The Culture War - Tim Pool - Trump Orders NATIONWIDE National Guard Riot Plan, SNAPOCALYPSE Riots Feared ft. Sen. Rand Paul

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00:01:01.120 is addicted to just taking on more and more debt that we can't pay back. And there are ramifications

00:01:07.760 to this. There's a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today saying that we are

00:01:12.140 hitting a peak at repossessing cars. That is not a good sign. When people cannot make their car payment,

00:01:19.020 you know, it's one of the last things you quit paying because you need your car to go to work.

00:01:23.240 So when they take your car, you take your car, you take your car, you take your car, you get your

00:01:26.780 problems, so you pay it until you can't. So the fact that cars are being repossessed at this high rate

00:01:31.720 is a consequence of the debt. The Pentagon has ordered a quick reaction force for civil unrest and

00:01:40.880 riots. Sounds like Donald Trump and the Trump administration are planning for some major unrest

00:01:46.760 in the coming year. Now, this is every state, every National Guard must be prepared for this.

00:01:53.380 And at a time when we're contemplating whether or not we're going to see mass riots over food stamps,

00:01:59.820 it seems pretty disconcerting. However, based on the riots we'd already seen in 2020,

00:02:05.760 based on what we've already seen through this past year with the expansion of leftist terror attacks,

00:02:09.540 and now prominent leftist podcasters calling for people to be murdered,

00:02:14.240 I can understand why Trump is doing this. Now, let's play the time travel test again. If I went

00:02:19.600 back in time 10 years and told you that Donald Trump in his second term, non-consecutive, by the

00:02:27.420 way, would be organizing every National Guard as a quick for a quick reaction force to deal with mass

00:02:34.780 civil unrest, would you believe me? You wouldn't. Nobody would believe it. The lengths we have traveled

00:02:40.860 in this country are insane. I mean, we're looking at terror attacks against Tesla, ICE facilities,

00:02:47.920 the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It's gotten pretty dang stressful and pretty worrying.

00:02:55.660 The other day for the morning segment, I covered this clip from a podcast where a female podcaster

00:03:03.240 with over a million followers, a middle-aged woman, celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk,

00:03:08.900 the threat of death against Caitlin Bennett, and then said Democrats better get on board with that

00:03:15.700 or they'll be treated all the same. That is, you'll get death threats or possibly be murdered.

00:03:22.380 And I can't believe we are actually at this point. Now, I've long said, I don't know how long

00:03:28.280 we can keep this up because sooner or later, I mean, social orders breaking down, particularly with

00:03:33.940 the snapocalypse. Well, we will be joined by Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul, to talk about the issues

00:03:42.380 pertaining to the snapocalypse, the government shutdown. Right now, let me bring in the senator.

00:03:48.300 I'm a big fan, by the way, and we're getting it loaded up. Sounds good so far. Booting up and

00:03:55.440 here we are. Senator Rand Paul, can you hear me? I can. Coming in loud and clear.

00:04:02.700 Thanks for joining me. I do appreciate it. There's a lot of stuff in the news right now

00:04:06.540 pertaining to the government shutdown, but also Trump's quick reaction force that we're seeing.

00:04:11.660 But I'll start with the first issue, and that is the shutdown. The USDA website makes it very clear

00:04:18.100 the Democrats are at fault for the shutdown and the loss of snap benefits. I'm curious your take on

00:04:24.540 who do you see as to being at fault for the shutdown, whether the shutdown is entirely a bad

00:04:29.440 thing for, you know, a lot of libertarians are cheering for it. And do you think snap will actually

00:04:34.100 expire on the first? We know it's extraordinary that the Democrats are refusing to vote for the

00:04:40.520 same spending levels they voted for in December of last year. One of my complaints about the spending

00:04:45.640 levels is that these are the Biden spending levels. So this is a continuing resolution of the

00:04:51.280 Biden spending levels. Every Democrat in the Senate voted for them in December, and now they're voting

00:04:55.660 no. And their reasoning is that they want to get the Obamacare subsidies that are expiring. They want

00:05:03.060 them to continue. But there's not enough people actually talking about what the Obamacare subsidies

00:05:07.860 are. These are subsidies to rich people. So if you make $225,000 a year, the Obamacare subsidies that

00:05:15.960 they're talking about give you $1,500. If you make $100,000 a year, the Obamacare subsidy is $13,000.

