Latest / Brian Thomas / Brian Thomas spends a full hour with Private Citizen Brad Wenstrup

Transcript

Brian Thomas spends a full hour with Private Citizen Brad Wenstrup · Brian Thomas

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's 7-0-6. It's Friday, and a very happy Friday to everyone.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Extra special, I'm looking at former Congressman, now citizen, Brad Winstrip,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: who's still spending a lot of time in Washington, D.C. Brad,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: welcome back, my dear friend. It's always a pleasure seeing
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you and talking with you here on the 55KRC Morning Show.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: You too, Brian. I enjoy it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: There's so much going on and so much I've had
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to see, you know, through years in the
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: military and in Congress and in medicine and the combination
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: of things that you learn a lot. You don't want
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: to waste it. You want to stay involved and carry
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: on with that.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Well, and you have that. Yeah, absolutely. That's why you're
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in D.C. What was it, the President's Intelligence Advisory Board?
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You still have your security clearance, don't you?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, and it's a chance while I'm up there
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: to touch base on a few other things. I'm a
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: director for Americans for Health Excellence. Oh.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And I got a little letter to the.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Editor in the Wall Street Journal last week. That's the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: perfect time. Perfect segue into the Wall Street Journal letter
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you sent in. You got it published. And, of course,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: perfect timing on that because the Democrats are all running around.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: We're going to have Medicare for all. We're going to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: have Medicare for all. And they fail to appreciate just
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the simple dollars and cents reality that it's trillions and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: trillions of dollars in additional expenditures over a mere 10 years.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: What did the Cato Institute figure out? It was like
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: $ 30 trillion or something for this exercise?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unbelievable. They don't care. They just think it's there.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: They say it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Sounds good. Talking point. Medicare for all. And, you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: everyone's going to be taken care of. Well, here's the problem,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: and here's why I wrote the letter. I mean, there
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: was an article in the Wall Street Journal from Alyssa Finley,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: and she talked about the gaps between what people like
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Al Saeed are touting and the reality. And if you
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: look around the world where these programs have existed— Like Brad's.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: They've gone into failure, right? And this is what people
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: keep touting. And it's unbelievable. And this man, El-Said in particular,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: is of interest to me because he is a physician
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: but never practiced. And when you look at our physician shortage,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I want to tell America, you only have so many
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: slots in medical school. Get people that are going to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: take care of people. That's an important component. And that's
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: another part of what I wrote about here. is who's
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: going to take care of people when you do this?
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: You've already had the situation for a couple decades where
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Medicaid pays the least. It's hard to get things done.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: And so doctors start limiting how much Medicaid they see.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: There is no obligation for a physician to take Medicaid.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: They don't have to accept Medicaid-paying patients.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But they want to. Same thing with Medicare. Now, most
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of them still accept Medicare, but you're going to explain
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this direction it's going in. But the point being, there's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a choice among physicians in the world whether or not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: they're going to participate in these programs.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: And, you know, why are they obligated to a very
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: difficult lifestyle when all they really want to do is
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: take care of patients, right? And you have to go
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: through so much. And in those government programs and in
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the private sector of insurance, It's difficult because you have
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: prior authorization. You have all this bureaucracy, all this paperwork.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: And for what? You have your staff working on a
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: lot of paperwork that results in very little pay and denials.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: And you have to go through it again. I mean,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: I know a doc, a rural area. He said, I
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: don't take any of it, but I'm not going to
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: charge you much. And it's just me and my wife.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: And he does okay. He's got a lifestyle he's comfortable with.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: But these guys are talking about Medicare for all. And
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: that means everyone is now in that category that has
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: been difficult to manage financially for a doctor in their office.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: So if we stay on the current system as it
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: currently exists, not the structure of it, but with physicians
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: either agreeing to or not taking Medicare or Medicaid, either one,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and they don't take it. So Medicare for everyone means
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: like five doctors for everyone, or you force doctors to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: accept whatever payment you're going to pay them under that structure.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: And then you get people who will never, ever even
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: consider the practice of medicine as a profession.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: That's the other problem, right? And you see today, I mean,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: so many doctors today from my age group, you know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: we're telling their kids, don't go into medicine.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: It's just, it's just not worth it. You can do
