WEBVTT - How Screwed Are We? 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.600 The greatest part of this show is hearing from you, 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.400 hearing your questions from all the wonderful people who have 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.440 subscribed and left five star reviews and made this one 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.720 of the biggest podcasts out there. And regularly I squander 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.000 that excellent aspect of this show because I just want 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.120 to ask all of my questions and we just really 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.239 get into it. So I am so excited to say 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.840 this episode all mail bag. So please thank you so 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.040 much for sending your questions in. We've got a lot. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.360 Some of them are brilliant, some of them are funny, 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.839 some of them are extremely irreverent, and we will hit 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.519 all of those questions. Please be sure to like and 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.720 subscribe before the overlords in Big Tech take us all out. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.800 For now, I am Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:58.360 Ted Cruise. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm 0:00:58.360 --> 0:00:59.880 going to jump right in. I'm not going to allow 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:04.440 myself to say one extra word from Eddie. First question, Senator, 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.640 what was your least favorite part of Joe Biden's terrible 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.240 State of the Union speech? Well, it disturbed my nap. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:19.040 That was irritating, but but look the part I hated 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.520 the boast was a line that he had where he 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.080 said we the people and then he said that's us, 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.119 that's the government, and that just pissed me off because 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.160 I'm sorry, that is utter and complete crap. That. Look, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.840 I know that Joe Biden was not a very good 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.320 law student, but he needs to go back and take 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.959 con law again, because we the people, which is how 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:52.640 the Constitution begins, means us the people. Damn it, It's 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.200 not government. It's the opposite of government. And you know, 0:01:56.240 --> 0:02:01.560 this is Joe Biden being a totalitarian and like justifying 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.600 massive government power by saying, you know, I am we 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:07.960 the people. I mean, you know, it reminded me of 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:13.080 Louis the fourteenth LAMI LETI okay, And you did actually 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.679 get me to to to mangle French on the podcast. 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.760 So we I've been hanging around with Gayle's too much. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.359 It's clearly clearly a problem. It's far into But but 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.960 you know, Joe Biden thinks he's the sun God. I mean, 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:31.799 I mean, it is the arrogance and ignorance of that statement, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.840 and it is what big government democrats believe. But I 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.359 think a lot of people think this, Senator, and I 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.960 will try to refrain from ascribing to malice that which 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.840 is equally explained by stupidity. True enough, Barack Obama said this. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.239 Do you remember Barack Obama said, the government, that's that's 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.519 what we do together, That's that is us. It was 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.040 what Joe Biden said was basically a plagiarized line from 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.400 Obama and Joe Biden. Biden. Biden would never plagiarized. No 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.000 could come on. Joe would not do that, not him, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.560 not him. What do you say to people who say, look, yeah, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.040 the government is when we all get together, you know, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.560 we the people get together, and then the thing that 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.359 we do that expresses our unity together is the government. 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.160 And you you're just some crazy conservative who has an 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.120 irrational fear of government. So we the people is the 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:24.240 boss of government. Look, for most of human history, government 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.240 was the monarch, was the ruler, and the power of 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.280 government came from God Almighty and and and it was 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:38.560 a top down vision. And when the Framers rested sovereignty 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:43.760 with the people and the people lent government power to 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.600 officeholders for a temporary period of time, that transformed the 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.960 face of the planet. I mean that was a revolutionary idea. 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.720 You know. Thomas Jefferson put it really well when he 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:02.160 said that the Constitution serves as chains to bind the 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:06.840 mischief of government. Yeah, it's all about restraining government. Now. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.000 We want a government strong enough to defend the nation, 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.160 to do the essential functions that the government needs to do. 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.800 But the Constitution and Bill of Bright are all about 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.320 protecting we the people from the Joe Biden's of the 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.200 world that want to take our freedom's away. And there 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.200 seems to be this total blurring of the distinction between 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.719 the different parts of the government. I'm no con law expert, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.720 but I have read the document once or twice, and 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.359 it seems to me you have the people, and you 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.880 have the states, and you have the federal government, and 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.000 you have a separation of powers, and you have checks 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.480 and balances, and you have federalism. And yet when you 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.600 hear Joe Biden talk about it, it's all just kind 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.880 of the same blob. And we got to do whatever 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.200 it tells us to do. Yeah. Look, the modern left, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:01.479 it is openly socialist. The people driving the agenda in 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.920 the Biden administration are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren an AOC. