My Billy Cunningham, the Great America. Welcome this Monday, Afterearon in the Tri State temperashire close to fifty degrees today. Last week of golf o was terrible, but good news has come from Raveke Ramaswami. He's announcing sometime later this afternoon that he's going to be a candidate for governor in state of Ohio. And I've watched him do many national interviews in which he says, well, I have a big announcement on the twenty fourth of February. The twenty fourth
of February is here. And Vivake Ramaswami, Springfield Township resident for many years and graduate of Sandex High School, Welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Viveke, what is your announcement this Monday afternoon.
Look, I'll be announcing later today that I'm running to be.
The next governor of Ohio. Billy in Ohio.
I live in Columbus now it's where we raise our two sons. I'm excited to pass the American dream on to the next generation. And President Trump he's making our country great and reviving our confidence in a America.
I'm going to be reviving our confidence in Ohio, and I think that's the kind of governor we need.
You know, at this point, many have said, what about Doge.
You and Elon musk are launched it, and you left Washington to come back to Ohio to run for governor. Does Ohio need a Doge type examination of its budget?
Absolutely needs efficiency at every level. I'm proud and was honored to help get DOJE off the ground for those first two months. And what became clear to Elon and myself and President Trump is that a lot of the programs that sit at the federal level are going to be kicked down to the states and to the people, from education to healthcare. And what we need is governors who are then willing to actually catch the pass that's
been thrown from President Trump. And so that's what I'm looking to do as governor, is to take that mentality of harnessing efficiency, do it to put money in the pockets of every Ohio. I want to Hio it to be the state of economic excellence. I want to hire to be the state of educational life excellence. Would I bring down the property tax burden immediately in this state?
Put money back in the pockets of Ohioans cut the red tape and regulation and bureaucratic overreach, so we can be the state of energy dominance, manufacturing dominance, AI dominance, the state where our kids are actually able to live the American dream that seems out of reach for them. And I do think getting a lot of the waste and fraud and abuse out of the system and putting that money back in the pockets of Ohioans is an important step to do it.
That's what I think, Billy.
You know, I wouldn't note that there's been fourteen or fifteen states that have done away completely with the income tax state income tax. See Ohioans have about a three point five percent at the top rate. I noticed that in Indiana, even Democrats voted into the state of Indiana next door to eliminate the Indiana state income tax. Would your plan be also to eliminate over time the state income tax or keep it at a low rate.
Well, you're taking the line straight out of my speech later today, Billy, But yes, we need to we need to become a zero income tax state to stay competitive. You got people deserve to keep what they earn. And as nine other states have already done it, and many more are now on a path to do in it. It's going to be a requirement for Ohio to be competitive as well, and it goes back to them being
transparent about those expenditures. I also want to make sure that every state expenditure, every local county, township expenditure is publicly visible, is publicly on a ledger for every Ohioan to see. And that is going to bring a whole lot of sunlight to a lot of wasteful spending. I want us to be the best state in the country to be an entrepreneur, to start and grow a new business. As you know, I'm not a politician, I'm an entrepreneur who has lived the American dream. I want every Ohioan
to be able to do the same thing. And so yes, zero income tax state. Bring down the property tax burden, spread and flash and burn every iota of waste, fraud, abuse, red tape.
Or government overreach.
Let police officers and sheriffs actually do their jobs with the proper training needed to do it well. Bring back the mental health institutions that actually all otherwise would cause our jails to be overrun. All of these save money, but they're also about improving effectiveness.
You know, you touch a sensitive point because when I was in the Attorney General's office, I had commitment hearings frequently at long View State Mental Hospital, which was in the Roselawn area, and I can't there was about five hundred to one thousand people locked into that facility that are now on the streets homeless and mental health is a big issue with many families and Cincinnati the largest mental mental health facility is the Hamlet County Justice Center.
People every county in Ohio as a justice center or a jail packed with insane individuals that need mental health services, alcohol services, they have drug addicted. That's why we have ten cities all over Cincinnati, which is awful.
And so are you saying that you want to have like.
State mental hospital maybe in five or six in the state that provide services to those that are mentally ill like the old system we had before the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nast with Jack Nicholson.
You were too young to remember that.
But once that movie happened in the nineteen eighties, everything changed in America, I think, and every mental hospital was cruel and vicious to it to its residents, and that is not the case. Longview was a good facility that kept those with mental health needs off the streets.
So what is your plan for mental health?
That's exactly it, Billiant. This is a controversial issue with some on the left, but I think we require a governor who has the courage to confront it. Right now, the number one source of psychiatric care in the state is actually our jails, our prisons. That's unacceptable. Our sheriffs will tell you the same thing. Our jails are overrun by people who should be in psychiatric institutions, not in jails, and that's causing more crime and actually more poverty.
