Scott Walker unveils plans to replace Obamacare

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker joined Glenn on radio today to discuss his own health care plan for the country to replace Obamacare. Speaking on behalf of many conservatives and small government constitutionalists, Glenn asked the presidential candidate why even introduce another replacement government plan - shouldn't the free market replace it?

"It follows that principle," Walker said. "It's really about putting patients and families back in charge. It allows them to use the market, to access the market out there in a way that lifts many of the restrictions that Obamacare and, for that matter, other laws of government have put on the free market in the past.

Listen to the full exchange or read the transcript below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it may contain errors.

GLENN: Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin and presidential candidate, hello, Scott, how are you, sir?

SCOTT: Hey, Glenn. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. How are you?

GLENN: Very good. Very good.

You have called Trump's campaign a sideshow. I happen to believe this. And I think the guy is just not healthy for our -- for our country. How long does this sideshow last?

SCOTT: Well, I think the obligation is on those of us running is that we have to lay out specific ideas, specific reforms. You know, one of the things you can't ignore is that he's tapped into something very real. And not just him, but look at some of the other nonelected candidates who are rising in the polls, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump. I think there's a correlation there that people are frustrated. Heck, I'm angry. I'm angry at the so-called leaders in Washington, particularly in the Republican Party who claimed they were going to repeal Obamacare if they got the Senate majority. Who claimed they would do something about immigration. We have yet to see that. There's a very real sentiment of frustration. The positive side of that is that people are is coming out, they're getting engaged. They're not just ignoring the problem. They're looking for someone who can do something about it. And I think in the end, the way someone like me, for example, ends up getting back up in the polls in states like Iowa and elsewhere is to lay out very real plans like we'll do tomorrow about how do we actually do more than say we're going to repeal Obamacare. How do we actually make it happen immediately in the next Congress? And then how do we put patients and families in charge of their health care?

GLENN: Okay. So you have a replacement for Obamacare. And for me, at least and I think many conservatives and small government constitutionalists, they say, why replace it? It should be replaced with the free market. What is your replacement plan? And why do we need government replacement?

SCOTT: Yeah. Without giving out all the details in advance of the announcement tomorrow, but it follows that principle. It's really about putting patients and families back in charge. It allows them to use the market, to access the market out there in a way that lifts many of the restrictions that Obamacare and, for that matter, other laws of government have put on the free market in the past. Part of the problem today is not just Obamacare. But if we went back to the way things were before Obamacare, there were still plenty of regulations and stipulations. There were still problems, for example, even with things like Medicaid that was sent to the state with all these strings attached. Those are the sorts of things we're going to talk about. Is not just going back to the way things were before Obamacare, but going in further to lift all the taxes, to lift the burdens, to put in place a system where patients can use the market to make good decisions for themselves and their families.

GLENN: I will tell you that I think what Donald Trump has tapped into and what Bernie Sanders has tapped into is this desire for Americans -- or by Americans to get out of the mushy middle and to actually -- if you're going to be -- I think what Bernie Sanders and the Democrats are saying is, you know what we're going to be over here, let's just be socialist. And I think on the other side, it is, let's just be common sense. Let's just not this special interest bullcrap out.

SCOTT: I would agree with you. And, again, this is where today I'll number Iowa. But I'll continue to make this case across the country. A lot of great candidates. A number of whom are tapping into that. I feel that sentiment as well. It's why I ran for governor in 2010 because I saw my state, much like I see my nation today, going down the wrong path. And I think if people are looking, not just for someone who shares that frustration, who shares that anger towards Washington, but who wants someone who can actually do something about it, I would say look at what we did in Wisconsin. We fought. We won. We got results. And we did it without compromising our common sense, conservative principles. Think about an issue out there. We didn't just take the unions on. We're not just right to work. We got rid of seniority and tenure. We have expanded school choice statewide. We cut taxes. In fact, by the end of this budget I'm in right now, taxes have been cut $4.7 billion in my state. We defunded Planned Parenthood more than four years ago, long before these videos. We did castle doctrine and concealed carry. We now require a photo ID to vote in the state of Wisconsin. This is a blue state. A state that hadn't gone Republican for president since 1984. If we can do all those kinds of common sense conservative reforms in a blue state like Wisconsin, I think people can know that when I say we'll do common sense conservative reforms for America, they can take that to the bank. We've done it even with 100,000 protesters breathing down our neck. We did it for Wisconsin. We can do it for America.

