is. And the people leading us aren't very knowledgeable in what they're doing. And it's a disaster waiting to happen. But fortunately, as I mentioned, China has their own problems. Russia is tied up in their own little war, and President Trump has promised to negotiate that out right away at the beginning. And that's a war that's killing a lot of innocent people for no good reason.
I think Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union, take over his neighbors, and have a larger area than Russia, which is huge. You don't need a larger area, you just need to develop it. And he's got the natural resources to do it. Oil and minerals. Russia could be a superpower if they didn't have the collectivist mentality and the bad form of government. But he's tied up, China's tied up, and we have an opportunity to reboot and appoint some really good leaders. And I think when you see JD Vance and Robert F. Kennedy junior involved in it, you're going to see some new views on the world, starting again with Robert Kennedy's favorite subject, and that's healthcare. He wants the kids to be healthier. He wants the country to be healthier. And I think he's going to be a really valuable asset.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: I was watching the media the other day and it was talking, it was showing the current female candidate for president talking about price controls and how she would order price controls on the first day that she would be president. The issue that I see with that, it's not fiscally responsible or possible. I think Nixon tried it back in the seventies and it lasted like 65 days or 70 days, and this just doesn't work. There has to be other ways to solve prices for goods and services that may be higher than they need to be. So I saw that. And also Venezuela tried that, too, did they not?
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yes, they did. And they're a disaster. Any group of people that thinks government control the economy is off on the wrong foot.
For instance, let's say eggs are too expensive. I'll set the price of eggs at a dollar a dozen. Wahoo. People cheer. That's just wonderful. Then the farmer notices that his feed for the chickens is doubled and the energy to heat and to cool his averies, that's gone up tremendously. His taxes have gone up. The taxes on his truck and the gas in his truck has gone up and he's got all these rising costs, but yet his output, his revenue has been fixed by the government, who knows absolutely nothing about egg production. So whether it's eggs, I'm just using that as an example, or the price of your home or whatever they set, it's, it's just unrealistic. They have no ability to judge the true cost. The only thing that does is the marketplace. So most people on the republican side are free market folks. We want to let the market determine the supply and demand. For instance, in real estate, use that as another example. When there's a lot of homes in the market, then it's a buyer's market. You can go out and pick between the various homes and drive the price down. When there's a shortage of homes in the market and many buyers, then the prices go up and they have these bidding wars that we mentioned earlier.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to say this, but we have run out of time. I'm going to see if I can twist the arm of our congressman here to come back next week and tell us a little bit more. I've only got through about half of our questions that we have. And it's so interesting talking with someone that actually knows you've been listening to the real estate and more show. And I'm Michael Hatfield. We've been here with a us congressman, retired Bill Baker, and just having a great time. Thank you for coming out and talking to our listeners, Michael.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: It's my pleasure. You have a great program.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Thank you. We'll be back next week and be happy to have you tune in and visit with us. Have a blessed week. Please remember to go to our new YouTube handle, my real talk show. That's my
[email protected]. and touch that subscribe button. You can also find past aired shows at our handle myRealtalkshow on YouTube.com dot.
