From "America First" To America Alone

Summary

Truth in the Barrel

Episode: From "America First" To America Alone

Hosts: Amy McGrath & Denver Riggleman
Guest: Dr. Kristin Lierly
Date: April 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the grim consequences of America’s current foreign and domestic policy landscape, focusing on the fallout from recent military actions in Iran, the growing international and internal isolation of the U.S., and the severe domestic program cuts proposed to finance ongoing conflict. Amy and Dr. Kristin Lierly unpack the human and strategic costs, reflect on shifting political tides (especially recent election results in Wisconsin), and end on a lighter note, celebrating the inspirational Artemis space mission. The conversation is candid and urgent, blending national security insight with lived local realities.

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Key Topics and Discussion Points

1. The Iran Conflict and Its Fallout

The Escalation and Moral Crisis

• Amy and Dr. Lierly open with deep concern over the ramifications of the recent (fragile and possibly expired) ceasefire in Iran.
• The hosts highlight President Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric:
  • “[President] tweeted out, quote, that Iran’s whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” (Amy, 03:19)
• Discusses the unprecedented, shocking spectacle of the U.S. President threatening both the Pope and civilians, destabilizing previously conservative communities:
  • “People here are feeling restless, because a lot of people have felt like MAGA and Catholicism go together. But now they’re literally seeing Donald Trump at odds with the Pope... creating a lot of discomfort.” (Dr. Lierly, 03:39)

Strategic and Human Losses

• Amy systematically dismantles narratives of victory:
  • “This is now the worst strategic defeat as it stands at the moment in my lifetime.” (Amy, 08:27)
  • Enumerates failures: regime change failed, nuclear program intact, allies abandoned, global credibility lost, sanctions relief for adversaries, domestic economic pain.
• Dr. Lierly sums up,
  • “America first, which has turned into America Alone.” (11:14)
• The hosts lament avoidable casualties:
  • “We have lost U.S. troops unnecessarily. For what reason?” (Dr. Lierly, 12:48)
• National security reality vs. political theater:
  • “Anybody who’s anybody in the national security world knew on day one…there’s no military solution for Iran’s nuclear program.” (Amy, 13:00)

Republican Silence and Democratic Constraints

• Republicans’ lack of pushback framed as complicit and cultish:
  • “There should be people with different opinions having lively debates…but that’s not happening.” (Dr. Lierly, 06:12)
• Democrats are “grossly in the minority” and reduced to regional leadership, local organizing, and calls for the 25th Amendment:
  • “They don’t have the bully pulpit…and they don’t have the power, the military, the dollars.” (Dr. Lierly, 17:54)
• Pressure urged on Republican representatives, not just Democrats, for accountability:
  • “You need to be calling your Republican member of Congress. They are the ones…with the power right now.” (Amy, 19:00)

2. Massive Cuts to Domestic Programs

The Trump Budget

• Amy highlights the president’s proposal to pay for war via deep social spending cuts:
  • “He said…I said to the Office of Management Budget Director, Russell Vaught,…don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare anymore.” (Amy, 21:30)
• Programs slated for slashing or elimination: WIC, community service block grants, school lunches, Head Start, K-12 education, NIH, CDC, preschool grants, national forests, and more.
• Dr. Lierly on the gutting of WIC:
  • “This is a substantial cut that literally takes food, fresh, healthy food out of the mouths of mothers and babies.” (Dr. Lierly, 22:44)
• Cuts to public health infrastructure threatened to undermine outbreak response:
  • “One of the most important things the CDC does…is contain outbreaks. But when we defund the CDC…we are going to be a sicker population.” (Dr. Lierly, 26:51)
• Cuts to education projected to devastate vulnerable populations:
  • “Almost a 70% reduction in funding going through K, K through 12 education…How is this America First?” (Amy, 28:07)

The Contradiction of “America First”

• Hosts ridicule the hypocrisy of “America First” rhetoric, as actual policies undercut America’s health, workforce, forests (“just got rid of it”), and scientific leadership.
• “We are quickly becoming not the leaders because of the Trump administration.” (Dr. Lierly, 25:42)

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3. Message, Mobilization, and the Democratic Brand

Toxic Partisanship and Messaging Gaps

• Dr. Lierly reflects: “Being a Democrat is pretty toxic in some populations...They’re very effective at the messaging and we are not.” (31:46)
• Amy stresses a return to truth and public service:
  • “I keep going back to being an adult and speaking the truth.” (Amy, 32:39)
• Both advocate for local, grassroots organizing and reclaiming the narrative around public goods:
  • “You gotta literally grow your community the way that you grow your forest.” (Dr. Lierly, 34:35)

4. Hopeful Signs: Wisconsin and Down-Ballot Victories

Election Results as a Barometer

• Wisconsin Supreme Court’s progressive shift celebrated:
  • “We have the most female Supreme Courts in the country…So Wisconsinites are looking at the future. And we now know that we are gonna have a Supreme Court that works for the people until at least 2030.” (Dr. Lierly, 35:58-37:30)
• Other wins: First Democratic mayor in Waukesha; a trans woman elected to county office.
• Takeaway: Victory comes when “picking the right person for the right reason, who stands for the right things, who’s qualified.” (Amy, 38:48)

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5. Memorable Quotes & Segments

