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Ray Bilger for Congress (D) · Meet the Candidate - Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania

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Speaker 1: And welcome to Meet the Candidate, designed to give you
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Speaker 1: an opportunity to hear directly from the people asking for
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Speaker 1: your vote. No endorsements, no debate, just a conversation about
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Speaker 1: the candidate, the issue, and where they stand, so you
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Speaker 1: can make up your own mind. Today, we're talking to
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Speaker 1: Ray Bilger, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District.
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Speaker 1: Ray is challenging the incumbent for the seat in the U.S.
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Speaker 1: House of Representatives. Ray, welcome, and thank you for being
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Speaker 1: part of Meet the Candidate.
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Speaker 2: Thank you, Johnny. I really appreciate this invitation.
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Speaker 1: All right, so tell us your background. Who is Ray Bilger?
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Speaker 3: Ray Bilger, I hate to talk about myself in the
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Speaker 3: third person, so I grew up in Pleasant Gap. It's
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Speaker 3: a small village here in central PA, a blue-collar family.
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Speaker 3: We didn't have a lot of money, so whenever it
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Speaker 3: came time for me to make my life decisions, I
0:49
Speaker 3: wanted to go to college. So I worked full time
0:51
Speaker 3: and I went to school full time to try to
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Speaker 3: achieve those ambitions. Unfortunately, I could not finish my senior year.
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Speaker 3: So I thought, well, as much as I hate the
1:01
Speaker 3: idea of the military, I need to join the military
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Speaker 3: because at the time the Army was offering $ 20, 000 scholarships.
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Speaker 3: for anyone who joined the Army. My father, being a
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Speaker 3: Korean War veteran from the Army, told me, no, no, no.
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Speaker 3: And I won't tell you what words he used, but
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Speaker 3: he said, don't join the Army. You'll put up, join
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Speaker 3: the Air Force, you'll get a better education, and you'll
1:25
Speaker 3: put up with SPS. So I joined the Air Force.
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Speaker 3: Long story short, I became what's known as an airborne
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Speaker 3: cryptologic linguistic specialist, and from basically a language analyst. And
1:41
Speaker 3: so I was in a flying program for 10 years
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Speaker 3: in the Air Force. I was in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo,
1:49
Speaker 3: flew on RC-135s, RC-130s, also AC-130 gunships. And so I'm
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Speaker 3: a combat veteran. After that, I spent a few years
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Speaker 3: at the National Security Agency, where I managed a NATO
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Speaker 3: project in Armed Forces Southern Europe in Naples, Italy. I
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Speaker 3: also deployed at that time as a civilian with U.S.
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Speaker 3: Army Special Forces Special Mission Unit. And I also led
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Speaker 3: the agency's response to Kosovo, the war in Kosovo. After that,
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Speaker 3: I spent 14 years in the State Department Foreign Service.
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Speaker 3: living and working abroad in our embassies.
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Speaker 2: Throughout the world.
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Speaker 3: 13 of those 14 years, I worked for the Secret
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Speaker 3: Service and the FBI on a case-by-case basis, providing executive
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Speaker 3: protection to the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State
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Speaker 3: in places around the world. I came back to the
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Speaker 3: National Security Agency, where I was the Technical Director for
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Speaker 3: Cyber Analysis. And then I worked in tradecraft development and
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Speaker 3: capabilities integration, which basically created the next generation of intelligence
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Speaker 3: tradecraft for the National Security Agency.
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Speaker 2: After that, I retired. I was a contractor for six years.
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Speaker 3: And I worked in the Afghanistan counter IED shop as
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Speaker 3: a team lead. Following that, I was a senior analyst
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Speaker 3: for Iran. And then I came back here after both
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Speaker 3: of my parents passed away. I came back here to Pennsylvania. And, well,
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Speaker 3: after this administration came into power, I was really upset
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Speaker 3: with the things that I was seeing happening to the
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Speaker 3: intelligence community and specifically a national security agency. And I'm
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Speaker 3: still concerned. And so I reached out to local officials
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Speaker 3: here and offered my assistance in any way that I
3:40
Speaker 3: possibly can to get the word out. And to try
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Speaker 3: to make a change. And eventually that led to my
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Speaker 3: running for Congress back in January.
