Karishma Manzur | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome. Here we go a special bonus hour number four of Matt connorton Unleashed. Today. It is August thirtieth, twenty twenty five, and we are live at three pm Eastern, And of course, whether you're tuning in live, if you are tuning in live, feel free to chime in in the chat room. We have a very special guest we're going to introduce in a moment, and if you are enjoying this in the podcast feed after the fact, welcome. It is a holiday weekend, so I don't know how many live listeners and or viewers will have, but I know a lot of people are going to be checking out the podcast of this.

0:33 Speaker 1: Jenny is here. Of course she is not at the news table because we're not at the radio station, but she.

0:40 Speaker 2: Is that creative space.

0:41 Speaker 1: You are, Yes, you are at a table of sorts and joining us live on the show. We have Karishma Manzor, a New Hampshire candidate for the United States Senate challenging for the Democratic nomination. And Hello, Karishma. Hello man well Sisa, Oh sorry.

1:02 Speaker 3: Hello Jen, good afternoon, Good afternoon.

1:08 Speaker 1: So it's nice to have you here. We were, of course Jenny and I were recently at your event at McIntyre here in Manchester making your official announcement, and Jenny was Jenny spoke there as well, as there were a number of great speakers there that day, and of course and you spoke and announcing your candidacy. Why are you well? Actually, well, let's start here for tell us a little bit about your background, if you would, and then I want to know all about why you're running. You're certainly an underdog in this race.

1:37 Speaker 1: Of course we'll get into all of that, but tell us a little bit about you and your background.

1:44 Speaker 2: Sure.

1:44 Speaker 4: Thank you first of all, thank you Matt, thank you Jen, and thank you for all the listeners. I truly appreciate that you guys are giving me this opportunity to reach other people across Mawhampshire. Let me see who am I?

1:55 Speaker 2: So?

1:56 Speaker 4: I'm Kirishma. I live in Exeter with my husband my two children. I'm a scientist by training and I've been working in clinical research for about twenty years. Over twenty years now so clinical research. My work has involved finding treatments for various illnesses. I worked on Alzheimer's disease at one point, but the last few years, I was mainly focused on epilepsy and depression, and I loved my work. I love being a scientist. I love being love doing clinical research. It is just so gratifying.

2:29 Speaker 4: You don't end the day saying, oh, another eight hour day, or ten hour day or twelve our day. You just absolutely love it because you know that whatever you're doing, whatever the workload is, it is always helping people. So it's a form of public service. Matt and Jen. It is a form of public service because scientists.

2:47 Speaker 2: We don't really yes, we don't get rich.

2:51 Speaker 4: We don't go in for the money. We go in because we care about people and we want to help them. So but over the course of the last couple of years, I started to get a little sad because every time I would hear, wait a second. So we have all these great treatments, we have all these wonderful research going on, but what will happen to these treatment? Will people be able to access it? And yes, many millions of people are able to get receive treatment, but it was disheartening to realize that millions of Americans, millions of Americans don't have access to and adequate healthcare, or they don't have access to they might have private health insurance, but they don't.

3:33 Speaker 4: They can't afford the copays. And so I started to move away a little bit, started to think, Wait, what's going on? Why is why is this happening in the richest country in the world, Matt. We live in the richest country in the history of the world. Yes, so why are millions of Americans suffering from various ways? But I was focusing specifically on healthcare at one point, and it's not because lack of resources. It's because it's deliberate, Mett. It's deliberate, it's by design. It's working exactly how people want it to work.

4:09 Speaker 4: The lawmakers have been basically leaving us behind for decades. Many are there are really great fighters over in Congress, many great fighters, but the majority actually are not interested. They're corporate politicians. So as long as their donors are happy, as long as their own portfolio is doing well and their stock options, they're actually doing quite well. Whereas here on the ground, people, and it's beyond healthcare, like the fact that we have our minimum wage is stuck at seven twenty five.

4:41 Speaker 4: It's really terrible. Absolutely, it's horrifying what we are doing to people, childcare is a serious crisis right now. There are so many families who just can't afford fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars childcare per month when they're working. It's terrible. And so what do you do. I go back to work, but I can't afford it because most of my salary is going to go to childcare, so it's worth it. What a terrible decision. And then the housing crisis, Matt so as more I started to move into the legislative field.

5:14 Speaker 4: I started to understand, Wow, there are all these crises that we hear about, we read about, but those are not impossible problems. Those are not problems that you know, as a government should be able to predict what's going to be needed. Populations growing will need more housing, families need childcare, cost of living needs to be managed, salaries have to keep up with inflation, and over and over again, I saw these wonderful pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the House and the Senate and barely, I mean it barely gets any enough co sponsors.

5:49 Speaker 4: So that's how I started to move away from research into nonprofit sector, then into the legislative work, and I basically became to a decision, many of us from the nonprofit sector, that it's not enough just to have just to elect a Democrat. We have to elect the right Democrat.

6:05 Speaker 1: And so here I am wonderful. You know, Jenny and I you you talked about how our health insurance system works or doesn't work, and you know you you you said something that I often say. We live in the most prosperous, most innovative, most successful country in the history of the world, and yet we somehow can't make sure that everyone has access to adequate or preferably better than adequate health care. It doesn't make any sense. And the reasons you laid out for why that is the way it is, it's true and and it's you know if I always say if we had and and we'll get into the I don't know exactly where you are on this, but I I've always advocated and you know, Jenny and I talked about this a lot too.

6:55 Speaker 1: You know, if we had single payer health care care. Because people say, well, where would the money come from, It's like, well, the money is already being spent. If you had single payer, now your employer doesn't have to pay for your health care. Now your employer doesn't have to deduct money from your paycheck to pay for your health care. So the money is already there. But we could just get rid of the whole. Because the thing about health insurance companies, and I like to be a little more blunt about it than most people are, to be very blunt, and let's hear it, to be very blunt.

7:27 Speaker 1: The health insurance company only wants you around as long as you are an asset, as long as your premium is getting paid every month and you're not costing them money. Once you move from being an asset to a liability, you're now costing them money. The insurance company then, at that point, would prefer that you die. It's purely a business.

7:48 Speaker 4: It is disgusting to think about it. But Matt exactly though.

7:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true.

7:53 Speaker 4: It's horrible, horrific.

7:55 Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah, they want why they want you to die at that point.

7:59 Speaker 3: And that's the reality they were all living in, right, And anybody who knows me knows that I've spent years now advocating and trying to help people get the health care they need that they're denied by these arbitrary systems.

8:11 Speaker 2: And the thing.

8:12 Speaker 3: Is that the usual excuses, I don't want government run healthcare, But that's not what it is. We're not talking about socialized medicine. We're talking about what exists in your I don't know, Matt, you and I are going to have to have a debate about what's the best country in the world, because I think you're I don't think you're right on that one, because.

8:32 Speaker 2: I got to be in other places and.

8:36 Speaker 3: In the Netherlands, everybody has access to healthcare. Whatever it is that they need that the doctor orders, gets ordered. The cost is minimized because there isn't all this bureaucracy. And the doctor says you have X and need test to be okay, you get that. They say you need this drug and it goes to the pharmacist, and the pharmacist delivers it to you and that's the end of the friggin story right there, as far as hell, and it's cheaper, there's no billing crap, there's none of this. I mean, I had a provider that had to hire a new staff member to do nothing all day every day, but blue cross, blue shield denials of care for therapy, for mental health therapy should be something easy to get through insurance.

9:18 Speaker 4: And this is a full time job jender.

9:21 Speaker 2: Yes, versus that business was in conquered. This is here.

9:25 Speaker 3: Business was in conquered and they had they already had billing staff. They had to hire another staff member to do nothing but Blue Cross Blue Shield denials.

9:36 Speaker 2: Never mind the other company denials.

9:38 Speaker 4: Wow.

9:39 Speaker 2: Right, So this is what we're living with and it's not that.

9:42 Speaker 3: So if it's insurance works by we all pay into a pool, yes, and then that pool pays the bills.

9:50 Speaker 2: Yes, we all pay taxes. This is our money.