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: so much more. Think about this.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: When you graduate from college and your friends go out
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: and start making money and you go another four years
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and then you do a residency from three to five
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: years and then you may do a fellowship, they're all
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: out there making money. That's a decade's worth of burdens.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: And building their life and their family. And you are
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: still under these burdens. And then you get out and
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: people are telling you, you get paid too much. I'll
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: never forget my health staffer in my office talking to
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Pelosi's staffer. He said, the problem is doctors make too much.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And they believe that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And they believe that. And, you know, what is fair?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And they don't make as much as Silicon Valley and
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: everything else, that's for sure. But the idea is you
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: want to go out and take care of people, but
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: they make it more and more difficult every day.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Let me just draw real quick. You can correct me
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: or disagree with me if you think I'm wrong, but
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: it's a reverse professional sports analogy. You're out of the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: game as a physician for the first, let's say, decade.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: You're in school, you're doing your residency, you establish a practice,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: so you're never making big money early on while everybody
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: else has gone off and has begun their life and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: started building the resume, increasing their salary and earnings over time,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: which is typically the case. The converse is true with
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: professional sports. You only have a finite number of years
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: before the knees give out. And then you're done 35,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: maybe 40, if you're lucky and you got the rest
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of your life, maybe 40 more years or more to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: have to cover the nut based upon the salary you
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: earned earlier. That's why they pay you a lot earlier.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: You don't got a number of years to do it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I understand, but I keep going back to see that's
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the ruining the practice of medicine by virtue of government control.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: There's one, let's just say broad brush. No more doctors
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: are going to bother going to med school, but The payment,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the cost of it, even if you could avoid that
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: reality unfolding, the whole Atlas Shrug concept, we can't afford it.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: We can't afford it.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: There aren't enough dollars.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And my big question is, who will be left to
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: treat you? Because right now in practice, really, you're kept
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: afloat by private insurance. And it's not that there's not
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: hassles there.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: There are.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: But you're kept afloat by private insurance, which make up
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: that gap. from the losses you take when you see
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Medicaid and Medicare patients. And that keeps you afloat. But
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: you still want to see them, and that's good. But
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: you reach a point where we're going to have to
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: close our doors if we take too many of the
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: patients in these categories because it doesn't bring in enough revenue.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: And that's just business. What do you do, right? And
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: so they take for granted, and this is what's always
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: aggravated me, they just always take for granted that the
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: doctors will be there. And it's really frustrating, of course,
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: for the physician who says, we're your product. You have
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: nothing without us.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: And so that's the risk we take when we talk
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: about Medicare for all. You will have nothing without them
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: because doctors are to say, can't do it anymore. That's.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I got your tongue.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: You know why it's got my tongue? Brad, it's because
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: it is so. Obvious. It's like this embrace of socialism
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: slash communism here in America. You people don't understand what's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: going on outside of the four inches around your head.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: You're not looking at the deteriorating conditions in Europe, which
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: have literally done every damn thing you want from American government.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And it's made them... a financial nightmare. Look at, we're
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: already a financial nightmare. We don't have some of the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: stuff that they're trying to push like Medicare for all
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: socialized medicine. It's going to be grand and glorious. And
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: then you talk to somebody who's lived on. It was like,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: you know what? I can't even get to see a doctor.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I can't find one.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: That's right. And that's been out there. That's been known
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: for a long time.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: People coming from Canada to go to the Mayo clinic
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: and Cleveland clinic and things like that because they can't
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: get what they need.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: And Ronald Reagan even talked about it. He talked about it.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And how long ago was he in office? 45 years ago.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: And he, he, he did a thing like, this is,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: this is not going to work if we keep doing this.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Who's your doctor?
