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Aug. 28, 2024 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
50:51
Congressman Michael Cloud (R-TX) joins Mike Adams in studio to discuss RESTORING AMERICA...
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Welcome to today's in-studio interview here on Brighteon.com.
I'm Mike Adams, the founder of Brighteon, and today we are really honored to be joined by our Congressman, Congressman Michael Cloud, in-studio here in Central Texas.
Welcome, Congressman Cloud. It's an honor, sir.
Thank you. Great to be here.
Well, thank you for coming in this great time right now for America, and I think that there's so much placed upon your shoulders right now.
Well, yeah, all of our shoulders, really.
For sure. Yeah, it's such a pivotal moment in our country.
And a lot of times I'll point to, you know, a generation ago, a couple generations ago, the difference between the right and the left was we wanted the same thing for our communities, for our families.
We all believed in America, this fundamental inalienable rights.
And the political conversation between the right and left was really, what's the role of government in getting to that shared space?
Right. And that's just not where we are as a country anymore.
You know, when I'm on the Hill, sometimes you hear people talk about, remember the good old days of Reagan and Tip O'Neill?
Maybe that would be great, but that's just not where we are right now.
We're in between a party between the Republican Party who's espousing these constitutional principles, maybe imperfectly, but generally aligned.
And then you have the left who's embracing Marxists and communism and authoritarianism and doing everything they can to push that From censorship to, you know, rogue agencies to, I mean, just lots of nefarious action to force that on the American people.
And that's the decision we have coming into this November.
Clearly. And what do you hear from your constituents here in Central Texas when they become aware of things like Kamala promoting government price controls on groceries?
Oh, yeah. I think one headline said, you know, if you're accused of being a communist, maybe don't make your next proposal to have price control.
Like right out of communism 101?
Right. Yeah. But this is where it's the typical first you create a problem, then you use government to create the problem, and then you use government to solve the problem.
And here we see massive government spending that led to inflation.
And, of course, what are they going to come in?
Well, we could control government spending.
That might be one solution. Yeah.
But no, we'll use the price controls instead, you know, and use the government to solve.
It reminds me of Reagan's 11 words, you know, I'm from the government, I'm here to help.
Right, right. After trust but verify, you know.
Right. Well, let me ask you this.
We both love Texas deeply.
And with food prices sky high, and even Kamala and Biden, if he's still active, admit that food prices are very high.
But I would argue, and I'd like your input on this, that the best way to bring food prices down is to have more domestic energy production.
I mean, farming uses fuels, transportation uses fuels, Texas has abundant energy, but we're prohibited from tapping into this natural resource that we have as a nation.
American domestic produced energy is one of the biggest issues that connects to so many different issues.
Our former Secretary of State, I remember being at a lunch with him and he said, Virtually every conversation we have with any other country comes back to or starts with energy and the need for it.
And it's been demonized, which is kind of odd because people using energy is a good thing.
That's people coming out of poverty.
In some cultures, that's, hey, we're heating our homes for the first time and we have food and we're able to prepare that.
But as you mentioned, the fertilizers, the production equipment, the oil that keeps the gears moving, I mean, in all these machines that produce and harvest food.
And the thing is, if you look at the American ag space, again, we're not doing it perfectly.
Yes, we're going to continue with every generation to try to get better.
But continually, our outputs have been higher and our inputs have gone down.
And so when it comes to the way we're using energy, we produce energy cleaner, more efficiently, more effectively, more responsibly than the rest of the world.
That's right. What we can do to accomplish what is stated to be all these, quote, green objectives is to have more American energy take up the slice of the pie.
And we're entering in a world now where...
Where you look at AI, for example.
Very energy intensive.
Yeah, extremely energy intensive.
It's not even just a doubling.
It's an exponential demand that we're going to be looking at.
That's right. We're going to need all the energy that we can produce.
Well, didn't Microsoft, aren't they looking at buying a nuclear power plant, I think?
I heard that Google had...
Or Amazon? I forgot who it was. A number of these companies now, they're going to the energy companies and they're trying to buy it before it even gets to the meter.
That's right. We'll just buy your energy wholesale, so to speak, which is going to be another challenge to begin to look at.
If we don't step up and begin to produce more energy, it's going to be big tech versus your neighborhood when it comes to energy.
And so the last thing we should be now is putting a stranglehold on American energy.
So on top of that, I mean, you're exactly right.
AI demand for GPUs, energy intensive systems.
But that's on top of also this federal push to outlaw combustion engines over time through bizarre EPA regulations and bring in EVs and EV mandates of sales from the dealers.
But, Congressman, we don't have a power grid infrastructure.
We don't have enough copper in the wires to handle all this load of EVs on the system.
