Michael Carbonara: Why Crypto Could Save America's Economy | DSH #1592

Summary

Podcast Summary: Digital Social Hour – Michael Carbonara: Why Crypto Could Save America's Economy (DSH #1592)

Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Michael Carbonara (Congressional Candidate, Florida)
Date: October 29, 2025
Duration: ~36 minutes

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sean Kelly sits down with Michael Carbonara, entrepreneur and Florida congressional candidate running against Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The conversation covers the state of American freedom, government overreach, the role of crypto in the economy, manufacturing, education, AI, and the future of the American Dream. Carbonara ties his experiences and candidacy to broader debates about socialism, bureaucracy, and generational decline—offering personal anecdotes, policy critiques, and an optimistic vision for reform rooted in entrepreneurship, decentralization, and self-determination.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Critique of Career Politicians and Need for Change

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz Critique:
  • Carbonara is running against Wasserman Schultz, noting her decades-long political career (“Over 20 years in this district and I think that people are ready for a change.” — Carbonara, 00:46).
  • Highlights her involvement in scandals, ethics issues, and perceived erosion of freedoms.
  • Notably references her “very good stock picker” record and involvement in the “Russia Gate” scandal (01:00–02:28).

2. Personal Motivation: Lessons from Cuba

• Cites his wife's family’s history—escaping Castro’s Cuba, enduring imprisonment and torture—as a warning of the perils of losing freedoms and falling into communism (03:13–04:06).
  • “Her grandfather was tortured...for over 20 years...They don’t want anybody to have any self subsistence. They want complete dependency on the state.” — Carbonara (03:29)

3. The State of the American Dream and Capitalism

• Discusses generational decline in quality of life, difficulty of home ownership, and the phenomenon of both parents needing multiple jobs (05:25–05:56).
• Argues that past decades’ policies and “bigger government” have undermined traditional opportunity, necessitating reform and the restoration of personal freedom.

4. Trump Administration & Political Shifts

• Praises Trump’s second term for tax cuts, avoiding new wars, and pro-crypto stance (06:05–06:24).
  • “Trump did stop seven wars. I mean, that is amazing…he’s a peacemaker.” — Carbonara (06:10)
• Contrasts with Biden’s administration, citing hostile crypto regulation and economic difficulties.

5. Crypto & Decentralization as Economic Saviors

• Carbonara sees crypto as the new frontier for economic freedom, financial self-custody, and democratized opportunity—especially for lower/middle classes (06:43–07:08).
  • “Decentralization gives everybody control of their own money…One of the greatest opportunities of the century.” — Carbonara (06:45)
• Discusses de-banking issues (07:18–07:35), new pro-crypto banking protections, and regulatory improvements under Trump (07:35–07:48).

6. Free Speech, Dialogue, and Social Media in Politics

• Both speakers agree on the necessity of protecting unpopular speech (08:02–08:31).
  • “The only freedom of speech worth protecting is the speech you don’t agree with.” — Carbonara quoting Kevin Sorbo (08:02)
• Carbonara reflects on stepping into social media as a political newcomer, noting unexpected positive responses and the challenge of tribal “red team vs. blue team” dynamics (09:01–09:49).

7. Policy Priorities: Economic & Personal Freedom

• Carbonara’s main campaign issues are “restoration of freedom,” economic freedoms, reduction of bureaucracy, tax reform, and state-level autonomy (09:55–11:52).
  • “Every state is its own sovereign…states need to have more power to decide what they want to do locally…that’s capitalism.” — Carbonara (11:20)
• Criticizes high-tax states (e.g. California) for driving out businesses and residents.

8. Minimum Wage, AI, and Labor Market

• Questions effectiveness of minimum wage hikes—believes they increase unemployment and drive automation (12:25–13:01).
• Notes small business owners’ struggles and clarifies misconceptions about capitalism (13:13–13:44).
• Warns if the system becomes too burdensome, business will simply automate or relocate.

9. State Policy Innovation and Florida’s Advantages

• Praises Governor DeSantis’s governance and Florida’s economic growth, noting tech and banking sector migration (14:41–15:38).
• Sees Florida as potentially the “next Silicon Valley” for crypto and tech (15:13).

10. American Political Landscape

• Critiques Democratic leadership (specifically Newsom), laments erosion of coherent party platform, and contrasts Republican and Democratic changes since Trump (15:53–17:09).
• Supports more intra-party diversity and democratic participation.

11. Vision for America’s ‘Golden Age’

• Endorses Trump’s plans for reinvigorating manufacturing, technology, and innovation sectors (17:23–18:25).
• Stresses importance of entrepreneurial leadership in government, echoing founding fathers’ backgrounds (26:26–26:41).

12. RFK Jr. and the Need for Transparency

• Praises RFK Jr.’s work for bringing transparency to CDC/FDA, vaccine policy, and resisting big pharma influence (18:50–19:47).
• Expresses skepticism about vaccine safety and mandates; shares personal decision not to vaccinate his daughters (19:59–20:17).

