00:00:00
join me in welcoming Congressman rocana to the stage please [Music] [Music] so uh I think you guys know rokana he's
00:00:34
in his fourth term representing uh California's 17th District which is Silicon Valley and he's been a leading
00:00:40
voice in Congress to restore American manufacturing and Technology leadership and I think we want to talk to you about
00:00:47
um you know the chip spill and um and our and domestic politics but we just finished a great conversation with
00:00:53
Graham Allison yeah about China and I think you're also on a subcommittee on China and so I think it'd be great just
00:01:01
to maybe get start with just maybe an update from you on where is the thinking in Washington on China it it feels like
00:01:09
in general um you know other countries have Hawks and doves whereas in the United States
00:01:16
we have Hawks and lunatics um like I don't know of any doves in Washington um and you know that's a little bit
00:01:24
concerning I think that there was a readout I think from the last time um that I think uh we we sent I think
00:01:31
Lincoln might have gone to China and the readoff from the Chinese side is they said relations with the US are the worst
00:01:36
they've ever been since diplomatic contacts are reestablished in the 1970s so like Graham said the relationship was
00:01:44
going from you know worst to worst um you know I guess describe to us what you're seeing from in in Washington how
00:01:52
should we how worried should we be about this relationship we should be concerned let me uh
00:01:59
focus on three areas one where I agree with the bipartisan consensus and that is that we should have never allowed
00:02:08
China to accumulate the trade deficit that they have the advantage with the United States I mean we have a trade
00:02:15
deficit with China India has a trade deficit with China Japan has a trade deficit with China South Korea has a
00:02:22
trade deficit with China I don't understand how the whole entire world said let's have all our production go to
00:02:26
China let me ask you this if if we had said you know who who needs Wall Street who
00:02:31
needs a finance industry let London just do it or who needs a tech industry let Europe just do it or who needs Hollywood
00:02:39
let Bollywood make all the movies people would have laughed and yet that's what we did with Manufacturing
00:02:45
it's not that we need manufacturing as the penultimate industry it's that we needed it to be part of a well-balanced
00:02:51
economy and so the push to rebalance the economy with China to bring production back which by the way is in China's own
00:02:57
interests because they have over indexed for an export production economy at the
00:03:02
expense of their own consumers and at the expense of real wealth generation which happens also in the finance and
00:03:07
Tech sectors that I think there's a bipartisan uh push foreign consensus and is the right policy and that's I think
00:03:14
actually what people in Pennsylvania and Ohio care the most about give us our jobs that went to China
00:03:20
in terms of the defense on Taiwan there is a difference of approaches I am clearly uh of the belief that we should
00:03:30
continue with the Strategic ambiguity in one China policy it was a policy that Kissinger uh had and we had three
00:03:37
communique after that now what does that mean it means simply that we can do everything possible to assist Taiwan
00:03:45
under the Taiwan Relations Act to make sure that China is deterred from a military invasion of Taiwan and we
00:03:53
should we should provide them long-range weapons we should provide them harpoons
00:03:56
we should provide them hymers but we should recognize that the future of China and Taiwan is to be determined by
00:04:04
China and Taiwan in peaceful uh dialogue but if China does anything to be coercive the United States will do
00:04:13
everything to assist Taiwan with the defense that is the policy that has stood as well for 50 years and I believe
00:04:19
can continue you to stand as well some people have demagogued this issue I'm not going to name names saying well
00:04:25
we're not prepared we are prepared I mean we have the enabled superiority in the Pacific uh we have our seventh fleet
00:04:33
deployed we have nuclear-powered submarines in the area we will make sure that China is uh detard and then the
00:04:41
final policy is do we want to talk to them I think we should talk to them like I don't understand why you wouldn't have
00:04:48
people having dialogue or communication with China we had that at the height of the Cold War
00:04:57
do they want to talk to us it seems like they're not so talkative right now we keep sending people over there and
00:05:03
trying to start a dialogue oh they talk to Elon I mean that's it you know I Elon
00:05:09
showed up there I think before our secretary of state or said hey you know I and and I I'm being half
00:05:15
serious but uh our business leaders have more access into China than our military political
