Cutting Medicaid or Cutting It Out? Wiley Nickel's Battle Against Thom Tillis!

Wiley Nickel is back on the pod, and he’s got some spicy tea to spill about his Senate run against Thom Tillis in North Carolina! He’s all about shaking things up and pointing out that Tillis is just a puppet for the rich and famous, like Trump and Musk, while leaving regular folks in the dust. Wiley’s got some serious beef with Tillis, especially over cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that could leave thousands of North Carolinians hanging. He’s fired up and ready to bring the heat, claiming that the current bill is a sneaky scam that’s gonna cost the middle class big time while lining the pockets of billionaires. So, if you wanna hear some straight talk about what’s really going down in the political arena, grab your snacks and tune in for a wild ride!

Takeaways:

• Wiley Nickel isn't holding back on Thom Tillis, calling him out for being a total sellout to big money.
• The podcast dives into how the proposed bill is set to screw over middle-class voters in North Carolina while lining the pockets of billionaires.
• Tillis' flip-flopping on key issues has left many folks in North Carolina feeling betrayed and frustrated.
• The discussion highlights the importance of a senator who actually stands up for the people, not just the elite.
• Wiley emphasizes that healthcare cuts are a major concern, potentially affecting over 500,000 people in the state.
• The conversation wraps up with a call to action for voters to get involved in the upcoming election, stressing that every vote truly matters.

Links referenced in this episode:

• wileynickel.com
• thehill.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Wiley Nickel
• Thom Tillis
• Donald Trump
• Elon Musk
• Chuck Edwards
• Pete Hegseth

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
We have a special guest today.He's been with us before. Wiley Nickel
was on our February 20thepisode, and a few weeks later, I
think it's April 9th, heannounced that he's running for the
US Senate here in NorthCarolina, the seat currently held
by Thom Tillis. So, Wiley,hey, thanks for. Thanks for coming

(00:24):
back and giving us an updateon how things are going.
Yeah, no, thanks for havingme. You were some of the first to
hear about this, this race forthe Senate ahead of our announcement,
and now been campaigning,traveling all over the state, doing
everything we possibly can tosend Thom Tillis packing.
So why don't you like TomTillis? I mean, what. Look at all

(00:44):
the good stuff he's done forNorth Carolina, like trying to cut
Medicaid and Medicare and allthe other things. So why are you
taking him on?
Well, I think, you know, it'sa simple proposition. We need a senator
with a backbone. And ThomTillis has shown over and over that
when the chips are down, ThomTillis lays down for Donald Trump,
for Elon Musk, and forpolicies that are just horrible for

(01:08):
North Carolina. That's been mybiggest frustration with, you know,
what we see in Washington,especially on the Republican side.
You know, serving in theHouse, I made, you know, good friendships
and relationships withDemocrats and Republicans. And the
worst of them were the oneswho privately said that what Trump
was doing is horrible. Youknow, he was a disgrace. And then

(01:30):
publicly, they're his biggestcheerleaders. And Thom Tillis certainly
fits into that, that group offolks that continues to enable Donald
Trump. You know, he said hedidn't like the tariffs that Trump
was putting forward. And thenhe voted for them twice. You know,
he said that Pete Hegsethwouldn't be a good secretary of defense.
And then at the last minute,he caved under pressure and voted

(01:50):
to confirm Pete Hegseth, whowe know is a walking national security
disaster. And. And, you know,you know, you hear about this. This
Wall street trade, the tacotrade for Trump. Trump always chickens
out. It works for Thom Tillis,too. You know, Taco Tillis. Tillis
always chickens out. That's.That's what we're seeing in the Senate.
We deserve a lot better.

(02:10):
Yeah. And you probably saw hehad an op ed in the Hill last week
where he. He praises the taxcuts, praises the Trump agenda, and
he's doing the same thing. I'mrunning here in western North Carolina
against Chuck Edwards. And itmust be, I guess, the Republican
playbook is to only talk aboutthe tax Cuts because both Tillis

(02:34):
and Edwards have put out that,you know, virtually every income
bracket gets a tax cut. Butthey leave out the part about the
benefit cuts that help offsetthat. So how's that going to impact
folks here in North Carolinaif those benefit cuts go through?
Yeah, they really don't wantto talk about that. But that's a
huge piece of this bill.Taking away Medicaid from over 500,000

