Rep. Mike Kennedy Strengthening Medicaid Integrity and Sen. John Curtis on His Maiden Senate Floor Speech
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We have on the phone today Congressman Mike Kenney. He represents Utah's 3rd Congressional District. He is very unique in that not only is he a practicing physician and a licensed attorney, he was a business owner. Congressman Kenney serves on several committees, including the House Committee on Natural Resources, and he is the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands, and also on the Committee for Science, Space, and Technology in Transportation Infrastructures. Congressman Kenney, welcome to the show. Thanks.

Thanks for having me. They've put me to work here in Washington, D.C., and we're ready to go for the people of Utah and the great United States of America. Congressman, I'm going to ask you a quick personal question. There's been times in the history of Congress where you've had people who have been in Congress who have been doctors and attorneys. I don't think there's anybody now. Do they try to come to you for advice all the time on Medicaid issues, medical issues, things of that nature? A sore throat? Do they come to you all the time?

They come mostly for Adderall and attention deficit disorder medicines. There's some anti-anxiety and antidepressants that I'm being requested to prescribe as well. I'm just kidding. I am a practicing physician. I still have my license and all, but there are a lot of care needs up here on the mental health side of things particularly, but we're trying to work without infringing on their privacy on working with people and getting things done.

Well, thank you for your service. Yeah, thank you. And I definitely believe that epidemic you just mentioned. So I think what every, yeah, especially here in Miami where I'm from, absolutely. I can't find it in the stores. But anyways, I think what I'm most curious about is that visit to El Salvador to that prison. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Yeah, it was Chairman of Ways and Means, Jason Smith, set up this visit and we're able to, in a series of countries, we went to four countries in total and one of them was El Salvador. It's very interesting. The first thing I'd say outside of the prison is that China is on the march. The Chinese Communist Party is offering for free a 5G network to El Salvador and as a country that struggles, that's really disturbing to me to think

what is that free 5g network in El Salvador going to do for the Chinese communist party, but promote communism and demote the United States of America. So that, that's just a side conversation that we need to be careful because China's in our backyard and central and South America, but,

When it came to this prison, actually, President Bukele actually built that prison in seven months. It's a 40,000 person prison, and they did that in seven months. And it was because it was one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. Their homicide rate per 100,000 was 31.

in a limited period of time just a few years they've dropped it to one point nine actually el salvador is not safer than chicago united states america city chicago so so on that he president but kelly is done a dramatic turnaround for country which was being devastated by m_s_ thirteen gang members and uh... terrorists that were running their country so i'm when we went in the prison we're able to actually see uh... the gods of the street that are now uh... and bars

And these people decided who was going to live and who was going to die when they were out on the streets. And now they're behind bars. And actually, the president of El Salvador has actually driven his country into a much safer realm, unlike it was just a few years ago. Yeah, that's the maximum security terrorism confinement center called SICA down in El Salvador.

um that has variety here popularity here how would you say this prison has deterred criminals um in avador from doing what they've been doing and that something similar would work here in the united

We in our country have spent many years coddling prisoners. And I'll say on both sides of it is that there's... So let's talk about the conditions in that prison in El Salvador. There's no cell phones, no television, no radio. They sleep without pillows and mattresses. They're in 80-person cells, so e-cigarettes.

So each cell, it's a large warehouse that we were brought into. Each cell, there was, if I remember correctly, 32 cells. And each of those cells hold 80 people. And the beds were metal frames that were stacked four high, kind of front to the back.

of these cells with two toilets and two water troughs inside of these facilities. And in other words, these prisoners are not coddled. They are not brought in to get law degrees. As you may know, our current prison environment is many of these prisoners end up getting law degrees or the equivalent of such because there's access to all sorts of library books and these people study all the time. They file their own complaints.

complaints against the system and their own appeals. So we've spent, and I want all people treated humanely, but I think we've gone too far in our country. And President Bukele in El Salvador has demonstrated in a desperate circumstance that actually crime doesn't pay in El Salvador. And he's doing two things. One, he is in prison,

many of these individuals that were ruining his country. But in addition, he's made it so hard that actually a lot of the terrible criminals, they've left the country and gone to easier marks in other countries. And I'm afraid some of them have tried to come to the United States, but now that President Trump is on the watch,

Our border is the most secure border in the history of my lifetime, if not the entire lifetime of our country. That was a big thing that President Trump needed to do. He promised to do, and he has done it. He secured our borders. And now those people in El Salvador that want to do nefarious crimes, they're not fleeing to the United States as they did during the feckless Biden administration. They're not coming here to do their crimes. They're actually barred from doing that thanks to our border control.

yeah and they might have similar consequences here if we get serious about uh how we how we treat these people that are coming across illegally and committing felonies and i know that's something you wanted to to talk about uh pretty soon is what are we gonna do with illegals that are here that have committed felonies and have been deported but

but then come back to the United States and historically it's just been kind of like a rotation with no real consequences and no real disincentive for them to do that. So I would personally love to see something like this here. How about you? Have you heard of the news that they might repurpose Rikers Island, for example, specifically to house criminals and illegal migrants that are in the country?