00:05:21
or government leaders that's a problem like how is it that Bob Iger Tim Cook and Elon Musk are doing the diplomacy
00:05:28
with China and get more meetings and more uh conversations they're in business together well yeah
00:05:36
but then we need to have a policy where we're meeting them and helping determine
00:05:42
what that part is why something with the person say the other half of it it's what is happening or what is what is our
00:05:48
political class saying that is short-circuiting the ability to go over there and actually have the money I they
00:05:54
they've invited me to come over and I've said I'm in the Democratic side of the house and I said I've got to go on a
00:05:59
bipartisan basis I'm trying to get a republican to go over with me and to get senators and I said I don't understand
00:06:05
how we're not going over to have a conversation you want to lecture them about the uyghurs let's go over and
00:06:09
lecture them about the uyghurs you want to make sure that they're not engaged in
00:06:13
spying let's talk about that but let's talk there has not been a bipartisan Congressional Delegation to China since
00:06:22
before covet this is not in the interest I don't care whether you're a hawk or a
00:06:27
dove you have to why because people are afraid of being seen as a week of people
00:06:32
which group of people are you saying Republicans are afraid to well I don't want to I I think they're they're that's
00:06:39
what you mean David's sitting right there there's a lot of crazy Hawks in the GOP
00:06:51
establishment I mean as I think about the biggest lunatics in foreign policy in Washington that like someone like
00:06:56
Lindsey Graham comes to mind so I'm not I'm not a defender of the GOP establishment on on foreign policy I'd
00:07:02
like to see some changes there but I think you know Roe you brought up a great point about the unwillingness to
00:07:06
engage in diplomacy one of the ways that um that you first really came to my attention I became a fan of yours is
00:07:15
when you and the progressive caucus wrote a letter to the Biden Administration encouraging there to be a
00:07:22
diplomatic track on this Ukraine war even as you are still you were still saying listen we're going
00:07:29
to provide Ukraine with everything it needs but in addition we simply want to have a diplomatic track with Russia and
00:07:36
the amazing thing was even suggesting that was so transgressive that I think virtually every member of the
00:07:43
progressive caucus except for you retracted the letter and so you know I really applaud you for
00:07:51
sticking to your guns on that and that's when after and um and then there was also the the
00:08:00
uh the episode in the Twitter files where you were encouraging the old Twitter management to realize that the
00:08:05
censorship they do were doing was backfiring so after those two things I was like this is a Democrat I could
00:08:10
support and uh and we did a we did a very successful fundraiser for you so uh at any event so I've been a fan of rose
00:08:17
for a while but I think this um this unwillingness to engage in diplomacy and talking to the other side because
00:08:25
somehow it's weak or somehow it'll give the other side or is it anti-patriotic because that's the tone I seen change in
00:08:32
Silicon Valley in the last three years you know this summer I pointed out some friends we went to this thing and
00:08:37
suddenly everyone was anti-china I couldn't believe it because two summers ago three summers ago I was like maybe
00:08:42
it'll be a couple years maybe it'll be a decade something something will happen something's a brewing this summer it was
00:08:48
like you're talking to China you're not a patriot you were with us or against us
00:08:53
and if you start to suggest anything otherwise any sort of coopetition or cooperation you are un-American is that
00:09:01
a sense you're getting that the tone has changed in Washington that that's sort of
00:09:05
blanketed now the yeah I think there are a lot of people who assume that we are in a cold war whereas
00:09:13
I want to try to prevent the 21st century from defaulting to the same paradigms of the last one but you know
00:09:19
what's unpatriotic the hollowing out of this country where were these voices for
00:09:23
the past 40 years where you had corporations say we want to go to the cheapest labor we want to go to the
00:09:28
lowest environmental standards we want to build profits and we don't care what happens to Johnstown Pennsylvania and
00:09:35
Warren Ohio and down river Michigan we're going to hollow out the industry the working class is going to fall
00:09:41
behind we're going to let wealth concentrate in a few areas do you think people who are growing up or in these
00:09:47
areas are saying you know what I really really care about is the defense of Taiwan no they care about their jobs
00:09:53
they care about access to the American dream they're wondering why this country let them down for the past 40 years
