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Dec. 10, 2023 - Stew Peters Show
01:02:38
Neglected Heroes: The VA's Controversial Priorities Amidst a Migrant Care Scandal
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Doctors, VA doctors going down to the southern border and providing medical services for illegal immigrants coming across the border.
At one point after that, the VA came out and said there was absolutely no doctors, there was no VA personnel being used at the border to treat illegals.
Or any VA professional for that matter.
So support staff, any of those things.
Earlier this week, it came out in Fox News that the VA is now paying civilian medical professionals who have provided any kind of medical and or specialty services to migrants at the border.
They're being reimbursed through the VA system.
With allegedly VA dollars.
We don't know if that's true yet, but we're working on that.
And so there's a lot of confusion about what's happening here.
So today, excuse the long intro, but today we are going to discuss this, I don't know if you want to call it a debacle or a lie or whatever, but we're going to discuss this whole issue.
So stick with us.
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Hey everybody and welcome here to the next episode of The Richard Leonard Show.
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Okay, so moving on.
I don't know if you can tell, but I'm a little fired up because this whole issue, this whole topic is quite frustrating.
And so we're going to get into it.
Let us first find our buddy, Jason.
There he is.
How you doing, sir?
I'm doing pretty good.
And yourself?
Well, I'm a little perturbed today.
You and I have been discussing this issue for a few days.
So, mind you, this came out on the 1st of December, so it's been a little while.
It's been about 8 or 9 days.
So...
Medical professionals, civilian medical professionals, Jason, allegedly are being paid or reimbursed by a VA system for services rendered to migrants at the border who are coming across illegally.
There's no better way to ask it other than, what do you think?
Well, as we drink from another diarrhea-coated cup of garbage coming out of VA in Washington, I will say first and foremost, in what you had said before, they are very specific that the VA is spending no VA-directed funds.
In providing healthcare.
We talked about that with the doctors.
But they're clearly providing personnel to process the money from one organization to another, and it looks like that organization is called IHSC. They were given an operating budget of $352 million this year under the spectrum of healthcare services to people in ICE custody.
Right.
Oh, so is it truly VA dollars being spent, you know, removing those dollars from the VA pool?
I don't think so, but they're certainly utilizing the resources of the VA as a conduit to get from a bucket of money that they put somewhere into another bucket that they need to get the money into, and that has to have some type of cost.
The cost in people not being productive doing VA work, they're clearly doing work for ICE. Absolutely.
Diarrhea words that just don't matter.
Diarrhea-coated cups.
That's an interesting visual.
But let's shed some light on the issue here.
So, folks, as this article reads, it was on Fox News Digital on the 1st of December.
So, apparently, ICE, and I'm reading right from the article, so please forgive me for not looking you in the face while I'm talking...
As the article says, ICE contracts with the VA's Financial Service Center to process reimbursement to those providers.
And they're talking about providers who have rendered services, whether they be just regular medical services or any specialty care.
So how this goes, apparently, is if I walk up to the border...
To cross over and I have diabetes of some sort or cancer of some sort and require any specialty service, that service is rendered to me right there on the spot.
Okay?
So the article continues and says, According to a report from this last July, ICE has hundreds, hundreds of letters of understanding in which ICE Health Service Corps, the IHSC that you referenced, Jason, will reimburse providers at Medicare rates.
All of this uses the VA's Financial Service Center's healthcare claims processing system.
It's a portal that allows providers to submit and view claims and other resources for whatever patients they are treating.
Now, the argument here becomes that VA officials have said, Terrence Hayes, more specifically, who is the press secretary for the VA, says, the VA does not provide or fund any health care service or individual the VA does not provide or fund any health care service or individual At no time are any VA health care professionals or VA funds used for this purpose.
The IHSC, which is the ICE's health service corps.
The IHSC... Where did it go?
I lost it.
Son of a bitch.
The IHSC pays...
Fees for the claims, processing services rendered, and covers disbursements made to pay for claims.
So what the press secretary of the VA said, Jason, is, yeah, this looks bad maybe, but here the truth is that the VA pays no money out of its budget.
Not one VA employee or professional is rendering any service or doing any work that's being paid by VA dollars to render any service to an illegal migrant at the border.
Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I'm going to call bullshit, right?
Because how can you tell me in one breath that this is the VA's Financial Service Center?
So are there employees that work in the VA Financial Service Center that aren't VA employees, that aren't processing claims, that aren't sending payments out to providers that rendered services?
What Mr.
Hayes, the press secretary, said completely contradicts what the other information says, that we're using a VA system to pay ISIS medical bills.
Or am I off base?
Sure is what it looks like.
So for every doctor, how many bureaucrats do you have in a hospital?
Is it 10 to 1?
All of them?
20 to 1.
Right?
Yeah.
So you got four doctors and 400 bureaucrats, people working behind the scenes.
So does it really matter?
I mean, he specifically chooses his words, you know, to say that we're not providing healthcare.
We're not sending providers to do it, which it's obvious.
I mean, they're all short, aren't they?
Nobody's fully staffed.
I wouldn't think so.