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: And he talked about a woman from Great Britain saying, oh,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I got tremendous care from some skin condition, whatever. And
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: it was like, how long did it take before you
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: saw a doctor? Well, it took about four years, but
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I finally got there. And it's like, do we want that?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: All I needed was this prescription salve that he ordered.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a little more involved.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I know, but see, you know, I mean, that can happen.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: You can't get into a doctor, and the only thing
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you really need is a prescription that's maybe even generic.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't cost you any money under socialized medicine, but
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot to fix it. But you had
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to wait for it. You know, a good thing for her,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a cancer diagnosis. It had metastasized while she
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: was waiting to get in to see a physician.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Well, and this is really a grave concern because... in
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: theory and in practice, many of us, you know, especially
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: in D.C., and I'm still involved with some health care
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: stuff in D.C., how do we get to early diagnosis,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: early treatment? There's a huge return on investment there, Brian.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Massive.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Massive.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: You know, you you see something you nip it in
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: the bud you make someone better they keep going to
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: work they still have their life.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Yep you know we could all engage in preventative medicine
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: if we took better focus on our diet look around
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: look i mean period It's within our own power to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: solve a vast majority of the problems that we face
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: in terms of medical care. More with 55KRC, the talk station. 721,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: coming up at 722, 55KRC, the talk station. Friday, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a happy one to you. Citizen Brad Wenster, former congressman,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: still doctor, and still very, very involved in matters of
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: government on his committees and his consultation jobs, but I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: want to pivot over because you serve your country proudly.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: You're a veteran, and I appreciate your service. I want
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: to ask you about the situation, Russia and Ukraine, before
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: we get to the Middle East, to the extent we
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: dive into that this morning. I get the sense that,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and I think this is a reasonable presumption, or at least,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you know, looking at the facts, Donald Trump seems like
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: he wants to normalize relations with Russia. I mean, that's
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: kind of like the ultimate goal on this. He's not
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: harsh and overly critical of Russia, and They're in the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: middle of this conflict with Ukraine, and you can go
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: through the reasons why they got in there, and I
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: understand them. But moving Russia away from their connection with
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: China and the other evil forces in the world, I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: think they probably just want a regular economy and an
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: ability to participate with the rest of the world. And
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: they're not the former Soviet Union. They're sort of like
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: corrupt people. criminal enterprise, more like the mafia system of
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: government in Russia. I mean, your characterization. Go ahead, Brad.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Look, Putin said years ago when the Berlin Wall fell
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: and they released all those other countries to be their
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: own country again, he said that was the biggest geopolitical
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: mistake we could have made.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, he wants that back. He's always wanted that back.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: And, you know, he doesn't like the NATO creep, of course, because.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Some of those.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Countries are now in NATO, and that bothers him, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: he's who he is, powerful and wants more power.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And you think he's living in the past like so
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: many people that still think the Cold War is going on?
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Yes, and he wants the old Soviet Union, and he
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: wants that type of control. So you've got that, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: that's what we know about him. But he has managed
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: a way to stay in power regardless of whatever their
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: election rules are. It's always going to be Putin as
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: long as he's alive, seemingly. So that's a problem. Now
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: think about how this happened. He wants the institutional creep
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: of Russian control over other areas, other countries.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: He's got Belarus.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: They're bought in with him. Their leadership is pro-Russian.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Pro-Russian.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: But it was under the Obama administration that he marched
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: into Crimea, which is a valuable piece of Ukraine. You know,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: it's on the water. It's got a lot going for it.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: And he just marched into there under Obama. Nothing happened.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: What Obama did to try and say he's helping Ukraine
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: is he provided them with MREs, meals ready to eat,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: and blankets. Then along comes Donald Trump. Donald Trump starts
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: giving them weapons. You know, he had that first term.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: He's given javelins and stingers and this and that. Did
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Russia move any more under that first administration? No, they
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: did not. No, they did not. Then along comes Joe Biden.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: And Joe Biden says, well, a little excursion into.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Ukraine is fine with me. And like, really? You've come
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: out and said that. And so.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: The time was right. You know, he saw how we
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: left Afghanistan, this and that. He's like, time to go,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: move on in. I don't think he knew that the
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Ukrainians were pretty much ready to take them on for
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: a long, long time in spite of many losses. And
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: you would think that Russia would be able to overpower Ukraine,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: but they haven't been able to. So now we've got
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: this real mess and now Donald Trump's back in.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: You know, and he keeps inheriting these things that people
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: need to remember that This was under the Obama administration
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and the Biden administration that the real activity took place.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: And now he's in a position where, you know, he
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: wants peace. You saw the Abraham Accords.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: In the Middle East.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Things that happened.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: He can tout several peace agreements that he's brokered. He
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: wants peace in this world.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, you say that, and I know in
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: my heart of hearts he really does, but then there
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: are people screaming at the radio, why in the hell
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: did he bomb the Iranians in that initial campaign? Why
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: are we involved in another what appears to be forever
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: war in the Middle East, which unleashed this terrible gas
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: crisis and all the problems that are associated with the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz? I mean, you know, you can't have
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: it both ways. But at least insofar as what I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: perceive with Russia, and he's getting a lot of criticism
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: for it, he's trying to play at least somewhat fair
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, do you see that at all in his
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: actions and in his efforts with Russia?
