Capital Insights: Phil Harriman

Phil Harriman in the last week, there's been a number of things happening here in Maine related to the issue of fraud. I spoke yesterday with Steve Robinson about quite a few of those things. It really kind of all ultimately traces to Dr. Oz joining us last Monday, which I believe you may have talked about with Josh while I was gone last week. Yes. You know, in the time since then, though. I mean, you've had the Mills administration sounding a little prickly about Oz being in state at all. you know, just even being here, meeting with Lepage, meeting with the main wire, not meeting with her, because I'm sure she would have taken the meeting. And then this war of words over what the administration is doing or is not doing about the issue of fraud. Does this have political legs, Phil Harriman? It definitely does. And I'm just... as a Mainer, I'm just embarrassed for my state that we have clear evidence going back. You know better than anyone. How long has the Mainwire been researching this? Oh, they've been on this for years. Years. Yeah. Right, years. And the political leaders in our state house, which happened to be of one party known as the Democrats, have found every way to... avoid this confrontation, this facts in your face information, and who's the one who've been most impacted? These are people who need 24 hours a day, seven days a week, care. There are people with disabilities, autism, and what they have found in these environments that they're in is squalor. And the people running them happen to be, what do we call them now? New Mainers. New Maders. They're our neighbors. They're part of our community. They've been bilking the system for, I think in one instance, over what, four or five years, $24 or $5 million, and living lavishly, charging the maximum amount they can for the services they provide under the... Medicare and Medicaid laws. And I'm just shocked that our governor. I am. I really am because if you look at who's supposed to be served with these dollars, it's the most vulnerable and needy people in our society. And why, I mean this in all sincerity, why aren't the Democrats up in arms over this? Well, I mean, do you want to answer your own question? Because it's a fairly obvious answer, isn't it? Where's the humanity? I thought these... In politics? It's stunning to me. And you would think that Aaron Fry and Janet Mills and Hannah Pingree, Troy Jackson, all of these people who have been in positions of influence and authority, who have been built by these people. And instead... But do they view it that way? That's why I'm so surprised. Let's start with a fundamental truth, shall we? Which is that the politicians that are in the Democratic Party view government money.

The things that come in from the taxpayers, the things that they use to spend all their money on in these government programs, they view it as monopoly money. Like, it's not, they don't really have the same belief system that it's, that it's, you know, like your tax dollars gone to waste or anything like that. It's like play money to them. I mean, that's pretty obvious to me every time they do a budget cycle, the way that they talk about it in public. about the budgets they're putting together, the staggering numbers they come up with with no regard for where that money comes from. It's just very clear to me that there's a disconnect in the brain of the left-wing politician between where that money comes from. and why they even have it and what they're spending it on. I think that they might find it unfortunate that the money's going to waste, but like, you know, we can, you know, just make it a little bit better and change the program or whatever else. Like, it's just water into the bridge. It's just a little bit of waste. It's not a big. So we take in $11 billion into the state checkbook. And what you're saying is, oh, so, you know, we lose 50 or 60 million to people who've short changed us and that's okay. I'm not saying that. I'm saying they think that. But what about, forget the money for a moment, Matt. What about the people who were living in these squalor conditions who were totally dependent on the services they're supposed to be receiving? And that doesn't motivate the Democrat Party who's been in charge in Augusta for eight years? Well, there's your actual answer, though. There's your actual answer, and I know you know this, but when you have been in charge by yourself for that amount of time and all of the construction of the budget, how these programs operate, the administrators of the programs, the various departments are being run by your people. You picked them. You put them there. You've been directing them, and you guys have had all your plans laid, and this is all you. When it is revealed that that's full of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement in, you know, complete, you know, I would say incompetence top the bottom or whatever. If you acknowledge that, you're acknowledging that you're bad. You're a bad manager. You're a bad leader. You are doing a bad job. And they can't do that. They need to be reelected this year. And they can't be reelected if everyone in Maine knows essentially the truth, which is that they've bungled this for eight years. And they don't know what they're doing. They can't get elected if we think that. So they can't acknowledge it. Shocking. It's like, I think it was Milton Friedman who said, when you spend your own money on yourself, how careful are you for quality and, you know, getting the biggest bang for your buck? If you're spending your own money on someone else, you're probably pretty careful. Yeah. If you're spending someone else's money on yourself, like your employer gives you an expense account, you're pretty...

