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Sanctions to Solutions Trump's New Middle East Doctrine · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Big breaking news to start the show today, and that
0:03
Speaker 1: includes the Saudi Crown Prince is now saying he is
0:08
Speaker 1: working to increase Saudi investments in the US to not
0:13
Speaker 1: one billion, not one hundred billion, but one trillion dollars.
0:19
Speaker 1: The President United States of America making this historic trip,
0:22
Speaker 1: saying it's time for US to work with our allies,
0:25
Speaker 1: and he says it's time for the US to remove
0:27
Speaker 1: sanctions on Syria as well.
0:30
Speaker 2: Now.
0:30
Speaker 1: Syrians have endured brutal and crippling sanctions over the past
0:34
Speaker 1: fourteen years, and it's time to end them, is what President
0:37
Speaker 1: Trump announced while in Saudi Arabia.
0:40
Speaker 2: Quote. I will be ordering the.
0:41
Speaker 1: Secession of sanctions against Syrian order to give them a
0:44
Speaker 1: chance at greatness. That is what the President said during
0:47
Speaker 1: the press conference. Trump said Syrians have seen so much
0:51
Speaker 1: misery and death during a years long civil war. He
0:55
Speaker 1: also agreed to end the sanctions against Syria at the
0:58
Speaker 1: urging of the Saudi Crown prints and the Turkish President
1:02
Speaker 1: because there needs to be quote more stability in the
1:06
Speaker 1: region now. The sanctions targeted the Hassad regime and served
1:10
Speaker 1: as an important function, Trump said, but now it's time
1:13
Speaker 1: for Syria to shine obviously, as Hasad has fled the
1:17
Speaker 1: country and is now taking up safe haven in Russia.
1:21
Speaker 1: The US designated Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism
1:24
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine, imposed sanctions on the nation in
1:28
Speaker 1: two thousand and four and in twenty eleven following the
1:32
Speaker 1: former Syrian president Assad's efforts to end anti government protests.
1:38
Speaker 1: Sanctions imposed by the United States deprived Syria of access
1:42
Speaker 1: to global financial systems and added sanctions against the Assad
1:46
Speaker 1: regime while the Syrian civil war raged for several years now.
1:51
Speaker 1: The Biden administration in November sanctioned a Syrian conglomerate after
1:57
Speaker 1: accusing it of using ul revenue to a RAN's Islamic
2:01
Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard and COUD forces, as well as Huthi militants
2:06
Speaker 1: for attacking US forces in the Middle East. Syria has
2:10
Speaker 1: endured civil war, terrorism attacks, and secretary of warfare that
2:15
Speaker 1: included the Islamic State taking control of parts of the
2:18
Speaker 1: nation in twenty fourteen.
2:20
Speaker 2: And beyond Western powers.
2:23
Speaker 1: Afterwards, undertook a bombing campaign to eliminate ISIS and restore
2:28
Speaker 1: full power to quote Syria. Asad regime lost power in
2:32
Speaker 1: December when a militia took control of the Syrian capital
2:37
Speaker 1: of Damascus and other parts of the country. This happened
2:40
Speaker 1: mainly because the money wasn't flowing in anymore from Russia.
2:44
Speaker 1: They couldn't handle it because of their war they'd started
2:47
Speaker 1: and their invasion of Ukraine. Now Syria's new president he
2:51
Speaker 1: was a former member of al Qaeda, who says he
2:55
Speaker 1: has reformed his ways just so you know. Yes, it's
2:58
Speaker 1: complicated in the Middle East, and the fall of Assage
3:01
Speaker 1: regime prompted the easing of some US sanctions, but not
3:05
Speaker 1: all of them. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,
3:08
Speaker 1: will meet with Syria's new foreign minister in Turkey later
3:12
Speaker 1: this week. Trump also said to work out details. This
3:15
Speaker 1: announcement marks the presence first of four days in the
3:19
Speaker 1: Middle East.
3:20
Speaker 2: He's also scheduled to visit the United Air of Emirates
3:22
Speaker 2: and Qatar.
3:24
Speaker 1: Now back to what the President had to say at
3:26
Speaker 1: this visit. At the stop on this this Middle East tour,
3:31
Speaker 1: Trump also talked about Iran and saying that Iran can
3:35
Speaker 1: have a much brighter future, but we will never allow
3:38
Speaker 1: them to threaten America and or our allies. He said this,
3:43
Speaker 1: making it clear as he's in the middle East. We're
3:45
Speaker 1: not screwing around.
3:47
Speaker 3: But with that said, Iran can have a much brighter future,
3:50
Speaker 3: but will never allow America and his allies to be
3:54
Speaker 3: threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack. The choices there is
3:58
Speaker 3: to make. You want them to be a successful country.
