Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed. I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them
Speaker 1: at HU for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome back, America. I want to introduce
Speaker 1: you to the man of the impossible task. Chairman, sorry
Speaker 1: to say it that way, Representative Jason Smith, the chairman
Speaker 1: of the Houseways and Meads Committee, has the impossible task
Speaker 1: of getting a second reconciliation through the House Republican Caucus with.
Speaker 2: Losing only two votes. Can it be done, mister chairman.
Speaker 1: Do?
Speaker 3: It's great to be with you.
Speaker 4: I said all along that we needed to do one big,
Speaker 4: beautiful bill to put as much of the items we
Speaker 4: could possibly get in to deliver the president's campaign promises
Speaker 4: for the American people. It is very very difficult, very
Speaker 4: very difficult to do two reconciliation bills, and when you
Speaker 4: can only lose two people, and one member of our
Speaker 4: conference is going to be a no on you know,
Speaker 4: whether you support oxygen yes, that that creates a very get.
Speaker 1: Is his name Massy? Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I won't be saying any names, but I will just
Speaker 4: say that the records on the voting records speak for themselves.
Speaker 4: But it is so important that the American people know
Speaker 4: what we have delivered in the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 3: Have I have folks all.
Speaker 4: The time when I travel across the country that's like,
Speaker 4: I didn't know that there was these investment accounts that
Speaker 4: are for new children born in America. Or I didn't
Speaker 4: know that you could do one hundred percent expensing on
Speaker 4: new machine sheds that's built in America. I mean, there's
Speaker 4: so many things that people don't know about. We need
Speaker 4: to do a better explaining what was in the first
Speaker 4: Reconciliation Bill before trying to debate of whether there should
Speaker 4: be a second one.
Speaker 1: Well, there is the debate. So I just want to
Speaker 1: test some things out on you. Because you remember when
Speaker 1: they have the crossed axes and Robin Wood has to
Speaker 1: shoot the arrow through the crossed axes, so you got
Speaker 1: to get the arrow through about twenty cross access. What
Speaker 1: do you think about a tax credit for first and
Speaker 1: last month's rent Because we're talking about an affordability issue.
Speaker 1: We got to hit young people. We got to hit
Speaker 1: people who don't have a lot of money. How about
Speaker 1: a tax credit for first and last month rent for
Speaker 1: an apartment.
Speaker 4: You know, we've been working with the administration on all
Speaker 4: kinds of different tax ideas and proposals about housing affordability.
Speaker 4: This is one of the items that I've heard people discuss.
Speaker 4: Tax credits though are not very popular. Tax deductions, they're
Speaker 4: a little bit more doable. So it's different items that
Speaker 4: we can look at. But I mean, just even looking
Speaker 4: at the depreciation schedule that could have a huge impact
Speaker 4: on housing. But there's so many different things to look at,
Speaker 4: whether allowing people with their four oh one K to
Speaker 4: use that as a down payment on purchasing a home.
Speaker 4: There's numerous things we can be looking at and that
Speaker 4: we are discussing. But all those housing things that we
Speaker 4: just brought up, those could be done in a bipartisan
Speaker 4: tax bill. There's no reason why it has to be
Speaker 4: in a reconciliation bill.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's not going to give you any more wins.
Speaker 1: They're not. Because I've gone through the tides of House
Speaker 1: seat losses. In the second term of Republican President Eisenhower
Speaker 1: lost forty nine seats in nineteen fifty eight. Ford lost
Speaker 1: forty eight seats in nineteen seventy four, regularly lost five
Speaker 1: seats in nineteen eighty six, but w lost thirty seats
Speaker 1: in two thousands. So the tides are not with you right,
Speaker 1: So to deliver something to the youngs would be big.
Speaker 1: I'm not arguing here for the relief for seniors and
Speaker 1: let them get their money out of the four oh
Speaker 1: one case and the I rate. That was smart for
Speaker 1: the first round. But this has to be for young people.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to do it, when would you
Speaker 1: have to get started on persuading people.
Speaker 4: So part of the discussion, too, Hugh, is when I
Speaker 4: was referring to the four oh one case, some of
Speaker 4: the discussion that's going on is allowing parents to utilize
Speaker 4: part of their four oh one K for down payments
Speaker 4: for their kids, you know, to try to get more
Speaker 4: home ownership. Think first time home ownership went from thirty
Speaker 4: two years old when Trump was last president to today
Speaker 4: it's forty years old. Is the average age of a
Speaker 4: first time home buyer. We had to break that cycle,
Speaker 4: and we need to look at all different aspects to
Speaker 4: do it. But I do believe that you can find
Speaker 4: the right policies, the right language, and force the Democrats
Speaker 4: that they have no other alternative than to vote for it.
