Welcome in his VERDICTUS Center, Ted Cruz, it is nice to have you with us.

Senator.

We've got a lot to talk about during this Christmas week, and some of it is really good news.

It deals with the economy.

That is something that has made a lot of people excited about going into twenty twenty six.

Well, there's a lot good going on.

But I want to start by just saying, Merry Christmas.

And I hope that at Christmas time you're spending time with your family.

I hope you're taking time to hug your kids.

I hope you're taking time.

I hope you're having some fabulous meals where you're stuffed, you have some great presence, you have some great love.

But I also want to encourage everyone remember what Christmas time is about.

Christmas Time, Yes, it's about family, Yes it's about coming together.

But Christmas is when we're celebrating the birth of Jesus, the birth of our Savior, who came God incarnate, came to earth to live as a man, to live without sin, and then to die willingly, voluntarily, freely, to die for your sin.

And my sins.

I don't know about you, Ben, but Christmas is my favorite time of year.

I love Christmas.

I love the music, I love I love everything about it, and I love celebrating the incredible mystery and marvel that God cared so much about each of us that he was willing to send his only son to die force.

Yeah.

Amen to that.

I think it's really been sad over the last several years, how much people try to just get rid of the meaning of Christmas.

I also feel like we're seeing part of that Bell curve come back around.

I was really encouraged Sunday at church to see so many people coming not on Christmas service, but the week of Christmas, and it was there just seems to be a new awakening.

I saw some really cool data the other day that there are more people under the age of forty.

We had record breaking number of people that bought Bibles in twenty twenty five.

Some of that they actually think is because Charlie Kirk's assassination and his bold faith.

Uh and and and evil.

They're always is good that can come out of evil.

But to hear that we are are having record sales and Bibles this year, that gave me such encouragement.

Especially you've got kids like I do.

I worry about the future of this country.

It's why we do this show.

We fight for this country, we fight for our rights, we fight for our religious freedom, and to see that there is there seems to be this real awakening among this younger generation that really inspires me and and it makes me even more excited about Christmas.

Well, and listen, I will say there are a lot of folks who listen to this show who are parents.

You may be a young parent, you may have young kids at home.

I'll tell you what my parents did did every Christmas for me, and what I try to do with our girls is when we sit down for Christmas dinner, by the way, and a Cuban household typically will we'll have a Cuban celebration on Christmas Eve, uh and and then we tend to have an American Christmas on Christmas Day.

So I got to know, what is the difference, what's the difference stween how rowdy is Christmas Eve?

Because that sounds like it's kind of fun.

Yeah.

So look, when I'm with the Cuban side of my family, like the tradition is is that we'll roast a whole pig and and and that's that's that's on Notcheguena.

That that that that's a great tradition.

This year I was with Heidie's side of the family, so we we we had a Christmas Eve dinner.

But but actually her family are all vegetarians and and so what we do instead is.

Bad for the whole pig.

That would be yea, yeah, the whole the whole pig idea doesn't work, and and and and so instead instead we have fondue, which is nice.

We like we like make up fondue on the on the stove, and and and all of us like fondue, and and and dipping it in and then and then we do on Christmas Day typically either a turkey or a ham for the carnivores there and and lots of lots of vegetarian options for for Heidie's family.

But but one thing that I've tried to do every year is when we're sitting down on Christmas Day, just just to read from Luke chapter two, uh and and to read the story of Christmas.

And so so if you, if y'all indulge I want to.

Do that right now, well it go for it.

And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because it was of the house and lineage of David to be taxed.

With Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child, and so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round and about them, and they were sore afraid, And the Angel said, unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you.

Ye shall find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into the heaven, the shepherd said, one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a manger.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child.

And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And the shepherd's return, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

And you know that's obviously the story of the birth of Jesus.

And every year we take our kids to go to the Christmas Show and they do all sorts of great great Christmas shows.

This Christmas Show this year that they emphasized shepherds, in particular shepherds out caring for the sheep and talking about how the shepherds would look for the unblemished sheep, for the pure, pure baby sheep and set that sheep aside, and they would wrap that baby sheep in swaddling clothes, and and that was to signify that this sheep was being set aside to be used as a sacrifice at the temple.

And swadling close everything about Jesus's birth from literally the moment he was born, he was wrapped in the same rapping that that that that that that a lamb would be be wrapped in, or a sheep would be wrapped in to show that that that that they were.

