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On The Chain - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency News + Opinion
Crypto / Politics - Michael Carbonara – Candidate U.S. House of Representatives, Florida 25
01:06:59
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- [00:02]
A
All right, welcome. Tonight we are joined by a very special guest who represents the next wave of American leadership led by entrepreneurship, innovation and a general commitment, a genuine commitment to restoring opportunity in this country. Michael Cabanaro is running for U.S. congress in Florida's 25th district. Now, he's not a career politician. He's a businessman, a fintech innovator. And we're going to get into that passion in crypto. He's someone who spent years building companies and navigating the real challenges of today's economy.
- [00:37]
B
And his campaign centers mostly on economic freedom, lowering costs for families, protecting parental rights, restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington, and making sure that America stays competitive in the technologies that will define the next decade, including blockchain and digital assets. He's bringing a solutions based mentality to Congress that, let's face it, desperately needs it. One thing's clear, he's entering this race with purpose, energy and a vision for Florida's future.
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A
Michael Carbonara, candidate for US House Florida District 25. And guess what? He is running to unseat Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
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B
Let's go.
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Welcome to on the Chain.
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And here he is.
- [01:29]
A
Bring him in.
- [01:30]
B
Power. Bring him in. Michael Carbonara, let's go. There he is. Oh, welcome to the on the Chain.
- [01:35]
A
Welcome, Michael, to On the Chain.
- [01:37]
C
Great to see you. Thanks, Jeff. Chip, appreciate it.
- [01:40]
B
Yeah, good to have you on here and good to see who you're running against. We do talk about her quite often and we just wonder how she keeps slipping through. So we're excited the fact that you're running to take her on and, and, and quarter sort of.
- [01:56]
You know, blaze a new path. And we've seen a lot change in Florida landscape, especially Miami becoming more red. We'd like to see that a little bit more with Broward County. Broward county seems to, we've seen it a little bit in Palm Beach County. But it's funny, that's happening kind of Miami and kind of migrating forward. So that's great to see.
- [02:14]
A
Yeah.
- [02:14]
C
I mean, Debbie Washman Schultz, she's a career politician. She's been in office since 1992. Never been in the private sector. Been in this position in US Congress in this district since 2005. So now as a career politician, I think people are really tired of everything. She really hasn't contributed anything positive. She led the defund the police movement, she led the open borders movement. And we all know that she's probably one of the greatest stock picks, pickers of this year and last year. She's bred up, brought up on ethics complaints, honor stocks. So, honestly, I think everybody's ready for a change. And whether you're Republican or Democrat, what she is doing, what her past is, what she's been voting on, doesn't represent the values of the people of this district or the rest of Florida. And I'm running because I'm going to bring the innovation, the entrepreneurship that I've had throughout my career and to focus on restoring the rights and the freedoms that have been eroding this country, not just to bring back affordability, but to bring back prosperity and bring safety back to our communities.
- [03:20]
A
That. That's a perfect segue, you know, as you get into it and obviously as not coming from a political space right now, and you haven't been political, mostly focused in. In business. What was that moment where you said, you know what? That's it, enough's enough, and I'm running for Congress?
- [03:42]
C
You know, I've always been a patriot. I've always loved our country. And I've seen the changes over the years since I grew up. I think we all have. You know, we realize that we're living in a country with less freedom. The culture, the values have been eroding. And I think it really, for me, during COVID is when it was right there in our faces. And the corruption, the disregard for our rights was never more prominent than during COVID And not just prominent, but so widespread that, you know, people really were stamping over our rights and didn't care. We couldn't go to church. We couldn't see our friends and family during holidays. We couldn't even go to work. Our businesses were shut down. And for a government to have the ability to do that to us, I think is just outrageous.
- [04:27]
B
So what do you believe in? Your district's, like, really missing from representation today?
- [04:34]
C
I think, really, Debbie Washman Schultz is out of touch with the district. I think that she really doesn't represent the values. The cost of living has been increasing. The quality of life is harder here. We have increased taxes. Broward county was actually the first county that went through Doge, and they found over $200 million of fraud, and that's paid by all the taxpayers here. And when you have students that have enormous student loan debt that they can't even afford a mortgage, we have a whole generation that lost the opportunity for the American dream because they're basically burdened with the student loan debt, and it's hard to even find a job with that degree. So we have a system that really needs to be restructured from the ground up the bureaucracy and the subsidized of the big industries has taken away the money from the American citizens while driving up the prices and making it unaffordable.
- [05:32]
A
And, and, and that, that's, you know, perfect. You know, when we talk about, you know, things that are no longer affordable and inflation really has been, you know, crushing families across the board, whether you're a homeowner or a renter, small businesses definitely seen and, and feeling the pinch, what, what would you say is the first economic move that Congress needs to take? And especially once you get to Congress, what are some of the things that you would like to see happen?
- [06:05]
C
Well, right now, I think the, the big debate is the ACA or Obamacare subsidies. And, you know, while we have Democrats saying we wanted to increase the subsidies, increase the 1.5 trillion of subsidies, now if we look at what's going on, Obamacare has some of the biggest frauds from those subsidies. And specifically South Florida is the headquarters of the biggest amount of Obamacare fraud in the whole country. And when you create these subsidies and you create Obamacare, the cost of health care just is unaffordable. It's because the subsidies are going to big Pharma rather than the money going back to the people. And then people choose the plans and care they actually want, rather than this umbrella subsidies for big pharma, it's making it unaffordable. So we need to do away with the ACA Obamacare and have a new system. You know, what they're talking about with these healthcare savings accounts, I think is a great start. I think we can start talking about that. We have Trump Rx, which is a great idea too, because if we have transparency in health care, just like we do in the private market, we can pick and choose based on cost. That creates better market competition and creates efficiencies, so everybody gets the benefit from the cost savings.
- [07:18]
B
And President Trump, too, was talking about the idea of, you know, anytime something goes through Congress, it always has to rely on these subsidies. Right? If it worked out of the gate, why is it relying on subsidies? You go back to 2008, you know, a lot of these, A lot of these health care companies are trading between 30 and $35, you know, on their stock price. Their stock price is like 350, $400. It's gone up enormously. And it keeps going up year after year. It becomes more difficult for. I hear, I hear a lot of horror stories about people and their health care. They got a bill. It's like somebody told Me the other day, you're insured. Here's your price. It's a lot of money. It's over 100 grand. Someone had an operation. But if you're not, if you're uninsured, you get a 70% discount. You could just pay 20 grand and get out of the, you know, get out of there. So when we think about that, one of the big critiques is, you know, the Republicans don't have a plan. What are we going to do? Why don't we extend these. But there's really a lot more to it, right, than just having, you know, getting rid of Obamacare. What happens to you? Are you in favor of that money going back to people to make their own choices? What happens to all that money that no longer goes to the healthcare companies?