9:55 Speaker 3: It goes into the Medicare fund that's supposed to pay the bills. Not give United Healthcare enough fuel to use their Gulfstream jet because they don't want to apply with the peasants.

10:06 Speaker 2: Utilizing our government to protect those profits.

10:11 Speaker 3: I need somebody in the Senate who's going to stand up to that, because nobody's doing it for me now. I was getting treatments covered by my insurance company. But since the new regime take over, they have now said that though I am not cured and there is no cure, they're no longer medically necessary. They called and told me that would not put it in writing, but will not give me a prior authorization, so I cannot get the treatment unless I pay cash upfront.

10:41 Speaker 2: I've tried to get help, and I've got crickets.

10:43 Speaker 3: And CMS, Center for Medicare Services is supposed to keep their feet to the fire and say that the.

10:50 Speaker 2: Law says you do X, that's what you do.

10:52 Speaker 3: That's their job to enforce those laws and make sure things are done right.

10:56 Speaker 2: I got crickets. I got no you know what they told me.

10:58 Speaker 3: CMS literally to me to try another insurance, oh my thought. Or to see a provider who doesn't offer the treatment that I need because the provider that they have or in network don't do these treatments. So I should give up treatment or just hang out until next year and try another insurance, because you know, illness lets you just hang out, right.

11:22 Speaker 2: You know that as a scientist, don't you. So if we had, like when you talk.

11:27 Speaker 3: About Medicare for all, people say government funded healthcare, that.

11:33 Speaker 4: Is absolute bullshit.

11:35 Speaker 2: That is bullshit.

11:37 Speaker 3: That is taxpayer funded, just like your insurance is now pay into the pool the pool bills. So if Medicare is accepted in most places and the doctor builds Medicare and Medicare pays the bills, without all the craft that goes on now, so there's not that overhead, not that cost.

11:53 Speaker 2: The cost of health care comes down.

11:55 Speaker 3: Medicare is accepted by most everybody, so you have access to everybody, so you don't have network constraints, state line border restraints.

12:06 Speaker 4: Right.

12:06 Speaker 3: So the kind of health care you're talking about makes it accessible for everybody and puts everybody in the same playing field in that you need chemo, you get the chemo.

12:16 Speaker 2: The insurance company doesn't get to.

12:17 Speaker 3: Say you need to try the cheaper version first, and then when that fails and it's too late to try the one the doctor wanted you on, you die sooner, so you don't cost them as much money.

12:30 Speaker 2: And I know that that's what my health insurance company, United.

12:32 Speaker 3: Healthcare, is hoping that I'm just going to kick off because they're not going to cover it.

12:36 Speaker 2: Well, I'll do what I always do. I'll pay for it my damn self, because they're not going to win.

12:41 Speaker 4: They're not right, you know.

12:42 Speaker 3: But it shouldn't be like this, so we shouldn't have to fight those battles. So that's one of the very biggest reasons why I was so happy to endorse you as a former state representative. As a former Republican, You're everything that I need up there to ensure what you want to bring to the table will save lives.

13:02 Speaker 2: What's going on.

13:03 Speaker 3: Up there right now and the status quo And I'm sorry, but your counterpart supports Medicare advantage, which is destroying lives and killing people.

13:11 Speaker 2: And that's exactly what's doing it to me. And I've tried so hard with letters.

13:16 Speaker 3: And phone calls and meetings of trying to say please listen to us because we're hurting out here.

13:22 Speaker 2: And yet the status.

13:23 Speaker 3: Quo politicians up on the hill keep signing off on Medicare advantage and increasing the amount of money these companies gets in profit out of tax dollars Medicare tax dollars, well, increasing our costs.

13:38 Speaker 1: Well, let's let let's let Chrisma talk about that.

13:42 Speaker 4: You guys brought up so many great points. Okay, I don't have a piece of paper. I could have should have taken notes. I'm going to try to remember first Matt and Jenn. First of all, my god, you guys are the information that you guys just shared. You have to talk about it all the time out there everywhere because of us. Don't even know about these things right until suddenly we lose it, like we lose our employment, or we get older, or we are now some other disadvantage, and then you realize how messed up the system is.

14:14 Speaker 4: But we cannot wait until people are in their most vulnerable and then have to experience these terrible situations. So what you guys talked about, please talk about it over and over again with everyone. Let's get that message out. And what you said, I mean it was it kind of was chilling you called it, which is actually true. We are either assets or a liability. We're a commodity. How disgusting. So because why because it has become healthcare should not be for profit? Good God, healthcare should not be for profit, and that is exactly what the model we have.

14:52 Speaker 4: And so one thing I would like to say is look at our fire services, the first responders, whether it's the fire service or the police force. They are not for profit. We pay into for these services, and God forbid that we don't need it. But the day we may need it because there's a fire in the house or a burglars breaking in. I'm so glad that we have a fire department in my town and a police department in my town. Healthcare should be like that, not a for profit service. It should always be there and when you God forbid, if you're ill or you get into an accident, you have access to it.

15:32 Speaker 4: And it shouldn't. And Jen touched on this the amount of money we're wasting on the bureaucracy. Jen, I look this up. Thirty four percent of what we spend on healthcare, thirty four percent goes to bureaucracy, not to pay for medicine or treatments or devices or the physicians, just bureaucracy. And like you said, you walk into a doctor's office and you know the receptionist is in the front checking you in, but you see two or three people are in the working in the background. All they're doing is fighting with health insurance.

16:06 Speaker 4: It's a legitimate doctor's office, it's a primary care. You know they're going to most proudly order blood tests, maybe some other tests, and they're going to sign up a physician, an MD who has gone to medical school, who has done the internship, who has done the residency, who has years of practice, has to basically fight with the insurance company. Someone somewhere, maybe in the Philippines, somewhere who will be like, nah, I don't think so. I don't think that test is required.

16:33 Speaker 2: Who are you?

16:35 Speaker 4: What medical degree do you have? We have to talk about it loud and clear. We have to inform people, and we have to say this is unacceptable and why is it? Why so we are now the only developed nation in the world, not only the richest, but we also have another we were sticking out. We're the only developed nation does not have a universal health coverage. Right. That is embarrassing. It is embarrassing.

17:05 Speaker 3: And not only that, we associate it with work only.

17:09 Speaker 2: So you get sick and you can't work anymore, you lose your health.

17:13 Speaker 3: That's what happened to me. I was a full time healthcare worker. I had a multiple jobs, but I got breast cancer, and that's that trashed my whole life, right, And it wasn't any fault, but exactly that, right, like we associated yeah, yeah exactly, and the minute you're sick, it's like, yeah, well, if you can't make me money and you can't serve me, I got no use for you anymore.

17:35 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, And it's really wrong. And then a lot of times it stops a person from moving to another job. They're like, yeah, you know, I don't like my job. I want to see an advancement, but you know I have that health insurance, like it really holds people back. It does so from the employee perspective, you were like, you know, I really want to try something else. Maybe I want to take some time off, maybe I want to try and start my own business, but I cannot afford health insurance on my own.

18:04 Speaker 4: But and I think Jen, you touched on it, from the employer's perspective, it is draining them. Every single year, the premiums keep going up, and it is absolutely terrible. I've talked to small business owners who are afraid to hire more people because they just can't afford it. Right, Like Jen said, you lose your insurance when you are when you're sick. But another thing that happens is say you are forty, maybe you're a fifty year old or a sixty year old, and you're still working and you try to get a job.

18:41 Speaker 4: That employer will look at your age and say, this person might cost me more because my insurance company will say, huh, we are spending a little bit more because your employees have more illnesses. Your premium is going to go up.

18:54 Speaker 1: It's a good point that.

18:56 Speaker 4: Stops employers from hiring a fifty year old and sixty year old. You'll see people we will say, I'm almost it's impossible to find a job now because I am at a certain age. So it makes no sense what we have. It is absolutely horrible for individuals. It's horrible for employers. It's horrible for the people who get sick. We need to let's say, okay, so we have established it's a broken system. So now, so I'm a scientist, Jen, you are also coming from science, Matt, I don't actually know.