00:09:58
patriotic would be to rebuild that you represent a district in Silicon Valley and a lot of this has been driven
00:10:08
by The Leverage and we've gotten from technology and a lot of the beneficiaries of what you're saying are
00:10:14
the shareholders the employees the executives of Silicon Valley technology companies when they say to you this is
00:10:20
what the consumer Market wants they want an iPhone for 400 not for two thousand dollars how do we respond to the
00:10:27
conversation about what market and what technology and what you know economic progress is demanding of them as
00:10:33
representatives for their shareholders I don't I'm not a believer in autarkey I'm a Believer in
00:10:41
having some enough self-sufficiency why can't we build the modern steel plants in the United States we went from the
00:10:48
largest exporter of Steel to the largest importer of Steel the carbon footprint of Steel is three times higher in China
00:10:57
nine out of 15 top steel companies are in China we don't have a single one why can't we have the government work with
00:11:04
the private sector to build modern steel plants in this country why don't we do that with aluminum and number of number
00:11:10
of areas to answer that question be that we have the lowest unemployment in the history of our lifetimes and we're not
00:11:18
allowing people into the country and we don't have people to work in steel factory I don't think that's what I know
00:11:22
I'm asking him well look I'm for immigration policy but when people talk about the 3.5 unemployment rate
00:11:30
what they're not talking about is the lives of people who went from 30 jobs to 15 to 17 jobs who don't have the same
00:11:37
Economic Security who've seen health care costs increase we've seen child care costs increase we've seen College
00:11:43
costs increase and we aren't being able to buy houses and so we're going around the governing class saying 3.5 percent
00:11:49
unemployment inflation's at three percent and people are saying I'm paying five bucks for gas my kids don't have a
00:11:55
future into uh the middle class and we've lost the productive capacity in many parts of this country I heard some
00:12:01
of what Ray dalio talked about and here's where I think and I I think look I think Ray dalio dalio is a is what
00:12:09
makes America exceptional because dalio would be would have been and I'm taking a little bit of Liberty here the person
00:12:15
who would have been writing the article in the 1980s saying Japan and Germany are going to be the dominant post-cold
00:12:21
War economy is not the United States like Paul Samuelson predicted incorrectly but that's precisely what
00:12:26
makes us great because we actually have voices who are skeptical and in some what pessimistic to recharge us the
00:12:33
depth to GDP ratio matters if you can't increase the GDP we need debt which is productive investment which is actually
00:12:40
going to grow the GDP and to the extent that we have Investments that are going to rebuild the productive base that's
00:12:46
going to leverage all of this technology in the United States to help grow the economy that actually is what's going to
00:12:53
allow us to be and continue to lead and I think jamad's question is to the point
00:12:58
I mean where are we people aren't going to put the money in India or China the issue is not immigration
00:13:03
that regulatory corrosion has taken simple decision-making hostage in America I'll give you a simple
00:13:12
example if you're a pro-climate change it is easier today to go into India and build a rare earth mine because it can
00:13:24
get permitted within months than it is to even go to a red State like Nevada because for five years an effort to
00:13:32
build the largest lithium reserve and to develop it has been held up because the
00:13:36
BLM has been stuck in a lawsuit with some folks environmentalists who want to protect the Upper Land Grouse now I'm
00:13:43
not going to debate the value of the Upper Land Grouse except to say that's been a five-year slog through hell
00:13:49
and this other one took 18 months and it's starting to ship and I know this because I'm involved in
00:13:55
both and so the reason why it's problematic is when somebody like manchin tries to actually put in
00:14:01
permitting reform simple things and he has to hold up or you know kill another build to try to get these things
00:14:08
in somehow The Blob just comes in and then nothing changes that's actually why nothing really productive can happen
00:14:15
sometimes if you want to build the right thing it's just not possible and I what
00:14:20
I want to understand is how much of that regulatory creep has just been independent of Democrats
00:14:27
and Republicans and what do you do to pull it back well look I I I am for a version of Permitting reform I didn't
00:14:40
I don't agree with all the mentions I didn't agree with the Mountain Valley Pipeline and The Willow oil drilling
00:14:45
