Valuetainment - Cuomo Nursing Home Scandal Exposed By NY Assemblyman Ron Kim

00:00:00.000 Wall Street Democrats that are aligned with years of protecting corporate interest over

00:00:07.300 people's interest. That has been Cuomo's ideology for as long as we know. And then two weeks goes

00:00:13.720 by and we are seeing mistake after mistake after mistake and it all culminated in a very deadly

00:00:20.520 executive order that he ordered, his people ordered, to suppress the data. Does the future

00:00:27.000 look bright or does the future look scary? As long as we have collaborative politicians who can see

00:00:33.760 the world as a win-win, Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, we all have the same goal, which is

00:00:38.460 to reward hard work. That's all we want. We want people to feel, understand that if they put in

00:00:43.700 the time and effort, that they have upward mobility. Public servants should create a world of win-win

00:00:49.480 where it's not winner-take-all economics. And as long as we can find that balance, I do feel very

00:00:56.120 optimistic. We can get to a better place very soon.

00:00:59.200 My guest today is Ron Kim. He is New York State Assembly representing the 40th District since

00:01:09.040 November of 2012. And recently, if you turn on the TV, if you're watching videos, you have seen his

00:01:15.460 face, you have seen his name on The View all over the place because of a controversy that came out on a

00:01:22.000 call that he and Andrew Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo had, that's led to a lot of different

00:01:27.580 issues being brought up. So with that being said, Ron Kim, thank you so much for being a guest on

00:01:31.660 Valuetainment. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you for the invite and having me on your show.

00:01:36.200 Yes, I've been looking forward to this. So, you know, let's get right into it. You know,

00:01:40.640 you're seeing Andrew Cuomo one minute. We're watching him on a daily basis. Every day I turn on the TV,

00:01:48.320 I see his face more than Trump during COVID. The live conferences that was taking place,

00:01:53.360 he would address the questions. He won an Emmy for it. And you would see the back and forth with him and his

00:01:58.220 brother. You almost thought maybe one day there would be a TV show, the Cuomo brothers, you know,

00:02:03.480 that we'd be watching. And talks came about him handling coronavirus better than Donald Trump,

00:02:09.700 President Donald Trump at the time. And then talks came about him potentially running for office in the

00:02:14.700 future for being a president, a Democratic candidate. And then there came the fall, the controversy

00:02:21.240 that came out. How did this lead to what it is today? Well, for a long time, while Andrew Cuomo was

00:02:32.480 making the national circuits, and you forgot, he also wrote a book on COVID leadership at the same

00:02:37.280 time. Many of us, including the families who were losing the lost loved ones, lawmakers, community

00:02:43.560 activists, we were on the ground, seeing the impact of his bad decisions and policies. So while he was on

00:02:50.600 CNN, we were crying on the floor on the ground saying, hey, your decisions are completely isolating our

00:02:58.900 older adults, you're not doing your job. You are not allowing us to see our loved ones. We can't get 0.99

00:03:06.360 their medical records. You're giving a corporate legal shield for your top nursing home executives at the

00:03:13.040 worst time, which will lead to more deaths. These are the type of things we kept pushing out. We didn't

00:03:18.540 have a platform. He is arguably at the time, one of the most powerful, if not one of the most powerful

00:03:25.520 Democrats in America, with the brother, as you said, Patrick, who's on national TV every single night.

00:03:34.460 So yes, many of us did feel we're getting gaslit, right? Because we see the truth, we turn on TV,

00:03:40.840 and they're telling us a whole different narrative that he is a hero, when we knew that he was making

00:03:46.660 mistakes. We were trying to hold him accountable every step of the way. When did you guys know that

00:03:51.860 these events were taking place? Meaning, was there ever a, because you know, before crisis takes place,

00:03:57.040 you kind of see somebody leading towards potential trends. You say, that's not looking right. When did

00:04:01.600 you guys start noticing trends? Yeah, so I'll go back to the timeline. When the governor and his top

00:04:08.040 health official came to us early March, this is after COVID landed in New York City, and people were

00:04:13.940 starting to get scared. He asked for us an emergency $40 million and extraordinary powers. Many of my

00:04:21.020 progressive Democrats, they were like, no, we can't trust this guy. Don't give him any more powers. I

00:04:26.000 actually sponsored that bill. I was the main co-sponsor and argued against the Democrats. My

00:04:31.880 constituents are scared. I don't think Washington is going to help us in this hour. So let's give, let's get

00:04:38.360 behind this government. Let's give him a chance to leave. And then a week goes by. And then two weeks

00:04:43.560 goes by. And we are seeing mistake after mistake after mistake. And it all culminated in a very deadly

00:04:50.760 executive order with a unilateral decision on March 25th, which he ordered, which is an order where he

00:04:59.540 ordered 9,000 COVID patients in the period of 47 days back to unprepared nursing home facilities.

00:05:09.860 March 25th. Come April 2nd, into our state budget, when no one was paying attention, when he knew the

00:05:18.020 lawmakers were looking at other laws and budget items, he bullied a toxic poison bill that would give the

00:05:26.760 same facilities, what we call a get out of jail free card. They can't be criminally liable or can't

00:05:32.300 be sued for taking in all this COVID positives and transmitting COVID. We saw it. We called him out.

00:05:39.580 And that's when we started to push back. So it's okay. You know what? You might've made a mistake,

00:05:44.360 governor. We understand you're talking to, you know, these, all these special interest groups and

00:05:48.400 people who have only their businesses in mind, but this is not about protecting the profits. Right now,

00:05:53.720 people are dying and we need to hold them accountable to make sure that these for-profit nursing homes

00:05:58.960 are spending every dollar that they have to try to save lives. You're not doing that. So we kept

00:06:05.060 pushing back and all of a sudden, Patrick, the numbers went away. He publishes a report in July

00:06:12.340 that decoupled the nursing home death numbers, meaning he stopped counting. The healthcare experts

00:06:20.920 told him, you need to count the hospital deaths. So if my mother passed away in a nursing home,

00:06:27.160 but she was transferred to a hospital and she died in a hospital, that fatality should be part of the

00:06:34.180 entire data set. So we can take, lawmakers can take a look at and offer solutions. He decoupled it and

00:06:39.640 published a report. And all of a sudden he goes out and says, New York isn't that bad. We're number

00:06:45.280 40 in the country. I'm actually going to write a book about COVID leadership and he publishes it in

00:06:52.160 October. All that time period, we're pushing back, release the entire data so we can legislate. So we

00:07:00.020 can actually fix the problems that you caused. That is the timeline. And as you know, it blew up

00:07:06.600 recently because his administration admitted to the cover-up in a private meeting. And then the New York

00:07:12.840 Times and Wall Street Journal came out recently said there was even more cover-up leading back to

00:07:18.060 that original report in July that they published, that he ordered, his people ordered, to suppress the

00:07:24.700 data so he could go out on national TV and continue to be heroic at a time when we needed honesty,

00:07:32.820 transparency, and accountability to save people's lives.