Well, no.
I mean, we've heard it as recently as the last quarter at UVLC that, you know, the VA has a shortage of employees.
They're looking for providers.
They're looking for personnel to work in the bureaucracy.
Nobody's hiding from that fact.
So the fact that, you know, if you're short staffed, you now have created another burden of work for your already overworked staff that you're trying to staff up to provide services, quote unquote, where you're not You're spending VA dollars, but you're spending VA time.
So is there a compensatory mechanism in place that the IHSC, I don't know why that one's so hard to say or remember, but I hate it.
I'm just gonna call it the thing.
So does the thing have the ability to, does it compensate the VA for time at a desk?
That's a really good question.
Maybe there are some financial windfalls that the VA is taking advantage of there to put themselves in that position, or they're just being forced by the big heads over in D.C. to say, no, you guys are going to do this because you guys have the mechanism in place that can do it.
The legal apparatus is there, so go do it.
And my gut tells me the latter is probably true.
Well, I think that usually when you follow your gut, just anybody, majority of the time you're right.
And I don't think that this is any different.
What concerns me is that there is commingling in agencies anyhow.
And I'm sure that this type of thing happens all over government.
But I don't care about that, right?
We're here to talk about how veterans' lives can be better.
That's the whole premise of this show, to help our brothers and sisters.
Why is it that this is even a thing?
Why is veterans' anything so closely connected to the invasion of Right.
Right.
Why are the individuals in our government who have been tasked to do nothing but take care of the men and women that fought for this country and sacrificed everything if they had to, why is it at all even in the same neighborhood as illegal migrants crossing our border?
Whether it's healthcare or financial services or housing or anything, it doesn't matter what it is.
Why is it so closely intertwined?
I feel like the VA, Mr.
Hayes, who gave us bad information via his quote, shouldn't even have to be having this conversation in the first place.
Well, I would say it's misleading information more than bad information.
They put out enough to subdue people's concerns.
That's always the thing, right?
Like, even if you break it down, they're talking specifically, it says, the southern border, the southern border, the southern border.
So, if this is happening at the southern border, it's clearly happening at the northern border.
I mean, from where we are, if you can't tell from the way that I speak, We're pretty close to Canada.
We know it's happening.
So for anybody that needs translators, please reach out and let Richie know that when I'm on, you need that Northwoods translator across the bottom of the screen.
But...
It's happening there.
So it's got to be happening in every state.
So maybe the question needs to be posed, rather than how much are we spending at the southern border, how many of these interactions are the VA staff having nationwide at any point, and how many hours or how many dollars are being redirected?
Because that's just ICE enforcement at the southern border.
There's no way there's only $352 million being spent on the spectrum of healthcare and services across this country.
We know those numbers to be much larger.
So this is just a small little piece.
This is that whole how to lie with statistics.
I'm just going to give you enough to explain it to you right here, because you don't need to actually know the whole thing.
I'm just going to give you what I got to give you.
I'm going to make it seem like it's nothing, and then you'll quit paying attention to everything else going on in the burning buildings behind me.
And so what's also alarming is that they put out information like this and act like $352 million for healthcare for illegal migrants at our borders.
Well, you know, it could be worse.
$352 million?
Listen, if they put $352 million into an account and labeled it only for veteran housing or only for taking fentanyl and meth off our streets, all that shit would be over.
If they put $352 million in an account to house veterans who are homeless, we'd probably never have another homeless one for a long, long time unless it was of their choosing.
Right.
Yeah, that's a, you know, again, that kind of shoots all over, like, how to solve all these problems with money.
But I think about this, this shit is like, it's like Austin Powers, you know, where Dr.
Evil, you know, asks for $7 billion in ransom, and everybody laughs.
Like, we talk about money, we're talking trillions and billions all the time, like it's nothing, like it's nonsense.
Yeah.
352 million, everybody's like, yeah, yeah, that's not as bad.
I mean, it could have been in the trillions.
Well, the further you dig into it, well, clearly it's in the billions, the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on all this stuff.
And so it's just craziness that we have to constantly look and pay attention to what the VA's got going so they're not lateralizing the VA personnel that could be following those claims.
I mean, I'm just waiting.
We're probably going to be talking about this in six months going, Oh, there's a backlog of claims for all the veterans who lived 15 miles or further away from the VA or had emergency care that was necessary and their claims processing is taking forever and the hospitals are going to have to force those bills into collections and now veterans are going to be dealing with that.
I'm not saying that's going to happen, but boy, would that headline shock you six months from now?
Absolutely not.
But let's also keep in mind, Jason, that this is just federal dollars.
What is the state of Texas, the state of Arizona, the state of New Mexico, and the state of California?
What are those state governments paying to provide services to the legals?
What are those state governments paying to...
Pay their law enforcement to chase these people down and pay the doctors and pay social workers, you know, because weren't people all up in arms that were separating families at the border, and that's just, that's inhumane?
And to me, and maybe this is getting way off into the weeds, but as we usually do, but here's the thing, man.
Is it America's responsibility...
