Liberty in the House, with Ron Paul

Sep 21, 2016 · 24:51 constitution spending

Massie's first long conversation on the Ron Paul Liberty Report, on what one vote in the House can and cannot do.

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[Music] hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty report with me today as co-host is Daniel
McAdams Daniel nice to see you here today it's good to have you back in Texas sir oh it's good to be back I'm glad you kept things going I better be
careful or I'll get fired if I leave and miss too often but we have a very special guest today and many of our viewers already know him because he was
so kind as to come to our conference in Alexandria he was fantastic we have to be careful or he will be stealing our show but we're really pleased that he's
with a less Thomas Massie 4th 4th district in Kentucky Thomas great to have you with us today well great to be
with you Ron and I've got one of the best senators in the world inc in Kentucky I'm speaking of your son it's great to have him for a senator well you
did a lot to help him in campaigning and but the big thing is is you promote the cause of Liberty and that's what really counts and that's why both r & and
myself were early supporters for you when you first ran for congress but we're just delighted to see your work in
Congress today and i think you're carrying the torch quite well i would like you to start off with maybe giving
us a little bit of an update you you gave us a bit of an update when you write our convention but there's been a few new things dealing with foreign policy in the Congress could you give us
a couple hints on some of the votes you've had to cast and did you have any difficult votes to cast sure there were three votes on foreign
policy which I know is in your monetary policy and foreign policy are sort of in your wheelhouse and I'd like to think we voted how you would have voted several
of us in the liberty caucus which is still alive and well the first vote I want to tell you about was here you know the warmongers were just a
dead set on rattling sabers at Russia and so we it's a issue they wanted to issue some rebuke to Russia over Georgia
and so you know there was some discussion it was the bill was called you know honoring the territorial integrity of Georgia or something like
that I think some of the congressman thought if we gave that to Georgia South Carolina would want it next but we reminded them it we're talking about foreign policy here
anyways so there were only six votes against that against rattling our sabers at Russia in myself Justin Amash Walter
Jones and Jimmy Duncan were for the reliable votes we also had Lamar Smith from your state in Texas and Dana
Rohrabacher that was that was one of our foreign policy votes we had another vote which they're they're always dead set on keeping everybody in Gitmo at Gitmo and
you know my position is much like Rand Paul senator Paul's position which is give them some kind of tribunal you
can't keep somebody indefinitely detained without charging them for something and so give them a tribunal some kind of trial and then either let
them go or convict them but right now they're in this state where we're just going to be taking care of them forever yet you know keeping them in prison
without a trial so we had a vote where people in Congress wanted you know it's a cert there neocon ism and so they
voted to make sure nobody gets out of Gitmo whether they're innocent or not they're all going to stay in Gitmo and so there were four of us that voted against that on the Republican side
there were some Democrats that voted you know with us but again Jimmy Duncan Walter Jones Justin Amash of myself and finally a vote that happened just last
week they wanted to give more foreign aid to Israel particularly military aid and you know I've pulled this issue in my district
and most of my constituents are not in favor of foreign aid more foreign aid to any country so again you had four of us Walter Jones you're seeing a pattern
here Walter Jones Jimmy Duncan Justin Amash of myself who who voted against sending more foreign aid over there
Thomas I wanted bring up a subject along those lines that remind me about it about a boat you took I believe you voted all by yourself and
you voted against subsidies for green energy to Israel and you were the only one that voted against it do you recall if you got any grief from that you know
some people some people are against subsidies but they will still be willing to vote for that did you recall if you got any grief at all oh yeah I got a lot
of grief for that those are sort of I mean for me their gut wrenching votes for you I think they got easy after a while but I was the only know on that
and it had a wonderful title that's the problem with these bills you know they run the articles back home to say you voted against a bill calling Israel our
best ally you know bill well the bill had green energy subsidies it called for grants for green energy subsidies so you had conservatives who wouldn't even vote
for that stuff here in the United States but they're happy to give it in the four of four and eight overseas yet because the name of the bill mentioned Israel
they were afraid to vote no and I was the only no on that one Daniel well I want to thank you for joining us a representative masih i also want to
thank you again for speaking at the wrong policy its conference on the tenth of this month it was such a great speech and i want to thank you for joining our
board of advisors it we're so happy to have you as a great thrill so thanks very much for that you know it's funny you talk to you you've taken a couple of
tough votes where you're the only no vote and i remember the times back on the hill when dr. paul did that and there's always kind of funny because my colleague at the time Jeff diced was the