Oh, exactly. Yeah, and I was in a hearing once and someone said, we need to stop doing fossil fuels right now for two reasons.
One, it's a finite supply.
And two, you know...
Those aren't, you know, it's hard work and labor intensive.
And I'm thinking, you know, starting pay is pretty good.
You could be a family on that in the oil industry.
You know, I realize a lot of people in D.C. have an opposition to hard work, but a lot of people are willing to work hard to support their families.
And two, I mean, if we're going to talk about finite supply, let's talk about rare earth minerals, which China controls 80, 90 percent of right now.
And they're cutting off antimony from our military.
Yeah. So, you know, we need to be looking at the...
You know, our founders understood...
They had the approach that this land is blessed with abundance.
Yes. And we should use it and use it for good.
We should be as responsible as we can with it.
We should be good stewards of it.
We all want clean air and water.
We've learned a lot since the birth of the industrial age, of course.
But... The answer is not to run back into the forest.
And that would be devastating for humanity.
To put that kind of onus on these developing countries as well would be morally wrong.
So we should not be shy about producing American energy.
And it also ends up being a great supply for our friends across the world.
Well, right, right.
I mean, under Trump, we were a net exporter of energy.
And also look at what's happened with Germany when they lost the Nord Stream supply of natural gas.
They've suffered, by some estimates, about a 40% deindustrialization, which is absolutely devastating for Germany.
But before you answer that, let me give your website out here for our audience.
The website, folks, is cloud4congress.com.
It's spelled out F-O-R, cloud4congress.
Just like it sounds, Representative Michael Cloud, cloud4congress.com.
And what's your district number in Texas?
Texas 27th. 27th.
Okay, great. In Central Texas.
And there's a donate button right there on the top right of the website if you want to donate and help support Congressman Cloud's campaign.
not just to keep Texas strong, but to hold the line to keep America strong and American values.
You say on your website, freedom, faith, and family.
Can you share with us a little bit about your background?
Because you're a man of faith.
These aren't just empty words.
Well, yeah.
And, you know, I was a church-born and bred kid.
I ended up going to Oral Roberts University to study media, to get a degree.
Went from there to serve at a church.
did that for many, many years.
Loved what we were doing. You're helping people every day, but began to look at what we were doing to help people.
You appreciate that in the individual aspect, but then you still saw a country in decline, and my heart began to really go toward that, and what could I do to be involved, which I thought meant just volunteer locally, and that's what I started doing.
Yes. Volunteering locally, didn't plan a run out of it for certain.
Ended up becoming county chair where we were working, again, a volunteer position, helping people.
You're helping make sure the primary election happens, helping turn out the vote, those kind of things.
Eventually people came and said, hey, maybe you should run for office, to which you're like, I don't know, that seems like an other people's thing.
This wasn't your long-term original plan.
I mean, I grew up in a family that...
My dad built nuclear attack submarines for part of my growing up.
As most people in my generation, both my grandfathers fought in the wars.
So you had a healthy respect for our country.
Throughout my upbringing, I don't remember a political sign ever being in my yard.
So it wasn't like a heavy political...
Love our country, but how and go?
I remember several months into the campaign, somebody asked me, who's your finance director?
And I was like, finance director?
Tell me more about this.
What was... It was so grassroots.
I had no idea what we were doing.
But I remember our wife and I praying about that run initially and really felt like we were supposed to.
And there were a number of little things along the way.
But ultimately, we came to the Scripture in Joshua 1, where God looks at Joshua and He says, Be strong and courageous.
You get a couple verses later, he says, be strong and courageous.
You get to verse 9 and 10, he says, have not I commanded you to be strong and courageous.
It's like, this is a season for us as Americans, really.
And I think it's true for everybody in whatever your circle of influence is.
It's not the time to sit on your hands and just be polite because you don't want to interrupt the nice, warm, fuzzy feeling that's in the room or something.
And that doesn't mean we have to be ugly about it, but we've got to be firm about these principles because they matter.
We've got to protect kids that are, you know, in schools.
And daughters that are being mutilated and all the craziness that we see coming.
Absolutely. Frankly, the evil coming out of the left.
We've got to be bold and stand to that.
So it's really a time for all of us to be courageous.
And I would add to that, you talk about your upbringing and...
In those days, I think most Americans did have shared values.
They wanted America to do well.
They honored the flag, right?
And then today, I think many Americans are just astonished to see Democrats voting against election integrity laws at the federal level.
It's like, wait a second. Here's a law, I think, like the Save Act, for example.
Here's a law that says only Americans should be allowed to vote in federal elections.
