Cutting Red Tape: How Tennessee Is Empowering Small Businesses

They employ a lot of people. They've did a lot of good things. But I've been a small business owner,

and they really are so incredibly important. When you look at who employs the most people, it's not your big giant companies. It's small businesses that employ 10, 20, 30 people. And they're the ones who can be the most impacted by these rules or unnecessary regulation. And so, again, I'm not anti-regulation, but I'm anti-unnecessary regulation. And so, if we're going to implement a new regulation, we need to know what the impact's going to be.

And if we determine that an old regulation is outdated and unnecessary, we need to be able to get rid of it quickly.

“Wow, it sounds so common-sensical. I imagine that. What's this doing in the governmental process?”

Are you encountering any real opposition to it? Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Welcome to our potential podcast. I'm your host David from. So, today we're coming from Nashville, Tennessee at a celebrating America's 250th anniversary

with our friends here in Tennessee. We've been going all over the country at these events. And it's just been a wonderful opportunity to highlight our one small step campaign and talk to great leaders and great people, great Americans, really. And I'm really excited to be joined by a great leader here in Tennessee. I mean, if you don't know it, there's some magic going on in Tennessee. It has been for a few decades.

From a policy standpoint, it is a state that is leading in this nation and powering its people and education reform, keeping taxes low or non-existent in some cases, and really spurring innovation and economic development. And so I'm really proud to have Jack Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader for Tennessee here to talk about it. So, Senator, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thanks for the invitation. It's great to have you all here. This is a great event. Huge crowd.

“Got Laura Trump speaking right now. I think Darrell Worley is going to perform in here at the musicians Hall of Fame.”

So, if you ever visit Nashville, you got to make it a point to come here. It's an incredible venue.

It's fabulous. We wondered around it a little social media, like kind of stuff all around. I went to the Johnny Cash portion. Some of a big Johnny Cash. They didn't need my kids. Listen to a lot of Johnny Cash, and I loved it. So, we've talked about one of the themes of these 25th anniversary events is our one small step campaign. And we're talking about, like, what was that initial step for somebody to get involved?

Because we want to spur people, you know, by, through example, encourage people to get involved in their community, through politics, public service, to try to make a difference in their state and their community and their nation. So, which, you know, I've found that actually see legislated, sometimes have some of the best stories. So, you know, we've got you involved in interested in public service. Well, I would say, I'm not good at much, but I'm pretty good at showing up.

And I think that, I think there's a lot of value in showing up. If you're a young person, or even not so young person, and you care about your community, you care about the direction of the politics, show up. Show up at a campaign event for someone running for school board or county commission, show up for your county Republican party, summer picnic. Show up, meet people, get involved.

“That's what I did at a young age, and it, you know, it turned out pretty good because I had a passion for, for conservatism at a passion for, you know,”

the Republican party and conservative values, and I didn't have any money. I couldn't contribute at that time, but I could show up, and I could help and volunteer. And it, and I'm glad that I did. Where did your values come from? That made you believe in conservatism and want actually get involved.

Sure, well, like some folks, not everyone, but I had two incredible parents.

I had an amazing mom and dad that were were wonderful parents. Love me, love my two sisters, and, you know, they weren't overly political, but, but they voted. And, and sit around the dinner table as a kid, you know, you could hear them talking about different things. But something that was very impactful for me at the age of 12, I was fascinated with the presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Nice.

That was 12 years old at the time. And I don't really know why I'm looking back. My friends weren't necessarily paying that much attention, but I was that nerdy kid who would make sure I was in front of the TV at 530 for World News tonight.

So Ronald Reagan had a really big impact on me, not only his message, but the way he articulated the message.

You know, he was a happy warrior, he was very positive. And so from the time I was 12, until I was 20, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States. And those were very formative years.

“So I think a combination of my mom and dad, my faith, that was instilled in me by my family and Ronald Reagan.”

