[Podcast] Special Report: Dr. Rick Saccone Interview by Finance & Markets

Dr. Rick Saccone joins us on this special edition of the Finance & Markets Cashflow Hacking Podcast to discuss his run for Congress in Pennsylvania's 14th Congressional District.

As a commissioned officer in the United States Airforce, Dr. Rick Saccone has a long history of serving his country, and now is seeking your vote as he prepares to run for Congress in 2018. Dr. Rick Saccone has served as the Chief of Counter Intelligence for Korea, and is widely recognized for his work in reducing taxes, cutting wasteful government spending, providing for our Veterans, protect the sanctity of human life, and preserving our 2nd Amendment rights.

Enjoy the interview, and be sure and come out and support Rick on Tuesday, May 15th!

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Video Interview With Dr. Rick Saccone

Resources & People Mentioned

Podcast Transcript

Intro: 00:05

This is Casey Stubbs from the Finance and Markets podcast, and today we have a special guest, PA, state representative, Rick Saconne where we get to know the real man who is running for Congress. We learn what he fights for and why he wants to serve you. Stay tuned and listen in to. Rick Saccone.

Casey Stubbs: 00:35

Hello. This is Casey Stubbs with state representative Dr Rick Saccone who is currently running for Congress and we're really excited to have him on the show today. So thank you for being with us.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 00:47

Thanks Casey. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Casey Stubbs: 00:51

It's really an honor to have you on the show. As a matter of fact, I went to one of your talks a couple of weeks ago and I realized it was a really small world because you were talking about how you were working on security in Mosul, Iraq after they had an attack there were several soldiers died in the Chow Hall. I was actually in Iraq at that time. I was a truck driver and I was driving all over, so I would drive to Mosul and I was really glad that there were people like yourself helping improve security for the locations where the troops were living.

Rick Saccone Bio

Dr. Rick Saccone: 01:30

Wow what a small world. Yes, I was in Baghdad when it happened and there was chaos up in Mosul after that and so I was sent up there to try to bring order to the chaos on those two bases up there, Mosul airfield and Fob Morrez and you know, we had like 10,000 people on those two bases, half of which were foreigners. So we had to vet those people to prevent those that wanted to kill us from coming on the base and only allow those, that were there to help us. And so that was a, it was a very interesting time in the Iraq war.
Casey Stubbs: 02:02 So how do you think that experiences like that can help you do your job and what you're trying to run for now in running for Congress to represent the people of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 02:15

Well that's just one small example of how I know our enemy, I've been in face to face with the front with our enemy or dealing with them and in this particular case where we had to vet foreigners from a war torn country where we had no idea really whether they were telling us the truth about their background or not, and I developed a system that would help us do that or that was very successful, doesn't, don't you think that applies very well to , , how we're vetting Syrian refugees today or other refugees from a war torn country and for making policy dealing with that, wouldn't you like someone that's actually done it successfully to be on the foreign affairs committee or the Intelligence Committee, or the Homeland Security Committee making of policy decisions?

Casey Stubbs: 02:56

I absolutely do. I think experience is one of the most important things that you can bring to the table, especially when you have experience doing it before. It seems like a lot of times politicians may not have experience in what they're actually doing. So there's probably a big learning curve involved. So I wanted to also ask you a little bit just if you could just share a little bit about your background, getting ready to where you're at right now. Could you share a little bit about yourself?

Rick Saccone Education

Dr. Rick Saccone: 03:22

Sure. I'm a retired military officer. I spent 18 years in the United States a+Air Force mostly, and counter espionage, but I actually started off on the flight line working on airplanes, aircraft mechanic on a, on a, on most of our modern fighter aircraft there for a while that time 105's, F1-11 T-38's, F5's, A10's F16's, F15's. So I worked on all of that so until I became a got into the counter-intelligence criminal fraud area as a special agent. So I worked the overseas mostly I think I spent about eight years in the military overseas and spent several more in private sector overseas after I retired working in international business service. So I've been to 75 countries that have a lot of international experience both in the military and in international business arena. Came back after I retired from the military and I, so I finished my phd in international relations at the University of Pittsburgh and was teaching at St Vincent College in Latrobe, taught my first class there in 1999.