13. Donor Influence & Calls for Accountability

• Expresses concern over political fundraising abuses (e.g., ActBlue), calls for investigation and broader reform (20:47–21:35).
• “They just use their names [of people, dead or alive] to basically stay under the radar of the threshold for the limits.” — Carbonara (21:18)

14. Geopolitical Threats, China, and Economic War

• Sees rising global conflict and the economic war with China as the biggest near-term threat to America (21:41–22:46).
• Endorses Trump’s hardline, negotiation-first approach to trade and manufacturing.

15. Tariffs, Debt, and Economic Strategy

• Argues that tariffs are justified and emulate global norms (23:10–23:26).
• Lauds Trump’s negotiation with tech companies to spur domestic investment (24:10–24:20).
• Views the national debt and deficit as manageable with creativity, leadership, and economic growth (32:41–33:18).

16. The American Dream: Is It Still Alive?

• Believes the American Dream is still possible, but precarious (25:21–26:19).
  • “It’s holding on by a thread, but I know that in America, we can always do anything we want.” — Carbonara (25:27)
• Calls on Americans to unite, participate, and reclaim opportunity.

17. Immigration: Secure, Legal, and Slow Down

• Supports merit-based, legal immigration—but calls for a “temporary slowdown” until systems and vetting can improve, especially in light of human trafficking and AI’s labor impacts (28:39–30:13).

18. AI, Education, and Innovation

• Embraces AI as the next transformative tool, citing parallels to internet adoption (30:40–31:08).
• Applauds pilot AI programs in Florida schools and criticizes bans on use in education (31:14–31:28).

19. Student Debt & Educational Reform

• Discusses systemic student loan issues, calls for reevaluation of the entire higher education funding model, links to broader economic challenges (31:36–32:36).

20. Healthcare Costs and Government Intervention

• Observes that medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy; regrets the loss of “charity care” after Obamacare (33:39–34:09).
• Asserts that government bureaucracy has inflated costs and reduced quality of life.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Her grandfather was tortured in that prison for over 20 years. Her father was thrown in jail for six months for selling soap. They don’t want anybody to have any self subsistence. They want complete dependency on the state.” — Carbonara (03:29)
• “The only freedom of speech worth protecting is the speech you don’t agree with.” — Carbonara quoting Kevin Sorbo (08:02)
• “Trump did stop seven wars. He’s the first president in over 100 years…that didn’t start a new war.” — Carbonara (06:10)
• “Decentralization gives everybody control of their own money…One of the greatest opportunities of the century.” — Carbonara (06:45)
• “If tariffs didn’t work, why does every other country in the whole world have tariffs? Shouldn’t it be reciprocal?” — Carbonara (23:17)
• “Our country was established as a confederacy…states need to have more power to decide what they want to do locally. That’s capitalism.” — Carbonara (11:20)
• “I just felt at a point in my life, I was already successful in business…And I wanted to do something to give back…because my kids are going to grow up here.” — Carbonara (24:47)

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Major Timestamps for Key Segments

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz critique & scandals: 00:46–02:28
• Family’s escape from Cuba, lessons on freedom: 03:13–04:06
• Generational challenges and American Dream: 05:25–05:56, 25:21–26:19
• Trump’s second term & pro-crypto stance: 06:05–06:43
• Crypto, economic freedom, and banking: 06:43–07:48
• Discussion on free speech: 08:02–08:31
• Campaign priorities: economic freedom, states’ rights: 09:55–11:52
• Minimum wage, AI, automation, and labor: 12:25–13:44
• Florida vs. California, DeSantis’s policies: 14:41–15:38
• Democratic/Republican leadership & party shifts: 15:53–17:09
• RFK Jr., vaccine transparency, pharma: 18:50–19:47
• Political donor abuses, PACs, ActBlue: 20:47–21:35
• Global threats, China, economic war: 21:41–22:46
• Tariffs, tech investments, debt: 23:10–24:20, 32:41–33:18
• Immigration policy: 28:39–30:13
• AI, education innovation: 30:40–31:28
• Healthcare costs and reform: 33:39–34:09

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Tone and Style

The episode is conversational, passionate, and at times combative against “big government,” career politicians, and policy inertia. Carbonara’s tone is earnest, drawing on personal history and entrepreneurial experience. He consistently advocates for reform, accountability, and individual freedoms—favoring dialogue over partisanship and practical solutions over ideology.

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Conclusion

Michael Carbonara presents himself as a disruptor: anti-establishment, pro-entrepreneur, and an advocate for technological and economic liberty. The episode provides a broad, sometimes provocative critique of the political and economic status quo, offering a vision for renewal centered on cryptography, free enterprise, and civic engagement. For listeners interested in reform politics, tech policy, and the future of American freedom, this episode offers a direct and candid perspective.

Transcript

[A]

There's been global wars right now. There's wars in Gaza, there's wars in Ukraine. We were basically in an economic war with China now for a few years. And I think all this is leading up to something with China. Really. It's about communism. China had told they started preparing for a kinetic war as early as 2027. That's where this is going and what you see right now with the economic war and the trade war and that this is just a precursor. I think Trump's being really smart about it. China is not going to like us taking back our manufacturing ability. They're going to do something like that.

[B]

Okay, guys, we got Michael here today. He is running for Congress and in Florida. Thanks for coming out, man.

[A]

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having. Sure.

[B]

I know you don't do podcasts too often, but it's going to be cool to see your. Your side of things.