Even in the cities.
So you know, the one who flew over the cuckous FtF. I have seen the movie, by the way, But a lot of that was a type of marketing to get people out of these psychiatric institutions where frankly, the pharmaceutical companies came out with their first generation of anti psychotic drugs. That was one of the drives to be able to say there were abuses in the old system, and were there some abuses?
Absolutely there were, and are we going to correct for those?
We should, We should respect the dignity the basic dignity of every human and every American. But I don't think it is compassion to then put somebody in jail and then let them out, and because they're mentally insane, are actually committing more crimes. That's not compassion. That is cruelty to everyone involved. And so, yes, it is a touchy subject, but I do think we need to bring back psychiatric care through the psychiatric institutions that we used to have.
And Billie, this is the personal issue for me.
My mom was a geriatric psychiatrist who treated patients often with PTSD. She worked in the VA down in Cincinnati. And I do believe that we know the truth. We just need a leader who stands for that truth. And I think it's going to help make every Ohio and better, even those who are getting the care that they're not getting today. And I hope that unites frankly Republicans and Democrats once we have the courage to explain it to them.
We need a functional mental health facility like the old Longview State Mental Hospital. We need it badly because it's not kind to someone to live on the streets of Cincinnati or Columbus. Secondly, what about the issue of sanctuary cities. Cincinnati is a sanctuary city and the mayor here f Ted Pirrival, has said that we are a sanctuary city. And the police union is fighting with the mayor, saying Ken Coober or a sergeant Erey, you know what he says.
We want ICE partnerships, we want FBI partnerships. What can you do as governor to improve that situation about sanctuary cities?
So, look, that's going to end on my watch. We're a nation founded on the rule of law, Billy, and I say this as the kid of legal immigrants to this country. That means your first act of entering this country cannot break the law.
That is who who we are as Americans.
And I think it is wrong when governments, including at the city level, including at the township level, are sponsoring the violation of that rule of law. There will be no sanctuary cities in Ohio on my watch. And how am I going to take this to the next level. It's called two eighty seven G. It's a provision in the law that actually allows local law enforcement to partner
with ICE to be able to remove illegal immigrants. I think it's essential, it's essential to carry out President Trump's vision there's only several thousand ICE agents at the federal level. We need local law enforcement to actually help get that
job done. And again, I want to do this in a way that is compassionate to every Ohioan, but we're not being compassionate to our own citizens, to our own actual legal residents of this state if our cities are overrun with the effects of mass illegal immigration as well.
And so I think I'm uniquely suited to deliver that message as the kid of proud sons of legal immigrants to the country where nation founded on the rule of law, and Ohio is going to be a state that leads the way in enforcing the rule of law because that's part of our national identity, it is.
Part of who we are.
And I do believe that most islands are on the same side of this issue. We're opposed to illegal immigration. Part of the solution is we have to end the incentives to.
Be here illegally in the first place.
And that's why I believe the sanctuary cities need to end out with the sanctuary cities and in with two to eighty seven g to be able to leverage our local law enforcement with the proper training to do what so many of them want to do, which is to serve our state and serve our country.
Two or three other quick questions.
President Trump signed two or three days ago an EO and executive order that says that no more federal grants to shall we say service organizations to house and clothe and feed illegal migrants. Also is going to look at the Medicaid payments to those that are here illegally. What can a governor do to grossly discourage social welfare agencies in the private sector receiving millions of dollars in moneys from the taxpayer to house, clothed, and feed of legal
migrants shouldn't be in the first place. Can you issue an executive order from Columbus as the governor saying that the state will not pay the expenses of illegals in the state of Ohio and won't screen it through these social service agencies.
Absolutely, But we're going to go a lot further than that, Billy. I think when we're talking about saving taxpayer money right here in Ohio, you've got to spend your taxpayers money as though it's your own money. And that's not happening today. Creating the incentives for people to break the rule of law is going to coust people to break the rule of law even more. And I'm not going to do that as governor. I refuse to stand by and just let that and watch that happen.
But we're also.
Going to go further in even saving money in other ways. Not only are we going to end every last penny going to support illegal immigration. That's of course going to end. That's about the rule of law. Now let's talk about saving money for Ohioans. We're also going to reattach work requirements to medicaid and welfare. Even for people who are here legally on what medicaid and welfare, you should at least have work requirements attached to that form of government aid.
I mean, the real point is it's not compassion to make somebody dependent on the government.
That's not compassion. That is cruelty.
And so what we require is Ohio has been a state that sought exemptions from those federal work requirements.
No longer.