• “This is how we know it’s a cult.” (Dr. Lierly, 06:12)
• “Iran still has control over the Strait of Hormuz…we are going to start paying them now. And we’ve given them sanctions relief.” (Amy, 10:12)
• “We’ve got data that shows that school lunch programs, when you feed kids, they can learn…So if we take this away now…the real results will be decades from now when Donald Trump is long dead.” (Dr. Lierly, 21:52)
• “At some point in our lives, we are all those vulnerable people.” (Dr. Lierly, 28:43)
• On new ICE hardship: “This military spouse was not a violent criminal. She was taken from a military base where she lived with her husband. She’s a military spouse.” (Amy, 44:56)
• On hypocrisy: “Tear down the White House, start…a golden ballroom and use a bunch of foreign materials to do it…That’s America first.” (Amy, 45:59)

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6. Noteworthy Moments

• [11:14] “America first, which has turned into America Alone.” (Dr. Lierly)
• [29:57] Forest Service gutting and its impact on environmental stewardship.
• [35:58, 38:48] Wisconsin victories point to a shift in political winds.
• [47:07] Joyous discussion of Artemis space mission photos and humanity’s awe at exploration.

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Closing Thoughts

The episode is a raw, urgent, and deeply personal look at the gap between America’s professed ideals and the current reality of isolation, self-inflicted wounds, and squandered leadership. But Amy and Dr. Lierly also spotlight signs of hope—where local resilience and electoral sanity show a path forward. The call to “keep telling these stories, even when it's hard” (Dr. Lierly, 46:30) echoes as the mission of this podcast.

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“We have to keep telling these stories, even when it’s hard...they help people understand how hard Donald Trump and his regime are making it for regular Americans.”
— Dr. Kristin Lierly [46:30]

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Timestamps of Major Segments

• 00:35 – Episode opening, topics overview
• 03:18 – President's Iran threats & clash with the Pope
• 07:18 – The ceasefire: reality vs. rhetoric
• 10:12 – Strategic losses and consequences of the Iran war
• 15:15 – Democrats’ role & constraints
• 21:30 – Trump’s budget & domestic program cuts
• 29:57 – Forest Service slashed, environmental impacts
• 35:58 – Wisconsin Supreme Court and local electoral victories
• 44:56 – ICE detains military spouse; consequences of immigration crackdown
• 47:07 – Artemis mission and space exploration hopefulness

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Tone and Style

Frank, urgent, occasionally exasperated, with moments of levity and hope. The hosts blend policy savvy with practical, local perspectives, making the national stories feel personal, imbuing the episode with both seriousness and resilience.

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For full episodes, visit TruthintheBarrel.com or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Mayra Ameth]

A Mochi moment from Sadie, who writes, I'm not crying, you're crying. This is what I said during my first appointment with my physician at Mochi because I didn't have to convince him I needed a GLP one. He understood and I felt supported, not judged. I came for the weight loss and stayed for the empathy. Thanks, Sadie. I'm Mayra Ameth, founder of Mochi Health. To find your mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Sadie is a Mochi member, compensated for her story.

[Amy]

Hey, everyone, thanks for joining us again on another unfiltered here on Truth in the Barrel. We are talking today about the ceasefire in Iran. We're going to be talking about Republican attacks on domestic programs that actually help people. And we'll celebrate some wins in Wisconsin this week and around the country. Back with us again is our favorite Wisconsinite. Yeah. Yes. Dr. Kristin Lierly. Welcome back.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Thanks for having me back. We had so much fun last time that we just couldn't resist. Yeah.

[Amy]

The last time we did this, it was all about your work and healthcare and everything that's going on. This time we're going to talk about current events and everything else that's going on.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah, we have to have these conversations. Some of this stuff is really hard to talk about, but we have to talk about it and we have to figure out, we have to get down to the meaning and how it affects us. Because these things that are happening in the world might seem like they're happening on the other side of the world, but they're 100% affecting our daily lives. And that's what we have to get to the bottom of.

[Amy]

Yeah. And Kristen, the stuff that's happening overseas right now may seem far away, but it is already affecting us and it's going to affect us even more, you know, in terms of gas prices and every and the entire economy with what's going on in Iran.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah, we're already seeing it. Prices at the pump. I don't think anybody who puts gas in their car can deny that prices are going up. And that really hits home. That hits your budget. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck. So this is really meaningful and it's not going to be over anytime soon. Even if everything were to stop and things were to go back to normal, whatever that is, it's not going to be over. There's permanent destruction that is going to take a long time to recover from. Yeah. I'm really worried, Amy. I'm really worried about what happens next.

[Amy]

Well, and everybody wants things to stop. But the reality is it's just. It's not likely to. This latest ceasefire agreement, which just happened in the last 48 hours, might actually be gone by the time people listen to this. There's already signs that it's already gone. But I think it's important for us to start with something even more, shall I say, deep. Okay. Which is less than three days ago, the President of the United States tweeted out, communicated to the world that he was going to order the bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah.

[Amy]

He tweeted out, quote, that Iran's whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. And now we're learning that the President, you know, threatens the Pope. Okay.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah.

[Amy]

Threatening to do this is just something I never thought I would see a President of the United States do.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

He just keeps pushing the envelope and just keeps defying any sense of a norm or something that you would believe. This was Easter Sunday. Remember when he put that out on Truth Social? And I think none of us could believe it. And the language was just so wild. And then to hear for all of us to be thinking, are we about to really bomb Iran into obliteration? And then the Pope gets involved and pushes back and says, this is not right. And then the government goes after the Pope and says, we can take you down, too. I live in a very Catholic part of the country. I grew up in a Catholic tradition. People here are feeling restless because a lot of people have felt like MAGA and Catholicism go together. They've been told that. But now they're literally seeing Donald Trump at odds with. With the Pope, who is divine. And that is creating a lot of discomfort in populations that have been pretty faithful to Donald Trump up until now.