And Alcatraz, I mean, we're hearing this kind of talk and whether that materializes, I don't know. But I do believe it's really important for us to drop the hammer on these criminals. The reality is, and that's where Brad Knott's bill, he's a congressman from North Carolina, a good friend of mine. He's a former federal prosecutor and he is.

working along with me and others to pass the bill that the revolving door of illegals that come into this country commit crimes are deported and then they just come back is is what his bill is going to do is and enhance the punishment associated with these people that are in the constant revolving door associated with uh crimes committed in this country in fact people

People are critical of Congress. You don't do enough. Well, the first bill that President Trump signed and that we passed with the Senate and the House was the Lake and Riley Act. And as most people know from the tragic circumstances of Lake and Riley is a very nice nursing student in Georgia was was murdered by an illegal alien who actually had been he'd committed crimes.

at least two, if not several times before, and was still left in the country and ultimately ended up killing Lake and Riley. And these tragedies need to stop. And under the watch of President Trump and working with my colleagues like Congressman Knott is we can actually do that. We can actually enhance the punishments. And what this bill is going to do is actually when

when people come back, you're going to have a minimum five-year federal prison sentence if you've committed a felony and been deported. And if you keep coming back 10 years, the life is where you're going to be punished. And the reality for us is that we can't have this constant revolving door of these illegals because we don't take any of it seriously. We just send them out and they come back and commit the same crimes. And that kind of

more firm punishment is going to enhance our national security and reduce the likelihood of these tragedies, like in the case of Lake and Riley. Rachel Moran, another example of a mother of five children who was raped and murdered by an illegal alien who'd committed crimes before. And the Biden administration was asleep at the switch on these things. President Trump and the current Republican Congress is not we're not going to tolerate that sort of behavior.

With Congressman Mike Kennedy, Utah's third congressional district. Congressman, as you know, Medicaid accounts for 57% of all federal expenditures. It's a big problem. You are the background to go help solve the problem that there needs to be solving to it. And you have introduced a bill called the Medicaid Integrity and Safe Taxpayer Adult. What is that bill and what do you hope to accomplish with it?

What's been shocking for us is that the states of California and New York have registered hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens on Medicaid, and they don't confirm any verification on this. So what my bill merely does, and we're seeing some of this mirrored in reconciliation, is require states that have people on Medicaid to verify the eligibility every three months, which sounds like common sense. And actually, that's what President Trump is working on. And

a golden age of common sense for the United States of America is if people are on Medicaid, they should be able to prove their verification eligibility every three months at least. And so by requiring that, we can save $280 billion because there are hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens on Medicaid right now. And the states that have registered these people know that they are registering illegal aliens on federal taxpayer programs like Medicaid.

And for your listeners, Medicaid was created for pregnant women, disabled individuals and people that are in poverty. It was not created to generate health care for all the people of the world. We can't do that. God bless the people of the world. We want to do our best. The United States is a charitable people, but it is not our job to health care, clothe and feed it.

every person on the planet. We can't do it. So in this case, all our bill does is it requires Medicaid verification every three months. And with that, we'll save billions of dollars. So I'm proud of that bill. And we're going to see a version of that reconciliation. I entirely support the effort that we're moving forward on this important concept. Have you had anybody from the other side of the aisle

flappy on the back, say good job, they're supportive of it? Or is this really going to be a problem? No, that kind of stuff doesn't seem to happen so much around here. I mean, it makes, once again, common sense for us to do this, but I'm afraid the accolades from the Democrats have yet to materialize.

Congressman Kennedy, we're going to have you back on for the next segment here. But where do people follow you if they want to follow what you're doing and your bills and so forth? Rep. Mike Kennedy is where I'm at for social media. So, yeah, have a look. We'd be happy to have you on and tell you all the stuff that we're doing. Quick question before we go to commercial break. What was the toughest degree for you, legal or medical? Taking the bar in the legal because I was working full time as a doctor. It was definitely the hardest. What made you decide to do that?

I wanted more policy background, and I'm really glad I did it at the time. I didn't see exactly how it would translate, but it's been extremely helpful in the public sphere of legislation and policy. The law degree was outstanding. I can tell you a lot more about that if you wanted to know. But doctors and lawyers think differently, and I'm glad I have both in my head. Well, we're glad you did. With Congressman Mike Kennedy, this is Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back.

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Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warner. Gianna Sexto is with us today. And Congressman, welcome back to the show.

Thank you. So we saw this whole thing with Doge. And my question is, are you hopeful at all that we can really get a balanced budget? Because...

Democrats went to their try and true opposition of you're cutting Medicare, you're cutting Medicaid, you're cutting security and grandma's going to be on the street and they don't care about disabled people. And it was so disappointing for me because they know there's a problem. And how do you see this being done? I mean, this is more of a philosophical question, but just the reaction to Doge, to pointing out money going to things that most Americans don't support and

You acted like they were shooting kitties on the parking lot. It was a really weird. I don't I don't I'm I'm very pessimistic that we're going to be able to get our fiscal house in order because you have a group of people who just can't be honest that we have to take a look. And, you know, Doge needs to happen everywhere in the Department of Defense. And I'm a big you know, I'm a big believer in a strong national security. But how do you see this playing out?