00:07:37.240 Now, what could have been different? Say, if he would have come out, what would have been the right

00:07:41.080 approach to take in a situation like this? Well, the laws that we're passing now, we just passed

00:07:48.340 about 19 bills having all the data in front of us, which is hold the nursing homes accountable,

00:07:56.460 mandate, especially the for-profit ones. So in New York State, about 63% of nursing home facilities

00:08:03.420 are for-profits. The rest are state-owned, state-run, or non-profit organizations.

00:08:09.000 Got it. The for-profits has had a long history of undercutting staff, cutting corners, to maximize

00:08:16.660 profits, as you can imagine. So we wanted to hold, we could have held them accountable. We could have

00:08:22.460 said, for example, you're getting $100 today of Medicare, Medicaid. Out of the $100, we're going to

00:08:28.660 direct you to spend 80% of that on direct care, which is the right standard during an emergency.

00:08:35.180 But they were spending, you know, on average, 25, 30% on direct care, meaning not hiring enough staff,

00:08:43.780 not putting enough PPE in place. All those things we could have mandated early on, but instead,

00:08:50.360 the governor went the other direction and decided to give the corporate shareholders and people

00:08:57.920 behind the businesses a more or less a blanket corporate immunity so they don't need to worry

00:09:04.740 about getting sued or being criminally charged. So Ron, now today, after the 19 bills have been passed,

00:09:12.000 if I'm running a nursing home today, 60-plus percent of nursing homes are for-profit.

00:09:16.860 The other 30-some percent are non-profit. If I'm running a for-profit, I have to spend 80%

00:09:23.300 on direct care now. So meaning I'm only keeping 20% of the money that's coming to me? Is that what

00:09:28.880 I'm, is that what the law states today or not yet? So that bill is still being negotiated,

00:09:33.160 that particular bill. We're starting at 70% and then over the next couple of years, we're trying

00:09:39.100 to get up to 90% of direct care. I mean, that's going to, that's going to also force a lot of people

00:09:44.520 out of the business, right? Isn't that going to force a lot of people out and they're going to

00:09:47.500 say, you know what, Ron, you're right. I'm just, I can't run margins on 10%. I'm out of the business

00:09:52.500 myself. Sure, Patrick. And those are tough and uncomfortable conversations to be had.

00:09:58.100 Should profit, should for-profit models intersect when the care sector, especially dealing with the

00:10:04.340 elderly population? Is that the best model? When, when the business model itself is designed to 0.97

00:10:10.740 extract this much profit out of Medicare, Medicaid instruments, or do we need better mechanisms?

00:10:19.460 You know, my dad, my dad was, when he had, he's had 13 heart attacks. My dad, when he went to

00:10:24.140 a hospital and it was a government funded hospital in Norwalk, California. And when I went to pick him

00:10:31.520 up, they were just treating him like he was just a piece of meat, you know, laying there and I lost

00:10:36.140 it and they kicked me out. Security came, you need to leave this place. And the lady made a very 1.00

00:10:40.100 interesting comment at the end. I said, my dad's been pressing a button. No one's going over there

00:10:45.220 to take care of him. What is this all about? And she said, listen, you're not paying for this. This

00:10:50.160 is taxpayer money. Okay. And I was 23 years. That's one of the motivations, what I made me want to get

00:10:55.680 to work and make the money because I never wanted to hear that statement to have the choice for profit,

00:11:00.760 because my experience has been the customer service for profit is a million times better than a

00:11:06.140 nonprofit. If I go to DMV in LA and let's just go to DMV in Glen Oaks in Burbank, which I've been to

00:11:13.020 many times for the driving record that I have, I kind of have a reason to go there quite often when

00:11:18.520 I would go there and they would talk to you like, stand over there, wait in line. Didn't I tell you

00:11:23.000 to stand over there? I'm like, Oh my gosh, they didn't talk to me like this in the military.

00:11:26.420 And they don't care about Yelp. They don't care about the, you know, customer service. They don't

00:11:32.060 care about, Hey, can you write a five-star review on Yelp for us? We would so much appreciate it. No

00:11:37.120 one's getting fired because it's a nonprofit. And so for me, sometimes pushing corporations out can

00:11:43.400 also backfire on the city and not only the city, the people, because competition is a healthy thing.

00:11:48.380 So that's, that's a complete different conversation. When you said 90%, it kind of triggered the business

00:11:52.520 side of mine. Keep in mind when Donald Trump got COVID, he didn't go to a for-profit hospital. He

00:11:57.000 went to a government run hospital. When we talk about, I know, and I know, and I read, and I'm

00:12:02.480 familiar with your background. I respect as an immigrant, how, what you overcame as an entrepreneur

00:12:08.700 and really was driven. I have so much respect for your background, Patrick. But I think we live in a

00:12:15.680 generation. I think we're about the same, 41 years old. And I came in an era where private

00:12:22.340 capital was unleashed in the 1980s after Ronald Reagan. We went in a different route. Before

00:12:26.480 that, you know, we had a tight grip on checking monopolies and making sure that the smaller

00:12:32.800 local economies had a fair share. And the tax rates are much different before Ronald Reagan.

00:12:38.280 This is all stuff that you're familiar with. But we made a conscious choice to go in a different

00:12:42.360 direction, meaning we surgically undermine the public sector every other year, under-resourced,

00:12:49.420 underfunded, different components, and localities sold off public services in piecemeal over

00:12:58.520 the last 40 years. Backing your argument that, you know, market-driven solutions, accountability,

00:13:07.380 customer-driven is a better model for public service. But every, if you look at the long

00:13:12.280 history of when we achieved the greatest level of entrepreneurs, innovation, is when we, when

00:13:18.420 government actually invested in public capital, and we were able, whether, if you look at Apple,

00:13:25.520 Siri would not have come if we did not have Sputnik, when we had massive capital, public capital

00:13:32.380 investment to drive innovation. And out of that may come different types of private markets. But I

00:13:39.340 believe there is a stronger role for the public sector to reinvest without completely, you know, being

00:13:48.560 combative with the work that you've accomplished and other entrepreneurs in the private sector. But right

00:13:53.780 now, I think the balance has, is, is way off in favoring the for-profit industries in spaces like care work

00:14:03.640 when we should be investing public dollars. But this is, we can, we can have a whole different

00:14:09.660 back and forth. And I, but I appreciate this type of discussion, because I do, I do have a tremendous amount of

00:14:15.380 respect for your expertise.

00:14:17.320 I mean, in this topic, I don't want to go detailed on 90%. The only thing is when I think about a small

00:14:22.860 business and you're not, there is no incentive for it, you're just pushing a guy out and he's like,

00:14:27.220 listen, to hell with this. I'm just leaving a business model and I'm going to go to a different

00:14:30.740 place. But we'll come back to this because I do want to come back to Amazon. And I know you were one of

00:14:35.280 the first that talked about Amazon when they were coming down, you know, in the 25,000 jobs at 150.