He was the lamb, he was the sacrifice.

He was born to be sacrificed for our sins, and and and and that's such an important Christmas makes no sense without Easter.

Christmas in Easter are are our bookends of the life of Jesus.

And the life of Jesus is willingly coming to earth as a man and then willingly giving his life even though he had not sinned.

He did not deserve death.

I deserve death.

You deserve death.

All of us are are fallen creatures.

And so that so the Christmas time, I would just say to the parents, take some time read that passage, read other passes, and just talk with your kids about what it means, because it is at the end of the day.

It's not about a fat man and a sleigh.

It's not about presence.

It's not about all the food and the rest.

Christmas time is celebrating the birth of Jesus, and I just want to tell everyone Merry Christmas.

Aim into that.

Merry Christmas.

And I love that you read that.

And I would encourage others for people that maybe miss it.

What passage again was that, so they make sure they've got it.

That's Luke chapter two, and it's basically the first half of chapter two tells.

The version appears several times in the Gospels, but I like Luke Chapter two to be very concise.

Center there was a Christmas gift that was given to all Americans.

It didn't matter if you're rich or poor.

It didn't matter if you were black or white, or Hispanic or anything else in between.

We got some new economic data and it was I tell you what, if there's anybody that had coal in their stocking, it was the media.

There was an article that came out by the New York Times predicting the complete opposite of what GDP report showed.

Of course, they're not going to retract it, but they do look like idiots.

And again you got to ask yourself this question, are they really willing and wanting to hurt Americans?

They want Americans to suffered just so Donald Trump looks bad because that's what their reporting seems to look like.

Well, listen, the news that broke just this week is the economy is booming.

That the latest GDP numbers show four point three percent GDP growth, which is terrific GDP growth.

And let me read from the Wall Street Journal, consumers power strongest US economic growth in two years.

A long delayed government report shows third quarter GDP grew at an annual four point three percent rate.

Robust spending by US consumers drove greater than expected economic expansion in the third quarter, and the strongest growth rate in two years.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a seasonally and inflationally adjusted four point three percent annual rate from July through September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The report was delayed nearly two months by the government shutdown, and looks back at the period before the shutdown was in effect.

It does, however, offer a snapshot of an economy that has managed to keep humming along for much of the year.

Growth picked up from three point eight percent in the previous corner and easily beat the three point two percent forecast among economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

It was, by the way, it's over a point higher than expectations.

That's a big deal, As the journal said, it was the strongest expansion since the third quarter of twenty twenty three.

Rising consumer spending was partly driven by healthcare, including outpatient services and at hospitals and nursing homes.

International travel, legal services, and spending on products like personal computers and software also contributed.

Artificial intelligence related spending helped too, though the pace of growth appeared to from the second quarter.

Overall business investment grows slow to two point eight percent in the third quarter from seven point three percent in the prior three months.

This is great news.

And listen, when GDP is booming, what that means is it means there's more jobs, it means there's more productivity.

It means the stock market is going up.

It means people four oh one k's are going up.

It means wages are likely to rise.

And so GDP growth, it's not always immediate.

Are there still people struggling, Yes, But GDP growth is driven.

And I'll tell you one of the things we're seeing is the Christmas spending numbers are very, very strong, and so that's one of the signs of consumer confidence that you know, if you're worried, if you're scared about not being able to pay your rent or your mortgage, then you don't necessarily go out and do some big shopping for Christmas time.

We see the record breaking numbers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

And that was as the Democrats were saying that we were in a tail spin and this was disaster of an economy and they were trying to say Donald Trump is ruining your Christmas.

I'm like, well, the data says that people, as you just mentioned, they're going out and spinning at record numbers on Black Friday in Cyber Monday.

So that tells me that someone's lying.

That's exactly right.

And here I want to show you.

You talked about the press being dismayed, and I got to say that the corporate media is utterly corrupt.

They are dishonest.

I just want to read to you two tweets.

The first tweet is from October thirtieth, twenty twenty four.

Now, now, what was happening right after October thirtieth, twenty.

Twenty four the election presidential There.

Was a presidential election, and who was president of October twenty twenty four, at least nominally?

Well, the auto pen But if you're what an actual person with a heartbeat, we'll go with Joe Biden.

Okay, So here's what ABC News tweeted tweeted October thirtieth, twenty twenty four, one week before the presidential election.