I didn't have any choice, but to turn out to be conservative. Funny enough, even though I was in New Jersey, I had a very similar journey. I mean, I'd watch the news religiously, I loved Ronald Reagan. He was my main memory. And yeah, it was, and my faith led a big role in it, so I kind of moved towards the right.

So am I, am I mistaken though that you met your wife through young Republicans? I did. I did. So I was born and raised in Texas, but moved here right out of college in 1991.

And it had been here for a few months, and a guy that I worked with, I was working at Third National Bank.

Old Nashville, until we'll remember Third National Bank. But I was in a computer training. And I was sitting next to this guy about my age. And we got to talk, and he was taking the same training that I was taking. This is an all day kind of thing.

And during a break, we got to chatting and talking about politics. And I expressed a few, you know, pretty strong opinions.

“And he said, you know, you need to meet my girlfriend.”

And I said, yeah, I want. And he said, my girlfriend is, is the secretary of the Davidson County, Nashville Young Republicans. I said, I would love to get involved in the younger Republicans. I've only been in town for a few months. And he said, well, I'll call you next time they're meeting and we'll walk over to their meeting.

They just made a couple of blocks of mirror.

So we did a couple of weeks later. And as I tell people that I'll be speaking to a group telling the story. And it's a true story. We walk in, he introduces me to his girlfriend. And she and I've been married.

It'll be 30 years this October. A good for you, you know? Yeah, I say she was interested in politics. And I was interested in her. So it worked out very well.

We're done well for everybody. Yeah. And we have three beautiful children. And it's been a wonderful, wonderful journey. That's awesome.

That's great.

“Well, first of all, what kind of district you represent?”

What part of Tennessee is it? So I'm just south of Nashville in Williamson County. It's the county immediately adjacent to the south from Davidson County, which is Nashville. So about 30 miles from where we're setting right now are 30 minutes. It's made up of several cities.

Franklin, Brentwood, Nolan's Phil, Fairview, Thompson Station. That's a wonderful place. Yeah, it's a special place. I'm a little biased, but it's a really, really wonderful community. And I've had the honor of being their state senator for quite a while now.

That's fabulous. I might not have lived in Franklin for a summer. Which is college. Just to as wonderful. So, you know, I think I mentioned to you.

I'm from outside of Chicago. Say it Illinois, which has hemorrhaged people to Tennessee. I can't tell you how many friends. And even now, some of my kids are wanting or have moved to Tennessee. And I'm sure you see them.

And there's there's great reasons for that. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff going on here. You're a senior leader here. You're running body legislature. Obviously, if a big hand in what's happened in this state and have been for eight years.

I mean, that's a big deal. Talk to me about what makes Tennessee like a great place to look at a business, bring it, you know, raise a family. And then where do you think the state needs to go? Yeah.

So, you know, I take a lot of pride in the fact that as someone who grew up as a conservative and believed in those values and has been very passionate. I'm very grateful that God has placed me in a position now. I get to enact some of those conservative policies with my colleagues in the general assembly and see them work.

And, you know, Tennessee is the least indebted state per capita in America. If you take the entire debt of the state of Tennessee, general obligation debt, and divide it by the population, it's $266. The next closest, it's either Texas or Florida, and they're at about $760 or $770.

So, people like, I think, knowing that the government has well run. It's fiscally conservative, depending on how you measure it,

And yet, we have a thriving economy. We don't over regulate. I'm not anti-government, but I'm very limited government. Government has a specific role to play. And when you compare us to,

“and I believe that the founders wanted states to be laboratories of democracy.”

They wanted them to compete.

And you talked about Illinois, probably second only to California,

in terms of the number of people that are moving here from another state. In fact, I can give you some exciting news. The Tennessee Realtors Association met recently, and they named the Realtor of the Year, and it's Gavin Newsom. [laughter]

Why? So, one of the things that you're doing is really spearheading an effort to take on over regulation or get a excessive regulation to make Tennessee even more competitive. Talk to me about the regulator, Freedom Act,

and why you're pursuing it and what it does. Well, it's a very important piece of legislation, and I'm so grateful to Americans for prosperity, for spearheading the effort and bringing us the idea,

and they're doing that in a number of states.