- [08:26]
C
Yeah, absolutely. People should be able to make their own choices. And by doing that, again, more competition. And we should allow more insurance companies to compete in Florida specifically because you don't have that many choices. When you don't have many choices. And when you're subsidizing, you're creating guaranteed profits for the big pharma. And so they don't have to compete for lower prices because they're already paid through the subsidies. So it's better to give the money back to the people, whether it's through rebate or health savings plan or even just lowering your taxes. So you have more money in your own pocket because you should be able to choose which doctor you go to. You should be able to choose which pharmacy you pick up your medications from. And when you have these subsidized programs under Obamacare for these pharmaceutical companies and healthcare companies, you're limited in choice. You have no transparency in the cost and you're paying. I mean, it's. When my daughter was born, I saw in the bill for a tylenol, it was $150 for a Tylenol. So that's the type of inflation you get because you're being subsidized, you're paying these outrageous costs. It's not, I mean, we had a better system before Obamacare came into place. I mean, I mean, getting rid of Obamacare doesn't mean we're not covered, doesn't mean we can't have people covered with pre existing conditions. We just need to put something better that subsidizes the American people. Not subsidized Big Pharma.
- [09:43]
A
Right. And that's a really good point. You know, one of the things that, that we've seen, lack of transparency across the board from Government through, you know, the different transfers of wealth. And you could see a transfer of wealth, the movement of money to big pharma, to the big insurance companies with no transparency and then the interconnect with the different politicians. One area that Chip and I talk about a lot, you know, and that trust and the transparency and being able to leverage technology and one of those technologies being blockchain and building into this and maybe it's too soon to get into this part of the conversation, but I think it could be important. How do you see and your background working from the financial perspective, but do you see a space and maybe even an appetite for that transparency and bringing about a blockchain based solution to see transparency from government and down through these expenditures?
- [10:45]
C
Yeah, I think that it can create a lot of transparency. I mean we found out when Doge first started doing their work, their audit early this year, there was a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. But if we have blockchain implemented as a next stage, we could track in real time all those government payments. And I would just say with that we need to be careful because I'm a huge obviously proponent in blockchain and stablecoin but anti central bank backed digital currencies. So while we need the government to adopt blockchain, we need to make sure we maximize privacy of the American people by maximizing the transparency of the government. We need to make sure we protect the privacy of the Americans as we're implementing these type of technologies that ultimately that transparency brings efficiency and accountability.
- [11:31]
B
And speaking of that, that's really well said by the way. We're against CBDCs as well, you know, and I saw that, I saw that was it Rep. Seltz just put out there that he had, he had, he had an addition to the bill, this latest bill to have CBDC anti CBDC language added to it. And I guess that was bounced out of there. So I mean I think there is some of that in there. I don't think, you know, it's not about this administration, it's about what happens after this and something hard to be undone. But because you come from FinTech, I would say, you know, a lot of people in Congress don't even understand that or when it comes to, when it comes to blockchain. But you know, in law what lawmakers like really missing when it comes to digital assets and blockchain and your, you know, from your perspective, I think, you.
- [12:15]
C
Know it's something that people need to realize it's just a technology. The underlying concepts of economics and the work that's being done is, doesn't change. But what blockchain essentially is, it's a ledgering system, it's accountability, it's an audit system where you can confirm things from a decentralized place and where there's transparency. I think that a lot of people don't realize right now the, the benefit of America driving the innovation in blockchain. Now, if you look at the Genius act specifically for the US government to promote US Dollar stablecoins and getting all the banks to be able to issue those stable coins and do it in a way where there's no CBCs, but they have the infrastructure to promote the private sector to distribute and, and basically get stablecoin not just in the hands of Americans, but across the globe. What that's going to do is be the greatest export of the US dollar ever. And that will drive major deposits into the US Banks that are going to hold onto those reserves that backed our stablecoin. So what we're going to see is in the next three, five, ten years, you're going to see people from all over the world, South America, Africa, Asia, move their savings more and more from their local currency into US Dollar stablecoin. And that's going to bypass the petrodollar, it's going to bypass currency controls, it's going to bypass brics. So you're going to see currency wars that are coming up in the next few years. I mean, I know it's on everybody's mind already, but you're going to see many, many central banks in the world collapse or be forced to dollarize. And to me, that's one of the biggest things that we need to keep on our mind from a national security issue. But it's, it's how the US is going to compete and keep a strong dollar internationally.
- [14:07]
A
And then who's the big player with that, do you think? You know, as we've seen a couple of the USDC and there's the RL USD and there's the PayPal, the PY USD. Are they going to be players in this objective or what do you think?
- [14:21]
C
I think there's going to. The, the market's still wide open. Obviously, USDC and USDT were drivers in the market the last 15 years or so. But I think the players in the future could be anybody. Right now it's wide open for that competitive market. I think that you're going to see different associations, different captive audiences have their own niche stablecoin. And I think there's going to be a lot of them. I also think it's going to be a stablecoin race and there's going to be a lot of people that are going to set up stablecoin companies that are going to fail and either be know, merge or consolidate because we're. It's the next big trend. It's the next big opportunity.
- [15:00]
A
Yeah, like that. And, and you know, some of the, something you said, you know, very poignant, you know, to really solidify the US Dollar and the one thing that it brings about as we go around the country and, and we're starting to see kind of an erosion of freedom from different governments, especially we go over to Europe and we see what's going on in the uk see what's going on in France, see what's going on in Germany, and you know, forget about, you know, once you go into the developing nations. But I think there's one common theme, whether it's here in the United States or around the world, is that from an individual level, people want freedom and the fastest way to freedom is give them financial freedom and that opportunity a lot of time. The individual currencies around the world, they don't have that freedom. They don't have easy banking, they don't have easy access to US Dollars.
- [15:51]
C
Yeah, a really good example of that. You know what happens when you don't have blockchain. You look at all those trucker protests a few years in Canada and every single one got doxed and their bank accounts frozen for simply speaking their mind and protesting. So if they had blockchain, if they had stablecoin, if they had crypto, the government couldn't take that away from them.
- [16:13]
B
That's a great point. And we think about, I'm just curious if you use it, any sort of blockchain and you build a couple companies and you're mostly in the fintech side of the house. Just curious, is there anything that you want to just kind of walk through a little bit and we can throw some stuff up on screen too, but kind of walk through, kind of give to the audience, to some people that, you know, you mentioned that W. Wasserman Schultz has always been, never been in the private sector. She hasn't really accomplished anything, hasn't given anything, hasn't created anything where this is something you've been doing for some time, been creating companies, right? You've been, you've been making, you know, innovation happen. Right. So just curious if you'll maybe walk us through some of that and we can throw some stuff up on Screen here.
- [16:52]
C
Sure. So one of my companies I founded is called Ibanera and this is a fintech that kind of evolved over time. We started as a payments company. I spent many years traveling in Europe and Southeast Asia building infrastructure for cross border payments and setting up different banking licenses around the world. What we did is we built basically a fintech enablement platform to support banks, fintechs startups, crypto companies that need the ability to accept payments and to send payments, whether you need a credit card acceptance, whether they need to on ramp or off ramp for your crypto platform. But this was a key issue, especially for the web3crypto market because as this has been evolving for a few years, we had banks like Silvergate and Signature get shut down during the Biden administration. And as countries didn't know how to deal with crypto because they were scared of it, the banks were not supporting it. So we had to innovate and work with regulators and build compliance systems to do it properly and to do it compliantly, but still solve solutions where business can actually operate. Because there was a lot of companies in the fintech space and the crypto space that couldn't actually operate. They spend a long time building, investing and they want to launch their business but if they don't have the proper compliance and payments infrastructure behind it, you know, it couldn't function. So we were able to build the infrastructure to enable companies to basically plug and play, have the banking support they needed to operate.
