Sen. Moran Speaks with Pete Mundo on KCMO Talk Radio

Let's Let's say. say say say hi hi hi to Kansas US US Senator Senator Jerry Jerry Moran Moran Moran joins joins joins joins us us. us us on on on. on KCMO KCMO KCMO Talk Talk Radio on a a Thursday Thursday morning. morning. morning. Thank Thank Thank Thank you. you you you so so so much much much much for for. for for being being being back here on KCMO KCMO and and and we we we appreciate appreciate appreciate the the the the. time time time as as as always thanks thanks for for the the invitation. invitation. invitation. good good good to to to be be be with with with with you. you you you and and and your your your listeners listeners. listeners and and and hope hope hope everyone is doing well well with with the the the little little little more more more more freedom freedom freedom freedom in in in. in their their their life life life and and. and and perhaps. perhaps perhaps utilizing personal personal personal responsibility responsibility responsibility as as as as well. well. well. well. well. Absolutely Absolutely. Absolutely Absolutely. so so so we're hoping to get back there there sooner sooner than than later. later. I I I wanna wanna wanna talk talk talk talk to to to with you. you you you about about about about a a a a tweet tweet. tweet tweet you you you put out last night shortage shortage of of of PE PE PE across across. across the the state state and. and you are appreciative. Of Taiwan for donating 100000 surgical masks to Kansas to protect our front line, medical professionals and those working on our vital food supply chains. How difficult has it been for the state because we've heard this from a lot of people around the state to get some of these PE in the some of the hot spots and especially the rural parts of the state like in southwest Kansas Pete You're absolutely right and appreciate the Kansas City show talking about the. Coty of our state of Kansas we've had real challenges with PE from the very beginning. It's one of the places that our country was not prepared and it's one of the reasons that the stay at home homeowners. the social isolation was in we had to encounter was because we want to make sure our health care providers in particular had the necessary tools to take care of us if this virus turned out to be something that was widespread and and hugely deadly so PE has. At the forefront of the efforts from day one and we've had a lot of consequences as a result of not having a sufficient supply and it's discouraging to me that it's so difficult to to discouraging maybe too strong a word I would have expected us to be able to shift more quickly our manufacturing to something in great demand by the take away from this is we are so dependent in health care supplies and tools medical vaccines prescription kinds of drugs. On other places around the world, China, in particular for our supplies and in my view a take away from this circumstances never again should we be so reliant upon foreign countries to meet our needs Having said that there's a number of countries Taiwan being one of them that meet our standards that have the same kind of medical standards drug standards of in this case, personal protection equipment that are FDA requires of a US companies other countries. Handful of them comply with those same kind of standards and a relationship in large part because of one of my staffers. in fact, a staffer from the kids from Prairie Village who who works in our office, Tom Brandt his relationship with the folks in Taiwan. They're representatives we made the request of Taiwan to see if they can help the state of Kansas out and graciously they're making donations of personal protection equipment in our case masks hundred thousand of them them coming coming to to Kansas Kansas to. to be utilized across our state. And you're right about Southwest Kansas, where it's so important that we keep the meat processing plants in business important for the people who work there for the communities in which they're in important for livestock producers who need a market for their cattle and important to the consumer who goes to the grocery store or to a restaurant looking to buy beef senator that what you just said there is something that we also heard in the last couple of weeks from a Center across the state line, Josh Hawley, who I know you're very familiar with and know well. so when you look at this this idea idea of of of when when when we we we get get get out out out of of of this. this this, can can we. we take some of that. Core Medical manufacturing out of China in particular. Do you believe there is bipartisan support for that? I do and I appreciate Josh Hawley's leadership on this issue. are we are communicating with each other on this topic and I think there's a a take away now. I would tell you that we may get things from China because they're cheaper but that ought not be the the criteria criteria by by by which which which we we we we. we we we now now now know know know that that that. that shouldn't shouldn't shouldn't be be be the criteria by which we determine where we get things when we. What we're trying to find PE we have lots of hospitals communities the state of Kansas others who have ordered PE from China and we spend a lot of time trying to get it cleared through customs. one is the is the Border Customs Patrol, but second is FDA and too many times we found that it doesn't meet FDA standards. so we're there's just too much falsehood out there about what's available and it's quality so Ian, Japan and others, and it's not just it's not just China, but China we know is an adversary has I can't imagine there's any good intentions they have in taking care of our country and so it's a particular one that we ought to be paying attention to and it's certainly not just masks drugs vaccines. it's a it's an important issue for our country and I with Senator Holly. We ought not be waiting to get this process. Going we don't have to wait until the 19 is behind us. Let's go to work now to change our supply story in the United States. Senator Jerry Moran is here on KCMO Talk Radio. So let's talk about you know we obviously have a a health crisis with everything going on right now. We also have an economic crisis and a debt crisis and a lot of people understand why all this money was spent the last few weeks the phase four ideas appear to have cooled down a little bit the last few days, or at least not getting talked about. Much Where do you think Senate leadership is Mitch Mcconnell, the President the House leadership. where do you think people are right now in this phase four idea that's being talked about regarding infrastructure or maybe more payments to Americans. We have another three million people out of work This morning. So where are we right now in a potential phase for is that the smartest thing to do based on the debt that we have racked up look, cannot afford. There's no way the taxpayers of this country. By our way out of the economic crisis that has been and will be continued to be created in the absence of economic activity. we are we are not capable of overcoming an economy that is idd by simply putting simply not the right word by putting money taxpayer dollars or borrowed money into the economy. It has a role to play, but you cannot you can't take away the economy and then then tax tax tax or or or borrow borrow borrow money money money money. to to to to recover recover recover recover The. the the the economy economy. economy we We have have to. to get back. We are responsibly at work and business is doing It's business so the focus needs to be on how we do that right, how we protect the people and their health as the economy gets back to work and while that is the priority, they're still maybe things that we need to do in regards to a federal program so called Phase four. But in my view, it ought to be at least initially trying to fix the problems that we've already created fix the problems with. 12 and three that are out there I would again suggest that we continue investing in the research to get a vaccine and to produce test the quickest way we can get our economy back to work. There's gonna be people if if President Trump says, it's fine to go back to work if the governors of our state say it's fine to go back to work. There's many people who are chomping at the bit to do so and they'll jump at the chance, but there's also a lot of people with health care problems with the children at home with elderly parents that they're caring for that are reluctant to go by. And Castel testing our neighbors guessing the people we work with and also getting a vaccine. So it's a place I could see a spending some money, but the the there is a crisis coming. you mentioned that I haven't heard any other broadcaster news person in the news say it the way you said it it was right on which is there's a lot of crisis. One of them is the debt and deficit crisis that has been lingering for out there in front of us for a long time exacerbated by what we're doing today, we had a roll. I'm trying to keep the economy and employment and employees in a position which they were satisfactory. They were okay, but we've got to get the economy going. We can't borrow enough money to make it work. Otherwise he's Senator Jerry Moran on KCMO Talk Radio Center. Thank you for being here on KCMO and Kansas City. We appreciate the time as always and I will talk to you soon be well. Thank you there. He is Moran on KCMO. Talk Radio 7:10 AM 103 Point seven FM