19:29 Speaker 1: I'm very bad at science. Math and science are not my friends. But that's why I trust people who know about science.

19:38 Speaker 4: So Jen and I are both coming from the healthcare field. So we are this kind of like we're kind of we are pragmatists, we're practical. We're like, Okay, there's this problem, let's figure out the problem, what's causing the problem, Let's look at solutions and implement the solutions.

19:54 Speaker 3: And it's a very.

19:55 Speaker 4: Simple, right. It's like for us, it's like it's a no brainer, but obviously it's so not a no brainer for a lot of people, or maybe they're too corrupt to be no brainers for them. Okay, so what is the solution. Let's talk about the solution. Then. We need one single healthcare plan that is not going to be for profit we cannot have, and that is not going to have thirty four percent spent on bureaucracy. We are going to have one single pair system which will cover every American across the country.

20:30 Speaker 4: And what is that system called. There's only one plan out there, which is Medicare for all. Now, the word medicare is being used way too many places, and I think it's just scare people. So there's a different and this is Jen. I'm going to try to explain it, but I know you're the expert, so please chime in because you have taught me so much about medicare. Folks, if you have any questions, ask Jen. She's like, I swear, she's brilliant and she's an expert. All right, So Jen helped me out. Here's the traditional medicare, which is the Plan A, Plan B, and Plan D yep.

21:05 Speaker 4: Okay, so that is available to people when they hit sixty five.

21:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, or you can currently sixty five my generation, it's switching to sixty.

21:18 Speaker 2: Seven seven, okay. Or have you become disabled right okay? Or you're born Sometimes it happens for children.

21:26 Speaker 3: If you're born with some kind of a disability, you may have have medicare granted right out of the gate as your baby.

21:32 Speaker 4: That's true, okay. Now, Medicare Advantage should not use the term medicare because that abuses the word medicare and throws people off.

21:41 Speaker 2: That is that typical.

21:43 Speaker 4: Marketing scheme to use a good word, and.

21:48 Speaker 2: You know, don't do that.

21:49 Speaker 4: Don't do that.

21:50 Speaker 3: And that's one of those bills you were talking about that's sitting in the Senate. You're a stalled that's supposed to forbid them from being able to use that term. So they can because so many people, especially older folks, get tricked in states, especially where they can call you and do everything over the phone.

22:07 Speaker 2: Yes, I mean yeah, and that's it all.

22:10 Speaker 4: But now Medicare advantage, it uses the term medicare, but it's all for profit insurance companies are part of that, right, yes, okay, So that's where it's no longer a controlled environment. Now you've gone into the for profit sector and therefore you are now, oh, they are not going to cover this treatment or they're going to meet pre authorization, and then it becomes that whole complexity and it is no longer about the patient and their provider. It becomes about a CEO and their profit.

22:41 Speaker 3: One of my specialists has staff that do nothing all day but sit on the phone getting prior authorizations for every single treatment done.

22:51 Speaker 4: The other day I was at the doctor's office and I intentionally talked to them. I was like, I need to talk to you guys. How long does it take you to get authorization? Like every single insurance company has its own system. Some are over the phone, Some are like this complicated computer system. Some are a little bit easier. And they said, sometimes it can be I can be on hole for an hour, one patient, one procedure, on hole for an hour. Ye think about how annoying and how grotesque that is. It is so wrong.

23:24 Speaker 4: So then so now okay, so but we are feeding. So at the moment, our whole healthcare system costs five trillion dollars, five trillion dollars. That's with a big ta Medicare for all, which is different from traditional medicare. Because okay, I should talk about it a little bit just before I go into the finances. Medicare for All builds on traditional Medicare, but the advantages I should not say the word advantage.

23:54 Speaker 1: Okay, Johnny calls it Medicare disadvantage.

23:59 Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, we're talking about about that one partsy out.

24:04 Speaker 4: Okay. Medicare for All builds on the awesome Medicare system that we have. But it includes dental, vision, hearing, and long term care, which is not part of traditional Medicare, because those are extremely important.

24:21 Speaker 3: That's a that's another thing that we do that other countries don't do.

24:26 Speaker 2: We don't.

24:27 Speaker 3: They take eyes and teeth a part of your body.

24:29 Speaker 5: So like that's you know, part of the healthcare too, but here not so much. Even though a truth bacteria can cause a fatal heart condition and life.

24:43 Speaker 4: So I had to tooth move not to get to personally. But I need a filling. It's gonna cost me five thousand. I'm like, no, I think I'm good.

24:51 Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm getting out of my dentist. We'll talk later.

24:56 Speaker 4: Some people said, go to a foreign country and get it done. It'll be cheaper.

25:00 Speaker 1: That's what Americans are doing because the people.

25:02 Speaker 2: Do get health care at home.

25:04 Speaker 3: And it touched back to what you were saying about, how all of this is integrated, so that doctor is paying for that staffer for an hour salary to sit on hold, plus matching their taxes and paying their Medicare and paying their all of that cost. Yes, to hold on for prior authorization. Now if you just got to do the treatment, what's the cost of that? And how many more people are available to actually take care of patients instead of pushing pencils?

25:31 Speaker 4: Exactly? Absolutely so. Now, now, so that five trillion dollars system, if we transfer, we get rid of all those for profits, we get rid of all the CEO's money, and the Wall Street's making a huge amounts of money. Oh my god, Wall Street is so happy with the broken system. And we get rid of the bureaucracy, and we just hold on to that five trillion dollar system. Medicare for all will be six and fifty billion dollars cheaper than that five trillion dollar system.

25:59 Speaker 2: Exactly.

26:02 Speaker 3: Let if we think about our history too, Oh gee, politicians stole money out of the Medicare Trust Fund.

26:11 Speaker 2: How about wouldn't this put money back into it?

26:14 Speaker 3: I hadn't get healthcare to more people at a better price, Like there's so much about that that just snowballs.

26:22 Speaker 4: So Jen, why are we why don't we pass it? Why are we the only nation in the developed nation that doesn't have that system limit? Let's talk.

26:30 Speaker 2: Hmmm, it's the lobbyist.

26:33 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, a multimillion dollar industry. They spend millions and millions of dollars on the hill. I watched as it happened when we tried to fight that money shouldn't get increased to these health insurance companies, you know, with the twenty five million dollars the EO salary, right, and they're cutting our benefits like this year Medicare disadvantage cut dental care except for cleanings and X rays. Oh, because that those are cheaper. So it just I thought this was about giving us more benefits to this cheaper cost.

27:08 Speaker 3: But here's the thing, you know that Medicare disadvantaged those companies United.

27:12 Speaker 2: Healthcare at the Blue Cross, Blue Shield, they make millions of billions.

27:17 Speaker 3: They make over eight well, United Healthcare makes about eight billion dollars every three.

27:21 Speaker 2: Months in profit, and a a ton of that.

27:24 Speaker 3: Is Medicare dollars because they make more money on Medicare advantage patients than they do anything else. Because first of all, they get like a flat month forgetting you as once you signed up on THEIRS, they get money for you. Now, every time they add a diagnostic code that makes you sicker, they.

27:42 Speaker 2: Get more money. The sicker you are, the more money they get.

27:45 Speaker 3: If they keep denying and delaying your care, they're not spending it, they're pocketing it. And that's exactly what's going on. And I will tell you. I know I've said this to you before. I don't want to say it or on air. I've asked so many politicians tell me something. Tell me one thing that helped insurance companies do to increase positive outcomes in any healthcare case.

28:05 Speaker 2: I know, And only one tried to answer me.

28:08 Speaker 3: He's like, they collect data because we don't have enough universities and medical facilities and actual doctors and nurses and scientists to do that. We need some yall bulge Bullsharry bullshit out of sitting in some office with his three thousand dollars suit. Yeah, you know, flying in his Gulf Stream jet over to his freaking yacht on our Medicare tax dollars.

28:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's what.