[Amy]

The President is unhinged. His words are immoral. If he acted to bomb innocent civilians, first of all, I'm not sure the military would do it, although civilian infrastructure is sort of a gray area. We would be committing war crimes no different than what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine. We have said for years to Vladimir Putin, you can't bomb these things that directly harm civilians. And yet that's exactly what our President is talking or talked about doing. And the other thing about this, Kristen, is most Republicans said nothing. Yeah, they said nothing. They're just silent. Happy Easter. You know, there's a congressman from Florida, Brian Mast, who's the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. So he kind of has a role here. He made no mention of the war this week on Tuesday, and instead posted on social media about the Hatching of the bald eagle. Of a bald eagle in Southern California.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Don't look at this, look over here at this shiny object.

[Amy]

I'm just like, we have a war going on. We have the President of the United States threatening to kill civilians, threatening the Pope. And you're the head of the House, Armed services or not Armed Services, Foreign affairs. And this is what you have to offer.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I live in a place where a bald eagle lives in my backyard, pretty much. So I get to watch it circle sometimes. And I do, I watch it and I think, why? What is happening to this world? You are so majestic and beautiful. And this government is falling apart and we are. It's the culture war, it's distractions, it's social media. While our president is. I don't even know what reality he lives in. But Republicans, as you said, Amy, just fall in line, don't push back. This is how we know it's a cult. There should be people with different opinions having lively debates about what's going on, because nobody has full control. Nobody has the idea of how to lead everything all the time. So there needs to be that tug of war, but that's not happening right now. And the Republicans are just laying down. And that is how we got into this situation, and that's how we continue to be in this situation. And until our leaders will stand up against this, we're going to continue down this pathway.

[Amy]

Yeah, let's talk about this ceasefire, because we're now in this two week ceasefire in Iran.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Is it?

[Amy]

What? What? Well, maybe, maybe, but I really have a lot of not problems with the ceasefire. Of course I want. We all want the ceasefire, but where are we at right now? We are focused on trying to get the Strait of Hormuz open that was open before we started this war. And if you look at the ceasefire, what have we gotten out of this?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I don't even know that it's a ceasefire because from the very beginning there was a misunderstanding about whether Lebanon was part of it or not. And Israel and the US seem to think. Not everybody else seems to think, yes. So this is a fundamental piece of what this ceasefire needs to be. And I don't know that we've resolved that issue and there have been continued attacks. So is there really a ceasefire or is that just something that people are talking about?

[Amy]

Yeah. And the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Still closed. The only ships that are moving are container ships that are Iranian, basically. I mean, they're the only ones. And as you said, you know, the strikes are still continuing. But it's almost unbelievable to me to watch the Secretary of War go up in front of the world in his briefings and say, we won this thing, and Donald Trump to say we won. They begged us for a ceasefire and where are we? This is now the worst strategic defeat as it stands at the moment in my lifetime. Because what did we get out of this war that we started? Yeah.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Why did we even start it? We still don't know that.

[Amy]

Did we get regime change? No, we didn't. We replaced the Ayatollah Khomeini with the Ayatollah Khomeini, his son, who's even more radical. Did we get nuclear program destruction? No, you cannot destroy a nuclear program militarily. It requires inspections. It requires diplomacy. You can't destroy knowledge. So we didn't destroy that. Did we get unconditional surrender? No. Did we stop Iran from funding or arming terrorist groups? No. Did we do the near destruction or destruction of their navy? Okay, yeah, sure. We destroyed their surface ships. I saw a map this morning of the Strait of Hormuz and how much. The irgc, the Iranian navy, still controls the Strait. They don't need the same warships that they can control it from the land. And they have underwater drones and they have speedboats and they have mines. Did we destroy some of their missile capacity? Sure. Not all of it. You know. And meanwhile, what do we lose here? Iran still has control over the Strait of Hormuz. Now, Kristen, Iran is profiting, wants to profit off the Strait of Hormuz. So they're going to charge for ships to go in there. We are going to start paying them now. And we've given them sanctions relief. And the United States standing and credibility in the world is our allies have left us. You know, the Chinese have gained here. The Russians got sanctions relief. NATO's fractured. We spent billions of dollars. Gas prices are up. I mean, I feel like the list is so big of all the shit we've lost

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

in this. America first, which has turned into America Alone.

[Amy]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

To see Pete Hegseth standing up there with his chest puffed out and his tight suit on, talking about this victory. This is what the Trump administration does, is they give you these big, bold statements and they tell you what they want you to believe, but the truth is something entirely different. And if you're watching what Iran is doing on social media, some of the Lego videos that they're sending over, the propaganda, the way that they're trolling us, it's pretty obvious that they are. They're up for the long fight. They are not gonna lose this. They understand that public sentiment across the globe is with them that we have not defined what our objectives are or why we're there in the first place or what will end this. I guess when Trump feels it in his bones, isn't that what he said?