To spend $352 million or billions or trillions of dollars to house, feed, incarcerate, and care for these people whenever they need it, I don't know that any amount of money is acceptable for that.
Right.
Well, I'd say this, if we've solved every problem with every American walking on American soil that was born in America or naturalized and assimilated as such, and if we had that amount of money lying around to help people, absolutely!
But we have all of our own problems.
This is like my buddy having a shittier truck than me, and I'm like, oh man, I got 500 bucks, I really need to put a tune-up on mine, but...
Here you go.
Here's $1,500 that I just got on a loan from the Bank of China.
Why don't you go ahead and throw some flames on your truck?
Yeah, right.
That doesn't make any damn sense.
Yeah, people would look at you like you should go get some medical health care or mental health care.
Right.
Well, too bad.
I'm not an illegal.
I can't get that help like right now.
I'll just go across the border and...
Yeah, make an appointment, man.
And make sure you mail your check before your appointment.
Right.
But here's the thing.
If...
Jason, if you decide to, at any time...
Let's just say tonight, right?
After the show's over.
If you decide to go up into your garage...
And drink 15 White Claws or 15 shots of whiskey or whatever it is that you like to drink when you're relaxing.
And then put your family in the car and drive to the grocery store to get a rotisserie chicken because you're hungry.
And you get pulled over and you get arrested.
What's gonna happen to you?
You're gonna go to jail, but you're gonna be separated from your family.
So, logic would then tell me if I am from Guatemala and I take my three little Guatemalan babies and my lovely Guatemalan wife and jump a train to northern Mexico, to Juarez, let's say.
We get to Juarez and we walk up to the border and I can't get in, right?
Because I haven't done it the legal way.
And I get arrested.
Well, of course I'm going to be separated from my wife and my kids.
I'm a criminal!
Yeah, I don't know what country does something any different.
Right.
I mean, I've never been arrested in Guatemala, but the way these politicians talk, it's like, oh, no, only when you come to America will you ever be separated when you do something illegal.
I'm pretty certain if I ever would have gone on spring break and done something dumb in Mexico that required the police to bring me somewhere, they're probably not going to phone up my family and be like, hey, guys, I know he's on vacation, but we're going to need mom and the kiddos to fly on down here to get locked up with him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Foolish.
Hey, Ma, come down to Cancun and sit in jail with me.
Yeah.
So it's more humane.
Yeah, we need that family.
Yeah, I know it's all-inclusive, but we got this new place because your husband's an idiot.
Like, no, that's so foolish.
So the whole thing, the whole issue for me is just absolutely asinine.
And the fact that we even have to have conversations on this show or in the halls of Congress or the Senate or anywhere else in this country about whether or not it's fair that we provide free medical care to people who are coming into our country illegally is absolutely ridiculous.
There's even a thought that that's acceptable.
When there is so...
Our backyard, I'll tell you what, Jason, I would venture to say that the United States of America has one of the dirtiest backyards of any country in this world.
And here, we're cleaning up everyone else's backyard.
Yeah, are we though?
Well, that's what they tell us.
We only know what they tell us and then what we can get our creepy crawly fingers into and research ourselves and find the truth.
But at the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter if we're really doing it or not.
Because what's not happening is that the veterans that probably need more medical services or less wait times or a better prescription or some kind of prosthetic or anything like that, I don't care if they need better toilet paper and the VA is going to pay for it.
I would rather my tax dollars go to the extra thick, extra soft, swivelly, rippled soul of Charmin than go to provide one illegal immigrant a meal or a shot or a Band-Aid if there's an American, but more importantly, a veteran that needs that Band-Aid first.
Right.
Well, I think that opens up a conversation about your coddled asshole if you need that kind of toilet paper, Richie, but we can talk about that after.
Well, full disclosure, I don't purchase the toilet paper.
My wife likes what she likes, and I just use what's there.
You could put sandpaper that they had in the barracks in our bathroom, and I'd probably tough my way through it.
You just got to take a shower after you use it.
That mustache says differently.
Yeah.
That is a mustache of a man with a very particular need for toilet paper.
Well, folks, we have transitioned from a very serious, meaningful conversation to toilet paper and my anal cavity.
But I will have you know that it's in good shape.
So we're good.
Anyway, I think that this is a good time for us to take a break.
We're running short on the segment anyhow.
So stick with us, folks.
Please excuse our amazing sidebar conversation.
We'll be right back with you.
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Hey folks, welcome back here to the second segment of the show.
I want to continue.
I felt myself getting heated.
Jason, I felt you were getting heated.
And I feel like the next stage of this conversation, we're both going to get a little heated.
So I think we should just leave the last segment, the last segment, and let's move on.
I want to reference the same article.
The same article from Fox News Digital from the 1st of December.
At the end, Jason, they interviewed a couple Border Patrol agents who were also veterans.
And the very last paragraph of the article is a quote from this Border Patrol agent who is also a veteran who is receiving services from the VA. And he goes on to say this.
It says here, we served in the military in this country and we have these benefits to use in the VA. He goes, and I pay an exorbitant amount of taxes to this country and I can't even be seen for basic needs.