Those are the complicated set of questions, many different answers as I think about what you're asking, which is really important. The first thing I'd say is I'm an optimistic guy and I know you can be pessimistic and I recognize that considering the history. I'm 56 years old. I don't know how old you are, but the reality is we've seen a bunch of nonsense on both sides of the political ideology spectrum is just spending without restraint. And it's it's

embarrassing it's shameful and frankly it's i i think our national debt is our greatest security uh crisis in our country is is we we if we don't have the money we can't buy

diesel fuel for our tanks. We can't buy missiles. We can't pay people to do these things. We have to have the money. So as an optimistic guy as I am, I'll use my own personal framework is I have eight children, lots of children. I'm grateful to have them. They're great people, but it costs me a lot of money to have these children. At the same time I had children, I had a 20 year medical school debt.

And I also bought a house. I had a 30-year mortgage while I was raising eight children. And part of the thing about just being fiscally sane about our approach is my wife and I, we paid off a 30-year house mortgage in 15 years. We paid off a 20-year medical school debt in 10 years while we raised eight children. And the reason why we were able to do that is we were just, I was on a family doctor's salary, which is, it's a doctor's salary, but it was,

It was a modest income for a doctor, generally. And we were just frugal. We've never been to Hawaii. We don't have a condo in Key West. We took vacations camping in Goblin Valley in Utah instead of fancy places like Disney World. And the reality is when our country is on a better fiscal trajectory,

sound tracks, then it's gonna be good for our great grandchildren. And so what I see, and there's a lot to be done, but we can move this aircraft carrier in a better direction. And that's my objective. I'd like to fix it all next week.

But we have to be patient with some of these things. And as long as we're sensible about it, then I think we can make progress. Even though we're not going to get a touchdown pass, I think we can actually move the ball forward. So and that's where Republican unity is really important, because every time Republicans vote against their team, they're

endorsing Democrat progressive ideology. And that's where I've been embarrassed for my Democrat colleagues that I'm defending USAID, for example, is the amount of nefarious spending that was going on there is just, it's a travesty for our country. When you're talking about $25 million going to Iraq for Sesame Street programs, that is not

that is not necessary and i don't know whose idea it was to sponsor such wasteful taxpayers expenditures but i'm not going to stand for that and our republican conference along with elon musk and doge we're working vigorously to find those opportunities to save the other thing to comment on what you're describing is the democrats aren't going to help us with this because they're looking for something to convince their voters that

they're doing something. And I just say, if the voters want to support people that are sending wasteful taxpayer dollars to transgendered

operas in Peru, then vote for Democrats who are supporting USAID who did that sort of thing. But if you want somebody who's going to actually terminate those kind of programs, somebody like me and others in the Republican conference, then vote for the Republicans. And we need to keep the House for sure. Otherwise, Donald Trump's going to be impeached over the next two years for a continual impeachment proceeding, which we already know some Democrats already opened impeachment proceedings on President Trump.

Don't you find it, by the way, talking about Doge, don't you find it hilarious that the press talks about, well, $2 billion is not much money.

I mean, I think we forgot. It's shocking to see, yes, they're just tossed around money because it's not their money and it's not even real money. I mean, it's borrowed money from our great-grandchildren. But yeah, I mean, I pick up a penny or a dime if I find it on the ground. And these people talk about billions and hundreds of millions don't count. I think it counts. It certainly would if I had that in my bank account. You're not going to get a house in Key West with an attitude like that. Yeah, it's...

spend money that that isn't theirs and to speak of it from such a detached point i think it's also because so many people in the democrat party more of the talking heads of the republican party are disconnected from reality you know we've got nancy pelosi who's getting

an entire act named after her to stop insider trading. They don't have the eight kids. They don't, you know, she's never known having to hunker down to make ends. Know that the talking heads and the representatives of the Democrat Party just are so disconnected from the average American citizen versus our side that has real people like like you, that has a family, a background outside of being a lifetime politician.

Congressman, what do you think?

There are police officers, there are doctors and lawyers. Most of these people have come to their detriment on some level, to come to a very difficult place to try for the United States of America to make

the place better. And I'll add to what Chuck we started at with is there haven't been many doctor attorneys that have come here. Guess what? There are three actually in the freshman class, three doctors and attorneys. I mean, three people that have both degrees, one of whom is a Democrat. And I believe that just like during the World Trade Center bombing in 9/11, there were many people that fled those

those buildings. But during those crises, there were many people, firefighters, police officers, rescue EMT that went to those buildings to try to save lives. And I feel like there's a lot of serious-minded people that have come to Congress to try to make the place better. And I'm hoping to be one of them and find others because we have to work together for the good of our country and for our great grandchildren's benefit.

We have one minute left here. We've had Congressman Andy Harris on a few times on the show, and he's a doctor, John Hopkins. And I remember asking him, because the majority of the doctors in Congress are Republicans. And I asked him during COVID, did his...

colleagues on the other side come and ask his opinion on the COVID measures. And he said, no. So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully you can start a conversation where both sides start talking a little bit about each other. Congressman Kennedy, thank you so much for joining us today. We hope you'll join us again soon, sometime in the near future. You've been fantastic. Thanks for having me on. This is Breaking Battlegrounds and we'll be right back.