- [18:28]
B
Fantastic.
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A
That's really impressive. You know, and that, and the one thing that we really emphasize here is that especially in this, in this new kind of growing space in blockchain is that there's companies out there. And I think we'll see, as you mentioned, even with the, the stable coins that are building solutions or that are, they're building solutions in search of problems. They don't have a problem yet to resolve what you're, what you're talking about and the platform that you created directly attacking a problem and you know, and a solution to it. Very, very important which you know, as you could draw a direct comparative. Here's your experience. Tackling a real world problem within the economic structure, infrastructure, taking those same solutions to government.
- [19:19]
B
Right.
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A
Because obviously government's broken as well. How do you see an application of what you're talking about within, within government right now?
- [19:30]
C
I think government, you know, is always reactive to the private sector. You know, they don't innovate, they follow through and regulate afterwards. And I think that instead of just reacting and you react to when there's problems, there could be bad actors in a new sector or people just. Government is scared or they don't tax it. All these different issues. I think instead of being reactive, the government should be working with industry leaders in private sector to be proactive because at the end of the day, the government can benefit through technology by creating efficiency and efficiency creates cost savings and a better service to the people, which is in this case, obviously the American people. So it could save people's tax dollars while, you know, if they need their, their snap payments or their Social Security payments, anything like that could be real time, instant in any method that they want instead of just receiving a check in the mail or waiting for, you know, your bank account to be topped up. But maybe it's a holiday or something. So if technology creates 24,7 efficiency, especially in the payments market and with blockchain, there's no guessing. Hey, call my bank. Where's the money? I can't, you know, it's not my account. Did you send it yet? With blockchain, you know, when it's sent and when it's received and you have that real time transparency.
- [20:47]
A
Yeah. And, and that's interesting. You know, the timeliness of that chip and I were, were just talking about that as we're moving crypto around and, and actually looking at, well, hey, you know, the off ramp is still broken. You know, you can get your crypto, you can move crypto within the platforms and then you try to transfer it over into the bank. Now you're going to legacy, trying to go to Fiat and you look at the, either the expense of, of the off ramp or the sluggishness of the off ramp and not having that immediate access. But you know, how, how poignant, you know, because even within, you know, private sector, government sector, we're still kind of in, we're, we're looking at this great innovation and yet there's still a little bit of clunkiness in legacy.
- [21:32]
C
And it's, it's largely because of government regulations. There's a lot of banks in the US that want to support crypto or support Fintech or support banking as a service, but they're scared of the regulator. They might have been doing something for 20 years, but to add this other vertical creates a risk factor and then they have to talk to the regulators. This is what I want to do. Could take them a year to get that kind of approval. So if the regulators and the government comes forward and is proactive in these things and they can encourage the banking sector to actually be more supportive of fintech innovation and move quicker because ultimately, again, it helps the American people with innovation. It's a net positive for everybody.
- [22:13]
A
Now, from that perspective, the sec, a roadblock or a supporter of development, I.
- [22:24]
C
Think they're coming around. What was really interesting, I saw that NASDAQ is planning on tokenizing all of their stocks now. So I think the writing's on the wall. People know they have to adopt. But when you're dealing with consumer money, obviously you need to take your time to make sure all the guardrails are put in place to protect people from fraud and different scams and things like that. But everything takes time. Just the main thing is not to be reactionary. We know what's happening in the forefront. You see what's going on. Blockchain, we see what's going on. AI technology. We don't need to wait till it happens. We can start having these conversations now with industry leaders and prepare it in sync with the private sector.
- [23:04]
B
Yeah. One of the big developments that happened this last Tuesday was the occ, the Office of Comptroller Currency came out, had an interpretive letter that basically said that banks can now evolve and sell crypto. They can't custody it, but they can sell it. So I think that's a big. That's kind of like what you're talking about. That's a big sort of a. Sort of a shift too. And when this new legislation gets passed, let's just be really clear something I'm really happy about that unless it's a security, there's really not going to be anything that the SEC is going to have a part of. It'll be the CFTC regulating. I really like the direction they've always kind of gone in. I see them as a good regulator. But one of the things that I've seen with Trump making a lot of the cuts and try there's only so much you can do so fast. But you know when you mentioned Doge and Broward county, specifically this $200 million, another big issue that I have kind of been hearing and I wanted to get your thoughts on it, but that there's a hundred thousand people on the voter rolls that don't belong there. Right. That they've either moved out of the county, they've actually, they've passed away, but they're still on the voter roll. So when this upcoming election in the midterms comes up, that could potentially open itself to fraud. Have you heard anything about that? Or if there's going to be any movement on those. On Those, I'm saying 100,000 is a round number, but are you aware of that? Have you heard that?
- [24:22]
C
I'm not sure the latest numbers. I know there are some issues that happened a couple months ago with the Supervisor of elections put some numbers on the website, and there was a big reaction. You know, DeSantis did some good things where he passed some rules where the voter rolls would be reset every two years to deal with some of those issues. So if somebody had passed or moved the, that they would catch that at least every two years during the reset. So we have that at least as some protections. But of course, we know that voter frauds existed to some massive levels and we need to keep places like this in place. The mail in voting was another place of fraud. So Trump was talking about doing executive order on that. But I don't know. There's going to be fights back and forth and there's going to be lawsuits and see who wins. But it's something the election integrity to me is the most important thing, because anybody who's cheating in an election and wins, you know, you have criminals as your leaders. So I mean, what do you expect to happen when you have criminal activity at your leadership level? It's not good for anyone.
- [25:21]
B
Yeah. And Governor Santis, you know what's interesting, and I'm glad he's leading on this too, but the whole idea of property tax, you know, when you think about the founder's original vision wasn't that you could buy a property, build a property, own a property, and then this happens a lot, sometimes to elderly people where, you know, their house been paid off for years and they miss a tax bill and then someone, the next thing you know, they lose it through foreclosure. Right. Or somebody buys the tax lien. And this whole idea of Governor DeSantis saying, hey, let's get, let's get, let's put on, let's put up to the voters and let the voters vote whether they want property taxes. This is for people owner occupants. Right. So, I mean, businesses would still pay. But how do you think if something like, first of all, do you think something like that will pass? And if it does, what kind of boon do you think that will be to Broward county in your district?
