Rep. Mike Collins: Getting Things Done With A Sense Of Humor
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It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. All right, welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I appreciate you joining me. Give us, Sharon, a little bit of your time. You're going to like this interview. You may not know this person.

Maybe you do. Maybe you're like, you know, his brother or something. But Congressman Mike Collins out of Georgia is going to be joining us here on the Jason in the House podcast. It's fairly new to Congress, but I got to tell you, he's got one of the one of the better X feeds. I guess it's what we call the old Twitter feed.

fairly entertaining. So if you go find him out there, Congressman Mike Collins, you're going to smile. You can't help but watch his Twitter feed or X feed and not just smile. But you know what? He comes from an interesting background and never really chatted with him before, never met him. Once upon a time I served in Congress, but he came along fairly recently and

Given some service to his country and representing the good people of Georgia, at least part of Georgia. And so we're going to have a discussion with him. And we're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

But I want to also talk about just a couple of things in the news. First of all, congratulations to Congressman Mike Johnson, who is now Speaker Johnson, the new speaker. Now, I overlapped with him a little bit. I believe we were on the Judiciary Committee together. You know, I met him, spent a little bit of time with him.

But you know what? He's just a good, decent guy. He's just a good, decent person who is, I think, first and foremost, trustworthy, competent, level-headed, and just talks common sense.

And, you know, it was an ugly, ugly way to get there. I, you know, was very critical of the idea that we would change speakers in the middle of a Congress, although I was very sympathetic with the arguments that we're making that we didn't do regular order on what's called regular order on our speakers.

appropriations bills, that members weren't allowed to do their jobs that way, that they didn't vote on a balanced budget amendment, that they didn't vote on term limits. They didn't vote. All these things that were promised that were going to happen and they did not happen. I, again, was still critical of making that change in the mess that

We went through for, gosh, about three weeks. But lo and behold, even though I was saying out loud, there may not be anybody in the body that can garner enough votes to become the speaker. Maybe we need to look outside, you know, look at somebody else who's not in the body. That's allowed under the Constitution. But nevertheless, finally got around to –

The congressman from Louisiana, and now he is Speaker Johnson. And I think it was unanimous. I think it was 220 votes that he got. And the new speaker, he has to get right after it. I thought his speech, you know, kind of his first public speech after...

He became the speaker, was pitch perfect. He said, look, we're going to get rid of all the pomp and circumstance. We got to get right after things, doing a resolution on the floor of the house in support of Israel and against the terrorists and the terrorism that happened there, and then start working on other bills. That's what Congress is supposed to do. And

You know, we're going to have to give a little leeway to somebody who is a brand new speaker. And my personal opinion, I think we ask far too much of a speaker. I think we're going to have to, over the course of time, redefine what a speaker's role is. I don't think it's fair to suggest that they should be responsible for passing every bill. And...

I just don't believe that. I think their job is to make sure the trains run on time and that the process is good, that the committees are well-oiled and moving and doing their jobs. I think committee chairman and the members within those committees need to take more responsibility. We also asked this speaker to be the public spokesperson for the party. We expect this person to be the chief fundraiser. I mean, there's a lot on their plate in order to do the job in today's monsoon.

modern speakership. And I think we need to look at redefining that and talking about what should they be doing. And I think that ultimately you put more onus, more emphasis back on the members and the committees and the committee chairman. I'd also look at the way we do appropriations. I don't think there should even be an appropriations committee. I think those appropriations should

should happen by committee. If you're the authorizing committee, you should also be the, the, uh, the committee that funds and, uh, you'll get a whole different response in, in realm if you, if you do it that way. But nevertheless, congratulations to, uh, this, the, the new speaker out there. Um,

And there are other big weighty news things that are happening. We record these podcasts a few days before they actually come out. And so, you know, we have this horrific thing that's happening in Maine as I originally recording this. We also have obviously the war that's happening in Israel and we'll get some expertise and, and, uh, you know, talking some podcasts about that in the future. But for right now, uh,

Um, we're gonna talk about a few other things. The one other thing that I, that nobody saw, and I don't know, it's just kind of important to me maybe because I'm from the, the one I, cause I'm a, you know, a Utahan, uh, but, uh, four people accused of stealing a million dollars of dinosaur bones and then trying to export them to China. Uh, that, that's kind of a big deal. This is like,

150,000 pounds of paleontological resources illegally removed from federal and state lands trying to take some of the treasures of the world and export them to China. First of all, who's buying these in China?

And I'm glad the authorities caught these people for trying to take all these fossils and things from, in this case, particularly southern Utah, over a million dollars worth of stuff and then trying to sell it off to China.

