Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 41 LIVE: Pro-Life, Pro-Living – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

In this episode of Firebrand Live, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) takes a look at the impact the primary elections are having on the two major parties, and how they influence the policies they are willing to talk about. He also takes a deep dive into the abortion debate, and examines the role that abortion opponents are playing in shaping the conversation around Roe v. Wade and the impact it has on abortion access and access to abortion services. Finally, he talks about the impact that the primary election outcomes have on the policies that are voted on by voters, and what that means for the future of abortion access in the United States. Firebrand LIVE is a production of the Firebrand Leadership podcast, Firebrand Media, and is brought to you Live from Congressman Gaetz's office in Washington, D.C., where he is streaming the show live from his office on Capitol Hill. Subscribe to the show to stay up to date on all things Firebrand and keep up with the latest breaking news and breaking issues in politics, culture, entertainment, and everyday life in America. Tweet Me! with your thoughts, opinions, and thoughts on anything else going on in the and let us know what you thought of it in the comments section below! Timestamps: 0:00:00 - What's your favorite moment from the past week? 6:30 - What was your biggest takeaway from this week's episode? 9:15 - What do you think about Roe v Roe v Wade? 11:00 16: What is your favorite part of the Supreme Court case? 17: What s your favorite piece of legislation? 19:40: What are you looking forward to see in the future? 21:00 | What would you want to see next? 26:40 - What s the most important about abortion reform? 27:30 | What s going to happen in the next episode of the show? 29:30 32:40 | What's the biggest thing you're most excited about in 2020? 31: What's going to be the biggest challenge? 33:00 + 33: How would you vote on abortion? 36:00 & 36:10 - What are your thoughts on abortion, abortion, immigration? 35:40 37:10 38: Should we talk about it? 39:10 | How do you feel about abortion, pro-choice, immigration, and abortion?

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:58.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.

00:05:05.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.

00:05:08.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:05:11.000 So we're going to keep running the stories to keep hurting him.

00:05:15.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!

00:05:23.000 You are in the right place!

00:05:25.000 This is the movement for you!

00:05:27.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:05:29.000 It's like a machine.

00:05:31.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:32.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.

00:05:35.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:05:40.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:05:42.000 They're coming for you.

00:05:44.000 I'm just in the way.

00:05:50.000 Growing life, sustaining life, success, progress on America's farms, it's getting tougher.

00:05:58.000 And inside the womb, it may be getting easier.

00:06:00.000 Welcome to Firebrand Live.

00:06:02.000 I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz, and we are streaming live from my office on Capitol Hill.

00:06:06.000 The best way to enjoy this report live, so that you're not listening to it later, watching it later, is to make sure that you are subscribed to your platform live.

00:06:15.000 with notifications turned on.

00:06:18.000 So we're going to talk about the overturning of Roe v.

00:06:21.000 Wade, how politicians are reacting to it, I'm actually really intrigued by the messages that are being sent by what's not being talked about.

00:06:29.000 So I'll take that on.

00:06:30.000 You'll see everything from Newsom to Pelosi to my take.

00:06:34.000 But it's Election Day in America today.

00:06:37.000 That's right.

00:06:37.000 In states like Nebraska and West Virginia, voters are going to the polls.

00:06:41.000 And while this isn't a political show, we want to encourage everyone to participate in this great country.

00:06:47.000 Vindicate your rights as a citizen.

00:06:50.000 Get out and vote regardless of your candidate of choice.

00:06:53.000 regardless of your political persuasion.

00:06:54.000 And one can't help but note how the outcomes in these primaries, particularly on the Republican side, influence the policies that we are willing to talk about.

00:07:05.000 You see, that's where you make the connection.

00:07:07.000 When a guy like a J.D. Vance wins a primary in Ohio, that helps those of us who want to elevate the issue of illegal immigration in the Congress.

00:07:16.000 And when you get the more moderate establishment candidates that win, well, then you see a shift toward those policy issues.

00:07:23.000 And that's what we cover in the show, policy.

00:07:25.000 Can't help but notice President Trump going into today's Election Day, 55-0 in his endorsements and And again, what that informs on within the walls in Congress, the agenda, the schedule.