28:32 Speaker 3: Medicare advantage is absolutely freaking horrible and it's one of the biggest fleasing of America that has ever happened has been medicare advantage. And how much money these multi millionaire billionaire people are making on the backs of the working poor while they're denying them chemo, denying them care. I mean, you remember the doctor that wrote the letter yelling at them for denying Yeah, kid with cancer, the zaufriend from the nausea. How how got a role that felt to read that doctor's letter like no doctors should ever have to do that.

29:04 Speaker 3: I've watched doctors on the Hill practically in tears in front of committees, to the Senator saying, please, I have cance children with cancer that need access to this drug. We're supposed to have orphan disease access. Why don't we have it? And the politicians, Yeah, that's why I think a scientist on the hill who understands the real of these decisions. Yes, I want somebody up there who actually knows that when you don't pay attention to this, people die.

29:34 Speaker 4: Exactly.

29:34 Speaker 1: There's another there's another reason. Nobody ever talks about this part. But I think there's another reason why we why Americans tolerate such a broken healthcare system. We're conditioned from a young age to accept and to believe that we have a great healthcare system. Because when you're young and you're healthy, and if you're like I remember being, you know, young, and hell, knock on wood, I'm still healthy even at the age I haven't had anything catastrophic go wrong. I'm lucky. But but when I remember being young and having a full time job working for a company that had what I assume was was really good health insurance because I never had to use much of it, and you know, so you get conditioned to Okay, i'm young, i'm healthy, I've got a job.

30:16 Speaker 1: Oh I'm sick, I'm gonna go to the doctor. I might have a small copay whatever, I've got health insurance by my company. I'm covered. I'm never even gonna see a bill. I'm gonna pay. I'm gonna pay the cope and that's it. And then go on with my life, and you know, assuming nothing terrible is wrong with me, take whatever, antibiotic, whatever, and life goes on. So so you're conditioned from a young age when you first enter the workforce that everything's great, everything, everything's easy. With health care, it's and if you're lucky enough to to have health, you know, well into middle age and old age.

30:50 Speaker 1: Then you might go your entire life without any without even a clue that there's anything wrong in the healthcare system if you're one of the lucky ones. But we're conditioned from a young age to believe that the American healthcare system is great because you know, unless something bad happens to you, God forbid, you have no way of knowing.

31:08 Speaker 3: Right exactly the rest of the world they're doing preventive medicine.

31:11 Speaker 2: Here, we're doing cleanup.

31:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another issue too, there's not enough. But that's yea.

31:17 Speaker 3: God because of exactly that the conditioning your conditioned to think you only.

31:21 Speaker 2: Go to the doctor's when you don't feel good. You don't talk to the.

31:24 Speaker 3: Doctor about how to be healthy, and the doctor doesn't have time to even do it.

31:29 Speaker 4: And let's talk about some of the problems. Okay, I'm going to give you real life examples, and I'm sure Matt and Jen you guys can also add many more. I'm just going to give you. Okay, here in Exeter, one of my best friends, he's seventy six years old. He's done everything in his life whatever he needed to do, paid taxes, had a job, raise four kids. Now he's retired, he receives Medicare, he has Social Security and he's a small pension. He's on fixed income. It is he has to be very careful. But of course, as he's aging, the opposite of the scenario that Matt just talked about, which is like, oh, everything's great.

32:06 Speaker 4: I go every so often. I don't have a lot of problems. While when you're hit your seventies, even if you are fine all your life. Now of course things are starting to slow down. You know, your heart might need some support, your blood pressure, medicine needs some support, et cetera. So he needs blood thinners. He has a drill fibrillation. He needs blood thinners, and otherwise he's going to form blood clots. Medication costs a lot of money. He has Medicare, but the code pay is high. So does he What did he do?

32:38 Speaker 4: He decided to ration his medicine. He's started to skip one dose because two tablets a day. Maybe I can get away with one tablet a day. What my friend suffered a stroke in the richest country in the world, A seventy six year old man who did everything by the books, taxpayer everything, he suffers a stroke wrong and he is so wrong, Jen, it is so wrong. Let's let's scream that every single day to everyone. It is wrong. We should that is the status quo, and this is unacceptable and we should not accept it.

33:17 Speaker 4: We should inform people and say no, don't let the lawmakers fool us and say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but we're better than that other country. We're better than that other country. So I'll get to that because I used to buy into that criticism as well, like, whoa are we done better than the other country. But at least my friend did survive. He stayed in the hospital for several days, he was released. He does it does not appear that he has any permanent issue. So it's good but lucky, lucky, lucky. But now he's exactly well, that's yeah, but he could have become one of the statistics.

33:56 Speaker 4: We lose fifty thousand Americans, fifty thousand Americans each year because of health insurance issues. Either they don't have insurance or they're under insured because they you know, they yes, they're issues, something's going on to their body, but they can't afford to see the position. I mean, when you have a limited amount of money. The first thing you do is pay your rent. You do not want to become homeless. Second thing you do is you have to feed your body. Even with canned food bulk purchases, you can only stretch that dollar so much.

34:32 Speaker 4: And maybe third you fix your car because you got to get to work or you have to do it. And then maybe clothes healthcare becomes a luxury, exactly, shameful. Shame on us, Shame on us that we find this acceptable, that we're putting we're torturing people in this.

34:52 Speaker 2: Isn't that what Matt was talking about, right? We're conditioned to it. And that's why that's why I have the break. I'm happy about your campaign.

35:00 Speaker 3: Because conversations need to be happening louder, prouder, and up on that hill and I find that mill for once and for all. It's freaking change things for the better, because this is getting worth every single day. And now they just say, now, now we're going to introduce prior authorizations into traditional medicare using AI.

35:22 Speaker 2: That's the new regime twist.

35:23 Speaker 3: They just announced that, so you know, obviously that's going to be something they have to fight again.

35:30 Speaker 4: They just want to sueeze as much money out of us as possible in every single way, and we are just you know, we have to just get go along and be like, oh this is normal, Oh where's aren't we still better? Et cetera. I'll give you one more example, because I really I listen, I talk to people and I ask them what is what do you want to see? And tell me what is going on in your life? And that the stories you hear they're heartbreaking. Another person said her loved one needed care. It was authorized by their physician, but their insurance company wouldn't pay for it.

36:06 Speaker 4: That their their loved one died the same year that they lost their loved one because the health insurance company she had, a private health insurance company, was not authorizing it. That same year, the CEO of that insurance company made nineteen million dollars. That, Matt and Jen is blood money. That is medical murder. We have to talk. How can we even have a word a term medical murder? That is disgusting. This is like mass murder is going on. Let's face it's.

36:47 Speaker 2: It is.

36:48 Speaker 3: It is when you deny people surgeries to save their lives or medications. Yeah, and your friend had a stroke that was preventable, and what damage was done was done. This is going to be ramifications for that. We all want to live as long as possible. And I don't care if if you make seven dollars an hour or seventeen thousand dollars an hour, you like, it's crazy that that person's life gets to be more valuable than somebody else's. You're working class Americans a bust in their humps.

37:22 Speaker 2: Every dm D.

37:24 Speaker 3: Everybody I talk to is co living because they can't afford to live alone, or having a second job or even a third job because the groceries are insane.

37:32 Speaker 2: Right now, I want to talk to everything else that.

37:36 Speaker 3: They're barely surviving as is, and they want to take more and more and more and keep denying care, and they just kill people off.

37:44 Speaker 4: You feel like squeezed you, like they're just what like blood suckers?

37:49 Speaker 2: What more?

37:50 Speaker 3: Make people feel like you're worthless, Like my life doesn't matter anymore. I've rationed my care. My life mattered when I was at EMT and I worked in the hospital, But after I got care and couldn't do that anymore, I guess it doesn't matter anymore now because now I have to fight for treatments.

38:06 Speaker 2: Or deal with just figuring.

38:07 Speaker 3: Out the costs for myself for medications whatever. And that's Medicare disadvantage. That's what I'm stuck on. Unless the government changes, I'm stuck. And so many other people out there are just like that. And like you said, they get denied home care, they get deny long term care, short term rehab care so they can have a life again. I have a friend who lost her dad who was denied rehab care.

38:33 Speaker 2: It's it's disgusting, and it's because that's the one the Hill are allowing it to happen. Bottom line, they allow it.