Rick Saccone North Korea

Dr. Rick Saccone: 04:25

So I've been pretty much there ever since, , teaching all the international courses I could include in a class on global terrorism since I have experience in that area. Then I had a really unique opportunity to go to North Korea under what was called the old agreed framework, which we're hearing about now in the news again, as President Trump is trying to negotiate a deal with the North Koreans. But for one year I was in North Korea, the only American living there at the time. I was engaging in dealing with North Koreans and successfully working with them on that project. I wrote two books about it when I came back. I've written nine books, total on business and culture and history and so forth. And so I, I've worked successfully in North Korea, came back from there, have a good skill set on working in North Korea and I, and again, I say, wouldn't you like a person like that that's actually dealt with North Koreans face to face on the foreign affairs committee in Washington DC, the helping advise the president on policy.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 05:22

And I think it's pretty amazing because when I talked to president trump talked about North Korea and he gave me a good shout out at the last campaign rally that he came to. He mentioned that Rick Saccone knows more about North Korea. He said then all these so called experts and geniuses down there in Washington that are briefing me, it's pretty good if you go back and watch the videos. It was a nice shout out from the president. So, I came back after that and went back to teaching again. And the war in Iraq broke out this. I got the call to go over and work in a first in Baghdad. And Mosul, again, counterintelligence, my skill sets to bear and the actual war front or zone. And I was there for one year, came back from that, went back to teaching and then ran for the state legislature.

Rick Saccone Views

Dr. Rick Saccone: 06:08

And there were a lot of things going on in our state headed in the wrong direction, budgets not on time. Tax increases every year. And I decided to, to run for that in a, in a district. And I'm a Republican and a 76 percent democrat districts gerrymandered to keep a Democrat in power. And my wife and I knocked on a lot of doors, 18,000 doors. And we won that seat. , and , we wanted three more times since then. So I'm in my fourth term in the state legislature and we've done a lot. I campaigned on bringing the castle doctrine to Pennsylvania, very much pro second amendment. We voted on that the year after I was elected and brought and pass it brought the castle doctrine to Pennsylvania. I'm an A+ rated life benefactor, member of the NRA and a life member for a statewide organization here at pro second amendment.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 06:56

I have more pro second amendment bills going through the legislature than any other legislator in either a house of our legislature in Pennsylvania. So I've always been a part of that. We've passed a number of bills at three, signed into law of veterans affairs is a big, I have a heart for veterans, so I'm on the Veterans Affairs Committee too. And we've done a lot for veterans in the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has the fourth largest number of veterans in the country and my area has the largest number of veterans in the state. So we do a lot for veterans. And I try to reach out to them. We have, we've done a number of bills, property tax exemptions for 100 percent disabled veterans, a veteran on the civil service commission to help veterans returning veterans, get jobs within the state veterans designation on their drivers license, so forth. We had a lot of things out there to help and I want to take that skill set and go to Washington DC and help reform the VA because, you know, at the federal level we still have problems with are taking care of our veterans and so I want to take that skill set that I've learned at the state level and go to Washington and help at the federal level.

Casey Stubbs: 08:00

That's a great background. You've got a really good history in 2010 you ran for state representative in Pennsylvania. What was it that really pushed you in the direction to run and become a public servant?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 08:19

Well, you know, I've always been most of my adult life serving our country in one way or the other. And , when I saw the direction of our state and how the people were complaining and unhappy with what was going on in our state legislature. And here I am teaching political science and at college I thought, you know, it's time to go out and actually get up there and roll up your sleeves and do something about it. And no one thought we could win or, but we did and , we brought up our sleeves ever since then, people have been very happy with what we've done.

