The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Russ Vought & Sec. Doug Collins

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00:00:13.720 richer than you think wow what a program uh for you today we we cover the i don't know did anything

00:00:22.100 happen yesterday in washington white house the big beautiful bill and elon musk and donald trump

00:00:26.940 holy cow we tell you why that's important what i think is really going on and we get some latest

00:00:32.960 news from from that uh from uh russell vote who is the uh head of the office of budget and management

00:00:40.440 at the white house he talks to us also about the big beautiful bill why it's important stew and i

00:00:45.580 kind of go in depth uh on that and really try to to track down what's important why it's important

00:00:53.880 that this bill passes even though i disagree with the budget part of it and what is the best

00:01:00.100 approach to get things moving so we can actually get our country back on track and healing and growing

00:01:07.740 as a nation economically also talk to the head of the va about our our veterans hospitals our va hospitals

00:01:15.940 they are so far off track but wait until you hear the progress that has been made just in the last 100

00:01:22.040 days from doug collins and bananas can you build a banana in america uh well we'll give you that

00:01:30.980 strange strain it strange answer all on today's podcast when's the last time you look forward to

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00:02:40.340 you're listening to the best of the glenbeck program hello america you know we've been fighting

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00:03:34.520 we'll make a difference and thanks for standing with us now let's get to work okay now let me let me

00:03:41.960 tell you the real timeline of what happened yesterday no more space alien talk no more

00:03:47.640 no more uh no more uh you know joking about what really happened between the two of them this has been

00:03:54.860 building for a while but yesterday it just kind of got it just really kind of got crazy

00:04:01.260 um quickly so when you look at uh what happened let me see if i can find this here in chronological

00:04:10.180 order this is what uh happened because elon had been calling to kill the big beautiful bill

00:04:16.560 so first thing yesterday trump is responding to elon's criticism here it is listen thank you mr

00:04:23.400 president the criticism that i've seen and i'm sure you've seen regarding elon musk and your big

00:04:28.320 beautiful bill what's your reaction to that do you think it in any way hurts passage in the senate

00:04:33.580 which of course what is your seeking well look you know i've always liked elon and it's always very

00:04:38.600 surprised you saw the words he had for me the words and he hasn't said anything about me that's bad

00:04:44.280 i'd rather have him criticize me than the bill because the bill is incredible it's the biggest cut in

00:04:50.700 the history of our country we've never cut uh it's about 1.6 trillion in cuts it's the biggest tax cut

00:04:57.900 tax you would say uh people people's taxes will go way down but it's the biggest tax cut in history

00:05:05.680 it's uh we have we are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable

00:05:09.960 so russ volt by the way is going to be on with us here in about 30 minutes so that was the first thing

00:05:16.460 and i think that's really mild i mean uh he's just responding to elon's criticism look i'd rather

00:05:22.420 have him criticize me than the bill because we disagree on it blah blah blah and then elon responds

00:05:28.420 whatever keep the ev solar incentive uh cuts in the bill even though no oil and gas subsidies are

00:05:35.520 touched very unfair but ditch the mountain of disgusting pork in the bill in the entire history

00:05:42.120 of civilization there has never been legislation that was both big and beautiful and everyone

00:05:47.700 knows this either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill slim and beautiful is the

00:05:54.100 way then elon re-upped a bunch of old trump tweets where he denounced raising the debt limit and then he

00:06:02.860 made a poll is it time to create a new political party in america that actually represents 80 percent in

00:06:09.920 the middle yes or no by this point now trump who was showing tremendous restraint has to respond

00:06:17.640 he writes elon was wearing thin i asked him to leave i took away his ev mandate that forced everybody

00:06:25.820 to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted he knew that for months that i was going to do this and

00:06:31.780 he just went crazy then uh he writes the easiest way to save money in our budget billions and billions

00:06:38.600 of dollars is to terminate elon's governmental subsidies and contracts i was always surprised

00:06:44.820 that biden didn't do it me too well elon responded by threatening to decommission his spacex spacex dragon

00:06:54.320 spacecraft uh he says in light of president's statement about cancellation of my government

00:06:59.500 contracts spacex spacex will be decommissioning its dragon spacecraft immediately now this is this is crazy

00:07:08.380 this is crazy um then elon after he lost a lot of people on this he writes time to drop the really

00:07:19.520 big bomb real donald trump is in the epstein files that is the real reason they have not been made

00:07:26.180 public have a nice day djt why would he do this why would he do this elon says mark this post for the

00:07:36.020 future because the truth will come out now trump again who i think was pretty restrained all day

00:07:43.820 compared to elon musk i don't mind elon turning against me but he should have done so months ago

00:07:50.680 this is one of the greatest bills ever presented to congress it's a record cut in expenses 1.6 trillion

00:07:55.820 dollars and the biggest tax cut ever given this if this bill doesn't pass there will be a 68 tax

00:08:01.980 increase things get far worse than that i didn't create this mess i am just trying to fix it this

00:08:08.820 puts our country on a path of greatness make america great again after that everybody starts to calm down