38:40 Speaker 4: Yes, so we have to you guys have an awesome platform. You have to spread the word. Okay, you cannot talk about healthcare every.

38:48 Speaker 3: Day, but I know I feel bad that we've like monopolized that.

38:53 Speaker 4: No, no, no, it's okay. But the same formula that's causing that herd with healthcare is actually the same formula that's impacting us for the housing crisis, the childcare crisis, the cost of living crisis many ways, so the minimum wage. So let's also talk about other ways people are suffering. So here in New Hampshire we have such a dire condition as far as housing is concerned, big time, big time. We are twenty four thousand units short right now, right now, twenty four thousand units short in a population of one point four million.

39:33 Speaker 4: Wow, that's huge, people. I think that I looked at the inventory rate for certain municipalities. Sometimes it's as low as half a percent or one percent. Vacancy rate is it's almost not there. So when you want to move from one apartment to the other, well, you don't have an option, and the expense rate is so high. Again, I'm going to use examples because that's exactly how I understand how to explain the gravity of the situation right here and right here. In exeter, a friend her she was talking about her her grown daughter.

40:15 Speaker 4: I call everyone a friend. I'm sorry, but when you have these raw conversations.

40:20 Speaker 2: Right there's a connection there.

40:23 Speaker 3: You're like that kind of personal Yes, exactly, I got it.

40:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, you just you know, to somebody to tell me how much they're you know, they take out their bill, like, come on, Grachman, let's talk about my bill. I want to show you my COPEI so, or they want to show their condition of their house. They need some repair, but they can't afford it, So you become like, Okay, that's that's really raw conversations. These are not like hi, hello, these are real conversations. So this person her, she's seventy seven. Her story is also terrible. So I'm going to touch on that are not terrible in the sense, but it's difficult, I should say.

41:00 Speaker 4: But her child has a job, she's in her thirties, she has a good job. She can afford an eleven hundred dollars in an apartment, which you would say is not a bad amount of money. Eleven hundred is a good amount of money. In Exeter, she's renting a basement space. It's not an apartment, it's a space. There are no windows, there's only one door to the main stairs to the main floor, which means if there's a fire, she's stuck. There is no other exit. It's an illegal basically, it's an illegal space. But that's what she can afford.

41:37 Speaker 4: There's no heating, there's no cooling, so she has to have, you know, space heaters, she has to have air conditioners, because that's just an unfinished basement for eleven hundred dollars. In again, in the richest country in the world and someone who has a good job. Her, she has a good, big job. We're not even talking about minimum wage now, this is a person who's actually making good money.

42:03 Speaker 2: Yes, this is what they can afford.

42:05 Speaker 4: Is that acceptable? Man?

42:07 Speaker 1: No, we should not accept.

42:09 Speaker 4: The status quo. The lawmakers want us to say, Oh, you know, things are bad, but you know whatever, national security, oh my god, crime rate, oh my god, what us distract us? Oh yeah, let's hate those people over there, let's marginalize another group, but don't pay attention to your real problems.

42:28 Speaker 1: So what's the solution? Karishma on that, I mean a good question.

42:34 Speaker 4: Yes, let's talk about Okay, we will try to touch on an issue. We will try to touch on the root cause, and then we'll try to touch on the solution. So what is the root cause of the problem. Why do we have a housing crisis? Simple? We just don't have enough houses? Yeah, okay, is that? First of all? How do we get to this situation? The government's job is you know, we have pretty smart people working in government. Maybe not at the top, but they're really good workers out there. They are supposed to calculate.

43:03 Speaker 4: You know, we are increasing, The population is increasing, even though new Hampshire. We're not growing at the rate of many other states, and because we're losing a lot of young people are moving out.

43:15 Speaker 1: They just ye they graduate and yes, but.

43:18 Speaker 4: At the moment we are we are still seeing people moving into New Hampshire. So we have but the rate of growth is slull, but it's still we're growing, so we need more housing. So what are the problems. One is those airbnbs, so it has taken out a lot of housing off the market because they are now go ahead.

43:41 Speaker 2: True, I never thought about that.

43:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. It never occurred to me.

43:45 Speaker 4: So it's not the main problem, no, no, but it is the problem because if you go to for example, Rye Beach or you go to a lot of these places, those houses are just sitting there empty until the weekend or maybe a labor day long weekend. That's it. Otherwise they're just that's a housing unit. As far as the state is concerned. There is a certain number of housing units, but we are it's not occupied right. The other is second or third homes of people either living in New Hampshire and they own a second or third home, or people from out of state who own a second or third home in New Hampshire, and we have to deal with those in a different way.

44:20 Speaker 4: But that's another Again, you're taking a housing housing unit off the market, right but you're not using it one hundred percent of the time, but you're taking it, okay. And corporations have also come in their landlords and they're also purchasing a large number of these like these improvment complexes. Okay, that one is not necessarily taking housing off the market, but they are definitely causing rise in the price. Okay. Way, the one biggest way we can help right away, Matt. First of all, we have to do something about all these housing units that are not used all the time.

44:54 Speaker 4: We have to either we have to find a way for people. I mean, okay, let's not talk about that. The biggest problem is we have a low inventory. We have to build houses. We have to use us DA funds for rural They actually have the usdas US Department of Agriculture, They actually have rural housing funds for communities that are in the rural north. For example, our North Country will qualify. Some parts of the West Western towns will qualify. We actually can use USDA funds to build houses there. The other is hud Housing and urban development they actually have.

45:38 Speaker 4: These are federal dollars you can use to build build units. The state has to work with it because the state there are unique space and some if it's owned by the city or it's owned by the town, then there are a lot of rules or regulations. You can work with the city in town to figure out what can be built, what is allowed, and hopefully multi unit complexes because you know, then you're utilizing a space better. But they're also state owned spaces, right, you can also use that because then you don't have to worry about the rules and regulations of each town and each each city.

46:14 Speaker 4: So if you want to look at two towns that are doing really well with this multi family multi unit system, it's Sportsmouth and Dover. Yeah, Sportsmouth and Dover they're doing really well. So they have single family homes, they have you know whatever. People want to always protect their little single family home acreage. But you can also have town homes, or you can have apartment complexes, maybe multi story. You have to have mixed use. And then within the downtown area, maybe you can have like the bottom floors all about businesses, restaurants and stores, and the top units are all apartments.

46:49 Speaker 4: That's how we have to build right now. The only thing that keeps getting passed through Congress is one program called and I don't want to go all boring on you guys.

46:59 Speaker 2: Okay, no, good.

47:01 Speaker 4: It's called li tech, and I want to okay, I want to make sure I get the acronym right, low income Housing tax Credit l i HTC LI tech. That's really popular. If you look at the LI tech related bills that are in Congress, they get a bipartisan support. What is that LI tech? It sounds like a great idea. Oh, we are good. I look, as far as lawmakers are concerned, they can say I've sponsored this wonderful bill to help with the housing crisis. And then you look at the bill and you're like, oh, okay, that's a great you know, that's a good piece of bill.

47:32 Speaker 4: But what is happening with li tech? It gives tax credits to developers. Oh, I'm going to bore all of you.

47:39 Speaker 1: Sorry, no, no, I'm I'm glad you're going down this road because I'm actually a big.

47:42 Speaker 2: Fan of You want to understand, I'm a big.

47:45 Speaker 1: Fan of using the tax code to stimulate.

47:48 Speaker 4: Yes, too true, but that so you give tax credits to the developers, and you say you are eligible to receive this tax credit if you build a complex and you put away a certain number of units and consider them housing low income housing. And then the developer says, okay, great, I'll get some government subsidized tax credits. I'm going to build it. What happens is it's a two thousand page codebook. Developers hate it. They don't like it for two reasons. One is it's way too complicated, and the second reason is that tax credit is going to work over ten years, and the developer who's building that housing unit now needs the money now, not over the course of ten years.