GLENN: Tell me because I'm not quite sure where you stand on immigration. You handled a guy who came out and said, why do you want to deport me and my family. You handled that really, really well while on the campaign stump.

But, you know, if you look at what Trump has released this weekend, it's very, very clear. I don't necessarily believe he'll do it. But it's very, very clear. What is yours? Where do you stand?

SCOTT: That's a great point. And you're right. He has tapped into this issue, as well as a bunch of others. He's tapped into a very real passion, a very real concern of folks out there. I mentioned -- in fact, it was one of the times I was on your show, and you weren't on. But guest hosts were filling in months and months ago. I walked through exactly where I'm at and how I got there.

For me, when I talk about securing the border, now having been to the border with Governor Abbott and talking about it with others out there, I see it as much greater than just immigration. We need to have a wall. We need to have the infrastructure.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. Let me stop you here. We have heard -- who was it, Pat, from San Diego. Duncan Hunter went on when I was at CNN. He went on and on and on. And I love Duncan Hunter. But he went on and on and on about how he put -- the wall shall be built into the law. And if you know anything about the law, Glenn, if it says shall, they have to build this wall. We've been hearing about this wall forever. President Obama says it's 95 percent complete. How -- how are you finally going to get people in Washington to actually build the wall?

SCOTT: Well, I've been to the border and I can say it's far from 95 percent. That's for sure. I mean, I've seen the opening. The passings. I've seen the problems that are created out there. To me, in a way that's similar to how we'll repeal Obamacare and other things in the sense that when I came to Wisconsin, a blue state, everything was Democrat, went Republican. We didn't just take on the unions. We didn't just take on the Democrats. We took on particularly one of our legislative houses. The Republican establishment that didn't want to do anything. I remember a week after the election, I came in and talked to all the Republicans and said, it's put-up-or-shut-up time. They went from all Democrat to all Republican. I made the point that if we just did a little bit less bad things than the Democrats did, the voters have every right to throw us out. And so we said it was put-up-or-shut-up time. Then we went through with one of the most, if not the most aggressive common sense, conservative agendas in the country. And we did it -- we didn't just do where I got elected three times. We've actually added seats to the legislative majorities in 12 and 14. Why? Because for Republicans, but even for independents, what they want more than anything is not someone to move to the center, they want someone to govern, to lead, do what they said they were going to do. And in this case, I think it's a matter of pushing back the House and the Senate and say, we have to do this.

Israel, I was in Israel earlier this year. They just completed a 500-mile fence. By doing that and staffing it and having the technology to make sure it works effectively, they've seen something like over a 90 percent reduction in terrorist acts in that country that they attribute to having an effective fence. 500 miles. That's about a quarter the size of our southern border. But, heck, Israel is a much, much smaller country. If Israel can do it effectively, there's no reason why America can't. And it's not just because of immigration. It's much bigger than that. We have international criminal organizations penetrating our southern-based borders. If it was happening in our water ports --

GLENN: We have ISIS here.

SCOTT: -- we'd be sending in the Navy. We should do something on our borders.

GLENN: I wrote a piece online this weekend about Mike Lee. There was a -- there was an article in the New York Times about Mike Lee. And it -- it talked about how Mitch McConnell is telling Mike Lee, who is one of the most reasonable, sound thinkers in the Senate.

SCOTT: Yep.

GLENN: How he's got to decide, you know, between these Tea Party freaks and -- and his party. And Mitch McConnell is part of the problem. Will you go so far as saying that there are people in the G.O.P. that are part of the establishment like Mitch McConnell that are part of the problem?