projects I want to be transparent and not just say to the to you what you may want to hear but I I do think we need
00:14:51
permitting reform we need permitting reform on the semiconductor Bill the chip spill to make sure that those
00:14:57
factories actually are getting built for nationally important projects we need it
00:15:01
for solar wind and for a clean infrastructure but I think it is a red here we need it for housing in this in
00:15:08
this state I mean talk about one of the biggest regulatory captures is that we aren't building enough housing in
00:15:14
California and because of restrictive zoning laws but I think it is it it's not sufficient to just say we lost our
00:15:21
industry uh because uh we didn't have permitting I mean like we that's not why we lost steel we lost steel we lost
00:15:28
aluminum we lost paper we lost textile because we didn't care we said let those jobs go to where it would be cheaper it
00:15:35
doesn't matter people can go get other jobs and the governor government has to finance and this is where I am a
00:15:42
Democrat if you look at what Built America it was Hamilton and it was Roosevelt and it was Roosevelt after
00:15:48
during World War II it wasn't just the New Deal unemployment at the until 1940 was at about 15 percent and then
00:15:55
Roosevelt goes to corporations and he says we're going to finance the production in this country unemployment
00:16:00
Falls to four percent that sets a modern industry and we need to have in an effort to rebuild America with
00:16:07
government partnering with the private sector and uh labor to do that across the industrial Midwest I have a bill
00:16:13
with Rubio actually to do that to create a permanent Economic Development Council
00:16:18
Marco Rubio and that by the way that's a common mission for this country that we
00:16:23
can get behind we need something that's going when my father came here in the 1960s this was a country that went to
00:16:29
the moon this was where the energy was this is where we were building things we need to recapture that to have a common
00:16:36
purpose in this country and one place to do that is to be able to rebuild industry permitting is part of it but we
00:16:42
need a comprehensive strategy can we talk about um your proposal last week I think it
00:16:51
was a political reform proposal and can you share some of the details of the announcement you made and why yeah I was
00:16:57
surprised I thought it was relatively I've never been able to predict which tweet goes viral you know
00:17:05
there are times like Elon has retweeted me it doesn't go viral none of us can't you know only when sex retweets maybe it
00:17:11
goes viral I don't know it's a slot machine so there are only two tweets that I've ever done that have like gone
00:17:16
viral this year one was when I said the obvious which was that Senator Feinstein
00:17:21
should step aside and then the second one was and you want to unpack that one the second one was this political reform
00:17:30
proposal where I said you know let's have term limits for members of Congress and Senators let's not have any
00:17:36
corporate tax money or any tax money any lobbyist let's have term limits for Supreme Court
00:17:42
Justices let's ban stock trading and also ban members of Congress ban it for members of Congress and also band
00:17:49
members of Congress from becoming lobbyists this was Common Sense things and I think people are so starved for
00:17:56
restoring trust now here is the honest truth in my view most members of Congress you may not disagree with this
00:18:02
but of the 435 at least 300 to 350 of good motives going in they want to do the right thing they may disagree but
00:18:09
we're in a situation where we have lost the trust of the American people most Americans think members of Congress are
00:18:15
lying they think they're corrupt they think they're self-serving I don't care that we have good intentions that's the
00:18:21
perception so in that void stems the place for demagoguery because people are cynical about the process we've got to
00:18:29
take some bold steps to clean up the system so that people can so we can do these big projects of rebuilding the
00:18:35
country how did your co-workers take your well they haven't been retweeting yet so
00:18:45
they you know we'll see how many okay so just our constituents we treated it so can you talk about politics of the
00:18:51
career in answering that question I've always had this bias against Politics as a career you know kind of thinking about
00:18:56
the intention of the founding fathers that the citizenry should serve they should serve the people they should go
00:19:01
to government they should do their their civil civic duty to the tour and do their tour and then leave and that
00:19:07
building a career in politics and I don't mean this um in any negative kind of light on your
00:19:12
choice but that that there is a career that is built in politics that there is a a return on that investment that that
00:19:19
