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Video Transcript
It you might want to refresh the page it might be there okay Got it and in the shop good hey everyone this is the cross and I'm Once again at the prayer you hq I hope everyone is having a wonderful passover in a good Friday the scribbles behind me are from bring your daughter to work day yes that's Monday and jared was midtown to erase it and tell you who are next custis for Facebook like so we thought we'd leave it there she said you know virtual song her own right and in art master obviously three and a half year old stevie is probably watching right now call sign with your daddy anyway today I'm very excited to welcome one of our newest Greater new presenters and apparently a crush of the lovely Mrs prager if you were living to his interview with denis yesterday he is a Fox news contributor a regular Fox and friends weekend host an army veteran and They're up in the arena which you can purchase on amazon or bookstores everywhere pete helps thank you for being with us today thanks so much for having me I appreciate it um love your video this week and congrats on reaching I mean you're at one point five million views already which is great You guys can do that's not me that's University you guys are built an amazing platform to be a part of it well thank you we're honored to have you this week and this is something that I know you've been talking about a lot of your twitter feet was Mark the anniversary of the Va scandal under the ultimate fitness Shop so first could you for our audience summarize what the scandal was well the Va scandal was was it was broken open by whistle blowers at the Phoenix when they exposed that their secret wait lists that were being kept the to hide the Wait times for vets and unfortunately veterans while waiting unless that were fraudulent died waiting for care that was exposed by whistle blowers and eventually through the House veterans Affairs Committee investigations were conducted and those of us who follow the close he realized quickly this is not just Phoenix this is systemic problem wait times are much longer than to be able to admit and it's a scandal the fact that the bureaucracy covers it up if you're actually hides in high to keep information it close to the vest so veterans don't know it in a public doesn't know what is everyone that one That's to be served well so the scandal exposed the depth of the corrosive miss of the culture at the and unfortunately under the Obama administration there was such a belief in the single payer system that the works that they just poured warm money into that hoping it would fix It and of course that hasn't solve the problem we're never never just a billion dollars away from a fixed utopia the culture is corrosive veterans don't have choice there's no accountability no transparency about real wait times so the scandal continued now thankfully President trump And on a platform of fixing the and bringing a new culture they're so hopeful that can change with three years on that's are still waiting and there's a lot of people not held accountable there's things that can be done about it but certainly fix so it's still going on then I want Personally they're just they're just a segment this morning on Fox and friends when I was hosting about the Washington dc hospital it's three miles from the White House yet they're the at the has under uncovered terrible management um No filthy storage better is waiting too long mistreatment of veterans where they had to relieve the director of the hospital and bring someone in from the outside but they couldn't fire the director they do move him somewhere else because you know it's almost impossible to fire anybody thank This President and his Secretary David shaw can have latched on to the things that need to happen which is real accountability to the bill that could be passed um and choices just just takes a long time to steer the ship the titanic Is the bureaucracy so no it the scale is not gone the problems are gone veterans are still bearing the brunt of it but I have hope that we can we can make some changes so I guess the average Americans next question would be okay so what does the have to do with single payer healthcare then It is a single payer system the right now has a monopoly on veterans care the thing is a lot of that still seek a lot of their care outside the they have to think that they can go somewhere else is the government will pay for it so they only do the things they have to do often times At the and they go elsewhere what we do that too to take on a single payer system right now a bureaucracy that doesn't isn't beholden to competition has a monopoly on the veteran the veteran is the number a widget that they the plug and play wherever they need to as Supposed to a customer that they have to serve uniquely and their unique needs so you have to change that culture there's three things I believe need to happen one you have to have accountability a leader of the has to be able to fire people who are under performing or grossly negligent David Wants that um responsibility the House has passed a bill called the veterans accountability first act the Senate is pending on it if the President signed it would be a huge civil service overhaul that would give the Secretary the ability to fire people you got great employees but you got a lot of And once you have to be the bad ones to change the cultural rot second one is choice leather veteran leaders if they don't they wanna go to a Va facility great but if they can't be seen a timely manner let him go to a private provider let the veteran choose don't let the choose where they go When they go based on how long your waiting or a geographic standard basically say hey that you're in charge you wanna go to be a great if not here's a network of private providers that are proving you wanna go to the dollars follow you that way to is competing for that veterans business there are Accountable they have to be nimble they have to create a customer service platform the veterans want that forces change inside of your acre city that never otherwise wants to change and the third aspect is transparency right now that's have no idea how long and actually waiting if you book an appointment Call one 800 number and hope someone answers and hope they schedule you something in the next 30 60 days and even then your appointment can be cancelled on a whim but you know I buy things on amazon or you book hotels online or or whatever it is and you see immediately that your book You have an appointment it's on your screen it goes in your calendar everyone's accountable it's all clear that doesn't happen for the thankfully Secretary shock and just yesterday or two days ago released a new program where all the way times of all the facilities are now public so that you can While there and look some of them are really bad some of them are better but the shit