SCOTT: Yes. I hear it all the time. And I share that sentiment. This was -- we were told if Republicans got the majority in the United States Senate, there would be a bill on the president's desk to repeal Obamacare. It is August. Where is that bill? Where was that vote? We were told they would do something about illegal immigration. If it hadn't been for me and 24 other governors out there, the president would be able to do what he claimed he couldn't do 22 times before last November and then went off and did it a couple weeks after the election. It's because I and Governor Abbott and 23 other governors went to court and stopped him. At least got a stay from doing that. It's not because the Congress, a Republican-led Congress, did anything to stop him from doing that. This is where the frustration is. This is why nonelected candidates are surging in the polls. It's because people are sending a very clear message to say, you may dismiss this candidate or that candidate, but people are saying loud and clear, do not dismiss my concerns. Do not dismiss the fact that you told us that Republicans stood for something, and it's not happening in Washington. Now more than ever, I think people are yearning. They're crying out. The good part of this is, while they're angry, they're not walking away. What I hear people tell me is do something about it. Do something about it, not just for me. Do something about it for my children and my grandchildren. I think people are still optimistic that there's enough time left to turn this country around. And that's what I want to be a part of.

GLENN: Well, let me ask you this. Because you say it's getting close. How close do you think it is? We're at the third longest bull market on record. The only other two that have been longer than this was 1929, right before the crash, and then right before the crash of the dot-com bubble. We have China in a massive slowdown. A commodity collapse. We have a credit crisis beyond anything probably -- probably 100 times worse than it was in 2008. And all of the signs are pointing towards this is a fantasy economy that we're living in. Do you agree with that? And how much does the fed play a role in this?

SCOTT: Oh, I think there are incredible, incredible concerns. Not just now, but on the horizon. As interest rates change, those debt and deficit problems only get worse out there. There's a lot of things that if things stay the way they are today. And arguably if Hillary Clinton is in, she makes it worse. As much as that's hard to imagine with this president. I think a Hillary Clinton presidency makes it worse. But having a Republican in the White House who is not committed to fundamental reform. Who is not committed to fundamentally change things. I think ultimately that creates a real problem as well because we've got to take dramatic action. We need somebody who will take forceful, immediate actions. I believe we can do it.

Again, parallel to what I did in my own state. We acted not just in the first 100 days. We acted on day one to join the federal lawsuit against Obamacare. We called a special session to get government out of the way to help lift our economy up on day one. We took actions within the first month, month and a half, to take on the big government unions and the other special interests in our state. And we got things done.

Now, it's much bigger, obviously at the federal level, but I have every confidence that if we have a leader in the White House, who is not just a Republican, but a reformer. A common sense conservative reformer, who demands that kind of reform, I mean, to me, that's things you have to do on day one. And you have to start pushing that Congress to be prepared to act on day one as well.

GLENN: Scott Walker, governor and presidential candidate, I have about a minute left here. I just want to ask you one last question. This is from my email over the weekend. It comes from -- it's in Arabic and translated. But it says: The day will come when we capture you cross-worshiping impure redneck polytheists of the United Snakes. Not only will we kill you, but we will take your women as slaves and all of your properties and blood will be lawful. Have patience because the hour will not be established until we have removed your falsehood pagan religion from the world and killed many of you. He quotes from the Koran. This is someone who is living here in the United States. Is this -- will the Walker administration go in and actually go into these mosques and call a spade a spade here in the United States, or will we co-exist and say that all of Islam as it is practiced is peaceful?

SCOTT: No, it's been clear. There's a war going on against Christians, against Jews, against people not only here, but around the world. And it's led by radical Islamic terrorists. And there are far too many people, not only in the Middle East, but around the world, including many places here, and we have to take this seriously. Anyone who doesn't think this is a serious issue is ignoring places like Chattanooga and plenty other places around the country that we've seen as of late. We have to treat this seriously. We have to have leadership in Washington who is going to make sure, increasingly, we take the fight to them overseas before they bring the fight to us. But we have to deal with the challenges we have here in America as well.