It should be a no-brainer. And to show you the disconnect between D.C. and the swamp and the American people, this is not a partisan issue among Americans.
It shouldn't be. We're good to go.
And yet, we see virtually every Democrat in the House vote against it, you know, and such a pushback against...
Right now, we have a number of us who are trying to tie any sort of funding that would...
Because we have a September 30th deadline coming up.
Every September 30th, Congress is shocked that September 30th is here, and we're trying to figure out how to fund the government.
Like, oh my gosh, who knew?!
Very predictable. I feel like I'm having the same conversations I had last year.
But anyway, we're coming to this deadline.
And so we said, you know, any sort of funding needs to have this attached to it.
And it'll be a real tell where people in government stand right now, people in Congress.
Well, I absolutely support that attachment, by the way.
But it's going to be politically difficult for certain people.
But let me ask you for more comments on this.
We're over $35 trillion in terms of the federal debt.
Yeah. And on top of that, the unfunded liabilities that the federal government owes the American people are well over, I believe now, $220 trillion, which is an unfathomable number.
It's never going to get paid.
The obligations the federal government has made to people who have worked, in some cases pensions of federal workers or lots of people who worked, I mean, where does this end up?
Yeah, there's two ways it can go.
One is we race off the fiscal cliff and see the demise of our currency and we lose our world's standing financially or we abruptly change course.
And, you know, my conversations with fellow Republicans up there has been like when the left's in charge, they're racing toward this fiscal cliff.
We get in charge and we jog toward the same cliff and we call that progress.
A little bit slower.
Yeah. I've seen that.
We've lengthened it just a couple years.
And I get the people say, well, you can't get a touchdown with every play.
I get that. But we've got to at least turn the corner and be walking in the right direction.
And for me, that's been the line when we look at policy.
There's no bill that's going to be perfect.
But are we at least walking in the right direction at this point?
Then you build momentum and hopefully finally we can get to sprint.
We've got, you know, just over the couple years of COVID, the federal government grew something like 30 to 40%.
And it's not like we had this streamlined fighting trim machine of a government before them.
Like, this is way bloated.
This is way too big. And it grew that.
And then getting us struggling to get the votes to get back to pre-COVID spending has been a super, super challenge.
We had an amendment. I think we're good to go.
The only things we can do as Congress is we can investigate or we can cut funding.
And until we are willing to cut the funding, the action is not going to change.
And so we had an amendment that basically said it wasn't even like we're going to cut your department or we're going to cut it by 25 percent.
It was simply we're not going to pay you more next year than we are this year.
That was the amendment. And even that met resistance.
And even that, we couldn't get the Republican votes to pass it.
And so that's where we are right now, where we've got to have people who are willing.
And I will say, I believe the critical mass is growing.
We just haven't reached that tipping point yet of people who are there for the right reasons, who are willing to, you know, this isn't about me.
It's not my political career.
This is about saving our country for the next generation.
Absolutely. And being willing to take...
I would say the tough votes.
To me, that wasn't even a tough vote.
That's an easy sell. When you go back home to the people, it's like, you're not making any more this year.
Inflation has hit you, and so the idea that we're going to hold an agency that's had some questionable activity to current spending levels should be an easy sell.
Well, I'm going to call you, I hope you're okay with it.
I'm going to call you the reluctant congressman.
Like Jeremiah was the weeping prophet for his people.
You're not quite weeping level yet for America.
Perhaps you are privately. I don't know.
I don't mean to assign that to you.
But you're kind of the reluctant congressman.
This wasn't a political ambition.
You don't want to use...
A position in Washington for personal gain, greed, wealth, power, but rather you were brought into this because this is the best way to help your local constituents in Texas.
At least that's the impression that I'm getting.
Funny you mention that. When I was running for the first time, people would always say, why do you want to go to D.C.? And I'd always answer, I don't want to go, I'm willing to go.
Right, right, I'm willing to, yeah.
I'm willing to. You know, I... We just sent our oldest son off to college.
At the time, all three kids were home.
My favorite part of the day was walking them to school a block away before I went off to work.
And I don't say that to say woe is me because there's veterans and our servicemen and women who pay a higher price.
They're sleeping on dirt and cots and under...
For us, when we're under fire, it's usually some mean words, you know?
Right, right. But it is very much a swampy type of environment there.
All that to say, it wasn't like, hey, this is going to be fun, you know?
I remember specifically, again, when we were praying through that decision, my wife said, this was the exact wording, oddly enough, I have a piece about it, was the way she said it.
Because she's not thinking, like, this is going to be fun.
It's like, I'm home alone, you know, with three kids trying to figure out how to get everybody to school, and they're all in extracurricular activities now, and everything that my wonderful wife does.
