00:15:16.740Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight?
00:15:19.140Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate on health care in good faith once the government reopens?
00:15:26.760Because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their health care costs will skyrocket if you are wrong.
00:15:37.580Well, first of all, you know, MTG is quite literally the last person in America that I'm going to take advice or to get their kinds of my leadership and values from.
00:15:49.180And now, if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that, then that's on them.
00:15:53.860And I don't need a lecture from whether it's Bernie or the governor in California,
00:16:00.980because they are representing very deep, blue, blue kinds of populations.
00:16:06.580And a lot of those things, a lot of those things were part of the extreme.
00:16:10.960And now remember, what really needs to win, to win, the big win, is involving my state and other states and those things.
00:16:19.680And why have we arrived here after the election a year ago?
00:19:33.760And it's like, maybe it's ironic that a big German guy from Pennsylvania who's been very absolutely devoted to Israel and to experience the kind of anti-Semitism in my life.
00:19:48.120I mean, you know what, you know, the tree of life.
00:19:50.000I mean, that's where you're from, too.
00:20:24.700And that's been what's so difficult for me is like being devotion to Israel becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat now, too.
00:21:58.940When John showed up, the stroke really limited, like when I first met him, what the stroke did is it limited his ability to process auditory input.
00:22:11.380So you would talk to him, and his brain was not able to process the words he was hearing.
00:22:18.180And so he would carry with him an iPad that had a translator, because it just, this is one of the consequences that can be from a stroke, is your ability to process words that you hear.
00:22:29.900Your brain just can't put them together.
00:22:32.040So you would talk, and he would read it.
00:22:33.760But when he first got there, you would talk to him, and he would literally, he was not able to understand what you were saying.
00:23:01.620That was not a crazy expectation going in.
00:23:03.740And then, when he started standing up, particularly on Israel, standing up and defying the pro-Hamas caucus, you started seeing the Democrats leaking and planning stories and really attacking his mental capability.
00:23:19.840And the irony is, look, you heard in those exchanges, he's now able to have a conversation.
00:23:25.020He still is a little halting in his communication, and I think that's some of the aftermath of the stroke.
00:23:32.860You can now have a conversation, and he can hear you in a way that when he showed up in the Senate, he was not able to.
00:23:38.880And yet, Democrats are running to reporters to plant negative stories attacking him.
00:23:46.720Many of his colleagues want to drive him out of the party.
00:23:49.920And, at least on the Republican side, I like John, and I think consistently all the Republicans are just trying to be nice to him.
00:23:57.820By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin.
00:24:00.380And they did the same thing to Kyrsten Sinema, and they succeeded in driving both of them out of the party because they want no dissent.
00:24:06.940You must obey and follow orders, or they'll do everything they can to drive you out.
00:24:13.180And, to be honest, both Sinema and Manchin, I think Republicans were much nicer to than Democrats were.
00:24:19.100And the consequence was they were both driven out of the party.
00:24:22.260For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with Josh Sherrard at Burna and tell stories about people just like you and I and how they've used their Burna launcher to protect themselves and their families.
00:24:33.760Now, if you don't know what a Burna is, it is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker, and it's truly amazing.
00:24:43.160Now, Josh is back today to share a story about a store owner and how a Burna launcher could have really come in handy.
00:24:49.720Yeah, so in Seattle, the owner of a local small business decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly with her community.
00:24:56.600Well, the day was going great when a male walking down the middle of the street could be seen yelling, screaming, and hitting passing cars.
00:25:03.960This man was clearly suffering from an acute mental episode.
00:25:07.340When he then approached the store owner, began threatening her.
00:25:10.080After several failed attempts at de-escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried to go back into the store to try to get to safety.
00:25:17.500And it was then that the deranged man yelled that he was going to gouge out her eyes and then grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and began choking her.
00:25:25.200It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped in to pull him off of her that probably saved her life.
00:25:32.040You know, this is a growing trend, unfortunately.
00:25:47.160You know, mental health is striking populations all over America.
00:25:51.120And those with mental health issues that also have substance abuse issues are over 1,100 times more likely to commit violent crime.