Support American jobs while standing up for your values. OldGloryDepot.com brings you conservative pride on premium, made-in-USA gear. Don't settle. Wear your patriotism proudly. Visit OldGloryDepot.com today. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. We have with us right now Kate Monroe. She is a former U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and she is CEO of VetCom. Hello, Kate. Hey there. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for coming on. So President Trump announced this week a plan to build a national center for homeless veterans using funds previously allocated by the Biden administration for housing illegal aliens to this country. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, I absolutely loved it when I ran for Congress here in California. I was talking about the need to get our veterans off the street. And there's thirty five thousand of them actually on the street. And I'm happy to see him making good on his promises. And he promised that he would focus on this. And he is. I do think I have a less expensive, better plan, but I'm happy to see them go that direction. What what do you like about his plan and what is your less expensive plan?

Well, their plan, while it's amazing and they're reallocating resources, they're sort of spinning the resources back to the veterans where they belong. It's a little bit of housing first, where we build housing again and we put people inside. The trouble is...

going from the curb to a condo is not the correct journey. There needs to be an intermediary step, which I would call a base camp. So it would have all the infrastructure of a base. It would have a cafeteria, a shower system, chapel, you know, rehabilitation, sort of a bunk system. So it's

You know, it's going from like being on the street to infrastructure camping where we transform people and then we might transition them into that indoor condo like scenario. But there needs to be some transformative time spent and a step in between the curb and the condo. What percentage of veterans are homeless or have been homeless at one point in their life after serving?

Well, of the 20 million veterans, 10% of them are at the brink of homelessness as we speak. So about 1.3 million veterans are at the brink of homelessness. 35,000 of them are actually homeless sleeping on the street. And it's really the fault of our country because if we had the will to stop it, we could have...

companies, more companies doing skill bridge, transitioning people better. We could be treating mental health on the exit journey from the service, but we don't. It's sort of thank you for your service and go march on. It's not a spirit of how can I help? It's like thanks for serving, now get out. - Yeah, and you would think that if there's 40,000

out of the 800,000 total homeless in this country approximately, that 40,000 of those homeless people are veterans, that we would have the resources in this country to really give them what they need if we were able to give them to millions of illegals for so many years, right?

Well, I mean, think about being able to house feed, clothe, give phones to, give opportunity to some 10 million illegal migrants, but you can't get 35,000 homeless vets off the street. I've not met a single homeless veteran and I've talked to 1000 of them. So a pretty large sampling, not one of them said they wouldn't go to one of these base camps. Well,

What they don't want to do is go into a shelter in California for 28 days, lose all their stuff, and then get kicked back out on the street. They've seen that movie enough times, they're tired of watching it. So, you know, we have to do something with more runway. Why are so many veterans on the brink?

Well, a lot of it has to do with the way in which they transition from the military. So let's say that you kind of had a trauma-filled life as a kid and you're just trying to run into the service as fast as you can. You're likely to get a job you didn't choose. So now for four years, you're going to do something you didn't want to do that probably doesn't easily...

help you on the outside. So you're a tank mechanic today, tomorrow now you're a civilian. There's no tank mechanic jobs. And so when you exit service, you don't exit with a severance. You exit with nothing. If you're not in the right service, you probably didn't get disability compensation either. And you're likely to exit service where you don't live. So because so many companies are not SkillBridge companies, there's

There's not enough places for a quarter million veterans to go to work. So, like, for me, right now we have roughly 20 Skillbridge people working at our company, meaning they're still on active duty service, but they're working for me on the government's dime. And the day that they transition to become a civilian, now they have continuity of health care because I have health care. They have a job, a team, a purpose, and a salary. Yeah.

But for those listening, exactly what is Skill Bridge? Because that's very important. Skill Bridge is where during the last six months of your service, if you're active duty, like let's say you got on the DOD Skill Bridge website, you could find VetCom and you could actually work here serving veterans on the government's dime so you wouldn't have to work your job in the government anymore. And the day that you transition over, you get to come work for my company in a salary job.

So you don't skip a beat financially. So we want more companies to be doing that. Yeah. And, well, one of the main services that VetCom provides is being able to process that paperwork and those requests for veterans to receive the resources that they are owed. What is the main challenge that these homeless veterans face with being able to process this? And we've got 30 seconds here, Kate. Yep.

Yeah. So a homeless veteran faces a lot more challenges than your average veteran facing the VA because without an address, without a ride to your appointments, without just having the wherewithal, you're not going to be able to traverse that system. So we're actually building a charity to cover that. But for your average everyday veteran in less than four months, you could be $4,000 a month richer. So find us at vetcom.us.

