The Brian Kilmeade Show

This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling. From high atop. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kelmead.

So glad you're here. Guess what? We're going to have a government open soon, but there's a lot going on today. The market's loving what's happening with the government getting back online up over 100 points. We know how quick that could change, and we'll stay on top of that too.

1-866-408-7669. Also, got to remind you, Field of Valor is now out on Fox Nation. You will love it. If you like sports and want to find out how these certain athletes served our country, everyone from Yogi Berra on down, you'll be fascinated by this series brand new season up now. This hour, I'll be joined by National Review's Rich Lowry and also putting all the breaking news in perspective.

So let's get to the big three. Number 3. We need to develop a security operation there that is it doesn't have to be American but it has to be not connected to Hamas and not connected to the United Nations neither of those have been able to deliver if President Trump can put that in place then Israel will be secure and safe And that's key, and they are not letting up. Relentless, as that's how I characterize it, the Trump administration's relentless pursuit of peace in the Middle East is laudable and noteworthy as Kushner and Witkoff are back in Israel, back in Gaza, providing aid. It is pouring in.

The ceasefire still holds. The Houthis have halted their attacks, but a lot more has to be done. Number two. I said to him, Let's go to the place that's the most challenging. And he said, Well, we're going to go to Berkeley then.

And it was challenging, but I wish it was challenging in a way that was really what this country is set to do, which is free speech. And Berkeley is the home of free speech. And yet, all of a sudden, that was the place where free speech on campus was really enshrined at the university. Yep, that is Rob Snyder, comedian, dead serious about this, though. Turning point wraps up their salute to Charlie Kirk tour.

And sadly, violence rages in the final stop. This time, though, there's going to be consequences. I'll explain. Number one. The word of the day is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible.

To quote another Charles Barkley when it comes to Chuck Schumer. Look at this. Least popular Dem Senate leader ever. He's underwater with Democrats. His own party, he's underwater.

That is Harry Enton on CNN. It's over. The shutdown should end later today, and Dems infighting rages. It's a level I didn't think was possible, especially after their stellar performance in last Tuesday's elections.

So after a seven-week hiatus, it looked like Keem Jeffries says, I'm not going to budge when the House votes. But as soon as the House votes, I talked to Tom Emmert this morning. the Republican whip in the House. And I said, who are you going to lose? He goes, maybe one.

It's Tom Massey, but nobody else. And they might even get some crossover for some. Democrats Why? 'Cause after seven weeks, what are you gonna do? You shut down the government.

You never should have shut down the government. After seven weeks, you walk away almost with nothing except a promise to have a vote on Obamacare subsidies that were put together to evaporate after the pandemic was over. The pandemic is over.

So here we go. The Democratic leaders are now urging a no vote on the ACA subsidies. Good luck. Because The speaker of the house is not even involved in these negotiations and says, I'm not even. I asked Congressman Emmer today, I said, Are you guys going to put up?

The the panda Obamacare subsidies for a vote. He said, no, we're not going to do that. We're not even involved in that. But this is what surprised me. I didn't know the Democrats were going to be that mad.

I thought they would take a bow and pretend they won. Forty-one days, longest shutdown ever. Send a message to the American people. We're going to go to bat for them. I could almost hear it.

But instead, I'm watching Jon Stewart. I always watch the next day. I always watch his monologue on Monday night. I watch it Tuesday in the morning when I'm getting ready. He is so angry.

Jimmy Kimmel, J Stephen Colbert, ripping Schumer. I just don't know what you want Schumer to do. First, he gave you a CR in March. Then he gives you the longest lockdown in history. And because you open up the government, you're that mad?

Listen to how angry these people are. From Max Arad to Rokahana to Bernie Sanders to Seth Moulton. Cut one. My guess is that he won't be leader of the party in 2027 after this election, unless something really surprising happens. Respect his service, but time to move on.

It's time for you to gracefully make way for a new generation. leadership of the Democratic Party in many respects is way out of touch with where Democrats in general are. What would you have done? Bernie Sanders, a constituency of one. What would you have done?

How long are you going to wait? Republicans aren't going to cave just like President Obama never caved. Because they held out in the minority saying, get rid of Obamacare, we're not going back to work.

So everyone suffers before planes start falling out of the sky. Republicans came back. I remember like it was yesterday because Obamacare actually officially rolled out, remember? And no one could sign up because there were all these computer programming malfunctions. And I remember Obama walking by saying, you know, it's too bad you're doing this shutdown, or else the number one story would be how Obamacare is not working, how the computer system's not ready.

So they're just beating each other up. I mean, this is really at an intensity I wasn't expecting. Here's Harry Enton on CNN, Cut Six. Chuck Schumer is above water. With the Democrats in his home state, but just by 16 points, look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez running way ahead.

If she decides to challenge Chuck Schumer and come 2028, she's got a real leg up on the competition. I dare say at this point, she would be the favorite to beat him, which would be something that would just blow my mind, even just a few years ago, given that Chuck Schumer, of course, is a New York-born brave type of guy. 'Kay.

So I don't know the key running again. And you're talking about 2028, that is a lifetime. Says that midterm election No one's focusing on who the minority or majority leader will be.

So I actually thought it was a distraction when Republicans brought it up. When Republicans brought it up and said, this is Chuck Schumer trying to fend off a primary challenge. I don't think you worried about the primaries three years ahead of time.

However, thinking more about what's next. And that is uh what is next for legislation wise. We've got to get back to work. Hopefully people start getting paid immediately. Hopefully air travel returns to normal.

They say I was talking to the sta the chief of staff for Sean Duffy, the head of transportation, and she was telling me they're going to analyze data as soon as it passes. They're going to start analyzing the data, find out how many air traffic controllers are going back to work. They said they think they lost about twenty, just quit. When they heard they weren't getting paid, they just were burnt out, they just quit. They're also trying to raise the age.

For people that want to stay, right now they're told you retire at 56. For people that want to stay, they want to incentivize staying to sixty two. That's going to help too because there's a huge shortage.

So where they go from here is the div the divide is is pretty severe. But this is how it's going to get worse. This guy Ezra Levin, who you probably don't know. But he's the one who organized it, one of the main organizers behind the No Kings rally that put millions in the streets, and they used it as a sign-up to vote rally. He is incensed because he has no idea how government works.

He says they never should have caved in. He's an activist. He's co founder of Indivisible. Listen to what he says he's going to do. Cut 13.

If there's a silver line to all this, it's that this capitulation was so complete that it will be impossible to hide. Everybody can see that the party is not up to the task now. And so we should be asking every single Senate Democratic candidate: are you supporting Chuck Schumer for leadership? And if you are, you don't got my vote. You don't get my donation.

You don't get my support. You don't get my attention. We're launching the largest primary program in the history of Indivisible. And it's going to be focused not on ideology, but on building a democratic party that fights back.

So there's fighting and there's solving problems.

So you understand that Obamacare is unaffordable.

So you understand that Republicans didn't vote for it, and you understand that it is now the law of the land.

Okay. And it might be more popular than it was when it launched. Clearly, it is. But it's not affordable. It's being artificially subsidized.

For example, the easiest analogy I have is let's say you have a mortgage, it's too expensive, but your parents are giving you money. And you say, well, they they seem to be fine, they're making their payments. Yeah, because your parents are giving you money. If the parents cut you off you'll be on an unaffordable apartment.

So these people were getting money for a program that was not servicing them. That many of them, I did not know this. We weren't even using. They have Obamacare for insurance, but the deductibles are so high and the premiums are high, people don't even use it. And I didn't know this.

The subsidized money that was flowing in from the rescue plan for Joe Biden. Was going to private insurance.

So if you had, now if you have Obamacare, we know how the subsidies work. But did you know they were flowing in for people who had private insurance?

So the money comes in and all of a sudden you have somebody helping you with your payments during the pandemic. Pandemic's over, rescue plan money has run out, and they say, well, wait a second, I'm waiting for that money.

Well, you never should have gotten that money. But you know what the insurance companies did? The same thing colleges did. When colleges found out that we raised the level of loans that students could take out and give parent loans for their kids to go to college, they raised the tuition. Because well, if they have more money, then we can make the tuition higher.

So in the free market unregulated situation, That's what happens.

So that's what happened. The insurance rates went up. They absorbed the payments directly from the government, not from Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.

They got it directly from the government, and they raised their rate to maximize their profits.

Now if it's a public company, you're probably loving it. But for the rest of it, nobody's welving it. Two million people will now lose their insurance subsidies because you're in the private sector. $23 billion it would have between $23 and $40 billion it would have cost. $350 billion over the next 10 years.

That's not going to happen. Not supposed to happen. But that's what they were expecting to happen.

So do you understand these are real people who are going to have real deficits? many of which live in Trump states or voted for Trump. I get it.

So what I think the President's got to do with this party is find a way to give these people who are good people a chance to afford their health care. And they got to do it in a way that makes the market forces bring down the rates. And one thing that Trump brought up right away is give people money. to make a choice about what plan they want. rather than give the money to the plan they're forced to have.

Find out about it. I think it's going to take a legitimate conversation with experts, certainly not politicians.

So, travel is going to be affected, as I mentioned, and I don't need to tell you with all these stats on how. The fights have been affected. What I thought was unbelievable yesterday is the President of the United States said I'm really mad at air traffic controllers who weren't getting paid and stopped showing up for work. And for those people who did show up for work, I'm going to give you an incentive. Pete Buttuj, the failed Secretary of Transportation, says this on Twitter.

The president would be last five minutes as an air traffic controller. And after everything they've been through and the way this administration has treated them from day one, he has no business shifting on them. Sean Duffy didn't waste a second and said, Give me a break. You are basically AWOL at the Department of Transportation. I spend my whole day dealing with your neglect and cleaning up your mess.

Sit this one out. I love it. All right, we come back. I'm going to continue to talk about what's happening. uh with uh not only what's happening with the shutdown and hopefully we're gonna get a I guess in a few hours going to get a vote on this.

But I think it's important to point out what went wrong at the last turning point event, and that's the violence that took place. Cops, once again, in California, let it happen. When they got in, it was way too late. They thought they heard, and Will will talk about the circumstances beyond it, but of course, violence ensued. They did this other diabolical thing.

They got online and and they bought about a thousand tickets. Were 500 tickets, and they didn't show up.

So it looked like this was sparsely attended. They could have sold this thing out five times. But they're just so angry that they That there are a conservative school of thought and turning point growing on these campuses. These Antifa members screaming that get rid of the fascists, which is, I don't even understand it. I get rid of fascists and Nazis.

They went violently. They created violence and create havoc. In Berkeley, but no one's backing down. I think it makes him look like they're losing the fight, literally. Rich Larry at the bottom of the hour.

Your calls next. Brian Kilmeicho. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kill Meat Show. Every day, America's first responders stand ready: firefighters, law enforcement, paramedics, doctors, dispatchers, and people who put themselves on the line for public safety.

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Learn more on firstnet.com/slash public safety first. Uh If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. Are Republicans not selling it on this for? The Republicans don't talk about it.