Just in, the US economy grew at a robust two point eight percent annualized rate in the third quarter, slowing slightly from the previous quarter but continuing to dispel any concern about a possible shutdown.

This report comes just ahead of the presidential election.

All right, so that was a year ago.

Now that was two point eight percent.

What do you think ABC News said about four point three percent?

What was it?

Just?

In the US economy expanded more than economists expected over a recent three month period, recording robust growth despite concerns about sluggish hiring and cash strap shoppers.

Federal government data showed.

So two point eight percent is robust and fantastic, and yeay, four point three percent, Well, we're really worried about sluggish hiring and cash strap shoppers.

And yeah, okay, I guess it is like almost twice as high.

But damn it, we don't like those numbers.

That is not news.

And I literally whoever wrote that tweet should be fired.

Like if ABC pretended to be a journalist, you'd say, okay, go work for the DNC because you want to be a partisan parrot.

That's who they are and it's why people don't trust the news.

Now I want you to listen to Kevin Hasset.

Kevin Hasset is the head of the National Economic Council in the White House.

Listen to Kevin talking about these recent GDP numbers.

No, it's a fantastic report.

Four point three percent.

That's just about as good as GDP numbers get, and especially coming on the heels of the CPI report consumer Price Index report we got, which you actually showed some interesting data that consistent with this showed the quarter inflation is all the way down to one point six percent.

And so I think that these numbers are showing the President Trump's trade policy and his supply side policy, which is really increasing a new factory production and so on, is having a big, big effect, as is his trade policy.

So if we abstract from the reduction in the trade deficit, then the four point three percent number would only be two point six percent.

So Trump's trade policy is really working as well.

You know, as they mentioned trade policy, because that was one of the other big lies this year in twenty twenty five, which is the shelves are gonna be empty at Christmas.

The toys you wanted for your kids were going to be not on those shelves.

You're not gonna be able to afford basic things.

Half of the store is gonna be gone at Walmart and Target and Costco and Sam's Club.

None of that happened.

And they said there was gonna be massive spikes and prices for everything that you couldn't afford.

Again, that didn't happen either.

While we collected record number of tariffs and cash.

The presence trade deals seem to actually be working and the leverage seems to be working, and they don't want to admit that this has not been a disaster.

Well, Listen, there's still some volatility when it comes to trade policy.

And I know I'd been advocating that the President uses trade policy as leverage to open up forward markets, and he's been doing that that has been very, very successful.

This also underscores basic supply side principles.

When you cut taxes as we did, and when you repeal job killing regulations as President Trump is doing, it results in more investments, more jobs, and the economy is booming.

This is basic cause and effect.

Senator, There's another big story that I want to get to, and that is the out of control fraud.

We have now got a number and it could go higher.

At least nine billion was looted from the Minnesota medicaid programs, plus there was welfare fraud as well.

In a bombshell report coming from the Wall Street Journal, this does not look good for the governor there and a lot of mayors have now sent him a letter saying we are in trouble and it's your fault.

Look, the level of fraud we're seeing welfare medicaid fraud in Minnesota is staggering.

It is an order of magnitude greater than we've seen.

And here are the basic facts.

Federal prosecutors alleged Thursday that Minnesota may have lost billions of fraud in its medicaid program.

The latest development in an ongoing investigation, as much as half half fifty percent of the roughly eighteen billion dollars Minnesota has spent since twenty eighteen on fourteen medicaid programs, particularly vulnerable to abuse, may have been siphoned off by fraudsters, according to Assistant Ussistant Attorney Joe Thompson.

Thompson made the remarks as prosecutors announced additional charges in the ongoing investigation of the staggering industrial scale fraud engulfing the state.

Quote, the fraud is not small, It isn't isolated.

The magnitude cannot be overstated.

What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of at bad actors committing crimes It's a staggering, industrial scale fraud.

It's swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our statel it half of medicaid for years.

That's in Minnesota.

By the way, if you watch the corporate media, you've seen very little about this.

They don't want to cover this at all because it is it is the complicity of the Democrats in office.

And understand, Minnesota is a one party state.

It is governed by Democrats.

Democrats are in charge.

They looked the other way.

Why did they look the other way?

Well, much of this fraud was carried out by Somali's We covered the previous verdict how the single largest contributor to Al Shabab.