- [26:05]
C
You know, it's, it needs to pass with a 60% voter approval. I can't imagine anybody not voting to have no homestead taxes. I mean, this makes no sense. So I cannot see it not passing. But of course, I don't know the whole plan. You know, where are they going to make up for the difference if there's any tax revenue that they need to keep different services going? You know, we didn't have property tax in this country till the early 20th century. The old saying, you know, king of your own domain, that came from, you owned a piece of land, that was your land. You didn't pay taxes to anybody. We were all kings of our own domain, just like King George was during the Revolutionary War. That's what it related to. So I think they're going to have, if they have property taxes, get rid. I think it's going to be a boon. I think a lot of people move here. I mean, Florida is the free estate in the country right now, has some of the best taxes. We have our rainy day fund that's been topped out. We, the Florida government cannot even put more money in the rainy day fund. They've made so much money. They've been so efficient and profitable because they kept the state open during COVID The tourism has been booming. Florida's been doing great.
- [27:13]
If there is no taxes, then I could also see the value of those houses could be going up because people are going to want this to be higher demand. One thing that is key though, it's not all houses are going to be tax free. It's going to be the homestead. So it's some people that actually live here and not just people who are tourists. So I think that's also going to be the benefit where the counties can keep some of their tax revenue. But the people who live here, like people buy their houses and they're retiring. They don't get affected by increasing taxes because that happens not just in Florida, but around the country where they buy a home, you retire, you're on a fixed income, and then you lose your house because you can't afford the taxes anymore. So I think that's going to.
- [27:54]
B
Or the HOA. Or the HOA. HOA's been rising too. The fees and HOAs kind of a little bit ridiculous. Also in your businesses, do you see. Are you using anything when it comes to blockchain, Any. Any partnering with any companies or any of that going on?
- [28:11]
C
You know, we work with a lot of, you know, the brand companies in the space. So like, you know, you might hear like fireblocks or TRM Labs or, you know, companies that are brand or institutional in this industry. So we worked a lot of the major players there. I mean, we worked at Ripple, I've worked with Kraken. So, you know, we support a lot of the Big companies too. As far from a payments perspective.
- [28:36]
In Fintech particularly, or any tech.
- [28:40]
There'S a lot of innovation and there's a lot of companies that have these different services. So nowadays when you're, when you're launching a company, you're usually working with a lot of partners. It's never one company that does everything. That's just not the way it works anymore. In technology.
- [28:54]
We try to do as much as we can and build our own technology, but you can't do everything. You can't be a compliance company while doing a crypt. You have to work with partners to service.
- [29:03]
B
Everything makes sense.
- [29:06]
A
Yeah, I like that. And that really then builds in to the fact that, you know, we can't work in the silos and, and that's where we get very centric in technology. And there's so much going on from a blockchain perspective. And one of the areas that, you know, Chip and I try to focus on is that, you know, the originator of this space was bitcoin. You know, from bitcoin we've seen other chains come into.
- [29:36]
Into being, but yet there's still a lot of maximalism that goes on in the space. And we need to really get beyond that because if we're gonna develop and we wanna keep creating more innovative or more innovation for blockchain and see it kind of spread, my belief is that we need to shed the maximalism. But you've actually been building in the space and as you're talking about reaching out and working with companies like Ripple and Kraken and others, has that experience been like. And have you run into maximalism, you know, coming from bitcoin centric supporters that want to, you know, that thought that, hey, bitcoin was all about, you know, getting out of banking. That was, that was the original, you know, original hype. Yeah.
- [30:25]
C
Actually most of the entrepreneurs or business space, I would say, are not maximalist. The ones I've met, because there's so much innovation, there's so much utility or different use cases and it's everything. People have a lot of great ideas that improve quality of life or create opportunities.
- [30:42]
One thing that I fear about being a bitcoin maximalist is that bitcoin is becoming so institutionalized with the ETFs, government reserves. So at a certain point, I think everybody sees it right now, nobody expected.
- [30:57]
Bitcoin to hit close to $80,000 late November. And then, you know, what is it like 92,000 in December? Every indicator known says it should be much, much higher right now. And, and so I think you know, it's ultimately markets always even out but it's just when it's too much is it with the institutions you lose that original idea where crypto is supposed to be decentralized among the people. So I love bitcoin. I mean I, I, I don't know if I call myself a maximalist, but I believe in bitcoin. But there's so many different applications for tokenizing things, tokenizing real world assets, cross border payments, even meme tokens. There's so many use cases. Whether it's for entertainment or actually solves a real world problem. I don't think we've seen the end of the innovation yet. I think it's just starting.
- [31:50]
B
Yeah, I want to give some, there's some comments here in the people watching live here. Jim D Says W. Wasserman Shield should be imprisoned for hiring bank fraudster criminal Imran Awan. Remember that was the one that after that whole thing went down and I don't know, there's some, I don't know how you escape something so egregious like that but somehow it just seems like these Democrats have, like this, I don't know, they have this permanent shield on that they're able to do that. Jim D also says we need help in Florida with home and condo insurance because we're one big hurricane away from total destruction. And you know, living in Florida, you know, we could all attest to that, the, the rising of homeowners policies. Right. I mean I just remember a couple years ago I'm paying almost 4 times, almost 4x what I was paying just, just a few years ago, five, six years ago. So and the hurricanes and of course there's a lot of fraud there. Michael, you talked about that. You know this three years is three years to get all that stuff in before you know, we got the ads on the radio. Did your roof get hit by a hurricane? Maybe not. We'll send an inspector on, we'll see. So there's, I mean there's fraud. I don't know if there's big enough institution to police all the fraud but it just hurts all the people in, you know, not Broward county, you know, District 25, pretty much everywhere in South Florida, Florida as a whole.
- [33:05]
C
And it affects the prices throughout the whole state. And I mean I think the late I saw a statistic a while back, I mean I noticed today but about one third of Floridians don't have any insurance because they can't afford it. And that actually Affects people's ability to buy new houses because not all houses are easy to get insurance. If you don't have insurance, you can't get a mortgage. And problems go on.
- [33:26]
I mean the affordability is just, it needs to be solved. And, and I think that, you know, blockchain can help prevent some of that fraud, obviously. But also market competition, I mean, one of the issues is that we don't have enough insurers in the state.
- [33:37]
A
Right.
- [33:38]
B
Big time. Well, somebody, I remember when I wrote one insurance policy, somebody was in there for five weeks, five weeks in and out, writing for five weeks and out. And then when they, when they basically pulled out of the marketplace, you know, you're left with, you know, the, with citizens, which is the Florida based. And unfortunately you're right, there's not enough competition. But you have to look at from an insurance perspective is that it's not, it's not profitable venture because you know, there's a bunch of hurricanes, did a bunch of damage one after one. So I think that's something that people as homeowners, but just as people living in Florida too have a concern about. Right. Because you know, terrified when they hype the hurricane if it's coming. You know, I've never sustained that much damage, but I've known a lot of people that have. I'm sure you have run across that as well.
- [34:22]
C
Absolutely. Yeah, it's been a big problem. I mean the last big hurricane we had, we haven't had one in, down here in southeast Florida since Irma was that 2017 or so. And that was pretty bad. I mean, everything was closed for weeks. No stoplights, no gas. I mean, we got hit really hard. Now hopefully it's not coming back anytime soon. But when it hits, it's, you know, people, it's rarely are they really prepared for what's happening and the cost is always astronomical.