00:07:38.000 What are the things we're going to talk about and what are the issues we're going to be willing to fight about in a world in which these are some of the primary outcomes?

00:07:46.000 Now, there is an issue...

00:07:48.000 Very much on the ballot in West Virginia.

00:07:51.000 And I think this is very interesting.

00:07:53.000 You've got a race in West Virginia that actually pits two Republicans against each other in a primary today.

00:07:59.000 David McKinley and also Alex Mooney.

00:08:03.000 Two West Virginians.

00:08:04.000 West Virginia loses a seat as a consequence of depopulation and redistricting.

00:08:09.000 So they end up in the same race. 0.51

00:08:10.000 And the whole race has come down to the Biden infrastructure vote.

00:08:17.000 On that vote, you had Mooney voting no.

00:08:21.000 You had McKinley voting yes.

00:08:23.000 And so you've had people like Republican Governor of West Virginia Jim Justice, even Democrat U.S. Senator Joe Manchin supporting the infrastructure bill, saying it's good for West Virginia.

00:08:35.000 You've had Congress members like Alex Mooney opposing that infrastructure bill.

00:08:39.000 So if you see a Mooney win today, that's bad news for the Democrats, even though it's an outcome in a Republican primary, because it shows that this infrastructure bill that is not only the signature accomplishment of the Biden presidency, it is the only thing that they could possibly trumpet as an accomplishment. it is the only thing that they could possibly trumpet

00:08:57.000 And if it's not driving votes, if it's not a voting issue, then I think you really see a narrative that's without any sort of cohesion or central focus or grounding in the challenges that are really very prevalent out in the country and challenges we're definitely going to talk about in the show.

00:09:16.000 So that brings us to Congress this week.

00:09:20.000 And we are getting news that a $40 billion package for Ukraine in arms, in aid, in cash, is being decoupled from a vote on COVID. Now, first of all, what is so freaking wrong with Congress that you would ever couple Ukrainian aid with coronavirus response?

00:09:41.000 Regardless how you think of those things, they definitely don't belong together, but it tells you something about how your government behaves and responds that they would think about this not as a policy debate, but as a political fusion of these issues.

00:09:56.000 Now, for me, it's not that difficult because, as I'll explain, I'm against both of them, but really nuts that they thought about joining COVID and Ukrainian aid.

00:10:06.000 To most people, you would think your government would actually be sophisticated and mature enough to address those issues on their own merits independently.

00:10:14.000 It does look like that's going to happen.

00:10:16.000 I think the COVID obsession needs to come to an end.

00:10:19.000 We cannot continue to print money to subsidize COVID fear porn policies.

00:10:26.000 You want to know why we have inflation problems in this country today?

00:10:29.000 It's not because of Vladimir Putin principally.

00:10:32.000 It's because of our government.

00:10:34.000 It's because we print money and thus devalue the dollar as a fundamental economic institution in American life.

00:10:43.000 So I'm not going to be voting for the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer COVID additional relief package because in Florida, frankly, we've seen how to respond to this.

00:10:54.000 Okay?

00:10:55.000 More freedom, more economic activity, more personal choice.

00:10:59.000 And by the way, for those who want to stay locked up for their personal health reasons, who want to get vaccinated, that's entirely their right.

00:11:07.000 We should not judge them for that.

00:11:09.000 Let them do their thing.

00:11:10.000 But I think...

00:11:11.000 Americans who want to go back to work, who want to open businesses, who want to interact with family members, ought to be able to do that as well.

00:11:18.000 So in this COVID package, you've got, you know, the hospital industrial complex and the pharmaceutical industrial complex doing their thing.

00:11:26.000 I won't be voting for it.

00:11:28.000 But the $40 billion for Ukraine, that is undeniably the military industrial complex.

00:11:34.000 And after seeing what the big pharma lobby got and the big hospital lobby got, No doubt the war lobby wants to get right back at it.

00:11:44.000 They certainly don't want to see the savings that the American people should realize is a peace dividend with hostilities in Afghanistan coming to an end, at least as far as Americans go.