48:36 Speaker 4: So what they do is they may still accept it, but then they turn it around and sell it back to Wall Street or to the bankers. It's another way to siphon federal money and back to Wall Street. That is why it's so popular. That's why it gets biparties and support. It's like, hey, they big money, We're like, hey, we love this lintec anyways. But the other thing is if you look at because of the codes and the regulations are so complicated. Like I said, a lot of developers just shun away. But the ones who even still take advantage.

49:09 Speaker 4: The cost of each unit on a li tech funded unit versus a non light tech funded unit, it actually costs more because there's just so much hurdle that they have to go through. They can only purchase certain kind of products, they can only purchase building certain ways, so actually the per cost per unit becomes higher than if they did not worry about l tech and they just built. So yeah, go ahead. Ly tech is approved. You know, it's always passed, it's got biopartisan support. But it will never ever help us mitigate the housing crisis.

49:44 Speaker 4: It's just another way for lawmakers to get away by saying I'm helping, aren't I No, you're not. You're just it's a band aid. Okay, Jen, let's go. Let's use healthcare. It's like you have a fractured leg and instead of fixing up that bone, you put a little band aid.

50:00 Speaker 2: Look right, I want to tape it together.

50:03 Speaker 4: I'm going to tape it together.

50:04 Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm glad that you went there, because now it makes more sense to me. Why it's why you don't see as much affordable housing going up, Why all these expensive apartment buildings are going up, Because even if they wanted to go that route. It's so convoluted and costly that are incentivized to make expensive places.

50:25 Speaker 1: I still got its core. It's a good idea, but obviously there's problems.

50:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, so it used to be more workable, more use.

50:35 Speaker 4: So, Matt, the best is for HUD to give federal funds to build housing units. That's it, and not say low income or market will adjust itself. If you have enough housing, you don't have to worry about low income housing or high income housing ar et cetera, or luxury apartments. It will just adjust itself. Right now, like I said, eleven hundred dollars for a basement space that should not even be as occupied space that should not even be on the market. But because of the scarcity and the low inventory, it becomes an issue.

51:06 Speaker 4: And that's why the and then the landlords are keeping whatever units are there. People keep raising the prices, and that's where the corporate landlords come in. They come in, they buy up a whole apartment complex, multiple complexes, and Blackstone is known for doing that. Black Rock is for doing it. And we're not gonna say a certain person owns what. We're not gonna Okay, we're not going to go there, Jen another day, Yeah, cover up some state apparently was on the board.

51:36 Speaker 3: Seems to be an awful lot of politicians involved, yes, and owning stock and these companies that are making a ton of money, a ton of money, and then we're like, huh, how many And there's a lot of that here in New Hampshire. We see that corporations buying up like even that one rudout they bought like three three family houses because I've noticed their signs going up on three family houses.

52:02 Speaker 2: And then they just.

52:02 Speaker 4: Little tweak Yeah, they little tweaks. They changed the stove out, they maybe put a laminate countertop, and they're like, oh now the housing, the apartment is going to be three hundred dollars more or five hundred dollars more. Suddenly, okay, now it's considered mid luxury apartments. Yes, exactly. So there are so many ways, Matt. If there's a will, there's a way. There is no will. There is no will.

52:27 Speaker 2: Now there is minimum wages seven to twenty five.

52:30 Speaker 4: Minimum wage is still seven twenty.

52:32 Speaker 2: I feel a great responsibility on that. It's awful. It's awful, And Jen, okay, not to can't run into.

52:38 Speaker 3: The apartment on seventy twenty five. You kid even eat on seven to twenty five.

52:42 Speaker 4: So, Jen, when I was we were so a lot of times people have hardships and when I there was a time in my life when we were dirt poor. So and back then the minimum wage is four to twenty five. And this is the early nineteen nineties, Yes, about nineteen nineties, mid nineteen nineties minimum wait was four twenty five. We worked seven days a week. I had a morning job, I had an afternoon job, and had an evening job seven days a week. You still, oh my god, you have read why? Oh you're just yes, And there's no health insurance, there's no job security.

53:27 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, like I had a waitressing job. Okay, you know, I'm sorry. It's not easy. Shout out to the servers. It is easy at all.

53:38 Speaker 2: And there wing down.

53:40 Speaker 4: And the kids keep spilling the milk and you're cleaning out and then they leave you little bits of money. It is, be nice to servers. I was a server for a long time. It is. It is a cruel job. Anyways, But where was I going with this? Oh? You there's no job security and there's no health insurance. Nothing, it's just a gig labor, right, And then sometimes you're really mistreated, like I was told the bathroom had like I think something happened, and I was told to go clean it. I'm like, I'm not gonna go clean it.

54:12 Speaker 4: That's not my job. And that manager said, if you don't go clean it right now, you're fired. That's how they talk to you.

54:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how they talked to you.

54:20 Speaker 4: I said, you can fire me. I was hired as a not that okay, I'm sorry. Sorry, anyone who's a janitor, my heart goes out to you. It is it is so much work. It is such hard ship, right, but it's the But the way I was being treated by the manager, like threatened to be fired right away because there's no job security, you know, And you're like, why don't you ask the others? Like I wasn't sure if I was getting picked on. I don't know if it was a race thing, but anyways, but I was being asked even though there were several other servers standing around fit anyways, who knows what was going on, but I do remember.

54:53 Speaker 4: What I remember was the way I was being treated. Listen to me, or you're fired, how cruel. Yeah, they because they.

55:01 Speaker 3: Know you need the job, right right, Yeah, yeah it is.

55:07 Speaker 2: I've had my share of really crappy jobs. We'll talk about some other ways.

55:11 Speaker 3: But again, the employers could feel like they could get away with it, Yes, because what.

55:17 Speaker 2: Are you going to do? You need the more you got. You can't go home without a paycheck.

55:22 Speaker 4: I can I touch on one thing Matt said earlier, but we have moved on from health care. But I wanted to touch.

55:27 Speaker 2: On everything you want to talk about. Go for it.

55:30 Speaker 4: Matt touched on, like we are always conditioned to feel that we still have the best healthcare system, and we have a great healthcare system, no doubt about it. If you have a certain amount of money, and you have a certain job, and your employer actually has is able to afford a high quality health insurance company. I'm not going to name it, but there are some health insurance companies which are not as blood suckers as hours.

55:54 Speaker 2: I get less blood suckery the more money you pay, and the more.

55:56 Speaker 1: Catal well, yeah, as long as you're made an asset and not a lot acid.

56:02 Speaker 4: But we're always told, oh no, don't look at this country or that country. Do you know when they need an MRI, they have to wait several months, et cetera. Right, and we're like, oh, yeah, you know what. Okay, but let's talk about that for a second, because I used to also believe in that like story line in all those countries. If you ask, I don't want to name it, but say Canada or Germany. You ask them and they will say when if somebody needs an MRI or a procedure and it's an emergency procedure, they will get.

56:32 Speaker 2: It right away.

56:34 Speaker 4: Yes, if it's a non acute care, if it's a care that can be prolonged, then they become are put on. You know, there might be two months from now. But I'm so sorry. In America, even in the North Country, there are no more specialists left.

56:51 Speaker 1: Right, you need an MRI, you have to go to Boston, right.

56:54 Speaker 2: I let you go over the borders.

56:57 Speaker 4: Yes, that you might have to go to Nashars or Portsmouth or Accident or if you're insurance, Yes, so please let's talk about that, because there are the providers are leaving New Hampshire.

57:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.

57:14 Speaker 3: That's a very serious issue and the reason we don't have more level two, Level one trauma sentence.

57:19 Speaker 2: Well, level two, I should say, is because we don't have the specialties required.

57:23 Speaker 3: You have to have neurosurgery, you have to have pediatrics, trauma, you have to have those things in order to have those higher levels of care. We don't have them because we don't have the specialists. Were medical impossible. Oh, they're leaving the state in droves too, because they can't afford to practice there anymore.

57:43 Speaker 4: So therefore, when people criticize other healthcare systems, say please, people, come on, come on, go on. Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, let's look what's going on in our state. When people need care, they're having to leave our state and go to Massachusetts.

57:57 Speaker 3: Right now, it took me a year to get into my neurala just I was on the waiting list for a year to go into my neurology. Those other stories, so they're right here, right here.