00:14:41.320 But let's, let's stay on the Cuomo issue here. You know, it almost seems like what's happening to the

00:14:50.140 Republican Party is happening to the Democratic Party. And let me kind of paint this picture to you. And you

00:14:54.880 told me if you agree with this or not. On the Republican Party, you know, you saw, what do you call it?

00:15:02.080 You saw Trump's going and running and, you know, there was a camp. I was like, oh my gosh, if I support him,

00:15:07.500 I may, what if the midterms and what if I'm not going to get people in the media, they're going to say,

00:15:11.320 I'm MAGA and I'm going to get this and this and that. And so, so then they came Lincoln Project,

00:15:16.340 right? So the Lincoln Project, the McCain's, the Bush's, you know, that area. And they came out

00:15:20.500 and they, they play a very, very, maybe more of a big role than anybody else did in making sure

00:15:26.580 Trump doesn't get reelected. The Lincoln Project did. And then there was division there, right?

00:15:30.780 So then now you have MAGA and you got old Republican, new Republican. That's kind of what's going on over

00:15:34.660 there. Still got 75 million votes, but not enough. 74 million votes, not enough to get elected.

00:15:38.900 On the Democratic side, you're seeing also two camps. You're seeing the Pelosi camp. You're

00:15:46.180 seeing, you know, the Newsom camp. You're seeing Schumer camp. And then you're seeing AOC camp.

00:15:52.760 You're seeing Sanders camp. There's also like two camps. I will give credit to Democrats. They are

00:15:57.260 10 times more united than Republicans are. I mean, it's not even close how much more Democrats are

00:16:02.460 united than Republicans are. They're not even in the same league. Democrats will at least say,

00:16:07.800 we may disagree, but look in front of the camera, let's all be on the same page and then let's fight

00:16:11.920 it out behind closed doors and figure something out here. Are you seeing like a division taking

00:16:18.440 place in the Democratic Party today with two different philosophies? One more, you know,

00:16:23.380 the new wave of socialism, raising taxes, higher regulation. And the other one is more like John

00:16:27.620 F. Kennedy Democrats was like, listen, guys, let's still stay. Understand we need Wall Street's money

00:16:32.480 because we're raising money and we're doing all this stuff so we can't just turn our backs

00:16:36.020 against them. What are you noticing happening during the Democratic Party?

00:16:39.900 Yeah, I mean, that dynamics has gone back many, many years in America where at some point Republicans

00:16:47.440 are representing the working class values and then the Democrats. But what's clear is that New York

00:16:52.580 Democrat and Wall Street Democrats has had a long history of creating tensions between the rest of

00:16:59.540 America. And what I always see this a couple of years ago does resonate with me, which is this is

00:17:05.240 this should not be about left versus right, but for the bottom versus the top. And when we look at the

00:17:10.560 fight around nursing home protecting these most vulnerable members of nursing home residents, when you

00:17:16.780 look at the people who are with me and with us in pushing back against Cuomo, it's a combination of

00:17:23.700 conservative Republicans from the right and socialists on the left and progressives on the left.

00:17:30.720 The people that are missing in this fight have been the people who are stuck in the middle.

00:17:36.040 The establishment, if you will, the corporate driven Democrats, Wall Street Democrats that are aligned

00:17:44.800 with years of protecting corporate interest over people's interest. That is that has been Cuomo's

00:17:54.720 ideology for as long as we know, you know, we call it neoliberalism and the corporate Democrats,

00:18:02.820 you know, there's different ways to describe it. But it culminates again, in austerity minded budgets,

00:18:09.760 where we're constantly either flatlining social programs for decades, while we subsidize, as you

00:18:16.120 mentioned, you mentioned Amazon briefly, we think the bigger, better corporations are best at bringing

00:18:22.460 in new jobs and creating innovation. So we try to subsidize through taxpayers tax credits as much of

00:18:29.060 those type of industries to come in to fuel economic growth. That's been the philosophy of Cuomo. And many of

00:18:36.940 the middle grounded Democrats that are online with them. So it's not necessary tensions. There's

00:18:43.240 internal, I think, differences of how some of the next generation of Democrats want to lead the party into

00:18:54.100 prioritizing the needs of our most vulnerable and center the solutions around people's needs in the

00:19:00.880 ground. And we're not talking about any complicated things. We're talking about housing, education,

00:19:06.220 health care, basic human needs, that must be met. Otherwise, we what we end up doing is

00:19:12.880 individualizing everything and saying you're not, you're not successful, because you're not working

00:19:19.540 hard enough. And you're it's a character flaw. And we're just going to throw carrots and mostly sticks

00:19:25.520 with over policing. And we're gonna, we're gonna fund more police to go into your neighborhood and teach

00:19:31.060 you some character. I mean, that's really how many of our moderate corporate Democrats get their hands

00:19:38.600 off of the situation. Because it is very difficult to go back and say, we're going to improve the social

00:19:44.880 conditions. I'm sorry. Hi, Hazel. How you doing, baby?

00:19:49.220 I'm up. That is so great. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Can you close the door, baby? Thank you.

00:20:03.160 Sorry about that. It's a beautiful daughter you got there, Hazel. Go ahead. You were saying.

00:20:06.700 So yeah, so I believe that there is a philosophical divide that's brewing in the party. But it's not an

00:20:19.020 unhealthy one. It's a necessary one that I think both parties should be having moving forward.

00:20:26.440 Yeah, it's it's to me, it's my dad told me said one thing about America, you got to know, Pat, he says,

00:20:32.140 you know, it's very, America is very good at taking you from zero to hero overnight. You're just like

00:20:39.380 everybody knows you. But America is also very good at taking you from hero to zero overnight. You know,

00:20:46.320 one minute you're winning Emmys, and you're just better than Trump. And you're going at it with Trump

00:20:50.860 and yay, Cuomo, go bully the bully. And the next minute, no, no, no, we got to take this guy out. And,

00:20:57.640 you know, now he's, unfortunately, you know, going through whether it's impeachment or being asked

00:21:04.420 to resign. I've seen all the interviews, whether you've done with CNN or Hill, I've seen all of

00:21:09.680 them what you said. And with the phone call that happened with you and him. So have had you spent

00:21:14.420 a lot of time talking to Governor Cuomo before the call that you had where he was threatening?

00:21:20.000 Was there like regular conversations you had with him over the phone? Or was that like the first call

00:21:23.820 you ever had with him? This was the first call. Oh, I got it. Okay.

00:21:27.640 I got it.

00:21:28.600 I mean, obviously, I spent time with them.

00:21:30.220 I got it.

00:21:30.820 Social events, even had dinner with them, with other lawmakers, etc. But yeah, he this is the

00:21:38.120 first time he made an effort to call me, followed by a number of phone calls on that Saturday,

00:21:44.520 a total of eight times to reach out to me. So this is really a reflection of the length that he was

00:21:50.000 willing to go himself to try to control the situation in fear that there'll be more investigations

00:21:57.440 into the nursing home scandal.