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.560 Bernie an AOC explicitly or socialists, and Warren is not 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.039 too far behind that, and that means they believe their 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:19.280 solution to everything is government and government power. Now, one 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.600 of the consequences, I will say, the Biden guys, they 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.159 came in on January twentieth. They immediately fire everyone connected 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.680 with the Trump administration. They immediately start rescinding rules. And 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.960 they are frankly much more effective at doing this, yeah, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.640 than Republicans are. But but for them, this is religion. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.960 Government is religion, it is faith, It is what they do. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.280 You know, too often Republicans treat treat politics like a 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.640 game of croquet at the back lawn, and the differential 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.680 and seriousness is it's a problem. So speaking of the 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.560 differential and seriousness between the Republicans and the Democrats, this 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:05.800 question comes from Jonathan Caitlyn twenty twenty one. Are you 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:10.320 with her? Um? Look, I think it will be interesting 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.760 to see see how California resolves that. UM. I find 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:24.280 it wonderfully beautiful that Gavin Newsom is getting recalled. UM. 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.440 I mean it. You know, karma has a way of 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.320 coming back on you. You know, it says something that 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.880 his shut everything down policies were so extreme that even 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:40.080 the people California said enough of this nonsense. Um, that's good, 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.880 that's good. That's actually good for hope in America. So 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:48.159 I don't know Caitlyn. I I met Caitlin back oh 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.360 twenty thirteen. I think it was when I came out 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.640 to LA to speak to the Friends of ABE, the 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.880 conservative group in Hollywood, and and then Caitlyn was Bruce, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:04.559 and Bruce Jenner was openly conservative, which was a really 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.200 risky position to take in Hollywood. People don't know this, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.800 but but Bruce Jenner would go to conservative events. It's 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:16.480 not exactly hiding this sort of thing. It Bruce had 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.280 demonstrated real courage. Now Caitlyn is running. You know, in 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.960 twenty sixteen, when I was running for president, Caitlyn Jenner 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:28.160 publicly said that she wanted to be my trans ambassador, 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.920 the trans ambassador for Ted Cruz, which which caused a 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.640 lot of the LBGT world to lose their minds that 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.560 that Caitlyn said such a thing listen to. I don't know. 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:40.240 I don't know who all's going to run and what's 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.640 going to happen, but but I think it's great. Democracy 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.800 is all about standing up for what you believe in. 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.000 And if the people of California choose anybody who is 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:55.120 more protective of liberty than Gavin Newsom. That's a step 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.960 in the right direction. There is a real world because 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.160 obviously it would raise lots of questions about and just 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.720 the pronouns. What pronouns do you use? What does this 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.480 mean for these broader issues of gender and sex? But 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.520 it may simply be the case that in California that's 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.120 about as conservative as you get. And so yes, I 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:12.680 suppose we all have to wait and see a lot 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.480 of other people are going to be part of this 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.720 race as well. We have a question, Senator, that is 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.560 that just cuts right to the point from the Panda 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.720 Tribune when no one is watching or any members of 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.400 Congress actually productive public servants, Yeah, I would say there 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.240 there are. Look, there are actually a number of members 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.120 of Congress who work pretty hard. It varies, and there's 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.760 a wide variance. You know. I remember when I was 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.160 first elected to the Senate's probably I don't know, twenty thirteen, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.880 twenty fourteen, first couple of years I'm up there, and 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.880 I went out to dinner with John McCain and John 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:58.960 McCain he and I had a famously combative relationship. Was 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.000 that the time he I believe he called you a 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.520 wacko bird. That was that the phrase he did. He 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.040 publicly called me a wacco bird. And actually when he 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.080 called me a wacco bird, I went to the Senate 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.920 floor and I gave a speech praising John McCain. And 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.600 it so happened. It was the fortieth anniversary of his 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.160 release from the Hanoi Hilton, and so I gave a 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.079 speech just unambiguously praising him. He served our nation, he 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.160 was shot down, he was a prisoner of war, and 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.760 most incredibly, he was offered early release, and he said 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.400 no because he thought it would be dishonorable. And I said, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.439 you know, genuinely and from the heart, that I admire 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.280 and revere that service and sacrifice. I hope in the 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.199 same situation I would do the same thing. Ye, But 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.640 you and I we've never been tortured, we've never been 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.360 in prisoned. I don't know what I would do in 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.760 that circumstance. And so every word I said praising him 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.920 in that speech was heartfelt. I didn't praise him for 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.640 the terrible liberal policies he supports. There's lots of things 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.520 John McCain did that I and like, but I praised 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.800 him for that, which was praiseworthy. But I also meant 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.400 it to be a statement that if you go low road, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.120 if you go nasty and personal and in the gutter, yeah, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.840 I'm not going to respond in kind. And so I didn't. 