that the sunlight of transparency means that finally not just the veteran who's making a choice about what the sooner they wanna go to but also the policy maker or the public or the media can Scrutinize those numbers and then hold directors accountable and if a vet says well you know the says I only wait 12 days but I've been waiting for 40 now you can test that contrast as opposed to the Va having a monopoly on the information and when you control the information you can control the Position so I like so far of the trump folks it done yeah and and what is your video playing out there some people I think even in places like Pennsylvania and Arizona that we're funding that numbers of yes that's were being seen and and controlling that information was enabling them to cover Our tracks and not provide our veterans the care that they deserve that's right so it's not that trust but verify with the it's not really trust and definitely verify especially with wait list numbers it wasn't just minutes you waiting in for manipulation saying it was so that they Receive bonuses based on metrics that were never tied to reality so there minute there it's one of those things where if the veteran schedule an appointment then the system they would they would not enter it into the system until it was 15 days before the appointment so it look like it was 15 days but Appointment might sit in a drawer for 45 days before it's entered into the system so a veteran wait 60 days but the computer system says that the only waited 15 that's why the Va gets to report good numbers but the veteran in reality is only waiting 60 days we do know that Some places well it's not a scandalous there are ways to fudge the numbers to make it look better than it is I do believe those Secretary show the new director is committed to changing that it's just gonna have to stay persistent and his after get some help from Congress in order to change it so credits my Thank you well we'll see we have a true single payer system across the board like in Canada for all of America systems not just for the veterans when it then affect positively affects the entire population and be better for everyone so how Would your response to that be I would say what fantasy world are you living in because that's our a one of the most revered segment of our population so policy makers and the public want them to be served well you know if they're not and to their generally more healthy guys and gals And we're able to get into the military and capable of serving you and if they come back with combat wounds or complications other pro active you know vigorous type of people who wanna be address so there are 22 21 and a half million veterans in America today only seven Is seven to eight million of them actually use the and we have has a hundred and 60 200 eighty billion dollar budget with a hundred and 50 hospitals and thousands of community based clinics if it all and veterans only get about 30 to 40 percent of their care at the Out of it outside the it's not cost effective try to magnify that in the 300 and 40 million Americans with it with the hospital network that's more disperse the system it's more complicated there's no way I would be a hybrid system regardless but the rationing the way two times the bureaucracy the complication the lack of customer service all of the the outdated nature of some of the things that he does would be a post on the general public which is why one of the biggest things of some of us about our good for is put the members of Congress on Healthcare force them to use it see how they like it then it would be fix the how they like it they wouldn't like it and they would want to change don't ever do that but imagine if we impose that same system of America I think people would flee from a single parent system very quickly so you mentions the The new Secretary of the David shelton and young why do you think that he is the right person to lead the Va during this time well I think first of all a lot of us he was an unknown entity because he had been with the Obama administration for a year and a half as the leader of the which is the veterans health Restoration lead the hospital is a doctor and claim physician who is very good at that but there was no real understanding of how he would undergo reform or be aggressive in fighting out of the special interest in Washington are so entrenched whether it's the after The government employees Union the bureaucracy Democrats in Congress were entrenched on single payer healthcare so far I will set you always gonna give a guy like that the benefit of the doubt no matter what I gave donald the former ceo procter and gamble gamble under About the benefit of the doubt we'll see if this guy can change it as a businessman promise brock Obama was never reformer donald trump is a reformer he wants to give vets choice he wants people fired you can't do their job you want transparency you want an overall so knowing that your leader in your President wants that Question is will Secretary shawl can go after the way that he did he supposed to so far I have to say he's done a very nice job he's he's he's a championing the bill for real accountability in the past the the Secretary have fought against that bill literally the three fought against more power to the fire employees because he was in bed with the unions to actually control the sector not with David and so far he's fighting for that bill the transparency peace which already talked about veterans now can know how long they're waiting is Huge and then they extended the current choice program for veterans choosing where to go which is in perfect program but they only extended it through the remainder of 20 17 and what I'm doing now is Secretary show can along with other advisers are gonna introduce kinda veterans Boyz two point O which we believe I believe will be a far more robust farmer veteran centric choice program or truly no longer the Va and gets to decide what you get and when you get it but the money follows the veterans to make a decision on their own that's the key to Choice and so far it looks good um but because of President trump's priorities on this I think Secretary shelton is very much empowered and so if I dare Democrats on the Senate to vote against his accountability built so you're gonna vote against a bill that gives the More accountability that the wants and the President wants and veterans want and has passed the House already good luck with that and vulnerable Democrats running for for Senate probably will for the wrong reasons make the right decision it doesn't really matter All I care is that it passes the Senate so the President could sign it and Secretary can can can have the power to make those decisions we've even seen a couple other scenarios where a couple Democratic senators probably for political reasons of sided with Republicans this the sessions so that's what is interesting And so I never