6/15/2009

Cody Willard: Former governor Jesse Ventura, author of “Don’t start the revolution without me” joins Eric and I now for “Trading Places”. Welcome back, governor, how are you doing?

Jesse Ventura: I’m doing pretty good. How are you guys doing today?

Cody Willard: We’re doing great. First things first with this: You know, the SEC is supposed to be making sure that contracts are always enforced and no one is fraudulent. The Fed is supposed to make sure that the banks aren’t all levered up ridiculously and risking too much money, and meanwhile the FDIC is supposed to be protecting depositors. None of that is happening but those laws are already there. Why are we changing anything?

Jesse Ventura: I don’t know, you know. I guess we’re distracted by all the wars we’re involved in, you know. Instead of taking care of the home front we’re looking around the world trying to police everything else going on in the world. I don’t have the answer for you.

Eric Bolling: So, governor, would you just suggest that we kind of put our hands up? It sounds very Libertarian. Can I put you in that bubble? You’re a Libertarian so you put your hands up and say, “Hey, you know, let the world deal with their problems, we’ll deal with ours?”

Jesse Ventura: In a way, yeah. You know I always find it kind of interesting. I saw a thing the other day on Egypt and they talked about how Egypt is second only to Israel in our foreign aid. And I sat back and looked and thought, “foreign aid?” Our country is totally in debt up to its neck, we’ve got problems up to Ying Yang here. How on earth do we give out foreign aid? I was only a governor so maybe that’s beyond me.

Cody Willard: Governor, that’s just it. I mean when we looked at that I actually wrote about this on CodyWillard.com today. The fact is that the magnitudes of the numbers are so astounding. For example, CitiGroup today is going to be working with the World Bank to invest $1.25 billion in the emerging markets. That’s welfare money that could be feeding kids three blocks down in the projects from CitiGroup’s headquarters.

Jesse Ventura: Well, it could be. You know I don’t know. I am one of these people that, like I said, we’ve got enough problems inside our own borders. Why don’t we focus on fixing the United States of America, fixing our infrastructure, fixing everything that needs to be done here?

Cody Willard: Governor, isn’t that sort of what they are saying they’re trying to do, but I come back to those rules and laws that we already have in place.

Jesse Ventura: But they still have foreign aid. Let me be simple. How can you have foreign aid? It’s like you individually, you house is mortgaged to the hilt, you’re going to lose it, it’s going to be repossessed. But uncle bob calls up and wants 500 bucks from you. How do we give out foreign aid? I’m baffled over that.

Eric Bolling: Where would you draw the line, tough? So we just cut off all foreign aid completely. There would be starving people in countries that are developing?

Jesse Ventura: Why not? Why don’t we cut off foreign aid and why don’t we bring all our troops home? That would be a good start.

Cody Willard: So governor, have you seen any of these details from Timothy Geithner who I actually thought was one of the guys in charge of the Federal Reserve when all of this stuff was happening. And he is saying that he needs more authority in order to actually carry out the regulations that he’s creating now or something.

Jesse Ventura: Well, you know, I don’t think anyone truly knows what they’re doing. I can’t sit here and tell you and look you in the eye and say what they’re doing is correct. I don’t know. I think it’s a roll of the dice. I think they grabbed the dice, they rolled it, they’re hopping a seven comes up and nobody else seems to have any alternative. Because let’s remember, George Bush started the bailouts. He was the first to do it, the Republicans voted for it. Then when Barack Obama does bailouts, I notice the Republicans now don’t vote for it. So it shows me the two parties are still making decisions based upon party power and maybe not what’s good for the country as a whole.

Eric Bolling: Jesse, real quickly because we’re running out of time, you’re okay with welfare to our own starving people in this country?

Jesse Ventura: Well, I’m alright with a safety net of welfare. I think that we’re a rich country and we should always look after our poor people and try to give them a boost up so that they can become contributing citizens. I think when you really judge a country, judge a country by its poor. When you look at a country look at its poor and that will tell you how successful the country is.

Cody Willard: Thank you so much for joining us once again, Governor Jesse Ventura.

Date: 6/1/2009

David Asman: As we continue our first night of Red Ink Week, there is no question that for too long, politicians of all stripes have looked at government coffers as a bottomless pit of wealth. Spending other people’s money is always easier than parting with your own and that’s precisely the problem. If we’re ever going to get out of this hole, we keep digging for ourselves or they keep digging for us, the mentality of how we govern has got to change here in Washington and in state capitals all over the country as well.

Our next guest has been on the frontline of that charge to make politicians accountable with the taxpayers, something he did as governor of Minnesota. Joining us now from Minneapolis is the author of “Don’t Start The Revolution Without Me”, and Jesse Ventura, I wouldn’t think of it, because I’m sure you’d be in the front deck all the way. Good to see you again.

Jesse Ventura: Good to see you again. Nice to be here.

David Asman: Well, you know, in just the past couple of months since we’ve seen each other, the folks in the Capitol right behind me have gone out of their way to do exactly what you said they shouldn’t do, which is putting themselves more in charge, spending more of our money and reducing our freedoms. What do we do as a country to combat that?

Jesse Ventura: Well, I think, you know, I’ve harped on it for years and years. We’ve got to stop voting for Democrats and Republicans. I mean, they are in this together. They both spend equally as bad. It seems that the Democrats are more cash and carry. They like to reach directly into your wallet, where the Republicans seem to charge it and put it on the national debt and hope to pay it off later with another generation.