00:08:15.760 um a little bit do you happen to have the uh linda yaccarino and david sacks tweet because they both

00:08:22.360 kind of stand up for the big beautiful bill and saying uh it needs to pass now yaccarino is what she's

00:08:30.100 a ceo isn't she or is she the president of uh i think ceo x ceo of x uh and david sacks is a good

00:08:38.600 friend of elon musk and they're both saying no no we've got to pass the big beautiful bill

00:08:43.880 so then you have bill ackman uh stepping up now the white house said that they were trying to schedule

00:08:53.800 a call with elon sometime today to work this out which if you look at the actual facts donald trump

00:09:01.340 was more restrained than i think i've ever seen him would you agree with that stew yeah he did not

00:09:07.580 i certainly didn't go nuclear like elon musk did no um he no i mean he did address it he did you know

00:09:14.300 he started getting a little more critical about elon but it was it seemed to be ramping up slowly

00:09:20.300 and all of a sudden uh someone dropped nine nuclear bombs uh onto the uh onto the battlefield

00:09:26.220 right um bill ackman writes i support real donald trump and elon musk and they should make peace for

00:09:33.520 the benefit of our great country we are much stronger together than apart elon writes uh last

00:09:40.800 night at 9 27 you're not wrong so hopefully this is over but look at the damage that this is done

00:09:50.180 this is given the the left all kinds of ammunition uh you know nothing but talking points elon musk is

00:10:00.540 never going to be re-embraced by the left i don't think he really cares about that but but he should

00:10:06.240 um care about you know we we need the guy to survive he's one of the greatest minds uh of of our day of

00:10:15.480 our lifetime he's probably the greatest scientific mind um as far as putting things into practical use

00:10:22.700 since tesla the first tesla you know the real tesla um and we have to have that guy but we also have to

00:10:32.700 have donald trump and we have to have a country now i i want them to cut more out of this budget but

00:10:40.480 let's not blow this damn thing up let's not blow everything up out of the water this is not good

00:10:47.060 what who does this chaos serve certainly not the country not the republic and not anybody who is trying

00:10:54.880 to navigate these crazy waters glenn can we talk for a second about the specific allegation of of him

00:11:01.960 being in the epstein files um yes because it's we've already known that by the way yeah number one

00:11:08.560 it's of course technically accurate that he's in there they were friends yes if you if you're looking

00:11:13.940 at everything that uh that like every flight on jeffrey epstein's plane um you know donald trump

00:11:20.860 flew on the plane now you know i don't think there's any evidence that he went to the island

00:11:23.880 certainly no evidence that he did anything illegal with jeffrey epstein they were friends before these

00:11:28.680 accusations came out so technically speaking elon musk is saying something that has been well covered

00:11:34.340 in the media already and uh might protect him from legal consequences because of that tweet i mean if

00:11:42.060 they if they really had a falling out i mean trump you know trump sued cbs over their editing of the

00:11:48.120 kamala harris interview being called a pedophile basically on the internet would i'm sure merit a

00:11:53.820 lawsuit if they really had a falling out but technically speaking musk probably would survive

00:11:59.580 that likely because of course trump is in there it's something we've known about for a long time

00:12:04.300 there's also by the way we should note probably dozens of other completely innocent people that

00:12:10.160 would be in those files doesn't mean that everybody that ever interacted with this guy slept with children

00:12:15.420 so musk was releasing these videos of him uh you know and epstein uh and nobody denies that he

00:12:25.820 was around epstein nobody denies that but what nobody cares to recognize is that as soon as donald trump

00:12:32.800 you know had an inkling of who this guy was really and had some one of the women you know at his club

00:12:40.580 abused by epstein he cut the friendship kicked him out yeah and said we're done get out i mean

00:12:47.460 you know he was the one guy that i know of the one guy with moral spine around epstein right uh and

00:12:55.380 yeah let's not forget that there's elon musk pictures with uh maxwell so i mean is that even

00:13:01.300 true it's a very small circle hard to know how many what's being photoshopped i mean i don't even know

00:13:06.100 oh gosh are you kidding me is that really is i don't know i just don't know i've seen i've seen

00:13:10.620 photos of that but i have i honestly don't know mike gosh i always assume they're fake until i know

00:13:15.460 but who knows again everyone has pictures you know especially famous people have pictures the famous

00:13:21.220 rich people hang out at the same parties and so who knows then that improves anything and honestly like

00:13:26.480 if there was something here and you mentioned this earlier glenn quickly that if there was something

00:13:32.240 that donald trump there's evidence that he did something wrong with jeffrey epstein

00:13:35.940 i can assure you the biden administration would have found a way to release that and it it even

00:13:43.120 speaks poorly of musk in a way that if there was terrible evidence here i mean was he going to

00:13:50.180 just go along and not just he'll be quiet about trump's sexual abuse of children if the cuts came

00:13:57.260 through the spending bill the way he wanted them i mean all of it is absurd we all know it's not real