That's bad and should never happen, but I'm glad the authorities were on it. And I read about it in Deseret News, and I'm glad that they wrote about this, and we should be aware of those as well. But now let's talk a little bit about the stupid, because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right, we have to go to Eventbrite. Now, I...

Get invitations through this company a lot. Eventbrite's a pretty nice, easy, simple way to invite people to come and participate and do things. But sure enough, picking on Riley Gaines again. Riley Gaines simply out there saying the highly controversial thing that women should be the ones competing in women's sports.

Well, she's been going around the country. I read about this on Outkick.com, and they wrote about this, about how Eventbrite was not allowing her to post her events on Eventbrite. But somehow Eventbrite was totally fine, and Outkick gave them a number of examples of pro-Palestinian, hey, let's celebrate the killing of Jews type of events. You know, let's celebrate the martyrs, and let's have an event with that. And that...

So they allow that, but they won't allow, they have such tight controls on every event that goes through that they wouldn't allow Riley Gaines, the big threat that she is, in being able to talk about, hey, you know what? Let's talk about women in sports. Can't have that, but of course we can do that. Come on. Eventbrite? Stupid. Stupid stuff. You want to destroy your company? Keep it up.

But I'm glad they're being called out on it through Outkick.com. All right. Now we want to bring on our guests because I'm excited to talk to them. Now, when I talked to him, we didn't have a speaker. And now we do have a speaker that I'm recording this part of it. So we're meshing that together. But he's just a great guy and really look forward to having this discussion with him because I think you're going to enjoy it. It's kind of a good...

you know, American who just wants to do the right thing and be left alone in doing it. But, you know, stepping up and serving in Congress. So let's have a discussion and bring on Congressman Mike Collins. Hello, Congressman Hayes, Jason Chaffetz. Hey, Congressman, how are you doing? Look how formal we are, Congressman, Congressman, Congressman. How are you?

Doing fine. You know, it's it people ask me all the time. What do you think about it? And I really tell them I don't have anything to compare it to. So I guess everything's normal on my end. Well, I appreciate you and I've never had a conversation, but I have been admiring what you're doing from afar in large part via X or whatever we call that Twitter thing these days, because you you have more candor in your X feed than most people.

Well, I appreciate that. You know, it's

It may be it's because we're just southerners or from the south. You know, you always look for a little levity or a little bit of humor. And especially right now when things are very serious, you know, you can always take a little bit of time to make fun of yourself or just poke fun at what's going on. Yeah, I've always felt that that that usually works well is if you make fun of yourself and don't take yourself way too serious because you're right. There are big weighty issues and

things. We're having this conversation here before the speaker's race has solidified itself. So that may, hopefully, by the time this podcast is out, it will have come to full conclusion. But before we get into that, this is more about Mike Collins, like who you are and how you got to Congress and your background and

um you know your time with leanne and the trucking company that's what i want to hear about but yeah um let me any relation i mean we got a lot of collins coming out of georgia you you you represent the 10th district of do you ever bump into doug collins you related to doug collins um i'm not related to doug at all no i talked to him uh

On occasion, I've talked to him several times on his radio station and have known him for a while. The only Collins I'm related to is Mack, who was congressman of the 3rd District back between 93 and 05. That is amazing. So I want to go back...

Let's go back to I was born in, because I think you've pretty much grown up in Georgia your whole life, right? I live right now within 10 miles of where I was born, raised, and about five miles from our office, which has been there since the late 60s, early 70s in that same street. So I've always been right there. Brothers, sisters, what were mom and dad doing? Yeah.

Well, you know, my parents started out in the concrete septic tank business and then got into the ready mix business when Georgia Pacific moved from the west coast to the east coast and they needed someone to pour the concrete on some of their locations. So my parents actually wound up putting up batch plants and poured the concrete on Georgia Pacific mills and the entire southeast, all of Georgia and surrounding states.

throughout the late 60s and up until the late 70s or 80s. So we were in the concrete business and in the trucking business hauling logs out of the woods. And I've hung around with my dad since

I guess since I was out of diapers because I know he wouldn't have wanted to change diapers. So I had to wait till that period was over. But everywhere he went, I was with him. I've got a younger brother who's two years younger than me, and we both just hung out with him forever. And he actually was not only in private business,

But he also had a public life as well. He served in the county commission in the 70s and then went to the state Senate when there was only like eight or nine Republicans in the entire House or in Senate on the Georgia state side. And then Newt Gingrich, when they redistricted, Newt got pushed out.

