The Shutdown, The Spice Rack, and The Battle for New York (10-31-25)

All right, it's Friday, so we've got a lot to do on the show today. Feel Good Friday, we're going to start there. I'll tell you about some ways we can help some folks.

Always love that on a Feel Good Friday. I have actually some medical advice. I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the radio.

So I'm going to share that with you today. And we're going to talk a little bit about the big event coming up three weeks from Saturday. Is it three weeks? I think it is, isn't it? Two weeks.

It's two weeks from Saturday. Two weeks from tomorrow. Yeah.

With Brian Kilmeade, Jimmy Fela coming to Fargo. Looking forward to that. Here for a Charlie Kirk tribute.

You're right, it is two weeks. Well, I guess so. We're turning the page.

Halloween today. I opted out of the costume thing today. Dean Wysocki has a bra on.

This is just wrong on so many levels. The guy can never just pick out a costume that would be, like, mainstream, right? Pretty funny, though. Got to shock the senses.

I hope there's no children here today for any tours or anything. We'll have to hide him in the closet, no pun intended. If you didn't hear us earlier, Dean has a large, looks like a grandma bra that he got at the thrift store.

And he's got a ton of spices in it, and he's going as a spice rack. Think of that. Anyway, that's kind of how we roll around here, you know? Anyway.

One of our butcher friends said that would make a great thing for, like, a barbecue competition. Oh, that kind of spice. Yeah, carry them like that, or a cook or a chef.

Interesting. We're also going to have a fellow on today by the name of John Castamidis. John Castamidis is a longtime New York City businessman.

He owns a bunch of grocery stores in New York City and owns WABC Radio. He's an uber-entrepreneur. I think he was a candidate for mayor years ago, if I recall correctly.

But we're going to talk about that crazy mayor's race in New York City with cats. And quite the character, so you'll like that. And Senator Kevin Cramer on the talk radio town hall.

Updates also on the government shutdown. Interesting. You know, we've been saying for some time, when will Democrats, what we call normal Democrats, who are kind of your traditional Democrats you grew up with, not like AOC and Bernie Sanders and some of these people that have taken the government hostage right now, when will they, the reasonable Democrats, when will they step up and say, just, you know, we've got to pay military, we've got to do, you know, food stamps, we've got to take care of people who need it.

When will they step up? Well, the Teamsters today came out and are calling to pass what is called a clean continuing resolution, the CR. So when the unions are now going, you know, wait a minute here. We're not exactly doing this the right way.

That says a lot. So we're going to dig into a little bit of that today too. So all that coming up on a rainy Friday edition of What's on Your Mind.

We'll tell you about lend a hand up when we come back. If that doesn't make you feel good, nothing will after this. Back on What's on Your Mind.

It's feel good Friday today. I'm going to tell you about lend a hand up expansion. I'm going to tell you about a benefit to support Sean Nelson, who's going through quite the cancer battle.

Name me a cancer that isn't a battle. But, you know, you hear these stories and you just think, man, I hate cancer a lot, and what it puts families through and everything. So we'll tell you about a way you can lend a hand up to a family in need.

We have an event going on this weekend. Our friend Dean Wysocki, who has family members, a family member, family member to be, I guess, that is in a measure. You hear this and you just want to stop everything, count your blessings for sure, but also help in any way you can.

Gina Petrovich is here. Gina is, of course, heads up, lend a hand up, one of the authors of Giving Hearts Day and always enjoy our monthly chats with her and also the other charities we're championing here on Giving Hearts Day. Leading up to Giving Hearts Day, every day is Giving Hearts Day, right? And so we look forward to these conversations for sure.

Gina, how are you? I'm good. Great to be here on Halloween day. Yes, and you have your orange and black.

I'm very impressed that you scrounged up a wardrobe item with orange and black. It's very good. You know, holidays, you know, every day is a great day to celebrate.

But, yes, I'm celebrating kind of softly. Nothing spooky here. Yeah, very good.

I thought about wearing black and orange like Moorhead Spud stuff today. Got a big football game too, but I wussed out, so sorry about that. You have an expansion now of lend a hand up.

Tell us a little bit about that. You know, we are so excited to be able to help more folks in our neighborhood, Scott, and our neighborhood is growing. As of a couple weeks ago, we expanded to another four counties in Minnesota, so that makes now 11 counties in the Red River Valley that lend a hand up is able to help families in.

So if you've got a neighbor, a friend, a family member, co-worker that's hurting, we encourage you to check out lendahandup.org, start a fundraiser, see if that friend or family member is within our service area, and we make it easy and successful for you to help that person you care about through our online site. And if you want to host a benefit, we've got lots of great resources to help you plan and promote that event to help that person you care about. No, it's really great.

Grand Forks Steel Trail in Cass County down in North Dakota side, but all the way up to Pennington, Red Lake, Polk, Norman, Clay, Becker, and Otter Tail in Minnesota. So if you're, I just think it, you know, you want to help people, obviously. You have empathy, your neighbor, your family member, your co-worker, but it's hard, right? It can be challenging, and you really push the easy button for folks and allow them to focus on help and not all the busy work of operating a fundraiser, right? So true.

We, you know, this is, we're just starting our 19th year with Lend a Hand Up. We've learned a lot through our community members, and so we want to share those tools, those templates, and, you know, we boost those gifts another 20%, so where other fundraising sites profit from generosity, we do the opposite. We add to your generosity to make your gift go further.

Yeah, I also appreciate the fact that not everybody can be at a fundraiser. You might have family members all over the country and, you know, can't go bid on the site on auction items or take advantage of the spaghetti dinner or whatever, but the website really makes it easy for people everywhere to be part of it, right? So true. We've got about 50 family fundraisers on our site right now, so make a gift.

It's very easy to make a gift on the online site, and to that point, there's nothing better than having a little pasta, you know, in the room, and helping somebody as well. Carbs are our key. Yeah, making everything better, that's for sure.

Kev, I've got another guest here next to Gina that I want to chat with, and I'm not seeing that microphone. There we go. All right.

Haley is here, Haley Nelson, who is a family member of someone we're trying to help this weekend, actually, Sean Nelson, in the middle of a cancer battle. Haley, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good.

Thank you for sharing a little bit of the story. So tell me about Sean. Yeah, so Sean is a family man by heart, so we knew that we wanted to rally together.

He is an owner-operator of trucking, so he's long-haul trucking all the time. So he works really hard. In the middle of August, he was diagnosed with stage 3 voice box cancer and 5 days later had surgery to remove what they could.

They came up with the best plan possible for him, so that was 35 rounds of radiation, 7 rounds of chemo, daily trips to Fargo. He lives in Fergus, Minnesota. So the local community really has rallied around him, but with not being able to work, the medical bills, it's really impacting their family and creating that financial hardship right now.

So we knew we wanted to help. 35 rounds of radiation, 7 rounds of chemo. Wow! And, Kev, I know you know Sean, right, from the neighborhood? I've known Sean for years, yeah.

His son Devon and my son graduated together. Sean's in a battle. Sean is an absolute friggin' character.

He should be like the king of Fergus. He's this stout. I'll never forget when we had a little bust-up at the bar one night and one of the people that were causing the disturbance really wasn't paying attention to what they were being told.

Sean grabbed the guy by the collar and he pointed at him and he said, You're not listening! I love Sean Nelson and we've been praying for him ever since we found out this news, so help any way you can. They're a great family, he and Amy and their son Devon. Haley's nodding her head a little bit, so I think she's tracking with what you're saying.

Hey, Haley, how are you? I haven't seen Haley in a while. It's good to have you on. So, again, the C-word, as we say, is just, is there ever a story when you hear, you know, cancer? There's obviously inspiring stories of healing and whatnot, but it's always such a battle and you just wonder, like, why does this happen? How does it happen? In his case, go back to the diagnosis and what you know about what he's struggling with.

Yeah, so the stage 3 voice plus cancer, you know, he had some pain in his throat and was kind of hoarse and went to the doctor and it was, bam, this is what's going on. And it was immediate. Essentia has been great.

Their cancer center has been fabulous. And like Gina said, lend a hand up was so easy to get connected to. We heard it through word of mouth.

Go online, fill out a couple applications. It was, bam, live, basically. Donations started coming in right away.

They have access to that money. It goes directly to them, which is truly fantastic. And our benefit tomorrow is in person in at the Vergas Community Center.

The Vergas community is amazing. The local communities around have been amazing. We have a stellar silent auction, the spaghetti feed.

They're doing some cash bar as well. You know, you got to have a drink when we celebrate. Vergas you do.

I heard it's a city ordinance. It really is. But it's going to be a great time.

And we want to have as many people come out and see and support, because they know how much that they're loved. And like you said, Sean is a character. Everybody knows him.

He's talking to everybody in town. So it's also hard to see, because right now talking is painful. Eating is painful.

Kind of going through that radiation right on your throat, it's hard. And making his living as an over-the-road trucker doing long hauls, has he not been able to work for a good chunk of this? Not at all. He has been off the road entirely since August 15th.

And although his treatment, his last radiation was just Tuesday, we still don't know. They need to kind of let it heal, see how it's going, and then who knows when he'll be able to be medically cleared to be back on the road. That's right.