Casey Stubbs: 08:49

Dr. Saccone in your eight years of serving in the House of Representatives for Pennsylvania, what's your important accomplishment

Dr. Rick Saccone: 08:59

So there are so many. It's hard to judge which, which one is my favorite as I already mentioned, I think because I read the things I ran on I think are important to, to discuss, as accomplishments because that's what I told people and that's when people voted me in for initially one was the castle doctrine. As I said, we had the duty to retreat in Pennsylvania and to change that law and allow people to defend themselves and their homes and wherever there are a lawfully allowed to be, I think was. It was very critical. People that really wanted that and we were able to accomplish that property tax reform was actually the number one issue that I ran on and of most concern to people. And just this past November, the voters finally voted in a referendum to reform the way a constitutional amendment to change the way we fund our schools and to change the way we make them pay their property tax.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 09:49

So, that was another huge accomplishment. It took almost the whole seven years and a constitutional referendum to do it, but that we've accomplished that I am a hundred percent pro life unashamedly, pro life. I'm out there actively engaged on the pro-life issue and when we pass the bill after the gauss nell tragedy in Philadelphia where that's at clinic, that was just a few may remember the scandals of how many babies were killed there and how many, women were, were injured or killed there when we, when we passed that bill to raise the health inspection standards as abortion clinics, to the same level as other clinics. Just doing that alone, which was a huge lift. We were able to since then I think we're up to almost 20 clinics now that have closed a because they couldn't meet the health standards.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 10:35

That means they weren't, they weren't really giving women the healthcare that they promised, and I think how many babies we've saved since then and how many women's lives we've saved, , because just because we raised the health standards for healthcare that they're supposed to get into those clinics. I'm shrinking the size of the legislature. So many people have talked about that. That's another reason they, , that something they wanted me to do when I got to the legislature, voted on positively and spoken positively on that bill five times. And I think it's finally, it's past twice. It's another constitutional referendum. It's going, it's in the Senate right now and , we need to get that through and it should be on the ballot in November and the voters will finally get to vote on whether they want to shrink the size of our legislature is the largest full time flash lamps in the United States privatizing our liquor store.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 11:24

So we've moved ahead with that and we have now wind in our, in our convenience stores and our grocery stores. I'm slowly moving forward, but we are moving forward on getting the government out of the business of selling liquor a global. , and then there's a number of smaller issues. Those are the big issues. And there are a number of smaller issues. , I, my bill on stolen valor passed unanimously and was signed into law last year, which says that if a, if a person poses as a veteran for his own private financial gain, , then, , it can be given me now prosecuted, , that bill was very popular, wanted, wanted by both the veterans community and everybody wanted. It really was, it was, it's a good bill. Um, so, you know, just a lot of things. My Bill on child, a Internet child, sex predators passed unanimously by both houses, signed into law by Liberal Democratic governor and supported by a liberal democratic attorney general. , so, , another great piece of legislation that will help take internet channel six predators off the street and has been doing so very successfully. So there are just a lot of accomplishments. I could probably rattle off 10 or 15 more and there's more to come.

Casey Stubbs: 12:36

Well, that's, that's some really great stuff. Dr. [inaudible], what are your most important principles and values that guide you while you're in your office in while you're working?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 12:50

Yeah. I always believe in honesty and integrity. That's what I ran when I think that's what my reputation is. I try to give them the truth, the unvarnished truth. It's not always pretty, but the people just want to be told the truth. They want to know what's really going on. And I prided myself on communicating well with the people and giving them the truth and trying to get them to engage so that we can come to some, some great decisions on how we govern. And , I think I've lived up to that for the last eight years and I want to take that to Washington because they surely needed down there.