00:22:00.300 Got it. So it's not like you guys had a relationship and an ongoing thing going on. And then, you know,

00:22:04.800 you guys were talking regularly. And one day, he's just threatening telling you, if you do this,

00:22:08.260 I'm going to fire you. I'm going to, you know, make sure I get rid of you. Okay. So at this point 0.97

00:22:13.060 of the game, I think you're based on what I'm hearing, when I'm hearing different folks talk

00:22:17.100 about it, you guys are hoping he resigns rather than you go for impeachment.

00:22:20.820 There, yeah, every day, there are more, there's a growing, more growing calls from lawmakers for

00:22:27.740 him to step down so we can refocus on... Do you think he will? Do you think he will?

00:22:34.540 I don't think he will. But as we have more people calling for resignation, the next logical step,

00:22:41.040 if he does not step down, is to go through the impeachment process. There's only been one

00:22:46.240 impeachment in the state of New York. And the second attempt through the former governor,

00:22:50.900 Elias Spitz, led for him to resign, because I don't think any governor wants to go through that

00:22:55.440 process. Makes sense. Okay. So the other question I have for you is, have you studied

00:23:01.120 what happened with Detroit? Have you looked at what happened with Detroit historically with

00:23:05.760 what led to Detroit's demise? In terms of the bankrupts, the city going bankrupt?

00:23:12.020 Yeah. I mean, in terms of being the richest city in the world per capita to not being the poorest

00:23:15.880 city in America? Well, I know generally what happened. But yeah, if you want to indulge in

00:23:24.460 some of the history... Yeah. I'm just curious because, you know, if we go back, you know,

00:23:29.200 1950s, you know, you're not talking 200 years ago. 1950s is only 70 years ago. Detroit is the richest

00:23:36.600 city in America. Their population went from 200,000 to 1.8 million. And they had 200,000 manufacturing

00:23:43.620 jobs where you're talking about, you know, Motown came from there. You're Michael Jackson,

00:23:49.080 Marvin Gaye, the manager, those who represented them, Diana Ross, all these guys, and then Ford,

00:23:55.420 Chrysler, you know, all of that. And then next thing you know, New York City started, Detroit started

00:24:01.580 getting a lot of politicians where started saying, it's not fair. They're making too much money. Why are

00:24:06.560 we giving them so many things? Why are we giving them so many tax benefits? And then they bullied

00:24:11.300 these automakers out. And it went from having 200,000 manufacturing jobs all the way down to

00:24:17.700 20,000 manufacturing jobs, where jobs were lost in a manufacturing sector tremendously. But

00:24:23.980 the municipality jobs increased, meaning more government employees for the city and fewer

00:24:30.600 private jobs. And then today, you know, not only is Detroit known as the poorest city in America,

00:24:35.920 but Detroit's also seen as the number one most dangerous city in America based on the amount of

00:24:41.340 crimes that happened in 2019. The statistics are up there to see. And I bring this up because my

00:24:46.040 favorite city in the world that I like to visit is the one you're in. I love New York City. There's

00:24:51.220 something very magical and special about New York City. And not only the city, Ron, there's something

00:24:56.040 different about doing business with people in New York. There's an attitude about them. There's a

00:25:01.300 swagger about them. There is an element of if I don't like you, I'll tell you. It's the only city

00:25:05.440 where I would go as a 20 year old. You know, when I got out of the army, 21 year old, if I went to

00:25:09.820 nightclubs, girls flirt with guys, not the other way around. It's like, it's if they like you, they 0.95

00:25:14.280 come up to everywhere else, you kind of have to like go by over there. Like, hey, like, I've never seen

00:25:18.480 nothing like this before. You know, it's a very different swagger the city has. But then we're seeing

00:25:23.240 the similar trends happening today in New York City. I'm in Florida right now. I left California to go to

00:25:29.280 Texas for obvious reasons. What was going on with California? And I wasn't Texas for a while,

00:25:33.820 beautiful state, great state, great for business. They leave you alone. They allow you to do what

00:25:37.900 you're doing. And I moved to Florida. But now in Florida, you're talking about Goldman Sachs.

00:25:44.300 You're talking about all of these companies coming here, both from Silicon Valley and New York City.

00:25:50.100 You're talking about $330 billion of wealth that left New York City. That's a lot of wealth that left

00:25:57.440 New York City. Wall Street Journal just did an article saying, those who left New York City,

00:26:01.700 the jobs are not coming back. It's not like they're coming back to New York City. They left

00:26:06.000 to other places. They left to other states to build their businesses. Do you think the way New

00:26:11.920 York's going right now with so many new regulations and bullying businesses to leave, New York City could

00:26:18.400 potentially be the next Detroit? First of all, I think there's, I think there's, you're conflating a

00:26:23.580 couple of different things, in my opinion. Sure. I think the, the model of pitting states against

00:26:29.860 each other, and engage in a race to the bottom, never results in a positive state, even for Florida,

00:26:35.840 I believe it's a short term. Can you unpack that? Can you unpack what? Yeah. So when when cities and

00:26:41.100 states are competing with taxpayers money to trying to extrinsically motivate companies to come to their

00:26:50.720 states, we engage in an economic cage war, and we're competing to go down rail race to the bottom

00:26:59.500 at the expense of taxpayers. Detroit is a, for me, a model, an example of when we are constantly

00:27:08.320 trying to externally motivate big corporations, multinationals to come in and do business. It's

00:27:15.480 not a sustainable approach. That's not a sustainable approach. To be clear, they did not stop

00:27:21.660 subsidizing. They did continue to offer breaks over the years. They did. And, and the, and the

00:27:27.540 manufacturing companies did get massive bailouts by Washington in the subsequent years of when the

00:27:34.400 companies couldn't compete with some of the other manufacturing companies from Japan and Germany,

00:27:39.460 any other global marketing companies that came into the space. How, so if we, if you're constantly

00:27:46.540 pushing, uh, the federal reserve to create new money and bailouts and lending mechanisms to bail out

00:27:55.920 these corporations and push the states to engage in a race to the bottom, it's the public sector that

00:28:02.800 will all ultimately be at, be at harm for New York state. It's different than Detroit. Detroit was

00:28:10.900 never the number one, uh, Michigan was never the one by one state in terms of economic, uh, power in

00:28:17.640 America. New York has always been the number one state. One point, right now we have a 1.8 trillion

00:28:23.320 state GDP. Uh, we have our, we are not suffering economically. We, as a, compared to other nations,

00:28:30.600 we are actually richer, uh, than Finland, than Canada as a state of New York. We have, we still

00:28:37.640 have wealth. Sure. Goldman wants to take one component of their sector to Florida to engage us,

00:28:44.580 you know, in a perpetual discussion about, well, what can we offer you to stay? What I'm arguing

00:28:50.640 is that we, the more we engage in that conversation, we are only attracting partners who are extrinsically

00:28:59.740 motivated to do business. Whereas we can be grooming companies who are intrinsically driven to be a

00:29:07.060 part of our growth. And that's, what's been missing over the last 40 years. Now, in a pattern, I know

00:29:12.120 you're shaking your head, but. Yeah. The only reason is because, because of one thing, you know, you and

00:29:16.620 I are both immigrants. We're the same age. We're a year apart. So we're pretty much, except you look

00:29:20.380 like you're 15 years younger than me. I look like I'm 20 years older than you. That's the only there.