58:07 Speaker 1: So yes, that's always my that's always my first thought when I hear someone say, well, you know, in such and such country, you have to wait, you can't you know, get everything right away. And it's like, so, how is that any different from what we have here.

58:18 Speaker 3: In the unit. One of those I will admit I was one of those people that bought into that. I really did think that day rationed care in Canada and that must be why. And I started having those conversations with people, going, no, if my leg's broken, they're gonna fix it.

58:37 Speaker 2: They've got to do an MRI. Yeah.

58:39 Speaker 3: No, if I have something and I could, you know, it might you might have to wait for it.

58:44 Speaker 2: But we do that here. You might have to wait. When you get scared for an MRI around here, you might be waiting.

58:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't instantly, and even in an emergency, you don't necessarily. I got sent in for what they thought could be bad. Then they actually finally got around to the image. I was like, this close to be in a really bad situation with three cervical discs in the most final cord. But I waited way too long to get that MRI walking around like that here in good old America. I beg you, I might have gotten it faster in Canada.

59:18 Speaker 4: I'm gonna my husband is walking in, so I'm just gonna ask him to keep it low. I just texted him, oh, yeah, yeah, we're we're alive right now. But let's see Okay, So we touched on healthcare. We touched on housing. We touched on corruption. I think we touched a little bit on corruption everywhere, right, the corruption politics, the big money in him. Yeah, we touched, so we are. I don't know what else you guys want to talk about, Matt. I mean, there's so much going on in the I talked to two people.

59:56 Speaker 4: They're twenty four or twenty five in New Hampshire. There working, they're on their parents' insurance. They're free to turn twenty six. Yes, let's talk about that in the richest in the world, which I'm going to become like a broken record in the richest country in the world, in the richest country in the world, I'm going to become a broken record.

1:00:18 Speaker 4: Person who has an education, you know, has training and education, has done whatever needed to be done. Was told if you do X y Z, you will live the American dream. They are now apparently living the American dream. And they're free to turn twenty six because they have a job. But their jobs are not covering, not providing health insurance. That's another thing. Let's talk about that in America.

1:00:43 Speaker 3: And the marketplace is expected to go up increasingly next year. Some of the numbers I'm saying out there are pretty scary as so what's going to happen in the marketplace? Insurances, medicare, premiums are growing up, but they've already announced that it was quite a bit too. Yeah, all these things are going up even more next year. So everything you're saying is going to get worse. So we gotta do These mid term elections are vital in order for us to gain control on the hell and stop the bleeding and curb some of the deaths that are going to occur from these These are I'm not catastrophizing either.

1:01:23 Speaker 2: These are really horrible things that.

1:01:24 Speaker 3: Are going on, and I'm worried that a lot of people, it's going to be millions and millions of people that are going to lose health insurance sex here because they're not going to be able to afford it off the marketplace anymore.

1:01:35 Speaker 2: Right, It's just gonna be because.

1:01:36 Speaker 3: Those tax subsidies for the working class, the current regime has gotten rid of infect sending the ones for the one percent that holds all the money in the country.

1:01:50 Speaker 2: When you talk about the.

1:01:50 Speaker 3: Richest in the world, the most of the money is that one percent.

1:01:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just going to say, in effect, they have repealed the affordable care, just not the way they wanted to. They didn't do it all at once like they wanted to do a show of it. But little bit by bit they've gotten it.

1:02:07 Speaker 3: They've got the publics used to admit there was some good stuff in They're like staying on the insurance until you're twenty six.

1:02:12 Speaker 2: I mean, I remember when I turned eighteen. That was it.

1:02:15 Speaker 3: I had no health care, that was it because back in what I back in my day. But I remember you saying about the minimum When I started my first health care job, I made three dollars an hour and I got a ten cent raise when I became certified as a nursing assistant. And you think about that, and it's seven twenty five now for minimum wage. And it's because we in New Hampshire screwed up. We got rid of our own minimum wage and we married ourselves to the FED. So unless the federal minium wage changes or the State of New Hampshire does something different, our minimum wage will never rise above seven to twenty five.

1:02:55 Speaker 3: And in some of the poorest places in this country, that's what people are barely living on.

1:03:01 Speaker 4: And I've met people who make seven twenty five because a lot of times the lawmakers in New Hampshire will say nobody in New Hampshire makes seven twenty five. Everyone makes fifteen or sixteen because of the McDonald's jobs. No people in New Hampshire. Some of them do make seven twenty five, and I've talked to them. Jen eighty is heartbreaking when they get a little bill like twenty five dollars bill which was not expected. My god, that's like what it's definitely.

1:03:27 Speaker 2: Here's something I want to ask you about. So in what that effects is homeless people. People who are unhoused a lot of people who are unhoused have jobs.

1:03:37 Speaker 3: They can't afford a place to live, so they're living in their car or maybe they were living in a tent.

1:03:43 Speaker 2: But now we've criminalized.

1:03:46 Speaker 3: Being unhoused and now they want to arrest people and put them in jail for being homeless or having a mental health issue. Like, how are you going? This is a huge issue? How do you want to how do you plan to address this?

1:03:59 Speaker 4: So first of all, we have to take away Donald Trump's pens that he keeps signing those executive orders. Somebody take those pens away, please, he keeps signing these insane executive orders that are so cruel. Yeah, we have not been kind to our most vulnerable people. We have not been kind to people who have mental health issues. We have not been kind to our veterans, we have not been kind to people who are suffering from substance use disorder people. And a measure of a society is how you treat your most vulnerable.

1:04:35 Speaker 4: And we are failing over and over again. And we should not look at these people as you know, push them aside. No, these are human beings. They are down on their luck for many reasons, and we we should extend help them again. Housing where was it Norway one of those Scandinavian countries. I was reading that they actually try to instead of allow homeless people like to fend for themselves and you know whatever, however just pushing them under the rug. They actually have these housing models where they provide mental health counseling as well as a stable home, and then they allow and treatment and then they slowly over time, because once you've been homeless for five ten years, you've basically checked out.

1:05:21 Speaker 4: You have no no, the trust is gone. If you know why homeless people you see them on the side, why they're sleeping in the morning and the daytime, because at night they're awake. They're awake to protect themselves. That is the most where you're the most vulnerable at night if you want to sleep, so you don't sleep at night.

1:05:43 Speaker 3: That's why you're so glad you said that, because a lot of people look at them and think, oh, they must be drunk or they must be drunk. Now it's like, nah, dude, this is the safest sleep they can get.

1:05:52 Speaker 1: That's a good point. I never thought of that. I'm pretty empathetic, but that never even occurred to me. Yeah, that's a great point.

1:05:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, And so we have to help. I mean, if we apparently have two hundred million dollars for a ballroom, if we have a billion or a plane that's not going to be even ready for four years. We have tillions of dollars. Apparently we are so rich. We can give trillions of dollars of tax cuts.

1:06:18 Speaker 2: To the patio, the rose garden, we.

1:06:22 Speaker 4: Can pave the rose garden, we can spend a military parades, military parades, and we have so much that we can spend, like we can fabricate stories about crime on our streets and send in the National Guards at a huge cost to the taxpayers. Apparently we are such a rich nation but not but not. Apparently we're also not a rich nation. So which what is true? Which one is it? Do we have a billion for somebody's plane?

1:06:50 Speaker 3: Like, yeah, we're retrofitting a Saudi Arabian plane.

1:06:54 Speaker 2: Let ye take it.

1:06:56 Speaker 3: And that's after his last term when he redesigned the existing air force one that was just finished.

1:07:06 Speaker 2: But we can't house people, but we can't provide mental health.

1:07:09 Speaker 4: No, I mean that's one trip alone. Not to just pick on the million dollar trips, because there's so much billions of dollars at getting wasted. So millions of dollars is like loose change now in the US government. But he went to it wasn't some golf course in Botlin.

1:07:25 Speaker 2: To cut the ribbon on his own golf course.

1:07:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's apparently we were really rich.

1:07:33 Speaker 2: Jen I'll tell you something.