When I was governor of Minnesota, I ran on a unicameral platform, One House, and at the state level, you don’t need two Houses. One House works. Now at the Federal level, of course, you need two; otherwise, California would run the nation and we know what a disaster that could be.

But I couldn’t even get them to take a floor vote on putting it on the ballot, and the reason I bring this up is because the more people you have elected and the larger… like in Minnesota, we have 201 state legislators, which is bigger than California’s, even though their population is 30 million more than ours is, or better. Every time they pass a law, that comes with a price tag. It requires to implement that law, there’s going to have to be funding spent on it.

David Asman: That’s right.

Jesse Ventura: So we’ve got to get these people to stop passing more laws.

David Asman: That’s right. That’s right.

Jesse Ventura: That would be a great start.

David Asman: Well, passing more laws…

Jesse Ventura: Do we really need more laws?

David Asman: Governor, governor. It’s also creating bureaucracies. If it was just a matter of writing a check or cutting a check in order to solve the problem, then fine. You know, cut a check. But they create these huge bureaucracies, each one of which has about two or three buildings in this town of Washington filled with hundreds or thousands of bureaucrats, each one of whom, well, have pensions that last until the day they die.

Jesse Ventura: We also have to pay for the party caucus staffs. In Minnesota, that comes out of the taxpayer’s end. We pay. Now, why should my tax dollars, when I’m a third-party guy, go to support the Democrats and Republicans who I oppose, and yet they take my tax dollars and give it to them.

David Asman: All right, well, specific question then. How do we make it more difficult, because right now it’s pretty easy for them to spend money and for them to create laws, how do we make it more difficult for them to do that?

Jesse Ventura: Well, the only way is at the ballot box. Stop electing them, then they’ll get terrified, you know, because it’s all about getting elected and control. You see, the problem is these two parties have put their parties first and the country second. And in fact, the country is third. Special interest is second. So in the case in point, when George Bush went for a bailout, all the Republicans voted for it.

David Asman: That’s right.

Jesse Ventura: A few months later, when President Obama does it, all the Republicans now don’t vote for it. That clearly shows you that they vote to give power to their parties and they’re not doing what’s necessarily correct for the country.

David Asman: All right. Well, by the way, just a slight correction. Not all Republicans voted for the bailouts, the TARP bailouts. I mean, we’ve got a couple who are coming up right here on the scoreboard that we want you to pay attention to.

Jesse Ventura: Okay, and that’s fine. But as a whole, I’m speaking as a whole.

David Asman: Yeah.

Jesse Ventura: As a whole, Republicans supported the Bush bailout and they opposed the Obama bailout when essentially they were the same things. It shows you how it works.

David Asman: I agree they were essentially the same thing.

Jesse Ventura: There could be a few exceptions, yeah.

David Asman: But, governor, we have to be realistic. There is not a third party right now. I mean, if there was, I think I’d be one of the first persons to pull the lever.

Jesse Ventura: Well, you know why that is, it’s because the media helps the two party system to survive. They won’t give…

David Asman: Well, not this media.

Jesse Ventura: Why was it… wait a minute, why was it when Ross Perot got one out of five votes in 1992 or 20 percent, he wasn’t allowed to debate in 1996. Where was the media on that? Just tell me about it.

David Asman: Well, this particular media wasn’t there at that particular time, but it is now.

Jesse Ventura: But the point of the matter is…

David Asman: And we’d be happy to give coverage to a viable third party candidate. Where is he?

Jesse Ventura: Well, again, you know, we’ve got to climb the ladder again and try to make that available out there. I protest vote. I think that in every election, be it local, statewide or national, they should give you the option of “none of the above”, and people laugh at that. But what that is, that’s a protest vote. It’s a vote of no confidence in your government and I’d be willing to bet there would be certain elections where none of the above would actually win and that’s a start.

David Asman: You know, I think that’s a terrific idea. In fact, they do that. In some cases, they do that in Italy and very often none of the above wins the vote, but what do you then?

Jesse Ventura: Well, wouldn’t that send the message? I mean, imagine if you got elected to office, but you lost to none of the above. Well, that would make me re-think a few positions. It’s a start.

David Asman: Yeah.

Jesse Ventura: You can’t climb a mountain without taking the first step.

David Asman: That’s true. That’s true. That’s true. Well, maybe that’s the place to begin.

Jesse Ventura: And you’ve got to take these small steps in which to achieve what you want to achieve. You can’t just leap over the mountain and say it so, especially when the two parties control everything about the system.

David Asman: Got you. We’ve got to leave it at that. Governor Jesse Ventura. Governor, you’re welcome back any time. Thanks very much.

Jesse Ventura: Well, let me finish by saying this. When I ran for governor, I only raised $300,000.

David Asman: Yeah.

Jesse Ventura: That’s fiscal control. We only had one person paid.

David Asman: Unbelievable.

Jesse Ventura: All the rest were volunteers, but they don’t like you to know that stuff.

David Asman: If you cut the Fed out of this government out of what’s going on behind me, there wouldn’t be a city of Washington, DC.

Jesse Ventura: Thank you. Well, I could do it if you’d elect me president, but unfortunately, I’m not running.

David Asman: I guess your wife won’t let you…

Jesse Ventura: I certain…

David Asman: Some day, you’ve got to talk to your wife into doing that, all right, into letting you run.

Jesse Ventura: Well, my wife has nothing to do it. She has nothing to do with it.

David Asman: All right.

Jesse Ventura: Surfing. Surfing. The ocean don’t lie.

David Asman: You love surfing.

Jesse Ventura: Thanks, guys.