[Amy]

Yeah, but he can't control it. He can't control an ending. He can say, I'm out, but that still leaves the Strait of Hormuz closed. Iran in arguably better shape. We still have a war going on, even though we've said, hey, cease fire. Guess what? Israel's not listening to us anymore. We have thousands of people killed. Hundreds of kids have been killed. US Troops have been killed and wounded. Bases have been struck and damaged. Our munitions are depleted. The President can go home tomorrow. But we still have. He still started a global energy crisis that is now turning into a global economic crisis of epic proportions that is costing American lives.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I think it's important to emphasize what you just said. We have lost US Troops unnecessarily. For what reason?

[Amy]

I don't know. Nobody knows. I don't know those of us in the national security world who have done exercises and war games on Iran or in the Middle east dealing with Iran. I did it for two decades in the United States military at every rank, from midshipmen all the way up to lieutenant colonel. I've done war games on Iran. Anybody who's anybody in the national security world knew on day one that first of all, there's no military solution for Iran's nuclear program. But we all knew that they would possibly be able to probably close the straight of Hormuz, which is why we didn't do this for the last 47 years. You know, when, when Pete Hegseth and all of these kiss asses around Donald Trump said, well, you know, President Trump's the, he's the most courageous to be able to take on, you know, something that all these other presidents, you know, could, couldn't. Didn't have the courage to take on. You know, they weren't as stupid.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

It's not courage. Yeah, you're right. And you know, all this stuff, I'm just a gal who lives in Wisconsin and wants to put gas in my car.

[Amy]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

And just doesn't know. But I think about a lot of my neighbors and, you know, there are a lot of people here who are mega or who are not paying attention and they see these headlines and they just think, well, I mean, he's the President. He's got these People around him who are advising him. So he must know. But it's scary. I don't think he does know.

[Amy]

And it is scary because, you know, I do think people remember Vietnam and Afghanistan, and people remember that, you know, the United States won every battle tactically in Vietnam and Afghanistan, still lost both of those wars.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah.

[Amy]

I just. It's unbelievable to me that we are still doing this kind of thing. But one of the questions I get asked, and I got asked this just yesterday, is about the Democratic Party. And there was a question to me about, well, are Democrats doing enough to condemn this war?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I think Democrats are doing what they can. But remember, Democrats are grossly in the minority, but we're seeing people like Chris Murphy out of Connecticut speaking up, boldly calling for the 25th Amendment. There is only so much Democrats can do in this environment. And I think also they have to go back to the places, to the people that they serve and help to inform and educate and listen, because people are looking for real leadership. So I think a lot of that work is being done back in the districts in their hometowns, because people are desperate for it right now.

[Amy]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

And, you know, I know we're gonna talk about Wisconsin later on, but we had a big election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, and the Democrats way overperformed. And I don't wanna get too overconfident here, but that to me tells me that if a county in Wisconsin that went by 20 points to Trump voted for a Democratic Supreme Court justice, I think the tides are turning.

[Amy]

I agree. And I also feel like exactly what you. Is that when people say to me, why aren't Democrats standing up, being more forceful on this war? I'm like, what do you want Democrats to do? They're not in power right now, I think. I mean, I've seen Democrats be very strong in condemnation of this war and saying from the very beginning. I certainly have. But there's no. We don't control the House or the Senate. Republicans, as we talked about, don't even want to talk about it. So there's just not that much Democrats can do other than what they've been doing. Mark Kelly, Chris Murphy trying to communicate to the American people the reality of what is happening there and not what Pete Hegseth or JD Vance or Donald Trump are saying. You know, and now we have J.D. vance and Jared Kushner and Steve Wycoff going to Pakistan. Apparently, these guys are our best negotiators. This is another thing we are going to have to fix in the future. We have basically Buffoons going out there and negotiating on behalf of the United States of America. I mean, we've gutted our diplomatic corps. I mean, has Steve Witkoff negotiated anything?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Jared Kushner, what are his qualifications? And this is the problem. Trump is surrounded by sick events, and nobody is willing to stand up to him. I think about Abraham Lincoln. Let's do a history lesson, since we're all about Kentucky. I think about Abraham Lincoln and what happened when he took the presidency and he created his Cabinet. He didn't create it out of people who were going to say yes to him all the time. There were people in his cabinet who he was pretty much enemies with beforehand, but he knew that he needed them there in order to have a strong government. And thank God we would have fallen apart during the Civil War if that hadn't been the case. But Trump has done exactly the opposite. It is just a bunch of his buddies who will say yes and lay down at every opportunity. We saw this with Kristi Noem. We saw this with Pam Bondi. Whatever the president's bidding is, they're willing to do it. And that means that there are no. There's no back and forth. There are no additional controls here. So the Democrats can scream from the rooftops, and I think they're doing everything they can, but they don't have the bully pulpit that Donald Trump has, and they don't have the power, the military, the dollars. I mean, you saw Trump's budget taking away wic, taking away food from babies so that we can bomb Iran, for what reason? None of this makes any sense in the real world.

[Amy]

You're 100% right on there. And I also, I get frustrated when people, you know, want to play Democrats for where we're at. You need to be calling your Republican member of Congress. They are the ones that. With the power right now. And too often we just, you know, oh, well, they're Republicans, so, you know, we're not going to. We're not going to even try. You have to. We have to keep. We have to keep the pressure on.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Did you happen to catch that clip of Ron Johnson, my senator from Wisconsin, saying, I just hope and pray that this is just bluster. Like, hope and pray. Is that all you guys can do? School shooting? Hope and pray President Trump is threatening to bomb a civilization into oblivion. Hope and pray. Like, you guys need to act, you need to fix this.