(03:01):
North Carolinians will loseMedicaid coverage because of what's
in this bill. They are guttingsupport for good green jobs, slashing
those programs that werepassed as part of the inflation Reduction
Act. And all of this is togive billionaires like Elon Musk
an even bigger tax break. Thisis literally trillions of dollars

(03:22):
in tax giveaways to the ultrawealthy who will no longer, you know,
who, who will pay even less oftheir fair share because of it. And,
and middle class voters aregoing to get totally screwed. They're
the ones who are going to beleft paying the bill for so much
of this. So cutting, cuttingour health care to give tax cuts
to, to the ultra wealthy, youknow, that's, that's what really
is in this bill. You know,they call it a big beautiful bill,

(03:44):
but it's a big, it's a bigugly scam and it's really bad for,
for folks in, you know, inNorth Carolina. And untilis though,
you know, just has gone even astep further as the Senate has this
bill now and said he doesn'tnot just want to come after Medicaid,
he wants to come afterMedicare too. Over 2 million North

(04:05):
Carolinians rely on Medicareand, and he wants to cut Medicare
as well to help fund these taxcuts for the billionaires.
Yeah, I thought it was badenough out here with Chuck Edwards
supporting the, the version ofthe bill that made it through the
House. But as you said, tellus said he wants deeper cuts. You
know, we're not, we're nothurting people enough. We got to

(04:26):
hurt them more than what theHouse was willing to do. So yeah,
it's going to be interestingto see what, what happens with this
bill because you know, it'sfunny how the Republicans are, and
you know, from having servedin Congress, they, they bitch and
complain about debt anddeficit and when there's a Democrat
in the White House and thenthey just totally ignore it when
it's one of their own and theywant to get something through to

(04:48):
help big corpor and richpeople. But I think this bill, currently
they're saying at least $3trillion added to the national debt.
Yeah. No, and if you're ThomTillis, if you're Chuck Edwards and
you say you're a fiscal, youknow, fiscal conservative, you know,
no, no effing way are you afiscal conservative. You vote to
add $2.4 trillion to thenational debt on top of the cuts

(05:12):
to health care, on top of thetax giveaways to billionaires. You
know, this is, this is, theseare huge, you know, you know, this
is a huge boost to, to our,our deficit, our debt because of
the bill. And that's, there's,there's nothing fiscally conservative
about that.
Yeah, yeah, I was, I wasdisappointed. You know, you mentioned
earlier about, you know,Tillis was leading the fight to stop

(05:34):
the confirmation of PeteHeadseth and, and got the, I guess
sister in law is one of the exwives to, you know, promised her
if she would do an affidavitabout headset, his alcoholism and
his abusive behavior, then hewould, he would kill the nomination.
And then Trump said, well, youknow, tell us doesn't play ball,
then I'll find somebody inprimary him. And like you said, he

(05:57):
caved. He did stand up on, onEd Martin, you know, who was going
to be the U.S. attorney forthe District of Columbia, and he
did manage to kill thatnomination. But in lieu of Ed Martin,
we got Judge Box of Wine,who's now the acting U.S. attorney
for the District of Columbia.So I don't know that that's much

(06:19):
better. And I guess Ed Martinnow is handling pardons, which, you
know, the White House isselling for, you know, whatever the,
the going rate is.
No, absolutely. You know, and,and you know, we, we see that, you
know, this is anadministration where you, you pay,
you can get whatever you want.And that's, that's been the case
with the pardons and so muchof what's happening. Tillis continues

(06:42):
to, to try to talk out of bothsides of his mouth day. You know,
he's cheerleading for all ofthe stuff that we're seeing out of
this Trump administration. Andwe deserve a senator with a backbone.
That's, I think that's thesimple message. Someone who's going
to stand up for NorthCarolina. And that's definitely not
Thom Tillis.
That that's true. A politiciantelling the truth. Thanks, Wy. So

(07:06):
two things. Number one, thanksto Abby on your team for always being
so responsive and helpful,getting these events together and
having been staff, yourselfand myself having been staff, you
know, those folks need a shoutout once in a while. She's working
really hard. Secondly, my dogis in the room and you may hear him
panting. He just ran for, wentfor a run. So you may hear somebody

(07:30):
panning and it's not me or my27 year old girlfriend, but so you've
been on the trail for a whileand I'm just curious, you know, how's
it going? How are you feeling?What, what are you hearing from folks?
You know, I mean, it's been agreat start to the campaign. You
know, Murphy to Manio coveringthe entire state. We got a big state