press secretary at the time and inevitably if he was the one no vote the press would call like crazy why did you vote against Margie what against it and
Jeff always said what did you call the other guys and see why they voted for it better question but um if you don't mind
I wouldn't mind backing up a bit talk a little bit more about you and I'm interested and I think a lot of our viewers will be interested in your transition to embracing libertarian
principles how you got to start being attracted to these you know how you have such an illustrious career you've got a degree from MIT you're a successful
entrepreneur you built a multimillion-dollar business you built a house with your own hands in Kentucky where you live off the grid so how did
you start getting interested in these principles and if you don't mind telling us what was the transition from this wonderful life in Kentucky to the life in Washington like well you know I call
the life in Kentucky that's the Shire and I'm yo John McCain called us all hobbits I think but so the Shire is Kentucky and more door is Washington DC
so every monday i put on my precious and come to Washington DC and this is it really is like Mordor you
know it's hard to say why any of us get into politics but i can tell you when i figured out that the two parties there
was something wrong that neither of the two parties represented me predictably or accurately or even though the intention of the people and that was in
1993 there was an event that happened in texas with the Branch Davidians and what I saw on TV they kept the media away
from that there was a standoff between the government and the Branch Davidians now what's funny is you know he was accused of polygamy and now they've
decided to sort of more or less legalize a redefinition of marriage but the the Republicans were upset at the Branch
Davidians because they said maybe they were doing drugs or maybe they had illicit sexual relations right but the Democrats were
mad at the Branch Davidians because they were religious and they liked guns right so yeah and what I saw on TV disturbed
me is some people were rooting for the defeat of these Americans who were bothering nobody yet the government once
they sort of got into this standoff with the Branch Davidians it was clear there was never going to be a good way out for them that the heavy boot of government was going to come on
come down on these folks and it's just sad it's really sad to me what the eventual outcome was they air and I thought there's got to be a better way
than to you know to roll in and be so heavy-handed on people they're just minding their own business did you before okay I know Thomas say
you've done some work on the concern about NSA and surveillance why don't you give us an update on what's happening in Congress if anything good and of course
in context of of what's going on with the invasion of our
privacy I know systematically it's being attacked constantly but we're delighted that you're at least in involved in that
and and trying to slow it up a bit yeah well I have some good news to report on this front that is this summer
they tried to sneak through on a voice vote a suspension bill which means there's no debate and it hasn't gone through the committee and it's not been marked up but they brought a bill
straight to the floor that would have expanded the Patriot Act there's a clause in the patriot act that says that banks can send your financial information regardless of the dollar
amount they could send it straight to the government if they suspect you of terrorism or money laundering well the what they sought to do was to take out
the words terrorism and money laundering and replace it with any crime so literally if the bank suspected you of anything without a warrant without the
government requesting it they could just stream your financial information to the government and they brought this vote up they try to pass it by a voice vote I
gotta give kudos to my friend Justin Amash who went to the floor and demanded a recorded vote and when we got the recorded vote the we were able to get
enough people to respond to their congressmen in just a few hours that the recorded vote failed and so the Patriot Act was not expanded this summer it
could have easily happened were not for adjusted Amash and myself and a few others there thomas has the Congress take in any position roommate any
statement about Snowden and what they would like to see happen there you know that's interesting you ask that question I just rushed over from a
classified setting where Justin Amash and I were together the classified report that Congress has prepared on Snowden so they prepared
this this report in in anticipation to release of that movie but the problem is so much of that is classified that they
can't release they were basically trying in the report I can't tell you what's in the report or any the classified stuff but they're basically trying to portray
this picture of somebody who was a complainer and inept and that that wasn't suitable for the job or whatever
but the reality is they kept promoting him and moving him forward and and the report there's a lot of stuff to be suspect of in the report I think they
should publish it publish the report classified report is that if it's that damaging to Snowden and then let him respond but the reality is this run they
changed the Patriot Act last year because of the Snowden revelation and the fact that they changed something they were doing is an admission that he
revealed something that wasn't right and I mean that's at the end of the day if we met in Congress and passed something the President signed a bill that's an
admission that he did a service whether he did damage or not he did a service to this country by revealing the way that our Constitution was being abused that's