- [34:47]
A
Yeah, and really we saw more damage along the west coast, you know, recently, you know, from Naples up Sanibel island got hit pretty hard. Yeah, you're right. You know, fortunately we've, we've avoided a lot of direct, direct hits here. But with that we, we've also seen considerable flooding, you know, because of the potentially, you know, the sewage system and drainage systems and other things that were going on downtown. Fort Lauderdale has been underwater a few times, had nothing to do with the hurricanes.
- [35:20]
C
Yeah, I remember that even like a year or two ago, everything got flooded downtown.
- [35:24]
A
A lot of cars, a lot of property damage, things like that to, to kind of take a little bit of shift to, you know, current news and has more on. On the terrorists. Terrorism. But, you know, we just saw DeSantis, you know, push through and designate the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE as terrorist entities. You know, what are your thoughts on that? We've seen now two states, two governors, Texas and now Florida. You know, how meaningful is that, you know, for what's happening right now? Kind of current. Current events?
- [36:03]
C
Yeah, that's a really good question because this is, I think, been building up for a while. We see a lot of clickbait in the news. I mean, some of it's real. Obviously, you know, Muslim Brotherhood and CARE have been in the news for a while now with some of their affiliations. And I'm actually surprised it's taken this long. I would expect that to happen years ago. But we are seeing basically through subsidies. We have what's going on with the fraud and the Somalians.
- [36:31]
There's, there is things that are happening in the West. I mean, we have issues with Iran, we have issues with Venezuela. Iran has had the Hezbollah train, the, the military in Venezuela. There is, there is a war, there is a cultural war. There is a physical war with Muslim extremists. I mean, that's been happening for a long time. That's nothing new. I think that for a long time people ignored it. I mean, saw what happened at 911 and for a few years that was all you heard about the news. But these organizations still exist. They haven't gone away. It's just we've been in these forever wars. So I think that again, this is something we need to be proactive about. We need to understand who is actually threatening our country and our safety. We should always do everything we can to minimize conflict because we don't want to be in a forever war again. I mean, it's just draining. You know, people die, straining resources, it costs everybody money. And at the end of the day, what happened in Afghanistan has solved nothing. So we need to be able to just proactive identify what our issues are and put the defense systems in place to prevent any violence.
- [37:39]
A
And that's right here in our backyard, unfortunately, you know, and we don't need what we're seeing in New York or Ohio or Minnesota or. Or Michigan. Look at the issues that are going on in Michigan with the call, call to prayer. You know, we see a lot of the Islamification of that area and the Somali issue. You know, you bring that up, you know, we can see it kind of from afar. Today I saw a lot of ice activity was popping up on, on the feeds all over, you know, from Davey to along 595, out, you know, Cooper City and I think out Weston. But it was amazing. I saw a lot of, a lot of postings that ICE was, was active. But you bring up Venezuela and I think that's really pertinent based on the fact that we have ships now sitting off the coast of Venezuela. We see a lot of drug movement coming out of Venezuela. But more than that, you brought up something really important is that that Iran and the Hezbollah and you know, have been training the.
- [38:50]
I guess it's, it's an actual military that will be involved in guerrilla warfare tactics, but I guess it would be direct combat, you know, in Venezuela. And it's not too far away, you know, it's, it's a little close to home, you know, considering everything that's happening.
- [39:08]
C
One thing I say, you know, during Trump's first administration, he was the first president in about 100 years that didn't start a new war. Trump, I believe everything he's already done, he's always minimized conflict. He does things efficiently. And, you know, we, nobody wants to go to war. But I think it's important that we do recognize that there are enemies to this nation and we do have real threats. And I grew up, I never won a war. And it's, you know, very peace loving, of course, but the threats are real. That make no mistake about that. It's, you know, just like business are competitive, nations are competitive and the best way to protect yourselves is have a strong defense. And so I believe in what, you know, military Maduro and using the narco terrorists to bring drugs in this country does kill people. It is an affront. I mean, you want to look back what drugs do, look at the opium wars and that was. They realized that drugs can actually destabilize an entire nation. And we've seen it here with the fentanyl, we've seen it with the opioid crisis. It destroys entire communities, it destroys economies and it kills people, it kills kids, obviously, mainly because it's the youth that go to drugs before anybody else. So stopping the drug flow is something that Trump campaigned on and we voted for that. I strongly believe in protecting our kids and stopping that flow of drugs. And we need to do everything we can to obviously minimize casualties. But the, we have a narco terrorist that is killing our kids. And that's no, no matter what side of the fence you're on, That's a fact.
- [40:36]
B
Yeah. 100. So you're in favor of blowing up the. These People running drugs into the country. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, I mean like 13, 14 of these. I mean it's all, it's all backed up by law, right? I mean there's, there's no flag on the boat either. So there's a flag on the boat. It's not, it's not running for any country. But what are your thoughts on that? I mean, stopping the drugs before they get here to the US soil?
- [41:00]
C
Yeah, I think that, you know, we gave, as a country, gave clear notice saying if you bring in drugs in here, if you're a terrorist here, we're going to react. What's the point of saying you're gonna do something and then just ignore it? Of course. So they need to stop bringing drugs in this country, period.
- [41:16]
B
That would be a Democrat talking point. What's the point of talking about something and never doing it? That would be something. Exactly. That would be high. You know, I wanted to segue too.
- [41:25]
C
Because one thing, credibility, consequences, it's the same thing, right?
- [41:28]
B
Yeah, 100%. I just wanted to get some, I wanted to segue a little bit and kind of get a little bit, dig deeper into your like, personal world. Like, you know, you think about like, where did you come from, where did you grow up, you know, what university did you go to and how did you become this serial entrepreneur? What motivated you?
- [41:45]
C
I, I don't know. Well, I tried, I tried regular jobs and I was terrible at it. I, I worked in restaurants, I done nine to five, worked office jobs. I tried going to college and I dropped out. Nothing really fit for me. You know, it wasn't until my late twenties I realized I was entrepreneur. And I guess, you know, it sounds simple, but having that realization realize, you know, you just don't fit into a box. There's no, you don't have to do things the normal way. I went to college after high school because that's what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to go to college. But I got there and I was honestly, I was bored. I couldn't concentrate, I was not interested. It wasn't for me. But I went because that's what was expected of me. So I had lots of jobs. I just, I never enjoyed it. I needed to realize I just be free minded, creative, solving problems and innovative. And I just, for me, I don't have hobbies, I don't play golf. You know, I don't do anything. For me, my hobby is, you know, being creative and thinking of new businesses.
- [42:47]
B
What about Sports. Do you follow any sports at all or.
- [42:49]
C
No, I'm a Panthers fan, so. Okay, there we go.
- [42:54]
B
Going for three Pete. Three Pete. Maybe it's go for the three Pete.
- [43:00]
A
That's really great. And now you kind of, you got into innovation tech. What. What about the ivf? And you did something in fertility.