I suppose you've got a big medical piece of that as well. If you're having surgery, you're having radiation and treatments. Yeah, makes sense.

And just your strength, right? Yeah. And he can't just, you know, leave work for a half a day. Like he's miles and miles away.

So he has to be here for his treatment. So it's a huge impact. And medical bills pile up, regular bills pile up, without half of their income coming into their household.

So it's truly, again, we've been so blessed with getting connected with Lend a Hand Up and so gracious for the 20% boost that we just can't wait to see everybody come out and support this great family. Because I love him. We all love him.

You know, he's a character. Sounds like Kevin loves him too. Oh, dude.

Even when he's in the middle of, you know. I've got some stories on that. I've even got pictures.

Yeah. We have had so much fun together over the years. And, again, it just sucks.

Cancer, you know, F cancer. Cancer sucks. And they're a great family.

You know, help if you can. I've got a really, really cool print that I'm going to donate to the auction. So there's a little incentive to come out.

By the way, this is tomorrow. We'll give you details on it as well, but tomorrow afternoon. Gina, you know, families like this generally are very proud, right? I mean, they like the attention, feel like you've got a handout, you know, and a tin cup and everything.

That's challenging to get people to say, no, no, no. It's good for us to help, right? Don't worry about you. Exactly.

That's why we love people like Haley. Champions. People who step forward, you know, so that individual who needs to focus on healing can do that.

And somebody else can do the ask. And so we appreciate all those folks out there that step forward to host an online fundraiser, a benefit, all the community members that come out. Let's shower him with a little love this weekend so he knows his battle is not something he's fighting alone.

We're all there for him. Do you hear that a lot though, that people almost got to be talked into receiving this? Oh, yes. Yes.

And we do get the consent of that person because, and it's the hardest thing to get. It's, you know, we're humble. You know, so Haley told me that.

Shawn doesn't want to be in his chair. Was it a tough sell, Haley? Yeah, it was more of his sister Donna was like, no, I'm doing this. Sit down.

Take the help. Right? So he's like, okay. Because he is, he's strong, he works hard, he's dedicated.

But he would do the same. I know he would turn around and do this for me. If I found myself in a similar situation, the kind of people you want to help.

Yes. I don't want to help. But even for him, I don't tell me he's not laying there, going through these treatments, thinking about his wife and his son and you know, the burdens that are there.

So if you can lift a little of that burden while you're going through the medical stuff, why not? Right. Yeah, exactly. Tell me about some of your silent auction items.

What do you got? Oh my goodness. We've had so many. I know that there's some big ticket items.

We have some neon signs like Minnesota wild. We have good little baskets for like doing a bread starter. We've had some people make things.

So we have some really cool burned tables. There's a wine barrel table that, I mean, some really cool unique items as well as the, you know, we have some floaties and there's some spices and some knives and I think there's a couple of guns. So really lots of, lots of great, great items that have really come through from that community and individuals.

And again, you can go and bid on those right now. We don't have them live online. Okay.

We have it just at person. So you've got to make the trip to Vergas. It's a beautiful town, a beautiful place.

Do you usually do it like that with design and auction items? We give them the option. Okay. Yeah.

Well, in this case, that's more reason to go. Right. Right.

We need to see a tomorrow in Vergas at the various community center from four to seven. And there it is. And exactly.

And if you just want to help and hear the story and say, you know, I want to help this family or I had a cancer battle in our family, whatever, you obviously go to the website and all of those donations are boosted by 20%, which is really nice. How do you do that, Gina? How do you boost them? We boost them due to community support for the program. So days like giving heart stay year end, great day to make a gift to lend a hand up because then that's what really powers that boost to help all of these fundraisers.

Yeah, it really is great. So anyway, spaghetti dinner, cash bar, silent auction, free will donations, obviously. And every penny goes to Sean Nelson and the family to help through this battle.

And it's a battle just wrapping up radiation and chemo now. And think about this as we're not even done with October and other than a scratchy throat, go to the doctor in August and boom, you're in surgery. And your wife, your wife's just a blur August to, you know, Halloween.

Oh my gosh. Rips your heart out. Vergas event center, 140 West Linden.

Trust me, you won't miss it. There'll be a million cars there. There will be.

Hopefully we see the whole streets of that town lined. Everybody come into the community. That's my fair share of breakfast there at that Loon Cafe.

The Loon's nest. The Loon's nest. Cheryl will do it up for you, Scotty.

You come down to my neighborhood, buddy. And by the way, Haley, I may or may not have a story or two about your husband, Matt. Oh, I cannot wait to hear those.

You know, I got just a great family guys. Just do whatever you can and show up. If you can, we'd love to see you.

It's a good hardware store and burgers too. There's not many small town, but I, I'd walk in there and just, I didn't need anything, but I'd find something to buy. Yeah.

It's right through there anyway. Check it out online. Lend a hand up.org. Lend a hand up.org. Sean Nelson's cancer brother battle.

We're here to help. And there's a lot of people who can help. You might not even know some of the stories or some of the, you might know people that you didn't know and that need some help.

And you say, Hey, I can do it. So a lot of folks to help it. Lend a hand up.org. A project of the Dakota Medical Foundation.

Gina Haley. Thank you both. Thanks.

Thank you. All right, friends. So put up those phones on a feel good Friday.

7 0 1 2 7 1 1100. Text us 2 3 7 1 5 9 0. A weather guy with a bra in here. I'm thinking about getting security.

Don't go away. Okay. It's Ghostbusters, right? Yep.

Yeah, buddy. Happy Halloween. What's the Michael Jackson Halloween song? Thriller.

Thriller. Isn't that weird costume? All right. I'm not much of a Halloween guy.

I'll admit. Me neither. Back in high school.

Yeah, I can tell. Back in high school. I remember dressing up as Dick Nixon.

Oh, really? I had the trench coat on. The mustache and everything? He had the best masks. Oh, great.

You won't have me to kick around anymore. And run around with my peace sign up. You know, the two peace signs.

I've done Reagan. I'm sure this will surprise a lot of people, but my Halloween costumes were political, even in high school. Crying out loud.

Anyway, it is fun. It is fun. My go-to was Pee Wee Herman for years.

Is that right? I had the blue suit and the white shoes, the Cuban heels. Oh, perfect. Oh, yeah.

One of my favorite Halloween memories, this was in Corinda, Iowa, and it was a haunted house deal. You know, where you'd come through the haunted house? Yep. But we were running it.

I don't know if it was a school group or what, but people would come through, and we were the ones that scared the crap out of them. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And my job was to, shortly after you came in, I was down on my knees, and I would grab your legs. And people would just freak.

It was so much fun. I mean, watching people freak out. Right.

I loved it. Anyway, Dean has a bra on, just for folks that can't see everything here, and some spices in the bra. Help me with this.

I'm a spice rack. Spice rack. I got it now.

You know, I have seen women who... Is that on Pinterest? How'd you come up with this? I found it online. Yeah. Well, Christy found it.

Right. And she said, oh, look at this, hon. She goes, this is totally you.

I said, let's do it. I love it. You know, there are... That's kind of a thing to put things in your... Stuff them.

Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

No, I don't even mean, like, make them larger. I mean, like, I've seen women, even at the mall, like, pull out their credit card. Or their phone.

Yeah. So, I said, a little interesting. Anyway, this weather is really... I mean, I shouldn't complain, because it's almost November, and it could be cold, but I'm... Yeah.

Whatever. It is what it is. Tell me how long it's going to be... Look at Jay Thomas.

He's trying to now get in the game. Something to do with his rack. Yeah, right.

Anyway, how long is the rain going to last? Well, we're going to be seeing on and off light showers through the morning hours. It'll start to taper off in the afternoon. Now, by trick-or-treat time, most of the precip should be done.

So, it should be dry for the trick-or-treaters. Now, it will be chilly. We've got temperatures right now into the mid-upper 30s, and we're not going to move much.

We'll top out in the upper 30s out west. And it's going to be a chilly day out west, and only around 40 for the rest of the state. So, a chilly, chilly day and afternoon across the state.

But again, by trick-or-treat hours, we should be dry across the entire state, so that's good there. Now, as we look into the weekend, it does improve. That's for sure.

Partly cloudy skies across the state on Saturday. Highs in the low 50s out west, mid and upper 40s in the central and east. And on Sunday, everybody warms up with highs in the upper 50s to right around 60 with breezy conditions statewide on Sunday.

Sunday will probably be in the pick day. Anytime you can get close to 60 this time of the year statewide, no complaints, even if we have to deal with winds out of the west-southwest gusting up to and just over 30 on Sunday. I keep getting emails and questions, hey, do you see any snow in the forecast? You know, what is the LRC calling for? It does look like we're going to undergo a pattern change after about the 6th of November.

So by late next week, we'll start to see the first signs of a pattern change. And I think we'll see our first snow around here by mid-month, by mid. So a couple weeks, we're going to notice a big difference here in a couple of weeks.

So let's see exactly how that unfolds. But let's enjoy the mild, the above normal temperatures while they're here, especially on Sunday statewide. Not too bad.

Not too bad. You have an important little event this weekend to raise some funds. Tell us a little about that.