[A]

Appreciate it.

[B]

You're running against Debbie Wasserman.

[A]

I am, yeah. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She's. She's been a career politician. I believe she's been in office since 1992. Over 20 years in this district and I think that people are ready for a change.

[B]

Yeah. What's the chatter about with her name? Are people happy the past 20 years?

[A]

Overall, I have never met anybody that's happy with Debbie. Washington checks. Honestly, everybody I've talked to in the district has a Debbie story, but she's been there. She's consistently voted to raise taxes. She wants bigger government. She's really been eroding our freedoms since she's been in office. You know what really interesting is most recently two recent scandals came out. There's actually she's been brought up for the ethics violations potentially on the stock Act. She turns out to be a very good stock picker.

[B]

She as good as Nancy Pelosi act turned out better.

[A]

Over 300% gains from our last pick.

[B]

Holy crap.

[A]

And she's also. The Durham Annex report came out, which is a report on the whole Russia gay scandal. And turns out Debbie Washman Schultz was very involved in that. It was in the report.

[B]

That was a big scandal. Man, I could not stop seeing that on the news when I was in college. Russia date. And then it proved it to be false. Right.

[A]

It was an actual attempted coup and Debbie Washman Schultz was very much involved.

[B]

Didn't Tulsi expose some information in regards to that with Obama too?

[A]

Exactly. Yeah. I mean Obama, Hillary, Debbie Washman Schultz and the Soros foundation were all involved.

[B]

Wow. It's weird that specifically her wasn't like.

[A]

Because, well, at the time she was the party leader. She was the head of the DNC 2016 elections.

[B]

Okay, wow.

[A]

So there was a lot of scandal there. You know, Bernie actually won the Democratic primary, but Debbie basically gave it to Hillary.

[B]

Yeah, the left turned on Bernie for sure.

[A]

Yeah. And that all happened under her watch.

[B]

That's nuts. So is that a big reason why you decided to run? You were tired of this?

[A]

Well, you know, there's been. Tired is not the right word. It's. This is a path to really socialism. What's been going on. Now, we saw that with COVID during this, we had, during the whole Biden administration, we saw our rights taken away. Censorship was a big one. We lost our health freedoms, our economic freedoms. Everything was being torn down. And Debbie Washman Schultz has been in office for over 20 years. She's part of the problem. And you know, my wife came from Cuba. She came here, she immigrated legally to this country. Her family escaped communism. Her grandfather was actually a political prisoner of Castro for over 20, 20 years. So when he eventually got out, he, he won asylum and he was able to bring her over. But I mean, I've heard some horror stories when you lose these freedoms, communism is right around the corner. I could tell you from their stories. I mean, it's awful. Her grandfather was tortured in that prison for over 20 years. Her father was thrown in jail for six months for selling soap. They threw him in jail for each bar of soap that he got caught selling because they don't want anybody to have any self subsistence. They want complete dependency on the state.

[B]

And that's. That's where New York City might be heading. Right. If Mamdani wins.

[A]

Exactly, exactly. So what we're seeing now is a slow erosion of our freedoms. And we're seeing these socialist communist people actually coming and some of them getting into office. And if we don't wake up, if we don't actually do something now, that's not going to be far away when we actually are going to wake up and not going to be able to do something about it.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. I'm a big fan of capitalism. Did you see the 1 on 20 debate with Patrick bet David on Jubilee?

[A]

I didn't catch that one.

[B]

It was capitalism versus basically all these super left liberals. And they were trying to explain how capitalism was bad.

[A]

You know what, I can understand a lot of people, especially the younger generation, they've been left out of what's traditionally the American dream. It is so hard now for the younger generation. Gen Z, Gen Alpha, to own a home, to get jobs, to really have a quality of life. It's not the America that was we had 20 years ago, 30 years ago. A lot of those freedoms have evaporated because of the policies of people like Debbie Washman Shelton, what she's voted for. And we need to restore that. We need to restore opportunity. We need to have jobs here. We need opportunity. We need to lessen the size of government, lower taxes. We need to get people back the freedom to have self determination, to, to control their own life.

[B]

I agree. Yeah. Our grandparents could afford a home. Right. One parent household was working usually too, back then.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now you need both. Both in gums for most families.

[A]

Yeah. One or two jobs per parent and they often have to pay for their child to be in daycare. So that's ripping the family apart. You have the state or you're basically outsourcing parenting because you don't have a choice. You can't survive anymore. It's. We're on a downward trend and I think the Trump administration, what they've been doing now, it's been putting us on the right path, but there's a lot more work to do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, this is a generational shift. It takes a generation to change these projections.

[B]

Have you been pretty happy overall with Trump in his second term?

[A]

I have been. I think that there's been tremendous forward movement. I think what's going on with taxes being lowered is great. I mean, Trump did stop seven wars. I mean, that is amazing. I mean, he's the first president in over 100 years, including his first term, that didn't start a new war. I mean, he's a peacemaker.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So for that, I mean, not only are we peaceful and having quality of life, but obviously that also you don't need to be spending money on foreign wars. We have plenty of problems here at home that we need to be addressing so many problems.

