Speaker 1: Eight o five, a fifty five krc DE talk station,
Speaker 1: A very, very happy and special Tuesday. Brian Thomas, host
Speaker 1: of the fifty five Carssee Morning Show, couldn't be more
Speaker 1: excited than I am right now.
Speaker 2: Happy to welcome for the first time.
Speaker 1: Actually at the first time, we talked about his book Woking,
Speaker 1: but he has announced his intention to be Ohio's next governor.
Speaker 1: Fivek Ramas Swimmy, Welcome to the fifty five KRSE Morning Show.
Speaker 1: Distinct pleasure to have you on the program today, sir.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. Brian. Good to talk to you again.
Speaker 1: And it's great to just I'm going to congratulate you
Speaker 1: out right after your nets you immediately got the endorsement
Speaker 1: of President Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Thank you. It was an honor to receive his endorsement.
Speaker 3: He and I have worked together over the last year
Speaker 3: and I'm so proud of what he's doing for the country,
Speaker 3: and in my view, he's making America great again. He's
Speaker 3: reviving our conviction in America. We need a leader here
Speaker 3: at home who's going to revive our conviction in Ohio.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to be honored hopefully to serve as
Speaker 3: our next governor and to take our state to the
Speaker 3: next level.
Speaker 1: Well, considering what I know you've identified as your campaign platform,
Speaker 1: economic excellence and building Ohio as a state with educational excellence,
Speaker 1: you seem to have the recipe for success down I've
Speaker 1: seen I know you know about people fleeing California, New York,
Speaker 1: and Illinois to other states that have a better business environment.
Speaker 1: Typically it's Texas and Florida identified. But you want to
Speaker 1: make Ohio a even better magnet, and it seems to
Speaker 1: me the recipe for that is low taxes, reduction to
Speaker 1: regulatory burden, and of course the quality education that you
Speaker 1: plan for. And if we could start with that, because
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of your ideas on education, most
Speaker 1: notably school choice and improving vocational opportunities as well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean you stated my platform directly, that's exactly
Speaker 3: the core agenda for the state. There's just one key
Speaker 3: element to that I would add, Brian, is that I
Speaker 3: also want to be a governor who makes sure that
Speaker 3: our public schools are equipped to compete with the best
Speaker 3: of those alternatives. I'm going to push for harder school choice,
Speaker 3: but with our public schools, I'm going to implement merit
Speaker 3: based pay for every teacher, principal, administrator, and superintendent. Because
Speaker 3: to be clear, the best teachers actually deserve to be
Speaker 3: paid much more than they are. But that means we
Speaker 3: have to actually rationalize the waste of expenditures elsewhere in
Speaker 3: our education system. It's not just throwing more money at
Speaker 3: our public schools, it's how that money is spent. Other
Speaker 3: basic common sense reforms like finally getting the cell phones
Speaker 3: out of our classes. Yeah, bringing back physical education at
Speaker 3: a younger age, and the Presidential Fitness Test, which we'll
Speaker 3: bring back physical health, it's mental health, it's civic health.
Speaker 3: To Brian is we're going to bring back civic education
Speaker 3: that teaches our kids to be proud of our state
Speaker 3: rather than ashamed of it. And one of the things
Speaker 3: I'm particularly passionate about is every high school senior who
Speaker 3: graduates from Ohio Public High School is going to have
Speaker 3: to pass the same Civics test that every legal immigrant
Speaker 3: has to pass in order to become for them citizen
Speaker 3: in the country. And so anyway, these are basic changes
Speaker 3: where we can lead the country, and I'm excited that
Speaker 3: we're going to take our state to the next level.
Speaker 1: I love that it sounds to me like you're a
Speaker 1: proponent of as I am a classical education.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think that you can't be proud of a
Speaker 3: country that you don't know the history of. And I
Speaker 3: do think that young people, I think all of us
Speaker 3: in some sense are hungering for purpose and meaning and identity.