4:02
Speaker 3: We want them to be a wonderful, safe, great country,
4:06
Speaker 3: but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.
4:08
Speaker 4: This is an.
4:09
Speaker 3: Offer that will not last forever. The time is right
4:14
Speaker 3: now for them to choose right now. We don't have
4:16
Speaker 3: a lot of time to wait.
4:18
Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of time to wait. That
4:21
Speaker 1: is part of the warning. Clearly the President wanted to
4:24
Speaker 1: make clear as he was doing this visit in the
4:27
Speaker 1: Middle East.
4:28
Speaker 2: The President also talked about our enemies.
4:31
Speaker 1: Yes, there are enemies around the world, and certainly there
4:34
Speaker 1: are enemies in the Middle East, the President saying this
4:36
Speaker 1: at the US Saudi Investment Forum in Saudi Arabia.
4:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm here today not merely to condemn the past
4:45
Speaker 3: chaos of Iran's leaders, but to offer them a new path,
4:49
Speaker 3: and a much better path toward a far better and.
4:52
Speaker 4: More hopeful future.
4:54
Speaker 3: As I've shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past
4:57
Speaker 3: conflicts and forge new partnerships. For better and more stable world,
5:02
Speaker 3: even of our differences may be very profound, which obviously
5:06
Speaker 3: they are in the case of I have never believed
5:10
Speaker 3: in having permanent enemies. I am different than a lot
5:13
Speaker 3: of people think. I don't like permanent enemies. But sometimes
5:19
Speaker 3: you need enemies to do the job, and you have
5:21
Speaker 3: to do it right.
5:22
Speaker 4: Enemies get you motivated.
5:24
Speaker 3: In fact, some of the closest friends of the United
5:27
Speaker 3: States of America nations we fought wars against in generation's past,
5:32
Speaker 3: and now they're our friends and our allies the present
5:37
Speaker 3: giving a pathway for a future there that even some
5:40
Speaker 3: of the media are now saying sounds pretty nice.
5:43
Speaker 1: Fox Business Channel talking about this, saying the present's Middle
5:47
Speaker 1: East plan is one that we should all embrace.
5:51
Speaker 5: The President will never get credit for this, but that
5:54
Speaker 5: was an amazing speech.
5:57
Speaker 2: He threw down.
5:59
Speaker 5: The gauntlet where he had to, particularly with Iran, and
6:03
Speaker 5: at the same time he painted a picture of possibility
6:06
Speaker 5: for the Middle East. I've never heard any other president
6:09
Speaker 5: paint I mean, that was truly extraordinary. He made Look
6:13
Speaker 5: he's such a good salesman. He said to the Middle East,
6:18
Speaker 5: you want to lead in business and technology and culture
6:21
Speaker 5: and commerce. Those are the exact words he used. We
6:25
Speaker 5: will do it with you. We are in a golden age.
6:27
Speaker 5: You can have a golden age. There's only one person
6:30
Speaker 5: on the globe. There's only one person who could give
6:33
Speaker 5: that speech and do it with that kind of force,
6:35
Speaker 5: and it was him that was totally extraordinary.
6:38
Speaker 2: You never was talking about the follow through. I can't
6:41
Speaker 2: wait to see.
6:41
Speaker 5: What kind of fallow through comes from this.
6:43
Speaker 2: Now, don't worry the rest of the press.
6:45
Speaker 1: They're going to be angry over the President and what
6:47
Speaker 1: he had to say today. They're angry about the fact
6:50
Speaker 1: the President's trying to have peace in the Middle East
6:52
Speaker 1: and get this job done. The President also saying this
6:55
Speaker 1: about God. Listen carefully how this will play as well.
6:59
Speaker 2: In the Middle East East.
7:01
Speaker 4: I believe it.
7:02
Speaker 3: Is God's job to sit in judgment. My job to
7:05
Speaker 3: defend America and to promote the fundamental interest of stability, prosperity,
7:12
Speaker 3: and peace.
7:12
Speaker 2: That's what I really want to do.
7:14
Speaker 3: I will never hesitate to wield American power if it's
7:18
Speaker 3: necessary to defend the United States or to help defend
7:23
Speaker 3: our allies.
7:25
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear the President saying the terrorists in the
7:28
Speaker 1: Middle East, if you think that you can get away
7:30
Speaker 1: with doing what you were doing during the last four
7:32
Speaker 1: years the Biden administration. You're flat out wrong. I don't
7:36
Speaker 1: need permanent enemies. I don't like permanent enemies. But if
7:39
Speaker 1: you are going to screw with America or American interests, our.
7:44
Speaker 2: Allies, there will be hell to pay.
7:48
Speaker 1: The President also talking more about peace, saying he's ready
7:52
Speaker 1: to stand and help Lebanon create a future as well
7:55
Speaker 1: with an economic development.