up into the northern part of Atlanta and my dad ran against a guy named Richard Ray and beat him in 92 and then served in the US House of Representatives from 93 to 05 helped write the contract with America and actually sat on the house Ways and Means Committee for 10 years man with high school education so you know brought up working my entire life

I tell folks all the time, I know they laugh about it. My dad woke me up when I turned 12 and said, happy birthday, son. Now be at work by seven. And unless you're going to ride your bicycle, you better get up and come on because I'm leaving. Well, that's good. Yeah, I remember a similar conversation I had with my dad when he put the one ounce in front of me and said, yeah, this summer you're going to work.

i said wait a sec that's not what i do i play soccer i hang out i go swimming and they're like no yeah those days have gone congratulations you've graduated probably like what you are you probably feel too the the 80s was the uh definitely the best decade ever well the best music of course i mean maybe not the wardrobe but in the hairstyles but you know

Hey, man. Well, yeah, we all wore the polos with the collars turned up and had the longer hair. And then we all went to the spiked hair like Billy Idol. So, you know, but and grew up dated Leanne since she was 15. I was 16 and then got married when I got married when I was 21.

And she was 20. So, you know, been married for 34 years now. And we've got two sons. She had twins the first time around. They'll be 31 here in another month and a half. Wow. Got a daughter who's 26 now. She's getting married in two weeks.

Hopefully, I'll be able to be there. I've missed almost everything else. My family, they've kind of gotten used to me not being there. Well, that's the hardest part. I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, that's why I left. I happen to love my wife and adore our kids. And it comes a point where you say, yeah, get in, serve, and now it's time for me to go home.

You know, and I think you did it right, too. How long did you serve? Eight years? Yeah, just eight and a half, yeah. Eight and a half? Yeah. You know, I think those are good round numbers. Eight, ten years. You know, people that come up here that make a career out of this thing, actually, I just don't think that's what we were designed to do, especially in the house side. And in light of all of these issues,

people that have been running in this speakers race especially, I've kind of put that on my radar now. I'm looking for new, fresh ideas. You know, somebody that hasn't been here for decades. Yeah, I think the whole career-minded side of it, I kind of walked out of there thinking, yeah, there's really kind of three types of people. There's people there that they just don't know what else to do. They're kind of retired. You know, they're not really in the fight. They just show up every day. I think it's great to be there. They like the business card.

Then you got people there that are just all about the power. It's not, it's not driven by policy. You know, they're not driven like, Hey, here's the change I want to make to America. And then that third group are the people that I admired that I related to were, okay, we, let's actually get some stuff done. Cause I'm not going to be here very long. I want to get some stuff done and then go home and enjoy make the, you know, look back and say, Hey, we made the country better than, than where it was before. But again,

Now that you've kind of gotten your feet wet and you're experiencing a really wild ride, am I wrong there? Do you see it a little differently? No. And Jason, I'll tell you, I've had a phenomenal career in the private sector.

My wife and I, we got married, we decided that we all were going to live off of those trucks hauling logs. So we started our own business and grown it to over 100 trucks now. Got three other businesses tied in with it. Our sons are running that place. And I've always said that, and probably following the path of my dad, that at some point you should serve in some capacity. And this is my way to give back.

Yeah, it's rowdy and crazy and probably not the norm of what people who have served in the state government side. But, you know, the way I look at myself is probably a lot maybe the way you've looked at yourself is I've come up here and I am extremely conservative. I'm an America First agenda representative. I've always thought that way. I'm very much a free market person.

But being conservative is not all you can be. You've got to be effective.

And if you can come up here and espouse your policy and push it as far as you can and get what you can out of it, depending on where the conference and where Congress sits, I think that's the way you're successful. I mean, you take a look at us. Now, I've got one bill that has already gone through the House, through the Senate, back to the House. If we had a speaker, we probably would have voted on it and sent it to the White House. And it's a common sense bill.

It's going to help change the lives of law enforcement and border patrol, but it's just common sense. There's not too many freshmen up here that can say they've gotten a bill laid on the desk, a Democrat president at that, and get it signed. I know he'll sign it. The House passed it 425 to 0.

So it's, and then we've got another bill that's in House Ways and Means right now that I was hoping Jason Smith and them would get that thing out of there. And because that's another common sense bill that helps out the airline situation with the shortage in pilots and aircraft mechanics. So those are common sense things. And then we carry our principles with us and everything that we do when we're looking at appropriations.

or whatever legislation is being put in front of us, NDAA or FAA, just whatever. You know, I sit on the transportation infrastructure bill. Whatever we are dealing with in committees, I bring that America first marketplace conservative principles to whatever I'm fooling with to the day. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Congressman Mike Collins right after this.