00:05:24.540 So this is an excuse, people, and they're willing to let food stamps expire while preserving a subsidy

00:05:33.280 for somebody making $225,000 a year. It is insane. And I think if they were confronted with it,

00:05:39.900 I think they would buckle quicker. It's just that the Republicans haven't been very good at describing

00:05:44.700 exactly what these Obamacare subsidies are. Yeah, they've typically just described it as

00:05:50.100 health care for illegal immigrants. And on the USDA website, it says health care for illegal immigrants

00:05:55.360 and gender mutilation procedures. But is that really what Democrats are holding out for,

00:06:01.480 like the transgender surgery stuff and illegal immigrants getting health care?

00:06:05.320 You know, that may be part of some of this money, but the overall picture is more subsidies for rich

00:06:11.580 people. And I think that's a better way to approach it because that's exactly what they are. And they

00:06:15.940 can't run away from that. You know, $100,000 a year is not a poor person. In Kentucky, if you

00:06:22.240 interview people from Kentucky, you say, I make $100,000 a year, people aren't like, oh, you need to

00:06:27.620 be subsidized. You're so poor. I can't believe we need to take care of you. Here's $13,000 to go buy

00:06:33.300 insurance. Republicans also haven't been very good at giving alternatives. And I'll tell you an

00:06:38.340 alternative that would bring prices down. The Obamacare subsidies have allowed premiums to

00:06:44.280 still continue to skyrocket. But there is an alternative. And what we do is legalize the

00:06:50.040 ability to buy insurance from a group like Costco, Amazon, Sam's Club. What would happen is Costco has

00:07:00.020 44 million members. If you're an individual person, let's say you have a podcast and you're your own

00:07:06.960 business. You have four employees and you have to buy your own insurance. You have no leverage and

00:07:12.340 you have to negotiate with big insurance and you get a raw deal. But what if you could join Costco

00:07:17.660 and some guy at Costco takes the 44 million membership and he negotiates with the CEO of

00:07:25.360 UnitedHealthcare? My guess is you're going to get a better price and it'll drive prices down.

00:07:29.560 That is currently illegal and it should be a big part of what Republicans offer is to make that legal.

00:07:35.920 Well, so where do you stand on the continuing resolution? Are you for opening up the government

00:07:42.500 and for this CR? I'm for opening government, but I think we should open government at a responsible

00:07:48.600 spending level. The Republican plan, which is really the Biden spending levels, would allow for spending

00:07:55.560 to occur over the next year and allow a $2 trillion deficit. The Democrat plan is at a much higher

00:08:02.620 spending level and it would create a $3 trillion deficit. So the choices being presented are $2 trillion

00:08:08.520 in debt or $3 trillion in debt and I'm for neither one. So I presented my plan about three weeks ago and

00:08:14.940 I was able to obtain a vote. It's called the penny plan and it's actually now called the six penny plan,

00:08:21.140 but you cut 6% from spending each year for five years and it balances the budget. That I will vote for,

00:08:27.440 but I'm not willing to vote for a spending level that continues the Biden spending levels. I think

00:08:33.360 it's too high. Most conservatives said it was too high and now they're all voting for it. So go figure.

00:08:38.980 But right now I'm by myself and I think I'm the only one left voting for a balanced budget in,

00:08:45.900 at least in the Senate anymore.

00:08:48.340 Yep. I'd imagine the only other guy is going to end up being Thomas Massey in the house.

00:08:51.960 But we've been talking about this for the past week or so with the SNAP benefits expiring

00:08:56.520 as being a good example of why you can't reduce spending. You've got 42 million people that are

00:09:02.020 going to lose access to their food benefits. However, the system itself is not sustainable.

00:09:07.080 You can't just have a class of people in a country that don't work and receive these benefits.

00:09:11.580 I'm not saying everyone's exploiting the system, but there's a lot of waste, fraud and abuse.

00:09:15.980 But who is going to be the member of the Senate or Congress to step up campaigning for re-election

00:09:22.480 to say, vote for me and I will cut your benefits? No one's going to do it.

00:09:26.920 Well, I'll tell you what I've proposed is that maybe you shouldn't get Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

00:09:32.100 Maybe you shouldn't get Twinkies. Maybe you shouldn't get pork rinds. You know,

00:09:36.280 maybe there are a lot of the crap that we're putting in our bodies should not be subsidized by

00:09:41.000 the government. But I'm also willing to say that able-bodied people shouldn't be getting it.

00:09:45.760 People going to college should get a job on the side to buy their food. They should not be on

00:09:50.780 food stamps. Able-bodied people should not be getting food stamps. They were originally intended

00:09:56.540 for hard luck cases like a mom with four kids and no husband who can't work because she's got to

00:10:02.540 take care of a one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old, and a four-year-old. And that's

00:10:06.560 what food stamps were for so we didn't have starvation. But 42 million people, my guess is at least 10%

00:10:13.060 of them are able-bodied. Maybe 25% of them are able-bodied and ought to buy their own food.