00:29:23.720 You look like you're 22. I look like I'm 52, but you know, we came here for the F word. If you think

00:29:31.760 about it, we came here for the, not the four letter F word. We came here for freedom, free enterprise,

00:29:37.620 freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of, you know, religion, freedom of all of that stuff.

00:29:42.540 Right. And, you know, I think the one thing that's going away in New York is that incentive. It's like,

00:29:48.460 it's incentive is almost seen as a bad thing for businesses and corporations. Don't you agree

00:29:53.860 incentives to drive people to stay here is no, just incentive. Like what is my incentive of

00:30:02.400 wanting to build a business? There should be an incentive. Like what is my incentive of wanting

00:30:06.460 to create commerce or jobs? There should be an incentive. Yeah. I mean, I, I appreciate this

00:30:13.120 conversation because you and I came to this country around the same time as immigrants. And

00:30:18.440 you, you took a, a very corporate approach and I've took a public sector approach. Sure. Um,

00:30:24.620 and the reason why I took the public sector approach, I was actually very aligned with some

00:30:28.960 of the, uh, the, the drivers that you've had as an entrepreneur, you know, I came here,

00:30:33.120 my parents were small grocery store owners, um, in, in upper Manhattan, which they, it was like

00:30:37.960 a five people, 24, seven Korean grocer, you know, a typical experience of so many Korean immigrants

00:30:44.000 that came here. They shut that down in about 10 years since we arrived here. And

00:30:48.300 they would, they have to, they were in financial debt for years. Um, and when I go back to that

00:30:54.140 very pain, that grocery store that used to exist, there was, there used to be six mom and pop

00:30:59.100 stores on that block right now. There's a chase bank and a giant retail supermarket. That's it.

00:31:04.940 Two stores. They replaced all the mom and pops. So my journey of where I am now is trying to connect

00:31:11.760 the stocks. Um, how do, what do we do wrong where the troop. Entrepreneurs, the truth business owners

00:31:20.300 that are adding value in our communities that we know that when we go spend that dollar in that

00:31:25.620 groceries, that dollar is being recirculated in our neighborhood. What, where do we go wrong?

00:31:30.800 Where we started rewarding the businesses that are extracting the dollar as much as our, of our

00:31:36.640 community. Um, the, to change stores to read the, the big box stores, Amazon, that's not adding value

00:31:43.380 back to our community. Um, but we made a conscious decision to do that. We, we, we stripped away

00:31:49.020 the antitrust laws starting in 1980 and on an unleashed private capital investments and growth

00:31:55.460 without any more regulations and checks. So we made a conscious decision that we, in order to catch up

00:32:01.700 to the rest of the world, we need to, we need private capital to be leveraged and to grow and to drive our

00:32:08.460 innovation since 1980. But what happened is when you award monopulistic growth, the smaller guys,

00:32:17.340 smaller businesses get hurt. Uh, we can't have big business and protect small business at the same

00:32:22.840 time. Um, so now my goal as a policymaker is to try to come back and figure out how do we reprioritize

00:32:32.660 the local economies? How do we make our economies more resilient? So every time when we have these

00:32:38.480 downturns and, and, and economic, uh, downturns, it's not just the big guys that are getting all the

00:32:46.060 subsidies and all the tax credits, and they're actually getting wealthier doing these downturns

00:32:50.060 while all the smaller businesses are going back growth that hurt. So that's kind of the space that

00:32:54.660 I'm in, but I'm all, I'm up, but be you being a much in-depth business person and entrepreneur,

00:33:00.840 I'm always open to, you know, people's advice, you know, and, and how do we, is there a balance?

00:33:06.340 Do you think? Well, let's, let's go back. Let's do this. Let me, I mean, the biggest thing is you,

00:33:09.640 you know, one of the things I, I, the fact, what you just said to me right now,

00:33:12.880 everything changed with my lens and you, you know, uh, uh, you know, when your parents lost

00:33:17.520 that grocery store, how painful was it for your mom and dad and yourself? How, how difficult was

00:33:21.680 it? Yeah. I mean, I, at a long, at a very young age, I learned about debt and how debt works and

00:33:28.560 how psychologically damaging it is for immigrants dealing with financial stress. So yeah, was there

00:33:34.080 a lot of pressure in the family? Like, did you see a lot of pressure from that? Yeah. Yeah. I still

00:33:39.360 remember the day when we shut down that store, my dad and I, he, yeah, he brought me into the

00:33:43.920 grocery store and he brought a slash hammer. I had a bat and he just, dad's brought me in,

00:33:48.440 shut down the store and he was just like smashing all the goods and all the equipment. And I had no

00:33:55.180 idea why we spent two hours doing that. And I realized much later on, there's nothing he could

00:34:00.860 have done. Um, the landlord increased that rent, you know, the space by like 800%, expanded the back

00:34:07.400 that we couldn't use. Uh, all the government agencies wouldn't do anything to help us.

00:34:12.280 There was no one, no council member, no elected official would, would step in. We didn't know

00:34:16.920 anyone, but for an immigrant, you know, when you had everything in mind, you give up all you had, 1.00

00:34:23.480 um, from your homeland to, to come here to, as you know, to pursue that dream and used to see it go

00:34:31.260 away and you don't, you feel powerless and you feel voiceless, there's nothing you could do is

00:34:36.440 pick up a slash hammer and start just smashing your own products. And that would, that left a

00:34:41.700 very indelible mark. I bet. Um, in my mind, I bet, you know, it's, it's so crazy. Uh, I know you're a

00:34:48.380 true believer. I know AOC is a true believer. A lot of politicians are not true believers. You know,

00:34:53.080 that I know that both on the left and the right, some of them, it's more career lawyer. I want to move

00:34:57.200 up and listen, there's nothing wrong with one in that kind of recognition, but I know and respect

00:35:02.980 when someone is a true believer, uh, uh, versus just, Hey, saying what I know, AOC is a true

00:35:09.860 believer. I know you're a true believer. I think sometimes, you know, I have three kids and I'm

00:35:13.280 one on the way. Sometimes I think yesterday we're out there, we're looking at a home and my realtor,

00:35:19.260 this one lady starts panicking. It's like, Oh my God. Oh my gosh, please don't let them do that. 1.00

00:35:23.560 Don't let them do that. Don't let them do that. I'm like, so my kids are why, you know,

00:35:26.840 how my kids are, they're walking by the pool and then it's the intercoastal. So there's the

00:35:31.860 stairs to go down to stand up on the jet ski. And if they fall, they're going to fall on the,

00:35:37.500 in the, in the intercoastal and they're going down and Tim's like, no, no, no, don't let them. I said,

00:35:42.840 listen, if I tell them not to do it, they're going to do it 10 to 10. So the moment we walk inside,

00:35:47.800 they're going to be in there. They're doing it in front of me. It's okay. Let them do it.