7:58
Speaker 3: My administration stand ready to help Lebanon create a future
8:02
Speaker 3: of economic development and peace with its.
8:05
Speaker 2: Neighbors, with its neighbors.
8:07
Speaker 1: So you listen to this president and everything that he
8:10
Speaker 1: just said there, why on earth would anyone in the
8:13
Speaker 1: media criticize this right Like, why would anybody say this
8:18
Speaker 1: is a bad thing? Well, MSNBC had no problem attacking
8:23
Speaker 1: this trip and Israel when they said this moments after
8:28
Speaker 1: the President was in the Middle East talking about all
8:31
Speaker 1: these issues.
8:32
Speaker 6: Eddie, un spokesperson on Monday, did not mince words. And
8:36
Speaker 6: I'm going to quote here this is not a natural disaster,
8:39
Speaker 6: but a human made catastrophe that the world should not allow.
8:44
Speaker 6: We have seen pictures images of children even today carrying
8:48
Speaker 6: all their belongings through the rubble, a tiny baby in
8:51
Speaker 6: a rainbow jumper that was killed by an airstrike, and
8:54
Speaker 6: then there was a child this is today with one leg,
8:57
Speaker 6: waiting on crutches just to try to get at a
9:00
Speaker 6: bit of food. These images are so heartbreaking, so chilling.
9:05
Speaker 6: They raise the question Hamas, Yes, Hamas is responsible. Israel
9:10
Speaker 6: has made a decision for the blockade, But what is
9:13
Speaker 6: the responsibility of other governments? What is the responsibility of
9:18
Speaker 6: us all when children and innocence are starving to death?
9:23
Speaker 7: You know, it's it's a difficult question on a certain
9:27
Speaker 7: level and an easy answer on another. First, I think
9:30
Speaker 7: countries across the across the world needs to just simply
9:33
Speaker 7: live up to international law. What Israel is doing in
9:37
Speaker 7: relation to Gaza, the blockade that is cutting off food
9:40
Speaker 7: and water is illegal. It's not sanctioned by international law.
9:45
Speaker 7: And I think if countries understand that and live up
9:48
Speaker 7: to the letter of that law and to the intent
9:50
Speaker 7: of that law, they would hold Israel accountable. I want
9:53
Speaker 7: to just acknowledge what the Rabbi is doing, what he's written,
9:57
Speaker 7: and what he's doing. It is important that when you're
9:59
Speaker 7: with in a particular tradition Chris, that you can bring
10:02
Speaker 7: the resources of that tradition to bear on the actions
10:05
Speaker 7: of those who are committed to the same principles and
10:08
Speaker 7: ideals and faith that you are. So it's within that
10:11
Speaker 7: tradition that he's bringing the basic tenets of Judaism to
10:15
Speaker 7: bear on what Israel is doing. And I think that's
10:17
Speaker 7: really important, and I think it's powerful, and I understand
10:20
Speaker 7: the risk that he's taken.
10:21
Speaker 4: That he's taken.
10:22
Speaker 7: I think also for me, I just want to say,
10:24
Speaker 7: I want to ask a basic question. How many dead
10:28
Speaker 7: Palestinians are needed for the state of Israel.
10:32
Speaker 1: How many dead Palestinians are needed for the state of Israel.
10:36
Speaker 1: That is the anti Semitic propaganda that MSNBC put out
10:42
Speaker 1: on their airwaves, not talking about all the dead Israelis
10:47
Speaker 1: who were killed in the horrific attack, the worse since
10:50
Speaker 1: the Holocaust on Israel.
10:52
Speaker 2: This is what Donald Trump is up.
10:54
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Speaker 1: story I gotta throw on your radar screen, and it
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Speaker 1: is one that is going to yet again show you
13:03
Speaker 1: how corrupt the state sponsored media was it trying to
13:08
Speaker 1: fix the last election by straight up.
13:10
Speaker 2: Lying to you.
13:12
Speaker 1: New numbers from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics are
13:17
Speaker 1: now showing eight hundred thousand jobs from last year that
13:24
Speaker 1: the Biden administration claim they created never even existed. In fact,
13:31
Speaker 1: the Biden administration routinely lied about job creation and then
13:37
Speaker 1: would quietly revise them down time and time again. Later on,
13:42
Speaker 1: the Biden administration and the media lied to all of
13:45
Speaker 1: our faces.
13:46
Speaker 2: And if you don't believe me, let me.
13:48
Speaker 1: Remind you what Joe Biden said at the White House
13:50
Speaker 1: right before election day.
13:52
Speaker 4: Ask him for.
13:52
Speaker 7: Doing this, mister President, two questions, the first Florida Senator
13:58
Speaker 7: Marco Rubio.