00:14:02.280 it's a couple guys throwing insults at each other in this particular case trump much more restrained

00:14:08.660 uh than than elon musk i would argue even though you know again i lots of positives of elon musk but

00:14:13.840 he's the one that really went nuclear here and i do hope that cooler heads can prevail because it's

00:14:18.820 good for the country glenn does because i know you've you've you know really done your homework on elon

00:14:26.340 musk and he has he has moments where he is not where he's more manic is it possible that this is

00:14:35.660 a manic episode with with elon i have you know no evidence not not uh yeah i know you know i to be

00:14:44.220 clear i'm not like accusing anybody of anything um but you know to look at uh if you read you know

00:14:49.420 like the the biography the isaacson biography about him yeah yeah yeah there are periods through that

00:14:55.540 time you know times where he's sleeping on the floor of the of the factory um you know that type

00:15:02.100 of period if you remember that period glenn where uh it does appear that he goes into what you might

00:15:08.760 call you know a manic state and and makes a lot of poor decisions decisions that wind up really hurting

00:15:14.620 the stock price uh you know tweeting out things that he winds up getting sued for there are a lot

00:15:20.260 of periods in elon's life where that type of stuff seems to happen add on to that you know the new

00:15:26.020 york times and again take it for what it's worth elon musk has a lot of enemies inside the white house

00:15:31.360 that's something that you should know and so uh we don't know where this came from but you know lots

00:15:36.960 of uh accusations of drug use and things of that nature as well when you say drug use it's really

00:15:42.940 ketamine isn't it ketamine was uh was one of the although it was more than just that i can look i

00:15:48.140 can get the i can pull the article up but one of the interesting notes in the article is um one of

00:15:54.860 the ways the new york times claims that they uh made this available to actually be reported and it

00:16:01.600 wasn't just a rumor that somebody told them was they had photographic evidence of these pills now

00:16:07.340 good how many times has someone uh that you know taken pictures of your pill box or your pill bottles

00:16:15.520 oh my gosh that happens all the time this is not something that occurs to normal people that don't

00:16:20.940 have enemies around them right somebody correct my my speculation is somebody around him saw him

00:16:27.600 taking pills took pictures of them and sent them to the new york times um supposedly now the times is

00:16:33.500 like oh his friends are concerned about and that's their excuse i don't buy that at all uh you know

00:16:39.360 but somebody has friends at that level in washington dc nobody yeah especially that would be like you

00:16:45.500 know what i'm concerned about elon i'm gonna leak these photos of his pill box to the new york times

00:16:50.540 like there's no friend of his who would do that it's absurd no it's somebody who hated his guts or

00:16:56.720 wanted to destroy him and wanted these bad things to come out about him in my estimation so uh you know

00:17:02.880 could that be true there could be some truth to it i don't know uh could it be that he's in some

00:17:07.300 manic period could it just be that he's really frustrated and this is how he operates with

00:17:11.380 everybody else and it's not that big a deal most people shrug it off because it's just normal internet

00:17:16.080 drama when you're doing it to the president of the united states it takes on a totally different shape

00:17:19.780 not good yeah um here's the thing uh just pray for both men and pray for our republic this is not good

00:17:25.420 for any of us we we need them both to get along you're listening to the best of the glenbeck program

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00:18:40.900 to recommend one in your area realestateagentsitrust.com now back to the podcast russ vote how are you sir

00:18:49.480 i'm doing well thanks for having me you bet it's great to have you on um yesterday was a

00:18:56.420 a tough day uh have do you know has the president had his phone call yet are they are they coming

00:19:02.520 back together well i think the president uh made some comments to the press this morning that you

00:19:09.500 know he's not uh looking to have a phone call uh anytime soon but you know i think he expressed

00:19:15.820 disappointment yesterday with regard to uh you know some of the comments made by elon but look

00:19:21.460 glenn we're we're moving forward and you know elon's been an important ally and and patriot

00:19:26.720 throughout all of this and uh we've got a job to do and i think that's where we're most focused right

00:19:31.820 now is making sure we can get the word out on this bill get it across the finish line uh make

00:19:37.080 improvements where we can uh but get this thing home for the american people

00:19:40.860 so i agree with both the president and elon musk i know that there are things in this package that

00:19:48.380 are really important and i know you know i think the president understands it and elon doesn't

00:19:52.540 understand that you know uh politics are involved here and i don't know why elon wasn't going after

00:19:59.160 the democrats and saying why don't you care some more come on come on help us um but the president

00:20:04.420 is now uh putting in a a rescission package what does that mean and what is that going to do to this bill

00:20:10.400 well again two things i would say just going back to your kind of initial comment there i think that

00:20:17.460 the argument that the fiscal challenges of the country are so bad and we need to do as much as

00:20:24.260 we can i think there's alignment there is a total agreement i think the issue is how much and this

00:20:30.760 gets to your second part how much this bill this is not a budget bill people get confused because they

00:20:36.480 think it uses a budget process it is an agenda bill that uses a budget process it's not a budget