So they need to do a better job on Capitol Hill of the United States. The Democrats give false talk, and the Republicans are. And I say it all the time. Republicans have to talk about the fact that prices are down and up. The Walmart thing is very important.

When Walmart says a Thanksgiving meal costs 25% less under Trump than under Biden, to me that's better than the May 2010.

So Republicans need to spend more time talking about how great the country is and less time complaining about the Democrats? We have potentially the greatest economy in the history of our country.

So, the President of the United States, who Laura Ingram, did a fantastic job with the President of the United States, but they were talking about the economy.

Now, when it comes to affordability, everybody circles that. Let's make things affordable again. Number one, the 50-year mortgage is the president's attempt. It's got ridicule. I don't know what's wrong with a 50-year mortgage.

Now, look, if it gets you into a home on 50 years, And even though you're paying interest for much longer, as opposed to a 30 or 15 or a 5 or whatever you're getting. But if you've got a house and you're paying into it. And then maybe you become 32, 34, 38 years old, and you feel like you're doing better, you go remortgage. It happens all the time. Even when people have good mortgages, they'll go back and say, well, the interest rate dropped.

I've got incentives to do it. Or they want to take some money out of the equity to rebuild their house. This is normal stuff. Why the president got backlash in this, I don't get it. It's just an option, it's not a demand.

So the other thing I talked to. People and his staff about Scott Besson about. Treasury Secretary, he says, we're going to start targeting.

Now, we know that chicken's gone down, we know that milk's gone down, we know that egg has gone down. Certain products have gone down, others have gone up, like coffee and like beef, and they say like bananas and fruit. He said, well, the stuff that we're not producing at a high level here, that the tariffs are high, we're going to adjust it. For example, he knows that putting that 50% tariff on Brazil, we get the coffee, a lot of coffee from Brazil, is jacking up the price of coffee that you're getting at the store, that you're buying in the supermarket or picking up at a coffee place.

So he says, I'm going to reduce some tariffs there.

So he's going to start bringing down individual products and attacking it. And he also says that we have to start building. more homes. And I said, well, what's the problem? Why are you not doing it now?

I was talking to him in the break. He says, well, places like Long Island, where you live, there are so many regulations in New York City, so many regulations. We're going to start building in places like South Carolina. And we're going to start building them in places like Texas. And we're going to start m not building it government housing.

but incentivizing building.

So that helps everyone across the board. We also had an interesting conversation about H1N1 visas and the H1B visas, and H1N1 is a virus, I think. H1B visas? And I'm kind of for it. And the reason is, is there are certain workers we don't have in our country.

And their skills that we have. They've talked to so many people now in business that have to import from overseas that even in manufacturing skills we don't have, like in the garment district and making chips.

So there's a ramp up time. We need to incentivize engineers and other experts to come here and work. Just like, for example, in the field, it's hard to get Americans to work on f on farms and some of the more tedious work.

So, if we can expand the work visa program in an organized way, these people get paid a wage which is taxable, understandable and trackable. A lot of people say, well, those who are American jobs don't have any H-1B visas. And if I had Laura Ingram on here, she would, you know, she'd go at me on this, and that would be fine. The president said it's going to cost you $100,000 to get one. But if you get one, you could stay.

And I like the idea, too, of keeping our first-round draft picks. If you're the smartest one in Stanford, And you're you're what you want to be Get on track to be a citizen in our country. We're convinced that you want to be here. Then I think that you should Have a way to be here. Because you help the country.

You have a skill that we need in our country. And if you are that successful, that smart, the way I see it, you start a business, small startup, whatever. And then you hire other people, learn from you, you continue to grow. That's the cycle of things that happen. I think that sometimes we only look at the negative part of immigration, Republicans.

They talk about build a wall. You know, let's get all the uh criminals, illegal criminals out. Yeah, okay. But I also think we c should do more of the swearing in. I think the present should pop up in a swearing in ceremony.

And talk about how great it is to have new Americans that qualify, paid the money, paid the fees, took the test, and are in. And I also think it should be easier for people that we want to come here. They've been waiting long enough, that are forced to pay fees, they can barely afford. And they've been unbelievably patient. Reward people doing it the right way.

Start talking on the other side, especially because Republicans, if. That was a bellwether last Tuesday, are losing some of the Hispanic folk, they're misinterpreting. Immigration. It's Will Kane Country. Watch it live at noon Eastern Monday through Thursday at Foxnews.com or on the Fox News YouTube channel.

And don't miss the show. Listen and follow the podcast five days a week at FoxnewsPodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. No one really knows.

And I think my values are reflected in my vote and the things that I support here. And if that might put me at odds with parts of my party, I'm okay with that. I mean, we need to be a big party, a big tent party.

So for me, it's like these are pretty reasonable. I mean, my party's always been opposing shutting our government down. I'm not sure why it's controversial now to devote these things. And I refuse to put all these people in the middle of this political kinds of brinkmanship. That is Senator Fetterman using a lot of logic, the same thing that other senators like Gene Shaheen have used to end the shutdown and get over sixty votes so we can get back to work.

And then you war focus on whatever policy you want and maybe it's winning elections. But he got a lot of blowback because of that. I mean, he got blitz on the view. But by the way, you got to get Fetterman's book. They rarely say that.

You know, it's your choice. But Very honest, very honest book, and just talks about how he believes what he believes. Rich Lowry joins us now, editor of National Review. Rich, welcome back. Your thoughts about this.

Pointless and dumb shutdown if I could steal your headline. Yeah. No, it was pointless and dumb. It reminded me of the Yeah, it looks like we're losing Rich a little bit. Maybe we'll try to get him into a better area.

But in terms of the shutdown, I'll play a clip to just give you an idea of how angry people are. Here's Ro Kahana, cut three. We thought that it would help cover people. And yes, the costs have increased, but it did slow the growth of costs. But ultimately, I agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The system is broken. These private health insurance companies have been ripping off the American people. And I believe that what we need to do is expand Medicare, that that is actually, especially for people between 50 and 64, that would be the solution. It would also help our manufacturing. It would help our competitiveness.

It would lower costs.

So that's Rokahana's way of saying, okay, the lockdown's done. Senator Schumer should be fired, no longer be in leadership, and we should expand Medicare. That's what they thought, Rich. Seven weeks later, that's what they thought. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so Schumer's problem here is he want to avoid all the hatred he got. Earlier in the year in March, when he didn't shut down the government, but the flaw in his plan was eventually that the government would have to reopen. Everyone would still hate him. And they were never going to get anything substantive on health care. They weren't going to force Republicans to accept these subsidies.

Every single Republican voted against them in 2021 and 2022. When they first came online, by the way, they weren't part of originally part of Obamacare. They're just added in because Obamacare was failing to control costs, in fact, making costs worse.

So they got nothing. They got a promise of a vote. They didn't get a promise of passage. They didn't get a promise of a vote in the House or a promise that Trump will sign anything.

So they got absolutely nothing from this except for throwing a tantrum for several weeks. Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable how angry Democrats are at Democrats. But what did they want Schumer to do? They didn't like it in March, and then they gave you the longest shutdown ever.

Okay. So, how did you think it was going to end? You had no end game. But Schumer knows what Kevin McCarthy knows, what Mitch McConnell knows. You could sit there and be a pundit and sit on the sidelines, be a backbencher, but when you're in leadership, you got a responsibility to be responsible.

And the responsible thing is not to destroy the government because you were angry you lost the 2024 election. Yeah, and of all the ways to oppose Donald Trump, this is just not an effective one. It was never going to work. It was going to fail on its it was going to fail substantively.

Now, they didn't pay a huge political cost in it. The polling was pretty even on who was responsible. In fact, it kind of tipped the Republicans away, which was perverse and wrong. But in terms of placating their base, they did it for about 40 days. And now they're really angry again because they're in a constant state of fury and despair.

So listen to this guy, Ezra Levine. He's an activist. He's suddenly this Democratic left-wing power broker. Cut thirteen. If there's a silver line to all this, it's that this capitulation was so complete that it will be impossible to hide.

Everybody can see that the party is not up to the task now. And so we should be asking every single Senate Democratic candidate: are you supporting Chuck Schumer for leadership? And if you are, you don't got my vote. You didn't get my donation. You don't get my support.

You don't get my attention. We're launching the largest primary program in the history of Indivisible. And it's going to be focused not on ideology, but on building a Democratic party that fights back.

So they're going to start primaring their people.

So they're going to primary all these people. And didn't the Republicans show them how that works out when the Tea Party went after people that weren't conservative enough? You ended up with candidates that are fine for the Republican Party but not good for the general? Yeah, so you ended up with some good candidates like Marco Ruby and Ted Cruz, but you also ended up with some candidates, the names of which we can't remember because they all lost.

So this is what they're facing and what they're going to do to themselves. And it's just, again, a shutdown, what was supposed to happen, like every flight in America grind to a halt? Was that what they wanted? Like SNAP benefits to expire for the next year? I mean, what was the end game here?

Donald Trump was going to resign in disgrace because they shut down the government. It never made any sense. Yeah, so where do you go from here?

Now, I'm going to play this out. The one thing that everyone can relate to is healthcare costs. Everyone. You want quality healthcare if you're very rich. You want health care and some type of a safety net if you're not.

And you have serious illness, we're all the same. Everybody wants the best doctors for the best price and not to go bankrupt.

So now that it's clear that Obamacare has not done what it's supposed to do, Democrats will just say, hey, those rates are going up because they would not renew the subsidies. How do Republicans make sure this health care doesn't turn on them? Yeah, so that's definitely a risk. And these subsidies, even though I think they're absurd, are popular.

So they need to advance their own policies. And this has been a failure party-wide for about 15 years to outline a clear alternative to Obamacare. But you can expand HSAs, you can have a catastrophic pool where people with real health issues are dealt with directly by the government.

So they're not making healthcare more expensive for everyone else. There are any number of ideas, but they should put them on the floor and have votes on them. They're going to lose, but no, they're going to lose. And the point is just to show they have an alternative. Otherwise, this is where they kind of succeeded in the shutdown.

Brian, there's one issue on the planet Earth where Democrats still have a significant advantage. It's healthcare.

So they did at least succeed in turning the conversation around to that issue, which does serve their purposes.

So with these subsidies, it went to people with private plans during the pandemic. And helped them with their private plans. You know what? They gave the money right to the insurance companies, and the insurance companies. raise their rates.

So it was like so what good was it? And now they now that money's gone. And now the rates are going to stay high, and the insurance companies are only a big profit.

So, we have to address it that way. That's why the president said, why don't we give the people the money directly?

So, that was something that he came up with immediately.

So, in the next. I I guess seven weeks. Until January 30th. What would you be working on if you're a Republican? Like, do you ignore this?

Or do you put something out there? You can't ignore it. You should put ideas out there. And look, they will take criticism. And this is part of the problem also.

They just haven't had one to put specifics out there because some people aren't going to like it. But it's better to make the point, oh, we do have alternatives, rather than just kind of throw your hands in the air and say, maybe we'll come up with a plan. eventually. And I think the same thing holds on affordability. It's hard to talk people out of the idea that prices are higher, even if things are better than they were during the pandemic or during the Biden administration.