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, let me just say there's always so
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: much more going on in those talks than you will
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: ever know. And there's so many pieces of the puzzle
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: that it's hard to come out smelling like a rose, right?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm not sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. I know
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: he's a murderer. I know he's a criminal.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: I get all that.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: But you know what? We deal with murderous criminals all
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: across the globe. Sadly, these people always end up in
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: power some way. We can't change that dynamic, but do
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: we need to go to war with it? Do they
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: really represent a true threat to our friends and allies
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: that remain in the European Union, even though they're incapable
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: of conquering one little, tiny, non-NATO country we call Ukraine?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: It's been five years, Brad. What kind of threat can
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: they possibly present to the U.K.? Well, they have nuclear weapons. Ah,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: but let's pause on that. No, because apparently no one
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: who has them will use them. And everybody says, no,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the Iranians will if they get them. I kind of
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: wonder out loud about that, too. Let's get more with Brad. Yeah.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: A lot of questions.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: A lot, and probably will remain. It's 7.32. You're watching
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the Talk Station. Brian Thomas with Citizen Brad Wenstrup in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the studio, former congressman. proudly served his country, and he
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: is a physician, and he's still actively involved in matters political,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: having just come back from D.C., continuing this discussion about
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the wars. The nuclear weapon thing is a question mark
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: to me, swirling, because mutually assured destruction has kept the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: world from seeing another nuclear, at least retaliatory or offensively.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think, with the exception of World War II
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and us, no one has ever used, as a first-strike matter,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Now, one could argue that it was retaliatory at World
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: War II because we've been getting the crap bombed out
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: of us by the Japanese for several years up to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: that point. But you get the idea. So the world
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: has sort of recognized the devastating genocidal reality of nuclear weapons.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be the first one to use it
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: because they're, of course, going to be on the receiving
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: end of the retaliatory nuclear strikes. Nuclear one or whatever
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: bad would happen to that. Folks say, though, that the
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Iranians will absolutely use it if they get one. Now,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want them to get one, hell no, but
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: obviously it's a little bit of a challenge to try
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: to blow up these facilities that are presumably making them
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: or working toward it when they're underground so far. We tried,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and by all accounts, maybe we did a lot of damage,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: but everyone keeps saying that nuclear material is still there
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: and nobody knows what's left of the facilities and their
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: manufacturing capabilities. So where does this leave us, Brad?
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't have any doubt in my
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: mind that they will try to reconstitute anything that was destroyed.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: And maybe some of it wasn't destroyed. This is where
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: they are. But they are fixated on it, Brian. I mean,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: it's not just like, hey, should we consider trying to
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: get nukes? No, they are totally fixated.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Well, like North Korea was for so long. And by
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: all accounts, guess what? They've got one now.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: And I haven't seen the little evil dictator dropping bombs yet.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Not that it won't happen in the future, but it
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: does provide them with. And this is what I think
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: every country in the world wants.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: The.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Sort of protection that having a nuclear device gives them
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: from having bombs getting dropped on them. It's a frightening reality.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: If that seems to be the only thing, you know,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: we don't go launching drone strikes on Russian, evil Russian
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: people that we know happen to be harmful actors, right?