[B]

And he's pro crypto, obviously. You're pro crypto too. Yeah, but that's your. Is that your main business, the crypto stuff?

[A]

It's a big part of my business. Yeah. You know, crypto, for me, it's, it's not just a business, but that also represents the opportunity for economic freedom for everyone. Decentralization gives everybody control of their own money, custody of their own money in a, in a currency that's not able to be inflated. So I think that's going to open up and create wealth for the lower middle classes. One of the greatest opportunities of the century, I believe.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I've loved what they've. They've been probably the first government that I can remember that's been pro crypto in. In America, at least. I mean, it was really tough under Biden to be in that space.

[A]

Yeah, the. The Biden administration really came down hard. The. The de. Risking and the debanking of a lot of companies.

[B]

I got debanked.

[A]

It's. Yeah, it's terrible.

[B]

I lost a huge relationship. I had tons of transaction with that bank and they shut down me and my mother. My mom got involved, so it's.

[A]

That's terrible. Yeah. Well, one thing I'm glad too, actually, under the Trump admin, they did put forth a new rule where you can't get debanked based on reputational issues.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

And I think that is a tremendous thing to do.

[B]

I didn't know we did that. Wow. That passed.

[A]

Yep. That was earlier this year. Oh, nice. And, you know, everybody's got lives now. You have social media, everything's public, there's no privacy anymore. And. And really, you know, actually I remember this tweet years ago from Kevin Sorbo.

[B]

He's been on the show. He's going.

[A]

Has he? Okay, interesting. And this tweet, I just. It really stuck with me. He said, the only freedom worth protecting or only freedom of speech worth protecting is a speech you don't agree with. And I think that's so important because it's really. It simplifies it, but hits the nail on the head.

[B]

That is pretty profound because we're all different.

[A]

We all have different opinions and we should have the right to speak those opinions.

[B]

Yeah, I'm big on free speech. I have on people that I disagree with 99% of things, but I think it's important for them to be able to at least voice their opinion.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's. You need to have dialogue. I mean, that's how we improve ourselves. That's how we learn. I mean, we'd want to be in an echo chamber of our own thoughts. You know, we need to have some feedback and understanding.

[B]

Yeah. And I know prior to running, you were. You weren't even on social media, right?

[A]

No, no. I mean, I had a LinkedIn account, but I wasn't active. It was just purposes.

[B]

Yeah, that's not social media.

[A]

But I, Yeah, I had a pretty private life and, you know, never had really social media. So now this is all kind of new to me.

[B]

Yeah. Is it a big adjustment for you?

[A]

It is. You know, I actually announced my campaign recently and we posted something on social media and I was actually shocked. A lot of comments. I expect a lot of negative comments. Just the nature of things. But it was interesting. I, I, A lot of comments. I felt people were really looking for some hope and change and people were really looking for a brighter future. Yeah, you know, there was a couple of negative comments. Nothing crazy, but just, it was just interesting to see everybody's different thoughts.

[B]

I mean, that's unavoidable, especially in your space in politics because half the population is Democrat. So you're going to get negative comments no matter what.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I didn't. That's part of the problem. It's, everybody is. We're in this dynamic where it's red team versus blue team and, you know, there are issues where we can agree on. It doesn't always have to be a conflict.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. What, what are the main issues you're, you're going to be focused on?

[A]

My main issues is just restoration of freedom in general. And there's, I mean, I'm, I'm specific.

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[A]

Economic freedoms, I think that's so important. I think we have a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy that hinders business, business development, business startup. The genius bill in the United States I think is wonderful. I think that's really going to help make the United States crypto centric for business, for the whole world. I think our tax code needs to be reformed. I think we need to give people back their own money and let them decide how to Spend it. And the government doesn't need to be this big bloated bureaucracy. Our country was established as a confederacy. We have the Articles of Confederation creating our country. And every state is its own sovereign nation entity essentially. So the states need to have more power to decide what they want to do locally. And really that's capitalism. By having different states and ability to move, we create competition between the states. So they could have basically are incentivized to create more freedom for the people.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because if your state, I'll give you an example, California, way bureaucratic, way too many strict laws, way too high taxes and everybody's fleeing. They're going to Texas, they're going to California, to Florida. And I think that's a great thing because people shouldn't be stuck paying taxes. 13%, they come to Florida, pay 0% income taxes.

[B]

Yeah. I just saw something where like they tried raising the minimum wage a lot and then a bunch of businesses is left and it actually affects the workers.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what I mean? So these guys are fighting for higher wages, but it actually affects them more.

[A]

Yeah, well the, those, those minimum wages, you know, they sound great and you know, people need to have earn a good wage, but really when they put those minimum wages in place, statistically they actually increase the unemployment rate.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Because as a business you may not be able to afford those rates. You have to basically either fire people or you have to automate things with AI or some other type of machinery. So you need to have the free market determine those wages.

[B]

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And these days they'll just replace jobs with AI too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The business owners, if they keep raising the wages.

[A]

Absolutely. Yeah. Because what else are they going to do? I mean, there's a misconception that every business owner is just filthy rich and can just afford to do anything. The average business owner struggles.

[B]

Yeah. I think they make 40k a year. Right.