Speaker 3: And I do think that filling that void with the
Speaker 3: real thing, not the fake stuff, but the real thing
Speaker 3: is actually what's going to give us our true fulfillment individual, family, nation,
Speaker 3: and God beat race, gender, sexuality, and climate, if we
Speaker 3: have the courage to stand for it. And at the
Speaker 3: same time, I was clear, and I'm opening last night,
Speaker 3: and I'll deliver the same message in Toledo where I'm
Speaker 3: headed right now, delivered the same message in strongsbol where
Speaker 3: I'm head, and deny it that. My message to every
Speaker 3: Democrat in the state and every Independent in this state
Speaker 3: is that we may not agree on one hundred percent
Speaker 3: of issues. And that's okay. Diversity of thoughts a beautiful
Speaker 3: thing in Ohio. But if you care about economic excellence
Speaker 3: in this state, if you care about educational excellence in
Speaker 3: this state, if you care about your kids having the
Speaker 3: same shot at the American dream that this state, in
Speaker 3: this country gave to me, and we're actually on the
Speaker 3: same team. As the way I look at it, if
Speaker 3: a seat at the table in this movement, let's take
Speaker 3: our state to the next level. And I want to
Speaker 3: work together with everybody do it, not just constitutional conservatives
Speaker 3: like you and I, which of course that's important. We're
Speaker 3: not going to compromise on our principles, but we're going
Speaker 3: to work with everybody in this state to lift us
Speaker 3: up economically and to give our kids the world class
Speaker 3: education that I believe is their birthright in Ohio.
Speaker 1: Well, I certainly enjoy hearing what you're saying. It's in
Speaker 1: You're right, you know, rising tide lifts all ships. Doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what your political stripe is. You got to a
Speaker 1: better business environment, better educational environment, every single human being
Speaker 1: in the state will benefit to Flipping over to I
Speaker 1: just I'm reacting to your idea of merit based compensation
Speaker 1: for teachers, which of course is a great concept. You know,
Speaker 1: if you live in a meritocracy, the better you are,
Speaker 1: the brighter you are, the harder you work, the more
Speaker 1: likely it is you're going to make more money. And
Speaker 1: that's just the proven recipe all from the beginning of time.
Speaker 1: How do you do you judge the merits though, how
Speaker 1: is what is the great question? Yeah, go ahead, that's
Speaker 1: a great question, and there's a good conversation to have.
Speaker 1: The way I believe it should be judged. As a
Speaker 1: starting point, okay, is objective results. There you have test
Speaker 1: scores and the results combined with the assessment of parents.
Speaker 1: And I think this conversation to be had whether you
Speaker 1: add some element of peer review as well, where the
Speaker 1: way the teacher works within the context of the school
Speaker 1: with their other peers is also at least an input.
Speaker 3: But you have then objective metrics, rental assessment, peer assessments,
Speaker 3: and most importantly, objective assessments of the success of our students.
Speaker 3: To be clear, that's what this is all about. Seventy
Speaker 3: five percent of eighth graders right now are not proficient
Speaker 3: in math intional standards. We have kids in other countries
Speaker 3: where English isn't even their first language doing better on
Speaker 3: English proficiency than our own students right here, Brian, I
Speaker 3: think that's not acceptable to me. So we've got to
Speaker 3: measure how we're improving on those metrics. From the inner
Speaker 3: city of Cincinnati to Cleveland to Appalasia, the whole state
Speaker 3: to actually give our kids. We owe it to the
Speaker 3: next generation. I'm a father of two sons myself, and
Speaker 3: I care about passing that American dream on to my
Speaker 3: kids and their generation, and we're going to do that
Speaker 3: here in Ohio in a way that sets a model
Speaker 3: for the rest of the country. And one thing I
Speaker 3: want to say about this is we do have an
Speaker 3: issue where many kids who grow up in this state
Speaker 3: end up leaving to pursue opportunities in other states. I
Speaker 3: want them to stay here and pursue the American dream
Speaker 3: in Ohio because it is the best place for them
Speaker 3: to make that decision, close to their parents and to
Speaker 3: their grandparents. Keeping the generational families in this state because
Speaker 3: that's the place where they have the best educational and
Speaker 3: economic opportunities. That's where I want to lead us.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: One of the stumbling blocks and the elephant of the
Speaker 1: room on all of your wonderful and logical and reasonable
Speaker 1: ideas about education happens to be the teachers Union. And
Speaker 1: they they exist for their own benefit, not for the
Speaker 1: benefit of students. I just have to generally speak, but
Speaker 1: that seems to be the case. And how are you
Speaker 1: going to cope with them and their uh, and and
Speaker 1: and and deal with the opposition you're most certainly going
Speaker 1: to face from the teachers union.