Al Shabab is a radical Islamist terrorist organization in Somalia.

The single largest contributor to al Shabab are the Minnesota taxpayers.

That's the level of the theft that went on.

And Democrats elected Democrats in Minnesota.

They happily looked the other way.

Why because they were buying votes.

And you know what if they actually watched the taxpayer dollars and didn't let the criminals steal it, well, somebody might be upset if they had even the tiniest modicum of scrutiny.

It is shocking.

Well, and you know what you mentioned a moment ago, and that is that the media has not been touching this.

Luckily, local media has CBS, for example, locally in Minnesota.

They did a report on this that was just kind of throwing your hands up in the air, like this is so egregious.

We need you to know.

The national media completely silent, no accountability for the governor.

There are those in leadership under him.

I want to play this for people.

This is again the local CBS affiliate.

They're talking about the fraud crisis.

Take a listen.

Minnesota's fraud crisis is growing today.

Prosecutors charge more people for billing the state for social services they did not provide.

The federal prosecutor says it's possible half or more of the eighteen billion dollars billed to fourteen programs since twenty eighteen is fraudulent.

We have team coverage started with Joana Kaplan with more on what we've learned about these latest charges.

Jonah, we've gone from maybe a billion dollars to possibly nine billion or more.

Well, we've heard from the new US attorney Frank that we're not even at the end of the beginning of this investigation, and now we know why feeding our future was just the tip of the iceberg.

The fraud is not small, it isn't isolated.

The magnitude cannot be overstated.

Prosecutors on Thursday indicting six people, including one already charged in another case.

The five new defendants are all accused of defrauding a state program meant to provide housing assistance to the disabled and those dealing with addiction.

Two people charged aren't even from here.

According to officials, Anthony Jefferson and Lester Brown came from Philadelphia to Minnesota looking for an opportunity to make money.

They set up two fake companies and collected three point five million dollars.

This is an instance of what essentially fraud tourism.

Mister Jefferson and Brown were residents of Philadelphia.

We had no connection to Minnesota except for they heard that Many Soda and its Housing Stabilization Services program was easy money.

The state already cut off the housing stabilization program because of suspected fraud, but it's one of fourteen social programs now under federal investigation.

Together, they build eighteen billion dollars since twenty eighteen.

We asked how much could have been fraud.

You know, I don't make these generalizations in a hasty way, So when I say a significant mount, I'm talking in an order of half or more.

But we'll see.

One of the new indictments accuses of fraud serve of exploiting a program to help children with autism.

Court documents say Abdi Najib Hasan yusef use some of the six million bucks he stole to buy a freightliner semitruck.

Governor Walls, in a statement said he applauded the new indictments, saying, quote, this is exactly the type of strong action we need from prosecutors to ensure fraudsters are put behind bars.

Frank, this is not going away anytime soon.

I love the end there, Frank, this is not going away anytime soon.

Well, if Democrats have their way and the governor this will just be like a one time reporter.

Then we just move on.

And hey, if it goes from nine billion to twelve billion or fifteen billion, who knows where the number could end.

And that was what they were referring to there at CBS Local.

They're like, hey, we went from one billion to nine billion, and that may not be the final number.

Well, and Tim Waltz says he applauds the indictments.

Well, my question is where was Tim Waltz.

Where was the governor?

He was like, where's Waldo?

He was popping up everywhere he could.

He he was following Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, but he was not actually doing his job as governor.

And listen, there is a political reason.

And Ben, I'm going to make a prediction right now.

I love it when you do this because usually you're right.

So pay attention to everyone.

As horrific as this fraud is in Minnesota, and it is staggering, it is historically bad.

I'm going to make a prediction that it is worse.

That there is even more fraud in New York, California, and Illinois.

So you don't believe this is an isolated innsign to there.

I follow my money, I do not.

I think in bright blue states where the Democrats control all of the levers of government, all of the machinery, I think the same incentives that cause the Democrat politicians in Minnesota to try to buy votes by allowing people to rob the taxpayers blind.

I think those exact same incentives are playing out in New York.

I think those exact same incentives are playing out in Illinois.

And I think those exact same incentives are playing out in California.

So I'm calling on the Trump administration to audit, audit every state, but start with the big blue states, because I think that is where you were most likely to find find the fraud, where the pattern is the same.

And I got I gotta tell you, people like Gavin Newsom are sweating right now.