00:25:59.500And the problem is you never know when that may happen.
00:26:01.640Burna, especially used with our chemical agent projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those acute mental episodes.
00:26:09.380So Burna is a great tool to use when you absolutely have no idea that you may need it.
00:26:13.580If you want to find out more about how Burna can help you or your family members, it's a great gift for the holidays coming for someone you want to help protect.
00:26:55.800I can tell you, as we were sitting there on Monday and they had cast the initial vote on Sunday and they were getting savaged.
00:27:05.680On the Republican side, we felt a real urgency of vote now, now, now, because I look, we were very afraid one of them would flip.
00:27:16.760I mean, I mean, it there is typically a limit to how much abuse an elected official can take.
00:27:22.460And, and, and the left wing base was savaging those eight.
00:27:26.420Now, we actually had a delay because John Kennedy, who's a good friend of mine, was, was put, in fact, he's been on the podcast just a week ago.
00:27:36.740John was pressing for a resolution that says, if there's a shutdown, senators will not be paid so long as federal workers are not being paid.
00:27:48.420And, and as you know, I voluntarily did that.
00:27:51.780So I have not taken a paycheck for the entire length of this, this shutdown.
00:27:55.920I, I sent a written letter to the secretary of the Senate saying, hold my paycheck.
00:27:59.780I'm not going to be paid as long as they're federal workers who are not being paid.
00:28:03.860Uh, so whenever the, at some point I'll get my paychecks from the last 40 days in the next, presumably few days, whenever the other federal workers do.
00:28:11.400I don't know when that will come, but many, and I think most of the Democrats did not do that.
00:28:18.000They continued taking their, their, their paychecks throughout, which was an incredible hypocrisy.
00:28:23.380Uh, and so Kennedy was pushing really hard for saying, look, no senators should get paid while there's a shutdown.
00:28:31.920He wanted a vote when we were taking this up and voting on it.
00:28:36.060Um, he wanted a separate amendment vote on that.
00:28:39.420And, and it was a challenge because the Democrats were refusing to give that amendment vote and saying, if you get that amendment vote, then we want a bunch of amendment votes.
00:28:48.720And so everything was paralyzed and, and, and it could have delayed instead of the Senate voting Monday night, it could have delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday.
00:28:58.680And, and I, and many others were really concerned if it delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday for the Senate to vote, one or more of the eight Democrats would get cold feet and flip.
00:29:08.340And so actually the way it got resolved is, is, is, is I went to John Kennedy's office and he and I are good friends.
00:29:14.320And I said, look, can, can we work something out?
00:29:17.940He was frustrated that he couldn't get his vote.
00:29:20.460I said, can we work something out that lets us vote to reopen the government and, and, and, and get you what you want.
00:29:28.000And, and, and so we cut an agreement that next week, the rules committee on which I serve is going to vote on John Kennedy's resolution.
00:29:36.820And, and I think we're going to vote it out of the rules committee and put it on the Senate floor and we'll vote on the Senate floor right after Thanksgiving on Kennedy's provision.
00:29:44.560And I asked him, look, would you be willing to accept a vote on this, that it's separate, that doesn't delay the overall funding bill?
00:29:52.340Because if we delay it, if one of these Democrats get cold feet, we could have another week, two, three, four weeks of shutdown.
00:30:06.820That was the right thing, but he's fighting for something he really believes in.
00:30:09.980And so I, I was able to go to leadership and say, look, you guys need to commit to have the vote in the rules committee and the vote on the floor.
00:30:17.600And, and leadership did make that commitment.
00:30:19.720And, and, and that was the, the pivotal piece that got us to a vote Monday night to reopen the government.
00:30:25.84030 days from now, what do you think the fallout's going to actually be?
00:30:29.480I think people are so fast to get back to normal.
00:30:34.320I think that's going to be something where people are just like, all right, everything's fine.
00:30:37.200My normal chaos, as long as we don't have chaos in the skies outside of the normal chaos with it, when it comes to Thanksgiving or Christmas travel, I'm good.