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.320 But anyway, the story I was going to tell, because 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.040 this is a digression from the very good question. Some 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.360 months later, John and I went out and had had 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.280 dinner and we're talking just about the Senate, and he 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.720 made a point to me. Then he said, you know, 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.400 in the Senate, like in most places in life, the 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.440 eighty twenty rule applies, which is that eighty percent of 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.600 the work is done by twenty percent of the people. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.800 That the Senate is a place where if you really 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:42.599 want to roll up your sleeves and you want to 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.200 lead and you want to engage, that you can and 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.080 you can very quickly lead. You don't have to. You know, 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.640 the House can be tougher. The House. Seniority matters a lot. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.960 They're four hundred and thirty five members. Take it can 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.440 take a while to have an impact in the House. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.040 You know, in the Senate there only one hundred senators. 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.160 It's not that big a place. Right now, they're fifty Republicans. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.760 If you care about an issue, you can stand up 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.600 and lead and make a difference. So there are number 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.640 of Senators that make a big difference. Mike Lee. I 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.679 adore Mike Lee. He is a constitutionalist, he is passionate, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.800 he works hard. You know someone who had just retired, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.840 Lamar Alexander. Lamar a lot more moderate than I am. 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.280 But actually Lamar and I got along very well. He 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:34.319 was a hard working, He delved into details, he delved 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:41.000 into substance, and he would drive a legislative agenda. There 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.240 are other Senators that frankly just go to cocktail parties. Yeah, 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:47.680 like it is a job. I mean, the eighty twenty 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.840 rule means also that eighty percent of the folks are 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.400 not working that hard. But you know what, that's true. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.319 That's true most places you go. That's true in most companies. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.640 And if you resolve. So when I'm talking to potential 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.559 candidates who are thinking of running for Senate, and I 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.360 talked to a fair number of peopleho are looking at 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.679 Senate seats, and they'll ask They'll be like, well, can 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.679 you make a difference in the Senate? Can you do anything? 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:18.040 And with the right person, I'm very encouraging because I say, look, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.160 if you want to, if you're willing to do the work, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.000 this is to a significant part self directed. How many 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:26.440 issues are you going to lead on? What are you 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.160 going to do? Are you gonna you know, how hard 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.080 are you going to work? But if you're willing to 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.000 work and lead and you've got courage, can you can 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.200 make a big difference? Yes? And I actually can attest 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.960 to your complement of Senator Alexander because just about a 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.800 month ago, my newborn son was baptized in Lamar Alexander's 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.880 punch bowl. This was a very strange circumstance. It said 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.120 Lamar Alexander, Businessman of the Year nineteen eighty or something. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.760 Somehow a Catholic church in Nashville fell into this sort 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.040 of thing. And so Lamar Alexander is still doing good work, 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.280 including bringing my son into the body of Christ that 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.520 I'm almost speechless on that. I will say, Lamar owns 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:10.040 something that that is a unique connection between your new 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.319 home and my longtime home, which is that Lamar has 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:19.480 a walking stick that was owned by Sam Houston. And 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:24.000 Sam Houston was governor of Tennessee and was governor of Texas. 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.280 The only person in US history to be governor of 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.800 two different states. And so it's a very cool walking 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.280 stick that Sam Houston had. By the way, on the 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:37.080 question of senators doing things productive, I'll give you an 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.760 example that might surprise folks, which is a Democrat. Okay, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.600 Kirston Gillibrand. So I like Kirston. She and I are friends, 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.800 We get along and and actually just today I did 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.520 a press conference with Kirston Gillibrand on an issue that 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.079 she has been relentlessly leading on and that I've been 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.560 working with her for about eight years. And it's sexual 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.280 assault the military. It's a real problem. The numbers are 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.280 very discouraging that far too many servicewomen and even some 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:12.000 servicemen are subjected to sexual assault in the military. And 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.480 you know, I twenty thirteen I started on the Senate 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.240 Armed Services Committee. She was on it, and she's passionate her. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.760 She has legislation that would move the decision about whether 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:32.640 to prosecute sexual assault from the commanding officer to a 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.560 military prosecutor who is outside the chain of command. And 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.120 the top brass that the Pentagon hate this idea and 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.960 they argue vehemently against it. And so I'm brand new 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.560 on the Armed Services Committee and I go to a 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.200 hearing and you know, sometimes you think, well, debate doesn't 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.280 make a difference, that's all just play acting and everyone 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.720 knows what they think. Yeah. Well, I went into that 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.440 hearing genuinely not knowing what I thought and wanting to 0:14:55.480 --> 0:15:02.760 listen to the arguments on both sides, and the brass say, well, 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.800 moving the prosecuting decision out of the chain of command, 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.360 it would undermine good order and discipline. It would make 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:13.320 it harder for the commanders to lead their troops. Kirsten 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.960 came back with a number of facts, one of which 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.240 is that multiple of our allies have done exactly this reform. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.920 So Canada has done it, the United Kingdom has done it, 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.400 Israel has done it, and they studied it and it 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.320 has not had an effective undermining good order and discipline. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.400 And the real challenge is that the rates of reporting 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.640 in the military are very very low, that when someone 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.560 is a victim of assault, they are far too frequently 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.120 unwilling to come forward and report it. And one of 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.400 the biggest reasons is they don't believe the commanding officer 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:51.760 will be fired and partial that they're worried that the 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.560 commanding officer may be buddies with the guy who committed 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.120 the assault and will be reluctant to bring charges. And 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.920 so I listened to those arguments and was persuaded by them, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.960 and so back in twenty thirteen signed I signed up 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:13.200 and co sponsored the legislation with Kirsten and have been fighting. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.760 And she's been fighting for eight years and I've been fighting. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.640 And so we sit down with whiplists, where she goes 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.680 and looks for Democrats to support it, I go and 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.720 look for Republicans to support it. We just did a 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.200 press conference this morning. I think the bill is likely 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.520 to pass in the next two years, that we're seeing 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.960 really growing momentum. But I use that as an example 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:38.240 where she has, I mean just tirelessly bird dogged this issue. 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.880 And I think if we can reduce the incidents of 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.400 sexual assault in the military and do a better job 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:50.080 protecting our servicemen and women, that's very worthwhile. Certainly, next 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.760 question comes from Pancake Robot. I assume this is mister 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.080 Robot's Christian name after Saint Pancake of Alexandria. Question is 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.040 I want to hear Senator Cruz's take on the paradox 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.560 of Republican power. We elect Republicans to make the federal 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.320 government less powerful, but in practice that just means that 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.040 Republicans are reluctant to wield power to achieve that objective. 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.000 It's a very insightful question. How do we resolve that? 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.399 I think there are a couple of things that drive 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:27.119 at one we mentioned just just earlier in the pod. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.400 Democrats are ruthlessly serious. Government is life or death to them. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:38.440 They spend every waking moment thinking about how to be effective. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.320 Republicans often politics, if they do it it's a hobby, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.880 it's not It doesn't have the same seriousness. So when 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.679 it comes to wielding power, you don't get people that 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:55.679 are nearly as serious about moving a policy agenda because 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.520 they don't necessarily have the same passion to it. There 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.280 are a couple full of different challenges. Let me only 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.200 up break this down a couple of ways. Number one, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.320 how do you run a federal agency? And so a 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.760 challenge that Republican appointees having an agency is if you're 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:15.480 in an agency that you think should be abolished, that 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.480 can be a real problem for running it. You know, 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.760 you remember Rick Perry famously at the debate, you know, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.120 forgot one of the agencies that he wanted to abolish 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.760 and said, oops, the irony is the agency he forgot 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.760 was the Department of Energy, which he later became Trump's 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.520 Secretary of Energy. So he literally led the department that 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.800 he forgot that he wanted to abolish, undermining it from within. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.119 One of my first jobs in politics was in the 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.160 George W. Bush administration, where I was at the Federal 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:48.280 Trade Commission. And my boss was a guy named Tim Muris, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.520 who was the chairman of the FTCs of brilliant guys 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.000 the lawyers would economist, and he recruited me in to 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:56.840 be the head of policy at the FTC. And this 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.240 is two thousand, two thousand one to two thousand and three. 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.800 And what Tim understood if you go into an agency 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.840 as a Republican political appointee and you tell every person 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.680 at the agency your job is meaningless. Everything you've done 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.159 with your life is worthless. I hate the mission of 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.320 this agency and you suck. Now follow me. They're going 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.160 to fight back. They're going to resist you at every turn. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.040 What Tim understood instead, a government bureaucracy is like a fire, 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.160 and you can direct the fire in a positive direction. 