Yes, we do. So, excuse me, on Sunday from 4 to 8 out at the American Legion in Moorhead, we are doing a fundraiser for Christy's brother. And he has what's called pulmonary fibrosis.

And he was diagnosed with this a couple of years ago. And they put him on medication. And a lot of times, the medication will buy you time.

But he rejected the medication. Only about 10% of people that take this medication reject it. So that ruined his kidney.

So now he needs not only a double lung transplant, but he also needs a kidney transplant. His wife donated her kidney to a stranger so her husband, Randy, could move up on the list. And just an amazing story, but they have to move down to Rochester.

He lives out in Headinger. And they've had to move from Headinger down to Rochester to be next to the Mayo Clinic. So when the lungs do arrive, he's right there.

So on Sunday, we're having a fundraiser out at the Legion in Moorhead from 4 to 8 to raise money to help with his medical expenses and moving and new housing that they have to live down in Rochester for two years. So we've got a bunch of great silent auction items. Oh my gosh, what you just described is a life disruptor, the green light.

You know what? He's hanging in there. And this money is going to be used for, like I said, his medical expenses and for the moving expenses, all that. We've got a signed Trump hat.

Thank you very much. And by the way, there are signed Trump hats. And then there is this white and gold.

It's gorgeous. Make America Great Again. We've already got a $500 bid on it.

Nicely done. And I've seen this go for as high as $10,000. So I hope folks get out there and it's got a giant Trump signature on the bill.

It's awesome. Yeah, it is. And then another item that came from the White House souvenir shop, like really, literally in the White House, not some knockoff of a Vineyard Vines vest with a big White House logo on it.

That's awesome. Yeah, that's fantastic. We've got Center Ice UND tickets against St. Cloud State in February.

That was donated as well. We've got, I believe it's close to 100 silent auction items. So come on out.

Bid on those. We've got a Sloppy Joe feed as well and a chili contest as well. So it's going to be a great time.

Again, that's Sunday, 4 to 8, out at the Moorhead American Legion. Come out and say hi. Come out and say hi.

And, you know, if you can't make it, the one thing that my significant other, Christy, she said, please make sure that we really press the issue of organ donation. If you're not an organ donor, sign up to be an organ donor. It's so, so important.

It saves lives. And, I mean, we're not going to use it once we're gone, right? So you might as well help somebody out down the road. Absolutely.

Thanks, Tino. Have a great day. We'll see you there.

Absolutely. All right. Dean Wysocki, having some gender issues today, but other than that, pretty good guy.

14 after the hour, telephone number 701-271-1100. Anything on your mind today? I'm looking for a feel-good story or two. They're hard to find these days, but, you know, the generosity of the event Dean just talked about is great.

And, obviously, people going through adversity, getting, you know, an arm wrapped around them to say, hey, we want to help, is a way to feel good, no doubt about it, in a challenging time. But whatever is on your mind on this feel-good Friday, you let me know. We have, Kevin, an event going on.

Michael, is that on pause right now? No, I don't know how to wait. Oh, okay. We're trying to get Fox up here, Kev.

Okay. Uncle Kev. Because Brooke Rollins, the ag director, ag secretary, rather, for Trump, is speaking with Mike Johnson up on Capitol Hill.

I don't know. I'm working on it. Can I mention the government shutdown and feel-good Friday in the same brain? I don't know.

What can I say that would be feel-good and, well, I would say, politically, I feel good that the Republicans have found a way to expose just how radical, derailed the left has become. Because the people they claim to want to help, right? The Democratic Party is the party. The Democrat Party has always been, you know, for the little guy, that's always been the thing.

It's an oxymoron because they're the party of billionaires. There's more billionaires that give more money to Democratic causes than anything. But they're very good at, you know, words like gender-affirming care, right? And where they twist the language of Obama care.

Nothing care-related in Obamacare other than getting you enslaved to them and government health care. By the way, what two states would you guess in the United States of America has the most billionaires? What two states? Top two. New York.

California. 1,150 billionaires. California won.

Yes. Okay. Not New York? New York as well.

That's the top two. Okay. And what would the political persuasion be of those two states? Just help me.

Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, we're going to bleed them for everything they got.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, you know, Rush Limbaugh was one of those. And he said, I'm out of here.

I'm going to Florida. Yep. That's the only thing.

There's an awakening going on. It's happening in Minnesota. You heard Dusty Johnson yesterday talk about it in South Dakota that's moving to, you know, people are leaving businesses, individuals, leaving certainly Minnesota and South Dakota for North Dakota because people just say enough already and that's the way to do it.

Snap benefits end tomorrow. That's why Brooke Rollins is speaking about all this. And again, will the Democrats wake up? I don't know.

Let's talk about it. All right. There we go.

I love it. What's on your mind? Brought to you in part today by Petro Serve USA, the home cook and son. We've got a little Halloween menu like pulled pork over mac and cheese or a pulled pork sandwich in Valley City.

Harwood chicken pot pie, perfect for this weather. Downtown Fargo, Petro Serve USA, Swedish meatballs, bacon cheeseburger hot dish or lasagna, West Main Avenue, West Fargo, Castleton, same thing, bacon cheeseburger hot dish, Glendon, spicy cheesy chicken match, whopping and pulled pork sandwich today, Petro Serve USA. By the way, you're invited to the University of Mary's annual Veterans Day chapel service Tuesday, November 11th, as we count down to Veterans Day, Founders Hall on campus.

Honor our heroes with music, prayer, the keynote speaker, Sergeant First Class Pete Dobitz, decorated veteran of the North Dakota National Guard. All are welcome. Join the University of Mary, saluting those who served, umary.edu. Our government shutdown continues.

There's a milestone coming up here on SNAP, food benefits, of course, Kelly Armstrong, Governor of North Dakota yesterday said, we got this. We'll do this ourselves. Maybe that's what we need to do on a lot of these things.

You know, if the states handled it, it would cost less, and is it not the role of the states to feed people? How did we ever get to the point where we needed the federal government to feed people in need? When did that happen? Why do we do that? You know, make America great again. Return power to the states who created the federal government. Prove me wrong, the states created the federal government.

Do your history. Here's Brooke Rollins at the podium on all of this, Secretary of Ag, the press conference today. And like anything I have seen in all my years doing this work, all to favor illegal aliens and other radical far left policies that benefit only a small, tiny sliver of their base.

I am embarrassed for Chuck Schumer. He is going out of his way to please the likes of Zoran Mamdani, a man who is polarizing America with his socialist rhetoric and anti-American principles. The very essence of government responsibility is to the citizens who live and work here to protect their interests first, unless you are a Democrat in the United States Senate.

Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are doing all this because they fear the socialists and the radicals to their left. Ironically, in leaving American families hungry and American children without food, they are giving a preview of what those socialists will do to every one of us if they ever take power. What you're really seeing here is the end of the Democrats as a responsible party of government, a party that ends governance, a party that ignores Americans, a party that cannot master the most basic principles and processes of government is a party that cannot be trusted with the reins of power.

It isn't oriented toward anything but the end of the system in which it exists. Snap is arguably just the beginning. The logical and inevitable end to where this all goes is the Democrats and the whole superstructure of constitutional government.

President Trump has made it clear, reopen the government, get government funding back on solid footing, restore the confidence of American families who count on programs like Snap and stop treating them and their wellbeing as pawns in a political game, according to the Democrats. Prioritize American citizens, prioritize American families and prioritize American children. I would like to make a quick note and then want to obviously leave lots of time for questions.

Yesterday, I was in Indiana and I was visiting a soybean farm, sixth generation soybean farm, the Everett's, and they have about 1500 acres right outside of Indianapolis. We were harvesting corn, but they also do soybeans. And as I was there, it occurred to me that what President Trump has been doing over the last week or weeks in fighting across the world to open up markets for American, for American families, while the Democrats are back here playing political games.

It must stop. We must get the government open and our citizens and these voters and our taxpayers and our families and our children expect no less. Thank you all.

She is fantastic. She is just fantastic. Unbelievable.

They're going to take questions now because that'll be interesting. Here we go. Woke, dumb media here.

Listen. Trump's lying. Yeah, and I appreciate the opportunity to explain that.

So the fact that the Democrats are saying, but wait, USDA has money in their accounts. Why it is really their fault. I've seen it over and over and over from some of their leaders is absolute false.

And it is a lie. We have been saying on October 10th, we sent messages out on October 24th. We sent messages out.

These benefits end on November 1st. Now, let me get down into a little bit of the details on that to better explain. So there is a contingency fund at USDA, but that contingency fund, by the way, doesn't even cover, I think, half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November snap.

But it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded. It's called a contingency fund. And by law, contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing.

So for example, if the underflow, if today the Democrats say, oh, nevermind, sorry, we'll open the government and snap flows. Hurricane Melissa or one of the hurricanes hits. That's the contingency fund that we would use to send more money into the vulnerable communities that are harmed by a specific event like a hurricane.

But it is a contingency fund that can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved. And listen, even if it could flow, it doesn't even cover half of the month of November. So here we are again in two weeks having the exact same conversation.

I'll just add to that. The Democrats are lying about that. And I think they know that some of the ones who are out saying it are actually attorneys.

They can read the black letter law themselves. They didn't file a lawsuit. You saw to try to do it.