00:11:54.000 No, they don't want that peace dividend realized for our country.

00:11:57.000 They want us to continue to spend money just littering weapons abroad for the use of others who sometimes don't share our values.

00:12:06.000 Ukraine is the money laundering capital of Europe.

00:12:11.000 And in a lot of ways, this $40 billion is a money laundering operation for the elites.

00:12:16.000 And you saw how quick it went from $33 billion to $40 billion.

00:12:20.000 It's just astonishing to me.

00:12:22.000 By the way, Customs and Border Patrol are going to be requesting through the Biden administration about $17 billion.

00:12:28.000 So it tells you a lot about your leaders and your government.

00:12:32.000 That they are just lickety-split, going to send more than twice as much money to Ukraine to defend their borders than they are defending our border through Customs and Border Patrol.

00:12:44.000 It is a definition of values.

00:12:47.000 My grandfather used to say, don't tell me about your values.

00:12:50.000 If you show me your checkbook, I can tell you about your values.

00:12:54.000 And in this case, America's checkbook seems to be valuing Ukraine more than Europe does.

00:12:59.000 And more than even we value the critically just devastating crisis on our southern border with Mexico.

00:13:06.000 And here, within this country, not for nothing, but there's like no baby formula anymore.

00:13:13.000 $40 billion for Ukraine when you have a baby formula collapse in the marketplace here in our country.

00:13:20.000 And astonishingly, it was a CNN Data Assembly report from the CEO of Data Assembly, Ben Reich.

00:13:28.000 And here's a quote directly from this report about the real problems with baby formula.

00:13:34.000 Quote.

00:13:35.000 This issue has been compounded by supply chain issues, product recalls, and historic inflation.

00:13:42.000 Unfortunately, given the unprecedented amount of volatility due to the category, we anticipate baby formula to continue to be one of the most affected products in the market.

00:13:55.000 So just take a listen how bad this is by the numbers.

00:14:00.000 Right now, 40% of the nation's formula is out of stock.

00:14:05.000 That's right now.

00:14:06.000 And you already heard it's going to get worse.

00:14:08.000 That number is actually 10 points higher.

00:14:11.000 Half of the stock is gone in South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Texas, and Tennessee.

00:14:17.000 And now, stores are starting to ration formula in America.

00:14:23.000 Rationing baby formula in the United States of America.

00:14:27.000 And how significant is that?

00:14:29.000 67% of babies are fed partially through formula.

00:14:34.000 And if that's not bad enough, we just got in some blisteringly bad crime statistics.

00:14:40.000 Nine cities all have record-breaking murder numbers for 2021. Portland, Milwaukee, St. Paul, L.A., Albuquerque, New York, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio.

00:14:56.000 Philadelphia.

00:14:57.000 By the way, the same Philadelphia that hosts the 76ers that unfortunately are on a little two-game run against my Miami Heat.

00:15:04.000 But the one thing all those cities have in common?

00:15:06.000 Run by Democrat mayors.

00:15:08.000 Run by Democrat city councils.

00:15:11.000 And what's so sad is that these Democrat policies are failing the people most in the places where they've been most reliant on Democrats to look out for them and to provide some degree of safety and comfort.

00:15:24.000 And it doesn't happen, and it's very bad, and it's particularly bad.

00:15:29.000 Historic murder numbers in these nine Democrat-run cities.

00:15:34.000 You know what else is murder?

00:15:36.000 Abortion is murder.

00:15:38.000 And this draft decision that we have now seen represents the overturn of Roe v.

00:15:46.000 Wade and something that Republicans and conservatives and just pro-life people have been praying for and hoping for and working towards for so long.

00:15:57.000 And you know what?

00:15:58.000 We even hear From California's golden boy, the governor there, Gavin Newsom, that we are winning.

00:16:07.000 Where is the Democratic Party?

00:16:09.000 Where's the party?

00:16:11.000 Why aren't we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?

00:16:14.000 Why aren't we calling this out?

00:16:16.000 This is a concerted, coordinated effort.

00:16:18.000 And yes, they're winning.

00:16:20.000 They are.

00:16:21.000 They have been.