[Amy]

Yeah, they do have a branch that it's supposed to be at the same level as the executive branch, but yet they don't want to do Anything ever. It's like, why are you even there?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Hope and pray, Amy.

[Amy]

I know. Well, listen, we've got to talk about this. Another thing that probably should be on the front pages, but because the Iran war is on the front pages, it's something that's really, really important, and that is the fact that this president in this White House has done this massive federal spending cut proposal with their budget. They basically want to pay for this war by cutting every other domestic program. And these are programs that American taxpayers pay for to help us, to help America, to put America first. Okay? And the president, when he released his proposal, he put out a video of a rambling Trump speech, which was taken down because in the video, he basically said. He said. I said to the Office of Management Budget Director, Russell Vaught, he said, don't send any money for daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare anymore. You know, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they should go to the states. They shouldn't do it at the federal level. We shouldn't do daycare.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Well, we heard J.D. vance a while ago saying, just recruit your aunts and uncles and grandparents to take care of your kids. So problem solved. Next.

[Amy]

Yeah, I mean, he's. Carolyn Levitt is saying daycare is a scam. Okay, so Head Start programs, school lunches,

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

and we have data that shows that Head Start programs make a difference in the outcomes of the children who are involved there. We have data that shows that school lunch programs, when you feed kids, they can learn and, and they do better in life. There are reasons that we over time have invested in these foundational programs because they show rewards in human wellness down the road. So if we take this away now, we're not gonna see, like, we'll see people struggling, but the real results will be decades from now when Donald Trump is long dead and all of these people are in jail. But the American people deserve better, and they deserve better right now.

[Amy]

But did you see the list of all these programs either slashed or just completely removed? Did you, did you see? Were there any that stood out to you?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Oh, for me, I'm an OB GYN doctor. So wic, my patients use wic and their babies use WIC for formula. This is a substantial cut that literally takes food, fresh, healthy food out of the mouths of mothers and babies. So if you are the pro life people who are now threatening to take food away from moms and babies, those two things don't go together, period.

[Amy]

Yeah, there's these community service block grants that was Taken away completely. This is direct aid to people who live in poverty. And more than 10 million people depend on this every year. You know, my State alone receives $13 million in grants for fighting poverty to help people. That's gone. It's just gone.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I was just talking with a friend of mine who runs a nonprofit that's been up and running for over 20 years. They teach kids about reproductive health care. They do a bunch of other stuff in the community. She said it's been the hardest two years of her life because they've lost so much funding and they've had to try to figure out how to they can continue to help people. Those people are not going away. The needs are not going away, but the dollars are. And we can't do it without the dollars and the connections. So, you know, they've been struggling to continue to maintain, to be creative, to maintain those services. But looking at this budget, I don't know how we move forward with some of this stuff that people just like. Absolutely. We're going to be starving people, Amy. So starving people.

[Amy]

We're just hurting people. You know, we know energy prices are through the roof. They're cutting a program that prevents people from freezing to death in the winter or from dying of heat stroke in the summer. You know, it's the Trump's budget, just eliminates it entirely. Yeah, preschool grants. We talked about Head Start pre K home visiting programs so low income children aren't left behind even before they start school. And that's not even to talk about the cuts to the National Institute of Health.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Oh my gosh.

[Amy]

The research and the cdc.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yes, and those things are. We've got data that shows that those things are very popular with the American public. The American public understands that the United States is a leader when it comes to research and healthcare. But by continuing to cut these programs. And we've already had massive cuts. Don't forget, over a year ago we had major cuts. The big beautiful bill strangled these programs. To cut them further continues to kneecap us and take us out of the race. So we might as well just hand over the reins. Many of my colleagues have left. They've moved their research to Europe. They're not here in the US Anymore. We are quickly becoming not the leaders because of the Trump administration.

[Amy]

Yeah, well, states get roughly half their public health funding from the federal government through the CDC. They want to make a 32% cut, like massive cuts, $2.5 billion to the agency of the center for Disease Control. And that's the agency that responds to Outbreaks to health threats that flow funds public health infrastructure. We had Mitch McConnell up here in Northern Kentucky this past week touting the fact that Somehow he brought $12 billion or something of whatever investments that he's claiming that he brought in for this area just in this one piece of the budget that these guys are allowing this, this president to do because of this stupid war that he started. Or at least that's the, that's the reasoning that they're saying. Kentucky's share of the CDC budget of public health, we would lose an estimated 63 million.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Wow.

[Amy]

We're just hurting ourselves.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah, well, killing ourselves. Because think about it, you mentioned it. Responding to outbreaks. One of the most important things that the CDC does is when something starts to pop up, whether it's measles or bird flu or whatever is they send people to those areas and they contain those outbreaks. If we can contain those outbreaks, they don't spread. But some things like think about measles, it is much more contagious than Covid. And we are under vaccinated here in Wisconsin. We're one of the least vaccinated states in the country when it comes to little kids. We are just sitting here waiting to have a massive measles outbreak. And that means that kids will develop life threatening infections and they'll have permanent brain damage. And it is just, it's bad, it's dangerous and it's bad. But the CDC contains these things when they've got the ability to do it. But when we defund the CDC and we have outbreaks and we can't get kids vaccines and all of the other things that they're doing, that just means that we are going to be a sicker population. And if we're sicker now, we're going to be sicker for the future. So this is another one of those things where if you invest a little bit early on, you reap the rewards throughout the rest of your life. But we're not doing those investments and we're going to suffer as a population for decades to come.