Why? Because they wanted a talking point. They know that's a frivolous piece of litigation. They know they're going to lose.

But they also know it'll take many weeks or months to have that ultimately determined by a court because the way the justice system works. So they're using it as a talking point to try to claim. They know.

I believe they know for a fact that what they found in the court is false. You know, they're lawmakers. They're supposed to know how the law works.

And so the whole thing is just shameful, shameful. And they're using the people as pawns in this game. That underlying fund that the secretary just addressed was unfunded by the Democrats themselves when they voted against the CR.

The CR would have kept all this funded. And they chose not to do it. Not once, not twice.

Thirteen times in the Senate, once in the House. Fourteen overall. Yes, sir.

I truly saw President Trump's truth last night, suggesting that it's time for Senate Republicans to blow up the filibuster in order to get the continuing resolution passed. I know in the past you've been reluctant to encourage. It's a good question, actually.

Time to stop this 60 blockade thing. I haven't. The president's been very busy.

He was in Asia doing all these trade agreements. I've been a little busy, as you know. We haven't spoken since he returned.

I sent him a text earlier this morning. I saw that as well. What you're seeing is an expression of the president's anger at the situation.

He is as angry as I am and the American people are about this madness. And he just desperately wants the government to be reopened. And by the way, that's a tough one.

That's a tough one. Mike Johnson's so good. Speaker of the House.

He's just so good. Brooke Rollins, by the way, I think one of two most important women in government today. Susie Wiles is the other one.

But Brooke Rollins at America First between administrations crafted all this policy. She's great. All right, back on Once On Your Mind.

Thinking tonight we're going to do at the Hennon House. I think this will work pretty good, too. My wife, she wanted to talk me out of this.

Maria said, that won't work. Here's what I'm thinking, Kev. It's a rainy, cold night.

We don't get many kids in our neighborhood anymore. I don't know what it is when, you know, you know, neighborhoods mature. And when our kids were little, there were a lot of other little kids in the neighborhood.

And it was a nonstop, nonstop stream, right, of kids. And now it's sort of like hit and miss and the dogs bark like crazy. And so we were thinking about maybe going to dinner tonight.

And I said, well, let's put a big giant bowl out of like, you know, Reese's peanut butter cups. And she said, well, the kids will take fistfuls. And I'm like, first of all, I don't care.

Second of all, I think I think most would not. Like, most would go with the honor system. Am I naive here? Yeah, a little bit.

Oh, yeah. They'll rate that like, oh, yeah. Yep.

Sadly, they would, you know, what I would do is some sort of a, I don't, that's tough. Yeah. On your honor system isn't, doesn't, you see videos all the time, kids just rate it.

One out of 10, I think, would be a dummy. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I think the rest would be just fine. And sometimes the little ones, mom or dad are along, you know, so they'll go, no, not just one little piece there. You're fine.

Yeah. Take two. Oh, yeah.

Parents are there. If I'm handing it out, like I have the thing and I go to the door and kids are there. I'm like, take as many as you want.

Pick one of each. I don't care. My brother-in-law, his thing is he'd give out full size candy bars.

Oh, he's king of the neighborhood. Right? I know. I know.

That's a target house. Well, first of all, have you, have you purchased candy lately? I mean, I am a corner cupboard snack, 24, seven kind of guy. If I, uh, sort of the kids go change costumes so they can hit it again.

Exactly. But I, candy's expensive. Like, I mean, a bag of candy, like nine bucks.

So like what? They're like mini candy bars. You couldn't salted nut roll with a dollar for one, a big one, but dollar. Oh, exactly.

Anyway, we got a little feel good Friday going on. If you want to call us, we'd love to hear from you. 701-271-1100 Senator Kevin Kramer.

Next hour, special guest, John Castamedas, who is a mega billionaire entrepreneur, and by the way, he has grocery stores, Kev and his biggest customer, if this mom, Donnie wins as a mayor of New York city is going to be the federal government because the federal government will say, no, no, no. You're going to charge one price and we'll buy it from you. So as you can make it up, he's going to join too.

He and Kevin are good buddies. Kevin does his radio show a lot on WABC and I listen to him after and I love it. He also right now is syndicating shows like Larry Kudlow.

We have that on our air, Steve Moore, wicked good business reporters and commentators are really good anyway. So there's a number to call us at 701-271-1100. It is a feel good Friday.

So anything goes on that front can also Texas and I have tickets for the weekend UND hockey series against the Duluth Bulldogs, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. And if you'd like a pair of tickets, here's what you do there. You need to text us.

And when you text make comment if you want, but if you just want tickets and want to be a winner on this Friday, just give me your name and your email address so we can just cut to the chase and get your tickets 701-237-1590 to text. Okay. 701-237-1590 for UND hockey tickets this weekend against Minnesota Duluth.

I'm in a text exchange over the weekend or the last couple of days with some UND hockey alum related to a quote that Dane Jackson, the UND hockey coach put out. And I want to share that and share a response from Ed Belfort. Ed Belfort, Hall of Fame, NHL goaltender, national champion at UND.

It's a life lesson, a life lesson on whatever circle you're in, a business, a team, whatever. I got to get Eddie on one of these days. Cause he is so smart.

Shout out to his whiskey too. He's got a great, he has Belfort spirits. He's got a great beverage there.

Yeah, he does. And he's, he's doing some big things with that right now too. Have a new distributor here.

It's been tough to get, but yeah, he's, he's an entrepreneur. He really is. He's great.

But it was really, it was really, really interesting. And a quote, maybe I was being a little too harsh with it, but I'll just bring it up while I'm thinking of it right now. So we don't put it off.

But I saw a quote and I was like, what? This doesn't sound like something a coach would say. You know what I mean? So you tell me if I have this all wrong, Kev, he's tracking with me. Yep.

Okay. Um, the, the comment was in a news article, I assume it was, uh, Schlossman from the Grand Forks Herald, uh, saying, quote, this is Dane Jackson, the head coach. I think the positive part is when we played our best game, it's been really strong.

Our goal is to build our practices, meetings, and workouts so we can reach that level all the time. Even when you're playing your best, you're going to lose some, but you can live with that. Anything stick out of, out from that comment for you.

Again, it's a coach of one of the best hockey programs on the planet. Anything pop, pop out at all from there? No, just kind of lays there. Yeah.

And I think some of it, you know, right. You know, yeah. Any coach is going to go like Kevin O'Connell's going to go, Hey, we, when we play our best game, it's good stuff, you know, and so we're going to get better at sort of building this.

And he's factually saying, even when you're playing your best, you're going to lose some true, you're going to meet a better coach. They're going to be bouncing to the puck, whatever, but the last comment really got to me and said, but you can live with that. Meaning you can live with losing.

And I, I, to me is something you don't say. So anyway, this prompted a conversation among a bunch of folks. And I'd say you can live with a loss.

We're not going to live with losing. Yeah. And that's the difference between a game and a culture.

Or a program and a season. Yeah. I think that's well said.

And so Carrie Eads chimed in on this and a long time coach now head of hockey operations for the force. He's just great. A former player, former coach.

He said, I really can't question what Dane means by this unless I asked him myself as an exact quote. And in hockey, sometimes you win when you aren't playing well. Sometimes you lose, usually do a hot goalie when you play real well.

So, you know, he's kind of saying there's another reason for this. And, uh, Eddie Belfort weighs in with this. He said, um, we all bleed green here and, uh, we shouldn't support the program for sure.

Um, in life and especially team sports for a champion success, it's always about doing the right things and saying the right things for the better of the team. All great teams have that understanding and will stick to that commitment. This is all about our roots.

The tradition of honor and love for one another. You have to be very careful within programs and families and friendships to keep it about winning. Many times in my career at various levels throughout my career, things don't end well when you lose that tradition.

Now he's talking a bigger picture than that particular quote, but I'm like such a masterclass. Oh, a thousand percent. And how quickly good things can go bad.

If you don't have the right mindset, the champion mindset, the, the, the cleaner mindset, the week we come to destroy anybody that steps on the ice. The court gets in the pool with us. Doesn't matter what sport we're talking about.

We are here to destroy anybody. And that's what a head coach needs to say. We lost.

It sucks. You know, you won't believe how hard we're going to be working tomorrow to make sure that doesn't happen again. But then you get the people that everybody should get a trophy.

Everybody should play. Everybody should be more diverse. It's a contagion on everything we stand for.

I mean, what, what, what Eddie Belfort there is talking about America. It's, I mean, it could be about a team. It could be about a family, whatever, but it's, it's America, you know? And that's, um, that's my feel good Friday story for you.

Uh, texture says, uh, Scott and Kevin, we put a bowl out with a sign the last few years, and it's worked out very well. Enjoyed the show says a Butch and Sylvia. I love you.

Thank you. Yeah. Uh, and so the sign basically says, please take one, I guess.

Right. I, uh, and that would be another way to say, now, come on, be responsible. I would think that would be assumed by putting the bowl out, but I get it.

Uh, those signs sometimes, uh, that's another indictment on America. My favorite sign. And a lot of these in Minnesota guns are not allowed on these premises.