00:16:22.000 Let's acknowledge that.

00:16:25.000 That is what focus gets you.

00:16:27.000 When you actually do the work to craft the bills, to create a culture of life, we can win.

00:16:34.000 And I think so often in Washington, D.C., the Republicans are willing to oversee managed decline, to just surrender less and less ground to the left over time.

00:16:43.000 But there was a movement that In the pro-life community that would not allow the politicians off the hook.

00:16:51.000 We got the right judges, they were confirmed, and now Roe v.

00:16:55.000 Wade is going to be overturned.

00:16:57.000 One of the principal goals of the pro-life movement.

00:17:00.000 And it's quite something that The Democrats don't seem to be taking the issue head-on in every circumstance.

00:17:08.000 I think Democrats know that running on an exclusively pro-abortion position is vastly out of touch with a lot of American people, and so they're trying to use this decision that overturns Roe that would allow states to have restrictions on abortions Well, they want to change the subject to almost anything else.

00:17:33.000 Take a listen.

00:17:34.000 This is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Face the Nation talking about her reaction to this decision.

00:17:41.000 Take a listen.

00:17:43.000 This is about respect for privacy.

00:17:46.000 What's next?

00:17:47.000 What's next?

00:17:50.000 Marriage equality.

00:17:52.000 What's next?

00:17:55.000 Oh, so it's about marriage equality.

00:17:58.000 It's about privacy.

00:18:00.000 It's about contraception.

00:18:02.000 You've heard a lot of Democrats saying, oh, contraception is potentially going to be unavailable for people as a result of this decision.

00:18:08.000 Look, there is no serious effort to limit people's access to basic contraception.

00:18:15.000 I support access to contraception.

00:18:17.000 That in no way rubs negative to the pro-life movement.

00:18:21.000 So we can stop the murder of unborn babies with the overturning of Roe, by accepting a culture of life, by advancing pro-adoption policies, which, by the way, is a huge part of this.

00:18:35.000 I am very proud of the work I did in the Florida legislature to work on policies, to cut the red tape for adoption, to create incentives for adoption, to do everything possible to create that positive pro-life culture.

00:18:49.000 But here's what you're going to hear from Democrats.

00:18:51.000 Oh, well, we could ban interracial marriage because of this decision. 0.99

00:18:55.000 We could ban gay marriage. 1.00

00:18:57.000 No one's talking about doing that.

00:18:59.000 This is different.

00:19:00.000 And in the decision itself, actually, Justice Alito...

00:19:04.000 It takes a moment to express that there's something about this abortion issue and the flawed science and the flawed law that underpins Roe that makes the court's robust reasoning specific to this.

00:19:16.000 So don't buy into the fear-mongering that this vastly changes the whole concept of reproduction in America.

00:19:23.000 No.

00:19:24.000 This is to overturn Roe.

00:19:27.000 Bad law to return this authority to elected people.

00:19:31.000 And then you know what?

00:19:31.000 If you don't like what abortion law is, you have somebody to go vote for or vote against.

00:19:38.000 And my suspicion is abortion law will be debated by elected officials.

00:19:44.000 The problem with Roe is you had nobody to go vote against if you didn't like it.

00:19:47.000 It was just a court seizing jurisdiction on unsound constitutional principles that relied on penumbras rather than actual text.

00:19:57.000 The freak out on the left has gotten so broad and away from the specific focus of abortion that we had Senator Gillibrand of New York questioning whether or not women were even still citizens in America.

00:20:08.000 Take a listen.

00:20:09.000 And I hope every human being in this country understands that when you take away a woman's right to make her decisions about her health and well-being, she is no longer a full citizen.

00:20:26.000 Look, reasonable people in America can disagree on the matter of abortion.

00:20:31.000 And by the way, one of the reasons why we had to overturn Roe is because science regarding viability has changed since the 1970s.

00:20:42.000 And as science changes and as our understanding of viability becomes more accurate, our laws ought to reflect that.

00:20:50.000 the political discussion we have in this country, our campaigns ought to be responsive to those changes in science and to enhanced viability.

00:20:59.000 So reasonable people can disagree about abortion, but that was not reasonable.