Kate, thank you so much for joining us today. Everybody, Kate Monroe, CEO of Vetcom. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back. In today's digital world, standing out is more important than ever. Whether you're running for office, leading a cause, or hosting a vote for the cutest pet in town, you need a web domain that's simple, memorable, and action-oriented. You need a .vote web domain. It's clear, impactful, and establishes a lasting presence for your campaign.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Sam Stone. Chuck had to step out for this segment, but we've got the irrepressible Kylie Kipper. She is in studio still. She's going to be joining us a little bit in this interview, right? Yeah, we'll see if we get a peep out. Are we going to get a Kylie's Corner? We have a fun Kylie's Corner for this week as always. We have a fun Kylie's Corner, so stay tuned. Make sure you download that podcast. Our next guest up, you don't want to miss this segment, Senator John Curtis of Utah. He is a friend of the program.

He was just fairly recently sworn in. Is that right, Senator? Well, it feels like a lifetime, but it was last January. It's only been four months that you've been there now. And it does feel like a lifetime. It feels like the first four months of this year, there has been more news and more things going on in D.C. packed into these four months than we have ever seen before.

You know, it seems like the pace is breakneck. People are really sort of feeling the pressure, feeling what some folks feel is chaos, which is why we thought your maiden floor speech was actually kind of kind of important. That isn't nor maybe always the case for a maiden floor speech on the Senate. But but, Senator, we have to give you credit for this one because you were talking about something I think that our elected officials maybe don't do enough, which is take time to listen, reflect and maybe learn.

Well, thank you. And by the way, it's great to be with you. And when Chuck asks about it, tell him I said, Chuck who? That's what we say, too. Chuck's a great guy. But listen, first of all, for your listeners, a little bit of the culture about the Maiden 4 speech.

there's a tradition here in the Senate that you wait several months and then you don't speak on the floor until you do your maiden speech. And so we've waited very carefully, but also to your point, it was very important to me and not just me, my team is that we don't just jump out there and say, "Hey, here's what I'm all about. Here's what I'm gonna do," is no, let's listen. And let's listen very strategically

And to do that, among other things, I chose four places that I think hold tremendous significance for the state of Utah and the country.

And I went to those alone, no media, no team members. And I had a very contemplative experience at each of those four places. And a good chunk of my speech is a reflection on what I heard, what I felt, what I thought the American people were saying to me, what I thought Utahns were saying to me. And I'm going to try to reflect that in my speech.

How important is it when you're going around? Politicians, obviously, talking is what you do, right? I mean, it's part and parcel of the job. How important is it to just shut up and listen? Well, my guess is if we asked your listeners that, they would say it's 10 on a 1 of 10. Why don't politicians listen more? Right. So the answer is I think one of the mistakes we make here is not listening. Yeah.

And this that's why this was very targeted, strategic for me was to show people, look, I'm going to start by listening before I speak. I want to listen. One of the things there that I always think and Kylie kind of gets missed is listening to the other side. Like there's stuff there that maybe we agree with if we slow down and listen. Are you finding some of that in in the halls of the Senate so far?

Absolutely. And I'll tell you a specific as part of this listening, I not only went to these sites, we put the message out to the state that we were visiting these sites and we wanted people to give me their experiences there. But I also sent a letter to all of my Senate colleagues, all 99 of them, and asked them for their feedback. And during the last couple of days, to be honest, I've had more Democrats come

share their experiences with me at these special places that I have had my Republican colleagues. Now, I've had both, but it's been kind of gratifying to see

There was like almost the lines disappear when we're talking about some of these places and some of them. I'm happy to go into specifics if you want, but some of them are sacred sites for us as a nation. And I've had members come up to be very emotional about what they had experienced at those sites or what somebody had told them about those sites.

Love it. Senator, I wanted to touch on something else that you've been a champion of. Utah is really coming up in sort of the –

economy is growing, really big focus on technology and future technology. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on there? Because I think the noise, you know, you hear about Austin, you hear about Texas a lot. Arizona is trying real hard on semiconductors, but Utah has been developing a homegrown technology base that's pretty extraordinary. Yeah.

For sure. I I'll go back to my days as a mayor. I was stunning to me how many companies started in a basement in Provo, um, right. BYU students and the roommate or somebody. And now are these major corporations and I attribute it to a couple of things. Um,

The pioneer roots that we have, quite frankly, are very entrepreneurial. And I think that breeds this entrepreneurial spirit. They're also crazy innovative. And the innovators in Utah just are so fun for me to be around because the way they think, the way their minds function, it is innovation on steroids.

And I think Utah is just really blessed, first of all, with a culture of entrepreneurism. And then second, this crazy innovative streak that you find in Utahns.

And it really manifests itself. This is an unofficial litmus test, but watch Shark Tank and see how many disproportionate number of people on Shark Tank are actually from Utah. It's hugely disproportionate. And I think that's pretty cool. I think that's amazingly cool. And, you know, I think it's one of the important aspects. Obviously, Donald Trump has a lot of work to do to get the economy back to where he wants it to be and where Americans want it to be.

But the tendency of Utahns to really focus on entrepreneurship, to build and support each other up, that's a really critical element in this next phase of economic growth for our country, isn't it? Oh, for sure. And I'm – listen, I'm the one shouting from the housetops, Utah needs to lead this or need to lead this. I'll give you an example, energy.