00:10:19.080 It's not just that, though. I mean, the assumption for these single mothers is it's

00:10:22.780 their widows or, you know, tragedy has befallen them. Now what we're seeing from all these viral

00:10:28.940 videos, and I'm not suggesting it's every single recipient, but it's many people saying that the

00:10:34.200 taxpayer should pay for their families. They shouldn't have to work. They're threatening to

00:10:38.340 loot stores if they don't get this money from the government. And so what I see happening is

00:10:43.240 probably with good intentions. A long time ago, we said, let's help those who are suffering and

00:10:48.740 impoverished. And we've created a class of people that simply just live off of government. And I know

00:10:54.540 you know this, but for the viewers, I think the number is now 36.8% of our economy is government,

00:11:01.680 which is, it's not sustainable. This is not a function of a market.

00:11:06.100 Right. And this is why I've opposed both of the spending plans, the Republican and the Democrat

00:11:10.720 plan. But the other thing to enter into this thing is I'm not for eliminating everybody's food stamps,

00:11:16.980 but I would spend less than we currently spend. I would have restrictions on the food. And the number

00:11:22.940 one problem we have for people in poverty, the number one health problem is obesity. We don't have

00:11:28.960 people starving in our streets. This is not Bangladesh, for goodness sakes. What we have

00:11:34.580 are people 50 and 100 pounds overweight that need healthier food. And we just simply shouldn't

00:11:40.720 subsidize it. There is no nutritional value in a sugared soda, soda pop. There's no nutritional value

00:11:48.760 at all. In fact, it is as bad. People say, well, with food stamps, you can't buy alcohol and cigarettes.

00:11:54.080 Well, you shouldn't be able to buy sugar infused drinks either.

00:11:56.800 No, they're complaining about it. I mean, there's a video I was just talking about earlier in the day

00:12:01.340 where there are people complaining that that proposal that you're making is one of the remedies.

00:12:08.780 They're saying, if I want to buy sugary drinks and chocolate snacks, I should be allowed to.

00:12:13.320 And they're offended the idea. This is really funny. One lady said,

00:12:16.780 one of the proposals is you'll get an allotment of milk, meats, fresh fruits, and breads

00:12:22.960 that you can purchase or would be delivered to you. And that was an affront to them.

00:12:28.620 And I'm sitting here thinking, that's literally my grocery list. I'm not buying the sugary garbage.

00:12:33.020 So we're subsidizing unhealthy food that's keeping people in poverty and keeping them sick.

00:12:37.800 While many of these people on these benefits are offended at the idea that that's what they'd be

00:12:41.800 forced to buy. But with that being said, my question to you is, in the politics of it all,

00:12:46.500 it's funny because I think it's Rep Massey and you seem to be the only, maybe it's not fair to say

00:12:53.260 only, but typically the only ones who are consistently saying, stop spending and stop

00:12:58.700 giving people free stuff. But even with your presence, as you mentioned, another $2 trillion

00:13:03.900 deficit, the debt's going to keep going up. Eventually, the interest rate is going to overtake

00:13:11.580 all spending in the budget. The system's going to implode on itself. And it seems like our political

00:13:17.880 system is addicted to just taking on more and more debt that we can't pay back.

00:13:23.140 And there are ramifications to this. There's a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal

00:13:27.480 today saying that we are hitting a peak at repossessing cars. That is not a good sign. When

00:13:34.600 people cannot make their car payment, it's one of the last things you quit paying because you need

00:13:39.080 your car to go to work. So when they take your car, you take your car, you take your car, you take

00:13:43.000 your car, you pay it until you can't. So the fact that cars are being repossessed at this high rate

00:13:48.760 is a consequence of the debt. Why? Because interest rates are high because of inflation.

00:13:56.060 Your interest payment is a combined that someone's giving you the money for a while,

00:14:00.500 and then you pay them back over time. So in order to get that money advanced to you,

00:14:04.660 you pay about historically about 3% plus inflation. Inflation is about 3% plus the historic rate of

00:14:11.280 3%. That's about 6%. And what's happening is that people are no longer able to make their payments

00:14:18.000 because of inflation. Their costs of their groceries and their car payment and everything else

00:14:24.620 is going up quicker than their salary is going up. But it's all related to the debt. But it's all,

00:14:29.960 then you say people, the Democrats say, well, I feel sorry for you because your car got repossessed.