14:00
Speaker 2: Today's job support is having faith numbers. What do you
14:04
Speaker 2: make of that?
14:05
Speaker 5: And how worried are you that many Americans are hearing
14:08
Speaker 5: that the job's numbers aren't real.
14:11
Speaker 4: Look, I'm gonna be very careful here.
14:17
Speaker 8: If you notice anything the mega Republicans don't like they
14:22
Speaker 8: call fake.
14:25
Speaker 4: Anything. The job numbers are what the job numbers are,
14:30
Speaker 4: They're real. They're since here what we are.
14:34
Speaker 8: And by the way, just look at how the EU
14:36
Speaker 8: talks about us, how they like to have an economy
14:38
Speaker 8: like ours.
14:39
Speaker 4: Just talk about the rest of the world looks at
14:41
Speaker 4: us and what we're doing so well, I don't want to.
14:46
Speaker 2: Get we're going now. The President says that. And then
14:50
Speaker 2: the question we all.
14:50
Speaker 1: Have to ask is, okay, well, how big was the
14:52
Speaker 1: lad All right, Well, let's look at now the new
14:55
Speaker 1: data the Labor Department is now admitting publicly hundreds and
15:00
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of Biden jobs were actually fake, like
15:03
Speaker 1: they just made up numbers to make you think the
15:07
Speaker 1: economy was doing better than.
15:08
Speaker 2: It actually was.
15:10
Speaker 1: The Biden administration, for example, claimed to have added almost
15:13
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand jobs from July through September of last year,
15:18
Speaker 1: but new data released this week suggests.
15:21
Speaker 2: None of those jobs ever existed.
15:24
Speaker 1: Despite constantly gas lighting by the mainstream media, Americans knew
15:29
Speaker 1: the economy was in poor shape, and these latest numbers
15:32
Speaker 1: are proving it. Month after month, the government, being counters
15:37
Speaker 1: under former President Biden's published overly optimistic estimates for everything
15:43
Speaker 1: from job growth to the size of the economy, only
15:47
Speaker 1: to have those numbers routinely and quietly revised down later.
15:53
Speaker 1: Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as the
15:56
Speaker 1: BLS produces estimates for the number of non farm payrolls
16:01
Speaker 1: in the country, as well as revisions for the last
16:05
Speaker 1: two months estimates under Biden. Listen carefully, okay, these revisions
16:11
Speaker 1: were abnormal in magnitude and direction, being revised down with
16:18
Speaker 1: unusual frequency. In other words, they knew they were lying
16:21
Speaker 1: to you, and they knew that the media would never
16:23
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. While these monthly job reports are
16:26
Speaker 1: compiled from a survey of over six hundred thousand businesses,
16:30
Speaker 1: of which fewer than two hundred thousand are surveyed, each month.
16:33
Speaker 1: But also the BLS also publishes much much more comprehensive
16:39
Speaker 1: quarterly data called Business Employment Dynamics that come from a
16:44
Speaker 1: census of over twelve million businesses. Now that's over seventeen
16:49
Speaker 1: times a sample size of the monthly.
16:51
Speaker 2: Jobs reports survey.
16:53
Speaker 1: Now, this is obviously a more accurate database, and it
16:57
Speaker 1: was just released by the BLS for the third quarter
17:00
Speaker 1: of last year, which ran from the start of July
17:03
Speaker 1: through the end of September. So guess what we found
17:06
Speaker 1: out in massive stark contrast to the monthly jobs reports
17:11
Speaker 1: before election day showing an increase of four in one
17:14
Speaker 1: thousand jobs during the third quarter, these numbers, and these
17:18
Speaker 1: new numbers show a decline of one thousand private sector jobs,
17:22
Speaker 1: meaning they literally created four hundred thousand jobs that never
17:26
Speaker 1: existed just to try to win the election.
17:30
Speaker 2: You want to talk about, I mean, and I.
17:32
Speaker 1: Go back to Democrats' obsession with Russian collusion and Ford
17:36
Speaker 1: interference in our elections.
17:38
Speaker 2: We didn't have foreign interference in our election.
17:40
Speaker 1: We had the actual government of Joe Biden that said
17:44
Speaker 1: we're going to influence the election outcome by telling Americans
17:47
Speaker 1: that four inne thousand jobs were created out of thin.
17:49
Speaker 2: Air that never were and we knew it wasn't now.
17:52
Speaker 1: To be clear, the monthly job reports and the data
17:57
Speaker 1: do not measure exactly the same thing. Okay, the bed data,
18:01
Speaker 1: for example, we were talking about a moment ago. And
18:03
Speaker 1: the BLS also published another data set called the Quarterly
18:07
Speaker 1: Census of Employment and Wages.
18:10
Speaker 2: This is where it gets really good, folks. Each of these.