The innovation coming out of Utah and energy is just astounding. I think Utah has a chance to grab a national foothold on innovation in energy, just as one example.

and AI and all of these issues, right, that are just right, I think, for Utahns. And I really think we should aspire as a little state of Utah to be not just a leader in the West, not just a leader in the United States, but literally a world leader on some of these issues. And I think we can. What area of energy is Utah really kind of out in front of? I'm just curious to learn more.

So there are some that would be not a surprise. And maybe this is a surprise, but geothermal. It's not a surprise to me because I spend a lot of time with it. That might surprise your listeners. But we're leading in geothermal exploration and implementation. But then there's this whole layer of technologies that I get to see because people bring them to me.

of ideas where somebody has said, look, we can do this or we can do that. And it's so exciting for me to see. And I think some of these will be the geothermal of the future, these new sources of energy. And by the way, what I like about Utah is

The world's kind of in a tug of war between clean, right, Green New Deal and no emissions and traditional energy. And what's exciting about Utah is I think they have this recipe figured out that you don't have to have an either or. What you're seeing coming out of Utah, even by the way, in our fossil fuels, is affordable, it's reliable and it's clean.

And I think that Utah's got it figured out that all three of those variables matter. Well, and it's important to have that all of the above strategy because as Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said a few weeks ago,

We are in a race for energy for the future, right? I mean, really, the country that has abundant, reasonably priced energy going forward just has a massive advantage on the world stage. So think about this. Europe is buying fossil fuels from an enemy. Right. And they're dirty. Right.

Is that where we want to be? Of course not. We want other countries buying their fuel from us. And then think how much leverage that gives us to propagate Utah values and U.S. values around the world. And that's where we have that. We are at that window of saying, look, if we jump on this, the world will be buying their energy from us. If we don't, we'll be buying it from them.

A critical, critical point for the future of this country. Absolutely. Before we let you go, we have just about four minutes left here. I want to talk on a bipartisan piece of legislation that you helped sponsor and introduce because it is so important for those of us throughout the western United States, the Fix Our Forests Act. Can you tell us a little bit about that one? Sure.

I would love, thank you for that lead in because I'm really proud of the bill. The bill is a culmination of effort first that came out of the house. And once it came to the Senate, myself and Tim Sheehy from Montana, Republican, along with Chris Padilla and Hickenlooper, Governor Hickenlooper, now Senator Hickenlooper, both Democrats. So you had two Republicans and two Democrats voting.

coming together with our teams, figuring out how we work to save our forest and manage them better so we don't get these crazy fires. Sadly, in the past, this becomes a partisan issue. As a stereotype, Democrats don't want to clear the dead wood out. Republicans want to do more than the Democrats want to do. And this bill goes a long ways to giving people the tools and the ability to go forward

manage our forests so we don't get these fires. And I can't think of, there's few things that will impact Arizona, Utah, the West, California, Colorado, and our economies like a devastating wildfire. There are places in, even in Utah, it's predominantly

predominant in California, but even in Utah, where people can't buy fire insurance for their homes. So they're self-insuring. Well, that doesn't work for a lot of people. No, no. So this is just a really important bill. And just for your listeners, yeah, we got bipartisan support. We found a path

where we were able to get some really significant wins that were important to us. And of course, they feel the same way. And we both got there without feeling like we had to give up what was important to us. And I would just say that happens more often in Washington than people know. And so that's why I'm glad you brought this bill up.

Well, it's always good to hear about that, right, Kylie? I mean, we actually have major problems. We have a cabin up north in Arizona, and it was very hard for my parents to get fire insurance. We went through many, many companies. Yeah, and if you're incredibly rich, you can self-insure, but it's just not an option. Think how many family cabins there are out there that literally forced them to sell their cabins.

It's the last thing we want. And then, you know, this seems like one of those I'm glad you have found some bipartisan ground on this issue because it's always struck me as one where proper forest management is is not damaging the environment at all. In fact, it's strengthening and improving it. Right.

Well, we know that in Utah and Arizona, but some of our colleagues aren't quite there with us. But that was what was so significant about this bill is that we were able to reach a good place on that.

We have just about one minute left here in this segment. I want to throw a little hope out to folks. It seems like there's some numbers underlying the economy that it is turning around, that the Trump administration is getting to the point where they want to be, where the economy can start recovering and moving forward very strongly. Are you seeing that and how hopeful are you that that will happen here within the next year or two?

I think this is a good place to go back in history just a little bit. Ronald Reagan took over after Jimmy Carter. You guys are too young, but I remember inflation rates, purchasing a home and looking at 15% interest. I had a CD at a bank that paid me 15%.

And Ronald Reagan came in and he pushed interest rates higher in order to bring them down. And the criticism was severe. It was very similar to what President Trump's experiencing, right, with his tariffs. And President Trump has bet it all on these tariffs, right? Like he owns this. And it'll either be the coach that goes for it on fourth to one and scores the touchdown or doesn't. And President Trump's bet on the touchdown, we've seen a couple of really good indications there.

in the China situation and in England that he's going to land this plane.

