The question that I wanted to lay out in this first hour . . . in the
second hour we're gonna have this guy from We Built the Wall Incorporated on.
We're gonna debate the wall and all that kind of stuff. And
in our third hour, I want to get into some of the some of the topics that
frankly go beyond that you know the lessons of Youngstown steel and all
that sort of thing. But the first the first one is the crises that we're
facing. There's a, and my question to you is, of all the crises that we are
facing right now in the United States. Trump of course is asserting the the you
know brown people coming from Mexico with the drugs and gang tattoos. At least
in his mind. In his delusional paranoid mind. But that's our biggest crisis right?
That's worth them and a national emergency. Well if you're gonna have a
national emergency, what are what are the real crises? And and I think that this is
an important question because if Trump gets away with his emergency declaration.
And Congress and you know he kind of laid this out as did Alec Baldwin. And
Congress says "No it's not really an emergency, sorry".
And then he vetoes that congressional resolution which undoes his declaration
of emergency and then Congress fails to overturn his veto, that means that he
gets his emergency. And then he can move a few billion dollars around and he can
you know build part some more of his wall or whatever he wants to do. But the
question is, what are the real crises that we're facing? I mean if we're going
to I mean if Trump is gonna blow up the Constitution if he's gonna violate
article 1 section 9 if he's gonna if he's gonna say no I am like King George
the 3rd I am I am the one who decides how money gets spent and if I'm the one
who do you know tag takes his act tax money and spends it however I want. If he
does that, successfully, and you know McConnell and the other Republicans
kind of go along with him, and yeah okay all right no problem.
Then and a Democratic president comes in behind him and says you know this is all
well and good but we actually have some real emergencies here I mean the IPCC
says that we now have what 11 years 10 years to basically go to zero carbon or
we're going to see the destruction of much of what we call civilization and
possibly even the destruction of the human race we have you know schools that
are failing we have it you know in large part because of the the whole racist
history of funding schools with property taxes we have more than a half a million
American children suffering from lead poisoning there's an interesting piece
in The New York Times actually back a week or so ago that listed some of the
things that could be done with the five billion dollars that Donald Trump wants
for his wall and I'll just go through this list and as as possibilities but
what I'd like to hear from you at 202 808 9925 is what do you think are the
real emergencies that we're facing I mean if we're gonna if we're gonna
declare an emergency or if a year and a half from now two years from now a
Democratic president comes along and has a Democratic Congress and I think that
that's entirely possible by the way what what can you know which which of these
crises would you like to see us you know would you like to see a Democratic
president basically lay his presidency or her presidency on the line for to do
something about it and how do we fight back when we are being overwhelmed by
the GOP power structure and when the majority of Americans are one paycheck
away from you know having a crisis themselves so some of the things we
could do with the with the five billion dollars the Trump is going to take from
someplace we haven't we don't know yet probably out of the military budget
there was some discussion earlier that he was gonna take you know emergency
funds for California and in Puerto Rico and not Texas no no no no Texas a red
state but California Porter a but you know we don't we just don't know yet
right and we'll find that out as the week goes on but for example more than a
half a million American children suffer from lead poisoning every year this is
an epidemic of lost potential lead poisoning measurably reduces IQ and
increases the propensity for violence to solve that problem nationwide to
literally have have you know contractors whether they're government agencies or
people that we hire using government money to have contractors go through and
and get all the lead paint out of American homes and get the lead water
lines out 125 million bucks save the lives of a half a million children Trump
doesn't consider that important at all so that ain't happening for four hundred
and thirty eight million dollars we could put over a million long-acting
reversible contraceptives they're called lar CS IUDs implants things like that
for at-risk young women and that's based on the on the cost of four hundred and
thirty-eight dollars per person that's four hundred thirty-eight million bucks
we could provide comprehensive drug treatment for forty thousand mothers for
18 months we've got roughly the best best guess is right now that with
children under two years old there's about forty thousand mothers who are
actually addicted to drugs right now and if the cost of twenty eight thousand
dollars each for 18 months for drug treatment we could spend a billion
dollars and solve that problem we could we could save 40,000 children's lives we
could we could for 650 million dollars we could send visiting home nurses to a
hundred thousand pregnant moms and and their and their newborn children you
know shortly after they give birth and help them out for 311 million dollars
this again these are this is chump change compared to the
five billion that Trump wants we could give methadone treatment to forty seven
thousand narcotics addicts in the United States for four and a half billion
dollars we could provide Medicaid to three point seven eight million children
we could give them health care almost four million children for seventy three
million dollars we could give VA healthcare to seven thousand returning
troops for two hundred and fifty million dollars we could radically reduce gang
violence in the United States for 11 million dollars we could buy back a
hundred and eighteen thousand guns for two hundred million dollars we could
provide permanent housing for two hundred thousand homeless people for
seven hundred and twenty million dollars we could provide an employment program
for adults in public housing 90,000 people in public housing who in many
cases are functionally illiterate seven hundred twenty million dollars we can
give them you know an education for two hundred fifty eight million dollars we
could provide literacy programs for five million at-risk children that's $20 per
child per year literacy coaching and there's even a program to do it it's
called reaching out and read for six hundred fifty million dollars we could
provide tech ad a technical education and internships for fifty thousand
low-income young people give them a start
you know launch them into careers in their lives for two hundred thirty four
million to see none of these are even 1 billion dollars and Trump is saying oh
I'm going to get eight billion dollars for two hundred and thirty four million
dollars job training and life skill coaching for thirty six thousand
prisoners so when they you know are integrated back into their societies we
don't have high recidivism rates this is something that they you know every
European country does this we don't we could we could enroll struggling 10th
grade boys this is a particular at-risk group
for 322 million dollars for 11 percent of all our 10th grade boys which is you
know about the percentage who are in all probability gonna get on a high school
or maybe not even graduate from high school and end up you know with a life
that just doesn't work because they really didn't have that education that
they needed for a hundred million dollars we could fund research into
crime drug use in high school graduation rates in poverty we could the the
Treasury Department for our estimates that for every dollar that they spend
funding the Internal Revenue Service they get back six dollars in taxes and
the Republicans ever since Reagan have been defunding the IRS year after year
after year it's down to the point now where it's
very rare that the IRS even audits billionaires anymore they mostly just
audit average working people because you know it's easier and faster and they can
keep their audit numbers up to hundred fifty million dollars we could fund the
IRS for four hundred eighty 1 million dollars we could give a 6 percent raise
to to two hundred thousand teachers that would be all the teachers in Florida
Louisiana in Texas for example 6% raise we could provide financial coaching to
5.9 million struggling Americans for a little over a billion dollars we could
train five hundred thousand five hundred forty two thousand quote working poor
Americans for only forty three million dollars we could buy bed nets to protect
twenty million families from malaria now that would be mostly in other countries
but it would save twenty thousand lives I mean you know the the list goes on we
can provide vitamin A supplementation for a hundred million children prevent
blindness all over the world for two hundred seventy million dollars we could
purify water for twenty five million people for thirty three million dollars
I mean where should our priorities be if we're going to have an emergency and if
Trump is is successful in establishing this precedent
what should a Democratic president do if they're going to declare an emergency
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