00:14:34.300 So I'm going to give you a car subsidy rental payment. So why don't we give you $500 a month

00:14:39.600 so you can make your car payment, but then it makes the problem worse because the prices will rise even

00:14:45.160 faster. I don't think, I think the challenge is as you're going through the interest rate numbers

00:14:49.700 and the deficit, unfortunately, the average person doesn't understand how that trickles down and ends

00:14:56.500 up affecting their date, their daily life. I don't blame them. It's not the job of a tradesman or

00:15:02.080 even, you know, an office worker for an insurance company to understand the minutia of federal spending,

00:15:08.700 deficits, debt, the interest rates. They're trying to do their jobs that they're specialized in to

00:15:14.000 support a civilization. Yet when you, when you try and tell these people how the deficit is going to

00:15:21.560 impact their lives, the only thing they're thinking is, look, man, I got to buy groceries for

00:15:26.020 my kids. This, this high level esoteric stuff. I don't understand. Tell me how you're giving me

00:15:30.900 money. It makes it very easy for Republicans and Democrats then say, we'll write you a check for

00:15:36.140 free money and just keep spending. I guess. I think you're right. And the, the argument is

00:15:41.180 always easier for free stuff. Free stuff is concrete. If I give you a car or if I give you a payment

00:15:47.960 for your health insurance, you see that. What we're trying to offer is something that is more,

00:15:55.100 less tangible. It's, it is opportunity. It is the freedom to excel, but their system also doesn't

00:16:01.720 work. So when they give you a thousand dollars a month for health insurance, does the price of your

00:16:07.160 health insurance go up or down? No, it went up. And so next year you need even more. So the reason

00:16:13.120 why they keep increasing the Obamacare subsidies for health insurance is it hasn't brought the health

00:16:17.620 insurance down. It's subsidized the price and the price goes higher. Then next year you need more.

00:16:23.380 So I guess my point is, is we, and it is more complicated, but we need to explain to people

00:16:28.660 and they kind of get it. People know that Costco has cheaper prices. They know Walmart has cheaper

00:16:33.600 prices. They know that when you buy a bunch of something, you can negotiate a different price.

00:16:38.400 I think we could explain to people, let your, let people buy their insurance through Costco,

00:16:43.080 let the very poorest among us get Medicaid and everybody else ought to just buy their insurance.

00:16:48.660 And people making a hundred thousand dollars should be able to negotiate with people at Costco

00:16:52.620 to buy their insurance. Well, it's, it's, it's, it's also to the heavy politics of it.

00:16:57.180 One of the predictions that we've seen, and I actually agree with this is that tomorrow

00:17:00.880 Trump is going to announce, Oh, we found emergency money for snap benefits.

00:17:06.040 We're going to restore snap. Don't worry. You won't miss a beat. And this is blame the Democrats

00:17:11.600 for the shutdown, say no to emergency funds. And at the very last minute, Trump can swoop in and say,

00:17:16.880 I saved all of you. I kind of think that's what's going to happen. Cause I can't imagine a scenario

00:17:22.000 where the, the, the, the government addicted to spending would actually stop a program this large.

00:17:28.780 Yeah. And the thing is, as much as I want to save money, I'm not for a hundred percent reduction in

00:17:34.980 food stamps. I'm for modifying food stamps to get healthy people off of them, able-bodied people

00:17:41.100 off them, but I'm not for a hundred percent cut tomorrow. So it doesn't make any sense, but really

00:17:45.680 ultimately the Democrats are doing this because they want subsidies for rich people's insurance

00:17:50.900 to continue. So let me ask you, they just reported this the other day that Trump has ordered the

00:17:55.840 National Guard in every state to have a quick reaction force for mass civil unrest. Maybe this

00:18:02.700 is just overhyped in the, in the media, but it sounds fairly alarming for two reasons. One, I mean,

00:18:08.480 the idea that the National Guard would be prepped to patrol our streets for mass rights, but the other

00:18:12.720 idea is there's a legitimate fear of mass unrest in the streets. I think this ties directly to a variety

00:18:19.480 of phenomenon, one, the political, uh, just hyper-polarization in the country, but also

00:18:25.800 when you have this spending to this degree, which you've warned about forever, what a lot of people

00:18:30.980 don't understand is how this is ultimately going to destabilize the system. When the government has

00:18:35.920 to tax you more or print money to pay interest on the debt, they're, they're running out of the

00:18:41.420 ability to even fund these programs. Now you've got people saying if they don't get their food stamps,

00:18:46.040 they'll riot sooner or later, the bill will come due for all of this debt. And I kind of feel like

00:18:51.520 it's playing a major role in why Trump is saying, maybe we need to have this mass civil unrest

00:18:56.500 response force. But I'm curious, your thoughts on that reporting. Is it, if it's legitimate,

00:19:01.800 is there a real threat of mass rioting? Maybe. I can't predict that for sure. I don't like the idea