If you're able body between the ages of eighteen and fifty four, you should be able, if you don't have kids, to seek a job for at least twenty hours a week. That's good for the country. It's good for our state, it's good for our budget, but it's also really even good for the very Americans who are on the receiving end of it, because it provides them a path to independence and self sustenance. And that's what we want for
our fellow brothers and sisters in this country. So that's the way I'm looking at it as the next governor.
Now, lastly, there's a big debate right now in Columbus that may be resolved when you get there. The primary is about a little over a year away, and that is marijuana. We voted in Ohio fifty eight percent of us and I don't smoke pot, never have, never will, doubt I ever will.
I won't do it.
But nonetheless, fifty eight percent of us said, you know, recreational marijuana sales is a good thing. We now have our good Governor, Mike DeWine wanting to double the tax, double the cut into Columbus from ten percent of the sale to twenty percent, and then distribute that money all
over Ohio through a general fund. It's got the cities and the townships all worked up because they were promised three point six percent and they established these dispensaries, and so the people have voted, and now the lawmakers want to change the marijuana tax to double the take from
the state of Ohio. You may know Marijuana Control Commission in Ohio says that in twenty twenty five, there's going to be a billion dollars in sales of legal recreational marijuana that comes out of the pocket some drug dealers. The drug dealers this year are not going to get one billion dollars in illegal marijuana sales because there's a
pot of gold there. The state wants to double its take from one hundred million dollars in taxes up to two hundred million dollars in taxes, which will encourage high prices, which will drive marijuana users back into the dark market. I know it's a proxial issue at this point and may be resolved by the time you get to be the governor, but you could change it if Ohio lawmakers double the tax on marijuana, encouraging users to go back
into the dark market. Just philosophically, where do you stand on marijuana recreational use and also medicinal Yeah.
Well, look, I'll start with the first principle is that this is an issue where we can't have a conflict between the state law and the federal law. I go back to that same principle I said with respect to illegal limitigation. We're a nation founded on the rule of law. That is who we are. And so I think this business of well is technically illegal federally, but it's quasi
legal in this state. Just speaking as an American looking at the whole country as a whole, that doesn't help our culture of the rule of law in this country. So the conflict between the federal and the state level needs to end. Now let's get to to other deeper issues on this. What is the question of medical choice
for medicinal purposes. I generally believe that there are a lot of therapies that need to be able to be available for mental health purposes, for the treatment you know, you think non addictive options and the opioid epidemic.
And a lot of what drove that.
Part of what we need is to bring down the barriers to medicinal uses of things that are able to help people. But that's different from a deeper problem of addiction. And I think this is such a deep problem in our state buility. I mean that mental health epidemic is something we have not yet taken seriously in addressing depression, anxiety, sentinel suicide. These numbers are all up and what is that?
In our state really and in our country. It is part of a deeper crisis of purpose and meaning, especially in our young people. You're not getting ahead by smoking pot in your parents' basement and somehow playing video games and getting a head started the American dream. No, we need to bring back that sense of culture and purpose and meaning.
And that's going to be half of my job as a governor too.
Half of the job is the policy, but the other half of the job is to set the tone for our revival rival of faith in our state, to stand for religious freedom in our state, standing for the idea of the nuclear family as the greatest form of governance
known to mankind. By eliminating the disincentives to family formation and I hope even living our own life as the first family in the state in a way that sets an example for young people, that makes family formation cool again, that restores that civic vacuum through civic education in our schools, that teach kids to be proud of our state and our country and of themselves.
With the pledge of allegiance.
Every morning, every high school senior who graduates from high school in the state should pass a Civics test, the same one that legal immigrants have to pass.
So that's a deeper issue that I care about.
Is fulfill that crisis a purpose and the rest actually falls into place.
Well, it all starts today. You're in Cincinnati at five o'clock. Then at eight pm you'll be in New Albany. And tomorrow you'll be in Taledo, where I got my law degree, University of Toledo, the home of the Rockets. Than tomorrow at four o'clock you'll be in Strongsville, Ohio. The bell is a rung and the torch has been lit. It has been passed to a new generation of Ohio wins. Let's see what you can do with it. The polls have you thirty points up. It'd be damn near impossible
to beat you in the primary. I would anticipate, but we'll see what David Yost and others do. But once again, but Veke Ramaswami if Sandex High School, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show this Monday afternoon announcing what you're going to be doing, and we'll keep the lines of communication open and make God bless you and God bless America.
But fake, Thank you very much, thank you, Billy, God bless you.
Let's continue with more your reaction five one, three, seven four nine, seven thousand. And then, of course, the weather's much greater better this Monday afternoon, and let's see what happens later on in the week. But news coming up next to Troome of the Reds playing ball now in Goodyear, Arizona, all on NewsRadio seven hundred WLW.