18:13
Speaker 1: Reports exclude certain categories of jobs or industries like railroad, government,
18:20
Speaker 1: self employment, agriculture, etc. That means there can be relatively
18:25
Speaker 1: small deviations between these labor market X estimates in the
18:29
Speaker 1: short run, but they trend very well together over time.
18:33
Speaker 1: In fact, the more comprehensively quarterly data are used to
18:36
Speaker 1: reevaluate the monthly jobs reports once a year in a
18:40
Speaker 1: process called the Annual Benchmark. All right, so you ready.
18:44
Speaker 1: This benchmark just twelve months of job data to make
18:48
Speaker 1: them as accurate as possible, and always covers a period
18:51
Speaker 1: from March of one year to March to the following year,
18:54
Speaker 1: the fiscal year.
18:55
Speaker 2: In early twenty.
18:56
Speaker 1: Twenty five, the BLS published the angual Annual Benchmark figures
19:00
Speaker 1: for the period from March twenty three to March twenty four.
19:04
Speaker 2: All Right.
19:05
Speaker 1: The results are staggering a drop of six hundred thousand
19:09
Speaker 1: non farm payroll jobs. So to be clear, In other words,
19:14
Speaker 1: the monthly reports had overestimated the number of jobs during
19:19
Speaker 1: those twelve months of the election year to favor Joe
19:22
Speaker 1: Biden and Kamwa Harris, and were revised down now by
19:26
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand jobs. They made up six hundred thousand
19:31
Speaker 1: jobs that didn't exist. And that's on top of the
19:33
Speaker 1: individual monthly reports already being revised down throughout the year
19:37
Speaker 1: long period in question. So the downward revision of the
19:42
Speaker 1: Biden Harris air jobs data are, by the way, set
19:46
Speaker 1: to continue from March through June of last year.
19:49
Speaker 2: The economy, they want you to.
19:51
Speaker 1: Believe, added three hundred ninety eight thousand non farm payrolls
19:54
Speaker 1: according to the monthly reports. Yet the BED data shows
19:57
Speaker 1: a net loss of one hundred and six see three
20:00
Speaker 1: thousand private sector jobs for the exact same period. So
20:05
Speaker 1: add those numbers in you ready. Instead of adding almost
20:10
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand jobs during the middle of last year,
20:12
Speaker 1: the economy actually shrunk in the job market, shedding more
20:17
Speaker 1: than one hundred and sixty thousand jobs. How did no
20:20
Speaker 1: when the media cover this? How is it they were
20:22
Speaker 1: able to get away with this. Now the next annual
20:24
Speaker 1: benchmark will probably be a retroactive reduction of jobs under
20:27
Speaker 1: Biden that exceeds this year's a large downward revision. Were
20:30
Speaker 1: also being warned. So for four years, the Biden administration
20:37
Speaker 1: and the psychopaths and our government and those in the
20:39
Speaker 1: state sponsored media kept telling you that we had the
20:44
Speaker 1: strongest economy in history. Remember when Joe Biden said over
20:46
Speaker 1: and over again, that's why I played them earlier. Then
20:49
Speaker 1: they had statistics that were paraded on the news to
20:52
Speaker 1: convince Americans not to believe their lying eyes or their
20:54
Speaker 1: empty wallets. Voters, luckily weren't fooled, at least not enough
20:59
Speaker 1: of them. That's why they gave President Donald Trump an
21:02
Speaker 1: overwhelming victory in November. He captured not only electoral college,
21:06
Speaker 1: including every single swing state, but he also got the
21:09
Speaker 1: popular vote as well.
21:10
Speaker 2: And the latest economic data.
21:12
Speaker 1: Vindicated the American people's judgment that no number of platitudes
21:17
Speaker 1: from government bureaucrats or deceptive headlines could full families into
21:22
Speaker 1: believing their finances were in good shape before November, when
21:25
Speaker 1: they knew they really weren't. For example, economic rhetoric couldn't
21:30
Speaker 1: paper over the reality that quote, credit card debt exploded
21:34
Speaker 1: to well over one point two trillion from Americans being
21:38
Speaker 1: unable to make ends meet in the Biden economy. Trump
21:42
Speaker 1: was elected to fix our finances and that's why he won,
21:46
Speaker 1: which were much worse than Biden or the media would
21:49
Speaker 1: ever admit. So this was all a massive lie, and
21:53
Speaker 1: now we have the data to prove it. Now, I
21:56
Speaker 1: wonder how many people are going to go out there
21:57
Speaker 1: and write stories and be honest, like, hey, we lie
22:02
Speaker 1: to you, guys, or hey, they lied to you, the
22:04
Speaker 1: government lied to you, Like it's really bad. I doubt
22:08
Speaker 1: anybody will, by the way, I doubt any of them will.