From the Fox News Podcast Network, I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com.

Well, that sounds way too reasonable. That's, you know, that, that, you know, when I was in Congress, people come, you know, complained about this, that or the other. But, you know, I was there, I was elected same time as Barack Obama. So essentially, I was there the whole time Barack Obama was president, but I passed eight bills that were signed into law.

And, you know, I was just conservative as anybody out there. Look at my scores and how I voted. I'd probably change a vote here and there. But I think I voted like 8,000 times. I mean, it was crazy how much we voted. But, you know, I remember it was actually John Boehner. I credit him with, you know, kind of saying, look, you can disagree. Just don't be disagreeable. Don't be that, you know, jerk in the room who nobody wants to hang out with.

And if you do that, you'll actually have a lot of success here. And I think that was so true. I would argue vehemently against stuff. I mean, pounding the table kind of stuff. But then I'd walk over, laugh and joke with these guys and have fun. And they'd do the same. It wasn't personal. That's, I think, where some people step over the line.

Yeah, I would agree. You know, and my dad always gave me two pieces of advice on everything I've ever gotten into business wise or social wise. And he always said, son, there's two things. People have got to like you and they've got to trust you. And if you don't have those two things, then you're not going to get anywhere.

And the other thing you need to do, and I have a hard time with this part of it, is he has always said, if you'll just go in and keep your mouth shut,

Just keep your head down, keep your mouth closed. You'll learn what the problem is and you'll see what the answers are. People will probably give them to you and you'll get more done and you'll learn more that way than if you go into the room just yelling and screaming that this is how it's going to be done. And try to carry that. I've been fortunate enough to be chairman of the board for fourth largest credit union in the state of Georgia.

Been on committees for that credit union for 20 plus years. So been able to get out and do a few other things besides just trucking. And that's two of the main principles I've always carried around with me.

Yeah, I see you were the president of the Chamber of Commerce. And I think what you're saying is so true. It's so simple, right? But it's hard for a lot of people. They just kind of miss the big picture here. People want to do business and be around people that they like, that they know, and that they trust. And you earn those things. You don't just show up on day one. Sometimes I get these young people who come and say, I want to do what you're doing, or I want to do this, or I want to do that. And say, well, just...

Do what you're asked to do. You always take on more responsibility than what you're going to get paid for because they want to test you. They want to see that you could do it before they pay you. So, you know, one thing is to get in there, be the very best you could possibly be. And then, you know what, you're going to get more and more business, more and more responsibility, and your career is going to be moving in the right direction.

Yeah. You know, and probably like you business side of us, you know, this, we come in up here on a Monday afternoon and then we vote around six 30 and then we'll probably have the last vote around 10 30 on Thursday. And, and,

That's one of the things. In the morning. Yeah, it's been hard for me to get used to. And I'm used to going into work on Monday morning at 630 in the morning. I like, you put out a tweet. You had an X or whatever we call it. I love everything that Elon Musk has done except change the name of Twitter. It just does. X is not a verb. It's not. It's just anyway. So, but you put one out that was really funny that you were getting ready for

Because you had to get there at the crack of noon, which I thought was pretty funny. It's so true. Like, seriously, we can't get going earlier than this? The crack of noon? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got another one coming out. You'll have to read it. But, you know, I think that's been one of my biggest pet peeves.

It's just the fact that, you know, I really, especially when we're behind the gun like we are right now, not just Speaker, you know, we should have flown in last night. We should have started this morning with conference. We should have already had speeches, and we should already be voting on the next person that we want to put forward as Speaker. But we haven't. We'll do that tonight. We'll vote tomorrow, and we'll try to get them on the floor on Wednesday. But I just think we should be flying in on Sundays.

Sunday night, be ready to go Monday morning. Let's rock and roll with this thing. Work till late at night. We've got appropriation bills. And Jason, I've got amendments that are sitting in CJS right now. And that thing is still in subcommittee. Yeah. And I need it out so that I can make sure that my amendments...

get voted on so that the sport fishing industry on the entire eastern coast is not decimated by noah's rule noah an unauthorized agency out there who barely can predict the weather is not going to kill the sport fishing industry so we've got a lot of work to do it is frustrating it is frustrating oh it's it is all right let's go back for a second so you're growing up you're in diapers you're following your dad everywhere

Did you play sports growing up? Yeah, I played. I was left-handed, see. So, you know, back then, lefties, you were either thrown in the outfield or you were put on first base in baseball. They couldn't teach you how to bat.