a great point mr. Massey and it's also shows that a public opinion being changed by things like the revelations from Snowden is very powerful and it
affects politicians and I remember what while you were speaking at the conference you talked about how when the march up to the Syrian war the war drums
were beating and all of a sudden Capitol Hill started lighting up with phone calls people calling their members saying we don't want war and and I
remember working for dr. Paul how a few phone calls will get your attention and I was wondering if you might share with us how it works in your office because I
don't think people realize how much effect they can have on Washington you can have a tremendous effect I mean that's the other good news I think we
need to share with as many people as possible Congress critters respond to public pressure the problem is it's usually the lobbyists the
military industrial complex that has their attention once they're inside the beltway but you can break through that membrane with a phone call I don't recommend writing letters they just pile
up there answered with form letters but when you make a phone call a live person on my staff has to answer that phone call and I typically only get five to
seven phone calls a day out of 750,000 constituents so on the Syrian issue in 2013 I started getting a hundred phone
calls a day for like seven or ten days in a row and this was remember resident Obama said Oh Asad's crap cross the red line and we need to go to war we need to
go to war now and I want Congress to approve it and Speaker Boehner said oh yeah will tee this up for you and Nancy Pelosi said will tee this up for you but
the reality is the phone calls started coming in and when you get seven hundred phone calls against going to war and one for going to war it's pretty clear you
better start listening to your constituents and I even went to members of Congress on the floor like a member of the Congressional Black Caucus which
is traditionally against war and I said are you really going to vote for war if this comes to the floor and he and he said I'm not going to out him because
he's a friend and he said there's no way I'm voting to go to war in Syria I'm trying to be nice to my president okay and so I'm not going to say anything publicly but if this comes to vote
there's no way I'm voting for it so what did they do they pulled the bill from the floor we never voted to go to war in Syria it never happened and it was
solely because of the people that were making phone calls that we don't we didn't have boots on the ground in 2013 to now now there's a secret you know
funding of weapons and whatnot this going there with dubious of fact that you know the Obama sought to
entertain through classified budget which Snowden has disclosed right and the Washington Post is reported on but
ultimately that those phone calls i would say saved thousands of American lives you know I think has a great story
and it means that if the people wake up they can't have an effect but we're dealing with you know a powerful force when it comes to war propaganda and
it'll be back again constantly there'll be something up soon and who knows what happens when you're in a break and and this sort of thing but I did want to shift a little bit because I know you've
had an interested in the drug war the unity of that war and and of course I think we've made inroads on that but usually in particular have
nibbled away on the fallacies dealing with industrial hamble what's the how is that stem right now well you know I got an amendment in 2013
on the farm bill that allow the industrial hemp to be grown in any state that made it legal and this is this is rope not dope you know as you pointed
out to me when I came into Congress Ron you could smoke a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole and it still wouldn't do anything for you maybe it'd give you a headache I remember you telling me
that on the floor of the house so anyways I picked up your bill and it was important to Kentucky and I pushed it we got an amendment on the farm bill there's a thousand acres of hemp growing
in Kentucky today and there's and there's nobody passed out in the fields there's nobody sneaking in growing dope in the middle of it it's nobody not a
single person has gotten hurt from this and what we've proven is not only is it not dangerous but it grows great in Kentucky and so the next step is to
completely legalize it for it for industrial purposes and we we keep having votes on that every year and it passes that as an amendment to bills but
those bills never passed i think if i could get your original industrial hemp bill to the floor and by the way the chairman of the committee now is talking
to us about this he's interested because he's from virginia and he's farmers are growing it and and you know he's been to a hip field now so there's pictures of
the chairman with industrial hemp all around it and so he's actually supporting it now i think if we get this to the floor it's going to pass by
veto-proof majority so that's going to be great because it's legal in every industrialized country in the world except for the united states where only
thanks to the farm bill can you grow it for research purposes that's that's some great news that's as good a room while ya mean why speaking of the war on drugs
we had hearing in the Oversight Committee where the inspector general for afghanistan and even the deputy department of defense secretary of
defense for the region includes afghanistan testified we've spent eight billion dollars trying to eradicate poppy production which is what you know
opium and heroin ultimately come from we spent eight billion dollars in afghanistan i asked them both what the result was and result was they doubled