00:19:09.280 that we're going to be, you know, mobilizing the army to every city. I would rather fix the problem

00:19:14.180 than be prepared to quell riots and, and, you know, stop rioting. You can't have rioting. I mean,

00:19:21.100 you have to have a civilization. But at the same time, we need to try to fix the problems. And I think

00:19:26.940 the problems are fixable. And I think there's a gradual way to do it. But if you think there are

00:19:32.480 going to be problems with food stamps not going out, there's also going to be problems when their

00:19:36.000 Social Security checks don't go out. And that's coming, that's coming in 2034, that Medicare and

00:19:41.540 Social Security are going bankrupt. And it may come sooner than that. So we should fix those

00:19:46.040 problems now and not wait till that there are, you know, that there's going to be riots in the

00:19:50.540 street. I don't know how you're so calm about it all the time. I mean, obviously, as I mentioned,

00:19:54.120 you are one of the leading adversaries of the mass spending. Whenever there's an issue of them trying

00:20:00.400 to spend more money than we can, it is you it's calling out. And obviously, we have Thomas Massey.

00:20:05.020 And before that, it was your dad. But we're on a train that's not going to stop. We know about the

00:20:10.540 Social Security problem. We don't have enough young people. The Gen Alpha is estimated to be

00:20:15.680 about 42 million people. And they're just beginning to enter the workforce at about 16 years old.

00:20:21.660 We are not going to have enough taxpayers to fund Social Security. So just run a collision course.

00:20:29.940 I don't know. I don't know. What do we do? Well, Social Security, you're going to have to

00:20:34.940 start receiving it at a later age, you know, and I've said the age has to go to 70. In the early 1980s,

00:20:41.380 we went from we went from 65 to 67 over about a 20 year period. It's not pleasant news to tell you,

00:20:48.720 but it's the only thing you can do. And you could also raise Social Security taxes dramatically.

00:20:53.220 Right now you pay 15 percent. You pay seven and a half and your employer pays seven and a half. But

00:20:58.220 really you pay 15 percent. If you want to pay 25 percent, you can keep Social Security the way it

00:21:03.820 is. If you want to pay 25 percent of your check to Social Security. But most people, when you tell

00:21:08.100 them that and most politicians say, well, gosh, that'd be devastating on the working guy to have

00:21:13.620 a 25 percent tax on everybody. Then the Democrats say, let's just tax the rich people, which is their

00:21:18.500 answer to everything. But they don't realize that we already tax the heck out of rich people. Rich

00:21:22.900 people pay most of the taxes. The income tax, the top 1 percent pays like 40 percent of the income

00:21:29.340 tax. The top 10 percent pays like 90 percent of the income tax. So rich people already pay not only

00:21:35.520 their fair share, they pay most of the income tax. So these are problems and you have to fix them. So

00:21:40.920 you either have to reduce the benefits or means test Social Security, beans test Medicare. And I think

00:21:46.660 you probably should do more of that because frankly, we just don't have the money. Instead, we just borrow.

00:21:51.100 But as we borrow, we create the inflation that makes it even more difficult for those on fixed

00:21:56.220 income and poor people to make do. You know, I will say this with all due respect, because you

00:22:01.240 are the one who's I feel like been the most honest about spending these bills, constantly calling them

00:22:06.820 out, even when Republicans get mad at you. But I feel like every my whole life, the only thing I see

00:22:13.180 is Democrats and Republicans increasing spending ad infinitum. And at the end of the day, and I don't

00:22:21.640 mean this derisively, but it's going to be Rand Paul standing on a mountain holding a sign saying,

00:22:25.520 I told you so, as it all just crumbles down because no one is willing to actually pull this back.

00:22:31.300 You're very calm about it. But we can see right now the economic impact of the deficit you were

00:22:38.560 calling out years ago. And we know what's going to happen in 2030 with Social Security. I mean,

00:22:43.480 in the 2030s with Social Security. But I don't see a reality in which someone is willing to run for

00:22:49.380 office, like I mentioned, outside of you and say, Rep Massey, they're going to tell you,

00:22:54.100 we're going to reduce your benefits. We're going to extend. We're going to increase the

00:22:57.960 social security. We are going to put limits here. Nobody wants to say it because then they won't get

00:23:02.400 reelected. So, well, the only different, the only thing I would push back on is this. I think people

00:23:07.600 are willing to accept it. I've told people in Kentucky for years, I don't want to raise the

00:23:12.140 age of social security, but we have to because it's only, because it's only, because it's only,

00:23:15.800 because it's only, because it's only, for example, the, the, the example I will use all the time is

00:23:20.320 Alzheimer's research. Who could be against Alzheimer's research? Everybody's got someone in their

00:23:24.620 family that has dementia or Alzheimer's. Everybody wants to find a cure. But when they come to me and

00:23:29.660 they say, I, we want research money. I say, that's fine. We're a rich country. We can do it.