[Amy]

Another big cuts are to K through 12 education. We already took a hit in this big ugly bill last year and now they want to cut it even more. We're talking almost a 60 or almost a 70% reduction in funding going through K, K through 12 education. And you know, what does that mean? That's, that's entire programs being wiped out, Support for homeless kids, for rural schools, for literacy. All of that stuff is just going to go away. And I, I'm Just like, how is this America First?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Well, it's people who are not vulnerable first. If you can scramble to the top of the pile, you're probably gonna be okay, but it's everybody else at the bottom of the pile who's gonna get left behind. And nobody wins. Nobody wins when we're not taking care of our most vulnerable people. And hey, I got news for all of us out there. At some point in our lives, we are all those vulnerable people. Whether it's an illness or something tragic happens in our family, something, something is going to happen to you. And you're not going to be powerful and rich and in a situation where

[Amy]

you can control it, it's just insane. The National Science foundation, the Small Business Agency, the Job Corps, Workforce Development, all of this stuff is getting, just obliterated. And now I read this morning, I don't know if you saw this, the National Forest Service, basically, they just, they got rid of it. I mean, I mean, we have forests here in our country, you know, the size of Texas when you combine all of it. And we're just not gonna, we're not gonna take care of them. We're not gonna have maintenance. I mean, it's just, it's crazy.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

They don't understand. I live actually in a district that is big into forestry, so northern Wisconsin is, It's a forest. I mean, this is what we do. We harvest. You have to maintain these forests. And even our congresspeople who represent here who are Republicans don't understand that it's not just about going into a forest and cutting down trees. You have to plant new trees. You have to make sure that these trees can grow, that you are growing the right kinds of trees. This is a science. So cutting again, cutting, this just undermines the future of this country and undermines in the month that is Earth Day, Amy. This is Earth Day month and we are continuing to destroy the Earth.

[Amy]

It's mind boggling.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Let me ask you a question. What is it like to be a Democrat in Kentucky? Because where I live, Democrat is toxic. And people just seem the title, the word Democrat is toxic. And people are frustrated by the Republicans, but they don't necessarily want to join the Democrats and they feel kind of lost in the middle. And we've got a pretty famous group of independent voters that swing back and forth. I mean, they elected, you know, fighting Bob La Follette, and then they elected Joe McCarthy of the Red Scare, and then they elected Bill Proxmire. Like it's, they are just traditionally and for a long time Looking for something better. But I feel like at this point in history, being a Democrat is pretty toxic in some populations. And I don't know. And I am a Democrat, but I used to vote for Republicans. I grew up here. Cause that was a cool thing to do. That was what my parents did. So, like, why not? So my question back to you is, how do we. There are two brands. You gotta be on one side or the other. That is just the way our system is set up. So how do we reclaim that as Democrats and help people understand that we are on their side? We want low gas prices. We want an environment with fresh air and water that is sustainable for the future. We want an economy that works for people where you can get a job and put in a good day's work and still get healthcare and have good schools for your kids. We all want those things. The Republicans are unabashedly taking those away from us. Democrats are doing everything we can to hold onto it. I just don't think we're good at getting the message. Message out to people. They're very effective at the messaging and we are not.

[Amy]

Yeah, you're right about that. You know, I'm not sure that I know the secret sauce. I keep going back to truth.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah.

[Amy]

And I keep going back to being an adult and speaking the truth.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yes.

[Amy]

And getting into a position where you can just say to people, I'm a public servant. I'm going to listen and we're going to do what is right for Kentucky. And it doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or Republican. But, you know, for example, with the forest, we have forests, national forests in Kentucky. And I know that one of the issues that they have is that they don't always have enough personnel to patrol the forest. So that, you know, we have people who may go into those areas and who shouldn't be in those areas and, you know, start doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah.

[Amy]

And the communities that surround these areas want that. They don't want just random people to go in there and start meth labs.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Right.

[Amy]

Okay. And they also want those forests for tourism. You know, we do a lot of tourism in Kentucky because so beautiful there. And the communities want that. All right. That brings in revenue. It brings in, you know, rafting companies and outdoor companies and adventure and that. People love that. But not if it's not taken care of.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Right.

[Amy]

And it is a public good. This is something that we as a public can do. And that's why government is involved and not. We don't sell it off to the private sector. We do this as a government. And I just. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, but obviously I'm a Democrat, I feel like we just need people in government again to just be reasonable.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yes. And it's grassroots. I think it goes back to your neighborhoods and your communities. If you are a small town and on the edge of a forest and you want your forest to be healthy and vibrant because you recognize that it is part of your economy and it is part of your history and your tradition and your culture. So you gotta literally grow your community the way that you grow your forest. And I think that's where we need to get back as Democrats, as leaders, as community members to start building again and helping people understand what, what this means and how we can move forward together in our schools and our businesses and all of the other places. But this is the struggle because people are also hearing these big messages up here from Donald Trump and the national Republicans and there's that giant divide between what's happening in their own communities and what is happening in Washington D.C. yeah,

[Amy]

the Republicans are really good at making stuff up, making up a boogeyman, getting everybody all revved up for something that just doesn't really matter for 99.99% of the population.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Totally.