00:21:04.000 And frankly, what we see from a lot of the people that are, you see them in these viral videos, you see them everywhere, protesting for a pro-abortion, pro-murder position, it's just wild.

00:21:17.000 And I was observing, like, these people who are out there protesting because they, like, want their abortions or whatever.

00:21:24.000 And I'm thinking to myself, for a lot of them, that probably wouldn't be an issue because they strike me as very lonely people.

00:21:31.000 And not for everyone, but I think in some cases, like, people's personal loneliness has, like, manifested in their pro-abortion view.

00:21:40.000 So I released this tweet.

00:21:44.000 How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, underloved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats and no Bumble matches? 1.00

00:21:59.000 There was quite the reaction to that.

00:22:01.000 But I want you to know what I was talking about.

00:22:04.000 Again, I was asking the question, what percentage of this overall universe of people who are like so animated about this that they go out and protest are like deeply lonely people?

00:22:13.000 And frankly, I think a lot of millennials of every gender got sold a bill of goods that like, oh, well, the best way you're going to meet the best partner is to drive toward the highest degree of education.

00:22:25.000 And now people are wanting Joe Biden to go cancel their $50,000 in student debt that they got to get a master's degree in intersectional feminist studies. 0.97

00:22:33.000 and they find themselves out at some crazy protest, probably looking and sounding a lot like this. 0.97

00:22:39.000 I'm killing them. 1.00

00:22:48.000 I'm killing the baby! 1.00

00:22:50.000 Ladies, if you get pregnant, run on down to the abortion clinic and have that little bastard suck! 1.00

00:23:01.000 For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has been an institution for the enslavement of women. 1.00

00:23:06.000 Without this basic right, women can't be free. 1.00

00:23:10.000 Without this basic right, women can't be free. 1.00

00:23:17.000 a portion I demand and without apology.

00:23:20.000 I have a right as an implicit.

00:23:23.000 I have a right to my choice.

00:23:27.000 Get out of here! 0.99

00:23:29.000 Thank you.

00:23:31.000 What we believe is that people who reasonably disagree about the matter of abortion ought to be able to access our halls of Congress, our state legislators, to be able to discuss and present evidence and look at when a heartbeat really starts, when a soul has been created.

00:23:49.000 Not to allow unelected judges to universally resolve this.

00:23:52.000 We still have a lot of work to do in the pro-life movement to ensure that from The moment of conception all the way through life that we are being pro-life, that we enhance foster care, that we do everything possible to assist mothers who have unwanted pregnancies with options that don't include abortion.

00:24:11.000 But that Was the sickness, the vile, just odious behavior of the people who would want to use intimidation and who would want to, I think, go to measures that were beyond normal politics to try to achieve the outcomes that they desire.

00:24:32.000 That is not the country we live in.

00:24:33.000 Those are not the people that I think represent where a vast majority of Americans are on this issue.

00:24:39.000 So we'll continue to cover Not only this decision and the ongoing jurisprudence from it, but the legislative action here in Congress and throughout the several states that I think is sure to follow.

00:24:52.000 But to be pro-life, we have to support the things in America that drive life and sustain life.

00:25:00.000 And if you've been paying attention, you see that American farmers are in a total state of crisis in this country.

00:25:08.000 It's not an accident and it's not a mystery.

00:25:11.000 It is a direct result of the policies of the Biden administration.

00:25:15.000 Just take some of the headlines that we've been seeing.

00:25:17.000 This is an Axios article.

00:25:19.000 Go ahead and put that on the screen.

00:25:21.000 Soaring fertilizer prices put global food security at risk.

00:25:24.000 Look at these spikes.

00:25:25.000 Here's what I could tell you and here's what you're about to hear.

00:25:27.000 Because we're about to have on the program Shannon Nixon from Nixon Farms from my congressional district.

00:25:33.000 But look at those spikes.

00:25:35.000 The margins on American farms cannot support that type of variability in what is a fixed cost.

00:25:42.000 And in a lot of places, you've got to fertilize the land.

00:25:45.000 Let's grab another article.

00:25:47.000 This is out of Michigan.