cognizant of where the money goes. But when you're spending someone else's money on someone else, a la government, take from the Gagnon family who needs... Who I've never met and live far away and are faceless people to me. Right. And I take that money and I use it to spend it on something for someone else. How careful are you with that money? Why? Not very. Right. And that's the point. That's the point. Well, it's a sad point. Yeah, but it's a reality. It's not like we wasted money on some, you know, research project at the University of Maine that turned out to be unsuccessful. This is human services. These are people who are. Well, and your point is very well founded, which is that the people you're trying to help here who are being unserved are exactly the first people in line in my head, right? Like the people that should be taking care of the most. Yes. carefully and mindfully, and they're just not. They're just not. And so I'm now expected to allow a group of politicians that have messed this entire thing up, like Hannah Pingree, right? Hannah Pingree, who has a lead, and it must be said, has a lead in this gubernatorial race. She's out there whining about the closure of the birthing centers and whatever and pretending like she didn't have anything to do with that. I'm supposed to just turn the keys over to the very same people. who had not only a hand, had the hand in creating this entire mess and then say, please, you fix it. Yeah. That's a pretty big mess. That's sort of like taking someone else's money to spend on someone else. Yeah. I don't know. It's very disappointing. But you think it has legs, though. I mean, this is something that could be useful for, say, the Republicans, saying don't elect those people. I just hope that the people listening to us in the WGA and Morning News will tell us someone else over. coffee break this morning at work that hey there's a lot of fraud going on in the human services area that are impacting people who are truly needy and that shouldn't be a Democrat and Republican issue but it is for some and yet it is that's that's what I'm so sort of you know that's why politics politics made people stupid They do. I'm sorry. But, like, I was just talking before you joined about, you know, what's going on with the Republicans in Ohio, right? I mean, you know, that guy is an actual, I mean, I know he denies the charges, right? But so did Graham Platner, right? And that doesn't mean much to me whatsoever. But, you know, you have a party that knows it needs the seat. and it can't sacrifice it. So they basically didn't tell him to drop out. They just left him alone. Max Miller would be the guy I'm talking about. And said, you know what? We'll just kind of let this died out a bit and then you'll be the nominee and then we'll try to help you win or whatever when he's... Just a repellent person. Yeah. Yeah. And let's hope that the voters in that Ohio district are wise enough to vote him out. But that's what's happened. But you do that and you give the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries. And see, that's where we get in trouble here. That's the price you pay. Well, when you recruit idiots, then that's my point. That's what you have to do. But the problem is, is that you know that the people you're replacing the idiots with are bigger idiots.

She had that glow, right? It's like, ooh, she's new. She's different. She's got energy. Ooh, very excited about it. But I think what you're going to see is as the Labor Day to November timeframe unfolds and people forget about their two-week vacation in this glorious Maine summer weather and start thinking about who they're going to vote for, I think you're going to see the numbers change. And I'm already hearing from friends of mine in different parts of the country who. followed the Graham Platner and reached out to me and said, you know, what is what is up with the people in Maine? Yeah. And then... We just have normal people for once. So then we nominate a guy who's... in a relationship with his second cousin, and they're calling me back saying, really? This is your audible? This is what you've done? But, I mean, he's still at the same time, I mean, has raised an impressive amount of money. Oh, sure. Well, that's because, you know, it's anybody but Trump. And if we... How far does that go this year? I say that as he's, you know, sneaking out of countries in a, in a cafeteria cart. Isn't that something? To get on a plane because of threats against from Iran and, you know. I thought Iran was neutered. I was told that. Yeah. Yeah. But it just tells you how, how. dangerous this world is for the secret service and military intelligence and so forth to say to the president, look, you got to go to the top of the stairs, give your farewell way for the photographers, step inside and step out this side door. Don't you just love it that the reporters on the plane didn't know? They thought he was like over there in that room in the plane and he wasn't. And if they were in harm's way, they were the ones that are going to receive the... whatever damage they were trying to avoid. Yep. I don't know. It's wild. But anyway, I mean, this is the anti-Trump question, right? Yeah. And we know that it has an effect because it always does, but like how much? I mean, how far does that bring the Democrats this year? Especially given the fact that I brought up Michigan, Wisconsin, et cetera, they're really nominating a lot of far-left candidates who are, I mean, I would imagine even like a left-wing listener would agree with me that they're not exactly in line with the mainstream of American politics. They just aren't. They're on the march. They're on the move. Yeah. So you do that, but you might still win because of the whole anti-Trump thing. Like, how far does that go? Yeah. And I think that's going to be the question. And as you were talking with Howard, that if they had nominate some, what we might call a blue dog Democrat, as opposed to a Democrat Socialist of America candidate. The Republicans probably wouldn't have. They wouldn't have a prayer. It wouldn't have a prayer. I mean, I generally default to the idea that voters will vote for normal. I mean, I believe that's what happened in 2024, more than anything else.