00:23:34.900 But you got a hundred million last year and we're out of money. So what if we gave you 94 million

00:23:39.640 next year? Every one of them accepts it. So people are willing to accept that there's less money.

00:23:45.880 They don't want to go to zero to same way with food stamps. I'm not going to go home and say,

00:23:49.700 I'm going to take everybody's food stamps. Cause I think that is not something people can accept

00:23:54.100 and it would be too dramatic, but I will go home and say, we only have enough money next year for 90

00:23:59.160 year for 90 year for 90 year for 90. The six foot four football player at UK doesn't need to be on

00:24:05.620 food stamps, you know? So I think we can, I think people are willing to accept that. They're not

00:24:11.100 willing to accept that we abruptly end all programs, but they will accept that. You know what? There's

00:24:16.100 gonna be a little bit less money. It may be a smaller food stamp check, or it may be, we can keep it the

00:24:21.800 same if we get the healthy able-bodied people off of food stamps. But I do feel like this is going to be

00:24:27.020 largely in red, red jurisdictions, district states or otherwise. I think there's going to be a risk

00:24:32.600 in swing states and swing districts where the Republican says exactly as you're saying, Hey,

00:24:37.800 let's be responsible and get spending down. The Democrats going to come in and say, don't listen

00:24:42.220 to him. I'll double your payments. You've got Zoran Mamdani in New York promising not just to

00:24:47.000 make the buses free, but to make them somehow go faster, which is just meaningless.

00:24:51.800 There's an image I saw on the internet this morning, which is a great, very simple explanation

00:24:57.420 for the people wanting free stuff. And it shows a soda machine. One of them's free and one of them

00:25:03.140 costs money. Capitalism. Capitalism is completely full. The free one's empty. When you make something

00:25:08.600 free, you have none of it. And so people are, I think people are smarter than you give them credit

00:25:14.620 for because look, we've been having this debate of, you know, bread and circus, free stuff to

00:25:20.860 distract you versus opportunity in the American dream. And we've been able to get people to be

00:25:26.480 convinced that the American dream is better than that. And really, if you talk to people,

00:25:30.260 a lot of people on welfare don't want to be on welfare. They want, they aspire to something more.

00:25:34.820 So we just have to be honest. We have to be better salesmen, but you're right. Mondami is offering you

00:25:40.440 free food from the government store. But the old story from the Soviet union was this guy goes into

00:25:46.480 the store and he asked the guy, he said, are you the store that doesn't have any butter?

00:25:50.440 And he says, no, we're the store that doesn't have any eggs. The store doesn't have any butters

00:25:54.340 across the way. Because everybody was short all the time. In Venezuela, the average person has lost

00:26:02.180 30 pounds last year because socialism cannot provide the food and cannot provide because there's

00:26:08.660 no incentive for people to grow the food. So socialism is an abysmal failure. And I don't know,

00:26:13.960 I think people can't understand that, but we have to be better salesmen because for me to sell you

00:26:19.540 opportunity and, and, and, and the opportunity to succeed in life in the American dream, which is

00:26:26.720 not concrete, it's, it's, it's an image. I have to be a better, better at selling that to you.

00:26:32.860 Because if someone wants to give you a car, it's easier to take the car than it is the American dream.

00:26:37.820 I wish I was as optimistic, you know, seeing how popular Zoran Mamdani has become, seeing even AOC,

00:26:44.840 she's contemplating a run for president. The, the idea of free stuff forever, it, it, it, it's

00:26:51.620 hitting a lot of people who believe it. I've been to Venezuela. I was there about, it was about 10

00:26:55.840 years ago. And I, and I saw how the government trying to create jobs stripped people of their

00:27:03.700 actual wealth and prosperity. They tried to control everything and their currency was worth less than

00:27:08.400 toilet paper. I went to buy a cell phone in order to buy a cell phone. You had like six different

00:27:14.280 staffers where you had to go to one for the sales choice, where he shows you a picture. Then after

00:27:20.540 you choose that, you go to the next guy who then says he'll, his requisition where he's to go to the,

00:27:24.300 where go, go into the back to find it. Then one guy do every tiniest job to make sure fake jobs

00:27:30.060 existed. And what ends up happening? The stores are all empty. Nobody has anything. It doesn't

00:27:35.460 work. But for some reason, there are people in this country today, young people that are buying

00:27:40.060 into these lies and it's going to result in a catastrophe. So I wish I was optimistic,

00:27:46.520 but we're seeing the rise of the democratic socialists and people wearing communism shirts

00:27:51.540 in the democratic party. You are, but you're also seeing that used by the other side to say

00:27:58.240 how crazy they are and how marginalized they are and why we can't get, get these people in charge,

00:28:03.000 let these people become in charge of our country. So it is an eternal battle between those offering

00:28:07.460 you bobbles, offering you free stuff and those offering you an American dream or offering you

00:28:12.820 opportunity to succeed. And it is a difficult sale, but in the end, you look at our country versus

00:28:19.860 the disaster that is Venezuela. And I think people are smart enough to grasp the differences between that.