Speaker 3: Look the way I said it, I was crystal clear
Speaker 3: last night in both my speeches, and I'll say it
Speaker 3: again today. I don't want to pick a fight with
Speaker 3: the teachers' unions. Frankly, I don't want to pick a
Speaker 3: fight with anybody. But I'm not going to back down
Speaker 3: one either. I'm going to do whatever is required to
Speaker 3: stand for the achievement of our students. And let me
Speaker 3: be crystal clear, as they said earlier, the best teachers
Speaker 3: deserve to be compensated better than they are. Right now,
Speaker 3: I think of missus Kinney, this teacher of mine in
Speaker 3: sixth grade who lit a fire under my feet. She
Speaker 3: changed my life. She helped me see potential in myself
Speaker 3: that I hadn't seen. That was at the public schools
Speaker 3: in Princeton outside Cincinnati at Realis Roberty Lucas Intermediate School
Speaker 3: with a Magnet program. That family is closed now. As
Speaker 3: Kinny is somebody who I reflected on last night in
Speaker 3: my speech. She unfortunately died a couple of years ago
Speaker 3: in a tragic accident, but I'd be thanking her today
Speaker 3: if she were alive, and I will tell you this,
Speaker 3: I want more teachers like her. But that's not an
Speaker 3: anti public school teacher message. That is a pro teacher message.
Speaker 3: But any obstacle that stands in the way, if that's
Speaker 3: the unions for anybody else, we're going to deal with
Speaker 3: that to do what's right for our students with strength.
Speaker 1: Well, you are an obviously wildly successful entrepreneur. You built
Speaker 1: ctl aerospace right here in Cincinnati. In spite of the
Speaker 1: regulatory and challenges you face in the state of Ohio
Speaker 1: at least still currently, you were able to do it.
Speaker 1: So I highlight that in illustrated because in spite of
Speaker 1: the obstacles which shouldn't be there in the state of
Speaker 1: Ohio for business advancement, you're.
Speaker 2: Able to do it.
Speaker 1: But you know where the skeletons are, you know where
Speaker 1: the problems lie, and you know where the reforms need
Speaker 1: to be made.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for that. I mean, just to be crystical.
Speaker 3: We launched the event at Ctail Aerospace last night and
Speaker 3: it's a great founder and a great family that invited
Speaker 3: us in sok But no, that's close to home where
Speaker 3: I grew up. So I grew up. My first house
Speaker 3: that I grew up in until I was five is
Speaker 3: a few minutes away from there, so you know, I
Speaker 3: could see the commonality that being said. I've built successful businesses.
Speaker 3: I was across biotech, across financial services, across other industries,
Speaker 3: and I understand what it takes to have success. It
Speaker 3: means that you're able to pursue your our own vision
Speaker 3: and serve your customers and serve the people for whom
Speaker 3: you exist without the government of bureaucracy standing in your way.
Speaker 3: And that's my vision for Ohio. I want this to
Speaker 3: be the most competitive state in the country to start
Speaker 3: and grow a new business, for young families to flock
Speaker 3: to to raise your kids in. Are we heading in
Speaker 3: the right direction? I think we actually are headed in
Speaker 3: the right direction. This is in California. We don't need
Speaker 3: a U turn. But what we do need to do
Speaker 3: is we need to step on the gas without holding back.