- [43:11]
C
Yeah, so I just started a business to support basically people trying to have babies. And this is something, it was a kind of a passion project. And I realized I was just looking at trends and I saw how infertility was just dropping across the world. You look at places like South Korea, Japan, Italy, Spain, it's really. They're basically having 1.1 kids per couple, which is half of what you need to sustain society. And I, you know, and there was all different reasons with microplastics, bad economies, you know, chemicals in the food, you know, focusing on career late family planning. And people are having problems with having kids. Now.
- [43:58]
One thing, I kind of put this in a real life reference. Italy is having 1.1 kids per couple. They have a population of 60 million people. That means within three generations, they're 10 to 15 people. 10. So. And with their immigration especially, you know, coming from North Africa and Muslim coming into Italy, what you're going to see is about 30, 40 years because they're a democracy. They will no longer be a Catholic nation because the locals, the natives, are not reproducing, they're not having kids, and they can't. They need help. So I, you know, I have, if you think about it, 20 years ago, it was very rare IVF and things like that. Now everybody knows somebody that's going through the process because they need help. And so I did this really as a way to help people who want to have kids but are having problems doing it. It's costly for women. It's an emotional roller coaster with the hormones and everything else. And what I wanted to do is bring what I understood from fintech and technology to create more efficiency, to make it simpler, cost effective, and less attempts, because a lot of people try this, you know, three, four, five times and are unsuccessful. So I was trying to bring some efficiency there to, to make it easier for people so they can have kids and have families.
- [45:10]
A
And what did you find as you kind of went through that journey?
- [45:14]
C
I found that as an industry as a whole, it's very archaic still. There's not a lot of technology in there yet. I think now people are starting to realize that it is a focus because it is, it is probably the largest humanitarian crisis in the world right now. You even see people like Elon Musk, you know, put on post on X all the time about how devastating this is. And it's, it's, it's a, something that we all need to pay attention to because it's not just one family having kids. It's literally entire economies and cultures are going to be wiped out. And we need to understand that this is a crisis.
- [45:49]
A
Right. And that means, you know, based on that statement alone, there's others out there that understand the dynamic, which is why there's mass migration happening potentially to help destabilize those regions.
- [46:04]
C
Yes, destabilization. But governments also know they need to replace the taxpayer base.
- [46:11]
A
Interesting. So with that same problem over in China then. Right. Where they, then where they are artificially limited the number of kids. Yeah.
- [46:21]
C
So now they're really trying to reverse that, that position as China. What they did about a year ago, they actually, they banned foreign adoption because they have, they have such a birth problem that you're not allowed to adopt Chinese kids anymore. They want all the Chinese to stay in China. And you know, that's a, it's, it's affecting many, many countries. It's, it's not just the US problem, It's, it's really a first world problem and it's first world living that's causing these issues to cause infertility.
- [46:50]
A
Man. That's, that's, that's really, it's so important, you know, and to have the fact that you're, you know, taking, you've done all this stuff and now you're taking this big step and you're going to be leaving the entrepreneurship and the business side of it anyways and making this big run in, into government and not just any district, you know, the one district that really needs somebody, you know, with this.
- [47:16]
B
Your district, Jeff. Right, Right.
- [47:18]
A
Yeah, I'm in the district. It's my district.
- [47:20]
B
Oh, north. So, yeah.
- [47:22]
A
And we have, you know, Debbie Wasserman Schultz sitting there, but she's not, she's not on her own. She's one of the culprits of the problems that is very just, you know, government centric. A lack of doing, a lack of ever doing.
- [47:38]
B
Right.
- [47:39]
A
As you mentioned right in the beginning. I mean she's a career politician. She's never done anything other than politic, never added value, you know, to society.
- [47:52]
And here we are, you know, what, what's your, what's your next big step? You know, where, where do you need the most support? I've heard that you've Self funded. You know, a good part of the beginning of your campaign where, you know, the next months are going to go fast and we're going to be in November. What. Where do you need the most help right now?
- [48:14]
C
Really? Just getting the word out to the voters. I mean, I spent a lot of this year organizing our team, putting our resources together. I did self fund initially. I mean, I'm new to politics, I'm not a career politician. And so I need to let people know who I am, what my message is. I have skin in the game. I'm putting everything I have to make sure that we win this. But I really need the support of the people in the district. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much money or if DC likes you or Tallahassee likes you. It's about the voters of the district. I mean, it's the votes that count and it's not about the money. So it's about getting the word out and talking to people and letting them know that there is an alternative and we can actually make changes and make positive impact to the local community.
- [48:55]
B
You want these, Jeff, in your front lawn?
- [48:58]
A
The biggest one possible. I'm sure the rub the HOA the wrong way. No, no, that, that's really important. You know, we gotta get, gotta get the messaging out. As you've kind of gone through this, what, what's a funny story that you kind of ran into that you didn't expect and like, here's something that happened.
- [49:20]
B
That.
- [49:23]
C
A funny story. You know what? It's just been.
- [49:27]
This has all been a first time experience for me over and over again. I mean, I've never been in this. It's. I would say it's very different from where I'm coming from, from the, from the entrepreneurial world, because from there I just, I deal with different people. And here it's. I don't know if there's anything funny. It's just the overall experience. There's. There's a lot of people that want change. You know, all the messaging I get on social media, people are just so thankful that I'm running. And they all want, they all want hope that we can do something. And I want to basically fulfill what everybody needs to be done.
- [50:03]
I never had social media before. I've always been a private person. We've had, I think probably the most successful campaign launch of any congressional candidate ever. We had 10 million views of our announcement video with zero social media a week before. You know, it's just been really successful from that front and it's been overwhelming support. I mean, I'm. Of course, you always have negative comments, but I would say it's like less than 5%. Everybody is just overwhelmingly supportive. It's actually was very humbling to see so many people encouraging and wanting to do good.
- [50:38]
A
That's great. That's a. That's a perfect message. I like that, you know, that, you know, people out there, they want the change and they. They want somebody with a passion that is gonna really do what's. What's right by the people here in South Florida. And then once you get up to Washington, there's a lot going on up there, but.
- [51:02]
You know, big things to happen here. Chip, any comments?
- [51:08]
B
I thought we. I thought we'd have a little bit of fun here. I thought maybe we'd just do a little lightning round here, so. A little lightning round. So I'll give you. I'll throw some things out there and then, you know, one of these. Either or. But salt water or fresh water?
- [51:23]
C
Is this just a quick guess or.
- [51:24]
B
No, just. Yeah, just like a one or the other. Just like a quick lightning rod. Yeah. Throw some.
- [51:32]
C
Software for the first one.
- [51:34]
B
Yeah. Okay, so flip flops or, you know, tennis shoes?
- [51:38]
C
Tennis shoes.
- [51:40]
B
Cafe con leche or coffee?
- [51:43]
C
Cafe con leche.
- [51:44]
B
Gators or canes?
- [51:47]
C
Canes.
- [51:49]
B
All right, I. 95 or the turnpike?
- [51:53]
C
95. That's a tough one.
- [51:58]
95.