Speaker 4: We've done that on numerous things within the House. I
Speaker 4: think we can do it on some housing affordability issues
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Let me suggest one on that I used to be
Speaker 1: a land news lawyer, mister chairman, so I know that
Speaker 1: in certain states like Florida, New York, California, the appreciation
Speaker 1: of houses that have been held for twenty years is
Speaker 1: way over five hundred thousand dollars. It just is. And
Speaker 1: so a million dollar houses now a three million dollar house,
Speaker 1: so no one can sell that house until they die,
Speaker 1: and the basis steps up, Why don't you increase the
Speaker 1: exemption from five hundred thousand to a million and a
Speaker 1: half or something like that in order to get more
Speaker 1: houses on the market, increase supply and drive down demand,
Speaker 1: I mean drive down prices a queue.
Speaker 4: You're hitting all kinds of different tax provisions that our
Speaker 4: committee members have been discussing along with members who's not
Speaker 4: on the Ways and Means committees. So it definitely is
Speaker 4: of interest to a lot of people. Of course, that
Speaker 4: hasn't changed in decades. Like you pointed, out and a
Speaker 4: lot of times you have to update the tax code.
Speaker 1: All right, last thing I want to talk to you about,
Speaker 1: and this has to be bipartisan, and I think you're
Speaker 1: right to go out and talk about all the good things.
Speaker 1: That's what the President did at Davos for an hour
Speaker 1: and a half today, did at the press conference yesterday
Speaker 1: for two hours. California, I've only been back here for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. I've got a few more weeks
Speaker 1: to go. They're bankrupt, they don't know it. They're they're
Speaker 1: a zombie state. They have unfunded pension liabilities are through
Speaker 1: the roof that Gavin Newsom's running into the ground. We
Speaker 1: need a chapter in the Bankruptcy Code for states. We
Speaker 1: have them for local governments like Detroit's use it and
Speaker 1: sam Bernina County. We don't have a code chapter for states.
Speaker 1: Is that something you'd ever tackle?
Speaker 4: That is not something within the Ways and Means Committee jurisdiction.
Speaker 4: But I have not had any I have not heard
Speaker 4: myself any conversation in regards to going after that approach.
Speaker 4: I just wish that states would get their fiscal house
Speaker 4: in order. Un Fortunately, we see a lot of them
Speaker 4: spin like drunken sailors. But it's just it's crazy.
Speaker 2: It's not recoverable in California.
Speaker 1: I did the math when I got out here, and
Speaker 1: it's actually they can't do it given the contracts that
Speaker 1: they've entered into at their public employee unions.
Speaker 2: So, mister Chairman, when will you make the decision?
Speaker 1: Go no? Gos figures got to come back from London
Speaker 1: and take a victory lap for his great speech in
Speaker 1: front of the Parliament. But when do you sit down
Speaker 1: and decide go no, go on a reconciliation Try realizing
Speaker 1: you can lose one member.
Speaker 2: That's impossible, Wow, one member.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a decision, Hue of leadership. Before a reconciliation
Speaker 4: package can even start being crafted in my committee, the
Speaker 4: Budget Committee has to pass a budget resolution laying out
Speaker 4: the parameters of the reconciliation and so that is the
Speaker 4: first step throughout the process before it can even come
Speaker 4: to us. So I just don't believe, though, Hugh, that
Speaker 4: there's a path way.
Speaker 2: I'm glad here you say that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to waste time on the majority. That's
Speaker 1: very useful. You were the and thank goodness you were
Speaker 1: out there arguing for one big beautiful bill because it's
Speaker 1: it's only gotten harder. You need a majority of twenty
Speaker 1: or so to get two of them done, and it's
Speaker 1: not there. But thank goodness, you're here to sell the
Speaker 1: rest of it and to make sure the tax code.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can get the housing thing through. Who knows,
Speaker 1: because that bad exemption hasn't changed in forever. Chairman Jason Smith,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today from the housewaves.