They don't want anyone looking at the fraud in California because my the incentives are identical, and I suspect you're going to see the very same pattern playing out over and over and over again.

You know you mentioned they don't want you looking.

There was a very interesting playbook.

When Democrats get in trouble, they usually just start playing the race card, throwing down the race card.

Tim Waltz had a press conference and he was asked about the fraud in the small community, the money going back to the terrorist organization Al Shabab, and how much just total pure corruption there was, And then he was asked about ice raids in Minnesota.

He's obviously against that.

They are a welcoming state, as he describes it, they're a sanctuary state.

And what Tim Waltz had to say back it really did kind of make me laugh because it's so predictable, and yet it's the classic playbook they've been using.

You question them on anything they get wrong, they're like, oh, well, your racist, a big at, homophobes, xenophob The list goes on on, Well, now it's white supremacy if you actually enforced the law of the land with the legal immigrants in the state.

Here's how he put it, Tim Waltz in Minnesota.

So this is what happens when your own federal government wages war against you.

What happens when they target communities for their own benefit.

This is what happens when they scapegoat, And this is what say happens when they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy.

When you hear the Vice President of the United States talk about now white people won't have to apologize for being white.

That's never happened once in my whole damn life.

And I think everybody in this room knows what they're doing.

So we're here today to say enough of this.

We're here today to stand that Minnesota will protect their neighbors.

Minnesota will protect their neighbors.

And this is what happened, rob blind, Yeah, and rob them blind nine nine billion that we know of, right, And he says, we're not gonna We're know we're gonna allow them to hide the idea of white supremacy.

When you hear the Vice president, I mean, this is the classic democratic playbook.

Don't look at what I'm doing.

I'm gonna yell you're a racist.

Like he has literally overseen the biggest recorded fraud in US government history.

Not just a fraud on the taxpayers that defrauded the taxpayers of Minnesota, that defrauded the taxpayer of every state, federal taxpayers, uh, but also that saw the federal tax dollars diverted to illegal immigrants to Somali's who sent it to al Shabab, a radical Islamic terror organization.

So it's fraud funding Islamist terror.

And and and what is Tim Waltz's response to scream white supremacy, white supremacy?

At some point those talking points get a little tired, and and and it's a clear and transport parent effort just to avoid any accountability and and and and to be avoid being held responsible for for what what he allowed to happen.

All right, Ceder, I want to move to another part of this story, and it's bigger than Minnesota.

We were talking about the fraud there, but the Wall Street Journal came out with a very interesting report and I think it's worth as taking a moment to talk about it.

It's the biggest fraud in welfare and it just talks about how much abuse there is in the welfare system.

It's costing hundreds of billions of dollars to American taxpayers.

Well, and in particular, what it talks about is is bogus bookkeeping that covers it up.

And this is an op ed that was written by Phil Graham and John Earley.

Phil Graham was previously senator from the state of Texas.

He's an economist.

Phil is a good friend of mine and it's an important op ed that he wrote December seventeenth in the Journal.

It's entitled the Biggest Fraud and Welfare.

The government gives tens of thousands of dollars in benefits to the poor, which it doesn't count as income, and so this is in some ways an accounting story, and please don't go to sleep right now, particularly if you're driving.

Don't go to it is an accounting story that matters.

So here's what Phil Graham wrote.

Something is profoundly wrong with the US welfare system, a problem that runs far deeper and is more dangerous than the shocking fraud in Minnesota that has been making headlines across the past half century.

America has seen what in any other country would be considered a golden age in which lower income households have made incredible progress.

Despite the end of our post war economic dominance around nineteen seventy five.

The country's real per capita gross domestic product grew by one hundred and forty two percent from nineteen seventy four to twenty twenty four.

More than two thirds of US households have inflation adjusted incomes today that would have put them in the top one fifth of households in nineteen sixty seven.

So used to be the top one fifth of households in nineteen sixty seven.

Today, more than two thirds of US households have inflation that would put them there.

Sixty two percent of all children who grew up in the poorest fifth of all households in the seventies and eighties worked their way up to a higher income bracket as adults, some all the way up to the top quintile.

Yet, even as our economy has experienced broad based growth, real federal welfare spending has soared by what do you think the number is?

I guess seventy percent.

Seven hundred and sixty five percent, more than twice as fast as total federal spending, and now costs one point four trillion dollars annually.