Casey Stubbs: 13:21

I would agree. And when you say integrity, what is your definition of integrity?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 13:28

Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. And , you know, people will let you to go to office. They send you either to Harrisburg or Washington and then they're, they're not really paying attention, they're counting on the fact that you're going to do the things you said, ah, even though they're busy making lives for themselves and, and, and, and taking care of their families. So, , from time to time they'll check in and they need to know that when I said I was going to do is what I've actually done or when I'm actually working on. And , so I think it's very important that we remain true to those things that we said we were going to do when we were elected. And I've been able to do that. I've, I think I've done. I think I've accomplished everything I said I would do in 2010 when I ran initially. I think all of those things, if my memory serves me well, have now been accomplished with the property tax reform bill that was just voted in last November.

Casey Stubbs: 14:21

I know that, , you have a very strong family military heritage, which I think is fantastic and I actually have a similar heritage. So, you know, our country's really important to us. I was reading a quote by Benjamin Franklin recently and I wanted to read it to you and get your response on it. Um, Benjamin Franklin said, a who can give up essential liberty to attain a little temporary safety, neither liberty nor safety. , what do you think about that?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 14:56

Yeah, so I think our, our liberties are important are basic rights and the constitution. Those in the bill of rights especially are very important and we have to protect those in government. And I've always been a leader, a protecting those rights. Um, , everything from our first amendment, the five freedoms and the first amendment, the Second Amendment, certainly the fourth amendment, me, is one of the, one of the most critical, also the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses, papers and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things. That's the fourth amendment. Our founders took a lot of time to carefully craft those words to protect us from unwarranted government energy intrusion in our lives. And I've, I've always been a protector of that even as we pass legislation, , in Harrisburg and when I go to Washington, I'll always be a protector of our liberty.

Casey Stubbs: 15:57

So as you move forward, you're seeking a position in federal government. What is your position on government growth? Do you believe that we should have a large government or should we trim government down and make it smaller?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 16:12

Absolutely smaller government is way too large and then the larger it gets, the less accountable is to the people. , and we see that now the bureaucracy even in Harrisburg is so large that it's not responsive to the elected officials in the legislature anymore. And the bureaucracy in Washington is so big. You see it now with president trump. It's actually fighting back against our president. It's supposed to be working under our president and he's supposed to be the boss or the bureaucracy. They are actually resisting and fighting him within the bureaucracy. That's all larger. That should be the first warning sign that the bureaucracy has become too big. It needs to be trimmed back. It'd be reined in and held accountable to the people that were elected to oversee it. And the, , the president who was elected to a monitor and manage that.

Casey Stubbs: 17:04

Now Dr [inaudible]. And I think that this is a pretty obvious question and I think I know exactly how you're answering it, but I have to ask it because it seems like most politicians in Washington get this answer wrong. Maybe they would say the right thing, but they won't do the right thing. And the question is, who do you serve when you're working in government?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 17:24

Always serve the people that elected me. I always start with the people back home and following through with the constitution, which I swear an oath to preserve and protect. Those are, those are the two guiding stars, um, that, , I think every elected official should be mindful of as they're serving in public office.

Casey Stubbs: 17:44

And so, again, as a leader, you're a greater because you're serving so many more people and you're held more accountable. The more people that means your standard seem to be higher and it's, it's a much more difficult position to be in.

Rick Saccone Family

Dr. Rick Saccone: 18:01

Absolutely. , you know, the Bible tells us that the more that we have, the more that's expected from us, so a greater responsibility, so there's more from us and the people are going to be looking at us and , expecting us to be even more open, more honest, more communicating with them and , and , doing, you know, what they say and that's always the, you know, the more people that you serve. It's harder to determine what do the people want in your district. , and so it's, it's a job to continuously serve other people, talk to the people, engage the people in. My wife and I are probably the most visible team legislative team that there is anywhere in any legislature were out there at every event we do just in our state law house, legislative district by 250 events a year. That means every Eagle Scout, every farm is banquet, every hundred birthday party.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 18:54

Everything that's going on that were invited to, we try to try to make those events just so that we can be engaged with the people that we serve and we can have a pulse on what their needs are and what they're saying and what's on their mind. So that's very important to us and we still knock on doors. So even even in off year's, go out, knock on doors and just talk to see what's on their mind and see how we're doing give us an update and we have town hall meetings and we have get together and informal, informal [inaudible]. So just so that people know that they can have access. Do people really want to have access to their legislator and feel like they know him and his family and if they can approach him and talk to him, we've always lived by that.