But it must really, you know, dominate...
How do you balance personal life with being a congressman?
Because... You know, you have so many obligations, right?
Everybody wants your time.
You also have to raise a certain amount of funds to be viable for any election.
And you've got to show up and vote.
You've got to show up and debate and all these things.
I mean, how do you find balance in that?
Honestly, a big part of it, I feel like God's grace has been there for us.
We understood that it was going to be a family calling.
I remember sitting down, having that conversation with my kids for a couple hours.
Hey, some people asked Daddy to run.
My son was 10 years old at the time.
He goes, state or federal? That was his response.
My kids get the mission.
They understand the stakes that we're in right now and that we're serving for something bigger than ourselves.
That doesn't mean it's not hard at times, but again, there's people who've paid a far higher price and I just count it an honor to be able to serve and To hopefully be able to make a difference in this time.
When you say an honor to serve, that's genuine.
I hear that in your heart.
And then for some politicians, when they say, oh, we want to serve like a Nancy Pelosi, it's like, that's not really what you mean.
At least that's not what's coming across when you say you want to serve.
But I feel like what you're doing is actually service and your constituents here trust you.
They entrust in you to represent the interests of Central Texas.
Take it to Washington. Fight the demons there if necessary.
Yeah. And there are.
No doubt. And help Texas succeed.
Do you feel like...
I mean, I know you have a lot of support in the county that you represent, the multiple counties, the district.
How does it feel like going to Washington, D.C. and bringing Texas values there?
What's that like? Yeah, it's...
You know, I knew when I was going to D.C. it would be a new thing I had to figure out.
One of the things, if you're coming from the private sector, that is extremely frustrating is you're used to a certain ROI on your effort.
And when you get to D.C., it takes so much more effort to move the needle at all.
morning, remember why you're there, what you're fighting for, and keep going at it.
I mean, the option is to retreat, which isn't an option.
What we're fighting for is too important.
The future of our country is too great.
This amazing experiment and miracle in self-governance that is America is worth preserving.
And so, you know, there's really not another option when it comes to that kind of thing.
And so you just keep going at it.
Isn't it also amazing to think about the founding fathers and the things they put in place for our nation, you know, rooted in principles of Christianity and faith, how much that protects us even to this day.
I mean, think about the First Amendment.
Right now, the founder of Telegram was just arrested in Paris.
And in the UK, you can be arrested for tweeting something mean about an illegal immigrant.
And they'll throw you in jail, but they'll let violent criminals onto the streets to make room for you to go to jail.
Like, whoa, the First Amendment is so important.
Yeah. It is important.
And for our culture, you know, people will ask me, like, what's the biggest issue?
And there's not a one biggest issue.
But as a cult, first of all, we have to realize that the issues we're facing with as a nation certainly have a DC component to fixing it.
And I certainly take that extremely seriously.
But the fact that we have a culture that's walked away from absolute truth is not...
completely a dc issue the dc you know people think that politics is a leading indicator and sometimes it is but a lot of times it's the trailing indicator of culture and this is where we have to get back to an understanding as a culture of morality and absolute truth and before we might disagree on what truth is but we believe there was a truth worth finding and therefore our conversation was about trying to find truth where when truth becomes malleable and then you end up fighting these semantic battles over what you say versus the actual
You have this whole perverted sense of justice.
Yes. Yes. And some of that is so perverted.
You mentioned the mutilation of children.
And we've seen many states, even Texas, I believe, has passed state laws to prohibit the surgical mutilations of children.
And then what we tend to see, or Texas passing laws or taking action to defend the border.
And then we see the DOJ come in and fight against Texas, defending its own border.
That's... Bizarre.
It's so beyond understanding.
And then Kamala this week is suddenly for border security.
She's good at stealing ideas from Trump.
Right, right. If she sees a bump in the polls or something like that, oh, well, we're for that, too.
Right, right. She's not going to build a wall either.
On day four years and one, we're going to start working on...
But this is what happens when truth isn't important to you.
It's what you need it to be in the moment to keep in control and maintain power.
And it's evil.
There's nothing righteous about it.
And as Americans, we've got to realize that that's...
The battle that we're in right now.
This isn't just a wrestling over my nuanced policy fix versus your nuanced policy fix.
This is really about the heart and soul of what it means to be free people.
And a lot of those principles come straight from biblical values.
And so it's important that we understand and embrace that.
Well, amen to that. Let me give out your website again so we can ask for additional support for you.
So for all of you watching, if you want to help Congressman Cloud stay in office and continue to be, as I call you, the reluctant congressman, I hope you're not offended by that.
I'm just saying you're authentic.