1:07:36 Speaker 3: When I was overseas and that stuff was going on to build it, I never wanted to climb under a chair more in my life than when the screen filled up with the Scottish family talking about how horrible Trump's people were because they didn't want to sell their land, so they were blaring music and shining lights and harassing them and trying to force them out, and I wanted to climb under a chair. I was so like, oh my, like, I'm in in this other country watching this, like.

1:08:07 Speaker 2: This is horrible. This is our president. Oh my god, this is horrible.

1:08:13 Speaker 1: You know, there's an episode of Uh, there's an episode of the Sopranos where Tony Soprano did something like that to make someone leave the house that they were in.

1:08:22 Speaker 4: Basically meant, are you saying that?

1:08:25 Speaker 1: No? That just reminds me of an episode of The Sopranos too.

1:08:32 Speaker 2: That's when I got the idea for all, you know, a.

1:08:35 Speaker 4: Monster, a mobster and the president. Huh you see some comparison.

1:08:42 Speaker 3: Can you imagine if we actually had the ability in this moment to be able to snag that money back?

1:08:48 Speaker 2: And what amazing things.

1:08:50 Speaker 4: Those pens, those big markets do.

1:08:54 Speaker 3: See, we need you elected, and then we need the hell the Senate and the House to create legislation to curb this. This is just it shows you. I've never been a favorite. I've never been a person who likes executive orders for this very reason, for this very fear that it can be abused and previous presidents have abused it, but not that it's extreme now, I mean to use the president's pen to criminize human beings for existing in a park in a tent, because that's literally all they have.

1:09:29 Speaker 2: What do you want people to do?

1:09:32 Speaker 3: At least in other countries in India trying to do they let people build makeshift houses. They're crappy places, but at least it's a roof over their head, they got warm food and a bugal sleep that in America won't even let that happen. And now they won't even let them put up a tent, like we won't let them have a space to just exist as a human.

1:09:56 Speaker 4: It was heartbreaking to see there was like in DC, they were like the person would not leave his tent because that's his home, that's his livelihood, and they're dragging it off. I don't know, if you guys watch those videos.

1:10:08 Speaker 3: It was just seeing it here happening in our own you know, happening here where they're taking down the tents and they're forcing people out.

1:10:16 Speaker 2: Because yeah, that's happening right here at home too.

1:10:18 Speaker 3: It's happening all across the country, and they're so vile about it. Vile and they'll take knives and they'll destroy things.

1:10:26 Speaker 2: Well, they can't use it.

1:10:27 Speaker 3: That's all this person has to their name, whatever they're and you're you're stealing everything, because that's what it is.

1:10:34 Speaker 2: It's stealing.

1:10:35 Speaker 3: They're taking whatever clothing, whatever's in that tent. They literally will come down sometimes with those claws and just pick the whole thing up and drop it in a dumpster, everything that was in it.

1:10:46 Speaker 4: Yeah, think about.

1:10:48 Speaker 2: The human it's beyond dehumanizing.

1:10:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, so the this is where cruelty is definitely trickling down from the White House.

1:10:55 Speaker 1: M Oh yeah. The cruelty is the point.

1:10:58 Speaker 4: The cruelty is the point.

1:11:00 Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, absolutely, they love.

1:11:01 Speaker 2: It in the terms count big time.

1:11:04 Speaker 3: It's the only way that we're going to be able, but not and change anything.

1:11:11 Speaker 4: Not any Democrat, Jen, Not any democrat.

1:11:15 Speaker 3: I need a Democrat who's going to actually listen. Yes, when I tell you medicare advantage is killing people. I want you to hear our stories and really take it in and don't send me a form letter say I like medicare advantage.

1:11:30 Speaker 4: Yeah, no, Jen, I need not.

1:11:32 Speaker 2: I can't have tone deaf. I need you to hear me.

1:11:35 Speaker 4: These are public service jobs. We should not put our lawmakers in pedestals and be like, wow, you know they are so great. We can never be them. This is a public service job. It is their job is to serve the public. If they're not serving the public, then please move on, go to do something else. Let someone who actually cares just serve the public. Listen to the public, understand the problems, want to solve the problems. Let them have that position. The other thing I want to tell you, one of the most important things in a public servant is do you have a heart?

1:12:11 Speaker 4: And do you have a soul? I mean, do you even care?

1:12:14 Speaker 2: You have empathy?

1:12:15 Speaker 4: Do you have yes? Empathy? Do you even care?

1:12:18 Speaker 3: And everybody want to walk around with a mirror, like what do you say when you look at this?

1:12:26 Speaker 4: Yeah, but guys, I don't know if we're uh going to putting people to sleep now it's one minute.

1:12:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, God, for quite a while. But I really appreciate you giving me so much time.

1:12:38 Speaker 4: I want to because we have to talk about so much. We need to talk about the F word, the fascism.

1:12:49 Speaker 3: Yes, let's not beat around the bush, right, we are looking at a blief date.

1:12:56 Speaker 4: It is not a future. We're it's we are here, so let's talk about it. But I think I don't know, I want to let the poor listeners off.

1:13:06 Speaker 1: No, I think I think this is probably a good you know, a little bit over an hour, about an hour and fifteen minutes, you know, But we will definitely do this again in the near future if you like. I mean, this has been as a great conversation, Karishma. Do you want to mention your website again and anything else you want to make sure our listeners and viewers know about.

1:13:25 Speaker 4: Thank you so much so I launched last week. My website is actually on the you see it here.

1:13:32 Speaker 2: I thank you.

1:13:32 Speaker 4: Yes, well I would be able to do that. Karishma for Senate dot Com. Karishma for Senate dot Com. I am from Exeter, I am a scientist. I'm running to basically help people. Housing crisis is out of control, childcare crisis is out of control. Healthcare crisis out of control, and we didn't touch on it. But our foreign policy is really bad. We are now committing genocide or we're complicit in genis and Gaza. We will touch on that. It is an heartbreaking, heartbreaking situation. We are basically looking at the destruction of two million human lives.

1:14:10 Speaker 4: They're being tortured to death, they're being start at death, bomb to death.

1:14:18 Speaker 2: But we're going to.

1:14:18 Speaker 3: Talk well where you are a candidate for peace, and I think that's very very important.

1:14:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, warfare and more humanity in this world.

1:14:29 Speaker 4: Right, So please visit the website, please sign up because we need grassroots support. Donate. Please whatever you can afford, five dollars, ten dollars, whatever you can afford.

1:14:40 Speaker 2: You are not taking money.

1:14:43 Speaker 3: I think that's important for people to know you really are a grassroots candidate.

1:14:46 Speaker 2: You are not accepting pack money.

1:14:49 Speaker 3: And so this really is an effort of New hampshiretes who have a candidate who they want to really bring to the Senate, to bring home up to that hill.

1:15:00 Speaker 2: It's not really corporate.

1:15:01 Speaker 4: Yeah, corporate, we're not getting hurt. Yeah. And then the other thing is uh, Jen I'm actually on the board of Open Democracy Action, which was started by Grannie B. Haddeck. I am inspired by Grannydee who were walked at age eighty nine from like help Washington, d C. To get rid of big money. I am from Open Democracy. We are working day in, day out to expose the corruption in our politics and.

1:15:30 Speaker 2: Icon of New Hampshire. And I want to make sure our listeners. Yeah, I do want to make sure listeners know how to spell your name appropriately.

1:15:38 Speaker 3: It is ROSA k A R I s h M A four f O R Senate s E n A t e dot com Karushma for senate dot com.

1:15:49 Speaker 2: Check it out, sign up because we need you.

1:15:52 Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Thanks Matt, Thanks Jen. Please uh it was a wonderful Thank you for talking about some very serious issues but we need to talk about These are difficult topics, but we need to talk about it and we have to solve the problems. So thank you so much for having me today.

1:16:06 Speaker 1: Absolutely we will do this again in the near future. And thanks everybody for watching or listening to this edition of Matt Connorton Unleashed AF as we call it as it is the online only edition. And Jenny, thank you, and again not Chrishna, thank you so much.

1:16:20 Speaker 4: Thank you guys, thank you taking everybody.

1:16:23 Speaker 2: Bye bye,