But illegals can.
They can literally cross the border with all of these pre-existing medical injuries and illnesses and conditions or whatever they have going on.
And they literally walk right into a primary care doctor or a specialty care doctor to get whatever services they need.
And so where I'm going with this, Jason, is the conversation about the system to pay the doctors and this and that and the other thing.
Yep, that's all important.
$352 million, a billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, big deal, right?
It's not even a big number in the grand scheme of things, which I disagree with, but that may be a whole other conversation.
It is a big number.
It is a huge number.
But now, more importantly, the way that veterans are seeing this, especially veterans who are Border Patrol agents at the southern border, escorting illegal migrants into medical care services, but yet have to wait weeks, months, days, hours, whatever it is, for the same exact care or more important care.
But these people get it on the spot.
The day they illegally cross our border.
There seems to be something wrong with that formula, in my opinion.
Yes?
Yeah.
I mean, there's so many things wrong with all of this.
I'm glad we're focusing on this one piece because, you know, when we think about it, like, there are certain healthcare privileges that you get when you have a connected disability, right?
Yep.
We have those.
This is, you know, certainly it's the same song or it's the same melody.
It's not really the same song, but the infuriating part is that, you know, as a veteran, and it was something that they pounded home, you know, after my first deployments when we got back in the middle of four, I think, you know, that you could go to the emergency room and you just tell them you're a veteran and the veteran would take care of it, which I think is similar to what this process looks like, right?
Mm-hmm.
But we're not talking about, you know, extraordinary measure care.
We're talking about seeing traditional physicians.
It says nothing about like a triage hospital.
Like, you know, I have a compound fracture from falling off the rock as I climbed myself out of the Rio Grande to get into Texas.
Or whatever the case was.
They're not like doing triage work.
This is like initial entry into the Medicare system.
Right.
That's what I see.
And so that's kind of that side of it.
You have to be at a certain point or you have to be a veteran of a certain particular class, somebody that served X amount of days overseas or You know, under these types of orders, you know, there's many different ways that you get that veteran status.
But now let's just say this.
Why not anybody in the military?
You know, you don't have to, quote unquote, meet the criteria for VA veteran care, but you're just a veteran.
You're somebody that maybe served.
12 years ready reserve or reserve component.
Your name was never drawn.
I do want to meet those people because they were very lucky people.
That's pretty awesome if you spent that way and you weren't called.
But do they get any healthcare privileges?
No.
They don't get anything, and I think the vast majority of people think that because you're in the military, or you were in the National Guard, or in the Reserve Army, or the Naval Reserve, or anything, that they could go to the VA. That's simply not true.
And so the vast majority of separated, retired military people don't actually meet the requirement of a veteran.
Thus, they don't get that benefit from the VA and they're being held out even further than people like us against The situation that we're talking about.
So they wouldn't even have the opportunity to walk in there.
Of course, most hospitals are nonprofits, and I know I'm running down a wormhole here.
And so, of course, if you need life-saving care, I'm not saying that just because you're in the military, you're not going to get that.
Of course, there's mechanisms in place to do so.
But you would think maybe, you know, changing the perspective, I don't think a lot of people know who can go to the VA. And I just spit on my own microphone here because I'm so angry.
But for those people that didn't meet that, they have nothing.
If they didn't serve their 20 years and they didn't do it, there is nothing for them medically.
Zero.
Right.
Right.
And that's a whole nother kick in the teeth, which, I mean, I feel like every time, excuse me, every time that we get into these conversations, we end up bringing up something else that I say, well, that might be a conversation for another show.
And so what I'm going to have to do is probably go back and watch these and make a real no BS list about all these things that we said we're going to talk about again.
But that brings up a really good point though.
These are people who signed up the same way you and I did.
And many others who are receiving benefits, but for whatever reason, did their six years, got out.
You know, because it's not abnormal for people to say, well, I joined the military so I could get a free college education.
Okay, great.
That's fantastic.
Do your time, do it honorably, get your education, and continue on with your life.
Thank you for your service.
But they may get access to like a VA home loan, which is great.
But they don't get any medical care.
They can go to the VA and sign up and have to pay just like they pay anywhere else.
But they can't just walk in and go, hey, I think I have the flu.
I need a flu shot or I sprained my ankle.
Oh yeah, come on in.
We'll wrap that up for you.
Give you some Motrin and some water and Charlie Mike down the road.
But they can't even do that without paying out of their pocket.
But again, now we're giving...
Illegal aliens, illegal migrants, free healthcare that you and I are paying for.
And everyone that's watching, all of you are paying for it as well.
And so not only is that bullshit and unfair to the Americans that have sacrificed everything, but also Americans who aren't veterans who are paying the tab.
And so it's, and for me, Jason, I also want to point out that it's not just about money, but it's also about the state of our union, right?
How many of these people who are coming in that need regular medical care or specialty care because of whatever disease or illness they have are bringing said disease or illness into the United States of America?
Right.
We were so concerned about COVID, right?
We can't even leave our houses.
We have to mask our children.
We have to do this.
We have to do that.