But you got to take this stuff head on. and you got to have policy alternatives.

Well Here's what we know. 2 million people are, they say, will lose insurance because of these subsidies, not going to be able to make the payments. They say $23 billion it would cost. If they kept the subsidies, $350 billion over the next 10 years.

So the Democrats want to extend funding for all this stuff for about a year. But the bigger story is, Obamacare has failed. And not one Republican is on the hook of saying that I supported it. Retired or active.

So this is really on them. And now they've effectively, in some cases, made the Republicans look at the bad guys like they are breaking insurance when they didn't even try to go after it after the initial attempt that failed. when John McCain gave the thumbs down to Donald Trump in his first term.

So, like you said, they haven't come up with something. I want to fast forward and talk about what's happening in Venezuela. And in Venezuela, we see that the UK is going to cut off intelligence in the region because they're upset by us blowing up these drug boats in the Caribbean. How long until Donald Trump Blows a gasket on this. Yeah.

Uh soon, I I would expect. That that's just an extraordinary thing for the UK. to do, even if you think the legal basis for this is shaky, that is extraordinary. And this whole thing is making Maduro is meant to make Maduro not sleep at night and hope something shakes loose. And I think President is still deciding how much further he wants to go in terms of strikes in Venezuela itself.

So, are you in your thoughts about this mission in South Central America? Bolivia had an election. They've got a non-socialist in there, somewhat conservative. Colombia is up for an election. We know that.

If you want to keep Cuba and communism out of our hemisphere, that's why Venezuela needs to be stopped, because Cubans got so-called consultants in there. This is the way to stop the influence of so many countries, Iran, Russia. Iran, Russia, as well as Cuba. Yeah, I think it would be a very good thing if Maduro went away, but I haven't planted my feet yet and come up with a firm opinion on what role we should play in actually pushing him out directly through military means. The spectrum runs from keeping the pressure campaign kind of course of diplomacy the way we're doing now or going all the way and doing a Panama.

when we got went and got in Oriega. But Panama, we already had troops there because of the canal zone, very small country, much easier operation. We still lost, I think, about two dozen guys.

So this would be a much bigger challenge.

So I want to talk about what we're doing in the Middle East. We're talking about building a base in Israel, so we don't have to depend so much on the IDF to do security measures, but we are all in on trying to bring some type keeping this ceasefire going and trying to keep Gaza quiet. Here's Mike Pompeo, Cut 22. Hamas is not going to go quietly. They're not going to give up their weapons voluntarily.

I think we can all agree to that.

So we're going to have to continue to punish them, and the Israelis will take the lead in that. And then we need to develop a security operation there that is, it doesn't have to be American, but it has to be not connected to Hamas and not connected to the United Nations. Neither of those have been able to deliver. If President Trump can put that in place and can keep the peace and stability, then Israel will be secure and safe. They don't have to worry about another October 7th.

And more importantly, the Gulf Arab nations in the region will know that they too are no longer under threat from Hamas or Hezbollah or the Iranian regime.

So, what I like is Kushner's over there now, Witkoff's over there now, Secretary of State Rubio's been there, Vice President was there. They know it's going to be needs to be constant. Constantly with the hand over over the lid to keep things quiet. And they're already talking about Hamas being stuck. They have 200 Hamas members stuck in tunnels right now.

What to do with them?

So the only way to be there to do this is to be there. It looks like there's such a commitment from this administration, more than I originally expected. Yeah. Now, I agree entirely with the sentiments from Mike Pompeo there, who's a brilliant guy. But the question is, what force is going to go do that?

Going to disarm Hamas and then create something better and secure Gaza. And I don't think Israel wants to occupy Gaza. I don't think anyone else wants to occupy Gaza, which is a problem.

So then who's going to disarm Hamas?

So I just think this is going to be a continuing problem, but hopefully it's operating at a much lower level than it was before, that there's no ability now to carry out another October 7th, and Hamas has been decimated.

So it's a relatively manageable problem. But unfortunately, I don't think it's a problem that's going away. Rich, your feeling about the Syrian leader coming here and the President saying we're going to do the best we can to lift sanctions and be a supporter? You know, I'm not a huge fan of this guy, but in the. the alternatives in Syria, you don't got a lot of great options.

There's no Thomas Jefferson there. And if they will be allied to us and conduct themselves in a fairly reasonable manner, it's a step up from what we had before. Richel Harry, thanks so much. Pick up the National Review. Thanks so much, Brian.

All right, we're going to come back. I promise it's squeezing some calls before we call it an hour. You'll listen to the Brian Killmeat Show. Don't go anywhere. Brian Kilmead will be right back.

The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. If we cannot, as a nation, decide not to continue a subsidy that was imposed or was enacted during a national health emergency and was designed to be temporary, and that all the Democrats voted to have be temporary, if we can't. Let that expire. What hope do we ever have of getting government spending under control?

Right, which is Brady Hume, 100% right. And what happens is that pandemic money that flowed to people not to work, we're trying to rein that in. In the beginning, it started with Trump. We had no idea where we're heading. We saw those bodies piling up in New York City.

But when things settled down, he did the Inflation Reduction Act and the Rescue Package. It just rocketed up inflation and immediately allowed him to go with this green agenda, which is great if you want to impress Al Gore, but it's going to show in retrospectives, you look back, totally irresponsible.

So The one thing I have to disagree with the President on, he says, I want to take some of the tariff money and I want to mail it to people. And Scott Besson said, I like to mail it to people who are under a certain income. I want people to get money. But to me, my analogy is, if you can't make your bills, and you go to your credit card to get cash out. It's going to be interest rate is going to be like 20%, and it's a great feeling to be able to pay your bills.

But you just postpone the pain and the pain is going to be so much worse. My feeling is the tariff money should go right to the deficit as we reconfigure relationships in trade, bring manufacturing back over the course of years. First, it offer costs a quarter immediately. as we see the revenue come in with tariff money. But of course, as it becomes as it becomes economically Profitable to bring manufacturing back here.

We start building up skilled workers, H-1B visas. We get those skilled workers and port them in. Then ultimately, the President's goal is to reconfigure our trade relationships. He feels as though manufacturing left. We allowed it to leave.

They told us that global trade will keep the world at peace and at bay. If you trade, you won't fight. And eventually Americans didn't want to do these jobs.

Now we find out that China's got our pharmaceuticals. And China's got our manufacturing. And China's got our rare earth. This administration is moving heaven and earth. Pun intended, to get rare earth.

They got this huge first time they've ever mined refined. Uh Uh rare earth. In a plant in South Carolina. They've done. They're starting to make magnets in South Carolina.

They're going to start doing the same thing, I hope, in California, certainly in Texas. And then they've got a deal in Argentina. And I asked the Secretary off camera, I go, why are we letting Argentina do these deals with China? And he said, the central government's not. We could talk to them.

But their governors have autonomy to cut these trade deals, and they're doing it. I go, could the federal government in Argentina put pressure? He goes, yes, we're getting there.

So, if we're going to bail them out and help stabilize them to make sure we have a stable partner in Argentina. Who's conservative? Then at least we could say break off with China and get our rare earth.

So I think that's all. Pretty key to success long term. In the area. That's what this administration is trying to do, to make things more affordable. Right now, I got some stats when it comes to housing.

And when it comes to housing, If you look back at previous years, You look back if you, for example, just a year ago. If I was to pull up the full screen that I didn't get to with Scott today. In 2022, qualified income needed to afford a medium-priced home $84,000. By 2023, with inflation in interest rates, Now $99,000. In 2024, with inflation in interest rates, $103,000.

So, most people listening to this say, Wow, I'm in my 20s, I just got married. I'm in 32, just got married. Both of us got to work in order to make that. Very rare when you can do that. Therefore, the medium age is getting older and older for first-time buyers.

Home buyers are now Not first time, but home buyers are now predominantly in their 50s. Those are the people buying homes right now. The entry level in is getting too touch, too tough. The median income in 2022. For realtors and talking about this, you need minimum $43,000 each, $45,000 in 2024.

So he thinks it's going to come down in 2025 because of interest rates and inflation. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi everyone, it's Brian Kilnik from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, around the country, around the world. If you are looking to walk outside, bring a coat.

I can't believe it. It feels like January already. Hopefully, this is just temporary.

Well, this hour, you're going to hear from very special guests, including one I have in the studio. I have an interview on Bringing Back with Mike Row and Jim Farley. We've got so many great comments on it. Mike Rowe, Mr. Blue Collar, and Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, was on One Nation on Sunday.

But now we want to bring you the whole interview in its entirety. Why? Because it affects you. They talk about what AI is doing to jobs, wiping out some with Amazon and with UPS and others. Maybe it's progress.

They're also wiping out middle managers too with AI. But where's the future?

Well, if you want a guaranteed job, how about an electrician, pipe fitter, how about a plumber? And we talk about that and the reality of it, including Jim Farley's own son, went up to him and said, Dad, not going to college. I really want to get into a trade.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. We need to develop a security operation there that is, it doesn't have to be American, but it has to be not connected to Hamas and not connected to the United Nations. Neither of those have been able to deliver. If President Trump can put that in place, then Israel will be secure and safe.

That is Mike Pompeo, Relentless. Trump administration's relentless pursuit of peace in the Middle East is laudable and noteworthy. As Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are back in the region, aid is pouring in to Gaza, and the ceasefire is holding. And guess what? The Houthi said: we're going to stop the attacks.

Number two. I said to him, let's go to the place that's the most challenging. And he said, well, we're going to go to Berkeley then. And it was challenging. But I wish it was challenging in a way that was really what this country is set to do, which is free speech.

And Berkeley is the home of free speech. And yet, all of a sudden, that was the place where free speech on campus was really enshrined at the university. Turning point wraps up their salute to Charlie Kurtur, and sadly, violence rages in their final stop. This time, there'll be consequences. I'll explain.

Number one. The word of the day is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. To quote another Charles Barkley when it comes to Chuck Schumer. Look at this. Least popular Dem Senate leader ever.

He's underwater with Democrats. His own party, he's underwater. It's over. The shutdown should end in a few hours. And Dems infighting is raging at a level I was not expecting.

Why didn't they focus on their last election? They have a lot to celebrate. We'll discuss it. But first, let's talk about the world. We're privileged to have with us the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, who's also going to be on with me on One Nation on Sunday.

Welcome, Mr. Prime Minister. Great to see you. Great to be here, Brian. And you told me you lived here for a while, right?

Oh, yeah, I did. I was running a high tech company for five years from Manhattan. You know that there's hundreds of Israeli companies, high-tech companies in the city. What are high-tech companies? High-tech companies, software companies, fintech, financial technology, creating about 30,000 jobs in this city.

People are not aware of it, but it's second only to Silicon Valley.

So we got the second largest Jewish population in the world after Israel. That's right here in New York City. That's true.

So when we elect a mayor who's going to take over in January, that all his comments and statements. Or it seems to be anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, does that concern you? It does, it does. You know, w we're fairly shocked to see a a mayor who who is so obsessed with Israel. He's got a city to run uh and uh he he won't stop talking about uh uh you know all all the actions that he's gonna try and take against Israel.