(07:53):
and we got a lot of problems.People are upset. They are feeling
the costs of Donald Trump'stariffs already. And, and the, you
know, the, the folks in NorthCarolina, you know, we have, you
know, a, a truly a purplestate. We have independent minded
voters and they were pretty,they were pretty straightforward
what they wanted out of thislast election. They wanted someone

(08:14):
to go and tackle inflation andto help bring down costs. And what
they're seeing is exactly theopposite. Donald Trump is doing everything
he can to help, you know, makeinflation go up with these, with
these tax cuts forbillionaires that are going to add
trillions to our nationaldebt. And then these tariffs are
going to cause everybody topay an extra three or four thousand
dollars a year in taxes, youknow, because of the tariffs, with

(08:39):
the increased cost of goods,you know, that's not helping folks.
And folks are strugglingaround the state. They need someone
who's going to stand up forthem. That's been the biggest thing
that I've seen as I've beentalking to voters all over the state.
You know, they're gettingtotally screwed by what's happening
in Washington. And DonaldTrump and his good buddy Thom Tillis
continue to just fleece thecountry for everything they can.

(09:01):
This is the most corruptadministration ever. And the folks
like Tillis who enable itreally are the worst of what we're
seeing in Washington. And thefolks that disappoint me the most
because they know what's right and.
They do the opposite andthey're doing nothing for western
North Carolina right now.They're trying to screw the state
out of the 10% that wouldnormally be extended on the FEMA

(09:26):
funds. What are you hearingfrom folks about Tillis and his focus,
or lack thereof, on healing, recovery?
Yeah, it's reallydisappointing because, you know,
we had, you know, the Bidenadministration, you know, working
to do everything humanlypossible to help western North Carolina.

(09:46):
And Donald Trump, you know, hewants to get rid of fema. That's
his solution is is getting ridof fema. That would cost North Carolina
and, and states around thecountry dearly if we, if we end,
you know, and, and, you know,get rid of fema. But he has not been
there to support western NorthCarolina. He's, he's given just a

(10:06):
fraction of what, you know, apresident ought to do to, to stand
with western North Carolina.And, and, you know, it's, it's, it's
there, it's, it's all there inblack and white. You can see the
numbers and the dollars asthings aren't getting fixed. As you
know, we're not reimbursingNorth Carolina the way that, that
Donald Trump promised andcertainly the, the last administration

(10:27):
was doing, you know, and it'sgoing to hurt. And that's, that's,
that's part of what, you know,I think is, is wrong with Washington.
You know, you have someonelike Trump who, who promises all
these things and then deliversabsolutely nothing. You know, he
said, you know, as, just as,as we're watching the world, you
know, set itself on fire herewith wars in Iran, Israel and Ukraine.

(10:49):
You know, he said he was goingto end all of these wars immediately.
And of course, it's gottenmuch worse because he surrounded
himself with a bunch of idiotswho have no clue what they're doing
and are only in, in thesepositions of power because of their
blind loyalty to Donald Trump.And we're all suffering because of
it. And, and again, it's thefolks like Tillis who really could
have been the dis, who werethe deciding vote for, for all of

(11:13):
these confirmations, for, forthese important positions, you know,
continuing to stand with Trumpin spite of all the evidence the
contrary, that, that thesefolks had no clue what they're doing?
Well, I think I've never seena bigger bunch of drama queens in
my life than this White House.They seem to love the drama. You
know, they create the problemand then pretend like they're going

(11:34):
to solve it and, and thenblame it on the Democrats when they
it up again. But, so listen,you know, I'm a big fan of yours
and Mo and I, I think bothcame out, or at least I did pretty
early for you. Can you make acouple commitments to our listeners

(11:54):
along the lines of thefollowing. Number one, now, you know,
once you're sworn in will be,you know, 2027, so Helene will be,
have long forgotten, but therewill be residual effects. Will you
commit to making sure thatduring this campaign and once you're
in office that folks out herein western North Carolina get what

(12:17):
they deserve on this Hillian recovery.
Yeah. I made this promise whenI was in Congress when I visited
western North Carolina as partof a, a congressional delegation
led by fema. I'm going tofight like Hill and work with every
ounce of my energy to continueto support western North Carolina.
And the recovery is not goingto, it's not going to be done in
a month or a year. It's goingto take years. And what I'm especially