00:20:43.260 resolution it doesn't give you a comprehensive fiscal picture it it cannot by law include cuts

00:20:50.320 to discretionary spending with which are all the doge permanent cuts right so that is something that

00:20:56.340 has to be considered elsewhere and we are in the process of doing that so we just sent up

00:21:01.240 uh our first rescissions bill uh we will send up more this one is 9.4 billion why is it so small

00:21:07.720 it's small specifically because of the politics that you mentioned which is that congress hasn't passed

00:21:13.840 these bills and we can do a lot of things ourselves that we don't need congress but procedurally and this

00:21:20.200 is where you know you've you have new people come into the the party and the coalition they don't know

00:21:25.080 the procedures of of government if we don't if congress doesn't pass the rescissions bill we lose

00:21:31.080 the ability to just not spend the money and to use some of our tools that this president is now talking

00:21:36.920 about that we are polishing off that haven't been used since the 1970s to just not spend the money and so

00:21:43.160 we have this whole side of effort on discretionary spending uh making the doge cuts permanent a lot of

00:21:49.280 different ways to do that we're in the process of doing that that is another piece of the puzzle

00:21:54.320 fiscally that you would not get from this reconciliation bill so why are i mean because

00:22:02.460 russ i know you i know you know this and i am i'm uh an infant compared to the way your understanding

00:22:09.640 is so please help me understand but um we are we we are up against the wall uh with a gun to our head

00:22:19.020 when it comes to printing more money or borrowing more money uh and we've got to cut this budget can

00:22:26.240 you explain to the audience why we're uh why um we have to be careful on this uh you we can't just go

00:22:35.680 in and maybe i've seen this wrong but i i don't think we can go in and just uh and just take an axe to

00:22:42.920 everything until we get the economy uh to light the match in the economy am i wrong on this

00:22:50.540 i don't think you're wrong i i think we can do both but i think for people i think it's why the bill

00:22:56.160 is so important so you cannot have a conversation about reducing debt and deficits when the economy is

00:23:03.460 not going period end of story it is vital foundation does economic growth get you all of the way

00:23:08.820 to where we need to go no it does not but the notion that you're ever going to reform these big

00:23:13.480 programs like uh that are welfare and the social safety net without a growing economy

00:23:18.360 you can't impose a work requirement when there are no jobs so this bill and this is where our main

00:23:25.040 thing that we're trying to correct factually if you adjust for cbo's artificial baseline that assumes

00:23:31.540 tax relief will expire they don't assume that they assume spending is eternal so green new deal

00:23:37.260 is and spending through that is assumed uh to continue or the appropriations process all the

00:23:44.940 woken weaponized bureaucracy all of that but if you have tax components all of those are presumed to

00:23:50.040 sunset right so that is um a fundamental we've known this for decades the way that dc screws uh and miss

00:23:57.860 and miss uh assesses our bills so you've got to pass this otherwise we're going to have a recession

00:24:03.640 that said this bill actually cuts spending it has 1.7 trillion dollars in savings reduces the deficit

00:24:12.940 by 1.4 trillion dollars it is the biggest mandatory savings proposal in history in the 1997s we were

00:24:21.720 only talking with the work requirements and bill clinton and the republican newt gingrich house we were

00:24:26.200 talking about 800 billion dollars in savings has the problem gotten worse yes it has but this is

00:24:32.120 historic levels and that's not even talking about the doge cuts and so i think we can do all of them

00:24:38.780 but we've got to kind of figure out what's this bill doing what's the maximum that we can do it the art

00:24:44.820 of the possible is a three-seat majority in the house and the senate we we were willing to go further

00:24:49.720 but we also know the bill has to pass and the the those are small majorities this is not you know

00:24:56.540 20-seat majorities and that that that's a real political constraint that you reflected earlier

00:25:01.260 but i'm very bullish glenn i think at the end of this this year we if this bill passes

00:25:06.800 and the cuts are maintained in it we we can end the year with a paradigm shift on mandatory spending

00:25:13.580 and a paradigm shift on discretionary we we might have the first uh chance to actually cut non-defense

00:25:20.700 spending by serious levels through the ability to just not spend money or to send up rescissions that

00:25:27.600 don't need a congressional affirmative vote on through pocket rescissions that would dramatically

00:25:32.680 change and here's the thing it would lead to results what has caused the problem we have is fiscal

00:25:37.820 futility nothing can we only get any wins let alone big wins this is giving us big wins and i think it's why

00:25:44.080 we're going to be able to change the trajectory this year the arc the argument against that is it's

00:25:50.100 raising the debt ceiling by four trillion dollars so why do you say we can raise the debt ceiling at

00:25:57.080 another four trillion in in debt and yet at the end have a big win by the end of the year what what

00:26:03.240 is in this bill that is not connecting here so any bill that you would have ever had your republican

00:26:10.700 study committee budget ram paul's budget whatever no matter what bill you cut cap and balance from

00:26:17.520 yesteryear any of those bills act over a 10-year period and so over that 10-year period you're getting