You know, the most effective ad that year was the Trump administration or the Trump campaign, excuse me, running the, you know, she's not for you, she's for they, them, you know, thing like that might be like a, you know, sort of catchy, you know, phraseology or whatever. But it sort of just highlighted the fact that they believe in weird stuff and they're not normal. And you know what? I'm normal. You just vote for me. I mean, I might be a little bombastic and I may be whatever, but like my opinions about stuff. are kind of normal. Yeah. Right? And they're not. And I think that's what happened is that people are like, oh, Jesus, just give me normal. I am tired of this. Whatever this is, give me normal. And, you know, did they get it? I don't know. I thought the best image of the 2024 campaign was Trump showing up in a garbage truck. Well, that's normal. Right. I mean, seriously, he's hanging out with normal people, like garbage truck operators and stuff. You might say it's a campaign stunt. Going to McDonald's and flipping burgers and stuff. Like, I know it's a stunt. But who's, who's Kamala Harris hanging out with? She's hanging out with like Ann Hathaway. And like, you know, she's paying celebrities big, big money to show up and create campaign events. Exactly. And that's not normal. People are like, I'm sorry. That's just, I don't care. I don't care, and I don't like that. So if you can be normal, you win. And that's the thing the Democrats aren't doing this year. I think that in a weird way, they are a little arrogant about what this anti-Trump effect will do. Like, they're going to win all over the place this year. So let's go. Let's do it with our heart. Let's go for the hard left candidate that I really love. Instead of that kind of... No, they're doing it with... Squishy candidates. It's rage. Sure. Well, whatever it is. But they're like, let's go far. Because we're going to win anyway. So let's do it for real, right? I think that's an element here. So we're going to have state-run grocery stores. Oh, God. That's so stupid. Free health... Don't you just love, by the way? Free daycare. Free transportation. Yes, you will. And it will work out swimmingly. I'm sure that we'll have all of the money in the world to do all those things. But don't you just love that Zohran Mamdani's grocery store has a requirement that you show an ID card that proves you're from the city, i.e. like an immigration system for the grocery store. What about if you want to vote? Do you have to have a proof of who you are? Oh, you know the answer to that question. Phil Harriman. You know the answer to that question. One minute or less. The Anthony Fauci stuff that, of course, they're now releasing the text messages. And we had all that stuff last week. I didn't get a chance to catch up with you about. Yeah. He's not having a good couple weeks. No. And I think, you know, I think we need to move on. We're not going to change anything now. But I think it is very telling that while they were trying to do the best they could with the crisis that they were dealing with, they were also purposely. saying one thing in public and another thing in private. And they were purposely going and stifling people who were on social media who had contrarian points of view. That, to me, is indefensible. The fact that they made some decisions that turned out to be not accurate with the lens of history. Oh, yeah, that's one thing. That's one thing. But to use the power of your position to prevent people's opinions from...

being put out in the entirely another yeah Phil Harriman good morning everyone always good to see Matt