Uh I assume uh that uh you know we'll We'll get over this just like we got over other issues. But yeah, this was my home for five years, and I wouldn't want to see Israeli companies, the hundreds of Israeli companies, as I said, that are creating tens of thousands of jobs leaving New York because of this guy. I think what you're saying is you got leverage. We can go anywhere.

Well, yeah. Yeah. And you don't need to be here anymore. We don't have to be here. It's a beautiful city.

I love New York. I truly love the city. I love Manhattan. We lived in the Upper East Side, and it was great doing business here. But if it becomes uncomfortable, if it becomes an unpleasant place where we're anti-Semitic or anti-Israel, lots of companies are just going to move.

They can go easily to Florida. They can go to Texas. They can go anywhere.

So you know what's pretty amazing is that, you know, when we watched these protests crop up two years ago on college campuses. We found out there's almost a direct link between Hamas praising these colleges for standing up and some of the funding from these organizations. Do you think we've worked hard enough to unwind some of the linkages between the two? I I think there's mass amount of money that went in for the past twenty years or so into these campuses, preparing for that day because, you know, i it already started on October 7th, on the eve of October 7th, while while uh Israelis were being murdered uh in in um uh kibbutzim and uh cities uh around uh Gaza in the south. Already campuses were blaming Israel.

This was three weeks before we entered Gaza.

So clearly, it was a prepared attack. On Israel, on Jews, and I think they've lost their way, and I think it is a wake-up call.

So I want you to hear what Kamal Harris. We dodged a bullet, in my view. You don't have to wait if you don't want to when she lost. Uh substantially. Here's what she said that President Biden did wrong.

uh s since october seventh and b you know with Israel. Cut twenty-one. A lot of what this process has been for me has been about reflection. Look, We should have done more. as an administration.

We should have done more. We should have spoken publicly. About our criticism of the way that Netanyahu. and his government were executing this war. We should have We should have used We had more levers in terms of leverage that we did not use.

All right, so you get her school of thought, and you also heard the cheers. That's where the Democrats are at right now. I think President Biden did a lot to hold back certain weapon systems and decide how long you had to stay at Arafah, for example. Remember that? Your thoughts about what she would have done and in retrospect what she wished he had done.

Well, you know, we never intervene in domestic American politics. But right now, you're not in politics either, is shaped. Yeah, yeah, but what what I will say, I want to talk about uh President B uh Trump. Uh President Trump has been amazing. His uh Strength His determination Uh the project power in the region.

Um Commands a lot of respect from all the countries, or in simple terms. Uh people in the Middle East fear President Trump, which is a great thing. That's what you want. You want Countries around the world to respect and fear the American president, and he's done that. His ability to project power and apply power.

When necessary. Creates a huge degree of deterrence, and that's critical in this crazy place in the Middle East. You need strength, and weakness does not bring stability. Concessions don't bring stability. And as a peace president, which is what President Trump is, He he he's uh Uh develop the best way to bring peace, which is what we're focused on now.

So right now we're trying to get to phase two, but we can't do that unless all the hostages are returned. The remains are returned. I think we'll. How far across are we? Seven or eight?

Four or five. Four or five. Okay, great.

So let's say this sincerely. Trying to retrieve those bikes.

So let's say we can get this, we can complete that very important mission in a week or so. To get to phase two, Hamas has got to disarm. That's right. Right. They have to.

So, that to get to phase two, and you got to bring an international force there so the IDF can get out. How close are we?

Well, that's a very big question. Right now, on the ground, Hamas is rebuilding. I have to present the facts as they are. Hamas is rebuilding, is reasserting its control in Gaza at this moment. And it's building up.

It'll take time, right? Because it's been hit so badly. I don't, I'm not sure they will willingly give up their power. Uh the their goal was to Stay alive to keep Hamas going.

So, a lot of concerted effort of Israel. Uh and uh uh President Trump uh will may be enough to get it done. But if we let let up on it, they'll be there.

So we have to get that international force. I hear Indonesia has donated said we will put in some troops. I hear there's training going on in Jordan and Egypt. Are they Palestinian security forces? We know we don't want UN in there.

They've already failed miserably and hezblow and can't be trusted. What does an international force look like that Israel would find acceptable, that would be, most importantly, effective?

Well, that's precisely it. I'm talking to my friends in the region. What I seem to be seeing is they are telling us We're not going to go in and fight Hamas for you. They're telling us very honestly. Uh we'll Be willing to come in to keep peace, but we're not going to fight your war, which I can understand, and uh and therefore I'm not sure that I'm not.

You know, it's it's it's challenging because imagine an Arab arresting a fellow Arab. Uh they might be considered uh traitors or y you know, it's it's it's a very uh sensitive issue. I think um that It might require Israel to clean up Hamas. I'm saying this reluctantly. We hate fighting.

I spent decades fighting Hezbollah, Hamas. How long were you in the idea? I was six years in my base. I was a major in Israel's elite commando unit, and that's what I did. I was fighting Hezbollah, mainly killing Hezbollah terrorists.

Now my son, my first son, Yoni, is in the same unit that I served. I'm proud of him and worried. We don't sleep at night when when he's out there uh fighting, but we don't have any choice because The big lesson of October 7th is we cannot allow A crazy radical terror state grows on our border. Just like you couldn't have that on your Mexican border or Canadian border. We can't assume that we can just defend at the wall.

at the border, you have to clean it up on an ongoing basis.

So one thing at your border, you might not, if I'm the believe, my fingers are crossed, you don't have an enemy in Syria anymore.

So we saw their President come over here and meet in the White House. He's not ready to sign up to the Abraham Accords. I think that's the least of his worries right now. I don't think he has control of his own country. He's former Al Qaeda.

He said it. I was nineteen years old, member of Al Qaeda when nine eleven was hit. Do you believe you have an enemy in Syria? And we're talking to Prime Minister Naftali right here in our studio.

Well My experience is to be very skeptic. A guy who was an active terrorist in Al-Qaeda for years. Um And now wears tailored suits, it doesn't mean that he's fundamentally changed. But we should let reality he needs to prove himself. He needs to show consistently that he's seeking peace.

At this time I would not Lay down our defenses. We need to ensure that we can defend ourselves by ourselves. At least you knew Assad clearly was an enemy. Yeah. This has a chance of not being an enemy, and he would be Sunni.

They were a majority Sunni country. Right. And they were a sect of Shia trying to control the Sunni population, which never worked. Alawites, yeah. Right.

Which is a form of Shia, right? It's not exactly. It's neither Shia nor Sunni. I acquiesce to you.

Okay, no, no. It's a Prime Minister. Stick around. I want to find out your future and what you want to do in politics. Do you want to run again?

Where it is, you formed a party. You're ready to do that. We'll talk more with Prime Minister Naftali in just a moment. You listen to the Brand Kill Meet Show. The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them only on the Brian Kill Me Show.

The talk show that's getting you talkies. You're with Brian Kilmead. Welcome back. We've got some more time with former Prime Minister, maybe future Prime Minister of Israel, Naptali Bennett. We're privileged to have him in the studio.

He's going to be on Sunday on One Nation 2. Mr. Prime Minister, have you thought you're going to come back into politics? You're going to run again for Prime Minister? Have you?

Can you tell us about your platform and your party? And will it be Netanyahu you're looking to take on?

Well, it is going to be I assume so. It is going to be a head-to-head him versus me. That's according to all the polls. My goal, flatly, is to make Israel great again. That's the goal.

What's happened is for the past decade or so, Um many aspects of Israel have weakened. Uh socially, there's crazy polarization. Like everyone's fighting everyone with the people. Yeah, and and it's weakening Israel. You know, we don't have two oceans on our side.

We we're surrounded by enemies. We don't have Canada and Mexico on our borders. We have Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIS on our borders. And we cannot afford that sort of tearing ourselves apart. President Lincoln said a house divided cannot stand.

And I think that's a beautiful sentence that applies to Israel. I think to some extent october seventh is Would not have happened if we weren't a house divided. What we know now, based on intelligence, is that during year 23, all our enemies saw what's going on in Israel and that we're tearing ourselves apart our immune system. is growing weaker and bam they attacked us at our weakest moment.

So I want to unite Israel. I want to strengthen our economy, which is not in a good enough shape. I want to strengthen our international standing which is not In good shape, and basically revamp Israel. But you're going to run to the Prime Minister Netanyahu's right. You said he's never really had a conservative opponent.

You used to be working with him. You were education minister, right? Yes, I was education minister, defense minister, and economy minister.

So now you're going to run to his right. That's never been done before. That's right. In the past, his opponents were always from the left. And since the majority of Israelis lean right, he always won.

This time, I think Israel wants two things. The Israeli public wants change. Uh you know, enough is enough. Uh it's been almost twenty years of of uh uh Netanyahu running Israel and and uh we're seeing a lot of uh issues of corruption and other stuff uh um seething in. Uh but also the Israeli public wants uh hawkish leadership, tough leadership, uh and uh th that's why I think I'm in in the lead seat.

What's the name of your party? Right now, it's a tentative name, Bennett 26, but we're going to give that a name. President, today. has called on the Israeli uh courts to pardon Prime Minister Netanyahu, enough. He says enough.

He's done enough. Whatever the situation, he thinks it's petty. Do you agree with the President?

Well, first of all, I have to say on behalf of the Israeli people, we owe Huge gratitude to President Trump. What he's done in terms of bringing peace in the Middle East and the Abraham Accords in recognizing Jerusalem as our capital. The first President ever to do that. Didn't hesitate. Didn't hesitate, and he showed that you can do it.

He moved the American embassy to our true capital. Jerusalem has been our capital for about 3,000 years now, but no one else recognized it.

So, first of all, we highly respect and are thankful to President Trump. We have a judicial system, a legal system in Israel, that it requires one to admit guilt and to ask for a pardon. I am not aware that that's happened yet, so this is all premature.

Okay, so you'll hold off for now.

So you're going to be running again, and you said Hezbollah and Hamas aren't dead, but real quick, we only have 20 seconds, you're worried about the rise of Sunni governments, too. She is tough enough. That's right. Turkey, Qatar, Hamas, this is the Muslim Brotherhood. They are the folks that stand behind ultimately other strands of ISIS, of al-Qaeda that did 9-11.

We need to fight them. All right, Mr. Prime Minister, maybe future Prime Minister, thanks so much for the quality time. I know our audience appreciates it too, right here in New York City. And I look forward to talking to you on Sunday on One Nation.

Back in a moment with Mike Rowe and Jim Farley. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. All right, everybody, welcome back.

So um There's very few things more important than finding out what's going on with the job market, staying ahead of the latest technology. And if you don't, you know, for example, if you're selling horses and income the car, the Model T, you're going to be in trouble. Your business is going to get stuck. And also, do you have skills when you graduate from any university, prestigious, upcoming, emerging? If you have the wrong degree and you can't get a job, do you want to say to yourself, what was I thinking?

That's why I thought it was so important that I had a chance to sit down and talk with Mike Rowe and Jim Farley. Mike Rowe from Mike Rowe Works, you know him, and Jim Farley, president of Ford. They were very impressive at a conference I saw, so I asked them to come on with us. Here's what they're saying about the future of the job market. The CEO of Micro Works and the CEO of Ford.