becomes uh you know a a career that some of these politicians have made a lot of
00:19:23
money pursuing is that the right thing and how do you think about how we should have politicians elected and what the
00:19:30
intention should be on who should be in that role for how long and well there's a there's obviously a problem in our
00:19:36
country and I don't say this with a any person in mind because I don't want to get in to too much trouble but look at
00:19:43
people look at Silicon Valley it's one of the most dynamic places in the world and you have people who are elected
00:19:50
there and still elected they're before AOL and Yahoo and we've had Facebook and Google and these are being disrupted
00:19:57
politicians and you think how you know how is it that how is it that Silicon Valley isn't just producing more and
00:20:06
different voices I mean and it's there's something broken the turnover rate of U.S members of
00:20:13
Congress was less as according to the economist than certain aristocratic and and and monarchies in in Europe what
00:20:23
what what's broken fundraising or well there are a couple of things or democracy or the way we do democracy
00:20:28
it's if you're an incumbent you have a huge Name ID advantage uh I would never have I mean you're
00:20:35
gonna have vinod on next time and and and and I had people like him and others when I was at three percent in the polls
00:20:41
uh going up against someone at 60 saying sure this seems like a great plan that's
00:20:45
because in Silicon Valley you can get that and then when I lost people like yeah let's double down because you got
00:20:50
to have a couple of failures but that's so unusual you don't have that in most places so if you're going up against an
00:20:56
incumbent it's very very hard you uh have a huge disadvantage it's a term limits solved that term limit solve that
00:21:04
in terms of people say well we we should have the voters have the real choice but the voters aren't having real choice
00:21:10
I mean let's be real they're only about 30 40 actual congressional seats that are contested so it's not like you have
00:21:16
real choice in the matter because of the fundraising and the incumbency advantage
00:21:21
and I I don't have a problem with people who want to dedicate themselves to public service but just you don't have
00:21:26
to do it in one position you can do it in a lot of other ways let's talk about age limits because it's front and center
00:21:32
after what we saw at Mitch McConnell and everybody else I don't want to single anybody out but this feels like
00:21:40
um it's uh I mean Biden obviously yeah go ahead sax fans of cheer um uh no it just feels crazy that we have
00:21:49
people this old running the country and they're obviously glitching and there's a
00:21:57
problem here we all see it why can't we just have an age limit and let people retire and
00:22:04
enjoy their lives I mean or do you think we should have a cognitive test I'm I'm
00:22:08
being a little funny here but I'm dead serious like why don't we have a cognitive test
00:22:13
for the presidency for these positions and would you be in favor of that I think the cognitive tests should be the
00:22:19
American public but I think if you have the reforms if you have the reforms that
00:22:23
I'm talking about of term limits of getting the PAC money out of getting the lobbyist money out of uh having uh a a
00:22:31
fairer political system then you'd give new voices and opportunity you wouldn't be stuck with people just because they
00:22:37
have Name ID and fundraising running for these positions but I will be a little bit philosophical about why we have a
00:22:45
situation where we have so many people who are older in all these positions and I I think we're we're not going to see
00:22:52
the dam break in 24 but I do think we'll see the damn break in the next cycle and
00:22:57
the reason is look this country is going through incredible change the people who
00:23:02
are down on America I think forget how exceptional it is what we're trying to do we are 60 white non-hispanic Canada
00:23:11
it's like 87 white Britain 80 some percent white Australia 80 some percent white we are trying to become the first
00:23:18
cohesive multiracial multi-ethnic democracy in the history of the world and to think
00:23:25
there was going to be a linear line from Obama to that was I think naive and some
00:23:31
of what is happening is people feel that the challenge that the country is changing the country they knew was
00:23:37
changing and so people who are familiar who have a familiarity have an advantage
00:23:43
in having that trust factor with the American public but we have to we have to at some point be willing to say look
00:23:49
we need new leadership but we need new leadership that's going to speak to people's
00:23:54
concerns and and the past and that's why I talked about steel because at least that's a job that people can relate to
00:24:00
we have to be empathetic to their narratives why has Vivek and RFK which we had on the program resonated with the