His website is cloudforcongress.com and there you can read about him and his background.
You can join his email newsletter there.
Sign up, especially if you're in Central Texas.
But you can donate.
I mean, people can donate from any state as long as they're an American citizen, correct?
Be an American citizen, please.
We want to do this correctly.
Yes. But anybody can donate if they're an American.
Yes. Okay. So there's the donate button there, folks.
And every donation counts.
And so let me ask you about...
Trump and RFK Jr., you know, big, big historic move, and Tulsi Gabbard now endorsing Trump.
So Trump, RFK, and Tulsi Gabbard, all former Democrats.
Right? Well, again, Reagan was once asked in a press conference, you know, something was going on in the country, and they asked him, do you take any responsibility for this?
And he said, yes, I do, because I, too, was once a Democrat.
Right. So, it's good to see them coming over.
And I talked to another individual today, an independent historically, who's excitedly supporting Trump.
But I think it goes back to what we initially started this conversation with.
The conversation isn't this nuanced policy difference anymore.
And people understanding we can have disagreement over the peripheral issues, but these core values that the Democratic Party right now has completely left...
Whether or not people have freedom, whether or not your own intelligence agency should be spying on you and the like.
And the craziness we've seen coming from our federal agencies right now, we've got to get back to these core values.
We don't want a censorship state.
We don't want a command-control economy from the government.
We don't want our law enforcement federalized and And politicized.
We want freedom. We want to be able, you know, and that's the choice that comes down in November.
There'll be some peripheral issues that you're not going to agree with.
That's okay. You're not supposed to.
You know, we're supposed to have that variety.
But what you're seeing, I think, with President Trump is he gets that.
It's getting back to what are the core American values.
And you see people like RFK and you see people like Tulsi saying, We agree on the core issues of what it means to be an American, the fact that we're a net positive for the world and history, and then we can have those honest discussions over what's different, but let's work toward what we agree on, and that is a far cry from what we see coming out of Kamala and the left.
Well, absolutely. And I would add that I think that RFK Jr., I think he makes the Trump ticket so much stronger because where Trump was weak, in my opinion, was on areas of food contamination or pharmaceutical companies or maybe the overprescription of psychiatric medications on children.
And that, you know, RFK Jr., he is a champion in that area, right?
So he adds strength to the Trump ticket.
But where I personally, where I disagree with RFK, is on energy, right?
Because he's very much opposed to coal and fossil fuels.
But that's okay. You don't put him in the fossil fuel seat.
You know what I'm saying? Right, right.
He's not your energy secretary.
He's not your energy secretary.
No. You put people where they have strength and then you build a stronger coalition.
And to be honest, isn't that where we want to get as America?
Get back to that to where it's like, well, we can agree on these and work on these different kind of things to where so far it's been if I disagree with you, you're evil.
And it's created this bipolar culture that's just...
Anyway, it's no fun. There's been quite a lot of healing.
I mean, between the RFK supporters and the MAGA, and then the RFK supporters are now saying, Maha, make America healthy again.
Oh, yeah. Right? So it's MAGA and Maha together.
Yeah, and if you watch the speech, it was neat to see him talk about that.
And of course, you know, I've been in the hearings with...
Fauci, which isn't, you know, kind of subset of that FDA culture and what's going on there and all the nefarious action that's happening.
Yeah, I mean, it's just crazy.
Again, we talk about government creating a problem and then trying to fix it again.
It's like, oh, let's help get you sick first and then let's, you know, and the consolidation that's happening right now in our ag industry and And healthcare industries is very troubling.
And to get that to be free again, where you have a doctor-patient relationship, to where, you know, we were talking about people being able to grow food in their backyard and give it to your neighbors, sell it to your neighbors, this kind of thing.
I mean, the kind of clampdown that's come down on these things, meanwhile you have big industry getting away with stuff that's not all so great and healthy, is Well, absolutely.
I mean, and let me state on behalf of my audience, I know would support this, we are so, it's so bizarre, like in, I think it's Pennsylvania, the farmer Amos Miller there, you know, they raided his farm because he's selling raw milk, which is just the way milk used to be.
Nobody died.
Nobody got sick. And, you know, we need a food freedom kind of Like a federal food freedom effort in this country to say, you have the right to grow food, you have the right to sell it at a farmer's market within reasonable economies of scale, and as long as you're not nefarious and poisoning your tomatoes or whatever...
Or you have the right to grow food in your own yard without being harassed by a homeowners association or something.
I mean, I know this can all be debated, but we are lacking.
Like, we have a First Amendment, freedom of speech.
We have a Second Amendment, right to bear arms.
Third Amendment, we're not going to quarter British soldiers in our homes anymore.