We all know what that debacle looked like.
But now all of a sudden, we can just let these people walk over the border.
Oh, you have the flu?
Oh, you have COVID? You got herpes?
Whatever it is.
No problem.
Step on in this tent.
We'll take care of it.
We'll get you all squared away.
And you can go find a place in America to steal space that doesn't belong to you.
Right.
So what's going to happen when we have a hepatitis breakout in Texas or Arizona?
And now, I mean, it's well known that the South is a place where many people go to retire, right, and spend their later years because of the weather, right?
Nobody wants to live 102 years in 20 below zero, for Christ's sake.
I don't know why we live here.
Yeah, well, you're not human.
But seriously, Arizona, Texas, Florida, all these places have high populations of our elders.
The people that built this country for us to carry on the torch and keep it successful.
So not only are we paying for them to get free care, but now we're not even concerned, really, about the type of crap they're bringing in this country.
And not just medical diseases and illnesses and all that other stuff, but crime and trafficking.
And these are the people that steal our kids and then sell them to perverts to ass rape.
These people.
I spit on my mic too now, god dang it.
I mean, it's just asinine to me that all these other issues that have to do with this, Jason, never get talked about.
Nobody ever says anything about it.
No, and that's kind of what I feared when we started down this path of discussing this, is it's just going to open up the entire thing.
And so many negative things happen.
I mean, there's certainly some positive sides of this, but it's...
What are they?
Like what?
Well, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm not saying that there's specifically positive sides of that, but if there are people that are truly on the run from their government, there's obvious, we have those mechanisms in place.
And so my constant frustration is, if you're not going to go through the process, and it's not important enough for you to come into something the right way, Well, what reason do you have to continue on the right path once you're here?
And then we create all these bullshit carve-outs and you can get a work permit, but you can pay federal and state taxes, but you have no rights to all these other things.
And realistically, if you've gotten to that point, I don't believe that you should have.
I mean, if you sneak into a movie and you get caught, you don't get to watch the rest of the movie.
I know this is a quote from a TV show, and in this instance, that movie is the greatest movie on Earth, and it is America.
There's no question why people want to be here, and I don't want to go all in on that portion of this.
My question would just be to people to think about is, look at how many dollars we spend state by state and then across the federal board.
To deal with this, it is a real problem.
Now, it's a problem being created by lax security at the border, number one.
I would almost say it's more inviting for people to come here in recent history than it's ever been before because of the things that we're seeing happen.
But then I say, all that bullshit, all that stuff aside, Think about the money and say, we know that in our population, the veteran population, there are people in need.
If we were to take those dollars, kind of getting back to what we talked about before, and say, okay, well, we're willing to spend them for these people.
Well, why aren't you willing to sign on the same line saying we're willing to spend it on these people?
Veterans.
The military community that has sacrificed and serviced in that same flag That we're all so blessed to be raised and live under.
If you were asking people straight away, do you support, if we're going to spend this money, support spending it there?
I don't think many people would say no, but then the question is then why does the government not want to do that?
There has to be an endgame.
There has to be a plan.
They're trying to do...
They're doing something.
Like, you don't spend all this money doing this or allowing this to not have an endgame.
This isn't just some...
This isn't some random happenstance.
It's happening.
And it's happening by choice.
Yep.
Yes.
Absolutely.
And, you know, I gotta say, man, at the risk of sounding extremely insensitive...
I'm going to say it anyway.
I don't care.
I don't care if you're running from your government because they've oppressed you and they're committing mass genocide in your country.
And you know what?
I shouldn't say that I don't care.
Because I do care.
Because that's not right.
And nobody deserves to have to live through that.
But...
If you're going to ask me, do I think that an illegal who's escaping persecution from their government or mass genocide or whatever it is, and they come up to our border, and if somebody were to ask me, Richard, I need you to make the decision on whether or not this migrant receives benefit A, B, and C, or this American citizen who's down on their luck deserves A, B, and C first.
I'm going to go with them every time.
Because that's what we do, right?
We take care of our own first.
And here's the analogy, right, that's super overplayed and overdone.
When you're on a plane, do you put your oxygen mask on first?
Or do you help your buddy, your wife, your kid, someone next to you?
No, you put yours on first and then you help everybody else.
And so, if we have this huge surplus of resources, and we have money, and we have medical professionals, and we have food, and we have shelter, and we have protection, and all this great American blanket that you can live free, well, why the hell does anybody else deserve it before our own people?
If you go to Somalia, Jason, with your family, And try to push American propaganda, I'm sure they would call it, an American way of life.
They're going to kill you in the public square, maybe.
But it's not going to be accepted.
I'm pretty slow.
They'd have me dead within a half hour.
But if you walk into a coffee shop to get a coffee and a bagel or whatever the hell they eat there.
And you don't speak Somali, but you tell them, I only speak English.
I need you to give me this, this, this, and this.
They're not going to go, well, I don't speak English.
I can only speak Somali.
Or that's what they are going to tell you.
It's not acceptable for you to walk in there and expect them to know your language.
Well, and that's where we get to, right?