production so I you know you only get five minutes and hearing so I asked I talked to the inspector general later and I was like
could you just spray roundup on that stuff I mean what does that kill it he said yep he said it would devastate it it so I said well why aren't we doing
that he said it would be far too effective in other words it would actually work and we're not really trying to eradicate the production over
there because there's a tenuous relationship between the government work government we're propping up and the Taliban and you would tick off the Taliban you would disrupt the situation
over there so even though we're spending the money we're not trying to do anything so I offered an amendment this summer on the DoD appropriations bill to
just quit wasting money in Afghanistan trying to saying we're trying to eradicate poppy when we're not and i thought i might get three or four votes
maybe 20 i got 63 votes now it took to 18 to pass but that's pretty good news that 63 people realize it's just a waste
of money progress then you'll have daniels well on the similar note you know you've done a lot with getting the us out of the UN you've done a lot of
work that dr. Paul used to do on the UN and it's it's important an issue when it comes to us sovereignty but one of the things that dr. Paul noticed toward the
later part of his terms there is that the new Khan's who had initially agreed with him about the UN they fell in love with it and it's because they started
being able to control it and now they love the UM because they feel like it's an extra tool in the toolbox of us interventionist foreign policy
well they feel like it's a tool they also the president would like to think it's tool for getting his policies past domestically and imposed on us that he
can't get through Congress right uh you know he was like more gun control and so he feels like if he pushes and Senator
Kerry your secretary Kerry as you know already signed off on this there they feel like if they can get to you in to adopt it then they can use the the force
of the UN to exert that over our sovereignty and so yeah I've offered the same bill that Ron Paul offered to get us out of the ue n now i've called it am
exit you know take a cue on the brexit vote and people realize it's the same sort of thing i mean it's not an exact
analog but the British you know they were giving some of their sovereignty to a bigger organization and we've done the same thing to a different degree at the
UN so I've offered the amex it bill and I'm actually a co-sponsor of that there's there's another congressman that offered it but it's it's picking up
steam I mean people are starting to wake up particularly when they're pushing gun control and some of this green energy policy and things like that people don't
want to give up our sovereignty another problem is and I know you spoke about this is the World Trade Organization you know last year in the Omnibus we just
removed our country of origin labeling from beef and pork because the World Trade Organization told us to and that's pretty scary regardless of how you feel
about that that issue whether we should have to label stuff from other countries I think it's dangerous when other countries tell us what we can and can't
label on our own food no there you go we have to finish up here shortly but i do want unless you one more brief question
and that is have you received any punishment from the leadership i know when i was leaving congress several of our allies were actually punished and
taken off the committee is that going on now or is that all history you know they was a subcommittee chair and i don't want to talk about which come in and say
which chairman it was because i still like the chairman but after i voted against boehner and took some of these brave votes they came to me and said we're not going to kick you off the
committee we're going to dissolve the committee and and you and somebody else is going to be chair of the other committee we're merging it with so it
was very creative things they were we we had to reprint our stationery you know we didn't issue new press releases that they had dissolved my subcommittee but
I'm convinced if you want to get rid of some of these useless subcommittees just make me chairman and then they'll shortly dissolve the subcommittee they
later two years later came to me and said we'd like to offer you another sub committee chairmanship on the the committee we merged yours with and I
said wait I've seen this movie before and by the way in four weeks I'm voting against John Boehner and you're going to do the same thing to me if that you did
two years ago so go give somebody else that position and we'll see you and me the embarrassment of being removed from that position because they're usually
decorative anyway I mean it's just something to do a press release on and that the subcommittee chairs are told what to do by the Chairman and for the
most part the Chairman are told what to do by the speaker so date if there were anybody like me that were truly independent to become a chairman it would be a miracle right Thomas I want
to thank you very much for being with us today is a great program and I hope we can get you back another day I'll come back anytime you want and thanks
for leaving us with a great legacy here dr. Paul thank you and I want to thank our audience today for joining us here at Liberty report I think it's been a
great interview and there are several like that i think the Congress probably is in better shape now than it was four years ago as I was leaving I think the
Liberty of movement movement is alive and well and Thomas Massie has had a lot to do with that and please come back to the Liberty report soon
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