00:35:51.120 And I says, you know what he says? I like the fact that you allow your kids to go,

00:35:55.900 you know, and you know, have a little bit of freedom with themselves. You know what I thought

00:36:00.280 about? I thought about, I was raised in a, in an environment where it was so controlling. You

00:36:04.700 know, sometimes parents think they're doing the right thing for the kids, but then you don't see

00:36:08.020 the negative side effects. What 50 years later, you know what I'm saying? And I think sometimes

00:36:11.900 politicians do that. I really think AOC yourself, Sanders, I really think I'll give you the Ted Cruz.

00:36:22.300 I'll, I really think even the people on the far right, the far, I really think they think they're

00:36:28.780 doing the right thing. Okay. I really think they think they're doing the right thing. But sometimes

00:36:33.320 like, for example, when the whole minimum wage conversation came about, right? The $15 minimum

00:36:37.040 wage. Okay. You know, I'm, I'm in the small business community. So I'm always dealing with

00:36:42.740 small business owners and I consult for them. I sit on boards and I run multiple companies and et cetera,

00:36:47.500 et cetera. When the conversation about small business owners would come up with $15 minimum

00:36:52.200 wage. And I would talk to somebody that has 17 employees in, you know, Oklahoma city or, you know,

00:36:57.700 small business, not a thousand employees, not 500, 17 employees, eight employees, nine employees,

00:37:02.220 kind of like your dad. The $15 minimum wage may hate, may help the person making 10 bucks going to 15

00:37:09.820 bucks. Sure. But the $15 an hour minimum wage proposal that Bernie Sanders went after Bezos and Bezos said,

00:37:16.760 what, we have made a decision at Amazon. We are not going to be paying anybody less than $15 an hour.

00:37:25.200 And everybody was like, wow, what a noble thing you did. Jeff Bezos, he can afford 15 bucks an hour.

00:37:32.360 So Bernie Sanders trying to help the low-income families, you know, that are making less than 15,

00:37:39.820 he indirectly helped Amazon, you know, that policy that I know he's trying to help. It helped Amazon.

00:37:47.680 Then the small business owner that he was trying to help is like, dude, I can't pay 15 bucks an hour to

00:37:53.040 a 16 year old kid. That's my best friend's daughter. He asked me to put a job and she's just doing bad. 1.00

00:37:58.880 I can't pay her 15 bucks an hour. It's 50% more than what I pay her. My profits, I'm going out of 0.60

00:38:03.360 business. So, you know, it goes back to the parenting part where, you know, half the time

00:38:09.240 parenting is about not screwing up, screwing the kids up too much. I think sometimes some of the

00:38:13.940 policies from the left and far left socialist, it's noble, but man, does it have long-term side

00:38:20.100 effects? It's going to be painful. And the people that we're trying to help initially are the ones

00:38:24.220 that end up paying a big price five, 10, 15 years later. What are your thoughts about that?

00:38:27.660 I've seen some of your other clips about fixing your creative ways of addressing some of the tax

00:38:34.320 injustice of people making $50,000 or less, or, you know, should be taxed at 0%. And that would

00:38:42.080 equate to people making $100,000 and go from there. So I think your intent, the way that I'm hearing

00:38:49.620 you is actually aligned with many of the left or the socialists trying to get resolved

00:38:57.620 a common problem, which is, like you said, New York, America, immigrants come here to make the 1.00

00:39:06.060 impossible happen, right? We want to know that when we come here with nothing in our pockets,

00:39:13.180 that if I work hard enough, if I'm an immigrant, I look at you, Patrick, and you are a successful

00:39:17.840 businessman, but hey, one day, if I work hard enough, I can be wealthier than you, just based on

00:39:24.680 my pure hard work. I want to believe that. Right now, more immigrants waking up and realizing

00:39:30.720 the system, no matter how hard I work now, I could never beat Patrick.

00:39:36.540 See, I don't believe that.

00:39:37.920 I see. But that's what I'm telling you, as an elected official on the ground,

00:39:42.960 feeling the tensions between communities, hearing everyday immigrants suffering,

00:39:48.940 that's what they're saying. That's how they're giving up fundamental hope. And I'm saying that

00:39:55.820 is why I think for you, when you're positioned, for people who are in finance, we all have a

00:40:02.860 collective responsibility. Because if the working class people start opting out, saying this game 0.97

00:40:10.160 is rigged, it's not rewarding hard work. No matter what I do, people who were born on third base, 1.00

00:40:18.880 continue to win.

00:40:20.560 If we keep saying that, then you make it true. You know, Hitler said, if I tell a lie to myself 0.93

00:40:27.220 long enough, I start believing it, right? If you tell a lie enough times, people start... And by the

00:40:31.540 way, I'm not calling anybody a liar. And what a person to quote, you know, I'm not quoting anybody

00:40:36.180 to make any kind of comparison. All I'm saying is, you know, I grew up, one day, my dad and I got into

00:40:42.820 the biggest argument, Ron. And here's what the argument was. My parents got a divorce. Are your parents

00:40:46.420 still together? Are your parents? Okay. My... And by the way, I had a lot of Korean friends growing

00:40:50.520 up. I don't have one bad memory about Koreans. I will tell you, some of them are quiet, but they 1.00

00:40:55.420 can fight. There was this one Korean was a quiet guy. But anytime there was a fight, he had this 0.99

00:41:00.860 one kick, he destroyed big guys with his kick. So anytime I see Koreans, I try to have a civil 1.00

00:41:06.020 conversation with them. I don't want to get that kick coming out of nowhere.

00:41:09.300 But don't worry, I'm not a violent person.

00:41:10.640 Yeah, no, no. Obviously, I'm enjoying the conversation we're having. But you know, one

00:41:13.980 day, my dad and I were sitting down in our apartment in Granada Hills. And him and my wife got him and

00:41:19.720 my mom got a divorce. Ugly divorce wasn't pretty. They got divorced twice in 20 years. Not a pretty

00:41:24.080 sight. They should never gotten married. But thank God they did. Because I'm able to do the interview

00:41:28.080 here with you. But he said, you know, all women are this. All women, all women, all women. And

00:41:35.300 one day, I just lost it. I said, Dad, stop it. Oh my gosh, stop telling me all women are 0.69

00:41:44.480 this. I said, do you want me to believe that? I said, so let me ask you a question. Do you

00:41:48.880 want me to believe that? And I get married and I also get a divorce. And I, do you want

00:41:52.820 me to do that? And I said, then stop telling your son that over and over again. He's starting

00:41:56.740 to believe it. I don't want to hear it anymore. And it was a heated moment between father and

00:42:01.540 son. And we've had a lot of good conversations together. He didn't talk to me that

00:42:05.280 night. Next night I come and we're sitting there watching the Laker game. He sits there.