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Speaker 2: So here I am.
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Speaker 1: Well, thank you for your service, first of all. Thank you.
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Speaker 1: If there's one thing you want voters to understand about
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Speaker 1: your campaign, what is that?
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Speaker 3: I hate the word politician because when the word politician
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Speaker 3: comes out of my mouth, it somehow feels dirty. It
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Speaker 3: seems like it should wash my, you know, go gargle
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Speaker 3: or something. Because I think a lot of people have that.
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Speaker 3: Certainly in the rural Pennsylvania, what I've seen is when
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Speaker 3: you say politician, it seems like a dirty word. And
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Speaker 3: that's just because of the reputation that politicians have given it.
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Speaker 3: I don't consider myself a politician in that sense. what
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Speaker 3: I consider myself as a public servant. That's what I've
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Speaker 3: been my entire career for 35 years. I have had
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Speaker 3: to be a political. Now I was a Republican. I
4:32
Speaker 3: grew up as a Republican, a Republican household, but the
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Speaker 3: way I grew up was not about party. We never
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Speaker 3: discussed party. I couldn't tell you the Republican platform from
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Speaker 3: the democratic platform.
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Speaker 2: I probably still couldn't. Um, and we never, ever talked
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Speaker 2: about parties.
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Speaker 3: We always talked about individuals and we talked about issues.
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Speaker 3: So whenever it came time to vote, we talked to
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Speaker 3: the people that were candidates, we talked to the people
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Speaker 3: who were incumbents, and we decided who was the person
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Speaker 3: best suited to solve our problems. And that's how we
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Speaker 3: made our decisions. And that's how I always make my decisions.
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Speaker 3: I don't care whether you're a Republican, whether you're a Democrat.
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Speaker 3: Our problems don't have party lines. Our problems are completely
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Speaker 3: across party lines. And we have far too many serious
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Speaker 3: problems in this country to be wasting our time arguing
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Speaker 3: with each other. We have people in rural Pennsylvania who
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Speaker 3: are seriously concerned about how they're going to survive the winter.
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Speaker 3: And yet we sit around complaining and arguing and filing
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Speaker 3: lawsuits against our political opponents. We're renaming things. We're arguing
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Speaker 3: about gilding statues. For God's sakes, man, we've got people
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Speaker 3: whose lives are at risk here, seriously at risk. And
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Speaker 3: we need serious people who are able to sit down
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Speaker 3: and understand that you've got to prioritize the real problems
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Speaker 3: and fix them now. You can talk about all those
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Speaker 3: other things if you want to later, whenever we have
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Speaker 3: the advantage of having that much time and we have
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Speaker 3: no other serious problems. But right now, we need people
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Speaker 3: that are ready to go out, fix your problems, and
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Speaker 3: listen to you no matter what your party is. And
6:12
Speaker 3: that's what our campaign's been about since day one. We
6:15
Speaker 3: don't care what party you belong to. And I've said
6:19
Speaker 3: the same thing to the Democratic Party. The minute I
6:21
Speaker 3: walked into their office, I said, if you were looking
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Speaker 3: for a candidate, who is going to tow the party line,
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Speaker 3: who is going to take orders from your party leadership
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Speaker 3: or someone else other than the people, then you've got
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Speaker 3: the wrong guy. Because that's just not the way I
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Speaker 3: work and it's not the way I'm going to work. Now,
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Speaker 3: if that works out for me in this campaign, that's great.
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Speaker 3: I hope that people all want someone who works for
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Speaker 3: them and listens to them. If it doesn't work out
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Speaker 3: for me, I'm not going to change who I am.
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Speaker 2: This is who I am. I trust.
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Speaker 3: people to tell me what the problems are, and I
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Speaker 3: will try my best to fix the problems.
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Speaker 2: And I don't care what party you belong to.
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Speaker 1: Ray, a lot of the 15th District is made up
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Speaker 1: of smaller towns and rural communities, like you just said.