Incredible.

We're that were that money simply to be doled out evenly to the nineteen point eight million families the government defines as poor each household.

How much you think each household would receive a year if you just took all the welfare payments and sent a check to each household directly.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm going to guess in the thousands.

More than seventy thousand dollars a year.

For Tell me about I mean that?

I mean that.

Tell me that's not a perfect example of government waste when you could just send direct checks of seventy grand a year to people.

The source of this dramatic mismatch is a fraud built into how various programs determine welfare eligibility.

The government doesn't count any refundable tax credits or benefits that aren't paid in cash as income to the recipients.

Some claim this is appropriate because the beneficiaries aren't free to spend non cash benefits on whatever they like, but that is a specious argument, because money is fungible.

Receiving Medicaid, for example, frees up cash that would otherwise be spent on healthcare, allowing the recipients to spend the newly freed cash on other things.

Non cash benefits aren't, in the end, that different from income, except that salaries are taxed while government benefits aren't.

And if individual welfare programs often don't even count benefits paid in cash as income for the purposes of gauging eligibility, the government's failure to count its largess as the recipient's income allows welfare households to blow past the income level above which a working family no longer qualifies for government help.

Take a single parent with two school aged children who earns eleven thousand dollars annually from part time work.

The government considers this household in poverty because its income is below twenty five thousand, two hundred and seventy three dollars, But this family would qualify for benefits worth fifty three thousand, one hundred and twenty eight dollars.

It would receive Treasury checks of three thousand, four hundred dollars in refundable tax credits and four thousand, four hundred dollars in refundable earned income tax credits.

Would also receive food stamp debit cards worth nine thousand, two hundred and sixteen dollars a year, nine thousand, four hundred and seventy six dollars in housing subsidies, eight hundred and seventy seven dollars of government payments for utility bills, sixteen thousand and thirty three dollars to fund medicaid, three thousand, one hundred and two dollars in free meals at schools, and six thousand, six hundred and twenty four dollars in temporary assistance for needy families.

All this puts the family's income at sixty four thousand, one hundred and twenty eight dollars, or two hundred and fifty four percent of the poverty level, and look the point.

Phil Graham goes on on this, But the point is when they're measuring income, they exclude all the welfare and benefits that are going down, and then they measure income and said, look how poor people are without counting the money that is going out out the door.

And by the way, this also contributes to the massive fraud we saw in Minnesota because because the Democrats and the federal government and state government are just focusing on shoveling cash out the door, and they're not focusing on how do you actually ensure any accountability or even more importantly, how do you get people off welfare.

Look, one of my favorite phrases is that the social safety net should be a trampoline and not a hammock.

And by that what it means is, listen, many people get down on their lock.

They need help.

But the entire focus should be to get you back on your feet.

The entire focus should be to spring you out of the safety net and get you where you're working, where you have a job, where you're providing for your own family.

You know, there's a dignity to work.

You look at families that are trapped in generational poverty, one generation after another, after another and you lose the self respect.

You know.

One of the amazing successes of welfare reform, one of the amazing successes of the first term of Trump that saw over seven million people go off food stamps and go into the workforce, is that seven million people that get to experience the dignity of work.

I mean, that's literally a single mom who comes home from her job and is carrying two bags of groceries and puts those groceries on the kitchen table, and she looks at her kids and she has the self respect of knowing, Hey, I'm providing for you and the kids look at her and know that my mom is providing for you.

Look, look, God created mankind.

I believe to work and to be productive, to make a difference, to provide for your family.

And this welfare machine that the Left is so invested in traps people in dependency.

And you're not doing anyone a favor by making them dependent on government.

Instead, you're sapping them of the path to the American dream.

Yeah.

No, you're absolutely right.

And it's almost modern day slavery, where you keep people addicted to it so that they owe you on election day, And it seems to be what the Democrats are obsessed with.

It truly is.

It's sad, it's also shocking, and it's also predictable now the Democratic Party.

Don't forget.

We do this show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so make sure you subscribe to Vertic with Tech Cruise wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss a single episode.

You can also watch these episodes on YouTube just put in Vertic with Tech Cruise or on Facebook as well.

We have it there for you wherever you are on social media, and please grab the episodes and share them so other people hear the information we give you and the center.

I will see you back here next week on this radio station and all week long on our podcast