00:24:09
American public to such an amazing extent and what do you think of each of those individuals
00:24:16
you could be candid this is all in yeah this is all on the internet you can go candid look
00:24:22
thanks you know obvious obviously I'm supporting President Biden but I've said people should run and they should bring
00:24:28
things in and uh you know let me there are a lot of places I disagree with Robert Kennedy but one place that I
00:24:35
think he has raised uh important issues is why do we have so many overseas bases
00:24:40
why do we have a defense budget that's approaching a trillion dollars uh why do we have so many uh handouts for
00:24:47
pharmaceuticals so my hope is that the places where he is raising some of those points will become part of our
00:24:53
Democratic platform their large places I don't think you're you know he's he's ready to be president United States and
00:24:58
I think I support President Biden and I disagree with him on some of the let's just
00:25:15
now you know what it's like to be me in the YouTube comments this let's do the vague what do you think here's the thing
00:25:22
though with politicians that one of the problems they go to it you think I don't
00:25:26
know the people in this audience like Bob Ken Robert Kennedy Jr but they go and they tell one audience one thing
00:25:32
another audience anything it's something else when I was at Sax's house or if I go to a progressive group I tell the
00:25:37
same thing to every audience and I think ultimately people want that because he's 38 years old
00:25:45
becoming a bit of a sensation getting to double digits in the polls is nothing to
00:25:49
um you know yeah it's pretty insignificant so well look what I think of him I I I think people wanted uh
00:25:55
there's an underlying hunger for the Next Generation but I but my sense is well what are the proposals I mean I
00:26:03
disagreed with him when he was in my view demagoguing the Silicon Valley Bank issue I don't think he has you know to
00:26:10
describe the uh January 6th uh insurrectionists or people who broke into the capital as non-violent peaceful
00:26:20
protest which is what Gandhi talked about with satyagrah is a real Distortion of what that what movement
00:26:26
was about to say that the Civil Rights Movement would have been better if you had people armed like did he read Dr
00:26:33
King I didn't I don't I don't think that there were guns so do I think it's it's
00:26:37
it's it speaks to our democracy look why why did I defend Free Speech because that's what I love about America that
00:26:43
anyone can have an opinion in this kind tree and that's part of the messy democracy and to that extent I'm glad we
00:26:49
have all these candidates but I have profound disagreements with him do you think President Biden is
00:26:58
intent on running because he has the energy and desire to be president or is that just the
00:27:05
uh is that is that or is that just more the expectation when you're the incumbent and it's the it's the opposite
00:27:13
that's worse than you know the uh the the idea that then seeding power to the other side keeps them there to run well
00:27:20
this is someone who ran for president three times you know you don't want to underestimate a person's ambition and
00:27:27
their resolve and I think people have uh underestimated Biden both in the primary
00:27:32
and against Trump my sense is he probably thinks that he has the best chance to win against Donald Trump who I
00:27:38
think will be the nominee and the reason is because until other people in the Democratic party can speak to folks in
00:27:46
places like Pennsylvania Michigan Ohio about the loss that they have felt in uh industry and can connect and have a real
00:27:54
Vision there they're not going to be able to win those States in my sense is he probably thinks that he has the best
00:28:00
chance to win those States against Donald let me let me ask a question that's not Biden because I think it
00:28:04
applies to Biden Trump when Reagan left the presidency we learned that he had early onset
00:28:11
Alzheimer's and that he had Alzheimer's I think he like it started showing symptoms in the last two years of office
00:28:17
it's a very scary idea again and I think Reagan did a lot of great things but the
00:28:21
reality is it creates a risk of a shadow government right of people that were unelected people that we don't
00:28:26
necessarily know where do they stand what are they about in charge of very critical aspects of the presidency
00:28:33
when you have two older individuals in that age Spectrum now either one could be president definitely will be in the
00:28:40
80s what do we do as a democracy to make sure that there is this check and balance how does
00:28:47
that happen when there could be people that are sort of in the shadows directing things
00:28:54
of an 85 year old that is less probabilistically likely of a 55 year old let's say
00:29:01