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: We don't blow up the Chinese people who are spying
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: on us or maybe otherwise involved in some criminal activity.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: No, but those people aren't jihadists. That's one of the differences.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: You know, it was a suicide bomber when we left Afghanistan.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: It's part of that culture that it's okay to die
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: because you're going right to heaven.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: You're getting all your delights. That's what they believe. If
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: you are in the process of killing the infidels. And
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: who are they?
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Americans, Jews, really pretty much everybody else. And so that's
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: where they are. That's their mindset. You know, we see
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: in our country this indoctrination thing. It's taken place in
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: our education system of Marxism. And now you see the
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: results of it. You know, you see it on the streets.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: You're seeing it in elections. You know, this is what
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: they've done there. And they've done it with an iron fist, too,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: because either you're in or we'll gun you down in
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: the streets. You know, that's the mentality that they have.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think they are sitting around thinking about the
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: future of the world.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: They have to deal.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: With economics because that's the only way they can carry
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: out their mission. And this is certainly what the IRGC
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: is about. So you have in Iran the components that
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: maybe come and negotiate, and maybe they're considered the political leaders,
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: but the IRGC.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Is in charge. You can see that.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Well, clearly that.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: And they are all bought in, and killing other people
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: does not matter to them. So that's the world we're
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: living in today. So How do we go about thwarting that?
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: This is different than World War II or anything else
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: like that. But even the Japanese, they had their kamikazes.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: They were willing to go that route. And when you
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: have an enemy like that, it's a really difficult thing
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: to manage. So if they do get nukes, they may
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: be the first since the United States to go out
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: and use them and say, we need to do this
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: because these people are just horrible in the world and
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: we have this religious fervor Behind us. And with that,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: that comes a lot of work ideas.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And let us assume, for the sake of discussion, you're 100% accurate.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And all the people who say Iran, if they get
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: a nuke, will absolutely use it. We're still left with
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the burning problem. How do you prevent them from doing it?
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have to launch an all-out kinetic war?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have to have boots on the ground?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Places two and a half times the size of Texas.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Well, Brian, if you consider, and look, Donald Trump has said,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: no nukes. And that's really been the mantra, although the
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Obama administration took a different route with that and Biden
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: really didn't do anything. He's saying they cannot get a
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: nuclear weapon. OK, he feels that strongly. He's made that
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: very clear. If they were a month or two close
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to having it. That's when Israel and the United States
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: went to work.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Because Israel.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Because it's going to pause it. It's going to set
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: them back. And it clearly has.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, there's no question in my mind that it
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: set them back. And their economy is in a state
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of shambles. They're already out of all the oil they
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had in reserves. They have nothing else to sell. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I guess it's a question of this battle of attrition
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: we're currently in now, which I would argue is better
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: than at boots on the ground fighting war with those
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: crazy people.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Right. Right.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: We don't want that.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to deal with the economic realities
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of the battle of attrition. and wait that out and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: see if it ultimately collapses the Iranian economy.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: And if we get intelligence that they're getting close again?