But buckle up because the ride is a little bit rough. Thank you so much, Senator John Curtis. We love having you on the program. Look forward to having you back here again in the future, folks. Stay tuned. We have Kylie's Corner coming up here. If you're not already, go to BreakingBattlegrounds.vote. You can get all of our latest episodes there or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And we will be back on the air next week.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, the podcast portion of our show. I have with me in studio, Adriana Sexto. How are you doing? Great. Thanks for joining me today on the show. Thank you so much for having me on. Before we get to Kylie's Corner, ladies, I want to discuss something. So apparently to the Washington Times, grandparent names are making a comeback with baby names. So we're getting names like Mabel, Maude, and Eloise. What are your thoughts? Well, I think it's a good idea.

I think it's so elegant. I just think that we're trying to, I guess, go back against this agenda they've been pushing for so long of names that can be both for male and female because they've pushed this like tranny agenda on us so hard that now we're just pushing harder on the other direction. So we're bringing back the more feminine, beautiful, traditional names, which I personally love. Kylie, do you have any friends naming their kids grandma names? Well, that would require my friends to start having babies. Yeah.

Lazy, lazy, lazy these women are. We'll check back in soon. My mom's name is Gwen. In 2021, it was 854th most popular name among girls. So only 319 baby girls in 2021 had been named Gwen. So we'll wait and see if that makes an uptick back. Well, it's very English, which she is. Very English indeed. Well, Jeremy, let's tee off Kylie's Corner here.

So come and take a spin and listen in.

Okay, so this week I've decided to leave the murder for next week because I do think we might have an update on the Karen Reed case. They've suspended the trial for further notice. There hasn't been any trial happening. Why? There's been no reason. They had a Zoom meeting yesterday but haven't heard any updates. So that update will come next week. And I was telling someone about Kylie's Corner and what I talk about, and I was like, I talk about murder. It's so great. Okay.

And then someone told me about a story about how the girls who were murdered in the Idaho 4 case, they were followers of this other podcast called Crime Junkies and would like comment on their stuff. And it's crazy. Like they became the story that they would follow. So today I was like, let's attract some good energy. And I want to talk about the Texas Lottery.

So there was an instance in 2023 that we're just now learning about in 2025, and you'll learn why. But a group of international gamblers pulled off a massive scheme where they won $95 million from the Texas lottery. And how they did this was there was a London businessman, a bookmaker, and an Australian gambler. And they teamed up together, and they opened these warehouses throughout Texas and hired local workers and retailers to buy and come up with products

25 million different combinations or like

ways to win the lottery number combinations. And they printed 25 million tickets using this custom software that they created. And out of these 25 million tickets, they obviously one of them was the winner and they won the $95 million jackpot. So fast forward to 2025, there is a woman who used this online app called Jack pocket and she bought a $20 ticket, just one $20 ticket.

They bought $25 million $1 tickets by their created software. And she won $83 million, but the Texas lottery is freezing her payout because they're saying it's illegal to use an app to purchase the ticket.

Oh, my goodness. So now it's caused this uproar. And now the Texas Rangers, not the baseball team, the actual state law enforcement, had to open up an investigation. They're looking both into both cases to see how the first group was paid out and why this woman isn't being paid out.

Has she retained an attorney? Yes. Yes. Which is why we're learning about this case from 2023 because lottery winners are supposed to be private. So we're not supposed to, which is why we haven't heard about any of this. So this investigation has opened up the winnings of everyone else because they're now saying the way that the Texas lottery is, legislators are now saying the way it's set up is you can, yeah, it's not luck. It's like you can run a scheme and win. Yeah.

That's fascinating. Yeah, so now they're trying to figure out how to get back to the real reason of why the Texas lottery opened, which was to provide funds to the general revenue fund.

I had to look up. I'm like, where did those funds go? As long as they get paid off, everybody would be happy. That's what I'm wondering. I'm also wondering how much they spent on this app and these local workers. After all the taxes, they got paid out $54 million, this international group. But then they bought $25 million. So now they're at $25 million profit. But how much did they have to pay? They probably spent a million. A million? A million to a million to do something like that. Honestly, that's a lot of work to do that. Yeah.

Well, there's a precedent that the last person that did this got paid out. It's more likely than not that this one's going to get paid out. Yes. Yes. I would. Yes, I would. I believe that she'll probably get paid out. Or they'll reach some settlement. Yes, I think they'll reach a settlement and then probably change the laws. Yeah. As they should. I mean, she had no nefarious intent on this, did she? No, she said she just bought one $20 ticket. She's like, I'm just going to see what happens. Has she always bought lottery tickets? Yeah. Yeah. She's an avid buyer.

It's amazing when I'm in Arizona at the convenience store in the morning before I go to the gym and grab my morning Red Bull, how many people are still buying lottery tickets. I mean, it's really incredible. I've never bought one. Every time I pass a random gas station, I'm like, maybe that's the gas station I should buy one at. Do you buy them? No.