We got Micro and we have Jim Farley. Welcome, guys. Thanks so much. Brian, how are you? Mike, and it's great to have you both together.

And I just want to make this an open forum. The blue collar jobs, you're looking, you're nodding your head. You knew these are coming. Is there a way to Is there a way to train our people to fill those positions? Sure.

It would be inelegant to take some sort of victory lap on your fine program. But, you know, we've been beating this drum for 17 years now. And not to put too fine a point on this, it's great, by the way, to be here with Jim. We saw each other about a month and a half ago. He put on a terrific event in Detroit.

And we talked about these things at length with the Secretary of Labor, and since then. The thing I think I'd like to start with is a trip to Texas two weeks ago. I finally got a tour of one of those data centers you were just showing. And while I was there, and I swear I'm not making this up, I ran into three electricians. All of them are under 30.

All of them had been poached three times that year. Wow. All of them were making north of $240,000.

Now That means something else is happening, to your point, while all these other things are happening at the same time. And in this case, I think it simply means that supply and demand have simply got to that place where there's no denying it. We are in such acute Need of more electricians, more welders, more HVAC people. And you could really just. You could limit that.

purely to data centers. I was in the room with Dave McCormick and President Trump back in July. I know Dave's coming on a bit later, where they pledged $92 billion to build more data centers in Pennsylvania alone. Alone. There's so much investment, there's so much pivoting.

I'm the micro guy. Jim is the macro guy. Ford is macro. And I can't wait. To get his take on this.

Jim, I gave you a lot of stats, Mike gave you a lot of facts. Your thoughts.

Okay. Well, the shortages are real. I'm really glad that we get the chance to talk about this on Such an important show. You know, at Ford, we have a shortage of factory workers, but we have a shortage of technicians and dealerships. As Mike said, those jobs, even though it takes a while to get up to speed, we have about four hundred thousand people That we need.

Right this morning at Ford, we had 6,000 stalls that were open with no mechanics in them to fix our vehicles. The jobs are getting harder, they require. Technical support. Innovation.

So, I think at Ford, we'll solve this problem because we're a fortunate company and we're committed to America. But the issue is, what is the little guy going to do? Yes. The plumber and electrician that owns our super duty, what are they going to do if they don't have the resources at Ford? They're barely getting through the day with a lot of red tape.

For them to try to find the next generation, as Mike said, it's really hard. And we have to help them. Companies like Ford have to help. We have a lot more work to do as a whole industry. You know what they say, Mike?

This reminds everybody of 2003 because we changed telecoms. We went from the hardline to the cell phone, and we lost maybe 171,000 jobs, and everyone reconfigured and readjusted. I don't know if you remember back then, you were probably on PM Magazine, but this is something that you can't blame any party for. This is advancement. Should we be welcoming this?

And should we as workers be responsible for adjusting? Either if you got that Harvard degree, I don't think it has much to do practically with whether you welcome it or not. It's standing at the door and it's not going to knock. It's coming in. And yeah.

I remember 2003. What I don't remember, but what I'm pretty sure did happen, was our country pivoted from an agrarian industry or economy into an industrial age. And from an industrial age, really, into kind of a financial age. And now we're going from this financial age, whatever that is, into clearly a digital age. And we're building the plane in the air.

And there is no playbook for this. I think Jim's challenges and experiences at Ford are similar yet different from, say, Alex Karp's over at Palantir.

Now, what I'm interested in, you know, Alex has his own little meritocracy school that he's building there. He's recruiting white kids straight out of high school and teaching them what he needs them to know. They're also exposing them to the liberal arts, which I just think is brilliant and fascinating. And I know that Jim has talked about building trade schools again within the Ford organization in order to satisfy this need. To me, That's leadership.

You know, and each company is going to have to s kind of figure out this Rubik's Cube in their own way, which is why I don't think there's a general playbook. But it is super interesting to hear how the smart people among us are going to solve this. And Jim, before you answer, I have Alex Karp a quote from Palantir's CO, co-founder, and he says this: AR is going to help many people with vocational training, but no college degree, make a lot more money because of the value being created.

So to tell somebody who gets that master's degree from Yale that you probably would have been better off from high school going to a trade school, is that the message for parents watching, for 11th graders watching? Yes, it should be. I believe we put too much emphasis on a four-year degree in the United States. If you look back two or three generations, like my grandfather, he got his job at Ford. He put my mom through college.

I went through college. You know, we have a whole, as Mike said, you said, we have a whole generation here that has a new opportunity. And I think our society puts such a pressure.

Now, Mike has been battling this. With everything he's done for many, many years and being a spotlight on this. But now, as he said, it's a real thing. Road construction takes longer, people waiting longer for stuff to get fixed on their house. You know, if we want this to change as a society, we have to ask the question.

Do we really want to put this much pressure on the next generation to get a four-year degree? This is a live debate in my family. My kid learned welding over the summer as a high schooler, and he asked me, Dad, you think it's worth going to college? The CEO of Ford, my wife and I had a big debate about it. I actually asked Mike about it.

And I'm fine with whatever he wants to do. But as a society, we have to have a debate about this. We can't just get stuck. With the direction we're going. And that explains a lot of the frustration where people are leaning towards socialism.

I need some help. I don't have any stability.

Well, what if you guaranteed me something? And what if I had an enemy and it's called successful people? That's the scary answer that uneducated people or ignorant people are making now and making choices.

Now, the other thing I want to, when we talk about innovation, you talk about China. Mike, I'm sure you've talked to Jim about this. Jim, what did you see in China that almost unnerved you in terms of how advanced they were? I go to China regularly, obviously, but during COVID, something happened that I think many of us were not expecting. They made huge leaps and bounds.

China wants to be the manufacturing, heavy manufacturing source for the world. They now have twice as many car plants as their local market can absorb. They want to export all of that to create these great jobs. We are in a war. For manufacturing now globally.

Now, the Trump administration has done a lot of good things here.

Now we have a real tailwind behind companies like Ford, who make 80% of our products in the U.S. But we need to do a lot more. When I went to China, I came back completely different perspective. They want every one of our jobs in our plants. Wow.

And, Mike, what does that make you think? We're competing for workers here, and then we have a country. that could take us out manufacturing wise. If I had like one of those big red bells in a fire department, I'd. I'd hit it with a hammer.

I'd ring the alarm. This is it. Jim, you can't overstate it. And you can't put it in one vertical. We have to.

Fight this thing on every front. And the front that I'm most interested in is the reason I'm on your show. It's the reason I come on whenever you invite me. We have to keep this front and center. And when Dave McCormick is on later, please thank the senator for me for doing that event.

Because in that room where 35 CEOs pledged $92 billion in front of the president, my message was simple. Carve off a little tiny piece of that. and allocate it To making a more persuasive case for the very jobs that we are desperate to fill. I'm rooting for the president. I love the idea of 2 million new jobs in manufacturing, but you got to admit, when there are 480,000 openings right now that we can't fill, the math is getting a little hinky.

Five retire, two come in, five out, two in over a decade now. We need to get in front of it. And as I told Jim at our last meeting, I'm like, not a week goes by where somebody doesn't call me to say, Mike, do you know where the tradesmen are? We're going out of our mind trying to hire. And I say, yeah, I do.

They're in the eighth grade. Start now. Be persuasive. Bring shop back. Don't stop.

Auto mechanics back and make people excited again. Hey, guys, we need another two hours. I don't have it, but I'd love to have you back in a few weeks, and we'll continue to update this because I know you're personally making progress getting corporate America to sponsor a lot of your stuff. Jim Farley, Mike Rowe, it was our privilege to have you on. Thanks so much.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. All right. When we come back, my interview with Secretary of Treasury Scott Besson, just two hours ago, I want to bring it to you in its entirety right here on the Brian Kill Mead Show. Don't move.

It's Brian Killmead. Uh The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back. By the way, Scott Besson was just in the studio on Fox and Friends, and he's been a good friend of this radio show.

And he said, Brian, can I still call in? I said, Of course you can call in. He thought he had to do a Zoom. And I just asked him, too, what about tonight? He said, I got to get back right away because I have the Wall Street Journal dinner.

I said, with who? The president.

So the president is hosting all these CEOs of Wall Street financial organizations, which is going to be big. But I talked to him about things that are not about CEOs, but about you and I, and what the economy is doing for us and not. Here's my interview with Scott Besson. With the CR passing through the Senate, tonight the House votes on a bill to reopen the government.

However, the economic toll of the last 42 days will remain, with the CBO office estimating the U.S. has lost as much as $14 billion permanently due to the shutdown. Joining us now is a man who's got to balance our checkbook. He's our Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson. Mr.

Secretary, always great to see you. Brian, good to see you. How do we handle this type of financial loss, which has nothing to do with the American people, but we're on the hook for it?

Well, Brian, the Democrats tried to stop President Trump. They couldn't stop him in the courts. They couldn't stop him with the mainstream media.

So they shut down the government. And they've taken the mask off. Ezra Klein in the New York Times yesterday actually said this was never about health care. This was about President Trump and his totalitarianism.

So they were willing to cost the government. tens of billions of dollars. The economy was in a great place, three point eight percent growth last quarter, tracking very well this time. I think we're going to accelerate into twenty twenty six. But they've caused a hiccup here.

When you talk about the whole thing from the off-year elections was affordability, that was the words people like Zoe Ramdani used, but their ways of solving that are very different from the way you would do it.

So, when you look at affordability now and you go grocery shopping, for example, what products are you working on bringing down? We know that certain products are down, certain up, like, for example, coffee. The president says, I'm going to lower the rates, tariff rates on Brazil and Vietnam and other places to try to bring the price of coffee down. What else are you doing?

Well, it's tough to do a lot of specific things, but I can tell you, Brian, you're going to see substantial announcements over the next couple of days in terms of things we don't grow here in the United States. Coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that.

So, that will bring the prices down very quickly. And, Brian, we inherited this affordability mess. It was the worst inflation. 40, 50 years, one of the worst in the nation's history. And affordability has two components.

So there's the price level. And then there is income level. And what happened under Biden was the cumulative inflation, stated inflation, CPI, was 20, 23%. But what happened to working Americans, their basket of goods and services, food, insurance, auto payments, was up in the 30s. Felt a real gigantic differential there.

And what we are going to do is by bringing back high paying manufacturing jobs. President Trump is going to do what he did in the first term, and that is for hourly workers and working Americans to have real wage increases.

So, two things the President has thrown out. I'll just tell you what he said to make it shorter. He said, Hey, I'm thinking about $2,000 stimulus checks coming from the tariffs to everybody. And 50-year mortgages. First off, on the $2,000 stimulus checks, isn't that like using your overdraft to pay off your credit cards?

Or isn't it like taking money from a credit card and paying off your bills? Do you think that that's the most financially responsible thing to do?

Well, there are a lot of options here. The President's talking about a $2,000 rebate, and that would be for families making less than, say, $100,000. Have you decided on that yet? We haven't. We haven't.

It's in discussion. But the other thing to think about, Brian, is that What we did with the tax bill is actually financing the president's no tax and tips over time, Social Security, and the big refunds you're going to see are a result of that.