[A]

I'm not sure. But I wouldn't be surprised. You end up working twice as much, nights, weekends, you don't get time off. And if you don't make money, you don't pay the bills. But your employees, you, they get paid regardless.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And it's a, it's not an easy life. And you know, it's not just magic where things just happen and people need to understand that. They need to make it more business friendly.

[B]

Yeah. It's not easy. That's why when I see these people go against capitalism, it's like, what's the better alternative then if you're against this.

[A]

I Think that there's a miseducation, what capitalism really is.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We've been losing that freedom. The taxes, the minimum wages. I mean, that's not part of capitalism. A privately owned central bank issuing our money rather than Congress. That's not capitalism.

[B]

Not at all. I hope you can contribute to getting taxes lowered. I just paid my quarterlies, and every time I do that, I'm like, bro, there goes another good chunk of change for God knows what. Right?

[A]

Yeah. They have really no say what spent.

[B]

Yeah, Literally none. Like, it'd be cool if you could at least pick the category or something, but now it's just like, here you go. And then when Doge exposed all that, it made me even hate it even more. So.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I don't know what happened with that. Like, Doge kind of just, you know.

[A]

I'm not sure exactly what's going on there. I think there's still some things going on. What's actually pretty exciting, this Governor DeSantis actually started using Doge in South Florida, and they've been investigating starting last month in Broward county, where I'm from. And so I think what they learned a lot, and they're taking it and bring it to the states.

[B]

Oh, really? Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Shout out to desantis.

[A]

Yeah, he's been a great governor.

[B]

You're happy with him?

[A]

Yeah, I think all Floridians are happy with Governor DeSantis, even Democrats.

[B]

I think he handled Covid the best out of any governor in the country.

[A]

Yeah, you know, Florida's been doing great. You know, it's interesting, Florida actually completely filled its rainy day funds so much that they're not even allowed to save any more money. They've saved too much. Has done a great job.

[B]

What a great job. I don't think any other state could say that. Yeah, you guys are, I think, the number one state people want to go to right now. Right? Florida.

[A]

Yeah, it's booming, and I think it really has the opportunity to be the next big Silicon Valley. I mean, it's great place for cryptocurrency companies, crypto companies there. A lot of big companies, banking companies such as Citadel have moved down. A lot of companies during COVID realized that they were getting bang for their buck in New York and California with the taxes, so they decided to move to Florida as a more freer state.

[B]

Yeah, there's a lot of benefits. Weather's good. You could fly international pretty easy there. No state tax. Yeah. Shout out to Florida, man. Other. I mean, we Got Newsom on the other side of things, probably running in 28 in Cali. What do you think of him?

[A]

You know, I don't know how anybody would ever vote him in ever again. I'm just shocked at how he handled the fires. I mean, that was such mismanagement. And I see a lot of people complaining now that they're not even able to build their homes again. I think that there's really a lot of mismanagement and I don't think he's really helping the people of California.

[B]

I don't think so at all. It's mind blowing to me that he still has a good following that supports him.

[A]

I don't know if that's true or not.

[B]

Well, if you go on polymargart or any site to see who's in the lead right now, he's in first place.

[A]

To be honest, I don't think that there's a whole lot of quality leadership in that party right now. I think they've lost their way.

[B]

I grew up liberal in Jersey and I can agree with that. It's come such a long way. I can't see myself going there for the next five years at least.

[A]

Yeah. There's no message, there's no platform from that party right now. And I think that the Republican Party, it's changed quite a bit since Trump and MAGA stepped in. And there's a lot of different perspectives. But. And I'd say, you know, any Democrats that are happy to party, join the Republican Party and voice, you know, maybe make it better. Yeah, because at the end of the day, it's. It's not about red versus blue, it's about what's best for Americans.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not a fan of the whole two party system myself, to be honest.

[A]

You know, I know some people aren't. I don't know if Europe's got anything better, but I think the US Is probably better than what they have in Europe. They have many, many parties.

[B]

There's too many.

[A]

Yeah. But the Founding Fathers set up a system. I think that so far we've done better than most countries in the world. I think we can do better. I think that there's a lot of room for improvement. And I hope. And Trump talks about this golden age of America and I think about this a lot. I kind of step back and I see what he's doing with basically getting us out of war is bringing in manufacturing, making the United States the AI and crypto capital of the world is. I don't Think people realize how, how really massive that is. It's just going to leapfrog us ahead of everyone in innovation.

[B]

I do like that he's doing that and also bringing people together. Last night, did you see the dinner he hosted?

[A]

No, I didn't.

[B]

It was the CEOs of all the biggest tech companies in the world. Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO, was there, Twitter, all the biggest companies. And he's kind of talking about how he's bringing more money to America, how much companies are going best, bringing infrastructure here. I don't see Biden doing any of that. Like, I love that he's unifying everyone like that.

[A]

Yeah, he's. He's building up it. It's almost like the, the Biden administration was intentionally eroding the country. It. It's. I mean, every sector, it was going down. People were losing faith in this country. And now people are hopeful. I mean, not only just what Trump's doing, but he, he brought in RFK Jr. And, and what he's doing at CDC and FDA is, um. To me, I think that is just amazing. And I think he's really going to be saving lives.