00:25:50.000 Fertilizer shortage could cause food shortages in Michigan.

00:25:54.000 It's like, not Africa, not Latin America, not Europe.

00:25:58.000 But in America, these fertilizer shortages could result in lack of food security.

00:26:04.000 And it's totally wild, and it's completely terrible.

00:26:08.000 You even had one of Joe Biden's top people, Samantha Power, talking about it recently.

00:26:12.000 Take a listen.

00:26:14.000 Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer.

00:26:19.000 And even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia.

00:26:24.000 As a result, we're working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost.

00:26:29.000 And this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually anyway.

00:26:36.000 Never let a crisis go to waste, but we really do need this financial support from the Congress to be able to meet emergency food needs so we don't see the cascading, deadly effects of Russia's war extend into Africa and beyond. 0.78

00:26:51.000 I can't believe she said the quiet out loud.

00:26:53.000 Don't let a crisis go to waste.

00:26:54.000 That actually was from the Obama administration and Rahm Emanuel and the crew there that was willing to accept pain for our fellow Americans so long as they were able to advance this kind of neoliberal agenda.

00:27:09.000 We had votes in the Congress regarding Belarus and Russia and sanctions, and those votes impacted the price of fertilizer.

00:27:19.000 I mean, that massive spike that I showed you on that line graph, that didn't come out of nowhere.

00:27:24.000 Even Samantha Power acknowledged that what's going on in Russia and Ukraine and Belarus and our reaction to it has a direct impact on these markets.

00:27:34.000 And here's my problem.

00:27:35.000 I wasn't willing to take those votes to act tough on Putin.

00:27:40.000 In a way that just abandoned farmers and consumers and low-income people without a plan.

00:27:48.000 And then in that clip you see Samantha Power say, well, where's Congress's plan?

00:27:51.000 Well, you know what?

00:27:52.000 It was the Biden administration that sought these sanctions with no plan.

00:27:57.000 For what was going to happen to our fellow Americans.

00:27:59.000 I wanted to go on the ground.

00:28:03.000 I wanted to get the perspective directly from a farmer in my district regarding how costs and how kind of radical woke environmentalism, how provocation with Russia is impacting his business in real time.

00:28:17.000 This is Shannon Nixon, Nixon Farms, Northwest Florida.

00:28:21.000 I had a great time as you could tell.

00:28:23.000 Out of the swamp of Washington, D.C. and out with the good folks of Northwest Florida.

00:28:28.000 Hope you enjoy that conversation.

00:28:31.000 So I'm here with Shannon Nixon at Nixon Farms in my district in Northwest Florida.

00:28:37.000 Tell us about your farm.

00:28:39.000 Typically we grow cotton, peanuts, soybeans.

00:28:42.000 We grow a little bit of wheat, a little bit of oats.

00:28:44.000 I farm about 700 acres.

00:28:46.000 I'm a very small farmer, but Even though small in scale, it still costs a lot of money to do what we do.

00:28:54.000 So you require to operate this farm petroleum-based fertilizer?

00:28:59.000 Absolutely.

00:28:59.000 And what have you seen regarding the cost of it?

00:29:01.000 I could give you an example.

00:29:04.000 We use a product called 28005. And back in January of 2021, I was quoted a price of $255 a ton.

00:29:18.000 January of this last year, it was $750 a ton.

00:29:23.000 I'm sure it's went up since then.

00:29:27.000 I love the way statisticians do inflation.

00:29:32.000 When I see that there's 5% and 10% inflation, I kind of chuckle.

00:29:36.000 Even our Baker math is better than that.

00:29:40.000 I hear from so many people who In the, you know, urban areas of our country and the suburban areas say, I go to the grocery store and filling up my basket used to be a couple hundred dollars.

00:29:51.000 Now it's, you know, four, five, six hundred dollars to fill up that basket sometimes.

00:29:56.000 They don't see that that's the diesel price that they're paying.

00:29:59.000 They don't see that that's the fertilizer price that they're paying.

00:30:01.000 But it all really starts here.

00:30:03.000 Let me read you three headlines just from today.