So that's another payment to the American people. And then the other thing you're going to see on the in the middle of the year. Are these Trump accounts? Every child born retroactively to January 1, but for the next three years, is going to get a $1,000 account that's going to be invested in the U.S. stock market.

So that's another $1,000 for working families.

So yesterday, Laura Ingram aired her interview from a couple of days ago, and they kind of clashed a little on H-1B visas, which you upped the fee to to $100,000. I want you to watch this and tell me what you think. And does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers. We also do have to bring in talent.

But we have plenty of talented people. No, you don't. No, you don't. We don't have talented people. No, you don't have certain talents and people have to learn.

You can't take people off an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory, we're going to make missiles. Where do you stand, Mr. Secretary? Brian, for years, twenty. 30 years we have offshore precision manufacturing jobs.

And the president's point here is: again, we can't snap our fingers and say, you're going to learn how to build ships overnight. We want to bring Semiconductor industry back to the U.S. There are going to be big facilities in Arizona.

So I think the president's vision here is to bring in. Overseas workers, where these jobs went. Who have skills. Who have the skills? Three, five.

Seven years to train the U.S. workers, then they can go home, the U.S. workers fully take over.

So, that's what that's. Do you want to understand the concern that people have? Hey, an American can have that job, why you give it to a job specific skills? Because we haven't built ships in the U.S. for years.

We haven't built semiconductors.

So, this idea of overseas partners coming in, teaching American workers, then returning home, that's a home run. Gotcha. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much. I know you have a busy day ahead, and I know that a lot of pressures are on your shoulders to be doing a great job.

Thanks so much. Good to be with you, Brian. Absolutely. Great to see you. Good to see you.

So that was my interview with the Treasury Secretary. Really value the fact that he flew in just to do our show in person because his response was: hey, you know what? It's better in person. I'll go in there.

So he had some quality time, and I hope you really enjoyed it because there's so much going on. He is doing such an awesome job. I hate to tell you, but you know who also thinks he's doing a great job? Democrats. And anybody that wants to take him on on issues on the Sunday shows, I feel bad for them.

Macum. From hot. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmead Show coming to you from Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world. This hour, we're going to be joined by Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, and Dr. Mark Siegel. Brand new book out, The Miracle is Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing.

And I'm going to talk to him about the ins and outs of what went wrong with Obamacare. I want it from the non-political perspective because we know that not one Republican ever voted for it. The Democrats' goal is to make Republicans responsible for it, which I don't think is possible, but you never know. With me in the studio is the former chairman of the RNC, Michael Watley, good friend of the show, who's running to be the next senator from North Carolina. But before we get to Michael, let's get to the big three.

Number three. We need to develop a security operation there that is, it doesn't have to be American, but it has to be not connected to Hamas and not connected to the United Nations. Neither of those have been able to deliver. If President Trump can put that in place, then Israel will be secure and safe. Relentless, the Trump administration's relentless pursuit for peace in the Middle East is laudable and noteworthy as Kushner and Woodkoff are back in the region.

Aid is pouring in to Gaza, and the ceasefire holds. And by the way, the Houthi rebels have officially halted their attacks. Number two. I said to him, Let's go to the place that's the most challenging. And he said, Well, we're gonna go to Berkeley then.

And it was challenging. But I wish it was challenging in a way that was really what this country is set to do, which is free speech. And Berkeley is the home of free speech. And yet, all of a sudden, that was the place where free speech on campus was really enshrined at the university. Turning point wraps up their salute to Charlie Kirk Tour, and sadly, violence rages in the final stop.

This time, there'll be consequences. I'll explain. Number one. The word of the day is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. To quote another Charles Barkley when it comes to Chuck Schumer.

Look at this. Least popular Dem Senate leader ever. He's underwater with Democrats. His own party, he's underwater. It's over.

The shutdown should end later today, and Dem's infighting rages. It's at a level I didn't think was possible, especially after their stellar performance in last Tuesday's elections. With me right now, a man knows a lot about elections. He's making sure the RNC would be strong in 2024. And now he's trying to be the next senator to be part of it, all Michael Watley.

Welcome back. It's good to be back. All right, so first off on the shutdown. It's going to officially end in a few hours. Um Who won?

Well, I don't think the American people won because what we saw was 14 straight votes by the Democrats to shut down the government after hearing for 20 years how bad government shutdowns are. Chuck Schumer, I think, is the biggest loser out of all of them. Right now, you look at this guy who argued against shutdowns for decades and then shut down the government not because of any of the merits. They didn't get any merits done, but it was just because of political posturing. And he put his own political interests ahead of the American people.

Shame on Chuck Schumer.

So now, in the interim, up until January 30th, when it becomes official. Do the Republicans, even if they're not obligated. For the most part, the president's got a big heart for people that's troubling to make ends meet. He's not doing this for the rich. And you could paint it any way you want because he's wealthy.

It's just not what he's about. You know that, I know that. But politicians will think differently.

So he knows a whole bunch of people can't afford their health care now.

So can you get something done substantially in two months without renewing subsidies that would cost us three hundred fifty billion dollars over the next ten years to sustain a program no Republican voted for?

Well, you certainly could not have the discussions that we need to have going forward while the government was shut down.

So we're glad that that is going to be taken off the table today and they can get back to trying to figure this out. Look, Obamacare did not work. You know, Obama said, and the Democrats said you can keep your doctors. They lied. They said that health care costs were going to go down.

They lied. The fact that these subsidies right now are the only thing that are allowing folks to be able to afford the Obamacare premiums is a real problem, and we're going to have to figure this out. And it's going to take a rational conversation. That is going to involve the Democrats, not just opposing President Trump.

So, Michael Wiley, you know you're going to get this question too in North Carolina. It's a lot of great people that want to know who they should vote for, and they wonder who's going to be responsible that their premiums are going up. What's your message?

Well, the premiums went up because of Obamacare. Premiums went up during the eight years that my opponent, Roy Cooper, was the governor of North Carolina. And what we have seen across every perspective is rates are going up and just subsidizing it the way that Obamacare has done has not done anything to bring those prices down.

So in North Carolina, that's a seat you guys hope to flip.

So Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor, has said, okay, I'm done.

Now I'm going to run for senator. A lot of people think that's a big win for the Democrats. You see less strength and more vulnerability. In what way?

Well, look, you know, I had a reporter one time ask me that he's going to run on his record. What are you going to run on? I'm going to run on his record. You know, the fact is that he's on the 20% side of every 80-20 issue that's out there. For example, that he vetoed bills to keep boys out of girls' sports, woke out of our schools, men out of women's locker room.

He vetoed balanced budget bills with tax cuts that would help our economy. He vetoed bills to tell sheriffs that they have to honor ICE detainers. We're going to have a real conversation about his record. The biggest issue that we're facing in North Carolina right now is crime. The fact that as governor, he signed an executive order that was going to reimagine law enforcement.

He created cashless bail. He created pretrial release. He created the revolving door for criminals that we're seeing all across North Carolina right now. We've got a program we're running. Called Mugshot Mondays, where we're highlighting people who've been arrested 40 times, 50 times, 70 times in Charlotte and released.

That is all on Roy Cooper. These are the issue sets we're going to run on. You also said that, as Roy couldn't, you didn't say, but it's been reported that Roy Cooper has enraged victims' families when he took 15 convicted killers off death row on his final day as governor. Yeah, no question about it. He has fought harder for criminals than he did their victims.

You know, what we need in North Carolina is somebody like me who's going to fight to create jobs, raise wages, keep our kids and our communities safe, and then make sure that our soldiers, our military men and women in uniform, are going to be able to protect our interests and allies around the world as well. They're very, by the way, very patriotic state in North Carolina. Everybody knows that. Why do you think a Democratic governor is able to get two terms and leave with approval ratings over 50 percent? Yeah, North Carolina is a purple state.

We're 30 percent Republican, 30 percent Democrat, 40 percent unaffiliated. And the way that that generally breaks down is Democrats win governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state. And on the Republican side, Republicans win with members of Congress, with senators, and President Trump carrying all three time. Republicans win when we listen to the voters, we understand the issues they care about, and we put solutions on the table.

So, what role could the president be a big asset in North Carolina? The president's going to be a tremendous asset, and me having his endorsement is very significant in North Carolina. Do you ask him to campaign with you? Oh, absolutely. No question about it.

We want him on the ground down there. He won all three elections in North Carolina, 2016, 2020, and 2024. And he is still a force to be reckoned with. Yeah, President Obama won once, right? He did.

Yes. Absolutely. So it could go either way.

So it's going to have to be earned. It is, and it's going to be a very tight election cycle.

So this is what I keep hearing.

Well, Donald Trump's not on the ballot, so the Republicans don't do as well with him not on the ballot. And they've got to get used to that.

Now, you as a political expert who ran the RNC, I think it's going to seem like Trump's on the ballot this time because he'll be everywhere. I even think, is it true the Republicans are going to have a convention? Leading to the midterms? Is that there's talk of doing that? There's a lot of conversation about making sure that we have a big, beautiful event next year, and I think that that's going to be really important for us to be able to rally everybody around.

You know, you think about what would have happened if Kamala Harris won this election? What would have happened if we have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate right now? We wouldn't have one big, beautiful bill. We wouldn't have tax cuts. We would have tax increases going into effect on December or on January 1.

You think about where we would be with the border. You think about where we would be with the economy. Thank God President Trump won that election cycle. And I do think that we want to have a conversation about where we are as a country versus where we would have been.

So where you are, you don't have a Tea Party to worry about on your right. And it's pretty much if you're the people like you aren't being primaried. It seems like Democrats are going through what Republicans went through with the rise of the Tea Party, and people upset about President Obama. And the Tea Party came up to say, Republicans, be more conservative than perhaps Mitt Romney was.

So this guy, Ezra Levin, who I didn't know anything about. He's an activist. He put together the No Kings rally. Listen to what he says he's going to do, Cut 13. If there's a silver line to all this, it's that this capitulation was so complete that it will be impossible to hide.

Everybody can see that the party is not up to the task now. And so we should be asking every single Senate Democratic candidate: are you supporting Chuck Schumer for leadership? And if you are, you don't got my vote. You didn't get my donation. You don't get my support.

You don't get my attention. We're launching the largest primary program in the history of Indivisible. And it's going to be focused not on ideology, but on building a Democratic party that fights back.

You're not in the business of human Democrats' advice. But if you were the RNC chair and you had a Republican activist saying that, you'd be worried. Should they be worried about what's gonna is there a fracture there?

Well, there is a fracture there. You know, it's interesting. The Democrats have not learned a thing from the 2024 election cycle. They ran as an open-border, inflationary spending, woke, weak America party, and they lost. And they are doubling down on stupid right now, and we're hearing it across that interview and every other conversation on the left, is they're not going to navigate back towards the middle.

They're going to double down on all of the same failed policies that they lost on in 2024.

So when people say the The part that figures out affordability. Is going to be the part of this successful. Make it easier to buy the first-time home, make it easier to get a loan, allow people to shop at the grocery store on the budget that they have. What is the recipe for affordability for Republicans?