You know, Tennessee is a wonderful state. We've got a great legislature, great governor, and we're passing good laws. But a lot of people don't think about it.

“You have to get a little bit off of the normal talking points”

that when we pass a law, or the state passes any state, or the federal government passes a law, they usually empower the bureaucracy. They empower the State Department's and agencies to promulgate rules.

Now, that's okay, because we don't want to have a bill that's overly prescriptive and dictates how you fill out a form, or there are things that you should allow departments to enact via rule. And we have an oversight process in that.

But what the regulatory freedom act says is that if those rules are going to affect the private sector, then you need to let the private sector weigh in on the effect of those rules. And if it's going to cost them a certain amount of money,

you need to know that. And it's the way we can do it more efficiently. So that, respectively, when you're thinking about rules that may be proposed or enacted, we need to have the input from the people that are going to be affected by those rules.

It sounds like very common sense. And so that's what the act calls for. And then it also allows for a much easier, more expedited process than any of those rules. So again, it's not the kind of thing that's going to make a lot of headlines,

but it's critically important to the function of government. Well, we've seen the trend across the country of states stepping up and saying, hey, we need a systemic way to take back power, really, of the legislative bodies, to stop over regulation.

What have you heard from like small business people as to why we need to do this? Yeah, so small businesses are the backbone of our economy. And I have nothing against big companies. They employ a lot of people.

They do a lot of good things. But I've been a small business owner, and they really are so incredibly important. When you look at who employs the most people, it's not your big giant companies.

It's small businesses that employ 10, 20, 30 people. And they're the ones who can be the most impacted by these rules or unnecessary regulation. And so, again, I'm not anti-regulation, but I'm anti-unnecessary regulation.

And so, if we're going to implement a new regulation, we need to know what the impact's going to be. And if we determine that an old regulation is outdated and unnecessary, we need to be able to get rid of it quickly. Wow, it sounds so common-sensical.

I imagine that. What's this doing in the governmental process?

“But are you encountering any real opposition to it?”

Not really. You know, we're very blessed in Tennessee to have conservative or Republican Supermajorities in both the house and the Senate. I've not heard of any opposition coming from the Democratic Party. We'll see if there is any.

We've worked with our governor and various agencies and departments, and they've been wonderful to work with,

because they basically agree that we don't need to be passing

unnecessary rules and regulations, and we need to be able to get rid of ones that are outdated.

I'm really excited for what has been happening here in Tennessee.

“Even though I don't live here, we come down here a lot.”

White's family has a place. This kid should have moved down there. Well, you know, I got 11 kids. And so, I don't think I do.

Some of us, you know, kind of feel like a little more committed to organically growing

the grassroots army through to make change.

“Well, good. Maybe there's hope for Illinois, then.”

It's a long-term plan. Although, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if more than one

for sure ends up here at Tennessee, because it's the destination.

What's happening here is great stuff. So, yeah, it's a special place. Yeah. Well, Senator, I really appreciate you joining us. Yeah. It's a joy to have you here. I'm so glad you could join us here at this event. Thank you for hosting us.

And we look forward to seeing the, you know, the regulatory freedom act passed. Sure. I'm excited. We're going to have it up in committee very soon. And, and again, very grateful to Americans for prosperity for the great work they're doing here in Tennessee.

And it's going to be a good bill and make Tennessee even better. Thank you. So folks, if you like this episode and would like to find out more, feel free to subscribe to all of our channels and follow us on social media at Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

“No, as you remember, Liberty and Freedom are easily taken for granted.”

Don't take them for granted. Go out there and defend Liberty and Freedom. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to American Potential. You may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities,

by visiting americanpotential.com.