miss it with I didn't ask you about your opinions on some of the recent foreign policy decisions that's right House based on the back of your expertise and you're a veteran and a commentator and author and a lot of these issues so on to foreign policy how would you great Resident trucks form policy so far uh I have no reason to give it anything other than a because he has reasserted American leadership in the world stage he's fine he's figuring out the combination between America first and American leadership certainly I mean isolation is them nor does it mean intervention is everywhere what it means is we're gonna put america's priorities first but we're also gonna reassert leadership and the reason you're seeing such difficult steps right now is because the world's been a mess for eight years and America has been in retreat The band in our allies we've been bold in our enemies we've apologized um with the peas and as a result our enemies have been emboldened their client States have been involved and when they reach out that elbow room and take more space it means that when it really comes in like President trump we gotta elbow back to take back what we've lost and some of that requires enforcing Red lines like in Syria that the brock Obama administration refused to enforced like we saw with the attacked after the chemical weapons attack or dropping the mother of all bombs in Afghanistan against Ices when previously commanders were never allowed to do something like that or North Korea saying hey we're not gonna have a policy of strategic patients anymore and we Reserve the right to take pro active military measures if necessary if your enemies and adversaries do not believe you have a credible Use of military force then your diplomacy is almost worthless we saw that in a run through the Iran deal we certainly saw that in North Korea as they develop nuclear weapons so this administration is reserving the fact that america's work matters the fact of American leadership matters and So I give him an eight a bar not maybe an a plus in addressing that because now the next step will be what happens when we're challenge again or what happens when what we hope will happen doesn't happen how do we thread that needle sort American leadership without having to Add the talented divisions of boots on the ground but what I really love about this is this guy is committed to securing America and empowering the people that know best you don't happen to brock Obama decisions about what happen on the battlefield were made by 30 year old grad students and skinny ties in the White House we thought they knew better than everybody else what I want the decision making is a master and general Kelly and general mattis and or theater commanders they're the ones that understand what it takes to defeat isis and they've been hand cuffed for a long time so he's Listen the rules of engagement and empowering them doesn't mean we'll solve the strategic issues necessarily but it means finally our war fighters be unleashed to defeat an enemy that is is certainly trying to do us harm I love that this bomb was actually called obviously the abbreviation is No appetite which which people have been hearing on the news and probably yeah this morning on Fox news but I love that it's called a mother of all bombs that's envisioning President trump saying that like in the oval we're gonna drop the mother of all bombs and it cracks me up and if Absolutely and what else love you know you're exactly right he's like let's drop that mother of all body I also think depending on has to deny the fact that this is tied to the killing of a Green about a week ago in Afghanistan and that same region I understand why they can't say that our policies driven by vengeance or Oh got it but there's no doubt that President trump probably Saturday that way we lost one of our best and brightest he left a widow in five kids behind fighting isis on the ground when what we could do instead in that same region is drop the mother of all bombs on their face and kill hundreds of Um or or hover many are ultimately killed without risking civilian casualties okay go with the bomb because I'm not an animal who address it whether it's theatre commanders it doesn't matter either way he's putting the interest of Americans in American lives first which Which anybody was put a uniform on can certainly a lot so final question for up and thank you so much for your time this week we really appreciate it but am bass former investor John bolton has said that he actually things that yesterday's mo ab attack against was also Start warning to North Korea do you agree with that assessment I do it may not a per the commanders in Afghanistan were using it for a tactical and operational advantage they wanna kill isis and they wanna change that the tiger by the way don't think that fighters are 10 The tall and with nerves of steel there freaking out about this they're freaking out about the weapons of war Americans can bring that they wanna go hangout and tunnels where they can be more apt this is a psychological warfare and and is they're not gonna lie it so let's remember that but at the same Time sure there are there are both attacking the kinda what chemical weapons depot in Syria as well as this mo ab in Afghanistan send a clear single to Kim John and insanity over and in North Korea That you can bluster all you want but you're not allowed to have nuclear weapons or the Internet and inter continental ballistic missile capability that will deliver them to our shores that's an existential threat and we've seen in history what happens when we don't take dictator seriously when we don't take them at their word He says he wants to strike us with their weapons sure that's how they preserve their regime for decades but at some level you have to believe them especially when they've they've got the technology to back it up so active measures are gonna have to be taken no one wants to start a war with North Korea but All of that also instead of isis China to take care of what they're currently admin allowing to happen in their backyard they can kind of the gas that got up the energy they kick off the banking that the food supplies they can put even more pressure on that regime so it's a symbol sent you No phoning is see matt and it's calculating but they're gonna keeping your chest up that's what work for them so far I don't think that will work on the trump administration he thank you so much for your time we really appreciate it everyone should be sure to check out your newest video on dot com that's also posted here on the video section facebook live thank you for your time have a happy easter everyone should be sure to check you out all weekend long on Fox and friends weekend oh thank you for that plug I appreciate it and happy easter and thanks for what you do a trigger you it's awesome the heck Hello
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