But I always think about it. Do you buy them? I think I've bought them maybe less than five times in my whole life. And were you feeling lucky when you bought them or drunk or what was the deal? No, I think I used it more than anything for manifesting. The secret, like the book, The Secret? Yeah. And you start thinking in your head, okay, if I had this money, how would I split it? To who would I split it? Exactly. And I think then that thought helps you get the things that you want.

and the things that you would do with that money. Yes, it is funny. Kylie and I have some friends that have

that buy them regularly and they do manifest. Oh, I would buy this for my mom. I'd buy this for my dad. I would do X. I mean, Kylie, what have you manifested when you bought one you would do with the money? Well, I'm going to sound real selfish. I want my wellness center in my home. But you know what? My family and friends can all come over and use it. You're kind and generous. That's all people can say about your wellness center. Yeah, exactly. It's open to my friends and family.

Hey, as we close this podcast portion, I want to get both your opinion on the book that's coming out about Biden's mental decline and the reporters who are acting like it was surprising. I think for me, as I thought about this this morning, seeing everything out there, the point about this that causes me the greatest alarm is this. I don't believe they didn't see it.

I don't believe they didn't recognize it. What concerns me is they did whatever they could to cover it up or mentally they just believe the White House point blank because they hate Donald Trump and Republicans so much. And that is what to me is frightening, that they are. It tells me they should not be in journalism.

Because they're unwilling to follow the story because it did not fit what they wanted for their personal beliefs. And to me, that's the most frightening thing about it is that, you know, they use this excuse. Well, this is what the White House told us. Well, Donald Trump could tell them something out of the White House every day. That's completely true. And they would not believe it. But with something that their own eyes saw, you know.

They knew we knew they knew we all knew. But because it was not Donald, because it was Joe Biden and Democrats and their agenda, they decided to use the excuse, well, we just took their word on it and they will never take a word on anything else from somebody on the right. And to me, that's the biggest cause of concern in this whole thing. It's like I tweeted out this morning that, you know, if you have any reporter or pundit

who went and supported the Hunter Biden was left, you know, disinformation by the Russians who kept supporting the various COVID restrictions and so forth after six months. I'm going to give everybody a six months break on that. Right. They didn't know. Right. After six months. And they go and say that they were surprised by this.

They really should find another job or at the very minimum, because there's no accountability with these organizations at the very minimum. Whenever we see something from that, we should just take it as being a various dubious reporting that all the facts are not there. Would you agree with that, Kylie? Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. And it reminds me of that reporter from NPR that left and said, you know, their reporting is to left, even though he was left leaning and they're all like, you're crazy. Get out of here.

And then we just kind of like moved on and people are still reading the NPR. And it's like to me in my head, why are we still doing that? I'm not, but people still are.

Yuri, what's his name? Yuri. I think just the embarrassment of having to recant and go back on their word and on trying to sell everybody else because it's not that they believed it themselves. It's that they tried to sell everybody else on the fact that they actually push it. They actually thought that Biden was in good cognitive health.

So they that is the problem. It's not I don't think they actually believed it themselves. It's just the fact that they pushed this on everybody else and having to say sorry for that and having to be accountable for that is the problem. How are they going to how are they going to say sorry? How are they going to make up to everybody else that they tried to push this blatant lie in their face and mocked people and ridiculed people and tried to, I don't know, get them out of their jobs if they said anything against it.

So, you know, it's kind of like people back in the day that might have been Nazis pushing a freaking agenda. Right. But yeah, that's that's what they did. And how do you how do you pay back society for what they did? I'll tell you, the one person has gained my respect on this, though, now after reading about it in the New Yorker and a story about.

George Clooney and how Biden didn't recognize him. So I read the story and look, I don't agree with George Clooney's politics. I do what I've read about him and know he's a very good friend. He's a loyal friend. He's a loyal son that always gets you two thumbs up from me. Right. But he had no Biden for years. And when they were scheduling this Hollywood fundraiser, which is what brought him to this point, he could only fly out one night from Rome. He's filming a movie. So he like literally flew in and flew out that night after the event. Right. And,

And he recognized it. I mean, according to the story, he did not recognize George Clooney and George Clooney. I've known this man for 15 years. I mean, I've had long conversations and the fact that George Clooney went and just wrote that op-ed and did that tells me a lot about his character. I agree again,

you don't political ideology and character are two separate things. And the fact that he's willing just to say this isn't right. And I thought he was very kind in his editorial, but you need to leave. I think he was being as kind. I'm sure his first draft is this is crazy. What are we doing? But the fact that he did that earns high respect for me because no one else was doing it.

Yeah. And well, I heard rumors that they were talking about this on Fox News just like a few weeks ago that that op ed might have also had some influence or a little pushing from other people, maybe even Obama himself. If that's the case or not, but he still put his name on it. There's a difference. And you have to give him credit for that. One hundred percent. And, you know, look.

I will respect the reporter who covered this and said, look, I'm taking a year sabbatical. I obviously missed a story because I wanted to press my own personal beliefs. I'll be back when I get my crap together. That would be nice. So anyway, thanks for joining us, folks. You can always follow us on BreakingBattlegrounds.vote. On behalf of Triana, guest host today, Kylie from Kylie's Corner, Jeremy, our engineer, and Sam Stone, thanks for visiting us. You can always follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

Spotify, Sirius, Apple, whatever. Have a great weekend.