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: That's when the bombs start dropping again, yes.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: And it seems like we have pretty good intelligence because
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you, the attacks that we rendered in that
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: summer were pretty surgical.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: It's just I don't think it really quite brought about
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the result that Trump and Netanyahu were looking for when
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: they decapitated the Iranian regime. It's like, well, there's a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of people that are more than willing to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: fill those positions in the aftermath of that. Don't go away.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: More with Citizen Brad Wenstrup. I'm really enjoying this. I
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: hope the listening audience is as well. Trying to figure
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: out the world. Dispense with traffic and weather for the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: purpose of getting more from former Congressman Brad Wenstrup. We
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: learned something during COVID, Congressman Wenstrup, former Congressman Wenstrup, and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: you are a doctor and you are still involved with
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: medical elements involved in government and decision making. We figured
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: out during COVID, although we knew it, just didn't pay
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: any attention to it. I think I can say almost
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: without any hesitation that virtually all Pharmaceutical manufacturing left the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: United States of America for foreign clients, most notably China.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: China took over manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Of generics.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Generics.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of generics primarily. And they did it very, I.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Want to say stealth, but it really wasn't stealth. We
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: just let it happen. We turned everything over to them.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: But they started in 1950. In the 1950s, they started
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: talking about, let's take over the pharmaceutical world.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: How do we do that?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: They were able to have the things that we need
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: to make medicines and they can do it cheaply. You know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: we talk about them having slave labor and this and that.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: We might want to say to ourselves, I'll pay another
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: dollar more for my prescription to keep it domestic so
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: that China doesn't.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Use slave labor.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: You know, we used to talk about things like that more.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: It was high on the radar that this is terrible.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: You know, they use slave labor and children or whatever.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: But they've done this now. Very calculated.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: So one of the things I'm working on in a
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: lot of regions is trying to bring our medicines back home.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So what does that involve? First of all, China's at war.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: We have to realize we need to respond to them
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: being at war.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: If you cut off our medicines.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: We got people dying within months.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Or if they hack into our grid of any form,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: that's going to kill people as well. I mean, that
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: could be more devastating than a nuclear bomb if you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: cut off the electricity grid by hacking.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Cyber is another component of their war with us. So
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: we have groups now that scientists, I'm working with one group,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: MIT people, that they're down in Georgia, a company that's
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: called Manus. They can make the key starting materials for
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: 50-some medications.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: You have to start with what's called the KSMs.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Then you make the active pharmaceutical ingredient from that, the API.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: They can do this synthetically in the lab from corn.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: That's a win-win for the United States, a win-win for
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: the Midwest, that's for sure.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Better than putting it in my gas tank. Exactly.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: So you can take corn and create these things and
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: make the products here. working with some people in the
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: pharmaceutical industry where they say, you know, we have extra
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: lab space. So if we can get this, let's do
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: this here. And we'll start to make more of these
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: generic medicines here and secure ourselves more so than what
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: we're in the process of now. But they've always been cheaper, right?
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: And that's why everyone went that way. So this is
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: something that they've been doing for long. The AI race
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: is real. And what I know of things, when you
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: talk about the data centers, that is the AI race.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: This is the race to the moon. This is even
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: more than the race to the moon.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Much so.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: Because this is very, very important in so many ways
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: for our expertise, our knowledge, all of these things. So
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: you have these data centers popping up, and then all
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: of a sudden you have people saying, we have to
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: take them down. Where is that influence coming from?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Chinese Communist Party.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I was in an event with Secretary Kennedy
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: in Cleveland about three months ago.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: I moderated.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: I asked him questions. This is all in health. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: then we let the audience ask questions. And a woman
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: stood up and she was very livid. She said, you
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: need to shut these down. They're causing asthma in children.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, here we go.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: And.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, why have I not heard this?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Because she pulled it out of her sphincter in terms
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: of an argument.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Well, or somebody planted it in her head.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Same concept.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: At least one is a false but original thought. The
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: other one is generated by some idiot in China who's
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: trying to influence people to go out and protest something
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: that we already have and is not going away and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: that we must dominate or destroy. we give up the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: control of the future to a foreign country that is
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: hostile to us.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: And we know social media is infiltrated with foreign influence.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: So Secretary Kennedy, I see him kind of baffled by that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: But he says, hey, if this was a problem, I
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: am certainly interested in it, and we would want to
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: rectify that. But I haven't heard that. So the next day,
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: I'm doing a search, right? Where is this coming from?
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: And I find one article, and it's from a group that,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: poses themselves as health equity, social justice. And I'm reading
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: this article that's saying that it's causing asthma, but there's
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: no data there.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Of course not.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: There's no data.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: No footnote, no reference citation, no learned medical treatise, nothing.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Well, here's what they say.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: Well, they're going to use so much energy, we're obviously
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: going to burn more fossil fuels, and that's.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Going to happen. Heck, that energy can come in 50
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: miles away from the data center.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: God.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: You know, what in the world? But this is what happens.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: And it's growing.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: And now, unfortunately, you see this in the election. People
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: are using it. You've seen the commercials. We didn't ask
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: for this data center. I don't know where that guy
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: lives who's in that commercial. That desk is in the
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: middle of nowhere, it looks like. And he's nowhere near there.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: But we did ask for those data centers. We did
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: ask for them to come to Ohio.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: The left hates anything that spoils the land unless it's
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: giant windmill farms and solar panel farms, which is equally
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: awful to look at and destroy the land as equally
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: as a smaller footprint. Let's say oil rig. That actually
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: does something for us.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: But the jobs that come from this?