well the answer to that is active democracy I don't want to embarrass the audience but how many people here have
00:29:07
knocked on more than 500 doors on a political campaign how many people here have hosted events
00:29:17
for candidates how many people here have uh had encouraged friends to run for office you know I I just think that a
00:29:25
large part of the group of Americans who are upset or dissatisfied or are not engaged in the political process and you
00:29:33
know that to be Plato said the price of not being engaged in politics it will be
00:29:38
ruled by worse people and so the the reality is that if you want to have younger people engaged if
00:29:46
you want to have new voices you've got to realize there's a huge power establishment and we've got to get
00:29:51
active and be much more involved and then be strategic the amount of people it's mind-boggling to me you have like
00:29:58
the most brilliant Business Leaders who will obsess about every part of a business plan and think about like what
00:30:04
it takes to make a successful company and then they'll be like oh let's just run this guy for president and he's
00:30:09
going to connect what about the infrastructure in Iowa and New Hampshire and what it takes to win there's no
00:30:15
business plan like that you it being in politics to lead the Free World is the hardest possible job to get in the world
00:30:23
it requires requiring a winning presidential campaign is no joke and I think people have to take it seriously
00:30:30
political activism if they want change bro let me um let me just flip the conversation from
00:30:37
external politics to the internal administration of our federal government we heard
00:30:43
um from Graham Allison about the challenges of the Department of Defense um what's your view and what's the
00:30:49
conversation on the ground about accountability Department of Defense and elsewhere in the federal government
00:30:55
what are the the measures that you think we should be taking and prioritizing to
00:31:00
addressing these these concerns I always reference the Jon Stewart interview with
00:31:04
the under Secretary of the defense for comptroller or whatever her title was and kind of says you couldn't pass it on
00:31:10
it it's like hundreds of billions of dollars M.I.A and meanwhile you know we are ill-equipped for the conflicts ahead
00:31:18
potentially and the threatened conflict ahead what's the solution and what's the
00:31:22
the conversation on the ground in DC on on this matter and is it a priority for folks
00:31:27
it's not a priority it should be a priority everyone will watch 60 minutes should know it's a priority I was the
00:31:32
only person in the entire armed services committee 56-1 to vote no against the defense budget going to a trillion
00:31:37
dollars not because I don't believe in a strong defense but because we are paying
00:31:43
three hundred or ten thousand dollars for an oil pressure switch that NASA is paying 328 dollars for it I didn't
00:31:50
realize I was giving you such a size you know where Raytheon in The Patriot defense missile is making 40 profits 50
00:31:59
profits that they admit you have a situation 300 to 400 billion dollars a defense contractor and no one is holding
00:32:06
him accountable because they're giving money to to to to to people's campaigns and no one wants to be seen as weak on
00:32:13
defense well look Harry Truman became president of the United States just by holding defense accountable in World War
00:32:19
II this should be a bipartisan issue and we should hold it the defense department
00:32:24
accountable to actually having real defense for the prime percentage now do social security and Medicare
00:32:33
you'll disagree with my plan on Social Security but my view is that you shouldn't scrap the payroll tax cap and
00:32:40
that would make Social Security solvent but if you it but here is where what I'll what I'll end with the the
00:32:48
um look I I think that there there is two things that have divided this country deeply
00:32:54
one is the hollowing out in the working class middle class across this country and what we need to do to have a common
00:33:00
mission to rebuild it and the other thing is kind of a a moral smugness a sense that we know uh and have the
00:33:07
Monopoly on the truth the amount of criticism that I have gotten for like going on Fox news or even coming to the
00:33:14
all-in podcast I mean look try and finding some of my Democratic colleagues it is staggering we have
00:33:24
we've got to have more humility to have conversations we've got to have those conversations with empathy not just
00:33:30
judgment and think about where other people are coming from and their stories and we've got to figure out how we're
00:33:35
going to bring this country together thanks well done we really appreciate it great job thank you
00:33:48
[Music] and they've just gone crazy [Music] besties [Music] [Music] we need to get Mercies
00:34:36
[Music] I'm going all in [Music]