00:26:25.340 to these low balance levels right in the immediate you all of them assume that in the short term debt

00:26:32.420 limit the debt is going up while you make progress and so the debt limit the debt ceiling is a warning sign

00:26:39.860 it itself does not create debt now it is something that historically has been used the president has

00:26:47.080 views and and we agree that like we haven't gotten anything out of the debt limit in 20 30 years

00:26:52.360 and so the notion that it should be done outside of reconciliation and republican votes is a is

00:26:59.000 something that we have been challenging as an administration it's just like this is not serving

00:27:03.120 our interest this bill extends the debt limit but it does include what historic if you if you ever

00:27:09.940 historically got anything from the debt limit extension it would be what is already in this bill

00:27:14.620 and that's why we're so excited about this bill you know i saw something from goldman sachs last week

00:27:21.340 and they said we are dangerously close to not being able to sell our debt um and and then having to

00:27:30.800 finance ourselves and and raise the um you know the um you know the interest that we're having to pay

00:27:38.940 um do you know of a no do you have any idea how close we are to that number before this thing

00:27:45.440 because i think we're just really on the edge here where where is that number how close are we

00:27:50.700 i i don't think anyone really knows and i don't think that's you can ever know and and i think the

00:27:56.640 fiscal storm clouds have been with us for a long time and we obviously see the extent to which the

00:28:01.660 problem no one is arguing back against that and no one's arguing that back to you know the critics of

00:28:06.660 of of debt and deficit at all um but i think what i would push back a little bit and you know i'll add

00:28:12.880 moody's to the the list as well is that the meta point is true it's also one that you've been making

00:28:19.640 for 20 years and we've and and uh the the conservative movements in making this presence

00:28:24.400 in making the the point is true the timing of these analysis are i i think are are for a purpose

00:28:32.020 and so moody's could have made that determination 15 years ago in the obama administration they chose

00:28:37.580 not to they chose to do it right before house passage on an agenda bill uh that has incredible

00:28:43.800 importance to the american people and i think the president's getting liz trust uh in that in that

00:28:48.920 vein and and the notion that goldman sachs doesn't have a sense about uh the way the baselines work

00:28:54.340 and the watchdogs is also not true and so i think what you have going on here is um the reality of our

00:29:02.060 fiscal situation and people continuing to rightfully educate on that but i think in the financial

00:29:06.900 community uh or some of the the watchdogs um there is a a timing aspect that is specifically designed to

00:29:14.760 use the legitimate concerns to take down a bill that is otherwise fantastic uh on the on a dishonest

00:29:22.220 basis and that's one of the reasons we're working so hard to get our message out i know your time is

00:29:27.560 really tight can you just tell me quickly what are the things in it specifically that you say are

00:29:33.980 fantastic that maybe people don't know i think the biggest thing is the level of welfare reform that's

00:29:40.620 in this bill um the medicaid reforms the work requirement in medicaid uh to get people back

00:29:47.500 into the workforce the food stamp reforms uh both tightening the work requirement and giving states

00:29:53.700 a share uh of of the cost of that of that program um 1.7 trillion dollars in mandatory savings and then

00:30:01.980 the second aspect of it is you talked about the doge uh rescissions and the only spending in this bill

00:30:09.360 is spending that is specifically designed strategically that is conservative and we would do like border

00:30:16.020 security right if that's an appropriations process we're headed towards a shutdown it looks like the

00:30:21.520 first term we can't actually have non-defense fight over cutting because we're fighting for the wall

00:30:26.440 this bill includes that type of spending so that it clears the field strategically for us to have a

00:30:33.600 massive fight on non-defense spending in the appropriations process we did talk very rarely

00:30:39.780 about that dynamic but i think it's one that your audience will find very exciting

00:30:43.660 russ i i so appreciate the fact that you are um there with the president i you know the president

00:30:51.800 has earned the right to get his i mean we're what 120 days or something into his first term

00:30:57.540 uh i think he's earned the right to uh get his way i am worried about the debt and the deficit but

00:31:04.000 uh i do trust you and i i give my support to the president and uh i i hope that we can get past

00:31:10.720 yesterday and move to get things moving in washington because i think if this doesn't pass

00:31:17.380 i haven't heard a better idea from anybody i've just heard no's but i haven't heard a better idea

00:31:22.060 we've got to get moving on this or we're in trouble deeper deeper trouble than we are already

00:31:27.620 in now thank you russ well said thanks glenn appreciate you you bet russell vote office of

00:31:34.360 management and budget i have to tell you this is a really this is a really tough thing this is

00:31:40.760 you know i i don't like some of the things that are in this i don't like some of the things that

00:31:49.860 are are happening but as i just said i haven't heard anybody address the issues in a way where

00:31:58.480 they where we can get it done you know it's one thing to stand here and say i won't vote well okay

00:32:06.700 but by not doing anything by not moving um and by by collapsing this what do we have instead we have

00:32:18.060 more chaos and more trouble uh and i i hate this i hate this but i really truly believe our back is