Speaker 3: We don't need to be shooting to be a good
Speaker 3: state in the Midwest. We just shoot to be the
Speaker 3: best state in the country to actually lead economically and educationally.
Speaker 3: And I don't think that that's unrealistic if you look
Speaker 3: at the last century, really even at the turn of
Speaker 3: the last Industrial Revolution, Ohio led the way in the nation.
Speaker 3: We were the economic powerhouse of America. And I think
Speaker 3: if Silicon Valley led the way in the last ten years,
Speaker 3: I think it should be the Ohio River Valley over
Speaker 3: the next ten years. And so that's the ambition I
Speaker 3: want to bring to leading this state. Ambition for every
Speaker 3: ohioan ambition to lift up the lives of every kid
Speaker 3: in this state. It's a moment for a modern Northwest
Speaker 3: ordinance is the way I look at this. We're at
Speaker 3: conservative state. We deserved to be governed accordingly. And that's
Speaker 3: not going to lose US elections, Brian. It's going to
Speaker 3: win US elections because it'll put more money in people's pockets,
Speaker 3: lift up more people in this state from poverty. It'll
Speaker 3: revive civic pride and self confidence in our young people.
Speaker 3: And I don't care whether you're a Democrat or Republican,
Speaker 3: black or white, man or woman, urban or rural, if
Speaker 3: you care about economic excellence and educational excellence in this state,
Speaker 3: and we got a seat for you at the table
Speaker 3: in this movement. And I want to work with everybody
Speaker 3: to take the state to the next level and dare
Speaker 3: I say unite this state in a landslide victory next year.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm shooting for at this point.
Speaker 1: Well, I understand you also are in favor of work
Speaker 1: requirements for Medicaid and welfare. We have a bit of
Speaker 1: a problem in this stay with Medicaid one of the
Speaker 1: worst in the country in terms of fraud, waste, and abuse.
Speaker 1: And I found out recently talked to the representative Jennifer
Speaker 1: Gross just a few days ago, and they did a
Speaker 1: recent analysis as statistical sampling, and found out that twenty
Speaker 1: six percent of the Medicaid payments go to individuals that
Speaker 1: do not even live in our state, which translates to
Speaker 1: like ten billion dollars. Mister Ramswami, that might help solve
Speaker 1: the school funding problem. We're already operating under an unconstitutional
Speaker 1: structure for funding schools. If we could claw back that
Speaker 1: or not send it out of the state, apply that
Speaker 1: to education, we might get some relief on our property taxes,
Speaker 1: which are killing so many people in this area.
Speaker 3: So look, I want to give a shout out to
Speaker 3: Jennifer Gross. She's been outstanding on this issue of Medicaid
Speaker 3: and spotlighting areas for savings. So she's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 3: She was actually at our event last night as well.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for her supporting Butler, but I will tell
Speaker 3: you we need to now do something about it as well,
Speaker 3: and to me part of the solution. First of all,
Speaker 3: we should make sure that there aren't recipients who, literally,
Speaker 3: as you're mentioning, out of state or other places where
Speaker 3: it's just error, should not be receiving money that wasn't
Speaker 3: intended for them. But even more broadly, as a policy measure,
Speaker 3: that's just an implementation failure. As a policy measure, work
Speaker 3: requirements for medicaid and welfare are not only reasonable, they're necessary.