And now you're worth your weight in gold. Right. I couldn't play basketball because I couldn't shoot right-handed. I couldn't run anyway. But I played football. I was always in football. I had enough money in high school. I could work all year, all the way up to football season. And then I'd go broke in that 10 or 11 weeks. I don't know how, but I could. So I'd have to go back to work to keep enough money to date. And so that was the only sport that I really played.

What did sports teach you? You know, especially I think football, there's a lot of different egos in football. You know, I used to get in a fight all the dang time with the guy that was the linebacker, and I was always nose guard. We fought religiously with each other. But when we stepped out on the football team as a team for game night,

Man, didn't nobody mess with him. And didn't nobody mess with me. Because I knew I could always look up and he'd be right there with me. There's a difference in practice and behind the scenes fighting.

And then when you step out as a team, you know, you don't have I don't have a written contract. I didn't have one with with Rusty, but we just knew it. We were both on the same side and we were fighting for the same cause, which was to win the game. And and I think we miss a lot. I think we're missing that right now in conference. You know, it's one thing to be behind the doors and we beat the tar out of each other. Right. But when we step out there on the field, on the floor, we need to be one.

And we need to already have that worked out. And we just don't do that. You know, the majority of the majority, there's just so many things that are missing now. And somehow we've got to find our way back to that. Yeah. You know, when I was there, we kind of agreed that this so-called Hastert rule, which is the majority of the majority, that was the bill that was going to come up and

If you simply couldn't vote for that bill, you need to go talk to the whip and explain it. And, you know, that's their job is to try to understand it. Like, hey, you don't have to get in line here.

But let's understand before we get to the floor. Now, we had a bigger majority than four. And when we were in the minority, it was easy. Right. I mean, I mean, there's some criticism of today's Congress, Republican Congress, like, hey, you all acted like you want to be in the minority because that's it's fun to just go lob, you know, bombs at everybody, so to speak, verbally. I'm not talking literally, verbally and verbally.

And just vote no on everything. But it's a whole different game, a whole lot more responsibility when you actually get to legislate, which is what you went there to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, but if you look back in the mid 90s, you know, I think Gingrich, he had a five seat majority.

when they were legislating and the things that they were able to do with the contract with America with welfare reform. You know, that was the last meaningful welfare reform that we had. And they had to put that on Clinton's desk three times. But the third time he understood that the American people wanted it. And, you know, up here, big things don't happen until the American people demand it. And then things get passed.

And from the indication that we've been getting and the phone calls and even the text by people I don't know, I don't know how they get my cell phone number, but that's OK. They're telling me it's time for y'all to go to work. You know, it's time for whatever y'all are doing up there to stop, get a speaker, put them in the seat and go back to work. So that's that's been my message for the past two or three days. All the fall festivals that we hit over the weekend and since we've been back up here today.

Yeah, there's, you know, you got to fight for what you want. But, you know, our founders didn't set it up to be a glide path where any one person can get everything they want. That's the beauty of it. I did an op-ed for FoxNews.com, and I talked about this very thing, that it gets messier before it gets better.

um better but this is the beauty of our system you know they don't have these problems in china because it's all top down democrats don't have this problem because they just get in line you know it's in their dna they just follow like lemmings it's the power center is up there and so when you're really representing the people it's going to be messy it's okay but you're right that fighting behind the scenes then you go out on the field and you're a team and yeah you can't say hey i i

Was it Ronald Reagan who said, you know, if I can agree with somebody on 80% of the issues, that's my friend. And I'm going to celebrate that.

Yeah, when I was running, I used to tell people that the trucking industry is the most regulated and taxed industry that there is. And I still believe that. Now, a lot of bankers want to fight me over that. But I've carried that up here. And what I've always said is, I don't care. You just tell me what the rules of engagement are. Tell me what they are.

I know what I want to do. I know what I'm looking to get done. I'll figure out how to do it, how to get through it. But I need to know what the rules are. And if I can get that, if I can get those ironed out, hey, I'm good to go. Because you're right, nothing's easy. It wasn't supposed to be. And you've got to, you know, you're up here one of 435, and there's 435 different opinions on it sometimes. And you've just got to be able to understand what you're doing

how it needs to get done and how to explain to people. At the end of the day, if it's good, then it'll pass. So you mentioned your trucking company. It's one thing to be working, getting a check, and then you went to school, right? You went to Georgia State? Went to Georgia State, yeah. I finished up at night school because I wanted to be married by the time I was 21. Yeah.

You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Congressman Mike Collins right after this. All right. So you went to night school, got that done. Check that box. Got married. Check that box. But then when was it just a foregone conclusion? You were going to start your own business. Did what was the mindset there?