00:32:27.000 up against the wall on this debt and the deficit and if we don't if we don't get these tax cuts passed

00:32:34.500 i wanted bigger tax cuts but i'll take these if we don't that is going to dramatically affect uh our

00:32:44.440 our our lifestyle and the world is in enough chaos let's just pray that everybody does the right thing

00:32:50.980 whatever that is lord let your will be done this is the best of the glenn beck program

00:32:55.320 doug collins is uh joining us now u.s secretary of veterans affairs doug how are you sir i'm good glenn how

00:33:04.720 about you uh really good i can't thank you enough for everything that you guys are doing at the va i mean

00:33:11.820 i just think there are uh there are there are so many of our uh veterans that have been treated so

00:33:19.680 miserably they're killing themselves like they've never never done before i mean i i know that you

00:33:27.000 you heard some of the things that uh that we've talked about here where you know people are just

00:33:32.240 killing themselves trying to you know trying to uh make a point that we got it the the va is

00:33:38.280 is in dire need of transformation so thank you for caring and thank you for doing everything you

00:33:45.320 are doing to transform it i appreciate i appreciate it it's a lot can we get out of this at all i mean

00:33:53.080 is there how can we get and privatize as much of this as we can well i think the issue of privatization

00:34:00.100 is not is it's probably not the right answer in this i think what we have is is we have the tools

00:34:06.200 that president trump and i frankly we i'd worked on when i was in congress back in a few years ago was

00:34:11.460 actually beginning to make this system much more less about the va and more about the veteran and

00:34:17.440 that is getting the care out of the centralization services all the time of all everything having to

00:34:23.400 do with you know coming to our hospital coming to our clinic but using our community doctors and

00:34:28.080 others one of the big issues is always brought up with privatization and you know it's a valid

00:34:32.060 discussion it's something to talk about it it's not something we're looking at mainly because

00:34:35.660 the thing that gets separated so much from the va is that the va is just has the other issues and

00:34:41.520 same issues as the private and the public hospitals and that's in recruitment doctors a lot of other

00:34:46.460 things you know it's going on but then the specialty nature of a lot of what we do with them so the big

00:34:51.380 thing we can do is one i think we can uh streamline this issue we can save money that's what we're looking

00:34:56.980 to do we're cutting you know literally hundreds of millions of dollars out of bad contracts bad stuff

00:35:01.820 but at the same point getting the veterans especially those that you just talked about a

00:35:06.340 minute ago which are on my heart that are coming to a system that is not listening to their needs

00:35:11.940 and then in turn believing that there's nowhere else to turn for them and many of them are taking

00:35:17.260 their own life and that's just something that this this not uh going to be acceptable uh in anything

00:35:22.640 but we're finally asking the right questions and putting the you know the community and our private

00:35:27.760 doctors our public doctors and our va doctors to help get these veterans the help they need

00:35:32.080 okay so let's talk about a couple of things that you are doing um you know you had a a massive

00:35:39.600 backlog of cases and you've brought that you've brought that backlog down over 25 percent in 100

00:35:47.680 days what did you do and and what does it mean to the veteran well what it meant is a several

00:35:54.280 what we did was just leadership then what gets measured gets done okay um i think this accountability

00:36:00.080 factor that we have and i brought to us now an accountability factor that says you're either

00:36:04.560 going to do your job or you're or you're not going to work for us and so 260 000 backlogs let me explain

00:36:10.240 what that means is that's the 260 000 cases of people asking or applying for for benefits through

00:36:17.120 disability benefits that had went over 125 days okay it should never have been there some are growing

00:36:23.160 longer 260 000 we've cut that to under 200 000 as you said within 100 days we've also begun because

00:36:30.160 that is now freeing up work we're now actually processing more and if you remember the the dreaded

00:36:36.160 scenarios that all the mainstream media the new york times and the post and all the unions were saying

00:36:40.260 if you brought people back to work it would be terrible and be awful and you know doing this we've

00:36:45.120 actually are processing more claims per day right now than we ever have in our history we're actually

00:36:50.360 processing more than we're getting in for the first time in a long time what it took was simply saying

00:36:55.400 guys you're going to do this it's not a choice anymore when i inherited a department in which

00:37:00.980 however you feel like it feels good do it you know they were everybody just sort of operating on their

00:37:06.200 own time zone and i said we're not going to do that anymore the va is going to actually be about the

00:37:10.240 veterans so that's how we've done it and it makes the difference in that now that a veteran is not

00:37:13.980 calling their congressman they're not calling everybody else they're getting what they've earned

00:37:17.740 and we're fulfilling that promise so help me out on this you know we reached out to you and your

00:37:24.800 team after i interviewed a dad from san antonio last month whose son mark yeah took his own life

00:37:30.500 in april right in front of the va hospital um because he believed he didn't receive adequate care for pain

00:37:36.860 that he was having mental health issues etc etc speak to the dad who feels like the va has failed his son

00:37:43.880 and and what you're trying to do to make this right i will just as i did one night i actually

00:37:51.620 was on with him and this shows you a difference that i go on any area i can to say look when we're