00:28:26.840 And we still do have the majority of people who do work hard in this country. I mean,

00:28:32.020 you want to see who's now become the Republicans, go in a machine shop, go into a shop where they're

00:28:37.360 working on cars and the guys have grease up to their elbows because they're working their butt all

00:28:41.620 day and ask them what they think about food stamps and welfare. And you'll find the most conservative

00:28:46.400 people in America are the ones busting their butt every day, working eight to 10 hours a day,

00:28:51.980 making decent money, but they've got no sympathy for those who are out there just collecting a check.

00:28:58.120 I'll give you that one for sure. It does look politically, I mean, with the Republicans

00:29:01.980 basically winning everything in the last election. And even right now, although history predicts

00:29:07.300 Democrats should win the midterms as the opposition party, Kalshi's prediction for it is it's 58 to 42.

00:29:13.860 Republicans have a strong chance to actually increase in the House. I do think perhaps it's true,

00:29:20.200 the socialist push that we're seeing in some of these cities has been a boon for the Republican

00:29:25.740 party because people are saying no to this stuff. So I got one. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah.

00:29:31.560 I was just saying, I think we'd do better if we didn't offer them socialism light,

00:29:36.060 you know, so if we want to be AOC light or socialism light, once there's not a distinction,

00:29:41.360 there's a problem. This happened in the Georgia special election when right after the,

00:29:47.340 as Trump was leaving office, they were still offering checks to people, $2,500 checks to

00:29:52.420 everybody, the Republicans, that was a Republican message. Meaning that while they were calling

00:29:56.220 the Democrats down there, radical socialist Marxist. And it's like, what is more Marxist than sending

00:30:02.580 everybody a $2,500 check? That's ridiculous. So we need to be a distinction. We need to be a real

00:30:09.380 difference and present something, but you know, it doesn't have to be austerity. What we can present

00:30:14.420 is something that the American dream of working hard and getting something for your family.

00:30:19.580 I tell kids every day, if you're an electrician, you'll make a good living in our country. You'll

00:30:23.600 be solidly middle-class. But if you hire four electricians and you're an electrician, now you're

00:30:28.680 an electrical contractor, you'll be richer than any doctor in any town. You can do that with a high

00:30:34.480 school degree and a technical degree in our country. You can be fabulously successful. I know an

00:30:40.000 electrician who's now a billionaire because he has one of the biggest electrical contracting

00:30:43.780 companies in Texas. But I think he started out as an electrician.

00:30:49.460 Yeah, that's how you do it. Well, I don't know how much you can opine on this next one, but

00:30:54.400 Trump truthed yesterday that he was restarting U.S. nuclear weapons testing. And the reaction that

00:31:03.020 I'm seeing from people, it's kind of like they're shifty-eyed both ways. Like, what's going on? Why are

00:31:08.040 we doing this? There's fears of Russia is testing some nukes and or nuclear-powered rockets, China

00:31:15.600 as well. Is there any concern over this? Is this saber rattling? What do you think?

00:31:21.520 I would need to know further exactly what he means by that. We haven't really done significant

00:31:26.660 nuclear testing since 1992. So that sounds like a pretty significant thing if we haven't done it in

00:31:32.400 20-some-odd years. I think we need to figure out exactly what he means by it. I wouldn't immediately

00:31:38.880 say no, because I think that our nuclear weapons probably have to be tested sometimes, if that's

00:31:44.520 what it means. If it means testing new thermonuclear plutonium bombs and exploding them on atolls in the

00:31:51.460 Pacific, that's a much different story. But it also involves conversations. And as much as

00:31:58.380 we're at odds with the Chinese and the Russians, I am for ongoing and continuous nuclear arms

00:32:04.180 discussions to make sure we don't have a nuclear war. And nuclear weapons are not something you can

00:32:09.980 just say, oh, well, we'll just explode a couple of them in a war. We don't want to have a nuclear

00:32:15.100 war. No one wants to have a nuclear war. And so I think it needs to be something thoughtfully