That makes me laugh so hard because it's as if somebody carrying a gun meant to go in for nefarious purposes is going to go all dang it anyway, I wanted to take the gun in and I got to go back to, I've got to go back to the car now because the this is, and how much did the sign cost? And does anybody that is non-law abiding, it's just like, oh my gosh. Um, another listener said, I hear you complaining about the price of candy. Everything in the grocery store is up.

It's called inflation. It is. And, uh, thank you, Joe Biden, because when you, uh, are stone cold, mentally challenged related to free markets, and you throw so much government money at things and have too few goods being chased by too many dollars, it's exactly what you do.

And fortunately we're fixing that. Uh, I, I was not necessarily complaining about inflation. I was complaining that I like candy and it costs a lot.

Uh, and I couldn't quite live up to my brother-in-law who gives out full, full size candy bars used to anyway. Um, we'll get the whole, everything's more expensive though, too. Oh, absolutely.

Yep. A hundred percent. Yeah.

All right. Boy, a lot of folks weighing in here today and want the UND hockey tickets. That's great.

Keep them coming. We'll give some away here shortly. Crystal has a feel good Friday plug for us.

Hey, Crystal, what's on your mind? Yeah. Hey there. Uh, just to let you know that today at our Lions meeting, we're going to be raising money to buy a whole pallet full of peanut butter and donate that to the local food pantry.

And that's probably what, 280 jars. So we've got 60 members, but usually about 30 people show up at our meeting and we will be raising that. And then if we got left over, we'll be donating also to the food pantry.

So deal with the peanut butter. I was going to ask the same thing. Why peanut butter with the peanut butter? Well, it's the number one thing that families get, because imagine this, uh, kids want to make something easy, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Mom comes home, kind of frustrated, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, great cookies. It's the number one thing that the food pantry wants. Plus we just had a convention this past weekend and looking at all the things, there's about a hundred Lions clubs across North Dakota and everything that each of these clubs are doing to help the community, helping people with cancer, helping kids, helping with eyeglasses.

And this is vision month. October is vision month. And we just had, how did you go from peanut butter to vision month? I'm not, you lost me.

I've got to talk fast. Oh, okay. Lions.

And I got to talk fast. We went up to wing. We talked to the entire school, a lot of wisdom and wing vision.

Yeah. Good for you. Good to them.

About vision. Keep doing it. Thank you very much.

I didn't get peanut butter to glasses, but the vision is a big deal with the Lions and what a neat deal, by the way, do you think I could steal one of those buckets of peanut butter? I just love, I can take a spoon of peanut butter and be super happy. And it's protein. I'm pretty sure more after this.

Back on. What's on your mind? 7 0 1 2 7 1 1100. Our telephone number text us 7 0 1 2 3 7 1 5 9 0 giving away Minnesota Duluth hockey tickets led by Scotty Sandlin, former blue liner for the UND hockey team years ago.

Eighties, I think was Scotty and now coach of the Minnesota Bulldogs. Been there for a while. Won some national championships and become quite a legend.

He's a ranger, iron ranger. So he fits in good out of Duluth now, even though he's a former sub, they're playing this weekend. You want to take us, text us at 7 0 1 2 3 7 1 5 9 0 7 0 1 2 3 7 1 5 9 0. Our telephone number, by the way, Senator Kevin Cramer next hour.

If you want to get in with him, text us now or get in line and call us at 7 0 1 2 3 7 1 5 9 0 7 0 1 2 3 7 1 5 9 0 or call us at 7 0 1 2 7 1 1100. I promised a little medical advice tonight on feel good Friday. Um, and we're going to have a conversation next week with, um, Beth Sanford and Beth is a nurse.

She happens to be the sister of our former lieutenant governor, Brent Sanford. Uh, but now she's president of the North Dakota nurses association and director of education and clinical practice at something called the grassroots health nutrient research Institute. And she reached out to me recently because she saw something that McKenzie health was doing in Watford city and Williston and Tioga and Stanley and all the way along highway to there.

And they put up a social media post that said, uh, shout out to our awesome laboratory team and said, guess what? Gloomy weather and winter snow will be upon us before we know it. Being sure to have enough vitamin D intake is essential for optimal physical and mental health. Hope you knew that.

Then it says, if you're not sure what your vitamin D levels are at, stop in and see a member of the team from the lab and it could be tested for only $15. No fasting, no appointment needed. Now I have been spun up on vitamin D since COVID because there were a lot of stories during COVID that literally the vast majority of COVID deaths when they would do an autopsy, they would find had a deficiency of vitamin D. Did you know that? So if you died from COVID, you likely were not taking vitamin D at all.

And of course, what did COVID do? Put people inside. Vitamin D is a natural byproduct of the sun. So if you were not out, you didn't get it.

And if you didn't take it, you didn't get it. My wife recently saw something that said vitamin D, a good regimen of vitamin D reduces your chance of dementia and cancer. So we're going to talk to her about that next week.

But I just wanted you to know, you should talk to your doctor about getting tested for how much vitamin D do I have and then how much should I take? And, you know, sometimes doctors are going to go, oh, hocus pocus, whatever. But it's not hocus pocus. And this is from a nurse.

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the radio. But, you know, we love you. We love our listeners.

We care for you. And especially on a feel good Friday. We just want you to know this is smart stuff.

Texter says back to our Halloween conversation, I give out full size candy bars. I'm a very loyal customer. My local C store, they give me a discount on the bars and it helps them, too.

I think we should take generosity to an all new plateau this year and hand out candy bars. You have a favorite candy bar, Kev? If you went to a house trick or treating and they came out with a full size candy bar, what would be your number one most excited candy bar? Oh, that's good. Kit Kat, I think, overall.

Interesting. Kit Kat, Snickers, right up there. I like the variety packs, too, where you have the three Musketeers and the Snickers and I've been big on Dove bars lately, but I switch a lot.

My go to for years was Whatchamacallits. Those are really good. Little peanut butter in those.

What else would I say? Salted nut roll, always good. That to me is like, OK, this is really protein. It has nothing to do with the candy in the center, but it's the peanuts.

Oh, you can't make that up. Yeah, so that'd be a good one. Anyway, full size candy bar is not a bad idea.

Carol, you're up on what's on your mind. 701-271-1100. Go ahead.

Hi. Hi. I've been giving out full size candy bars for years and the reason why, if you buy the little candy bars, you're giving them three or four.

Do the math. It's cheaper to give up one candy bar and I get them at Sam's Club. Very nice.

Now, there's a couple more things. What were you talking about before? I hate these things. Vitamin D, was it? Yes, Vitamin D. Vitamin D, my husband and I have been taking it for years.

It's on our chart. All our vitamins that we take from Swanson's Health are on our charts every year. I asked my doctor at my physical and he said, no, keep taking them.

They're great. Martin and I have never had COVID. There you go.

I didn't either. Now, Scott, I have one more thing. I saw Kevin Kramer on TV last night and he was bald.

I think we're all losing a little of the follicles. Yeah, he's not bald, but he's got thin gray hair, like sort of me. I keep working on him to shave his head and grow the goatee, Carol.

I don't think he's following me. No. I yelled at my husband.

I said, look at Kramer. Look, look. And he was totally bald.

And then today's paper has a picture of him and he's got hair. And I wondered if that was a Halloween spoof. I don't know.

Is he on today? He is. Do you want me to ask him literally if he's bald now or that's? Yeah, yeah. Tell him a viewer saw him last night and I was just shocked.

I thought, is he going through chemo? No, he's healthy as a horse. You know, he never ceases to amaze me. His energy level at whatever he is, mid 60s is pretty.

I guess it's the good living from can do and kindred. Maybe it's just always amazed me. Kinnard.

Kinnard. Yeah. Thank you.

It's Kinnard. All right, Carol. Thank you.

God bless you. Great to hear from you. Another listener said the problem with your concept on the big, you know, bold candy honor system.

One on a 10 would do it. Guarantee. It'd be the first one, but it'd probably be the parents.

Probably them. Welcome to Halloween, friends. What's on your mind, man? I don't know what it is, but the memories come flooding back when the kids were little.

Halloween. It was always so much fun. And I do remember one of my favorite nights of the year as a high school kid was Halloween.

You get together with your buddies and you go even, you know, like I remember being a junior in high school. Did I need candy? No, but it was just being out with your buddies. And I know it won't surprise our next guest, Senator Kevin Cramer, to know that when I would dress up as a high school kid, same kid in South Dakota, Iowa, and my hometown of Montevideo, Minnesota, that started conservative youth groups in high school, conservative chapters that I was actually very fond of wearing a trench coat and a Dick Nixon mask.

Or a Ronald Reagan mask. Very easy for one. And you could have so much fun with that.

So anyway, it's Halloween. Is Senator Cramer not on? Kev? Kev? Michael? Oh, you're working on it. Okay.

I got the official word that we're working on. So that's good. We asked this question earlier today about Halloween and kids today.

And I've been thinking about doing something I've seen done before because we have some other plans tonight that might take us away from answering the door. And that is to put out a big bucket of candy and then a little note on it says, you know, one per person. The other thing we've been debating about is full-size candy bars.

And some woman just called and said, you end up getting three or four of the little ones. Why not just do a full-size candy bar? It's a great idea. And there's a PetroServe USA special.