Can we replace the Third Amendment with, like, a food freedom amendment?
You know, something like that.
I don't know, they might start quartering people in our homes.
Okay, well, amendment 2.5, you know, weds it in there.
Right, right. But food freedom, it's a big issue these days, with food prices so high, too.
People want to grow more food.
Yeah, yeah, we should be able to do that.
That, to me, again, seems like an easy one.
It's like an All-American type of thing.
Victory Gardens, World War II. Yeah, exactly.
You see a lot of churches, too, now growing gardens in the yards in the front to help the community and people who be less fortunate in those kind of things, especially in these tough times with inflation and all those different kind of things.
Well, we've seen the food supply chain really devastated since COVID.
It's been, you know, we're in the food business, and it's much more difficult to get reliable food.
Sometimes now it's only seasonal or the supplies that are available are very small.
Farmers really took a beating under COVID, you know.
State governments went around with their health departments and shut down a lot of farms with PCR tests.
It's like, what are you doing?
Somebody's, you know, we've got to have food.
Yeah, yeah.
Right, at some point.
Yeah, I mean, we've been known as the breadbasket in the world, and there is an attempt right now to counter that.
You see a massive consolidation.
You see... Other countries buying up farmland, the family farm really being a thing of the past and it being owned by massive corporations.
There are already thin margins in the ag space, and it's very concerning to see a lot of those policies.
It's a general trend.
You go back to first principles, right?
In our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the point of the Constitution was to disperse power.
That's right. And to limit federal power.
Limit federal power. We understand that consolidated power tends to corrupt.
And so the idea is to keep, you know, power can be corruptive.
And so you keep those pockets small so you can manage them locally as best as possible.
But what we're seeing now, it's happening in...
In banking, in ag, in industry after industry after industry, you see this massive consolidation going.
And what ends up happening is you end up creating a big divide between lower and middle class.
And it's all part of the attempt to destroy the middle class.
And so we've got to stop those trends and get back to a regulatory environment that lets the American people do their best work.
Can I ask you then about the consolidation of banking and finance and the issue of central bank digital currencies?
It's a big issue on everybody's minds.
What's your take on CBDCs?
Yeah, it's very concerning.
We need to not have the federal government get into a Digital currency.
We see in China right now, I mean, it becomes a surveillance tool.
And so, you know, we've done what we can through the Appropriations Committee to put riders into the legislation to keep the development of that from moving forward at the time being.
But we really need to kind of lay that issue to rest in a way to where we don't We do not need to have a way for the federal government to control the economy.
We need to be able to surveil you and your purchases and those sorts of things.
What about debanking based on viewpoint discrimination?
A lot of conservatives have been targeted for debanking.
Right. And one of the areas that we've been heavily involved in would be dealing with the ATF. And we saw them begin to debank FFLs and those types of things as well.
But we were...
Working with the ATF, and we found out that they collected an abnormal amount of gun records in a year.
And so we thought, hmm, that seems suspicious.
Let's look into that. And then we found out, we looked and began an investigation, and out back came the information that, no, they actually have a database now with a billion gun records that they've built.
And we're like... What?
You're not a digitized database of building gun records in spite of the fact that you're not supposed to have a federal gun registry.
Right. And so...
But they get all the records of FFLs that cease operations.
What's supposed to happen, and the idea was, okay, if you're an FFL, you hold those records in the file cabinet in the back of the store for 20 years in case something happens...
You know, your local sheriff can go and look through the records and kind of trace a weapon.
If for some reason you go out of business before 20 years, those records go to the ATF for safekeeping.
That's what was supposed to happen.
After 20 years, they get destroyed.
Well, the first thing they did is said, oh, we're not going to get rid of those records after 20 years.
We're going to keep them forever.
And then begin to put zero-tolerance policies on FFLs and come check your paperwork.
And, for example, maybe you put...
I mean, it was just crazy kind of the stuff they're doing to force the closure of FFLs so that the records get transferred to the ATF where they keep them forever and then scan them into a database.
And so this is the kind of bad action that's been happening that we've, again, been pushing back on.
But it's this kind of activity that's happening in agency after agency after agency and why we need to right-size these agencies because they've gone well beyond Almost every single agency has gone well beyond the scope of what they were created to do.
Well, absolutely true, but we've seen a lot of pushback, the Chevron deference decision being key, absolutely.
And there was another lawsuit about EPA. I forgot the name of it, but the Supreme Court has really pushed back on the overzealous...
Yeah, that was kind of a first lob, in a sense, before the Chevron doctrine got overturned.
But aren't these game changers?
I mean, aren't they lighting up?