Yeah, you know, we were sitting there. My parents said I basically started running the entire operation when I was 19 or 20 years old and when I was still going to college and had already done everything in the book from sweeping the floors to I think I rebuilt my first engine. I wasn't even open up to drive. I was still I think I was 15 when I was doing that welding. Then I did hiring safety and then daily management after that.

uh, general manager. I didn't even have a title. So, uh, one day I was sitting, I don't even know who was, I think it may have been the banker. So you got to put your title on there. So I just, uh, made myself vice president, general manager. So I stayed that way. But, uh,

But yeah, when my wife and I got married and I got to talking to her and she came down and went to work with me, I was like, "Leon, we've got to diversify and get into our own line of work." Back then, hauling logs was an exempt commodity, much like hauling farm products, watermelons or apples or whatever to the mill. And so we got into the regulated side, which was over the road.

and flatbed industry, which is tougher than anything in trucking, I believe. And just grew it from there. You know, it's funny. People leased me equipment, and then I'd turn around and buy it when I could afford it. And they leased me trailers and stuff.

We just had really good customers and kept growing and growing and growing. And it's been, it's been very good. We've got a brokerage department. We've run off of that and opened up 98. People kept asking me what I was going to do because the,

The EPA changed the regs on underground storage tanks where you had to go to double wall pipes and all this other stuff. And finally, I told some folks, I'm going to put in my own fuel station. They said, thank God we've been waiting on you to say that. We've been in the retail fuel business since 99.

And, you know, it ain't no get-rich-quick scheme, but we probably sell around 110,000, 120,000 gallons a month of various types of fuel products. And then we've got to, you know, do a little bit of commercial real estate on the side. So I just poked a lot of irons in the fire. You know, you poke enough in the fire, something's liable to get hot one day. Now, a lot of people couldn't and wouldn't work with their spouse. That obviously worked for you.

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I will admit she's probably a whole lot smarter and damn sure better looking than I am. So I've been very fortunate. And, you know, 34 years of it, she knows that I probably spent more time at the office than I did at home because I've told her numerous times, but the good Lord put me on the earth to work.

And that's it. That's all I like to do. I feel more comfortable sitting behind my desk than I do sitting on the couch at the house. It's just I feel like I'm not living to my full potential if I'm sitting at home watching TV sometimes. Well, that's good. I mean, you know, that's what the American way is all about. But, you know, all of a sudden you had twins show up on your show.

Not all of a sudden. Next thing you know, he had twins. I mean, it's when you go from zero to two, that's that that that kind of changes your lifestyle. You know, you you may want to be in at work at 630 in the morning, but you may be just ready to go to bed about 630.

Yeah, it's funny. Our kids, all three of our kids started out in our office. I grew up at the office. You know, we had a little pen that we set up outside the office and we as kids, I stayed outside and stayed in that fenced in area till it was lunchtime and I could come in and eat.

But our kids grew up at our office as well, and now my grandkids have been down there. So it's been really neat. I was telling some folks the other day, my grandson, he's chatterbox. Now he's five, but we told him when he got to where he could talk pretty decent, we're going to have him start answering the telephone and dispatching. Yeah.

They've all grown up in the trucking and that's pretty much all we know. You know, it's and I tell people my sons are so much better at it than I am. You know, I've got one he took off and he does all the sales and

and the other one does all the financing side. So one's trying to make money while the other one's trying to spend it, not spend as much as he's making. What's the hardest thing about trucking? You know, an average person who's – I'm not involved in trucking, but every time I get on the freeway, my goodness, the place is full of trucks. Yeah. And it's very dispersed, right? I mean, it's not – there's not like –

I'm always surprised that it's so many independent haulers. It's not just some big conglomerate out there. It's never really been that. No, no. I'll tell you some numbers. Do you realize that 98% of the trucking companies in this country are 10 trucks or less? Yeah. 95% of them are five trucks or less. So the UPSs and the J.B. Hunts and the Snyders, they only make up 2%.

The total trucking, you think you see them more in the Swifts more. But yeah, 98 percent of the trucking companies are 10 or less trucks. But, you know, as far as people ask me about that all the time, I'll tell you, government interference between that and and not a lack of tort reform in this country.

has made it so hard on the trucking industry from a regulatory standpoint because they change the rules and regs all the time.

You know, and we're always having something else pinned on us. And I think it's so easy because the motoring public, that's where our office is. You know, we're not sitting inside four walls. So, you know, I always claim that these politicians, when they're riding up and down the road to the airport or to the state capitol, they see a truck and they think, well, that's who I can get that extra tax from. Or, by gosh, we'll get him off the road. We'll regulate him off of it.