00:30:06.000 Mothers find barren shelves as they search for baby formulas.

00:30:09.000 That's in the Daily Mail.

00:30:11.000 Rising fuel prices could lead to fewer trucks on the road from the National Desk.

00:30:16.000 And then, we are nowhere near the bottom.

00:30:19.000 CNBC, top economist, says global markets are going to crater.

00:30:23.000 Are you optimistic right now as a farmer in Northwest Florida?

00:30:27.000 As a farmer in Northwest Florida, and I think this would be any farmer in the nation, there's a lot of uncertainty right now.

00:30:36.000 Costs are definitely a big obstacle for us to overcome because we always budget before we do our budgetings for the crop year.

00:30:48.000 And we had to go back several times because they just kept changing.

00:30:53.000 Fertilizer cost and not only that, availability.

00:30:56.000 Some things you can't even get if you have all the money in the world.

00:31:00.000 So it's a very definite supply issue.

00:31:04.000 We kept thinking that it was getting better, but I think some things are just getting exponentially worse.

00:31:10.000 There's a lot of political ramifications.

00:31:14.000 We can all sit here and point fingers, but we know that elections have consequences.

00:31:21.000 It's not so much the supply, it's the anticipation of the supply.

00:31:26.000 So talk to me about how that affects the business plan of a place like this.

00:31:31.000 When you've got fertilizer going from 255 a ton to 700 a ton, when you've got the Roundup going up by not just 5-10%, but by multiples, how do you absorb that?

00:31:43.000 Well, we don't know.

00:31:44.000 This is uncharted territory.

00:31:46.000 We don't know how we absorb it.

00:31:47.000 Is it going to mean that there are going to be fewer investments in irrigation, in more fields, or I can tell you most every farmer has cut back on fertilizer because the land is kind of like a savings account.

00:32:06.000 You know, if we've been doing good fertility progress, we have some stored nutrients.

00:32:09.000 But wait, by that measure, once you withdraw from the savings account, you're in real trouble.

00:32:15.000 We're going to be bankrupt from a fertility standpoint.

00:32:21.000 I think the problem is coming later on.

00:32:25.000 I think we're setting ourselves up for next year.

00:32:28.000 Are you saying that because of what we're doing to the land, not making that investment back in the land and fertilizer, that it's actually going to get worse before it gets better?

00:32:37.000 Unless we come up with some alternatives for nutrients.

00:32:41.000 Look at...

00:32:42.000 One thing I think that you guys...

00:32:44.000 Well, wait a second, because I got to go into specific votes that directly affect this.

00:32:48.000 Where I was on the outside of a majority of Congress, because a lot of these petroleum-based fertilizers We get from Russia.

00:32:56.000 We get from Belarus.

00:32:57.000 And the ones we don't get from there, that whole global market is impacted by them because they're big producers.

00:33:03.000 And I had to take a vote as your public servant on whether or not we were going to end all that.

00:33:09.000 And there was no plan on how we were going to replace it.

00:33:13.000 You just said, well, that depends on whether or not we have a plan.

00:33:15.000 There was no plan.

00:33:16.000 There was just Force people to pay more money. 0.99

00:33:19.000 And I took a lot of crap for that. 0.98

00:33:22.000 A lot of people said, oh, that must mean you love Putin. 0.98

00:33:25.000 Well, I don't love Putin, but I do worry about what we are looking at six months, 12 months, 18 months down the road if you're seeing two and three time increases on what it takes to operate a 700 acre farm.

00:33:39.000 Well, this is an interesting side note, and maybe this is not politically correct, but We do have a Russian connection to farming, whether we like it or not, because there's a lot of technology in farming.

00:33:51.000 All of these planters, all these tractors, they're running off the GPS. All of this equipment used to have mechanical road markers.

00:33:58.000 We don't have road markers.

00:33:59.000 We depend on that technology.

00:34:02.000 Most of the GPS satellites we use, a lot of them are Russian.

00:34:08.000 GLONASS. Have you ever heard of GLONASS? Yes, sir.

00:34:10.000 Those are owned by the Russians. 0.95

00:34:12.000 And I'm not a Putin fan.