The simplest thing, and that's what I was talking about, becoming an American through the proper channels and assimilating to become an American, that's the single greatest thing.
And we've done such a disservice to ourselves by trying to identify each of us as special and different.
African-American, Hispanic, Mexican-American, Canadian-American.
You never really hear a big divide in European-Americans.
There's not a lot of German-Americans and English-Americans because that's not special.
No, they're just white folks.
Right?
Yeah, they're Cacazoids, Honkies, insert name here.
But, you know...
Why?
Why, why, why do we continually do that and not want to just be American?
Like, just come together as one.
And then charity starts at home.
Like, when you can cover the family, you can go do things for other people.
Well, the American family is suffering.
And the American children are the ones who are going to pay the penalty.
They're the ones that are going to be, you know, crushed by this thing long haul.
At the same time that you're helping out.
The other people that have come into the neighborhood, and you're bringing them in, and you're putting more people in the house, your wife would be pretty pissed.
Like, I would be so disappointed in my family if we weren't able to cover down on ourselves while I was out helping somebody else at the cost of my own family.
That's what America's doing every day!
You know, you've got that cool, crazy Uncle Si who fought in Vietnam, you know, and here he is out there and he's living in the streets.
No relation to the Duck Dynasty guy.
It just happened to be the name that popped in my head.
So I do.
There's a disclaimer and I apologize.
But I'm just saying, no, you've got crazy Uncle Si and he's in your family and nobody is taking care of him.
You've got to go help him.
You're not going to go help, you know, George, who just came here.
Go help Americans.
This is so simple.
The fact that we're even discussing this is what blows my mind each and every time.
It almost seems like nonsense because it is nonsense, but it's still happening.
Let me ask you this.
Knowing what you know now, And just about this topic alone, just forget that we know anything else about our government BS than this topic alone.
Illegal migrants at the border receiving medical services a whole lot quicker and easier than veterans.
Would it be something that you were pissed off about before you joined the military?
100%.
Okay.
Why is it do you think that there are so many people in this country that are so concerned about The illegals coming in.
And so concerned about the Ukraine.
And so concerned about whether or not we're in bed with China.
So concerned about everything else other than what we got going on here.
Because I'll tell you what, when I joined the United States Army, I didn't join it because I want to make our country the dumpster and toilet for everywhere else in this world to come and destroy.
I didn't join the military to ensure that our borders were open.
I didn't join the military to ensure that our kids were getting stolen and ass-raped by perverts somewhere else outside of this country or in this country.
I didn't join for any of that stuff.
I joined the military to ensure that my family could feel a sense of pride and service in what I did in this country and so that they don't have to do it if they don't want to.
The Leonard family has done their due diligence.
And all in the spirit of taking care of our own, making sure that this remains the land of the free because of the brave.
I don't understand where we lost that, Jason.
I don't get it.
It drives me so nuts that sometimes I don't even sleep at night because these types of issues just baffle my mind that anybody who has a real pride in being a United States citizen, an American, can openly and honestly say that illegal migrants, illegal aliens, people that are not American deserve all this stuff before our own.
That's not why I joined.
And I hate for it to sound insensitive, like I don't give a shit about anybody but Americans because that's not true.
My family has a very deep and rich history outside of this country.
My family are immigrants.
My mother and her family, all immigrants from Poland.
But you know what?
My grandfather brought his family here and did it the right way.
They passed through Ellis Island.
They came to Minnesota.
He built his home with his own bare hands and went to work as a welder until he couldn't use his hands anymore.
My grandmother was a seamstress at some sew shop for years until she couldn't use her hands anymore.
Nobody ever gave them shit.
And now it's just, it's okay.
It's okay that we just open the border and let these assholes flood in.
And meanwhile, Jason, how many of them are military-age males?
Is there a chance that this is an invasion and one day that somebody's going to snap their fingers and here we are fighting a war in our own streets?
Is that possible?
I think it is.
Well, I did see that, that apparently there are those in Washington, D.C. that see more blinking red lights, as they called them, right now than at any time in our history.
And so these are the people that are monitoring everything that's going on.
They're the same ones that talked about the blinking red lights prior to 9-11.
It's worse now.
These are the things that people just aren't told.
I don't know because I don't watch the news.
Again, I'll refer back to it.
I watch iFunny or I read iFunny and then every once in a while I'll see something and then I'll hop on the interweb and I'll go do a little bit of research on it.
And that was one of the things I saw on iFunny earlier in the week.
And sure enough, there it was.
Top 10 headlines, both CNN and Fox News, because I like to see from every angle what they're talking about.
And that's a scary thing.
Well, what's really changed?
The perceived weakness of America?
Or is it just what you spoke of right now?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
Well, I gotta tell us what the red flags are, or the red lights.
You know, can't do that.
Right.
Well, but what is it that they're referring to?
I mean, there's a lot of, and I assume it's all these topics that we're talking about, right?
When you say blinking red lights, it's buckle up, hold on, because this is going to get rough type stuff.
Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, those are, you know, they're real aggregates of this limp system that we have in place.
You know, the limp way that we left Afghanistan.