[Amy]

But they're very good at it. But hey, on Tuesday, voters in your state decisively elected left leaning Chris Taylor to an open seat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Right?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yes, we sure did. And I'm so excited. I've known Chris Taylor for decades. She was involved with Planned Parenthood back in the, she was a Democrat in the state legislature. She's worked on the budget. She is so smart and so educated. And then she went and served as a judge in Wisconsin. And now she is our new Supreme Court justice. We have the most female Supreme Courts in the country. There's only one guy on our Supreme Court, which is amazing because we've only ever elected two women federally to serve in Washington D.C. but our Supreme Court is on fire. And, and that is amazing. You might remember last year there was a big Supreme Court election. We spent over $100 million. Elon Musk got involved. It was crazy. We elected Susan Crawford then and that actually maintained the balance of the court. The year before that, we flipped the balance of the court with Janet Protozewicz. That was the most expensive Supreme Court election in history at $50 million. There has been a lot of investment and attention on Wisconsin Supreme Court. But think about it. These are 10 year terms. So Wisconsinites are looking at the future. And we now know that we are gonna have a Supreme Court that works for the people until at least 2030. There's another seat up next year as well. Another Republican leaning judge is gonna be retiring. So this is huge. The court is secure and we're expecting more challenges to democracy, more voting issues, more reproductive rights issues. Lots coming up on the docket. It's hopefully, I mean, our Constitution's pretty clear, so hopefully we are going to have a government that works for the people. But this is just like one piece of it. We also elected a Democratic mayor in Waukesha, and that might seem like nothing, but in Wisconsin, we've got these counties, the wow counties, and they tend to be very red, and they also tend to be a little bit of a canary and a coal. Coal mine. So to elect a Democrat in Waukesha, that's one of the W's, is really a big deal. And then if I might dip into the culture war a little bit up here in Green Bay, where I live, we elected an incredible trans woman to serve on the Brown County Board of Supervisors. And it has nothing to do with her gender. It has everything to do with. She's a Green Bay city attorney. She has a vision for the future of the county and of the city. She literally beat the culture war in her own backyard because she's such a solid human being with such a commitment to community. And to me, that is the biggest barometer because Green Bay is known for the packers, but not known for being a liberal bastion. So we pushed all of that ugliness back and elected the right person for the right reason. I think that's what we're going to do across the country in November.

[Amy]

That's great. And I love how you frame that. Picking the right person for the right reason, who stands for the right things, who's qualified. And take all that other stuff aside, I feel like I go all the way back to my military experience, and that's all I've ever wanted. And I just want to get back to that in our country. Maybe we were never there, but get to that point in our country.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Yeah, I think that's been one of the biggest challenges, as I can't imagine what you've seen throughout your career. I can tell you, as a woman in medicine, my class, my medical school class was the first class that was more women than men in the history of our medical school. And this was over two decades ago. I think there have been some significant changes that have happened. I think that DEI and I know that it is not cool to say dei, but I think that the meaning behind DEI is giving people who need a little boost, who have that extra oomph, making sure that the glass ceiling isn't arbitrary is so important, and we're starting to see some of those benefits. So, yeah, DEI isn't cool anymore, and we shouldn't say that. But we definitely need to keep in mind that there are women and people from untraditional backgrounds, untraditional races, untraditional cultures who need to be at the table. And that does. It doesn't make things worse for the general population. It enriches us as America. This whole country was founded on that. So the more we can do that, the more we can bring our heads together and work toward the common good, the better we're all going to be.

[Amy]

Yep. Yeah, I totally agree. And then, you know, Dems didn't have as successful a night in Georgia in Marjorie Taylor Greene's district, but that was a super red district. And even then, the Democrat Sean Harris there did perform really well. And so I feel like, you know, we're seeing massive shifts even in deep red areas.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

But let's not get overconfident, because it's the spring, and we know that there will be more turnout in November. But fortunately, a lot of these changes that Trump is making, that the Trump regime is making, will continue to have a negative impact for most voters as time goes on. So the prices at the pump are not going to go down. The prices in the grocery store are not going to go down. And we know that the economy is always that driving force during election time.

[Amy]

Well, I want to get your. Your quick take on a few things. First one is Pam Bondi leaving. And, I mean, I don't. I don't have much to say about that. I know it's been in the news a lot. I never thought she was good to begin with. I think she's being replaced by somebody who's not good.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

So, okay, yeah, it's just a bunch of sycophants.

[Amy]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

But it just tells you like women and MEGA are. They think that they're part of the boys club. They're not. You're just, you know, serve me. And when you haven't served me enough, boom, to the side.

[Amy]

Yeah. This story, though, I thought was really important for people to know about. We've had ICE agents now detain the newlywed spouse of a soldier about ready to deploy. And I think there's stories like this. We've been seeing them for the past year. Almost year and a half now. But a lot of times these stories don't get reported because, frankly, the people involved, they don't want their names out there. They don't want their story to be told. But in this case, Annie Ramos, who's 22 years old, she's an undocumented immigrant who arrived into the United States as a Todd. Wow. Was taken into custody by ICE at Fort Polk, that's in Louisiana, on April 2nd. And she was told that she had a final deportation order. So she was told she was going to have to be deported. And that order that they're tracing back to April 2005, she was 22 months old. Okay. When she came here. And she is married to an active duty United States army soldier, Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank. He enlisted more than five years ago. He's scheduled to deploy at the end of this month. And we're now taking away the spouses of our soldiers. What are we doing?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Why, when this whole effort first started, it was sold to the American public as, these are the bad people, the criminals. They're terrible. You don't want them around. And now it's just like random people off the street. In the Obama administration, she would have been a sympathetic character. This is daca. She doesn't know anything else. She was literally a toddler. This is her country as much as it is yours and mine. It doesn't make any sense at all. But I can tell you that I have a very close relationship with Minneapolis. I went to college there. I have many, many friends there. And to see the pushback and to. Alex Preddy went to high school in Green Bay, where I live. To see people who are standing up for our neighbors and our friends is really heartening. It's not over. We've got to continue telling these stories. This is just. It's unlawful, obviously, and it's deplorable for us to be treating our neighbors like this. And then you look at the economic impact. So many of these people who are working in. We've got a lot of meatpacking up here who are working in these industries where my kids aren't going to work these hard jobs, but they need to get done. And they are scrambling to find people to work on these farms and meatpacking and in these other places because people don't want to leave their houses. They're afraid they're getting deported. This is not. There is nothing good about this. And it's all entirely fueled by racism.