00:34:15.000 I'm against Putin.

00:34:16.000 But I'll tell you this.

00:34:17.000 When we went to GLONASS, our accuracy went up exponentially.

00:34:21.000 So, you know, we are in a geopolitical situation because what if Putin decides to scramble the signal on those?

00:34:32.000 What are we going to do?

00:34:33.000 Do we have anybody in Washington that can leverage themselves and say, hey, you know, We need to get these satellites back going.

00:34:41.000 So our food supply is not just in jeopardy from one venue.

00:34:45.000 It has multiple venues.

00:34:47.000 Well, let me ask you a question, Congressman.

00:34:49.000 What do you think can be done to help change this?

00:34:54.000 Because I think people need a little bit of good news.

00:34:56.000 I think people need hope.

00:34:57.000 I think that a lot of farmers feel very desperate because I talked to some of my colleagues and they say, you know, if a certain If a piece of equipment breaks down, you're not going to fix it this year.

00:35:08.000 And that's true.

00:35:09.000 We've never been in this situation before.

00:35:14.000 Is there a way?

00:35:18.000 Is there something that we can do?

00:35:21.000 Because I think people feel pretty helpless.

00:35:23.000 We've got to stop printing money.

00:35:26.000 We have printed so much money over the last few years.

00:35:29.000 We've taken a complex, sophisticated food supply system and we've just sort of run it awash.

00:35:38.000 And we don't make enough of the stuff that we need here, which means that when we have global supply chain issues, you know, Xinjiang province gets a cold and we get pneumonia in this country.

00:35:50.000 And my sense is the Obama years were depressing.

00:35:53.000 We had no real growth in our economy.

00:35:57.000 And then very quickly, we saw how energetic leadership could get us to where we were producing stuff.

00:36:05.000 We were making stuff.

00:36:06.000 We went from being the energy importer to being the world's greatest energy exporter on a lot of fronts.

00:36:11.000 And it didn't take like passing 27 new laws and you know a whole bunch.

00:36:16.000 It was almost like willing us to success and achievement and I think we can get it again.

00:36:22.000 And if there's any benefit to the pain that so many Americans are feeling right now, I think they're actually starting to connect the dots more.

00:36:30.000 That if you attack ag, you're going to feel that when you go to the grocery store.

00:36:35.000 If you embrace the most radical forms of environmentalism, you're not going to be able to get around anymore and you're going to see that 599 gas or worse.

00:36:43.000 You go and create conflict with other countries and you If you visit the pain of what's going on in Russia and Ukraine on Americans and on the global fertilizer market, you're not going to do that without consequence.

00:37:00.000 And so part of what I try to do truly is just let people know what's going on.

00:37:04.000 And I think the more people connect the dots, I think the more sophisticated we'll become in our decision making.

00:37:09.000 There's a lot of things in place that I see that's not on anybody's radar.

00:37:14.000 That could really work against us in this country.

00:37:17.000 So I do applaud you.

00:37:19.000 And I think you've got probably the hardest job that anybody's ever had because you're going to have to be the one that stands up there and takes the brunt.

00:37:28.000 You're going to have to tell these people that, hey, we got a problem.

00:37:31.000 Well, if you'll plant the peanuts, I'll go pull the weeds up in the swamp where I work.

00:37:35.000 How about that?

00:37:35.000 Oh, I thought you was going to come help me pull some weeds.

00:37:38.000 All right, man.

00:37:39.000 Well, thank you. 1.00

00:37:39.000 I really appreciate your shit. 1.00

00:37:41.000 We're all in this together. 1.00

00:37:42.000 Amen to that.

00:37:45.000 That's Shannon Nixon from Nixon Farms in Baker, Florida.

00:37:48.000 Very much enjoyed doing that, and I think there's some real truths that we need to reflect on and that we need to certainly amplify here in Washington, D.C. Thanks so much for joining me.

00:37:57.000 We're going to try to have a report available for you tomorrow regarding some of the work that's going on in the committees in the Congress.

00:38:03.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - May 10, 2022

Episode 41 LIVE: Pro-Life, Pro-Living – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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