00:37:56.940 doing it wrong or we're doing it an issue that we need to at least address um and in this situation i

00:38:02.180 think it's something we need to address and i did this with him before is is i i my heart hurts and i think

00:38:08.000 it shows that the the problem that we have in our system that is drug itself into a point in which

00:38:15.020 we have just sort of handled the mental health crisis we've handled the traumatic uh brain injury

00:38:20.880 the pts uh issue uh in such a way that we just sort of said this is sort of the lined up way we do it

00:38:27.700 and yet i've got uh the i'm telling our doctors i'm telling our our folks that we partner with

00:38:34.180 non-profits and others saying we've got to try something differently here because we're not moving

00:38:38.080 the needle since 2008 the suicide number has not changed in this country and we we're spending

00:38:44.320 588 million dollars or more every year to quote prevent it but yet in our services we're still

00:38:51.020 treating it many times with medicine we're still treating it in times we've got to do a better job

00:38:55.440 of getting more uh counseling in there we're getting more clinicals but also something that is

00:39:00.180 that i've took from uh and we've been looking at from many of our uh veteran groups and others

00:39:06.160 including uh folks that you've been dealing with but bobby kennedy as well at hhs is we're looking at

00:39:11.360 alternative medicines we're looking at hyperbaric chambers we're looking at possible use of psychedelics

00:39:16.460 along with counseling anything we can to give them the help that they need so they don't feel like

00:39:20.980 the va's not listening to them or they're getting just handed a bottle of pills and that's that's

00:39:26.020 something that we don't need uh to be looking at they need to be getting help and not just

00:39:30.500 a medical condition i mean it's it's interesting to me that the germans look you know handed a lot

00:39:37.040 of their soldiers bottles of pills so they could just fight and fight and fight and fight and become

00:39:40.940 animals um and we we train our people differently um more humanely but we humanely but we we train our

00:39:47.940 people to be able to go in and pull the trigger when they have to um but is it is it fair to say

00:39:53.600 we spend all that money doing that but when they come home we don't spend enough money and enough

00:39:59.620 time to try to deprogram that to bring them back into our society and and how to deal with all of

00:40:07.140 the stuff that they were trained to do is that fair i think yeah i think it's a fair assumption and i

00:40:12.960 think it's also the changing face of warfare and i in a quick just moment here i mean in world war ii

00:40:17.840 i had uh you know i've had war or two friends they they went with only two things in mind they were

00:40:22.780 either going to win or come home dead they had no time frame to come home they were just going

00:40:27.420 as war has progressed and now up until the last two you can bring that all up way up in the last

00:40:32.300 20 years the gwak generation uh less than one about a one and a half percent of the population

00:40:38.720 have participated in foreign soil in this battle but yet we've done it over and over and over again

00:40:44.060 and so what we're having is uh these folks are in four to six to eight years who have all of this

00:40:49.860 stuff built up we we sort of broke them down to become the machine the the soldier marine uh

00:40:55.340 airman sailor that we needed but the machine and then they come back out and then when they they're

00:41:02.120 going so much they never have time to process and for some of them who get out within four to six to

00:41:07.040 eight years this is something there's not enough time to get in the system uh to to say here's how i

00:41:12.780 cope and so you you've hit it exactly in the sense that we're not spending the time in a transition

00:41:18.480 this is why secretary of defense and i on an unprecedented level which has not happened that

00:41:23.560 we've found before where us as secretary sat down and said we've got a transition problem

00:41:28.620 and so it's owned by dod they do the transition of folks coming out but yet if anything happens in it

00:41:35.540 i get blamed for it so i just told pete i said we got to fix this we got to start working on this

00:41:40.280 maybe you may own it but i'm getting blamed for it and i'm not going to get blamed for something i can't

00:41:44.540 do so we're gonna so right now we're working on getting that transition better so that we have a

00:41:49.840 warm handoff especially for those who are hurting already to come into our system and and receive

00:41:56.020 almost you know white glove treatment where they're coming in warm handoff so that we have a better

00:42:00.640 chance of affecting change and here's another aspect i'm opening it back up to where we're going

00:42:06.060 to partner with non-profits we're going to partner with foundations we're going to partner with groups

00:42:10.100 that are already doing good stuff and and instead of us wasting money on things that we don't need

00:42:16.140 to be on i'm going to use other groups that are already in this uh you know arena to say help us

00:42:22.760 here and connect them with them yeah it always it kills me when you have something like for instance

00:42:28.340 in a different subject but you have something like aa that works that always works yep and then you find

00:42:34.460 these people who are running these centers who are like well we're going to change it and we're going to do

00:42:38.700 our own thing it's like no but that works why not just do that it's free why not just do that

00:42:44.240 oh it's amazing glenn you you'd be amazed what i see here i just read tape issues that we're already

00:42:51.320 starting to fix and so and we're taking out we put best medical interest so that our doctors aren't

00:42:56.420 having to go through to a second opinion or a third opinion to get somebody to the help that they need