And, you know, and that's you don't have to say much about trial lawyers. I mean, everybody goes home and sees those commercials of trial lawyers standing on top of a big truck.

And that says one thing. Who wants to get into an industry where it's not if you're going to get sued, but when you're going to get sued? And it just really hurts our industry because it's a man. Jason, I'm going to tell you something. To me, it's the most incredible industry that you can be a part of because you actually play a part in everybody's life and their lives in some respect.

whether it's me hauling plywood and lumber to maybe build your house, whether it's somebody hauling sheet steel that's going to build that washing machine or dryer that's sitting in your home, whether we're hauling food products for you to eat. And most people don't think of it that way, but it's neat to be a part of an industry that has really, technology is just crazy in our industry right now. I mean, we even have AI in the last trucks that we put on the road, new trucks, artificial intelligence.

And who would have ever thought that? No, it's so good for a young entrepreneur, too. And it's a great way to see the country. I mean, these people work hard. I mean, and then I see, you know, see these Democrats come along saying, well, you know, we got this Green New Deal for you and we're going to do this and we're going to do that. And it's just like, do you have any concept of how the economy works? I mean, Bidenomics is not exactly friendly to us.

It's just, you know, there's an effect. There's an effect. And there's just a total lack of appreciation for the hard work that it takes to be that entrepreneur, to put those trucks on the road, and then to operate them and then say, oh, well, you're just all going to go electric. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Yeah, we test drove one of those electric trucks about a year and a half ago. And, I mean, it's a great truck now. It's like a golf cart. When you hit the pedal, man, it'll throw you back in the seat. But the problem with it is it weighs 30-something thousand. It was a little over 30,000 pounds. Now, my heaviest truck that I've got to date is only a little over 17,000 pounds. And everything we haul, they want you to be maxed out.

So, you know, if you went with electric vehicles, you're losing 13,000 pounds. So you're going to put more trucks on the road to haul the freight that you had to make up for by not being able to haul over 80,000.

So you just made the roads more congested. It's less productive. You know, that's what I have been over here harping and harping is the fact that the biggest problem that we've got is congestion on the roads. If they would pay more attention and fix these roads and bridges. We just had a hearing last week and I asked the guy, where's this money going to? Because I could name off five taxes that we pay besides fuel tax in the trucking industry.

Is that fuel tax going to pay for sidewalks, bicycles, paths, green space? Oh, yeah, yeah, it's going to all that. Well, wait a minute now. I thought that the fuel tax should go to fix roads and bridges. If you would do that, it would make it less congested. We would get more productive. Trucks wouldn't be sitting. You know, we average sitting 51 hours a year right now just on traffic per truck.

And they don't get that. The Bidenomics does not understand that. And that's, you know, look at us. We're high interest rates, high inflation, high unemployment. Now, when you got those three things going on, you're not going to win. I don't care what they call it. Well, once upon a time, I was chief of staff to the governor. I've told this story on this podcast before. I think the Democrats do get it because they want those roads to be congested because they don't want you to drive. They don't want you to drive to work.

They want it to be more painful, more expensive. So you decide, hey, I'm not going to live out in the suburbs. I'm going to go live downtown and walk to work. That's what they ultimately want because they think that cars and trucks are evil and destroy the planet. I told one of the agency directors last month the same thing. I said, you don't want us to own a home. You want us to live in apartments. You want us to have government health care.

You want us to ride mass transit. You really don't want us to own electric vehicles. Yeah. Because if they did, they would make sure that we could mine the critical minerals here in the United States instead of getting 80% of that out of China. They don't want you owning any of it. They want you to drink two beers a week. They want to make sure that they regulate the ceiling fan, the washing machine, the dryer, no gas stoves.

I said, you want us to look to the federal government for every answer. If we've got a question about our life or what we need to do, we look to the federal government and see what the answer is. And that's what we've got to put a stop to up here. Agreed. Agreed. Now, you know, it's funny. We have these conversations and everybody who's listening gets all frustrated because I think they see the same thing.

But I'm glad people like you are willing to step up and take, you know, their expertise and for a spell, however long or short that may be, you know, get up there and make that argument and question those people and work on the bills that, you know, save lives.

The sportsman, for instance, out on the coast. Yeah. Yeah. I thank you for your willingness to serve. Really do appreciate it. Now, before we end this podcast, Congressman, we have some rapid questions I need to ask you. Oh, Lord. This is where everybody gets in trouble. So I don't care how many trucks you've hauled.

you know, but in Holland stuff, um, you're not prepared for these questions. You ready? Oh, okay. They're not as hard as it sounds like, uh, first concert you went to journey journey. All right. I saw journey journey played. Wasn't the original band, but this past summer at the stadium of fire and Provo, they were really good. They put on a great show.