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Speaker 1: What is the single biggest thing Washington can do to
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Speaker 1: create good-paying jobs and keep young people or give young
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Speaker 1: people reason to stay?
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Speaker 2: That is a huge, huge issue.
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Speaker 3: Um certainly affordability is across the board that is the
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Speaker 3: thing that i hear about everywhere as i just said
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Speaker 3: we've got people out there concerned with how they're going
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Speaker 3: most of these are older houses that these people live
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Speaker 3: in in rural towns and i know because i've been
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Speaker 3: to all of them i've been to all the 18
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Speaker 3: counties in this district and they're worrying about how they're
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Speaker 3: going to heat their homes in the winter because they
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Speaker 3: have fuel oil heating you have what is what We've
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Speaker 3: lost a lot of our infrastructure there when it comes
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Speaker 3: to the economy. What I see as the biggest problem
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Speaker 3: with companies coming into Pennsylvania, and this has gone back centuries,
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Speaker 3: is that people and the companies who come in tend
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Speaker 3: mostly to look at Pennsylvania for its natural resources. what
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Speaker 3: natural resources does Pennsylvania have that we can utilize to
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Speaker 3: do something? And we've had some great jobs come in
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Speaker 3: with the coal mining industry, with the steel industry, with
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Speaker 3: the fracking industry, and so on and so forth. But
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Speaker 3: once those natural resources are expended, those companies are gone,
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Speaker 3: and our communities and our people there are left with
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Speaker 3: the results, with spoiled water, with lousy air quality, with cancers.
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Speaker 3: Look at Cameron County. There's a tremendous rise in cancer
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Speaker 3: rates there.
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Speaker 2: Why? We don't know. We need to find out. We
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Speaker 2: need help.
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Speaker 3: So what I envision is For one idea, like I said,
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Speaker 3: I don't like to think about things necessarily the way
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Speaker 3: everyone else thinks about things. I try to think outside
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Speaker 3: the box because really what has been tried over the
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Speaker 3: last 50, 60 years obviously isn't working.
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Speaker 2: So we need to try something new. So my proposal
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Speaker 2: is this.
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Speaker 3: First of all, we have to understand that when you
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Speaker 3: come to Pennsylvania, you're missing the point. If you think
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Speaker 3: the natural resources here, the physical natural resources, are the
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Speaker 3: most important thing here and the most valuable natural resource
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Speaker 3: we have, you're wrong. The most valuable natural resource we
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Speaker 3: have in Pennsylvania is its people. Because without the people,
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Speaker 3: none of these industries would have ever succeeded. So we
9:40
Speaker 3: need to invest in people. And what I propose is
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Speaker 3: we bring industries in here that are not dependent upon
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Speaker 3: natural resource availability. And that is natural security-related and defense-related industries.
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Speaker 2: Those are never going to go away.
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Speaker 3: And it also provides jobs, good pay, jobs, for people
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Speaker 3: across the spectrum, whether you're a manufacturer, whether you're a laborer,
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Speaker 3: whether you have a college degree or an engineer.
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Speaker 2: That will provide jobs for that.
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Speaker 3: And in addition to that, I would add stipulations in
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Speaker 3: there that these companies also come in and invest a
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Speaker 3: certain amount of their profit into education programs, not only
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Speaker 3: in the high schools, but also in the tech schools
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Speaker 3: and the trade schools.
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Speaker 2: And into any universities and colleges that happen to be nearby.
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Speaker 2: So that helps. That's a win-win situation.
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Speaker 3: The corporation gets a lot of better people already trained
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Speaker 3: up and ready to go, work ready, just like your
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Speaker 3: shovel-ready projects. You get people rolling in and they can
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Speaker 3: start and work right away and automatically provide.
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Speaker 2: A benefit to you. It's also a benefit for the
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Speaker 2: community because these people are going to get an education.
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Speaker 2: They're going to get a good job. They'll get good pay,
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Speaker 2: and it's going to attract more things in there. We
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Speaker 2: have hospitals that have gone out up there because everyone left,
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Speaker 2: like you said. Young people have left because there's nothing
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Speaker 2: there for them. I know.