[B]

Shout out to rfk. He was fighting. I saw some clips of him last night. He was really getting challenged by some of those guys on Congress. Right. Did you see that?

[A]

I did, yeah. And I thought he did a really great job. And, you know, I don't understand why. I mean, there's all the Democratic senators that were chasing him, but he really is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. And he, he's bringing transparency. And there was a lot of complaints that he was getting rid of the vaccines and people need vaccines. And if you listen to him, he was never doing that. He was actually bringing transparency and requiring actual studies to be done to make sure they were effective.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they just didn't want transparency. They wanted to just, you know, drive those vaccines to us without telling us what's in it. Is it safe? Is it effective? And people have a right to know.

[B]

100%, especially if you're getting 50 of them by the time you're 18, you should know what's in them. Right. I think if I have kids, I would want to know what I'm giving them in their bloodstream.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, you go to a pediatrician and they say, no, don't introduce a new food, you know, more than one at a time, wait a few days, but when it's time for vaccines, they'll give you 10, 15 vaccines in a single day.

[B]

No Problem.

[A]

And, you know, I have two daughters and I chose not to vaccine them.

[B]

Good, good job. I'm doing the same if I can. I heard they give you at the hospital when you have a kid these days.

[A]

They do. And it's, I, to be honest, my daughters are so smart. Their immune system is so strong. I, I, they're so vibrant and healthy.

[B]

Nice. That's great. Yeah. I heard you could visibly see the difference on some of these kids. Like they're starting to do tests, right?

[A]

Yeah, I can see it when I go to the park. I really see the difference.

[B]

Look at the autism rates. I mean, that's not a coincidence. So I don't think that's a conspiracy anymore. But yeah, RFK was getting so challenged. And then you look at the donor money from big Pharma that's going to some of these people in Congress, and then you see all these same names are calling him out. They're not even letting him talk.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like it was really hard to watch.

[A]

Yeah. They just want to get their, their viewpoints there to their constituents, their donors. That's really what it is about.

[B]

Yeah. What do you think of that whole system right now with the donors and how these PACs are funding all that?

[A]

You know, I'm not really too sure. I mean, there's a lot of things that are going on, especially with ActBlue right now. They're finding out that I think there were a few hundred SAR filings against Act Blue, supposedly about the way that they were raising money and funding Democratic Party. So there's a lot of things that need to be investigated.

[B]

There, There was dead people donating to that one, I think.

[A]

Yeah. So basically, you know, this is what I've heard. I mean, I don't know for sure, but basically they have pools of money, but then they use databases of people live dead, illegal here, or maybe not, and they just use their names to basically stay under the radar of the threshold for the limits.

[B]

That is crazy. Hopefully they find out what's going on there. There's, there's fires everywhere that we kind of gotta pick our pick and choose our battles, Right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What do you think the, the biggest threat is in 2025 to America in 2025?

[A]

I think that there's, you know, they're beeping out. There's been global wars right now. There's wars in Gaza, there's wars in Ukraine. We were basically in an economic war with China now for a few years. And I think all this is leading up to something with China.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that really it's about communism. And China had told and made announcements. I think it was 2023 that they started preparing for a kinetic war as early as 2027, starting with Taiwan solo. So that's where this is going and what you see right now with the economic war and the trade war, and that this is just a precursor. So I, I think Trump's being really smart about it. You know, China is not going to like us taking back our, our manufacturing ability. They're going to do something to fight back.

[B]

It does seem like war with China is inevitable because they already announced that they're going to invade Taiwan in 27. Right.

[A]

And I don't think it has to be that way, but that is certainly something that they said that they're moving towards.

[B]

Yeah. That would be probably one of the biggest wars of all time.

[A]

I hope we don't get there. And like I said, Trump is a peacemaker, and I know he doesn't want that, and I have faith that he'll avoid any potential wars like that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And bring it to a negotiation table.

[B]

I'm confident in him for the next four years. But who knows after man, who knows if another Biden comes into office and then screws everything up, you know, that's.

[A]

Why we need good people in office that actually believe in America and really want peace.

[B]

Yeah. With the trade war stuff, with all the tariff stuff going on, where do you stand on that debate? I know that's kind of like hit or miss topic for some people.

[A]

Yeah. I kind of just think if tariffs didn't work, why does every other country in the whole world have tariffs? Shouldn't it be reciprocal?

[B]

Right.

[A]

I don't see any. I mean, I haven't seen any increase in consumer products on the tariff being there. I think it's fine. I mean, I think also what Trump's doing, he's. He's bringing. Finding creative ways to. To drive revenue to the United States, to pay off debt, to innovate. I mean, he's got to do something because the US Was lost so many freedoms, lost manufacturing, lost so much. And he's finding many alternative, creative ways to bring that back to America. And that's just one tool that he has. And look what he's doing. He combined that and then he negotiate with Intel. I mean, he's doing something really creative, outside the box, and he's doing it based because he's had 50 years in the business as an entrepreneur. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to make a deal.

[B]

And Apple I think he worked out a deal with Apple.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And Facebook just announced at the dinner last night, I think 60 billion or 600 billion, they're going to invest in the U.S. oh, wow. Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So he's bringing all these top companies together and figuring out how to better the country.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's beautiful, right?