(12:40):
worried about is the economichit for the region. We're talking
about loss of jobs, loss ofbusiness. Those are things that we
need to continue fighting forto help bring back tourists to the,
to the region so that we can,you know, businesses can get back
up on their feet. There's alot we got to do. And you just need
a senator who's willing tostand up for North Carolina. And

(13:02):
that's fundamentally thechoice that folks are going to have
to make, is they, do they wanta senator who's there to serve Donald
Trump or they want someonewho's going to serve everybody in
our state?
Yeah.
All right, that's terrific.And we're going to hold you to that,
as you would expect. Secondly,could, could you also please just
commit to, I know it's, it'sdifficult not knowing what circumstances

(13:28):
are coming up in the future.It's not difficult to commit to telling
folks the truth, even whenthey, maybe it's not the most pleasant
thing for a politician to do.And, and I, this may be an empty
question or a silly question,but God damn it, could you just commit
to being straight with peopleout here? I, I, I think up here in

(13:50):
the mountains, especially,people like straight talk from politicians.
And, you know, the fact thatTom Tillis never comes here, first
of all, is annoying as hell,but then he makes all these promises
that he backs out of, and Mobeen a pretty good librarian of those

(14:10):
issues. Just commit to us tobe a, you know, a real partner with
us out here and tell us the truth.
And that, that's 100%. Youknow, Dave, that's what the voters
expect. That's, that's whatthey deserve as someone who's going
to be straightforward andhonest. And, you know, and I, you
know, like to use thisexpression, you know, money talks

(14:32):
and walks. You know, when Iwas in Congress, I held 16 town hall
meetings, you know, and someof them were tough. I had protesters,
I had people with, with angryquestions. But when you, you send
someone to Washington to beyour voice, you, you better expect
that they're going to answeryour questions. And they're going
to stay there with you when,whenever, you know, when you, when

(14:54):
you take those, those jobs inWashington. So, you know, I'm going
to continue to do that to, toshow up for folks, answer the questions.
And, and that's, that's thejob. And if you can't commit to doing
that, you're just really inthe wrong line of work. And unfortunately,
so many of the folks inWashington just have no interest
in doing that. They know thatthey are in their safe, cushy seat

(15:16):
and, you know, they, so manyof them just refuse to really engage
because like Virginia Foxsaid, oh, I'm not going to do a town
hall meeting. They're justgoing to yell at me. Of course they're
going to yell at you,Virginia. You're, you're doing a
horrible job for the state.
Well, listen, I hope you will,you know, get back out here to western
North Carolina. I give a lotof credit to the Governor Stein.

(15:40):
You know, when he was runningand certainly since he's been in
office, he spent a lot of timeout here. And I think you can, you
can find some fertile groundout here with, you know, the NC11
Republicans, when they hadtheir meeting a couple weeks back,
voted to censure Tom Tillis.So there's no love lost for Tom Tillis
out in western North Carolina,even amongst the Republicans. So,

(16:04):
you know, get back out hereand meet with the folks and, you
know, you can make someheadway out in western North Carolina.
But no, I, I'm looking forwardto getting out as much as I can,
you know, and, and hope to becampaigning out there with you too,
Mo. But, but, you know, we'vegot a lot at stake in this election,
and it, for me, it matters,you know, that we get folks out to

(16:28):
vote, we get people excitedabout this election, every single
part of the state. Becauseafter, you know, losing my seat to
gerrymandering, the one thingthat I know that is true about North
Carolina is you can'tgerrymander the boundaries of our
state. So everybody's votematters. And it's going to be a close
election where turnout isgoing to make a big difference and

(16:49):
folks need to hear from thefolks who want to represent them.
Washington. So look forward togetting out there with you.
All right. We look forward toseeing you. And again, hey, thanks
for taking time out. I knowyou're busy and I know folks appreciate
hearing from you and gettingan update on your campaign. And as
David said, we certainly wishyou the best. So hang in there and
keep fighting.
Hey, thanks so much. It wasgreat to be with. You have me. I'm

(17:10):
glad to come back. Anytime.
Thanks. We'll definitely doit. So, Wiley Nickel, running for
Senate here in North Carolina,trying to take out Thom Tillis and
hope you'll go to his website,check him out, donate, and let's
help get someone sent toWashington who's going to represent
the people of North Carolina,not just big corporations and the

(17:31):
wealthy.