What was your high school mascot? I think the first time I saw him was like 14. I think I was 14 or 15. I don't know why my parents let me go. Yeah, journeys. Journeys. That's a good one. That's a good one. What was your high school mascot? It's called a cougar. Yeah, well, we got mountain lions. We got cougars here in Utah. So that's a good one. That's better than the most. What was your first celebrity crush? Oh, man, Farrah Fawcett. Yeah.

Yeah, I had a poster. You probably had a poster. Jeez, man, you're dating me now. Well, I'm right behind you. Look, my wife and I have been married 32 years, so we're pretty close here. So Farrah Fawcett, that rings true. The younger people listening to this, they're having to Google that. They're having to, who? Good luck spelling it. Keep trying.

What's your superpower? What I mean is, hey, you know what? I can do that pretty good. I'm actually pretty good at this. What's the what's the Colin superpower that you have?

I think it's just the determination to keep moving. Like, for instance, I go to the gym every day, work out with a trainer three days a week at least. And I enjoy that pain. You don't work out hard enough unless you wake up the next day sore. That's good. That's good. Now, if you...

could pick anybody in history dead or alive um and you could say hey leanne guess what get ready because we're gonna have a special guest over for dinner tonight who would you want to come break bread and join you for dinner anybody um i'll tell you who i'd love to have burt reynolds over for dinner burt reynolds that's a first yeah why burt reynolds well i mean smoking a bandit's probably like one of my top three movies besides animal house is a great show um

Yeah. But I just think that you look at the movies that you look at the movies that Burt Reynolds made. OK, that was when guys were guys. Yeah. Man was a man, you know, and it was just it was just good times. He drove that Trans Am. He did. And he make it. And he was having fun. Right. All of his characters. Yeah.

The Longest Yard or Gator. Yeah, The Longest Yard. That is a funny show. That is maybe not for everybody, but that was a good show. I loved it.

Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe maybe Burt Reynolds. That's a good one. All right. If you're talking about live or dead, if you come out live, I know Newt Gingrich real well, but I just admire him so much. I like picking his brain whenever I can. Well, there you go. I bet he'd get together with you if you asked. Unique talent that you can do that nobody knows about.

Well, I don't play it much anymore, but I used to play the clarinet and the piano. Wow. All right. Well, that is a unique talent. And I've still got my alto sax. Pineapple on pizza. It's kind of a big one for me. Yes or no? Never had that. Good. Don't ever start.

Keep the reputation of Georgia intact. Pineapple is not supposed to be on pizza. That's for sure. Did you have a pet growing up? Yeah, man. We used to have a dog, but all our dogs were outside. So we had German Shepherds when I was a kid. That's good. Nobody will come messing around the Collins property with German Shepherds roaming the yard. That's good. All right, last one. Best advice you ever got?

I think a lot of those that I was talking about with my dad, just, you know, people don't trust you, then they can't use you. They don't want to have anything to do with you. And I think that's just so important that, you know, that people like and they trust what you're doing. Because you're not going to always have all the answers. You're not going to know them all. But at least if they know that you're a quality person,

then they're okay with it. And I think that's so important. That's good. That's good. Congressman Mike Collins from Georgia's 10th Congressional District, thanks so much for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Do appreciate it. Well, you know what? I appreciate you having me on. I've enjoyed it. I appreciate you serving our country, too.

Well, thank you. It was an honor to be there, and you're right in the midst of it, so make the most of it. And I know you work hard. I know you will. And I know you put your best, your heart, because you love your country and love your family. And can't ask for more than that. You've got a good business sense, so I wish we had a whole house full of you. But you don't. So, again, we're recording this. We don't know the outcome of the speaker's race, but go solve that for us, will you? Yeah.

We're going to start tonight. All right. Yeah, I don't want to get off to too quick a start this week, but yeah. No, we've got a few hours left before we have to go. Congressman Collins, thanks again. I do appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate it. See, I told you, Mike Collins is a good guy. Just like a good family. And I really appreciate him taking the time to join us. I would appreciate it if you could rate this podcast, subscribe to the podcast. And I want to remind people that you can listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.

Again, thanks for joining us. Rate it. Subscribe to it. Join us again next week. We've got a lot of good, fun stuff coming up. People with books coming out. All kinds of good, fun stuff. And I remind you, you can go over to foxnewspodcast.com to get some of my colleagues. They've got good podcasts out there. And join us again. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.

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