- [51:59]
B
All right, so we'll get into some political stuff here. So, Philip, filibuster or the fast regular vote? Fast vote.
- [52:06]
C
What do you mean? Get rid of the filibuster?
- [52:08]
B
Yeah, we. For filibuster. Like getting rid of the filibuster and pushing some things through. Or we.
- [52:13]
C
I'm not getting rid of it because if the cards were switched the other side, we'd have a Supreme Court. So you need those protections.
- [52:22]
B
All right, but would you be for getting rid of it for three months, pushing stuff through and then put it back in place?
- [52:28]
C
No.
- [52:29]
B
No. Okay.
- [52:32]
Gotcha. Budget surplus or tax rebate?
- [52:37]
C
Tax rebate.
- [52:39]
B
If you could pass one bill in, let's say in the next hour, what would it be?
- [52:44]
C
Replace Obamacare with something that actually works.
- [52:46]
B
Gotcha. All right, so I'm gonna throw some Florida specific ones at you. Fight one giant mosquito or 50 normal sized ones.
- [52:58]
C
50.
- [52:59]
B
Okay. One hurricane a year or ten. Those massive Florida thunderstorms.
- [53:07]
C
I'll do the. The one big one.
- [53:09]
B
Okay.
- [53:09]
C
Which mascot ones that. That's the flooding. That's where the real damage is.
- [53:13]
B
True. Good point. So which mascot wins in a street Fight. Dolphin or a panther?
- [53:18]
C
Panther.
- [53:20]
B
Would you rather deal with Florida traffic or Florida man?
- [53:26]
C
Florida man.
- [53:28]
B
Okay.
- [53:30]
Lead from the front or lead from the war room?
- [53:34]
C
Front.
- [53:35]
B
Right. And would your staff describe you as coffee fueled or chaos fueled?
- [53:45]
Both. I like that. If you had to say one thing, what would be your political superpower?
- [53:53]
C
Common sense.
- [53:54]
B
Okay. When you walk on stage, what's your song?
- [54:02]
C
Oh, I don't know if I have an answer for that one.
- [54:05]
A
That's a good one.
- [54:05]
C
Yeah. I'm gonna have to come back to you. I really don't know.
- [54:08]
B
All right, you have to get this ready because you're gonna be walking on a lot of stages. So you'd have to have that song, whatever that is. Okay.
- [54:13]
C
Yeah.
- [54:15]
B
What, what's your guilt? What's your guilty Florida pleasure?
- [54:22]
C
Guilty Florida pleasure?
- [54:25]
I don't know. I don't really have any. I don't say guilty. Maybe an old fashioned Los Alas. I don't know.
- [54:32]
B
That sounds good to me. I'll make. You can make that happen.
- [54:38]
Taking a tough unpopular vote or dodge the question.
- [54:42]
C
Tough on popular vote.
- [54:44]
B
Beautiful.
- [54:45]
C
I'm not a career politician. I want to get in and get it done.
- [54:48]
B
So is your job to get in there and maybe do one term, two terms or, you know, you don't want to be, you don't want to be there for too long, right?
- [54:56]
C
No, I, I don't know. I mean, obviously I don't want to be there. Tom 80, like Pelosi or anybody else or Debbie. I understand that, you know, in business cycles, everything takes time. You know, a lot of people are upset at, for example, Trump, you know, where's my good economy after a couple months? But we all know that we do one year, gets the benefit the next year. So I don't know how much we turn around in one term. I know Congress people probably don't realize it's only two years. You have to run a campaign every two years, whereas a senator is six years. So I think it's going to take a couple of years. I want to be there as long as I'm effective and people want me there, but I have no plans of being in there. You know, like I said, tell them Molten Gray.
- [55:38]
A
Do you, from that point, do you support term limits or. Or no?
- [55:44]
C
Yeah, I would support term limits.
- [55:46]
A
What do you think an adequate term limit would be for? For us?
- [55:50]
C
House. House. Maybe 10 years. Yeah. Because if you think about it, you know, going into the House or going to politics for the first time for anybody, not just me, you know, your first Year or two, you're essentially a rookie, right? You learn to navigate, you learn the bureaucracy, you learn how to be more effective. And so on a certain point, you get better and better at it. But then, you know, you shouldn't stay there forever. You should leave and you could try something else. But running for office and, you know, working dedicated time should be a contribution to the people. It shouldn't be a lifelong career.
- [56:24]
A
Yeah, that's great. I like that.
- [56:26]
B
I like that.
- [56:27]
A
And you're coming from a, from a career, a great career already and putting that on hold, essentially.
- [56:33]
C
I mean, I'll probably come back to this and be an entrepreneur after Congress, but I mean, for now, I'm going to focus on trying to give back to the people and, you know, restore our freedoms that have been eroding away and focus on our economy and focus on our safety.
- [56:45]
B
Yeah, sounds great. So I'm down for that. And I think, I think bringing a lot of fresh ideas is going to be, you know, know, and also I think bringing a little bit of youth sometimes helps a little bit, too. You're down for, you know, because you live in the community. You see, you've. You've dealt with the way it's been, you've been through other administrations and see how it goes. And I think you're right. I mean, so five terms in the, in the house, which be 10 years, and then you'd have, what, what would you say for, let's say, the Senate? Two terms?
- [57:18]
C
Maybe two or three. You know, I might have a different opinion when I'm there, I mean, 12 years. So I would say at least two. You know, making a one doesn't make sense. So maybe two terms.
- [57:31]
B
If you, if you had a pattern yourself, let's say if you wanted to pick like a politician to someone you've looked up, it could be a couple. You could pick things from different ones. But who are some politicians that maybe had an impact on you from. Maybe from when you were young, maybe currently. But who are some people that had an effect on your life?
- [57:49]
C
You know, I guess, you know, when I was, you know, younger, I was obsessed with history and I was obsessed with the Founding Fathers, you know, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, you know, and what's interesting, you know, kind of segue a little bit here, I was asked, you know, being entrepreneur, you know, how does it feel to be doing things differently and, you know, against, you know, the status quo, how people usually are. And I remind them that our country was founded by entrepreneurs. Every one of our founding fathers was an entrepreneur. And you know, the career politician is the wrong way of doing things. It's just over time, people forgot about that. So I always think about, you know, if there's a business person that's in running in president or in Congress, I mean, that's obviously what I relate to. I think that's what we've gotten away from. Also. When I was younger and I loved Ron Paul when I was younger, when he was running in 2008, I followed Ron Paul. You know, I, I appreciated the libertarian message. I don't know if I'm quite a libertarian, you know, all the way. But I like the ideas back then of freedom and the constitutional rights that we have in this country, and especially a freedom of speech. Nobody realizes that, you know, it doesn't exist anywhere in the world. I mean, the UK says they have freedom of speech, but we know there's zero freedom of speech in the uk. You get thrown in jail for a meme. So, you know, Ron Paul was somebody I looked up to growing up when I was younger and really. But I was obsessed with the founding fathers, especially Washington. Washington was the ultimate entrepreneur as well as obviously our first president.