00:43:01.200 we're now actually going to be taking amputees who need and i have a real experience with this my

00:43:06.220 dollars in a wheelchair that we were making them go to their primary care to possibly an orthopedic

00:43:11.840 to a pt to an ot before they could just get reset for a new chair i said that's bullcrap we're cutting

00:43:17.160 that out so they get a better experience and we we give them the earned respect that they have

00:43:23.180 um you know a lot of critics democrat lawmakers especially um look at the proposed 15 staff

00:43:32.600 reduction that you uh you know are are championing here and they're saying that's going to lead to a

00:43:38.280 shortage of doctors and nurses how do you plan to protect the the frontline health care services

00:43:44.460 for veterans and cut 15 of staff well the first the first off is 15 is the goal it said and that

00:43:51.360 was come from the president he said i'll look over all agencies see what you can do and and if you

00:43:55.660 don't set a goal nothing gets done plan you know that yeah you know your listeners know that so we

00:44:00.020 get to the goal they said okay 15 can you do that if you can how do you do it but what we did because

00:44:05.120 we knew and the president knew this that the va is a really a unique organization in government

00:44:10.220 we're the only truly everyday facing department that we have dealing with this medical kind of

00:44:15.880 issues we deal and so what we did early on was that we're not even going to put it jeopardy

00:44:19.980 doctors nurses which the democrats and others are lying about you know being we've protected over 300

00:44:25.600 over 300 000 positions within our health care system and our disability rating system that said look

00:44:32.660 you're not even eligible you know to take an early retirement you're not eligible to do this up

00:44:37.400 because we're not going to cut the very things that we need but i've got literally thousands of

00:44:42.800 other employees on duplicative hr processes contracting processes um you know human resources

00:44:49.820 processing i mean i was amazed here and i talked about that permissive attitude we were supposed to

00:44:55.020 centralize our payroll several years ago previous administration said nah if you want to do it

00:44:59.880 differently i found out that we had over 60 locations doing their own payroll

00:45:03.820 and that was hundreds of people at a lot bigger expense so this idea look here's what you has

00:45:11.480 come up when i everybody's cracked about the va gao has said for 10 years we've been high risk lift

00:45:16.700 the democrats republicans everybody on the hill and i've said this in my hearings all of you i can

00:45:22.040 show you comments where you say you want efficiency you want the va to work better and yet the first

00:45:26.320 moment i start saying here's some change in ebay then all of a sudden it's about the worker well i

00:45:31.560 believe our va workers are great folks our va worker our the va is not a jobs program the va is

00:45:37.280 a service organization and we're changing that mindset have you thought of i'm i'm sure you have

00:45:44.000 but have you thought of doing things like in a in a private company you know um i like to incentivize

00:45:49.940 people and say hey we are way over budget or we're trying to uh we're trying to make this a better

00:45:56.160 process one way or another just tell us and then we'll give you the employee you know a kickback or

00:46:04.040 a bonus or whatever if that works and it came from you have you thought about incentivizing the people

00:46:09.920 to streamline and to save yeah we're looking at that i you know i've been saying it everywhere i go

00:46:17.920 i've been in 16 states over 50 of our facilities and i'm not even close to halfway yet and everywhere i go

00:46:23.760 is that's exactly what i'm telling them you know my unfortunately unlike private enterprise i'm bound

00:46:29.220 on what yeah how i can offer incentives and stuff um for that but what we're also offering is saying

00:46:34.620 hey here how can we make this better i found that you empower american workers glenn you empower our

00:46:41.320 people to do good they're going to do good when you believe in them like i believe in them and say

00:46:46.440 i want you to go be the best that you can be and if you see something stupid you let us know and

00:46:50.860 we'll fix it they're going to go out and do things and also here's the other alternative

00:46:54.440 also good people will not work where bad people are tolerated and we're making it a very much of

00:46:59.820 an emphasis to get rid of bad people who are not wanting to do good things it used to be a culture

00:47:04.220 of failure up here or failure sideways if you fail we just put you up in somewhere other top

00:47:09.480 that that stopped the minute i came in and we're getting rid of people who can't do the job

00:47:14.260 uh doug i really appreciate it i i love the fact that you know you're a servant of the lord and

00:47:20.920 you know and you're so i know your priorities are right and that's on people so thank you for what

00:47:26.220 you're doing we appreciate it it's always good to talk anything you need to let me know okay

00:47:30.220 you got it thanks doug collins u.s secretary of veterans affairs

00:47:34.720 claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament i've been visualizing my match all week she was

00:47:43.800 so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the column behind her car on her backhand side

00:47:48.400 good thing claudia's with intact the insurer with the largest network of auto service centers in the

00:47:54.480 country everything was taken care of under one roof and she was on her way in a rental car in no time

00:47:59.460 i made it to my tournament and lost in the first round but you got there on time intact insurance

00:48:05.720 your auto service ace certain conditions apply

The Glenn Beck Program - June 06, 2025

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Russ Vought & Sec. Doug Collins ｜ 6⧸6⧸25

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