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Speaker 3: I left here 40 years ago, and I just came
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Speaker 3: back four years ago. Problems are still the same.
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Speaker 2: They're worse.
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Speaker 3: So that would bring hospitals back in because you need
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Speaker 3: hospitals to care for the people, and the economy would
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Speaker 3: continue to grow from that. And it would also save
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Speaker 3: our natural resources because, as anyone who lives in Pennsylvania knows,
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Speaker 3: our state constitution requires us a clean environment. And we
11:22
Speaker 3: need to really keep people's feet to the fire on that.
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Speaker 1: Art, you mentioned national security. You spent decades working in
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Speaker 1: that area, in the Air Force, in the NSA, in
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Speaker 1: the State Department. How has that experience shaped the way
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Speaker 1: you look at America's role in the world today?
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Speaker 3: That has been, I think, in all of our experiences,
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Speaker 3: regardless of whether you worked in national security or you
11:45
Speaker 3: worked on a farm or whatever. I think all those
11:48
Speaker 3: experiences shape who we are and how we think about them.
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Speaker 3: Certainly the intelligence community, in my experiences, both in the
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Speaker 3: military as a combat veteran and then as a foreign
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Speaker 3: service specialist in the State Department, That's all shaped who
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Speaker 3: I am. It's shaped how I look at things. It
12:07
Speaker 3: has shaped how I think about things. Because in the
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Speaker 3: intelligence community, we've had some really major, major problems, especially
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Speaker 3: since 9-11. I've basically been working in counterterrorism since that day.
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Speaker 3: So those problems were huge. And it required us to
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Speaker 3: think outside the box because this had never happened before.
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Speaker 3: And that's basically what we had every single day. Every
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Speaker 3: minute of every single day in the intelligence community, we
12:35
Speaker 3: always had something that had never happened before, and we
12:39
Speaker 3: had to find a solution for it. Well, there was
12:41
Speaker 3: no already made solution for it, so we had to
12:43
Speaker 3: make it. That was a tremendous influence on how I
12:47
Speaker 3: think about things and how I look at big problems.
12:51
Speaker 3: I don't view them as impossible. There's a solution to
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Speaker 3: every problem, and I really believe that because I've seen
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Speaker 3: it happen over the last 35 years of my life.
13:01
Speaker 3: if you have the right people in the room and
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Speaker 3: you approach it the right way. And again, we're not
13:07
Speaker 3: talking about parties here. Those types of people do not
13:11
Speaker 3: run down a party line. You need to include everyone
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Speaker 3: in that. As far as what it's done for me,
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Speaker 3: as far as making me a person who really thinks
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Speaker 3: outside the box, after my experience in Desert Storm, my
13:25
Speaker 3: first posting with the State Department was in Turkey, a
13:28
Speaker 3: Muslim country. And our apartment was on the 13th floor
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Speaker 3: of a building right next to a huge mosque. Every morning,
13:37
Speaker 3: 5 a.m., when the call to prayer went off, I
13:39
Speaker 3: would start out of bed because it sounded like a
13:41
Speaker 3: scuttlewarp to me. And after about three months of being very,
13:45
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable there, I decided that I could either spend
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Speaker 3: the rest of my time.
13:50
Speaker 2: Here being very uncomfortable.
13:53
Speaker 3: Or I could step way outside my comfort zone and
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Speaker 3: I could try to learn as much about the culture
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Speaker 3: and use my Turkish language ability to get to know
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Speaker 3: the people and get outside of the tourist trap areas
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Speaker 3: and into the real Turkey. So you really experience the
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Speaker 3: culture and the people. And that changed my life. It
14:13
Speaker 3: really showed me that my preconceived notions and all of
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Speaker 3: the biases that I built up in the Gulf War
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Speaker 3: had nothing to do with Islam.
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Speaker 2: Nothing whatsoever.