- [59:18]
B
He was a beast, really, if you look. I mean, his whole life was incredible.
- [59:22]
C
Yeah.
- [59:23]
B
I mean, yeah, the guy gave to his country.
- [59:26]
C
The idea of American values was the personification of George Washington, kind of that stoicism, the underdog, the values, it all stems from George Washington.
- [59:37]
B
Yeah. So if you had a time machine, you want to go back and visit a historical figure, you'd love to go back and run Dec. 25, that right before he's ready to surprise attack, maybe.
- [59:49]
C
Yeah, sure. Why not?
- [59:51]
B
Yeah, it'd be a lot of fun. Well, if I had a time machine, what I would do is go back and leave notes for myself, you know, throughout, like. And I would be like, it would just say in my handwriting, buy bitcoin. Buy bitcoin. It would be plastered all over my. All over. I'd be like, what are these notes? I don't remember writing this exactly. You know, then you go back and you buy bitcoin. People always like, what would you go back and change now? I'm not changing anything. I'm just going to give myself some clues or maybe a clue bag that I could reach in and grab a few clues once in a while.
- [60:20]
C
Yeah, I don't blame you. I wish I started in bitcoin earlier.
- [60:27]
B
We all do. Well, some of us did and some of us sold too fast, so that happens too. Some of us thought 800 sound like a good price point. Turns out it was. Turns out it wasn't a great price point. So that happens. If there's, if there's, if there's one thing you want to leave the, you know, people with, like, what are some of the things just kind of your final message, like going out, like, what would you like to. For people to know why you're running and what you're looking to do for the 25th district?
- [60:54]
C
Yeah, again, I mean, I'm running because I've seen the erosion of our freedoms over the last few decades. And a big part of that is because we have people like Debbie Washer and Schultz that have been in there who everything she's been doing is raising taxes, increasing the size of government and taking our freedoms away. She's been doing nothing for this district. I'm running to restore those freedoms, to bring back affordability and economic prosperity by reducing taxes, by focusing on our safety, focusing on our police force, you know, opposite of what she was doing by defunding the police. Bringing back common sense and what our government and our Constitution had always said it to be. So we lay out a country of freedom and everybody can live, you know, their version of the American dream, you know, follow what they want to do in life, start their own businesses, take care of their family, create a savings. We need to just focus back on America first, values of what this country is founded on. And that's why I'm running. And I would say that anybody wants to support the campaign, go to michaelcarbonara.com follow us on social media. We want to get the message out and we have to really rally up the voters and make sure they show up next year.
- [62:05]
B
That's key. You know, turnout for sometimes is traditionally down on midterm, but this midterm is probably one of the most important versus the last. It's important for so many reasons. But guys, I would tell everybody to go here now. If you guys can look at the comments too, you can follow Michael on X. We have all of different places you can see him. So I would go ahead and check him out there. I'm also going to take this and put it into the chat so everybody can see it that there. Again, if you guys want to make a donation, you know, look, every little bit helps. It's, you know, I support some candidates. I'm supporting John Deaton's campaign.
- [62:44]
To run against.
- [62:47]
Up there in Massachusetts against the. Talk about a career politician almost 60 years. And that's a long time. That's a long, long way too long. To be, to be around.
- [62:59]
C
So that might be a record holder there.
- [63:01]
B
That's close. I mean, it's amazing to be around that long and most people don't even know the name. It's just like. It's. It's insane. You know.
- [63:11]
It'S. I don't. I don't even know how. I mean, think about that. I mean, that's a long time to be running, right? I mean, if you think about the Ed Markey. Do you remember. Does Ed Markey's name ring a bell?
- [63:23]
C
No. No.
- [63:24]
B
But Senator Warren, Senator Elizabeth Warren rings a bell. Right? So. Yeah, yeah. So she's the one that we know. But Ed Markey, it's like this guy, he. I did go do some. He did. He did author a couple bills, a bunch of bills and stuff. But again, along the Democrats. I know a lot of bipartisan stuff. Basically had no name, nobody years and nobody knows you. It's crazy that.
- [63:47]
A
And that's how the career politicians typically like it. It's the few outspoken ones like Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren that kind of elevate themselves and put themselves on the crosshairs. And the rest of them just kind of age there. You don't do nothing. And it's, it's amazing. But here you go, Michael. Here's one, here's one recommendation for a song for the Boys are Back in Town.
- [64:09]
C
Okay.
- [64:11]
B
Back in town. There you go. That was a little bit. So, yeah, there's always. People always have some kind of. Or you could. Or you could have ACDCs back in black because Turn it from red to black on the, on the financial scales, you know.
- [64:26]
C
Yeah.
- [64:26]
B
Taxes get it more in the black. So that'd be a good one as well. So. Right. But something classic. Oh, yeah. Storm Thurman and Rayburn. Yeah, they were there. I think they were there 60 some years. 60 some years. Wow.
- [64:39]
A
Yeah.
- [64:39]
B
And that's what happens. I remember Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She used to be. Until that scandal broke, every time there was a microphone, she would be at it. And I used to love Rush Limbaugh. I used to call her Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz. I thought that was my. I still call. I still call her that. So.
- [64:55]
So. But anyway, listen, Michael was fantastic, you know, having you. Thanks for coming on the chain. Thanks for talking about what's going on with the campaign. Probably like to see as things. More things develop, maybe having you back on. But I want to really thank you for, you know, jumping into it. And one of the things that I, you know, Jeff and I always appreciate that in the pre show when we have that conversation, I said, is there any questions that you'd like to dive into? And you said, I'm an open book. You can ask me anything. And that's that. That's. That's somebody who's not a politician. That's somebody who cares deeply about not only politics, but, you know, your own hometown and your district. So I really appreciate you. You saying that as well.
- [65:34]
C
I appreciate that and thank you both for having me on tonight.
- [65:37]
A
Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate. Appreciate you being on and look forward to seeing you here on the next one, like Chip had mentioned. And that's all we've got for tonight. Hang in there.
- [65:50]
C
We'll.
- [65:51]
A
We'll do a quick outro to everybody here, but hang in, you know, as we go through that so we can make sure that we upload everything correctly.
- [66:00]
C
Yeah, Chip.
- [66:02]
B
Yeah, Stay on here. We'll. I'll go ahead and play us out of here. We got. Stay on. And I just want to let everybody know that, uh, Jeff, you and I are not here this weekend, correct?
- [66:12]
A
That's correct.
- [66:13]
B
Yeah. So Jeff and I will be out for the weekend, and then we'll be back Wednesday night, and then we'll be next Wednesday night. You guys don't want to miss. It'll be our last show until the first of the year. Jeff and I got a lot of stuff going on. Business, travel, all kinds of stuff. So next Wednesday will be our last show, but we'll both be out on Saturday and Sunday, guys. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. So, Michael, Jeff, we're out. We'll see you guys.
- [66:37]
C
Thank you.
- [66:44]
A
Are you down with otc?
- [66:47]
B
Please, like, subscribe and click the bell.
- [66:50]
C
To be notified when the next video drops.