00:32:19.580 discussed and not maybe just randomly sort of said in a press conference. So I'm going to look into it

00:32:25.500 warm. So I don't want to imply or ask, I'm not trying to imply you have aspirations to be president

00:32:31.800 or anything like this. But I do have this question that were you to enter the office of the presidency,

00:32:37.640 do you think you'd be able to resist these forces that try to put you into that status quo of,

00:32:44.500 you know, it seems like everybody who runs says, here's the way things should be. And then the moment

00:32:49.440 they get into the presidency, they largely just fall in line with what we've seen from every other

00:32:54.720 administration. I ask you this of yourself, but do you think it's possible that we could ever get

00:32:59.000 a president who's going to be, yeah, no, I'm not playing that game. We're not doing that. We're

00:33:02.720 going to negotiate. We're not going to, you know, keep, keep funding these wars overseas. We're not

00:33:08.320 going to play these games actually be different. The answer is yes. There are people who can resist

00:33:15.760 the allure of power, but our founding fathers thought that it was sort of basic to mankind

00:33:20.540 that men and women aspire to power. Once they have it, they, they, they, uh, it's like a drug,

00:33:28.820 they become addicted to it. And so when they wrote the constitution, they assumed that there would be

00:33:33.620 presidents who tried to usurp power. They assumed that Congress might try to usurp power. So Madison

00:33:40.360 said, we will pit ambition against ambition. And so the powers would be checked and balanced it by

00:33:46.660 the ambition of, uh, Congress to check and balance, you know, the, uh, Congress. And so, uh, that was

00:33:53.780 the intention. I often will say though, it's too bad. The Congress has no ambition, uh, giving up all

00:34:00.960 their power to the presidency. Yeah. But I think it takes an extraordinary person who resists the allure

00:34:05.280 of power. Yeah. Uh, was there anything else you wanted to add before we wrap up? I do appreciate

00:34:09.520 you coming on. Nope. I think that's good. Thanks for having me. Thanks for, is there, you got,

00:34:13.760 I don't know, social media or something where people can learn more about what you're working

00:34:16.800 on? Um, I'll bet you can go anywhere on any of the venues and find me. Um, but I'm, I'm on all

00:34:22.900 of my, I'm on X, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram. I think I'm on Snapchat. I think I'm on TikTok.

00:34:29.980 You name it. I think I'm there. Right on. Well, Senator Rand Paul, thank you so much for,

00:34:33.740 for hanging out. We'll see you next time. That was Senator Rand Paul. I'm a big fan. Uh,

00:34:40.680 nobody's perfect. And it's, it's stupid that I always have to caveat this because there are so

00:34:45.280 many people that think, if you say Rand Paul does a good job, you're defending literally everything

00:34:48.940 he's ever done. Same thing with Trump. So there are often times where, uh, Rep Massey, best member

00:34:54.800 of Congress, in my opinion, um, before him, it was Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz was the best member of

00:35:00.300 Congress, uh, because he was willing to stand up. Massey gets things wrong. There are things I really

00:35:05.360 disagree with Thomas Massey on all the time, but he's an honest guy. You may not like his opinions.

00:35:11.600 He'll sit down with you. He'll talk to you about it. He makes a good case. Same thing is true with

00:35:15.640 Senator Paul. That's why I really do like these guys. I wish we had a system. I wish everybody

00:35:21.800 in Congress was more like they were, but it is what it is. I will also add, you know, with all due

00:35:28.180 respect to the Senator and to every other politician that we sometimes bring on these shows,

00:35:31.260 they're always politicians. It's not going to be as, you know, they want to refrain from making

00:35:37.360 heavy predictions or being too heavy handed. And that was kind of my point. No one is going to

00:35:42.280 want to come out and say, shut down the food stamps. Not even Rand Paul. Ah, to be fair, he's not,

00:35:46.880 he's not wrong. We can't just overnight shut this stuff down. It could have a ripple effect that

00:35:51.700 destroys us. We've got to wean off of the drug. So fair point. But what if you can't? What if you

00:35:57.160 can't? So we'll see. I wonder what Trump thinks is going to happen with these riots. We'll leave

00:36:02.040 it there. Smash the like button, my friends. Share the show with everyone. You know, we're back

00:36:06.020 tonight at 8 p.m. for Timcast IRL. Don't miss it. Join the Timcast discord by going to Timcast.com

00:36:12.540 and clicking join us. Thank you all so much for hanging out and we'll see you all next time.

The Culture War - Tim Pool - October 30, 2025

Trump Orders NATIONWIDE National Guard Riot Plan, SNAPOCALYPSE Riots Feared ft. Sen. Rand Paul

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