Speaker 3: They're necessary not just as a budgetary matter, but even
Speaker 3: for the recipients. That's not compassion. To increase somebody's dependence
Speaker 3: on the government, that is cruelty. That is a form
Speaker 3: of cruelty. And I think the true form of compassion
Speaker 3: is helping somebody not with the handout, but a handout
Speaker 3: in their time of need, to give them a bridge
Speaker 3: to self sustain themselves on their own two feet. That's
Speaker 3: the American way. And so I do think that even
Speaker 3: well intentioned folks who say that, well, are these work
Speaker 3: requirements too aggressive. To be clear, the work requirements we're
Speaker 3: talking about are age eighteen to fifty four. If you're
Speaker 3: able bodied, if you don't have kids, then you're talking
Speaker 3: about twenty hours a week of working or at least
Speaker 3: trying to find work. I think it's really reasonable. That's
Speaker 3: where the federal standards are today. Ohio should not be
Speaker 3: seeking an exemption from that or a waiver from that.
Speaker 3: We should be embracing it and leading the country to
Speaker 3: say that we embraced hard work. We're going to end
Speaker 3: the war on work in this state. By the way, Brian,
Speaker 3: at a time when we do have a shortage of workers,
Speaker 3: why are we paying people and incentivizing them not to work.
Speaker 3: That doesn't make any sense. That goes back to the
Speaker 3: other point we were making about making Ohio the best
Speaker 3: place to start and grow business. If we have a
Speaker 3: more plentiful work population, population of workers who aren't being
Speaker 3: paid by the federal government, by the state government to
Speaker 3: stay home, that helps them too. So it's a pro
Speaker 3: American message, it's a pro Ohio message. At times, I
Speaker 3: do believe in speaking the hard truths, even when they're tough.
Speaker 3: Think about that educational achievement crisis. It doesn't land well
Speaker 3: on people's ears to hear that seventy five percent of
Speaker 3: kids aren't proficient in math, but you got to see
Speaker 3: the problem clearly in order to fix it. Doesn't land
Speaker 3: on some well of people's ears to say we got
Speaker 3: attach work requirements to medicaid in welfare. But actually, when
Speaker 3: you explain, if people understand, even good Democrats understand where
Speaker 3: you're coming from. I'll give you another one of those, Brian,
Speaker 3: which is a little bit controversial, but I'll go there
Speaker 3: because I think it's important when we think about ending
Speaker 3: the wave of crime and rising poverty and homelessness in cities.
Speaker 3: In our cities, I think we need to think about
Speaker 3: and we will bring back the psychiatric hospitals that were
Speaker 3: shuttered in decades past, because right now our jails are
Speaker 3: the top form of mental health care in our state,
Speaker 3: and that doesn't make any sense either. Some of these solutions.
Speaker 3: I'm confident that if we explain it to the people,
Speaker 3: even to Democrats who may have a different opinion today,
Speaker 3: I believe we're going to be able to bring them
Speaker 3: away along with respect and with open dialogue. And I
Speaker 3: think that culture of mutual respect is the way I'm
Speaker 3: going to lead our.
Speaker 2: State with that gramma, Swimmy.
Speaker 1: It's just a distinct pleasure to hear such logic and reason,
Speaker 1: and I wish you all the best in your efforts
Speaker 1: become governor the next of the state of Ohio. I
Speaker 1: hope to someday call you Governor Ramas swim when we
Speaker 1: talk after that moment in time. But I just have
Speaker 1: to observe this, that work requirement when there's so many
Speaker 1: trade jobs available twenty hours a week. If you can
Speaker 1: work in the trade, you can earn while you learn
Speaker 1: as an apprentice. Put that opportunity in front of someone
Speaker 1: and say, listen, you're not going to get this benefit,
Speaker 1: but look, here's a great opportunity if you have a
Speaker 1: career and a sustainable life and a good salary.
Speaker 2: It just makes so much sense.
Speaker 3: Yes it does, which is a far bigger benefit. So
Speaker 3: you're right to say it.
Speaker 2: It is well.
Speaker 1: I look forward to having you on any time you
Speaker 1: like on the program, Sir. I'm inspired by your words,
Speaker 1: and I wish you all the best on the campaign trail,
Speaker 1: anytime on the fifty five KRC Morning Show.
Speaker 2: You want your you have an opportunity, sir.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it, my man. Take care.
Speaker 2: We'll go to say safe travels.
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