They are. Yeah. I mean, the Chevron, it's one of the biggest things that happened that's kind of, to the average American, maybe doesn't realize the impact yet.
Because no one in the swamp says, oh, they passed a decision, let's close up shop and stop doing it.
No, you have to then sue them, and then you have to cite the decision.
So it's going to take a couple years to build the casework based on that decision, but it is pretty phenomenal.
And it in theory at least should get Congress back to doing our work because what's happened is we, you know, Congress over decades has not wanted to do the hard work and research on these issues.
And so they said, ah, we'll just send the money.
and let the administration figure out the details.
But then, like, the EPA goes crazy.
Yeah, they go crazy.
And they make their own fiefdom law, basically.
And then Congress is not aware of all the rules they're creating.
And then we can't hold them accountable for a number of different reasons now because of how the executive branch is set up where they have careers and political appointees and those kind of things.
The careers are protected, which is a whole different issue we could get in.
But basically, we had the Secret Service hearing recently where I was talking to the Secret Service director about the fact that She doesn't evaluate the plans.
I said, well, who does? Couldn't name who does.
And she talks, well, there's a lot of people who look at it.
And I've seen this in agency after agency.
I had the same exact conversation with Fauci.
But it's like where these multiple layers of accountability become multiple layers of plausible deniability so that no one's ever held accountable.
That's right. Those are the kind of things we've got to fix.
Firewalls against responsibility is what they build.
That's a good way to put it, yeah.
Yeah. But also about Congress delegating powers to these agencies.
I don't recall what year the EPA was created.
Maybe in the 70s or something?
I don't recall. But Congress certainly did not mean to tell the EPA, hey, one day outlaw the air.
Which is what they've done with carbon dioxide.
They're like, all of a sudden, it's a pollutant.
Well, wait a second. Plants use carbon dioxide to grow.
It's called photosynthesis.
This is like high school science, right?
Right. But then the EPA outlaws a molecule that's in the air that grows crops.
Right. And then they use that to say, we're going to outlaw combustion engines by 2035.
Mm-hmm. And you're thinking, this is insane.
How do we function as a society?
Yeah, exactly.
That is not at all what they were meant or purposed to do.
And they are the prime example of what we need to do.
It's the kind of fixing that needs to be done in the executive branch.
Do you? And by the way, again, thank you for your time.
We're only going to spend a few more minutes.
I really appreciate your time. But is it difficult?
Do constituents or voters sometimes come to you and expect you to be able to solve every problem?
Like, boom, wave a magic wand.
Oh, you're going to D.C. next week?
Well, make that a law.
Whoa, hey. Is there that kind of thing going on?
Do people have a realistic understanding of the mechanism of the three branches of government, how laws get made, how they get challenged and all that?
Right. No doubt a number of people are frustrated, and rightfully so.
I mean, you're paying a premium dollar, you want a premium government, right?
And to even have one that's even well-functioning at this point would be highly debatable.
And now we've gotten to the point where we're forcing the American people to pay for the demise of their very country that they love and appreciate.
And so, you know, I totally get where people are frustrated, you know, and sometimes...
The thing I have said, I'm a fellow citizen who's just as frustrated.
It's not any prettier up close, I can assure you.
But the thing we also have to realize is that we didn't get here overnight.
You know, some of these issues were. Now, I'm not saying that...
You know, Congress is way too timid to take big and bold action, and they use that as an excuse, you know, and I don't think we should be using that as an excuse.
We need to take big, bold action.
But even then, it's going to take some time to dig ourselves out of the hole that we've created.
And so that's something to remember as we get through this November for the next November and the next November and the next November and in what we're doing to educate our kids and all those different kind of things.
Some of these things are generational, understanding the role and the purpose of government and the principles that make America great.
And I remember growing up and hear about the family is the building block of a healthy society.
And it's your first institution of government and care and concern and all these different kind of things and understand the role that all these different things have.
I mean, these are things that need to be taught generationally and passed on to the next generation that end up having an effect in how we are governed.
So there's a lot of work for all of us to do, and we've got to live as engaged citizens, too.
Part of that is voting, but part of that is...
So much of a broader context and, frankly, listening to podcasts like this that keep you educated.
Well, I mean, our audience, as you can probably tell, they're very well educated, more so than just the average person out there.
But I would even say that among the public...
They don't really want the federal government...
They don't want to live through the effects of the government balancing its budget because people want the handouts or the benefits or the grants and this and that, and what government always finds easier is just print more money, and that way there's a slow erosion of the value of the dollar, but that's different from cutting people's benefits.
You see what I mean? It's like the public also has to take some responsibility for this.
And that means people need to learn about economics, and that's a tough one.
Yes, yes, but the principles aren't that tough.