22:11
Speaker 1: That's my gut here, I doubt any of them will.
22:15
Speaker 1: Joining me is a Senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn Center.
22:19
Speaker 1: Nice to have you on, and let's start with what
22:21
Speaker 1: we're seeing with trade, because this is obviously the Democrats
22:25
Speaker 1: and the media's worst nightmare. They wanted you to believe,
22:28
Speaker 1: if you're a citizen in this country, that this was
22:30
Speaker 1: going to destroy your life, that deals weren't going to
22:32
Speaker 1: get done until next year, as they were saying on
22:35
Speaker 1: TV just last week on CNN, Oh, this will be
22:37
Speaker 1: over a year until this stuff gets done. And then
22:39
Speaker 1: sure enough we see this major announcement with UK followed
22:43
Speaker 1: up by another major announcement with China.
22:45
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's getting it done.
22:48
Speaker 9: Yes he is. He is delivering results. And when you
22:52
Speaker 9: have those kind of results, it elevates respect for the
22:56
Speaker 9: United States of America around the globe. Stand that our
23:01
Speaker 9: Trade rep is working on twenty more of these tariff
23:06
Speaker 9: and trade deals, and you know, Ben, that also covers
23:10
Speaker 9: the non tariff trade barriers in those discussions. And these
23:15
Speaker 9: are being done in a bilateral manner, a one on one,
23:19
Speaker 9: which is how the President likes to do it. But
23:23
Speaker 9: he is proving that he built a vision for what
23:26
Speaker 9: this country could return to begging and our leadership position
23:31
Speaker 9: in the world, and he is showing how to make
23:33
Speaker 9: that happen.
23:35
Speaker 1: You look at this president. It's not just on trade deals,
23:37
Speaker 1: but look at the last week. You had UK trade deal,
23:41
Speaker 1: China trade deal, then the release of American hostages, the
23:44
Speaker 1: ceasefire with Indian Pakistan, ceasefire with the Hooties. Oh, and
23:47
Speaker 1: by the way, we're going to make prescription drug costs
23:49
Speaker 1: through an executive order much less expensive for Americans. And
23:54
Speaker 1: giving us favored nation status on these prices. That's just
23:58
Speaker 1: in a week, Yes it is.
24:01
Speaker 9: And of course the MFN issue with the pharmaceuticals is
24:07
Speaker 9: his way of getting these pharmaceutical companies to the table.
24:11
Speaker 9: We have five percent of the world's population, but we
24:16
Speaker 9: represent seventy five percent of pharmaceutical company profits because they're
24:24
Speaker 9: subsidizing these negotiated prices in other countries. Now also getting
24:31
Speaker 9: rid of these pharmacy benefit managers, who are the middlemen
24:36
Speaker 9: between your insurance company and you at the pharmacy counter.
24:41
Speaker 9: Getting rid of them because they go in there, they
24:44
Speaker 9: take the rebates, they negotiate what you're going to be
24:48
Speaker 9: allowed to have. That is why people may be on
24:51
Speaker 9: a certain pharmaceutical and then all of a sudden three
24:55
Speaker 9: months into that, six months into it, well there's a
24:58
Speaker 9: change and they can't have it anymore. They have to
25:01
Speaker 9: get something that is different, and their physician has said, no,
25:06
Speaker 9: this is the prescription that you need, and people are
25:10
Speaker 9: tired of that. So we just left a hearing today
25:16
Speaker 9: with these pharmacy benefit managers. It is my legislation that
25:22
Speaker 9: rains them in and will end this practice of them
25:26
Speaker 9: taking the rebates and driving up the price on consumers.
25:32
Speaker 1: It is incredible and now having this change is going
25:35
Speaker 1: to help all Americans. It should be a non political issue,
25:38
Speaker 1: but it does seem like the Democratic Party is completely
25:41
Speaker 1: controlled by big pharma and their investment in each one
25:44
Speaker 1: of their candidates.
25:46
Speaker 9: Well, it does appear to be that way, and when
25:49
Speaker 9: you look at it, I think that it's easy to
25:52
Speaker 9: see why people feel that. But reigning in the PBMs,
25:57
Speaker 9: I'm telling you that I've gotten a lot bipartisan support
26:02
Speaker 9: on my legislation. It is moving through Finance Committee.
26:06
Speaker 2: It brings me down a little bit when you say PBMs.
26:08
Speaker 1: I want people to understand it because it seems complicated,
26:10
Speaker 1: especially if you don't know. So can you explain exactly
26:13
Speaker 1: how this legislation would work. I think it's important.