Casey Stubbs: 19:38

I think that that is pretty, pretty good. It makes me feel good that I know that if someone is an office who actually cares about me because for the most part I feel like they care about themselves pushing their own personal agenda, advancing their careers. That's why I had to ask the question because it seems like they're more accountable to gaining favor with people who are higher on the ladder in office or business context or whatever may be to help their own career, so knowing that there's someone that's going to fight for me, a little guy makes me feel pretty good

Dr. Rick Saccone: 20:11

To be very careful because so many people that run for office, they will deceive the problem here because candidates can say anything and that's why it's so important that we look at the record of what they've done, who they are, talking to the people in their areas that none of them, , that reputation is important. That you engage them and talk to them because many candidates deceive the public. Promising them of how many times have you been disappointed and that your viewers have been disappointed by people that they have elected. They got an office and didn't do what they said they were going to do. I've done what I said I was going to do and I have a record to prove it.

Casey Stubbs: 20:44

Yeah. That's a, that's a really big thing to answer that question. How many times I've been disappointed quite a bit, quite a bit

Dr. Rick Saccone: 20:53

where I ran, you know, I was disappointed, disappointed with the people that were in leadership and I said, I'm going to go in there and try to do it the right way. And , you know, it w once we got in there and started doing things the right way, people realized how much better government is when you have good leaders. That really does start at the top. And , you know, although in a 76 percent Democrat district, I was elected by a small margin my first time. This last time I think I got almost 70 percent of the vote. So, , people see, , as time goes by that you've done what you said and they say, wow, this is great and we want to keep here

Casey Stubbs: 21:30

a. come on, you're very busy, man. You're doing a lot of things. You're, you're always on the go. But I want to ask you this question and that is, what is it that really gets you up out of bed in the morning? Like, what is it that keeps you going? Like, what are you living for?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 21:48

Yeah, there's a couple of things. First is, , people in my community, there are so many good people that we've met that are depending on us and whenever we get down, when my wife and I get down, we think about a lot of those people who've invested in us and asked us to help them. And so, you know, we get up every day to say, you know, we've got to do that. We got to serve those people. We've got to, you can't let them down. I don't want anybody to feel like we've let them down. We work as hard as we can and , you know, we'll keep doing that. And the other part of it is my own integrity. , you know, I want people to know that I work as hard as possible every day. That's my work ethic and they can count on that and I don't want them to think that, , you know, that I've slacked off or I, you know, haven't given it my best shot. So, um, those are things that drive my family and I are family. Name is important in our integrity and, and the fact that we're so many people in our community, tell them on us.

Casey Stubbs: 22:45

That's a really good doctor. Silicone right now. Southwestern Pennsylvania is experiencing some job growth in the last couple years. What type of policies do you plan to implement to help improve that job creation in our area,

Dr. Rick Saccone: 23:03

it's very important that we continue to attract jobs to our area, including manufacturing jobs, including the jobs that are already here are coal mines are natural gas industry. , we want to roll back the regulations that are holding back those industry. President trump has started doing that and we're seeing the improvements from it I'm having. And that feeds into the other part of attracting jobs here, which is a cheap energy. Cheap energy is the second highest determining whether manufacturing will move here to Pennsylvania or moved back to Pennsylvania and we have the cheapest energy in the country. We want to keep it that way. So more manufacturers will move here. That creates more jobs. And our local area, we have a lot of great people that want to work hard. , they just, they just need that, they just a little help with some job openings here and those things are happening and we want to keep up that momentum. So we're working hard on that. I'm building the infrastructure that we need to bring those jobs here and be able to move product to market and so forth. , that's part of the president's plan to improve the infrastructure and we have a lot of infrastructure needs in western Pennsylvania including bridges and roads and dams, waterways and communications. So we have a lot of room for improvement and now that is a legitimate function of government is to help put in the infrastructure so that the other private sector can then build off of that and improve.

