christopher caldwell is the senior editor at the weekly standard.e's the author of what i think is the same single best overview of the opioid epidemic. he joins us now in the studio. great to see you. >> great to see you too, tucker. >> tucker: what are the factors that led to this crisis? >> well, not a lot recently, but more remotely. you know, the united states has had a very, very fraught relationship with some pain relievers, which i think has to do with the way a few things came together in the 19th century. around the same time you had the isolation of morphine, which comes from an opium poppy. it's the great opioid, morphine. you have the invention of the hypodermic needle. and you have the civil war. and i think a lot of people came back from the civil war addicted and, and, and, and the doctors became enthusiastic about the pain killing properties of this drug. and so they started to prescribe it promiscuous -- they voted to ban it. there was a real taboo about opioids. >> tucker: and that changed. we had a problem in the late '60s and '7

christopher caldwell joins us now, weekly standard senior editor.rove of my statement, the left lost big in this election? they are the old france, make way for a new france? >> only in a very qualified way. i think the socialist party is at the heart of what happened yesterday, but i think one of the reasons they fell to such a low number is that they have changed. there's no longer a real industrial economy in france, so there's no longer a trade union movement or a workers' movement. and so the socialist party has, kind of like the democratic party in the united states, become kind of a movement of the upper crust. and macron comes out ofthat. stuart: okay. there was a poll taken right after the results came in last night, and it showed that macron has a 20-point lead over le pen for the election that's coming up on may the 7th. do you think that holds? do you think he's the clear winner on may 7th? >> if nothing special happens. like, for instance, an event like a terrorist attack or a real extraordinary ability of marine he pen to sort of, like

joining me now, dan caldwell and christopher nywim . dan, i start with you.of action and money thrown at this problem over last couple of years. yet suicides are a consistent problem, and the waiting list. the big question, can the v.a. be fixed. has it been broken so long. it you turn it around? >> i think now you have two leaders in dr. shulkin and president trump who tell you that solution of past have not turned the v.a. around. it is time for new direction. dr. shulkin, amazingly said, in a interview, that v.a. cannot continue to get double digit budget increases that money has not been the v.a.'s problem. that alone shows that dr. shulkin is coming in with a new way of looking at things. i think he will approach these problem a lot different than they have been approached in the past, which gives me hope. charles: christopher, you are a veteran, you understand what your fellow vets are going through. country is sympathetic, it feels like had they put in the private sector guide it could not turn it. >> i agree with what dan said, bob mcdonald is what to