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.199 But if you if you just try to kill it, 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:37.040 it will try to kill you. And so, for example, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:42.680 at the FTC, my office, the FTEC is charged by 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:47.400 statute with defending competition and defending consumers. They're seventy five 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.280 PhD economist at the FTC. And so one of the 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.080 things that I led is something called competition advocacy where 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.959 we would study a state legislature or a state regulatory 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.080 body would request our views on particular and a competitive 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:07.800 bill they were considering that was typically restricting competition, favoring 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.639 big business and hurting consumers, and we would study it. 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.200 The PhD economists would study it, and then we would 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.880 go and provide testimony or provide expert guidance on if 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:24.960 you do this, prices will rise twenty percent for consumers. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.639 And the competition advocacy people were eager to do it. 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.720 It was beneficial, but it was expanding freedom and it 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:37.240 was reducing the footprint of government. Another example class action lawsuits. 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:42.200 There were plaintiffs lawyers that were bringing abusive class action 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:47.400 lawsuits where they'd have a big class, they'd negotiate what's 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.880 called a coupon settlement, which is you know, anyone who 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.359 ever bought a bag of Doritos gets a coupon for 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.080 ten cents off Doritos. And but you know, as fifty 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.800 million people, so everyone gets a ten cent coupon, and 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:05.480 the lawyers take home seventy million dollars. And the coupon settlements, frankly, 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.919 are a croc many times because they're designed to make 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:14.160 lawyers fees and not actually to help the ostensible clients. 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:16.879 And so what we did in the FTC is we 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:22.359 began intervening in cases that involved coupon settlements and arguing 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.520 to the judge that the judge ought to chop down 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:26.560 the lawyer's fees and give the money to the consumers. 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:31.760 And you know, Michael, on the question of the Republican paradox, 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.399 I like that the way that was put it also 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.639 sometimes is a conservative paradox. And I'll give an example. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:47.160 Many times moderates in government have been much better than 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.240 the conservatives. They've been better prepared, they've taken it more seriously, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:55.160 and they've won bureaucratic battle. So I'll give an example. 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.520 One of my favorite books in politics is Jim Baker's 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.920 book his autobiography, and it's called work, hard, study, and 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.080 stat of politics, which was actually the advice his grandfather 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.159 gave him. And you know, you think about it. So 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.920 Baker was the campaign manager of five presidential campaigns, I mean, 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.040 pause and like you know, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.480 of State. I mean, the guy had an extraordinary career. 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.439 In nineteen eighty, Baker was the campaign manager of George 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:29.280 Herbert Walker Bush's campaign running against Ronald Reagan. And that 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:34.040 was a bitter primary. That's where Bush accused Reagan of 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:36.400 voodoo economics. I mean, they were pounding the heck out 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:43.160 of each other. Reagan wins, and Jim Baker becomes Reagan's 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:47.399 chief of staff in the White House. I mean that's 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.600 I don't know of any other circumstance where the campaign 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.280 manager for your primary opponent becomes your chief of staff 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.480 when you win. That that is an extraordinary thing. And 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.400 so Baker recounts in his book, right at the beginning 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.000 of the Reagan White House, he sits down with Ed Meese. Now, 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.840 Ed mess is someone who's a dear friend. He was 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:10.400 a longtime confident of Reagan's. It's this principal conservative. When 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.720 I first ran for Senate, Ed Meese was the chairman 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:18.040 of my national leadership team. He's an extraordinary guy. Baker 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.520 recounts how he sat down with Mee to divide responsibilities 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.000 in the White House, and he pulls out a yellow 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.679 notepad and he draws a line down the middle and 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:29.600 so on, and he says, all right, Ed, let's let's 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:33.480 divide responsibilities. And he says, look, Ed, you've been with 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:37.280 the president for so long. You have his trust, you 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.280 have his confidence, you know his heart. Ed, you need 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:42.760 to drive the substance. You need to drive the meat. 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.680 You need to drive really the important stuff that we're doing. 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.720 So you need to lead the Domestic Policy Council, you 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:51.439 need to lead the National Economic Council. All of the 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:56.160 substance you should be in charge of. And Baker says, look, 0:23:56.440 --> 0:23:59.760 I'll just do the admin stuff. And he said, I'll 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:04.840 tell the schedule, and I'll take personnel, and I'll take budget, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.159 and I'll take ledge affairs and so Actually, in his 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:11.280 book he reproduces he has a xerox copy of the 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:14.800 actual yellow pad that says Ed and Jim, and it 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:18.640 has that on there. And in his autobiography Baker admits 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:26.240 he says, look, I knew I was eating niece's lunch. Because, 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:30.560 all right, if he controls the schedule, he controls every 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:34.400 minute of the president's time. That's a big deal. If 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:37.880 you decide how the president spends every day, all day long. 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:41.159 If he controls personnel, there's an old saying that I 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:46.080 think is very true that personnel is policy. If Baker 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:48.879