00:30:46.080We're, we're pretty selfish as a people now.
00:30:58.400Look, people will remember what impacted themselves and their families.
00:31:02.180So if your food stamps got delayed, you'll remember that, that, that, that, that will abate a real issue.
00:31:07.200If your paycheck got delayed, that will impact, you know, I was having a conversation with a Capitol police officer yesterday, and this was a Capitol police officer who was a veteran had been around a while.
00:31:17.060And he was talking about how they were giving grief to like some of the rookies who were brand new.
00:31:22.240He said there was a class straight out of the academy who started like two days before the shutdown.
00:31:26.580And, you know, these are all really, you know, young men and women, 22, 23 years old.
00:31:34.860And, and suddenly they're not getting paid.
00:31:37.440And, and he did say that the, the, the, the veteran Capitol police officers were, were basically giving grief to, to the young rookies and being like, Oh, you're new to this game.
00:31:47.860And, and, and, and, you know, shutdowns are part of working for the federal government.
00:31:51.180And, but you know, a lot of these young guys don't have much savings.
00:31:54.160So they were a little bit shell shocked from it.
00:31:59.880But most Americans, if it didn't impact you, the biggest way that a lot of Americans were impacted was flight delays and, and, and, and flight delays and cancellations.
00:32:10.140The people who had their, their trip to, to, to, to visit their mom canceled, the trip to go to a funeral in the family, the trip to go on family vacation, the trip to go on a work trip.
00:32:55.940That was a terrible idea because often if, if government funding expires right before Christmas, look, obviously every member of Congress wants to get home.
00:33:03.860They want to be with their family for Christmas.
00:33:59.900And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:34:09.380So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:34:12.620Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:34:16.680One of the things that's coming out of the shutdown that I do think is interesting, and I did not see this coming.
00:34:23.060Maybe you did, but this was not on my, on my bingo card for government shutdown conversations after the fact.
00:34:31.020And that is the outrageous subsidies of Obamacare.
00:34:37.680It was called the Affordable Care Act.
00:34:40.600We now know that it's anything but affordable.
00:34:44.640Even yesterday on TV, Ina Navarro said, well, you know, we know that premiums have gone up 100, 200, 300 percent.
00:34:52.520And that's why we need the government open, as she described it, and why we need to fix this.
00:39:00.120And so, it's pretty cheap to insure a young, healthy person.
00:39:03.680If you're older and sicker, it's more expensive to insure you.
00:39:07.260And what Obamacare did is it mandated that, essentially, the young, healthy people pay higher premiums to subsidize the older, sicker people.
00:39:17.560Now, one of the weird things that's backwards about this, if you look during the course of a person's life,
00:39:23.660typically they earn more and accumulate more in savings as they get older.
00:39:28.160So, it's literally reverse Robin Hood.
00:39:30.160They were robbing from the poor to give to the rich is what Obamacare did.
00:39:33.800And it was based, and you look at the architects of Obamacare,
00:39:37.500they thought young people were too stupid to know that their premiums were being doubled and tripled
00:39:43.580and being used to subsidize older and sicker people.
00:39:47.460I think the whole thing is cynical as hell.
00:39:49.600And so, what I've argued for, for 13 years, is let people buy the insurance they want.
00:39:55.840Let young, healthy people buy low-cost, inexpensive insurance.
00:40:00.200And then, for people that are really, really old or really sick, we can subsidize them directly,
00:40:05.960but don't do it through an individual, invisible cross-subsidy where you're basically screwing people who aren't aware they're getting screwed.
00:40:13.640All of which is to say, why are insurance premiums skyrocketing?
00:40:17.520Because Obamacare, that was the predictable outcome of Obamacare.
00:40:21.880It wasn't just predictable, it was predicted, and I stood on the Senate floor and predicted it 13 years ago.
00:40:27.820You know, it's interesting, if you look at the takeaway here, it took 40 days, longest shutdown in government history,
00:40:34.620and it seems that Democrats are just saying, we'll kick the can down the road a couple months.
00:40:40.300We may have another government shutdown.
00:40:42.140We're going to keep holding the American people hostage.