Do I have that here? On the big king-size candy bars right now. So you go to PetroServe USA today, you can do that. Anyway, Senator Kevin Cramer is here for the Talk Radio Town Hall and much more important things to discuss on the show today.

Hello, sir. How are you? All right. You guys are going to have to figure this out.

Yeah, still can't hear me. Okay. I don't know what's going on.

We'll work on it. You're working on it. Okay.

Let me go to some text while we're waiting for Senator Cramer here. This listener says, related to the honor system for candy, the problem with your concept that only one of 10 would do it, I guarantee you, it'd be the first one. See, I was saying one of 10 kids is going to take a gob of free candy out of the bowl.

I get it. There's one in every crowd. But nine out of 10 North Dakota kids, I think they're going to go, oh, that's one.

Mom and dad will be with them and watch it. But then the listener says, not only that, you have to watch out for many of your adult neighbors now. They'd run over and grab all of your candy.

What does that say about the state of things right now? Maybe. I don't know. You ever done that, Senator Cramer, where you put out the bowl of candy and just let them do it? Oh, yeah.

Have you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure have.

And you, like us, have dogs. And dogs don't take kindly to 50 doorbell rings in a night. So I think it's an easier way.

That's the only thing. Yeah, it's fine. I mean, it robs you of the opportunity to see all those cute kids, however, if you're home, obviously.

So we've done it. We don't do it if we're there, because I rather love getting up. I will tell you, to be honest, I occasionally put on my Batman costume.

And when I see them coming, I throw on the mask and hand out the candy in costume. I love that. Because it's just a lot of fun.

Yeah, it is. And it is fun to watch because it brings you back when the kids are little. And I remember coming home with my siblings and seeing who had the biggest pile.

Oh, yeah. All right. Kind of fun.

Quick funny story, and that's the last thing I'll say on Halloween. We'll go to some listeners here that are waiting to talk to you. My daughter, middle daughter Hannah, went to Yale, as you know.

And survived, actually. One of the reasons she survived is because she was an intern for Kevin and learned a lot in a Capitol Hill office. But it was at Yale where the term safe space was invented.

Did you know that? Because somebody was wearing a costume that offended another student, and the student screamed, I need a safe space. And then the school adopted a policy that say, you know, there's got to be an area of the campus where there's no Halloween costumes. And we wonder why America is going to hell in a handbag, right? Yeah.

But now if it was a male dressed up like a woman, that person would need a safe space. Because after all, what's weird about that? Right. Yeah.

That person would have probably celebrated that person to say, see, I'm glad you express yourself in this way. Yeah. You know, when we first took Hannah to Yale, you know, you kind of observed a lot of things that made you worry.

And, you know, we're not saying a lot because, you know, you let your kids decide. But what tripped it for me to say yes was the fact that there were actually a young Republican group there at Yale, which is bold. And there was, at the time we were there visiting, there was a hunger strike going on among grad students because they didn't feel like they were being paid enough.

They wanted to be paid the same that, you know, a whatever underling of a professor as a grad student, as an actual student. They're doing this. They want to be paid more.

So they had a strike. And the young Republicans right next to where they're having this hunger strike, literally a hunger strike to be paid more. I'm not kidding you.

Only Yale. Right next door, the young Republicans held a barbecue and gave away free hot dogs, which it just was so ingenious that I said, OK, yeah, this place has a little bit of, you know, humor, entrepreneurial, conservative spirit. So last story I'm telling today.

Are you ready for a few calls? Sure. Why not? On the talk radio town hall. All right.

It's 30. It's the 31st day of Groundhog's Day or whatever we are in about 800 hours into Groundhog's Day, also known as the government shutdown. It's just so sad.

I saw Brooke Rollins this morning, though, talk about everybody saying, you know, oh, they should just figure out a way to pay SNAP benefits. She said, well, there's something called the law, you know, that we do have a pesky thing called the law. And there's a lot of lawyers in Congress.

You'd think they'd figure that out. But we'll talk about that as we go. But anyway, quickly through these calls, Danny Tripp, P.J. Warren, West Fargo, Tower City, Mapleton.

I love this. OK, Danny, quick question from Senator Kramer. You're first to go.

Yeah, good morning, Kevin and Scott. And the other Kevin. Yes, the interest on the national debt is $1 trillion a year that we're paying for a family of four that comes out to $12,000 a year, $1,000 a month just in interest payments.

It's kind of like a payday loan. Politicians buy votes like student loan forgiveness, no taxes on tips and overtime and tax cuts. Would you patriotically give back your tax cut to pay down the national debt? I would give $250 a month out of my Social Security to be added to pay down the national debt.

OK, do it. That's a good idea. I think he's asking you, Kevin.

Would you do it? Well, I think what I think if I understand, I think what Danny's suggesting is not, you know, is that would we give up a certain amount of taxes? Would everybody give up as patriotic? If we were, in fact, to to maybe even raise taxes, as he's referencing as well. Um, all of those are great ideas. But but at the end of the day, anything you do that generates more revenue or removes more of it doesn't change the spending part of our problem.

And that is our problem. We get more revenue from tax cuts than we do from tax increases. I mean, it all seems strange, but it happens.

It's happened literally every time there have been tax cuts. And it's and it's just it's stimulating the economy. And then throw on top of that, I'm going to get to some good news here in a minute, Scott.

But on top of that, tax increases actually have a detrimental effect on the economy. Imagine that. And so really, all of the tax cuts that were part of the one big, beautiful bill that were an extension of the previous Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as well as some more, I just want you to imagine we have now made a 600 billion dollar gain on that deficit that Danny's talking about this year.

This year, just the largest at 600 billion net gain on that on that effort. So he's right about revenue. But revenue, the best way to get the balance is kind of like what Bill Clinton and the Republicans did.

That is stimulate the economy and make sure that our GDP, our gross domestic product, our productivity exceeds. Great point. Great point.

And by the way, that's the legacy of the Biden administration. Those higher interest rates added more to the debt as well. And the economy stunk.

More of a Senator Kramer coming up. All right, back on What's On Your Mind, Friday edition, Halloween edition of What's On Your Mind. If you want a pair of tickets for UND hockey this weekend against Duluth, text in a note, include your name and your email address so we can just send you the tickets.

Got a few pairs were given away for the weekend series against the Bulldogs. 701-237-1590. There you can also ask questions.

There and you can call Senator Kramer two ways. 701-271-1100 or text 701-237-1590. Also, you can call this way.

This is toll free 24-7, 855-200-1776. 855-200-1776. All right, back to some calls here.

Let's go to Tower City. You heard of Tower City before? Kevin, did your vehicle have like a magnet detector where it goes in wherever the pies are in Tower City? Are you familiar with that town at all? Something like that. I'm slightly familiar with it.

Although I have to tell you, one time when I stopped in there to buy some pies, it clearly wasn't big enough order because the first thing the woman said to me is, yeah, well, Governor Burgum was in here recently and he bought twice that many. She's showing you off. Good marketing.

Very good marketing skills on her part. Yeah, I love it. It was impressive.

I don't know how my car does it, but I can be like not even paying attention. The blinker goes on and on. It's very bizarre.

Anyway, Warren, for Senator Kramer, you don't want to talk about pie. What do you want to talk about? Didn't the Dems are pushing, they have all this money they want for the illegal aliens and their benefits and whatnot. That's what they're holding out for, correct? And with that, don't you guys, isn't it in the CR that that's what they're trying to push through? Can't you guys grab that, go up in front of a mic and say, hey, this is right.

Here's what they want. You know, I don't want no more money taken out of my check. Like your last case said, hey, I donate this much money.

The more money we give you, the more money that they just spend on some more garbage. I don't want no more money taken out of my check. I already working on it.

Yeah, so great points. A couple of things I just wanted to clarify because the caller is on to something and we have talked a lot about it. In fact, what they have is they have a counter proposal.

They have their own continuing resolution that adds one and a half trillion dollars of spending. Can you imagine a seven week? Now it's down to about two and a half weeks, three weeks, but a seven week bill, appropriations bill that funds the government at the same level, plus one and a half trillion dollars. And in there has all of those things that the caller is talking about, you know, healthcare for illegal aliens, you know, undoes a lot of the tax cuts from the one big beautiful bill.

They're not playing straight up with people. Now, we're not allowing that bill to be voted on anymore. They have one more shot at it and they've been preserving that one shot.

And I can go through the mechanics if you want of it, but it has to do with reconsideration. So now it's just been voting against our continuing resolution. And theirs isn't a continuing resolution.

When you add one and a half trillion, that's not continuing. That's new policy. So yes, they want to do all of that.

They want to do some other things. It's really what they're doing is holding it hostage. And as well as all the public employees, as well as the SNAP recipients and LIHEAP recipients and military men and women, they're holding them hostage to get these other policies they want in addition to the continuing resolution.

So I think that's pretty well known. I think that's part of why they're cracking now. It's why the Federal Employees Union is now supporting the Republican bill.

Can you imagine you'd never see that day? Three unions of pilots are supporting the Republican bill and urging Democrats to come on board. I think you're going to see them do exactly that next week. The irony, though, of the continuing resolution is, I think this also to the caller's point, what you're going to see, remember I said we've made a $600 billion net positive already on new revenue.