00:42:10.200 He says, I just want you to know, you're right. I said, what do you mean? He says, all women 0.99

00:42:14.140 are not like that. I just had a bad experience. And I don't want you to believe it. I said,

00:42:18.520 I appreciate that, Dad. I just, I just don't think we need to say that kind of stuff over

00:42:21.440 and over again, because God forbid my kids starts believing it. I don't want them to believe

00:42:24.200 it. So I think if we say, you know, people, immigrants are feeling like right now, the opportunity

00:42:31.940 is not there. If a thousand people with power, like you, you got power. I mean, you're not a,

00:42:38.260 you're somebody that in the future could be the governor in the state. You're a part of

00:42:41.420 you're a rising star. That's coming up. You're not just anybody. You got, you got a very big

00:42:45.580 upside in your career, right? Very big upside in your career. If we don't speak about the dreaming

00:42:51.440 part and dreaming, I don't mean social look at Obama was a Democrat. He got up and he said,

00:42:56.700 he talked about the dream. You know, this weekend I was listening to MLK speech was about dream.

00:43:02.060 Reagan was dream. This is not about Republican Democrat. It's about believing that the dream

00:43:05.440 is still possible. I don't know if I believe that thing is gone or not, uh, where it was before even

00:43:12.020 Buffett yesterday, you know, last week said America is still the greatest place, the greatest country to

00:43:16.800 live in, you know? And I think if we get away from people dreaming again, we have bigger problems

00:43:21.780 coming up in the future. Right. I'm saying my job as a lawmaker is not to be the salesperson

00:43:30.340 to sell the dream is to tell the truth about policies that are failing the dream. And not

00:43:37.680 enough politicians have done that part. We have plenty. And pastor, you can get so many other

00:43:44.500 politicians on your show. They can talk about the American dream and feeling and selling the hope.

00:43:49.180 Um, I'm, I'm not part of that cloth and, and I'm not going to apologize, uh, for telling what I see

00:43:56.940 on the ground because I do care about the dream. My parents sacrificed everything to come here,

00:44:02.520 believing in that dream. I want to revive that dream. So, but if I can't be honest, I'm not saying

00:44:08.680 come, come and destroy every corporate wall street. I'm not, I have plenty of friends and I, I, I was one

00:44:16.020 step away from joining Goldman, you know, the summer, the dream summer analyst job. I played football. I

00:44:21.920 was in the right fraternity. I did everything that I had to do to end up in wall street. And I have

00:44:26.700 plenty of friends who went to Lehman and Goldman. So that's my background. So, you know, I'm surrounded

00:44:32.720 by them and I have these kinds of discussions with them around dinner tables all the time. Um, but my

00:44:38.620 role is to make sure that the public sector is in a better place to revive that dream. We need to invest

00:44:45.700 in base, very basic things, education, healthcare, housing, and, and to make sure that our basic human

00:44:52.800 needs, people's human needs are met. Instead of saying, here's an opportunity, here's a door to

00:44:57.140 opportunity. If you can't get there, that's on you. Uh, forget the lack of housing, forget the horrible

00:45:05.620 conditions, social conditions you're living in. We're not, we're no longer going to invest in that.

00:45:09.960 It's up to you to figure out how to get to that door. And many people are not getting to that door.

00:45:14.820 And while I'm, many politicians are saying, I'm giving you that door in front of you. Um, so it's

00:45:20.580 up to you to get there. Yeah. I mean, I want to buy that, man. I really want to buy, we got 10 minutes

00:45:26.380 left, you know, I'll wrap it up with this topic and then we'll finish it off is Amazon. Okay. Amazon was

00:45:31.820 coming to New York and they were going to get, uh, you know, the numbers better than I do $3 billion

00:45:37.680 over a 10 year period, you know, whatever the timeline was. And in return, the investment would

00:45:43.100 have brought back roughly $27 billion into the city and Bezos went back and forth. I think you

00:45:49.340 were the first public. I think you were the first to come out and kind of, uh, uh, not support the

00:45:55.380 movement. A matter of fact, I think even campaign behind that, I, it may have been, it was a name

00:45:59.620 behind the campaign and, uh, uh, uh, people over corporate people over corporate, something like

00:46:05.440 that. I don't know what the campaign was about. And then AOC came out and was pretty vocal about

00:46:09.660 it. And then the Blasio said, yes. And then he changes my almost like, what are we doing?

00:46:14.740 So looking back now, do you think it was a right move to push Amazon out instead of bringing those

00:46:19.280 25,000 jobs at an average salary of one 50 into New York? If you look at the history of these

00:46:25.440 mega deals, uh, including Elon Tusk and Buffalo, uh, to Minnesota, um, I forgot the name of the

00:46:33.040 Taiwanese company that got that deal. And if you go back and audit what they deliver, they never

00:46:38.460 deliver and keep up the promises. And even without the subsidies, Amazon already did bring close to

00:46:45.200 7,000, 8,000 jobs without any subsidies, uh, it's after that year into Manhattan and other parts of the

00:46:51.440 world. And they will continue to bring jobs because their main competitors are already here.

00:46:56.040 Microsoft, Google, um, finance, as you know, the financial sector, as they're shrinking a little

00:47:01.680 by little every year, the tech sector is growing in New York, um, on its own, but with that, like

00:47:06.700 that, do you think that's good? Do you like that? I think, I think as the tech sector is growing,

00:47:12.160 uh, we also need to make space for local entrepreneurs. I know that we are putting money

00:47:17.280 behind some of the state universities to create hubs, to make sure that some of the local, uh,

00:47:23.680 entrepreneur types that are doing positive work, uh, for local economies, they're trying to create

00:47:29.600 space for them. So, so we are striking, I believe the right balance right now. Um, but I have nothing

00:47:36.400 against if, if Google wants to bring their jobs here, if they're not asking for a dime and they want

00:47:42.880 to invest their time and effort and trying to recruit people in New York, that's a good thing.

00:47:48.480 Um, we have the talent. We have people that are still here, young tech entrepreneurs who are coding,

00:47:54.640 who are coders. Um, and so the companies tend to go with the talent. So I know there's still intrinsic

00:48:00.480 value, but imagine if we have a subway, imagine if we have the museums, imagine if we have all the,

00:48:05.680 all the intangible things that people are drawn to. That is the public sector value that we can create

00:48:11.680 to draw the people and the talent and the companies will naturally follow which Amazon is already

00:48:16.480 doing. Um, as far as like other parts of New York at Buffalo, we, and when we analyze numbers, we spend

00:48:22.880 about 1.25 million dollars per one job in, in, in, in Elon Musk's project in New York. That is beyond

00:48:32.000 crazy. Uh, we should put a cap, uh, if we want to continue economic development projects, we should have

00:48:37.840 a cap on how much money we want to spend for one job to make safeguard companies like Amazon from

00:48:43.680 extracting tax, you know, credits and taxpayers money, and also have callback causes in meaning

00:48:50.000 in five years, six years. If you're not miss, if you're not meeting the goals, we will claw back, uh,

00:48:55.680 some of those, um, credits and tax breaks. So that's a level of accountability. We should put into

00:49:02.080 every type of mega deal, which the governor and the mayor did not have. Uh, this was just a handshake

00:49:08.320 and saying, Hey, you know, you'll get this if you come here and that's not good enough.