26:15
Speaker 9: Absolutely. When Bill Clinton was in office and they were
26:18
Speaker 9: looking at trying to nationalize healthcare, and of course we
26:23
Speaker 9: had the version of hillary Care in Tennessee, which was Tencare,
26:28
Speaker 9: they came up with this idea that they would have
26:31
Speaker 9: a pharmacy benefit manager who would work between the pharmaceutical
26:36
Speaker 9: company and the insurance company and the patient. And what
26:40
Speaker 9: they would do for the insurance company is go to
26:43
Speaker 9: the pharmaceutical companies and negotiate prices. Well. As the rebates
26:49
Speaker 9: got bigger, these PBMs got bigger, and they started saying
26:54
Speaker 9: to the insurance companies, hey, we'll take the rebate and
26:58
Speaker 9: we will split it with you. Well, the poor patient,
27:03
Speaker 9: those of us that are going to the pharmacy counter.
27:05
Speaker 9: We're still playing the full note on this. And it's
27:09
Speaker 9: why you've seen cops go up. It's also why you've
27:13
Speaker 9: seen some prescriptions be disallowed by your insurance plan. Why
27:19
Speaker 9: were they doing that because the PBM says, Okay, let's
27:23
Speaker 9: go over here to another company with a similar pharmaceutical
27:29
Speaker 9: and let's do business there because we get a bigger rebate.
27:34
Speaker 9: So it becomes a profit motive motive and it puts
27:38
Speaker 9: profit at the center and not the patient at the center.
27:43
Speaker 9: So my legislation would require them to move these PBMs
27:49
Speaker 9: to a service fee and it would be a flat rate.
27:53
Speaker 9: And also it requires them to use any willing pharmacy.
27:59
Speaker 9: Now intend see we've had one hundred and twenty pharmacies
28:04
Speaker 9: close over the last decade. These are independent pharmacies. Many
28:09
Speaker 9: times it is the only healthcare access point in some
28:13
Speaker 9: of our rural or underserved communities, and the PBMs have
28:20
Speaker 9: driven them out of business because they will not put
28:24
Speaker 9: them in the formulary. We've had research from the Tennessee
28:28
Speaker 9: Department of Commerce and Insurance that shows even one of
28:32
Speaker 9: the PBMs in our state elevated the price on five
28:37
Speaker 9: hundred and fifty different drugs, did what they call spread
28:41
Speaker 9: pricing to the tune of thirty million dollars and been
28:46
Speaker 9: also refused to pay these pharmacies within the seven day
28:51
Speaker 9: pay period. So it makes it hard for these independent
28:55
Speaker 9: and small pharmacies to do business. My legislation would do
29:01
Speaker 9: would be to end that and say any pharmacy that
29:05
Speaker 9: is willing to participate with a plan, you have got
29:09
Speaker 9: to let them into that plan and let them provide
29:13
Speaker 9: for those patients. And it would cap the fee. That
29:18
Speaker 9: would mean they can't get that rebate. It would cap
29:21
Speaker 9: them at a service fee and disallow the rebate.
29:26
Speaker 2: So what does this look like moving forward?
29:28
Speaker 1: And what are people that are listening to advocate for
29:30
Speaker 1: who do they need to be calling.
29:33
Speaker 9: Well, what they need to do is be contacting some
29:36
Speaker 9: of the House members and encourage them to support it.
29:39
Speaker 9: They need to be contacting their senators to support pharmacy
29:45
Speaker 9: benefit manager reconstruction and reform. And you know, as I said,
29:52
Speaker 9: we're raining them in. I would like to remove them
29:56
Speaker 9: as a part of the marketplace. We don't need the
29:59
Speaker 9: middleman and on this, and we don't need somebody unelected
30:04
Speaker 9: bureaucrats who are out here changing what people can have
30:09
Speaker 9: access to when their physician has already told them what
30:13
Speaker 9: they need to be taking.
30:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:15
Speaker 2: Great point.
30:15
Speaker 1: I want to ask you finally about something else you're
30:17
Speaker 1: focusing on right now, and it deals with after school programs.
30:21
Speaker 2: Talk a little bit about that.
30:23
Speaker 9: Yes, indeed, this is a legislation that Catherine Cortes Masto
30:28
Speaker 9: and I started pushing forward last year, didn't get it
30:32
Speaker 9: across the finish line. This would be a grant program
30:35
Speaker 9: that's the Department of Defense for after school programs in
30:40
Speaker 9: communities so that kids have somewhere to go in the
30:45
Speaker 9: afternoon before parents get home from work. What we have
30:49
Speaker 9: learned is that with juvenile crime, the bulk of that,
30:53
Speaker 9: the majority of it is committed between two o'clock in
30:57
Speaker 9: the afternoon and six o'clock. That's when they're out of
31:00
Speaker 9: school and mom and dad are not home from work.