[Amy]

This military spouse was not a violent criminal. No, she was taken from A military base where she lived with her husband. She's a military spouse.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I mean, military, military. He is serving our country.

[Amy]

Don't get me started. There's another story that just came out, which you may or may not have read, that dropped, I think, this morning or last night, where the White House ballroom that they're constructing, apparently they're using all foreign steal.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Of course. I can't get.

[Amy]

You can't get more. I mean, we laugh, but it's like, are you kidding me? Amy?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Trump voted by mail and then days later issued an executive order so that people would not be able to vote by mail. That is how this administration works. They are so privileged and so far above any of the rest of us.

[Amy]

I mean, it's the most Trumpy and Trumpy thing to do. Tear down the White House. Start build a. Build a golden ballroom and use a bunch of foreign materials to do it. That's America first.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

America first. And do it well. And do it without the proper permissions to do it. And now it's stuck. So now we have a broken White House that's stuck in the courts that may not get rebuilt during the Trump administration. And who's going to end up having to pay for this? You know, the American taxpayers, of course.

[Amy]

This was.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I would rather send my kids to college. You know, I would rather make sure that my friends who are struggling to eat have food. This is wild. But this is why we have to continue to have these conversations, why we have to keep telling these stories, even when it's hard, like this American service member and his wife. We've got to tell our stories because they are the things that penetrate people's hearts and they get past these ugly headlines and they help people understand how hard Donald Trump and his regime are making it for regular Americans.

[Amy]

It's just wrong. It's just flat out wrong. But I wanted to end today's show on fsm.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Don't end today's show.

[Amy]

I know. We have to. We have to. We gotta get back to work. I know it's not often that the news sounds like something from Star Trek, but, you know, what we've been seeing in the last week is really freaking cool. The Artemis crew and Journey and Mission. They have literally gone further from Earth than any human has ever gone. Its mission didn't go to the moon. It went sort of beyond it, orbited around it. I want to get your take, but there are a couple pictures that stand out. I've been seeing these pictures online, which are absolutely gorgeous, of what the moon Looks like what the Earth looks like, how the crew is dealing with their whole journey. The one picture that I loved was when they're headed out to the moon, this jar of Nutella rises. Did you see this surround the astronauts? And, you know, I just think that's, like, the best advertisement for the cause. My kids love that. And then I'm like, hey, George, look at this Nutella in space. And he's looking at it like, what?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

You know, and I just brush it away like, oh, the Nutella's floating around again.

[Amy]

They. They live in that world. But the other picture that I loved, they took a photo of the landing site from 1969. You can still see the equipment that was left on the moon.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Wow.

[Amy]

And they have a photo of it from however many miles up they are above. I just think that is so interesting to me. Being a history buff and then taking a picture of that site these many years later is really cool.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Not just a history buff, but all of your background. Was there ever a little part of you that thought, oh, maybe I could be an astronaut. I fly things well.

[Amy]

I have friends who are astronauts, but they are much smarter than me. It is.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I can't imagine. Like, I think about Mark Kelly and I think about, you know, the courage that it takes to do the work that. That they're doing and the risk that they take. Dark side of the Moon. I think of Pink Floyd, but, I mean, you are out of contact for 40 minutes, I think. What did that feel like? To be literally further from the planet than anybody has ever been and have no way to contact? And if they disappear, they just disappear.

[Amy]

Scary, scary stuff. Scary stuff, but really, really cool. And they've taken enormous. People haven't seen the pictures. Go out there and check them out because they're incredible pictures that have never been taken before by humans that far away. It's really, really cool. So cheers to the brave astronauts who have gone boldly where no one has gone before. And this has been a great show.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

I like hanging out with you. Let's do this more often.

[Amy]

Yeah, we should. We should. It's really great to have you back on Truth in the Barrel. And we have a lot more to talk about in the future. So everybody go out there and make sure you're liking all of our platforms. We're on YouTube. We're on. Gosh, we're even on Truth Social. So go out. Yeah, I know, I know.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

And ring the bell so that you know when there's a new episode.

[Amy]

That's. That's good. See how do you do that?

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

You can ring my bell. Come on, ring my bell. Amy, you got this, right?

[Amy]

I'm not very good at this.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

Next week, karaoke.

[Amy]

When I start singing, my kids all stop singing. And they look at me and they're like, mom, stop.

[Dr. Kristin Lierly]

We'll work on it.

[Amy]

Well, thanks again for being on the show. And until next week, everyone, thanks for listening to Truth in the Barrel.