And then in January, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act kicks in, just one component, and I know you're familiar with this, Scott, but we now have made permanent law the ability for businesses to expense 100 percent of their capital expenditures. And hold that thought if you would, Kev, because that's such an important point, and it is going to be rocket fuel for the economy, small businesses, others. Before we finish, though, we've got a special guest on the line that only has a couple of minutes, your friend and mine, John Castamedas, who has forgotten more about New York City than anybody will ever know.

Cats, thanks for joining the Kevin Cramer Talk Radio Town Hall. How are you? Well, I am well. You know, we've got four days left to the countdown, and I cannot believe that we're going to have a possible socialist mayor of the city of New York.

The capitalist capital of the world might have a socialist mayor. What is happening to our country? Our country has problems city by city by city. You know, we lost San Francisco.

We lost Chicago. Are we going to lose New York now, too? Yeah, it's so sad. It is.

Yeah, it is sad. Well, gosh, it's good to hear Cats' voice. You know, I do his show quite a bit on WABC, which I just love, Cats and Crosby.

But right now, New York is fixated on the most important thing probably in the last several decades in that city, and that is that mayor's race. And I just wish we could export some North Dakota common sense, Cats, to you all. Well, all we need is common sense.

You know, I'm making an ad, a last minute ad for Sunday, because this Montgomery person wants to defund the police. He wants to reduce the police in New York City. And we're doing an ad saying that if he defunds the police and somebody is trying to break into your home and you're dialing 9-1-1 and nobody comes, what are you going to do now? Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right.

Let me ask you this. He wants to send a social worker. Especially the people, the Democrats, who want to get rid of guns with the people.

But you can't get rid of guns, because the first thing that Stalin did in Russia is make sure they got rid of the guns. And then the first thing that Hitler did, get rid of the guns. And you know what happened? They took over.

Yeah, only the bad guys had guns. Yeah, for sure. If only the bad guys got guns.

And the bad guys always have guns. Yeah, exactly right. If you took all the good guys and took all their guns away, the bad guys will always have guns.

Do you think there's any chance Mom Donnie doesn't win, like handicap this race for us? Well, the Republicans had President Trump, who's the commander in chief of the United States, and he's also commander in chief of the Republican Party. I had dinner with him last week. He issued an order, John, do whatever you can do to make sure that anybody but Montgomery wins.

And the closest guy is former Governor Cuomo of New York, because it's really, you know, 70% of New York is Democratic. And the real Democrat is Andrew Cuomo. And I tell that to all my Democratic friends, that Andrew Cuomo is the real Democrat.

And this guy, Mo Donnie, that's running, he's not a Democrat. He's a socialist. And he's a socialist, not looking for good things in New York City.

He's looking to defund the police. He's looking, he hates, he hates Jews. He said that already.

He hates Italians. He hates the real estate industry. And you know, the one important factor that I said to him, that 1% of New Yorkers pay 48% of the taxes.

So if half of those 1% leave, who's going to pay the pensions of all the retired cops and firemen? So we're rooting for Cuomo for sure. And I assume Curtis Leewell has no chance, Katz? I love Curtis. He's my brother for 40 years.

But right now he's not, he's way behind. Yeah. God bless you.

God bless you for buying that Beacon of Truth WABC and for having our friend Senator Kevin Kramer on regularly. We'll have you back sometime soon. Go get him, Katz.

Thank you very much. Yep. Thanks, Katz.

This is scary. Don't want to hear this song. What was the movie again? The Exorcist.

Yeah, no, I can't. Not a scary movie kind of guy. Don't like it.

Don't like it one bit. It's Halloween. I get it.

How about here's Johnny? We got to get The Shining going. That was another beauty. 28 before the, I hated scary movies.

Buddies would make me go to scary movies and I would cover my eyes the whole time. Do you still? Could have done that. That is not entertainment to me.

That is the stupidest thing on earth. I agree. I do sort of get the appeal.

I just don't share it. Oh my gosh. I'm back with Senator Kevin Kramer.

Talk Radio Town Hall. Brought to you in part today by PetroServe USA. Lot of full-size candy bars there.

I'm going to go get a gobble of them later today and be the good guy. I should actually turn on my ring. I guess it works already and see how many follow the honor system.

We'll have to see. But anyway, did you see Donald Trump at the White House giving out candy yesterday? Somebody came up with a giant flag. I don't know what it was, but it was kind of a big flag guy thing.

I'm sure he'll surprise you that he locked onto that. It was all over social media yesterday. That's adorable.

I love when they do that. You were saying before the break, before we talked to Katz, and maybe you should just riff a little on Katz, because what a passionate guy. I mean, you kind of sound like he's really concerned about the outcome of the New York City race.

I don't know what you thought. Well, John is such a patriotic guy. And he loves North Dakota, by the way.

That's the thing that's too bad that we didn't have him a little longer. He has invested a fair bit in North Dakota. He's been invested in some of the oil activity in North Dakota.

But when he stepped up and purchased, imagine purchasing WABC. I mean, that is, as you know, the flagship of so many conservative stars that you and I know, including Rush Limbaugh. Yeah, Sean Hannity for years.

Sean Hannity, right. Mark Clement. Of course, those guys escaped.

Mark Levin, most of them escaped New York City, like a lot of other people are going to do, by the way, if this mayor's race goes away, it looks like he's going to go. But anyway, he's so patriotic. So when he has me on his show, for those people that care.

So his show's on WABC. It's with a partner guy, Rita Crosby, who's a very talented broadcaster. They like to have me on to talk about North Dakota.

Is that not funny? And they play. He asked me, could you send us some North Dakota songs? So I send him some of the corniest North Dakota songs you can find, things from the Madora musical. And so that's what they use for bumper music when I come in and when I go off the show with them.

It's just really fun. And, you know, Scott, you have turned me into a bit of a radio personality in America, and I kind of like it. But I have to say, I do a lot of national shows.

In fact, I'm doing Hugh Hewitt's show this afternoon. But I also just love doing that one local show in New York City with those guys because they're so respectful of our state and, you know, build it up so nicely. And I think, well, tourism director doesn't hurt a little bit.

One of these days, I'm going to put on my business card a North Dakota evangelist because it's so fun when people get the genius of North Dakota. And it's fun to be able to spread that news without questions. If you were in New York City, and I'm asking myself this, who would you vote for in this race? Boy, that is a great question, Scott, because I will tell you, it is hard for me.

It would be very hard for me to fill in the oval or pull the lever or whatever the heck they do in New York for Andrew Cuomo. I mean, it's just not only because he's a Democrat, because he really isn't. He is kind of a more traditional Democrat in a lot of ways.

But he's really corrupt. And I just have a hard time. But I think in this case, I could make the exception.

I really do. I think. And by the way, why do I care about New York City? Right.

He's also not going to win. And you could defeat the communists. Well, again, I'm kind of with Kevin.

I've wrestled with the same thing. We've had conversations with our daughters about this. And I've been so proud of them because they're paying attention like you can't believe in a whole new way.

Yeah, that is. And you would. And I think that's the one thing in New York that who knows where it goes.

But, you know, when I was asked by our youngest early on, Dad, who would you vote for? I said, we vote principal in this family. And Curtis Lee was the Republican endorsed candidate. He shares our principles more than anybody in the race.

And then she watched the debates and she's like, he's kind of a goofball. And this Cuomo is making a lot of sense. And Mamdani scares the daylights out of me.

All my precious little baby girls figuring this out. So then I'm like, OK, you're never going to hear Dad say this in politics, but you're right and I'm wrong. And but I'm with you, Kevin, because the you know, I don't I do want Mamdani to win politically because I think he is going to be their Donald Trump in that they're going to try and hang him, you know, connect him to every Democrat running in every midterm race.

It will be the personification of everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party now. But that's also very dangerous for this country. Yeah.

So I'm with you. I think I would go Cuomo in this race. And I would also say this.

Maybe he'll be a wake up call for normal Democrats to say, look, let's start speaking out because he's goofy. He's an egomaniac. I don't know if he did the ick they claim he did as governor, but he's a normal Democrat.

His dad was a normal Democrat, right? His dad really was quite a good Democrat. Yeah. So so I think all of those things are true.

And Kevin's right. You're right. Your daughter's right.

The problem is, how do you cast that ballot? And I do think at the end of the day, especially if you live there, right, if you're living there, you want a better city than what a socialist, really a communist is going to give you. But having said that, you make an interesting point, though, Scott, about maybe Andrew Cuomo, maybe there's a wake up call. One of the things that this race is proving is that politics does matter.

It really does matter. And who you vote for doesn't matter. And what you see in Cuomo is, holy moly, this is where my party's gone.

I better do what I can to bring it back to the middle. And maybe there's a silver lining at the end of all of this. There usually is in American politics and in free government like we have and, you know, self-governed nation.

But I'm glad it's not our decision to make, to be honest with you. And in New York City, you have family there, you have kids there. So you and Maria want to go there.

Every time somebody tells me I have to go there for somebody else to help raise money for the party or something, I go, do I have to? Do I really have to? Could somebody else do it? The town sort of drives me crazy. And my wife and I fell in love there. So it's a special place in our heart and have great memories.