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Speaker 3: That showed me that I learned a lot about, not
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Speaker 3: only a lot about Turkey and about Islam and just
14:33
Speaker 3: about the culture in general and the language, but I
14:36
Speaker 3: also learned even more about myself. That I need to
14:41
Speaker 3: step out of my comfort zone. I need to push
14:44
Speaker 3: myself because every time I do that, I learn something
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Speaker 3: more valuable about myself. And it helps me to solve
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Speaker 3: other problems and to integrate those solutions with the people
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Speaker 3: that live there. And that is probably the most important
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Speaker 3: thing that I have learned during that time that shapes
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Speaker 3: who I am today.
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Speaker 1: You've been on the record. Supporting banning members of Congress
15:10
Speaker 1: from trading individual stocks and congressional term limits and changing
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Speaker 1: the influence of money in politics. Where would you start?
15:17
Speaker 1: Where is your priority?
15:20
Speaker 2: I would reverse Citizens United immediately.
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Speaker 3: I would work hard on that because we have a
15:25
Speaker 3: problem with money in American politics across the board. And
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Speaker 3: I'm not talking about any single party here. I mean,
15:31
Speaker 3: just in general in politics. We need to get back
15:34
Speaker 3: to where a person's vote is the person's vote. Money
15:37
Speaker 3: does not vote. Corporations do not vote. Individuals vote. And
15:42
Speaker 3: that's what we need to get back to. I heard,
15:45
Speaker 3: and again, we need innovative solutions because what has worked
15:48
Speaker 3: in the past or what has been tried in the
15:50
Speaker 3: past hasn't worked.
15:51
Speaker 2: And we can see that.
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Speaker 3: Whenever you're offering million-dollar checks to people for voting or $ 5, 000
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Speaker 3: for people for voting a certain way or anything. Whether
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Speaker 3: you're trading stock based upon your insider knowledge when you're
16:07
Speaker 3: holding a public office, that is absolutely unconscionable.
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Speaker 2: I cannot understand that. So we need to ban that.
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Speaker 3: The first thing that I would do is I'd go
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Speaker 3: after Citizens United because we need to go back to
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Speaker 3: one person, one vote.
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Speaker 2: Money does not vote. Corporations do not vote.
16:22
Speaker 1: Washington can be incredibly divided. You talked about that earlier.
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Speaker 1: What is one issue where you believe Republicans and Democrats
16:29
Speaker 1: should be able to find common ground?
16:32
Speaker 2: The economy. There's no question. The economy is hurting everyone.
16:35
Speaker 3: And whether you're sitting there with millions of dollars in
16:38
Speaker 3: the bank or whether you're sitting there with going paycheck
16:40
Speaker 3: to paycheck or wondering how you're going to heat your
16:44
Speaker 3: home this winter or put food on the table. I
16:46
Speaker 3: think we can agree on the economy. I think there
16:49
Speaker 3: are a lot of things, to be honest, that we
16:52
Speaker 3: could agree to. But the problem is you need to talk.
16:56
Speaker 3: And you need to find those people who are willing
16:58
Speaker 3: to talk. That is the key. And that does not
17:01
Speaker 3: happen in front of a camera. That's going to happen
17:03
Speaker 3: in back rooms. That's going to happen in hallways. It's
17:05
Speaker 3: going to happen in coffee shops. We need to get
17:07
Speaker 3: to know people as people first. And not as whatever
17:12
Speaker 3: Joe Smith from the Republican Party or.
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Speaker 2: Ray Bilger from the Democratic Party. It can't be like that.
17:18
Speaker 3: The first question you ask someone when you meet them
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Speaker 3: is not what party you belong to, is it?
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Speaker 2: Of course not. That's ridiculous.
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Speaker 3: You need to meet people and get to know them
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Speaker 3: as people first, and then you can solve problems. And
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Speaker 3: I think there are many problems that we can solve
17:32
Speaker 3: that we're all going to agree on.
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Speaker 1: The last word is yours, Ray. What do you want
17:37
Speaker 1: voters to know before we wrap things up?
17:41
Speaker 2: What do I want them to know?
17:42
Speaker 3: I want them to know that if you've been paying
17:44
Speaker 3: attention to my campaign at all, you will see that
17:47
Speaker 3: I'm out there, that I'm traveling all over the place,
17:50
Speaker 3: and I'm trying to meet as many people as possible.