Casey Stubbs: 24:22

I think that's a really good strategy and I think that that will help a lot. I do know, however, that there's a lot of competition and resistance, not maybe from the people but from politicians that want to put more regulations on that to tax more because they want more money for the government. They want to make it harder for, for energy and big business and manufacturing. And they want to try to push jobs away based on their policies. So how are you going to combat that? , within the political process?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 24:52

Same Way I've always come back to that, you know, you have to get out there should logic, sound logic and reason. We have to make our case. We have to show the facts. The facts are on our style. , so we, we make that case, , we will continue to, to be able to roll back those regulations and , keep bringing joe as we bring more manufacturing and, and we as we improve our infrastructure and as those jobs in the coal mining and natural gas and oil industry here, then people can see that and then they'd be it. The momentum builds and they're on our side and then, and then we have that way that people were behind us and we'll, we'll keep. We can keep pushing forward. Confident that what we're doing is right.

Casey Stubbs: 25:35

In regards to tax policy, are there any changes that you would like to see changed in, in taxes? Do you think we should have more taxes, less taxes? How do you feel on, on taxation right now?

Dr. Rick Saccone: 25:50

So I've always been, my mantra has always been in the last year of defending the taxpayer. You see it on my signs. The taxpayers are overburdened, they complain all the time. We have heavy taxes in Pennsylvania and , I've always been an advocate of rolling back taxes and letting people keep more of their own money, , and , and spending less in government and making it more efficient so that the government needs to do its function. Doing more with glasses is an important , in government and certainly has a, has a long way to go in that regard. But we've been able to do some of that. We're going to keep doing that. And I will keep doing that because that's what the people want. It's a, it's easy because when I go out and talk to them, they, they all say they're over taxed. They don't believe that the money that's being sent to Harrisburg or Washington is being well spent and there's plenty of evidence for that. And then once want to advocate for them and make sure that money is spent wisely.

Casey Stubbs: 26:47

Well, I think when we think about liberty, we think a lot about taxation and the more taxation that we have, the less liberty we have. And if you're a fighter of liberty then for liberty, then that's something that you would work on. So that's really good.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 27:02

Yeah. So you know, and you could say from one extreme to the other, the more taxes are less libertarian. And I remember I served in North Korea where it's, , you get to keep none of the money that you earned from the fruits of your own labor. It's all given to the government and the government redistributes it back to you the way they see fit. And so that is the worst that is the foreign in that extreme. And we want to go back the other way where we have less and less taxes where people keep the fruits of their own labor and the government gets only what it needs and what the people say it needs to function and provide the services that they want.

Casey Stubbs: 27:40

Dr [inaudible], we actually only have time for one more question and what I would like you to, what I'd like to put before you now is what would you say to voters who are thinking about voting for you? Why should they choose you?

Rick Saccone for Congress

Dr. Rick Saccone: 27:56

Yes. I think it's a clear choice. Are countries in the world is in turmoil? We need the most qualified and experienced person with the best judgment to send to Washington to represent us. I clearly have that background. If you look at my diverse background in areas such as education, military, the legislature, international business is a record that's unmatched by anybody in either party. The choice should be clear that this is the time to bring my 40 years of life experience together to serve them in Washington DC and I hope they'll go in for me on May 15th and November.

Casey Stubbs: 28:35

Well, Dr. Saccone, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has really been an honor to have you.

Dr. Rick Saccone: 28:41

Thank you.

Outro: 28:47

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