But it's very challenging. And it's sort of an analogy that tracks very well with where we're at. Kevin just reminded me in my ear, the other Kevin here, about Cuomo and COVID.

You know, remember that? Donald Trump said, let's send giant care ships where people can heal up and be COVID-free by being out there. And Cuomo wouldn't use them. You have to vote for Sliwa.

You cannot vote for Bondani. You have to. I mean, and come on.

Cuomo? You said it, Kev. He's as corrupt as the day is long. He's an idiot.

I'm going to remind you of something Kellen said one time that really shaped my thinking when it came to Ukraine-Russia war. He said the only difference between Ukraine and Russia is that Ukraine elects its crooks. I mean, New York City's had a lot of crooks.

They've had a lot of crooks over the years. Watch the movie Sister Cabrini, Angel Studios, and robber barons and crooks that ran New York City that didn't care that kids were living with rats. It's a part of their history.

But a socialist? Oh, my gosh. Anyway, let's get back to the calls here. Craig and Thief River Falls for Senator Kevin Cramer.

Go ahead. Yeah, Kevin. Hello.

We got you. Go ahead, Craig. Okay, I want to know how Donald Trump, or President Trump, is supposed to negotiate with a Democratic Party that's pro-abortion, pro-killing, and I'm sure a lot of Republicans the same way.

I want to know how. And what are we supposed to talk about, the high cost of peanuts or what? Yeah. So that's a great question.

And quite honestly, it's less about the policies and more about the intransigence. It's a moment when it's all or nothing all the time. And that's never good.

Our founders created it this way. They created it with two chambers and three branches for that very purpose of finding middle ground. They didn't want extremes.

The problem is the Democrats have gone so extreme that they're not willing to negotiate unless you're negotiating on their terms. And therein lies the problem. So ironically, these no kings people that claim that Donald Trump wants to be a king are handing him the keys to the kingdom by not voting for a continuing resolution and not being willing to proceed with regular legislation.

I mean, they killed, they blocked us from actually moving forward with the bill to fund the national defense of this country. The most legitimate, maybe the only legitimate thing that the federal government does, not in interstate commerce. So they are hard to negotiate with.

And yet, I think what Donald Trump is trying to do is use the stick more than the carrot to negotiate with them. And we're at a point now where you're talking about silver lining, Scott. The silver lining in this debate has been that not one, not one Republican member of the United States Senate or the House of Representatives has wavered on this issue of continuing resolution.

Because it's the easy button. And by the way, they've done it so many, many times, you know, there's no rational reason for Democrats to oppose it. Craig, I appreciate your principles on all this.

I do. And it's a challenging time for sure. And I always say, if you can't get the pro-life thing right, how do you get anything else right? How do you think it's okay, you know, to social security pick your issue? Like, wait a minute, can we agree killing babies is a bad idea? Can we just start there? Thanks, Craig.

Trip in Mapleton for Senator Kramer. Your question, please. Hi, Senator Kramer.

You've done so much good throughout the state of North Dakota. Does it bother you and your family that your legacy will be overshadowed by the fact that you were one of the biggest bootlickers and enablers of that piece of garbage in the White House? So, I'm very, very pleased. When I look at my legacy, the fact that I was one of the very, very first Republican members of the House of Representatives to support Donald Trump before it was cool and positioned my state to be on the winning side of a presidential election, to be able to have the cell phone number of the commander in chief at a time when our Air Force bases needed a lot of help, to be able to advocate for our farmers with tough love with our president at a time when they need the help and then they get it, to be at the forefront of helping a man become president of the United States who brought the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, has reduced the regulations on our businesses, has helped America be wealthy again, to be respected again in the world.

Yeah, I'm honored. I'm humbled to think that I even was able to play that kind of a role and still get to with my friend, Donald Trump, who has, by the way, right now the Democrats, get this one, Scott, the Democrats hair is on fire because he and his military are taking out the people, the thugs, the human and the drug traffickers in the Caribbean, taking them out. Democrats are upset about that.

Is it any wonder that they're pro-abortion? Again, I continue to say, please don't change a thing because the political irrelevance that is building by the day for this left-wing lunacy is unbelievable. How do you think it's a bad idea to take out folks that are poisoning people with fentanyl? Now we're talking. I love it.

Say the best Halloween bumper for last there today. I love it. Who sang this song? You remember Monster Mash? I don't know.

You remember, Kev? Senator Kramer? I do not. I don't either. Who was it? Bobby Boris Pickett.

I would have never got that. Not a chance. Lister said that today's the last day of the giant candy bars.

The petrol serve USA for a buck. I should know this. A buck.

How about that? So load up. I'm going to go over there today. I'm just going to get a bunch of them.

Petro Serve USA. Also, five cents off a gallon of gas when you have the rewards program. You buy enough candy bars, you'll get free candy bars.

Same with the hot stuff, personal pan pizzas and the cookies and all the goodies. And you buy one or you fill up rather with eight gallons of gas or more and you get a free car wash today. Also, brought to you by our friends at the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation.

63,000 jobs statewide now. Not bad, huh? Love what they're doing. The folks that are getting me all across North Dakota in that beautiful new 26 GMC.

Sierra Denali. So great. And the last thing I wanted to tell you is we are two weeks tomorrow from the event honoring Charlie Kirk and Fargo.

First since his death. Assassination. With Brian Kilmeade from Fox and Friends as well as Jimmy Phelan.

Two Fox News stars. There are sponsorship opportunities. Had somebody yesterday call and say, hey, how much does it cost to fly them out here? I said a lot.

They said, well, I want to pay for part of the jet fuel. Kicking in 25 grand. And I'll match another 25 if you find somebody else.

Isn't that nice? All because they want to be like Charlie. And folks that pay $20 for a ticket. Veterans and students just as important.

FreedomMattersUSA.com. FreedomMattersUSA.com or go to Eventbrite. Okay? Be a great night. Mike and Ulan for Senator Kevin Cramer.

Go, Mike. Good morning, Senator. And how are you? Hi, Mike.

I'm well, thank you. How are you? Pretty fair. I'm a little bit troubled, though, at this shutdown.

I read something in AMAC magazine about an outfit called the DSA. Democratic Socialists of America. Are you aware that Alexander Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are members of this outfit? And I'm kind of wondering how many others, senators, these Democratic senators are also members of them.

Their sworn ideal is to take down our Constitution and institute a socialist society in America. It really worries me, Senator. This is our country.

I mean, like, we're all patriots here. And these guys apparently hate this country for what it is and want to change it into something like Venezuela. I don't know about you, but that really irritates the living daylights out of me.

Yeah, no, it irritates me, too. And it's frightening to think that we've become as a population of voters to where that's actually acceptable. Remembering AOC, as you point out, and Bernie Sanders both call themselves Democratic Socialists.

It's not like it's not like, well, they're liberal Democrats, so we're going to call them socialists. They call themselves Democratic Socialists. And Bernie, you know, when he's been running for president, he's always emphasized, well, but it's a Democratic Socialist, you know, like somehow that's different than another type of socialist.

And it gets to your fundamental point. They don't like America. They don't like capitalism.

They want to change it to something more like Venezuela or Cuba. But here's what I think is the underlying problem. First of all, I think their appeal is waning.

But at the same time, we haven't been very good. And when I say we, I mean generations prior to the kids, the grandchildren that we have in educating young people about the difference between capitalism and socialism, what socialism means exactly. It's been allowed by liberal professors and teachers to describe socialism as some sort of more benevolent form of freedom.

It is not freedom at all. It ultimately turns the government into the nanny state. And it's, I don't know how many other members, to your point, I don't know how many other people call themselves Democratic Socialists or are members of the DSA in the Congress, but there aren't as many as you might think.

But there are enough of them that the rest are afraid of them. And that's exactly what we've been talking about today with regard to the government shutdown. Appreciate it.

Yep, they're just scared. They're just, they're scared of this left wing. Thank you, Mike.

We only have a couple minutes left, by the way. We're getting a ton of texts from listeners that are very mad that the nasty question that came from that listener, you know, how stupid that caller is. He makes a simple person like me feel smart.

And he obviously is just proving how good Senator Cramer is. A lot of comments on that. I know your skin is thick, so it doesn't bother you.

Not only that, but I would pay that guy to ask me that question every week. People are upset. They're like, you called the Senator Cramer a bootlicker.

Disgusting. We didn't get a chance to talk in great detail about the one big beautiful bill that you started talking about. But boy, anybody talking to their tax man right now, I think that's going to be rocket fuel for this economy.

Interest rates obviously came down. So we got to talk more about that in the coming days. How about a big trade deal with China? I mean, wow.

That sort of happens. And yeah, wow is right. 30 seconds left.

Do you think this is going to end as the pain point there politically for the Democrats yet? I believe it is, Scott. I mean, just the last couple of days, many of my Democratic friends are clearly ready to they want to move on and they know that they've missed a month of negotiating. Wow.

How about the 60 vote thing? Trump evidently exploring the get rid of the filibuster. Bad idea. Good idea.

It's a really bad idea. And it would be worse for Republicans and Democrats, for sure. Because if you look at the history of our country, they have had all of the power many more times than we have.

And they would they would make, you know, careful what you state, careful what you wish for a deal. God bless. Have a great Halloween.