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Data center construction jobs are amazing.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's unbelievable.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: And it's by the thousands. And then you couple that
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: with the people that will actually work there. And we're
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: winning this sort of arms race over China when we
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: do this.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and solution to the problem, people know I'm going
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: to say it, there's no power generation problem. We just
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: let them bring their own small modular reactor.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: And they're doing that too.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: And they're doing that too. Another reason AI should be embraced,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: because it will bring us the small modular reactors that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: we have been denied through stupid people believing stupid things
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: about nuclear power generation. 748 coming up with 749. One
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: more with citizens. 752-55-KRCD Talk Station. Brian Thomas here with
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: citizen Brad Wenstrip. And elections coming up. You know that,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: don't you? And I've got Vivek Ramaswamy coming up in
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the next hour. Brad, he's going to be on after
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Magistrate Susan Lucan, who's trying to run for juvenile court
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: judge and kick out Judge Bloom, who's been disastrous for
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the county in terms of juvenile crime. Any thoughts on
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the election as we get ready to part company today, Brad?
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never been good at predicting these things, and
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: the polls never seem to be right either.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: They're getting worse.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: They're far off.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Nobody's answering the phones anymore. Everybody sees a number that
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: they don't recognize. They know not to pick it up.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, online polls are worthless because, you know, you
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: can't statistically sample online. So go ahead.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: So we'll see what happens. You know, it's out there, but.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: You know, it's really interesting within the Democrat Party because
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: I know some true old school Democrats that are like, oh,
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: my gosh, we're being burdened by this Democrat socialist thing.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: And we'll see what happens. But I think some of
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: them that are running, you know, I think that the
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: party itself, the old school party, you know, feels like, well,
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: maybe we can bring them back into the fold, you know,
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: once they get elected. So, you know, we'll put up
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: with it. Let's get them elected. They're in there now
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: and they're in the race now.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: So get them elected. See if we can change them.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: But I'm telling you.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: They'll get primary to the next one. The Democrats will
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: eat them alive and there'll be nothing left but socialists.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Nothing left but socialists.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Yep. And it's ingrained.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, there are more and more facts coming out
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: about the indoctrination in colleges. You know, it doesn't matter
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: what the course is. They somehow find a way.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I know.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: It could be calculus.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: They find some way of bringing that into a socialist
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: society and educating people in that way, and they leave
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: college that way. You and I have friends whose children
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: have gone through it, and they come back from college,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: and they're not the same person.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Well, my son was smart enough to just quit.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: There's that too.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: He's smart enough to learn on his own.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: And he knew that.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: And that's why he said he quit. I don't need
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: to be in these stupid classes where I'm not really
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: learning anything. And you're making me take a bunch of
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: stupid things in order to get a degree that I
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: don't need to survive in life, you know, and bully
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: for him. And he had my daughter able to go
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: to Ohio state pretty much, you know, got a good
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: chunk of it during COVID. She wasn't struggling to deal
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: with all the woke professors screaming at her about leftism.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like, here's the course material and, Yeah.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: And how bad America is.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: And how bad America is.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: You know what? Look at our history in reality. We're
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: not a bad place.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And for all you DSA liners out there, the socialists,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: people who want to grab those evil billionaires and take
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: their money from them, look at France. That's what they did.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: They went down that road. They tried to deliver on
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: every promise that the Abdul El-Sayeds are running on in
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: this country, and it ruined them. California.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: California.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Same type of thing. Let's tax the billionaires. Well, you know,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I open the show every morning. See you down in
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Arizona Bay. Maybe that will come about someday as well.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And I'm kidding. I don't mean it seriously.