Well, look, President Trump ran on it and he won on it, right? We need to bring down grocery prices, gasoline prices, and housing prices. And he is fighting every day.

Some items are, some aren't. Yeah, gasoline prices are down. Energy prices are down. Grocery prices are down. We need to see the Fed lower interest rates and help with housing markets right now.

And the President is fighting very hard to try and get the Fed to bring those housing prices down. But, you know, what the President wants to do is create jobs and raise wages and make sure that we have a generation that can afford to get married, can afford to have a home, can afford to raise a family. That's what we're fighting for every day. You know, he was asked that yesterday, was Donald Trump, and here's what he said about lowering costs. Cut a 18.

This is the greatest economy we've ever had. Their talking points, oh cores are high, corsair, by the way, the only thing is beef. Beef is a little high because the ranchers are doing great. Coffee. Coffee, we're going to lower some tariffs.

We're going to have some coffee come in. We're going to take care of all this stuff very quickly, very easily. It's surgical. It's beautiful to watch. But our costs are way lower.

So that's his attitude, and he feels like Republicans have to talk about it more. We do need to talk about it. You know, the fact is that inflation was 9 percent under Joe Biden, and we saw housing prices, grocery prices, and gasoline prices go absolutely through the roof. And the president and his administration are working every day to try and bring those prices down. What we need in North Carolina, what I'm going to be fighting for, are policies that are going to create jobs, raise wages, keep our kids in our communities safe, and make sure that we have an environment where every family can do better.

So I was talking to Scott Beston today, Treasury Secretary, and he said they put together their they opened up a mine for rare earth. And they were able to p produce their first magnets in 20 something years.

So it's it's raging in South in South Carolina. And I said, Why? He goes, Number one, it's there. Number two is regulations are low.

So, you're able to get a mine open quickly. If you made somebody open up in California, they would lose money, they wouldn't be able to get the lease. What about North Carolina?

Well, what I think in North Carolina is the same economic policies that we need nationally, right? We need a tax structure that's going to work for families and job creators. We need to make sure that our trade policies are going to work for our manufacturers, our small businesses, and our farmers. And we need regulatory relief, right? Green tape and red tape-those are real things.

And we're seeing from the Trump administration a walk back on the federal regulatory state that is extremely important for job creators. Are you anyone running for the nomination on the right in North Carolina? We'll wait and see, right? You know, President Trump.

So far no. Yeah. Right now, President Trump has made it very clear that I am his preferred candidate. I have his endorsement. That is what is going to carry forward in the primary.

Look, we're going to run a primary anyway. I want to make sure that we're building up my name recognition and we're introducing me to the voters all across North Carolina. We're not going to rest. We're inside of 12 months now. Right.

And so, you know, every single day from now through next November, we are going to be fighting. We're going to go to every community. We're going to talk to every family about the issues that they care about and put solutions on the table. All right. Thanks so much.

Michael Wiley, always great to see you in the studio. Appreciate you being in here. Former RNC chair, now working to be the next senator from North Carolina. Thanks, Mike. Great.

Thanks, Brian. Back in a moment. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmead. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin.

It's Brian Kilmead. Saints are not people that we worship. We worship God alone, but these are people who lived heroic virtue. Heroic virtue and inspire us to say, my life isn't always easy. What do I do about it?

And these are people who did it to an extreme. How inspiring! Peter and Paul I mentioned. These are people who were from Jerusalem, met Jesus and walked in his footsteps, and then came to Rome where they knew they were going to die for the faith. Peter crucified upside down because he didn't think he'd be worthy of crucifixion like Jesus.

And Paul beheaded. Because he was a Roman citizen. Uh that is inspiring.

So I know what Father Jonathan meant. But like when we were interviewing him on Fox and Friends, And that was the last thing I did when we came up here to do the radio show. I'm saying to myself. I don't know. Being crucified upside down, beheaded.

Inspiring. It's the first word you think of when you hear that. I'm like saying to myself, If that's the way I die, I'm okay not being in the Human Being Hall of Fame.

So a little less painful. A little lethal injection perhaps. But yeah, I d I don't know. I didn't know you could request the direction of a crucifixion. You learn a new thing every day, Ryan.

I did not know. But we have a great series on Saints, Martin Scorsese, who can you try to book him, Pete? Maybe you don't mind. Go shoot him a text. Yeah, if you have a cell, I would love to interview him.

There's a great job on the Saints. We gotta be ready. I mean, he tells it like it's here. Are you gonna ask him to make it a little less gory? I think it's already done.

So it's now, I think it's available now. I believe it is. Yeah. Apparently there is a Great two-minute trailer online that you should go and watch. Everyone should.

Also Fields of hour. Should watch. Great athletes who also served in the military. That's your new series on Fox Nation? Yes.

And don't forget what man made America great. It would be next week. And that is great moments in American history. that is really inspiring in a different way. Agreed.

Not getting beheaded. Exactly. But I was just I mean, you see the video and it I mean, he he does not, he knows how to do. Scorsese, you're talking about. Scorsese knows how to do drama.

Oh, yeah. Yes. He knows how to do it. That is sort of his. Very dark.

Everything's dim. I mean, he's. He is sort of good with the whole mob. And what you should do, this is my urging. We set up.

what I think are a great activation outside that recreates a lot of the Saints stuff.

So you do a lot of selfies inside, and we need you to post it.

So we have people out there to bring you through. It's a real cool little house. Um so that's out there now. Kind of cool. Where is this cool little house?

Right in front of 1211 6th Avenue.

So if you're not in New York, It's right outside. Right. I mean, we can't see it 'cause we're on the fifteenth floor. But it's out there. That's all I have to say.

So And uh by the way, top of the hour I'm going to be on outnumbered. And we'll probably talk about the Saints because I know Harris Faulkner was at the big screening last night, which I think is great. How about this? Prince William on being a parent. And telling his kids you can't have a cell phone.

Is it true you could tell the prince no? Yes, if you're the king. Cut 38. It's really hard. Our children don't have phones.

I think when George moves on to secondary school, then maybe he might have a phone that has no internet access. But now he's... How is he now? He's 12. And he has no phones?

No phones. No way. And he says it's getting really tough. even though he is royalty, to tell his son he can't have a phone. Give him a flip phone.

I don't know. I think you can live. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, we are back.

And with me in the studio is Dr. Mark Siegel, Fox News Medical Adelaide, and author of a brand new book out next week: The Miracles Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing. Dr. Siegel, welcome back. Great to be on with you again, as always.

So far, What's the book tour been like? It hasn't really officially started yet, right? I mean, these are pre-orders, but everybody wants a miracle right now, you know? And there's a reason for that. There's so much political divisiveness going on.

After the Charlie Kirk assassination, there's so much anger. People that wouldn't even honor his death, that they wouldn't even honor that this was a victim, somebody assassinated. It just brought out the hatred and the rage in our society. And one of the treatments for it. Is kindness, is coming together, is looking for miracles, understanding there's a greater force than we are, God, and God controls the events of what happens.

Knowing that makes people calmer. We should fear God, not attack each other. All right, so let's talk about something that's number one in the news right now, and that is healthcare. You know, there was a holdout for seven weeks, ostensibly, people said because Democrats said we want health care subsidies to continue. During the pandemic, you were here every day, every day, multiple times, that they said, well, you have to give subsidies to make sure people had health care, even people with private insurance.

Well, the pandemic's over. They sunset, they're done, but now it looks like 23 million people, 93 who aren't in Obamacare, 93% are gonna have their rates go up. through no fault of their own, to a program they got used to. But if we spend, it's going to cost us three hundred fifty billion dollars minimum over the next ten years. And your thoughts about as the doctor, when you do your other job, Of Obamacare and what went wrong.

What was the intent of what went wrong? Let's start with the fact that I agree with Kennedy, Secretary Kennedy, that we have a sick care system here, not a health care system. That people actually spend less if they exercise more, if they eat better, if they eat healthier foods, if they're not eating junk food all the time. I agree with that. I think we gear our entire health care system on what to do once you're already obese or you have diabetes or you have high blood pressure or you have heart disease or you have cancer.

We're spending a fortune on that and we're coming up with tremendous technologies, but it's becoming more personalized because of artificial intelligence. That means more expensive. How are we going to cover it? The first bait and switch that the Democrats did, Brian, was call it health care when it's actually health insurance. Because if you have an insurance policy that doesn't get you in to see your doctor or doesn't get you the test I want to order or the treatment, how is that health care?

And that's what the Republicans are realizing now. And that's why President Trump Tried to simplify it the other night and say, wait, I'm not going to give money into the insurance company's cesspool, which is what Obamacare is. It's like, let's pay for these policies that don't provide really good care. They're crummy policies, but let's keep subsidizing them. Right.

But you know, some really good people are going to say, well, I can't afford my health care now with the subsidies gone. Right. Here's what Roe Conna said: you know, he's the Democrat from California, cut through. We thought that it would help cover people. And yes, the costs have increased, but it did slow the growth of costs.

But ultimately, I agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene. The system is broken. These private health insurance companies have been ripping off the American people. And I believe that what we need to do is expand Medicare, that that is actually, especially for people between 50 and 64, that would be the solution. It would also help our manufacturing.

It would help our competitiveness. It would lower costs.

Should we expand Medicare for people at 50 who are healthy? I was with him all the way until he said that because Medicare is also broken. Medicare has got so much fraud and abuse in it, the way that Oz has been saying. He's right about that. That we have to first reform Medicare so that it's a streamlined product that actually works also.

Neither of these work. The insurance companies sit there in Congress and they're a big lobby and they're working together with a drug company lobby and the public doesn't know how much these things even cost. The prices are skyrocketed and it's absorbed by the middlemen. And and it's only taken out in your premium.

So you're either paying a a huge premium for private insurance or a huge amount of tax dollars going to public insurance.

So w when do you see somebody show up in your waiting room and they say, Well, Doc Siegel, we have someone out there, they have Medicare. What is the reaction from doctors across the country? Great question, Brian. Here's the secret. Doctors like it a lot less than they did 10 years ago.

They like it a lot less than they did five years ago. Used to be the advantage of Medicare was it was an unrestricted system. I could order what I thought the patient wanted. I could get it done.

Now there's more restrictions on it and it covers less and it's way more of a pain to deal with. And most importantly, it pays the doctor squat now. And if I have Obamacare, a lot of people don't use it because the deductibles seem so high. Correct?

So they're not good for a doctor's visit. I mean, and like I talked to you about it before I came on. I can get a colonoscopy without a copay, but what if I find something? It could be in the donut hole, and then I can't even get the treatment I need covered.

So there are liabilities attached. Narrow networks of doctors, a lot of medical centers not playing ball with it. Doesn't give me the care I need to deliver.

So let's talk about your book, The Miracles Among Us. When did you realize there were things that were going on that were beyond medical explanation? I've known that from the very beginning. I've dealt with miracles from the beginning. And your wife's a doctor, too.

Does she feel the same way? Does who? Your wife? Oh, yes, definitely.