17:52
Speaker 3: And I specifically... want to meet Republicans and independents. I
17:57
Speaker 3: don't need to preach to the choir. I want to
18:01
Speaker 3: talk to you, too, because I represent everyone. Unlike the incumbent,
18:05
Speaker 3: who has said specifically that he will not attend anything
18:08
Speaker 3: the Democrats invite him to, I have been inviting him
18:12
Speaker 3: to every single thing that I do, every single town
18:16
Speaker 3: hall that I have, and he has refused to show up.
18:18
Speaker 3: There was a candidate's night here two days ago, and
18:20
Speaker 3: he did not show up, so therefore I could not
18:22
Speaker 3: even speak. So that is basically infringing on my.
18:25
Speaker 2: First Amendment rights.
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Speaker 3: So we need people who are out there who are
18:30
Speaker 3: willing to talk to you. And I want to talk
18:32
Speaker 3: to you. I want to hear your viewpoint. Because when
18:35
Speaker 3: you're sitting in a room with people who are all
18:37
Speaker 3: like-minded and trying to solve a problem, your solution is
18:40
Speaker 3: not going to be very good. We need people in
18:43
Speaker 3: there with opposing views in order to have those hard
18:46
Speaker 3: discussions and figure out how to solve the problem so
18:49
Speaker 3: that everyone's happy. Everyone comes to the table. I have
18:54
Speaker 3: been a public servant for 35 years. I actually know
18:57
Speaker 3: what the term means. And I can explain it to
19:00
Speaker 3: you in several languages because I speak them.
19:03
Speaker 2: I've lived all over the world, not just visited. I
19:06
Speaker 2: have lived all over the world for 26 years. I
19:11
Speaker 2: have seen many different things from many different places. I
19:15
Speaker 2: know everything.
19:17
Speaker 3: Some of the results of some of the decisions being
19:20
Speaker 3: made and how they've affected positively and negatively on other countries.
19:26
Speaker 3: We can put some of those skills to use in Congress,
19:30
Speaker 3: both avoiding problems and fixing problems. One of the biggest
19:34
Speaker 3: ones is health care. Our health care system is one
19:37
Speaker 3: of the most abysmal health care systems in the world,
19:40
Speaker 3: and I've got the scars to prove it. So I
19:43
Speaker 3: can tell you that there are other options and I
19:47
Speaker 3: know what we can do to fix it. Certainly a
19:50
Speaker 3: way to start because nobody wants to start to fix it.
19:53
Speaker 3: We need to at least come to the table and
19:56
Speaker 3: talk about how we can start to fix these problems.
20:00
Speaker 3: Just because it's a tough problem or it's an unpopular
20:03
Speaker 3: issue doesn't mean the.
20:05
Speaker 2: Problem goes away.
20:06
Speaker 3: The problem remains and it gets worse if you avoid it.
20:11
Speaker 3: So I am not afraid to jump in and discuss
20:15
Speaker 3: difficult issues. I am not afraid to stand up to
20:18
Speaker 3: any single individual and make those uncomfortable conversations. If they
20:23
Speaker 3: walk away and they don't like me, that's just fine
20:26
Speaker 3: because I will do whatever is necessary to support the
20:29
Speaker 3: people that I represent. And I represent the people. I
20:32
Speaker 3: do not represent the people above me. I represent the
20:34
Speaker 3: people who voted me into office. That is what I
20:37
Speaker 3: want everyone to know.
20:39
Speaker 1: One last question. How do you say thank you in Turkish?
20:43
Speaker 2: Teşekkür ederim.
20:44
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to attempt.
20:46
Speaker 3: To say that. It depends on which way it is.
20:49
Speaker 3: It's a good way to say thanks, just thanks. Teşekkür
20:52
Speaker 3: ederim is the way that you would do that respectfully.
20:56
Speaker 1: Ray, thank you so much for your time. This has
20:58
Speaker 1: been a pleasure.
20:58
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Tony. I appreciate this opportunity, and
21:01
Speaker 2: I'll see you later.