00:49:13.520 In a, in a perfect world, would you like to see the amount of billionaires in New York city decrease?

00:49:18.960 In a perfect world, I don't think we should have, uh, that much concentrated wealth. Um, we, you know,

00:49:25.440 and New York, as we mentioned before is still the wealthiest state, but we are the worst in upper

00:49:31.280 social mobility at the same time. Um, that's a fact that's a statistical fact, meaning like, you know,

00:49:37.280 you and I disagree on this, but people are no matter how hard they're working right now, there is no

00:49:42.240 upper social mobility. Um, and that is a direct result of the extreme concentration of power and wealth

00:49:50.400 at the top. Um, so, you know, moving forward, there is a duty, especially at a time in a crisis.

00:49:57.280 There's never been at a time in American history when we had a social health economic crisis when

00:50:03.440 the people at the very top, the 1%, the 5% didn't pay their fair share, uh, to take care of the rest

00:50:10.160 of society. The top 1 to 5% have made much more money during this period while the rest of us are

00:50:18.080 suffering and at minimum, what we're asking for our constituents is to share the burden together.

00:50:25.280 So the wealth tax of Elizabeth Warren is something you support. You, you, you like the wealth tax.

00:50:30.000 We have our own version of a New York wealth tax, uh, which goes beyond property tax because right now

00:50:37.280 our tax codes are entirely based on property, real property, but it's, it's, it's been very difficult

00:50:43.680 to codify and capture real wealth in the forms of stock transfers and a number of different intangible

00:50:50.560 things. Capital assets that why IRS traditionally had a hard time tracking, but in the last 10 years,

00:50:57.760 they've added more mechanisms to keep track of inflation and how those capital assets are, uh,

00:51:04.560 drawing income. People are drawing income from this capital assets in a much more accurate way.

00:51:09.200 So I believe if there's a will, we can, um, look at what real wealth tax looks like

00:51:15.360 versus just relying on real property tax, uh, which at that point, that means we are relying

00:51:22.000 more on the middle, upper middle-class Americans to carry the burden of a wealth tax if we just rely

00:51:27.920 on real property tax. So I'll give you the final, uh, uh, you know, awards here. Tell us how you envision

00:51:35.440 the future. Does the future look bright or does the future look scary?

00:51:41.280 Uh, those, I, I, the future does look bright. Okay, good. There you go. I believe I believe

00:51:47.360 you got optimism. There's million millionaires in New York, you know, also trying to get tax justice.

00:51:54.080 They're, you know, you were talking about your, I mean, you are a very wealthy businessman and you're

00:51:59.200 talking about not taxing people $50,000. I mean, that is insane. Like for you to like come to that,

00:52:04.480 you think that's a bad idea? No, no, I'm saying that's a, no, that's, that's, that's, that's amazing.

00:52:08.800 You know why I like that idea. Here's why I like that idea. You know why I like that idea. I like

00:52:13.680 that idea because, because the burden doesn't go on the small business owner and the burden

00:52:18.080 doesn't go on the employee. Why are we taxing people less than 50 K anyways, just let them keep

00:52:22.560 a hundred percent. And then we can put a flat tax above it. I know you would want progressive,

00:52:27.520 but we could put a flat tax above it, but, uh, allow more people to keep it, but go ahead,

00:52:31.600 keep going. Your, your final thoughts about the future and how you see things working out.

00:52:35.040 So I think the more we have these discussions and, and respectful discussions, obviously you

00:52:39.280 and I differ in some of the policies, but I believe we can draw, come to a consensus because

00:52:44.960 capitalist and socialist, um, and Republicans, Democrats concerned, we all have the same goal,

00:52:50.880 which is to reward hard work. That's all we want. Like we want people to feel, understand that if

00:52:56.080 they're putting the time and effort that they have upward mobility, it's a very simple formula

00:53:01.280 what the American dream is. And we can, if we all put our heads together, we can get to that better

00:53:06.080 place. As long as we don't have authoritative demagogic politicians like Trump and Cuomo,

00:53:12.400 they come from the same cloth. You know, they, they're about control and they're about abusive,

00:53:17.200 abusing power. As long as we have collaborative, uh, politicians who can see the world as a win-win

00:53:23.760 world. It doesn't have to be a win-lose. You're in the business of win-lose. I understand that,

00:53:28.800 but public servants should create a world of win-win, uh, where it's not winner take all economics. 1.00

00:53:36.160 Um, and, and as long as we can find that balance, I do feel very optimistic. We can get to a better

00:53:41.920 place very soon. You know, it's crazy. Most money I ever made is deals that I did that were win-win.

00:53:46.880 Most money I ever made were deals that I did with win-win at the beginning, the 20 year old path

00:53:51.520 would be win-lose. Yeah. But as I matured and I made a ton of mistakes as an amateur,

00:53:55.840 I realized the biggest money-making opportunities are when there's a win-win because more people want

00:54:01.440 to see you win as well. So essentially your investment is also protected more than anything

00:54:06.960 else, Ron. I so enjoyed this conversation because, uh, you know, opposing philosophies,

00:54:12.720 some areas we have, we have similar philosophies in, but, uh, we share one thing. We believe in America.

00:54:18.720 We believe America is a great country and we want to make it better. And I appreciate you

00:54:22.880 coming on and being a guest on Valuetainment. Thank you so much, Pastor. You got it, buddy. Take care.

00:54:27.600 So two similar stories here. Ron comes here from Korea. I come here from Iran. We're about the same

00:54:31.680 age, one year apart. My kids, uh, sometimes interrupt me on a zoom. So that's his, you know,

00:54:37.520 he goes into politics. I go into business later on. We believe in a different dream,

00:54:43.680 a different American dream. He thinks currently times are challenging where somebody doesn't

00:54:49.600 believe that it's possible for one day somebody to become extremely successful. I believe. What do

00:54:54.800 you think? Comment below. I want to hear your thoughts. And I did a, uh, similar type of a

00:55:00.480 conversation and banter I had with Richard Wolff, a professor. He is, uh, probably Forbes says the most

00:55:06.800 respected, reputable socialist professor in America. And we had a good debate together about socialism and

00:55:13.040 capitalism. If you've never watched it, click over here to watch it. With that being said,

00:55:16.720 have a great day, everybody. Take care. Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - March 10, 2021

Cuomo Nursing Home Scandal Exposed By NY Assemblyman Ron Kim

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