[A]

Yeah. And, you know, that's something I really hope to bring. My experience as entrepreneur and helped along with that as much as I can do with Congress anyways. You know, Debbie Washman Schultz, I don't believe she's ever had a job in the private sector. She's been in a career politician since 1992.

[B]

Yeah. I think what people got to realize is you, you didn't have to do this. You already made substantial amount of wealth. Right. You could have rode off into the sunset.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, you know, I. I love. I don't. I've never done any of my businesses for money. I really love to be creative, to solve problems, to build things. And I just felt at a point in my life, I was already successful in business. I have a family now. I have two daughters. And I wanted to do something to give back. I wanted to participate and contribute to the community. I wanted to make our country better because my kids are going to grow up here. And the country's changed drastically since I grew up. And I think we need to return to those freedoms. I think we need to return to what America really stood for.

[B]

Yeah, for your kids. Do you feel like they still have a shot at the American dream? Do you think it's still alive?

[A]

I think that it's holding on by a thread, but I know that in America, we can always do anything we want. I think America is a land of opportunity. We do have the Constitution. It is one of the easiest places to create a business. Maybe not for every industry, but I've worked in Singapore, in the Middle east, in Europe, in South America. America is by far the best country in my opinion. And not just because I'm American, but I've seen what's out there, but I also know what it has been and what can be done. And I think all it takes is people to do better. We all need to get involved. We all need to participate. If we all believe that America could be great, it could be done very quickly. Americans outwork everyone. I mean, we work twice as much as the rest of the world. And I think that if we put our minds to it, if we really have a goal of creating the America that we want to see that golden age Of America. I have no doubt that we can achieve it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. We work damn hard. I know. I do, at least. But, like, my parents were immigrants, you know, so I got the work ethic from them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think we're one of the hardest working countries.

[A]

Yeah. But, you know, we. We're a country founded by entrepreneurs. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, they. They all created businesses while they ran in government. So these were not politicians. These were businessmen that created this country.

[B]

Nice. You know your history pretty well, huh?

[A]

I try.

[B]

Who's your favorite president all the time?

[A]

Yeah. That's a tough question. I don't know.

[B]

Name a few, I guess. Doesn't have to be one.

[A]

You know, I would say George Washington is probably one of my heroes. And, you know, when you think of America as this country of kind of this underdog, of pride, of can do anything attitude of, you know, just grit and all those attributes actually come from George Washington. They're his personification. I mean, he. A lot of people don't notice. I mean, he. He lost every single battle in the Revolutionary war. He didn't win a single battle.

[B]

Really?

[A]

He lost 80,000 men. When the British lost 1,000 men.

[B]

Holy crap. Got destroyed.

[A]

Only his perseverance of never giving up. That won the Revolutionary war.

[B]

Wow. Because when I think about him and I think about historical photos of him, it's like him winning battles.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You know what I mean? Like him at the front lines, leaving every single one. Holy crap. Every single battle. He's still considered a legend.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

He was relentless. He never gave up.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

And, you know, they say that he was protected. All the native Americans at the time. Yes. He fought in the French and Indian war, too, so they knew his legend. And he would ride in the front of every battle. He would take charge and be right in all the danger. He'd have bullet holes in his hat and coat, but not a single bullet ever touched him. Son of bitch. They always thought he was protected by God.

[B]

Wow. That is pretty crazy, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Damn. I used to love history class, but unfortunately, the way they teach it these days, I'm not the biggest fan anymore.

[A]

But, yeah, you know, I learned most of my history actually in my 20s, just reading out of a hobby.

[B]

That's the way to do it. Straight to the book, Right. Not a textbook.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where there's planned propaganda, you know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Going back to the immigration real quick. My parents were immigrants. Do you want to see more immigrants entering the country right now, or do you. Are you part of that camp that Wants to see a pause. Where do you stand on that?

[A]

You know, I think immigration is fine. I think we need to do a temporary slowdown because we last four years we really had completely unchecked immigration and we need to find out who's here, who doesn't need to be here. I watched the Senate hearings with RFK this week and he mentioned that during the Biden administration they had 476,000 minors come across that were lost. They were basically just handed off to random people that they have. No checks and balances, no zoning. So what's going on with illegal immigration? It's not just hurting Americans, it's hurting the people that are being abused. There's human trafficking, there's drugs and cartels, there's crime. We need to get a handle on that. You know, and another thing too, I think it's really important if you want to step back and take a look at macro picture of this, say over the next 10 years, we have AI that's going to give us a wonderful tool to innovate and be much more productive and efficient. We don't know what that's truly going to result in in our job market. So we need to basically have a time where the Americans can get the right training and jobs that are going to have basically post AI. And we don't need excess integration for a workforce. That's just. It's going to hurt us. We need to basically settle down with what we have and get an assessment before we open the doors anymore.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

And I'm not saying no immigration. I'm just saying it should be merit based. It should be legal integration. Asylum cases can be. Of course we need checks and balances. We need a system.

[B]

Yeah, I know. That whole H1B thing was a debate, right?

[A]

Yeah. Every system, all the bureaucracy has been abused. And that's why I really liked what Doge is doing, because we need an audit of everything so we can fix it.