The basic core principles of, okay, the government spends more, you're inflation.
So I think, yes, what you're saying is true, but we also need people who are willing to go make the case to the American people as well.
We need Americans who are willing to be engaged and maybe put down your favorite episode for that night and pick up a book or whatever.
Watch a podcast that's going to learn.
I heard someone once say we are a functionally illiterate nation.
We have virtually 100% literacy rate, but we don't read anything of importance or value.
Good point. Right. That's something we all need to, and something I remind myself of, too.
The Kamala Harris campaign, her website has no policy statements.
Right. Her campaign is about having twerking celebrities and pop culture songwriters and whatever.
Right. And, you know, I was joking with a friend the other day.
I said, you know, the Trump campaign wants to get America working.
The Kamala campaign wants to have America twerking.
I'm like, that's the difference, you know?
I don't need pop music stars.
I want an economy that functions so we're not having empty food shelves.
Yeah, it is a stark contrast.
And it's been, you know, if it wasn't so, if the stakes weren't so high, it would almost be comical.
You know, what, maybe six weeks ago, they were talking about replacing Kamala on the ticket.
Yeah. Looks lost.
He's disappeared, by the way.
He vanished. Yes, exactly.
And so, oh, they're going to replace him instead.
Then all the buzz seemed to be like they wanted to take it to convention so that even the Democrats wouldn't get Kamala.
But best as I could tell, it looked like Biden pulled a fast one on him and said, okay, I'll bow out since you're forcing me out, but I'm going to name Kamala as the successor.
And then, you know, the whole band gets together again and, you know, now she can do no wrong.
Right. And, but here's the funny thing about that.
They could switch it to another person next week and all the Democrats would just say, oh yeah, now her or whatever.
Maybe it's Hillary. I mean, who knows?
It'll probably be Kamala.
I'm not making a prediction.
I'm just saying that it doesn't matter who it is because for most Democrat voters, it's just a proxy for this anti-Trump, anti-America hatred.
And that's their platform right now, is name-calling against Trump.
He's going to do all these things to the country that he didn't do the first time and all these civilization-ending things that he's never done.
Right. And that they've actually, you know, we had relative peace under President Trump.
We didn't start new wars under President Trump.
We had relative prosperity.
We had relative prosperity.
We had every single demographic flourishing.
That's right. Affordable groceries, affordable gasoline.
You know, and so, you know, you think about the economy and you They want to fight the semantic demographic battles, not the real ones.
They want you to be offended by what someone says that might be not the choice word for the week of how to name this particular demographic, but when they actually want to make the lives of the demographic better by...
Making the economy work better for them.
That's too hard.
You want to help minorities.
You want to help the poor.
Make the economy work better.
Allow small businesses to keep more of what they earn.
Make groceries more affordable, but not by coercion, not by a mandate, because that doesn't work.
You make energy more affordable.
You let farmers have more freedom to farm the way that they can produce more food more efficiently.
And that's the American way.
Yeah, totally. Well, Congressman, it's been an honor to have you here.
Thank you so much for sharing your time and your thoughts with us today.
Definitely. Yeah, appreciate it.
I really enjoy this and the freeform format.
No teleprompters here.
No, no. There's just two guys talking about America.
Yeah. We appreciate you very much.
Thanks so much. Let me give out your website again.
So folks, you want to support Representative Michael Cloud.
The website is cloudforcongress.com.
Election Day, of course, November 5th, and you are free to donate.
Right here, there's a donate button. If you're an American citizen, you can donate.
And if you're not, don't vote.
That would But anyway, cloud4congress.com.
And here in Texas, I'll say this on behalf of other Texans, we're very proud to have Representative Cloud as our representative in Washington, D.C. We wish we had more people like you there.
Oh, thank you. Very kind. Our nation would be so much more headed in the right direction if we did.
But we're so thankful and grateful that you're there.
So God bless you. Thank you.
God bless you. Thank you all for watching today.
Mike Adams here, the founder of Brighteon.com.
As always, feel free to repost this interview on other platforms and other channels as well.
And we're going to put out some snippets here too, just some highlights of what Representative Cloud is talking about.
And thank you for all your support here today.
God bless you all. God bless Texas.
And God bless America.
Take care. All right, this is Mike Adams here.
We're going to talk about all these different forms of gold and silver today.
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I don't know, that's a pretty big chunk of silver right there.
It's a way to store bulk silver.
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That's a good way to do that.
Alright, now, moving on, then we have gold coins over here.
Obviously, these gold coins are worth a couple thousand dollars each, a little bit more.
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But again, hard to break down because how do you chop one into a thousand pieces?
The answer to that is these gold bags.
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