GLENN: Governor Scott Walker in Iowa today. Best of luck to you, Governor. Thank you for being on the program.

What do clay pots have to do with to preserving American history?

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Why should we preserve our nation’s history? If you listen to my radio program and podcast, or read my columns and books, you know I’ve dedicated a large part of my life and finances to sourcing and preserving priceless artifacts that tell America’s story. I’ve tried to make these artifacts as available as possible through the American Journey Experience Museum, just across from the studios where I do my daily radio broadcast. Thousands of you have come through the museum and have been able to see and experience these artifacts that are a part of your legacy as an American.

The destruction of American texts has already begun.

But why should people like you and me be concerned about preserving these things from our nation's history? Isn’t that what the “big guys” like the National Archives are for?

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1946, a Bedouin shepherd in what is now the West Bank threw a rock into a cave nestled into the side of a cliff near the Dead Sea. Instead of hearing an echo, he heard the curious sound of a clay pot shattering. He discovered more than 15,000 Masoretic texts from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.

These texts weren’t just a priceless historical discovery. They were virtually perfect copies of the same Jewish texts that continue to be translated today. Consider the significance of that discovery. Since the third century B.C. when these texts were first written, the Jewish people have endured a continued onslaught of diasporas, persecutions, pressures to conform to their occupying power, the destruction of their temple, and so much more. They had to fight for their identity as a people for centuries, and finally, a year after the end of the Holocaust and a year before the founding of the nation of Israel, these texts were discovered, confirming the preservation and endurance of their heritage since ancient times — all due to someone putting these clay pots in a desert cave more than 2,000 years ago.

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

So, what do these clay pots have to do with the calling to preserve American history? I didn’t understand that prompting myself until the horrible thought dawned on me that the people we are fighting against may very well take our sacred American scriptures, our Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights. What if they are successful, and 1,000 years from now, we have no texts preserved to confirm our national identity? What kind of new history would be written over the truth?

The destruction of American texts has already begun. The National Archives has labeled some of our critical documents, like our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, as “triggering” or “containing harmful language.” In a public statement, the National Archives said that the labels help prepare readers to view potentially distressing content:

The Catalog and web pages contain some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.

According to this statement, our founding documents are either “outdated, biased, offensive,” “possibly violent,” or a combination of these scathing descriptions. I’m sorry, the Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.” Our Constitution is not “outdated and biased,” and our Bill of Rights certainly is not “offensive and possibly violent.” They are glorious documents. They should be celebrated, not qualified by such derogatory, absurd language. Shame on them.

These are only the beginning stages of rewriting our history. What if they start banning these “triggering” documents from public view because they might offend somebody? Haven’t we torn down “triggering” statues before? What if we are no longer able to see, read, and study the actual words of our nation's founding documents because they are “harmful” or “possibly violent”? A thousand years from now, will there be any remnant to piece together the true spirit behind the nation that our founders envisioned?

The Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.”

That is why in 2008, I was prompted to preserve what I could. Now, the American Journey Experience Museum includes more than 160,000 artifacts, from founding-era documents to the original Roe v. Wade court papers. We need to preserve the totality of our nation’s heritage, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need to preserve our history in our own clay pots.

I ask you to join with me on this mission. Start buying books that are important to preserve. Buy some acid-free paper and start printing some of the founding documents, the reports that go against the mainstream narrative, the studies that prove what is true as we are continually being fed lies. Start preserving our daily history as well as our history because it is being rewritten and digitized.

Somebody must have a copy of what is happening now and what has happened in the past. I hope things don’t get really bad. But if they do, we need to preserve our heritage. Perhaps, someone 1,000 years from now will discover our clay pots and, Lord willing, be able to have a glimpse of America as it truly was.

Top 10 WORST items in the new $1.2 TRILLION spending bill

Kevin Dietsch / Staff | Getty Images

Biden just signed the newest spending bill into law, and Glenn is furious.

Under Speaker Johnson's leadership, the whopping $1.2 TRILLION package will use your taxpayer dollars to fund the government through September. Of course, the bill is loaded with earmarks and pork that diverts money to fund all sorts of absurd side projects.