31:04
Speaker 9: And then we've also found that that is when gangs
31:07
Speaker 9: are recruiting these kids to be members of gangs. Now,
31:12
Speaker 9: we have some cities like Memphis who have seen an
31:16
Speaker 9: astronomical increase in juvenile crime, and this is why Senator
31:22
Speaker 9: Cortes Masco and I decided to do this bill and
31:27
Speaker 9: to do these grants so that community organizations churches, boys
31:32
Speaker 9: and girls clubs, thinks of that nature, can have sports
31:36
Speaker 9: and science, stem arts, tutoring, mentoring programs in the afternoon
31:43
Speaker 9: where kids can participate in these programs and not be
31:49
Speaker 9: approached by these gang members who are trying to recruit
31:52
Speaker 9: them to carry out carjackings and smash and grabs and robberies.
31:59
Speaker 9: These gangs members know that if you get a juvenile
32:02
Speaker 9: who is going to juvenile court, they're probably not going
32:05
Speaker 9: to keep them. The penalties and the sentences are going
32:09
Speaker 9: to be much lighter, and then they recruit these individuals
32:14
Speaker 9: into gangs and it drives up the crime rate. And
32:17
Speaker 9: in areas many cities we've seen the crime rate and
32:20
Speaker 9: the juvenile crime rate increase as much as twenty to
32:24
Speaker 9: two hundred percent. So this is something that as we've
32:30
Speaker 9: looked at how we address this issue with the gangs,
32:34
Speaker 9: with juvenile crime, that we think this will be a help.
32:40
Speaker 9: Last year, when we had this pushed forward, the Memphis
32:43
Speaker 9: City Council did a resolution supporting this initiative. This is
32:48
Speaker 9: a bipartisan initiative. We think it is a step in
32:52
Speaker 9: the right direction. It helps support law enforcement, and it
32:56
Speaker 9: helps support children and families with programs that we would
33:03
Speaker 9: be able to make available at no cost to families.
33:09
Speaker 2: It's incredible.
33:10
Speaker 1: Final question for you, and I know you got to go,
33:12
Speaker 1: but I want to get it deals with this issue.
33:14
Speaker 1: Are you surprised at just the amount of hypocrisy from
33:19
Speaker 1: the media and the left. They looked the other way
33:21
Speaker 1: as masses of men crossed illegally all over the globe
33:25
Speaker 1: in the US everywhere for the last four years under
33:28
Speaker 1: the Biden administration, literally millions coming in. And now the
33:32
Speaker 1: media is furious that Donald Trump has allowed a fuse
33:36
Speaker 1: and this is no exaggeration a few dozen South Africans
33:40
Speaker 1: to come to the US legally as refugees. But they
33:44
Speaker 1: said nothing about Arizona, for example, or Texas or New
33:48
Speaker 1: Mexico when it was being overrun by thousands of African
33:51
Speaker 1: aliens crossing illegally every day.
33:53
Speaker 2: In December of twenty twenty three.
33:56
Speaker 9: The hypocrisy is it is a stand and when you
34:02
Speaker 9: look at the fact that ICE has been working in
34:06
Speaker 9: Tennessee and around Middle Tennessee, and my understanding is they
34:10
Speaker 9: have had about one hundred and forty apprehensions and detentions.
34:16
Speaker 9: These are individuals that are gang members, Trende are Agua
34:20
Speaker 9: MS thirteen, which we have declared as a country that
34:24
Speaker 9: these are foreign terrorist organizations. You've got murderers, rapists, child rapists, pedophiles,
34:32
Speaker 9: child predators that are included in these numbers. And the
34:37
Speaker 9: Democrats are out here saying don't lock them up, don't
34:44
Speaker 9: deport them, and trying to say these people who have
34:48
Speaker 9: illegally entered the country, trying to act as if they
34:52
Speaker 9: have constitutional rights that citizens have when they have illegal
35:00
Speaker 9: entered the country with is a crime. And then they
35:03
Speaker 9: have committed crime against our fellow Tennesseeans and have robbed
35:10
Speaker 9: people of their property or who have dangered them or
35:14
Speaker 9: injured them. Are in the child rapist you know, trying
35:20
Speaker 9: to defend these people. I haven't talked to many folks
35:24
Speaker 9: that want these people living in their neighborhoods. They are
35:28
Speaker 9: criminals and they want them off the street. They want
35:33
Speaker 9: to see them locked up, and they don't want them
35:37
Speaker 9: back in their neighborhoods.
35:38
Speaker 2: Amen to that center. Always a pleasure.
35:40
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on and we will certainly keep
35:43
Speaker 1: people update on this legislation you're working on.
35:45
Speaker 2: Well done, you got it.
35:46
Speaker 1: Take care by now, make sure you share this podcast
35:49
Speaker 1: with your family and friends, put it up on social
35:51
Speaker 1: media wherever you are, and we appreciate you listening every day.
35:55
Speaker 2: We'll see you back here tomorrow