Yeah.
Our limp support of our border control agents to ensure that we're vetting people.
I mean, are you kidding?
No, we don't even vet people anymore.
We give them a slip of paper and say, hey, meet up here in 120 days to sit in front of a judge to do something.
Like, they're in the wind, man.
They're not coming back.
Yeah.
You think they're coming back?
Hey, here's a $50 Visa gift card.
Go get yourself some McDonald's for you and your family, but make sure that you show up Monday to court so that we can kick you out of this country if we decide you're not eligible to be here.
They're not coming back.
Would you?
Absolutely not.
If you broke into Somalia and you were at that coffee shop, like, hey, Richie, dog, gotta go to the courthouse in like 60 days.
I don't know what deep in Somalia looks like, but I assure you that's where I would be.
Like, I'm not coming.
Like, no.
I don't know how to hide myself.
I think I look fairly dissimilar to the demographic, but I'd figure out a way.
I don't blame anybody for that.
The fact that we failed right there, these people, they literally have to deal with the weight of the world on their shoulders every day by our government putting them in a pretty shitty position.
Not a lot of people like when that part of the world becomes part of their world.
It's the same reason, wasn't that Martha Vineyards where they sent in the plane of illegals?
And boy, they were back in that plane, what, like within 24 hours?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, no, I mean, that's a really cool thing, but not here.
Like, boom, gone.
The very few instances that we've heard of, or that I've heard of, of somebody packing up all these illegals and sending them to Governor so-and-so's doorstep.
None of it's worked out.
None of them want them there.
But they're sure easy to get on TV and tout this narrative about how we should just help these people.
Yeah.
nothing at all and they just let it happen.
And so they're just, in my mind, they're just as guilty. - 100, that's by design, right?
So that's decision by neglect.
And decision by neglect is still a decision.
So yeah, they're not going to come out, they're not going to take a stance, but your non-stance is your stance.
So if you're not going to be against something, or you're going to be against something and you say it, you are.
If you really have no feeling on it and you say nothing, you're for it again.
Yeah.
You're just as dirty and culpable in these terrible decisions that get made.
You're talking about these costs.
Wasn't it Eric Adams?
I know we talked about what they had done with, you know, the veterans, transient and homeless veterans being kicked out for illegal immigrants.
They need to spend $2.8 billion in the next fiscal year to deal with the rapid influx of what's going on.
Now, they're just saying $2.8 billion.
And again, I never take a word for granted because they're so smart about how they phrase the context of their conversations.
Because you and I just speak.
Sometimes it's verbal diarrhea, but it's really just words.
It's feelings that come out through the vocal cord.
They don't do that.
So $2.8 billion to deal with a rapid influx is likely $2.8 billion Over whatever they were already projected to spend.
So that number is probably far larger, which, again, just speaks to the problem.
That $4.8 billion being spent there in New York, I'm pretty sure there's a few veterans there.
Yeah.
Why not?
Like, why?
Does it help that crazy uncle in the woods?
Yeah, $4.8 billion.
What if New York took just $1 billion out of that?
So, right, the illegals get $3.8.
If they took $1 billion out of that transaction right there and just put it towards veteran initiatives.
Veteran initiatives that are actually going to do something for people.
And cut this initiative stuff.
We see how much money that they pump into these veteran organizations.
Get to organizations that can actually put the money down.
Now, and I grant you, what does a billion dollars get you in housing in New York?
Like, five studio apartments?
A storage locker?
Yeah, right.
We'll find a bunch of vets in one of those Storage Wars TV shows because they quit paying the bill.
It'd be better than finding migrants there.
Right?
But it's like, you know, That's the other thing.
I mean, we have to be able to dial in on some of these veterans organizations that, you know, claim to be doing the right thing.
And again, they're just padding pockets all the way down from top to bottom.
And at the end of the day, you know, pennies on the dollar are actually getting to veterans in need because there is an extraordinary amount of money being spent to try to solve some of these veterans issues.
And they're normally done through failed or failing initiatives.
You know, I think you've been a part of one that You know, on its front, it's the most wonderful idea on planet Earth, but because they don't understand how the product rolls out and what it creates, well, it ends up being a cesspool.
Yep.
That's what it is now.
That's what it is now.
No veteran wants to be part of a cesspool or be a token.
It's terrible.
Well, some of them do.
Some of them that are struggling with addiction and are having a hard time getting over it, they want to be part of the cesspool.
And this one particular organization that you speak of, I won't say their name because nobody wants a lawsuit or any of that headache.
I'd rather just do this show.
I figured out Within my tenure there, that their main focus was how to make money.
And so, just for clarity for the audience, at one point in my life, folks, I worked for a nonprofit that does low-income supportive housing, and here in St.
Paul and Minneapolis, we took some old horse stables that were used in World War I to train in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and turned them into efficiency apartments.
And veterans who were experiencing homelessness, quotes, in quotes, were eligible.
Veterans who were about to be homeless.
And on their luck, there was a whole matrix of qualifiers.
And we filled the place up.
It was 72 veterans and their families, some of them families, not all of them, some of them.