Here is the list of the ten WORST uses of taxpayer money in the recently passed spending bill:

Funding venues to host drag shows, including ones that target children

David McNew / Contributor | Getty Images

Money for transgender underwear for kids

Funding for proms for 12 to 18 year old kids

Bethany Clarke / Stringer | Getty Images

Border security funding... for Jordan and Egypt

Another $300 million for Ukraine

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

$3.5 million for Detroit's annual Thanksgiving Day parade

Icon Sportswire / Contributor | Getty Images

$2.5 million for a new kayaking facility in Franklin, New Hampshire

Acey Harper / Contributor | Getty Images

$2.7 million for a bike park in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, a town with a population of less than 2,300 people

$5 million for a new trail at Coastal Carolina University

$4 million the "Alaska King Crab Enhancement Project" (whatever that means)

FRED TANNEAU / Stringer | Getty Images

There is no doubt about it—we are entering dark times.

The November presidential election is only a few months away, and following the chaos of the 2020 election, the American people are bracing for what is likely to be another tumultuous election year. The left's anti-Trump rhetoric is reaching an all-time high with the most recent "Bloodbath" debacle proving how far the media will go to smear the former president. That's not to mention the Democrats' nearly four-year-long authoritarian attempt to jail President Trump or stop his re-election by any means necessary, even if it flies in the face of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Biden is doing worse than ever. He reportedly threw a tantrum recently after being informed that his polls have reached an all-time low. After Special Counsel Robert Hur's report expressed concerns over Biden's obviously failing mental agility, it's getting harder for the Democrats to defend him. Yet he is still the Democratic nominee for November, promising another 4 years of catastrophic policies, from the border to heavy-handed taxation, should he be reelected.

The rest of the world isn't doing much better. The war in Ukraine has no clear end in sight, drawing NATO and Russia closer and closer to conflict. The war in Gaza is showing no sign of slowing down, and as Glenn revealed recently, its continuation may be a sign that the end times are near.

One thing is clear: we are living in uncertain times. If you and your family haven't prepared for the worst, now is the time. You can start by downloading "Glenn's Ultimate Guide to Getting Prepared." Be sure to print off a copy or two. If the recent cell outage proved anything, it's that technology is unreliable in survival situations. You can check your list of supplies against our "Ultimate Prepper Checklist for Beginners," which you can find below:

Food

  • Canned food/non-perishable foods
  • Food preparation tools
  • Go to the next level: garden/livestock/food production

Water

  • Non-perishable water store
  • Water purification
  • Independent water source

Shelter

  • Fireplace with a wood supply
  • Tent
  • Generator with fuel supply
  • Go to the next level: fallout shelter

Money

  • Emergency cash savings
  • Precious metals

Medicine

  • Extra blankets
  • Basic first aid
  • Extra prescriptions
  • Extra glasses
  • Toiletries store
  • Trauma kit
  • Antibiotics
  • Basic surgery supplies
  • Potassium Iodate tablets

Transportation

  • Bicycle
  • Car
  • Extra fuel

Information

  • Birth certificates
  • Insurance cards
  • Marriage license
  • Immunization records
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Car title and registration
  • House keys, car keys
  • Passports
  • Family emergency plan
  • Prepping/survival/repair manuals
  • Go to the next level: copy of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and other important books/sources

Skills

  • Cooking
  • Gardening
  • Sewing
  • First Aid
  • Basic maintenance skills
  • Go to the next level: farming/ranching
  • Self-defense training

Communication

  • Family contact information and addresses
  • HAM radio

Miscellaneous

  • Flashlights and batteries
  • Lamps and fuel
  • Hardware (tools, nails, lumber, etc)
  • Extra clothes
  • Extreme weather clothes and gear
  • Gas masks and filters
  • Spare parts for any machinery/equipment

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

PhotoQuest / Contributor, The Washington Post / Contributor, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

PhotoQuest / Contributor | Getty Images

Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.