Well, my wife is a miracle worker. One of the things in this book is that not every doctor that's performing miracles every day knows it or would look at it that way. They're not all religious. 70% are probably driven by faith, but not all. I don't care if a doctor's religious, even if they perform a miracle.

Dr. Scalia up at Maryland Shock Trauma, who worked on Bob Redfield's son, Dr. Redfield, former CDC. Director is a miracle worker. He says, I'm not a miracle worker.

He debates with Redfield whether this is coming from God or coming from his great workers. Describing it's the hands of God. What happened with his son? His son got hit in the head and went into a deep coma and wasn't expected to recover at all. He had a blown pupil in his eye, which means he's not going to recover.

They took part of his skull off. He was in a coma for months and then he wakes up. And he wakes up and they say he's still not going to recover. He's just awake. He's not going to recover.

Redfield prayed to God every day. He has a group of nuns up in Poughkeepsie that he's known since the AIDS era praying for him. People all over the world praying for him. He knew Pope John Paul II, deeply religious man, praying with his wife. One day his son wakes up.

And he wakes up and they say, not going to fully recover anyway. But he starts to fully recover. And so Redfield is having lunch with him one day in the lunchroom. He says, What's the matter with your eyes, Danny? Danny says You can't focus?

You can't focus? Danny says, I can't see out of my right eye.

So Redfield goes back to God and prays, You promised me a full recovery. I said to Redfield, You criticize the Almighty? And Redfield says, Why not? And it worked. Two weeks later, his son could see fully.

A month or two after that, he's back on a golf course and driving around.

So, and he subscribed to what you subscribe to. He says, This is not a great doctor, this is great. Maybe a great doctor, too, but this is a miracle. It's both. It's God working through great doctors and the divine presence.

It's both. In the story Breakthrough, which is in my book, a 14-year-old falls under the ice because he didn't know it was so thin and it was warmer than he thought. He's under the ice for 20 minutes. The emergency responders come. They can't find him.

They find the other two boys. They can't find him. His name is John Smith. And a voice comes from the shore. He's fifteen feet to the right.

And he follows the 15 feet and they find him. There was no one on the shore. The guy whose voice it was was back in an office in town, and he said that to me. I interviewed all these people. He comes out from under the ice, no pulse.

They bring him to the emergency room, 50 minutes without a pulse. I said to the doctors in the ER, ever have anyone 50 minutes with CPR? Never. We wanted to call it. We wanted to call it.

He was gone. He was dead. The mother wouldn't let us call it. Never happened in our entire careers. The mother comes to the hospital and starts to pray.

And he gets a pulse back immediately. He gets a pulse back. I said to the doctor, Does anyone ever fully recover from this? Never. back sometimes, very rarely, very, very rarely, they'd be brain dead.

I interviewed this guy. He's now nineteen, totally intact, completely with it and functioning. Wow. And what's your explanation? God.

I think there's no way. It's great, Doctor. Did you talk to the doctors, Tim? Yes, I talked to three different doctors in that emergency room. All of them agree that God's presence was there.

By the way, Brian, why would people not want to see it this way? I'm not saying compromise the medicine at all. The medicine is part of this. I don't think because I believe in God that somehow I don't do as good a job. If anything, I'm slow to believe in physician-assisted suicide.

I'm slow to go to palliative care. I want to cherish each life. Makes me a better doctor. My problem with believing in God is that I'm a giant fan, and how can they be this bad and for this long? God gives us the miracles he wants us to have, and that's not one of them.

I'm sorry. But the Knicks, how about the Knicks? You know what? It's a very good comeback. Thank you very much.

I'm dwelling on the wrong things. Go pick up Dr. Siegel's book, but it's going to be pre-order. It'll be waiting for you, whether you get it on e-book or you want to deliver it to your house. It's called The Miracle Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing.

When we come back, the CEO of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan. You're listening to the Brian Kill Me Show. And then I'm going to go on outnumbered. Don't move. Breaking news, unique opinions.

Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, welcome back, everybody.

So, one of the great things about going to the Alsmith dinner is that you meet some most important people, certainly the most powerful in the world. You know, even when the president doesn't show up or when there's not a presidential year, it's that big Catholic dinner in New York City, pretty famous since the 50s.

So I had a chance to sit on the dais too, and they haven't really found out that I don't probably don't belong there.

So you got a chance to mingle with important people, one of which was the CEO of One of which is the CEO of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan.

So I hit it off with him. We hit it off grade. He sends a staffer over and says: if Brian says, if you ever want to do the show, if you ever want to do the show, he'll do it.

So sure enough, I had a chance to catch up with him. And he's one of the most respected international businessmen in the country who was very successful even before he went into finance as a lawyer. I think he was a partner at a law firm first. and a rugby player, should add.

So I thought we'd talk about the most important issues of the day, the issues that felt that affect you the most, where he thinks the economy's heading, especially after the off year election, where so many people feel dissatisfied.

So here's my interview with Brian Moynihan. Joining us now is Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan. Great to see you, Brian. Thanks so much for coming here. It's great to be here, Brian, especially when it's snowing outside.

I know, we just heard.

So, you came down from Boston, you got a huge contingence here in New York. Do you have concerns about this mayor who says, I don't like capitalism and I want to raise taxes on corporations? I think you need to back up and say.

Now that a mayor is in office, whether it's this city or any other city, we have an obligation as a company to work with him to try to make this successful. I got 16,000 teammates who work all just in the neighborhood here, and we've got to make it successful.

So, the key to that is how he thinks about he's governing all the people in the whole city, and he has to create a budget, a tax base. And I always focus on people because people get focused on who's leaving, who's coming in. But when we look at data from our customer base, we can actually see which cities people move to.

So, we have a customer in city X and they move to City Y. And what was interesting, a few years ago, I showed that to a Northeastern governor and said, more people are moving to Cleveland than they're moving to your state. That's an interesting question you ought to think about.

So, you've got to be competitive so businesses locate the next job there. Everybody focuses on people pulling out, but it's really the next jobs that actually cost you where people are going to add people. And I think if We have our job is to make every politician successful because when cities and towns and states are successful countries are successful we're successful and as I look forward I hope that the mayor will engage with us and we'll give him some ideas So you'll meet with him if he asks of course or you're gonna ask for that meeting We'll ask for that meeting because I think it's important because in the end of the day I got 16,000 teammates and their families that depend on this city being great understood you got but you got other people in other cities that it is cheaper to live and quality of life matters I want you to hear first off on when it comes to Christmas shopping holiday shopping They expect to be off about 1 percent this year. As we head into the economy right now, that was a shutdown for six weeks. What do you expect?

What do your people tell you?

So if you look at what's going on, as opposed to what we expect first in the month of October, the Bank of American Consumers put about 6% more money in the economy than they did last October. That's up from 5%, sort of last quarter to give a broad. Those are your customers. Those are 70 million of them, so it's not a small sample. And they put $4.5 trillion in the economy a year through their accounts.

So that's growing strongly. If you actually look at our Institute, they published something the other day that said it looks like the Christmas shopping season is off to a pretty good start. And so, well, you see differences between lower-income households and the rate of growth in spending versus higher-income households. All cohorts in our customer base are growing at different rates. And so it sets out to be pretty good.

The consumer spending has been strong. We've been telling people that as we went through the summer, they're often looking at what people say they're going to do versus what they're going to do. But you have to focus on what they're doing. And what they did in October was spend more money. And they book cruises and vacations and stuff, which is not consistent with what some of the polls say about their feelings.

So always pay attention to what they do versus what they say. It sounds like the president yesterday, he sat down with Laura Ingram and talked about the economy. We were at 8%. Percent, 9 percent for a while, inflation.

Now we're down, we are 5 percent. The president's got down to roughly 3 percent, a little bit under. Here's what he said about the polls that show that people are concerned about the economy. More than anything else, it's a conjob by the Democrats. Had used a word like manufactured.

Do you remember the word manufactured? It's a manufactured economy. Nobody uses that word. Every anchor, broken, manufactured, they do exactly what they say. It's such a rigged system.

So, are you ready? Costs are way down. Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2. Gasoline is at $270 now, and it was at $450 under Biden, under Sleepy Joe. When gasoline comes down, when energy comes down, and everybody agrees energy is down, we're drill, you know, drill, baby, drill.

We're going like wild. You thought.

Well, at the end of the day, if you go back three years ago, four years ago, The Fed was late raising rates and then inflation got up. I believe it was late. I don't have to believe it. You don't have to believe it. They said they were late.

And so then they came in hard and they got it down. And now we're down to 3%. And so with the impact of the tariffs and everything, it's hung in a little bit more. Our team thinks it hangs into 3% really all through next year, which there's a great debate whether 2% is exactly the right rate or 2.5%, but we're down in a level that's controllable. And so I think it's under control.

And I think the key is to make sure it doesn't kick back up. Because when it does, that causes people to say, well, if this is going to be more expensive, I'll just sit back. And so if you look at that, now the reality is you've got to be careful about all the different inflations. The housing inflation, rent inflation effectively, is very different for a renter than it is for a homeowner because a homeowner has a mortgage at 3% and their costs did not change at all, where the renter's costs went up.

So you had these successive waves. Wage growth was strong. It's covered it up, but now we're back in equilibrium, and now we've got to be diligent to make sure that inflation comes down.

Well, we've got to watch the labor market to make sure that stays strong because that provides a confidence. And you believe the Treasury Secretary gets it, and you do know him personally.

So I got to ask you what you're doing with veterans. Today is Veterans Day. It's so important to get out of the military that you have a mentor to show you the ropes of your business.

So what are you doing?

So two basic things. One is we've always been a great company for veterans. We committed just a few weeks ago to hire 10,000 more veterans over the next five years, 2,000 a year, and we've been able to do that. When a person comes to our company, they get great mentorship, great training. But the question is, can we get them better training?

And so there's a we just made a grant to a corporation of American Corporate Partners that helps give veterans one-to-one guidance to help them be effective. And so we said we'd support 250. This is a cost-intensive effort, but we support 250, of which we've hired 30 people from this program. They've been great successes.

Now, importantly, for my most senior people, two West Points, two naval academies. That's always fun at certain times of the year. But we believe our company is a great company for veterans, and we believe we owe it to make sure we're bringing those veterans into our company. And even if they come to work first for five years and get a job somewhere else, we've given them a great start and help them make that transition. Right.

That's awesome.

So it's on Veterans Day. And when you come back, we do have to talk about your role at Brown, too, because education at the highest level is so important. And we know you were co-captain of the rugby team back in those days. Brian Moynihan, thanks so much for coming on the show. I hope it's only the first of many appearances.

Thank you, Brian. I appreciate it. All right, so I hope you enjoyed that. My sense is the CEO will be on our channel, on our show, this show. And on Fox and Friends again.

I think he really enjoyed it, and I think he knows the president watches and listens, which is always cool. Quick thing: I'm going to be outnumbered at the top of the hour. You'll see how I handle things. You haven't seen me in three hours. If you're not watching the stream, you'll see if I'm still wearing the same stuff.

Listen to the Brian Kill Me Show, and don't forget: History, Liberty, and Labs back in action on Valentine's Day, February 14th, Fort Myers, Florida. BrianKillme.com for tickets.