And in two years...
The place went to shit.
It was no drinking, no alcohol, no drugs, no prostitutes, no visitor's sign.
It was pretty structured.
And in a very short time, the place was riddled with alcohol, riddled with drugs, riddled with prostitutes, riddled with bed bugs, riddled with all kinds of stuff.
And my job as a service provider for all these people...
Was extremely, extremely downplayed because you weren't allowed to do anything to help them.
And the whole point is that veterans and military people approach life a little bit differently.
And sometimes, Jason, you know just as well as I do, that if you go to a group of veterans and you say, hey man, you know, this place, we built this place, it's really nice, people want to see it, they want to mimic this initiative all over the country, we need to keep this place clean.
And the next day you walk in and it smells like pee and there's garbage everywhere.
Well, they don't respond to the, hey, you know, we talked about this yesterday.
Would you mind cleaning up and making the place look nice and smell good?
They don't respond to that.
Nothing happens.
But when you go in there like a drill sergeant and tell them, hey, your stuff is effed up.
People are coming.
Make it right.
Let's do it now.
It gets done.
And then everybody's happy.
But they didn't care about that.
They wanted to make sure we're being nice to these people, and that will ensure that they pay their rent on time.
Well, who cares if they pay their rent on time?
Right?
That's a thing, but that's not more important than them not being homeless again.
It's not more important than them continuing to shoot meth and heroin in their arms.
It's not more important than guzzling a gallon of vodka a day.
Solving the problems, why they are homeless, why they are struggling.
You've got to deal with problems.
You don't just deal with the situation.
And this is, again, this is another thing, a whole other conversation, but just to wrap it up, I knew for sure When I started working there and we had a team meeting, and the CEO or the executive director, whatever the hell her position was of this organization, looked at us, the team that I was on, and said, hey, we're going to give homeless veterans a place to live.
And once they live there, all their problems will be solved.
Boom.
Not just a red flag, Jason, but a million pounds of dynamite with flags on top of it just exploded.
Because that's absolutely not true.
Yes, they'll have a place to stay that's safe and they don't have to worry about anybody stealing their stuff or peeing on their clothes while they're sleeping in a homeless shelter.
But all the other problems are going to come to the surface.
And I told them, buckle up.
Because we're going to have some doozies.
And we did.
And they won.
They beat me.
They got me out of there.
And now, when I'm at the VA hospital for care and I run into some of the residents who still live there because they got nowhere else to go, because they're not getting any help to get on their feet, they tell me all the time how horrible it is.
It's a horrible place.
And it's very sad.
Anyway, we're very short on time.
Jason, I'm going to give you 45 seconds to tell these wonderful people anything you would like to close out the show.
Go ahead.
Man, you're going to do it again.
Every time.
I should just get accustomed to this, but thank you.
Closing thoughts.
You know, we ended up down this path...
I'm pretty far off of the VA topic, but I always throw folks home, right?
Because veterans have to be prioritized.
Time and time again, we always see that veterans are like the byproduct of a situation.
They're never prioritized.
They're never number one.
We're always tied into some other type of spending so somebody can say, oh, we supported the veterans.
At the same time, we punched a bunch of money down the lane that otherwise would have never been supported.
So I want everybody to just remember, pay attention to your local politics.
Talk to veterans.
Find out what's going on.
And if you ever have the opportunity, try.
Try to get involved.
There you go.
Very, very good words.
And I agree.
And I'll tell you guys what.
Something that Jason beat into my head without him knowing that probably that he beat it into my head is to just kind of say those words to yourself every day.
Get involved.
Do something positive for your community every day.
And at the end of the day, this whole thing, it probably won't change.
It probably will continue to be what it is until it boils over.
But at the end of the day, Jason, I think that it's important that we continue to have these conversations on this show and any other show that we're on from here on out.
Because you're not going to hear any other perspective about these types of issues than from veterans who care about other veterans.
And I don't mean to ostracize or cast aside the opinions of civilians and people who have not served.
But it's different.
It's very different.
And although I appreciate the support from civilians and people who haven't served, these types of conversations, in my opinion, are more impactful and more meaningful coming from the mouths of myself, from you, Jason, and anybody else I've had on this show that's a veteran.
Because we're living it.
And we're watching our friends and our family members who have served go through all of this stuff.
And my final thought is that we would be, as a veteran culture and community, just a whole lot better off if the government would just come out and say, VA is gone.
We're going to do away with the VA. You veterans are on your own.
Figure it out.
I would rather have that than all this other bullshit, this mistreatment.
If they were going to say, well, you know, we're going to close the hospitals, we're going to do this and that, you might still get a disability check maybe.
We'll figure that out later.
I'd be alright with that.
Don't tell us that we're going to be okay.
Don't tell us that we're going to get A, B, and C and then not make it available or readily available.
That's just my two cents.
Anyway, we've run out of time.
You guys have a great evening.
Take care of yourselves.
Take care of each other.
And of course, we'll see you next week with more rabbit hole.
More rabbit hole talks, I'm sure.
But all good stuff.
Take care of yourselves.
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