[B]

Just accountability, that's all we ask for, right?

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

Like if it, if you don't have that accountability, human nature is obviously going to take advantage of anything.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It's not that there's one evil person pulling strings. It's the nature of bureaucracy is inefficiency and abuse 100%.

[B]

So it sounds like you're pretty pro AI.

[A]

I am, yeah. I mean, it's just another tool. I mean, you think about when the Internet came out. Well, I would say useful Internet came out 25, 30 years ago. Everybody was scared of that. No, but if you didn't adopt the Internet 25, 30 years ago, you'd be left out of the Internet. Commerce, the world commerce. You know, people were scared of electricity when it came out until they figured out they could light their homes with it. This is just another tool we have to adapt to.

[B]

Interesting. Yeah.

[A]

Make our lives better.

[B]

Yeah, I'm a huge fan. I use it daily. It sucks to see certain schools banning it. Honestly, I think that's. That's not a good move.

[A]

What's interesting, there's a school in Broward county that's the first pilot school to work with Microsoft Copilot.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

It'll be the first AI program with the school.

[B]

That's awesome. I'd imagine once the studies on those kids are out, there'll be skyrocketing costs, average kids.

[A]

So that's actually a great thing for my district. So I'm really excited about that.

[B]

Nice. Where do you stand on the student loan forgiveness stuff?

[A]

Yeah, that's also interesting. I think that the student loan, I think a lot of it was abused for a long time. The problem is that that's another bureaucracy of the educational system and loans were given out. You know, a lot of people, I'm sure, you know, people that were giving us student loans and they take the money, go buy tv, you know, all different things. It was another abused system. But part of it was that the unnecessary subsidies raised the cost of education so high that you had to get a loan in the first place. So I think that needs to be something that has to be done. I think he's take a look at especially we have a whole generation that is massively in debt. They'll probably never pay it off. And then you have the other part of it. Well, I've been massively. I can't buy a home. I don't have a job to pay my debt. We need to have something that looks at the whole as a. As a whole system, not just through the loan debt, but as a whole generational problem of the economic issues. I don't know exactly how that's going to end, but we need to look at that because they're all tied together. It's not a one off.

[B]

It's hard to imagine we ever get out of debt at the current levels.

[A]

I think Trump's doing some unique things with the tariffs going into Bitcoin, bring it back to manufacturing. I think lowering taxes is helping people. I mean, that's going to help people have a better quality of life, is they have more money to spend. But if the tariffs are coming in, then we pay off that debt as well. You're optimistic There's a, you know, human humanity always has a way to fix everything.

[B]

Yeah, I hope so, because whenever I look at it, I just can't fathom it.

[A]

It's like there's deals to be made, negotiations. There's always something. Everything is fixable, but you need good leadership and creativity to fix it.

[B]

Also, there's the argument that. That we should be in some debt, too, to. To grow. So I see that side too.

[A]

Well, I mean, any business has revolving debt lines and things like that.

[B]

It's.

[A]

Debt is not necessarily bad if it's managed well when it's out of control.

[B]

And right now it is. Yeah, I would say, I guess it's subjective, but it is.

[A]

You know, the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

So it's not just a problem of student loans. It's medical bills, too. We have so much that we need to take a look at and fix. I mean, the bureaucracies, again, the subsidies drive up prices to unaffordable situations. You know, before Obamacare, we actually had a thing in this country called charity care, where there was actually free health care in just about every single state. And so Obamacare actually destroyed that.

[B]

Wow, that's nuts. I never heard the. Heard of that. Healthcare. So it was free healthcare?

[A]

Yeah, it's called charity care.

[B]

Wow. And they got rid of that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So there's no. No more freeze healthcare. Healthcare right now. I mean, I pay 900amonth. Most people cannot afford that. And even I'm still coming out of pocket all the time. You know what I mean? It's crazy.

[A]

Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, that must be 10 times more expensive than I was when I was a kid.

[B]

Yeah, it's nuts. And I was under my mom and thankfully until 26, but, like, even at 26, most people are living paycheck to paycheck. You know, they can't afford, like, medical insurance.

[A]

Yeah. So we really need to restore all those things. We need to pull back all that bureaucracy, all the basically too big of a government, the higher taxes. People need quality of life, and they're just being drained. They have no money. They're working around the clock. Their kids are being forced to be basically indoctrinated in schools that they can't control. I mean, healthcare is out of control. Everything is. And Trump can't save everyone. He can't just look at one person. We all have to participate. We all need to do our part. We need to talk to our local politicians at state level and at the federal level because it takes the whole community to be involved.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. We got some work to do. Well, thanks, Michael, for doing this mission. I hope people can support you. Where can everyone find you and follow you and everything?

[A]

Sure. Our website is michael carbonara.com the social media sites, everything's right there. Link to the website and on X, Instagram and I think Facebook.

[B]

Awesome. Check them out, guys. And if you're in Broward County, Broward.

[A]

County, Broward County, 5th district of Florida.

[B]

Go, go ahead and vote for him when the time comes. Thanks for your time, man.

[A]

Yeah, thank you very much.

[B]

All right, check them out, guys. P.E.

[C]

I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe.

[B]

It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.