Speaker 1: It means committee, great member from the show me state
Speaker 1: in Missouri, and we are lucky to have them there
Speaker 1: running ways and means don't go anywhere, America. I'll be
Speaker 1: back with House Conference chair Lisa McClain in a segment
Speaker 1: or two. Don't go Anywhere. Stay tuned to the Sale
Speaker 1: News channel or head over to my YouTube channel, Hugh
Speaker 1: Hewett and YouTube like and subscribe. Please welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewett, Representative Lisa McClain, as Chairman of the
Speaker 1: House Conference for the Republicans in the House, I should
Speaker 1: say chairwoman Presentative welcome. It's great to have you on.
Speaker 1: I was just talking with Jason Smith about operating with
Speaker 1: a two person majority, which is really one because Congressman
Speaker 1: Massi doesn't very often vote with us. What's the plan
Speaker 1: for this year? I know that the off years, and
Speaker 1: I'll run through the horrible math. IIC lost fifty eighteen
Speaker 1: forty eight seat, forty nine seats in nineteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: Ford lost forty eight seats at nineteen seventy four, Reagan
Speaker 1: lost five seats in nineteen eighty six, and w lost
Speaker 1: thirty seats in two thousand and six. So this is
Speaker 1: the second term mid term tough terrain, is it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 6: But you know what, We've defied the ads to this point.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: I'm an optimist by nature, and I think we're on
Speaker 6: the right side of things. We're right, we are on
Speaker 6: the right side of the policies, and it's incumbent upon
Speaker 6: us to go out and do shows like yours and
Speaker 6: correct the truth with the other half of the truth. Right,
Speaker 6: I think Americans vote with their pocketbooks and with the
Speaker 6: work that we've done in the working families tax cuts.
Speaker 6: I think people are going to see real relief. They're
Speaker 6: already seeing real some real relief. But we are going
Speaker 6: to continue to dig out of this disastrous mess that
Speaker 6: Joe Biden and the Democrats left us, and again I'm optimistic.
Speaker 3: I mean, just compare and contrast the two parties.
Speaker 1: Goodness gracious, Now, Congresswoman, I went to Michigan Law School
Speaker 1: at University of Michigan Law School, So the Michigan is
Speaker 1: deep within you. I hear it in your voice. How's
Speaker 1: that state looking in the off years? Up there in
Speaker 1: the governor and Mike Rogers comes on a lot and
Speaker 1: we talk about Mike, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 3: You know, again, I feel pretty good.
Speaker 6: And I feel pretty good because we're doing everything right
Speaker 6: and we're getting out to vote, and if you take
Speaker 6: a look at the governor, I think we have a
Speaker 6: real shot of winning the governorship.
Speaker 3: For the first time.
Speaker 6: We've uh, we have good you know, we have good
Speaker 6: candidates at the top of the ticket and a law
Speaker 6: we have we have that, not to mention that we
Speaker 6: have a pretty strong independent. It's the he's the mayor
Speaker 6: of Detroit, and we're all betting that he's going to
Speaker 6: take more votes from the Democrats than he's going to
Speaker 6: take from the Republican So I'm optimistic about that. I'm
Speaker 6: also very optimistic about Mike Rogers winning the Senate. Look,
Speaker 6: we've cleared the field in Mike Rogers is our candidate.
Speaker 6: Where the Democrats are still fighting in the primary, that
Speaker 6: bodes very well for us. And who the Democrats are
Speaker 6: talking about and are favoring in the primary is the
Speaker 6: radical left wing communism. I mean the policies, the defund ice,
Speaker 6: you know, celebrate the criminals, the no law and order,
Speaker 6: the transgenders, all the crazy stuff. The Democrat Party in
Speaker 6: Michigan is just going way, way, way to the left.
Speaker 6: And I think people want how Man sense, and I
Speaker 6: think Mike Rogers bring that.
Speaker 1: I added a couple of new affiliates in Michigan on
Speaker 1: January one. They're up in just on the Lake Way
Speaker 1: up north, not on the up but on the other side.
Speaker 1: So we're talking to all of the state. It's really
Speaker 1: a red state with a couple of blue dots, right.
Speaker 2: Michigan, You got that, right, that right?
Speaker 1: One of those blue dots is Ann Arbor. And so
Speaker 1: what do you do about a play the college campus
Speaker 1: of the United States where they apparently don't teach economics anymore.
Speaker 6: Well, the University of Michigan just got a new president,
Speaker 6: so I'm a little bit hopeful on that. It's their
Speaker 6: board of regents really that are more left wing and
Speaker 6: they need to really focus on educating students on how
Speaker 6: to think, not what to think. And my hope is
Speaker 6: that they will get back to doing just that. But
Speaker 6: I think you'll see a different, different landscape up there
Speaker 6: too with the unfortunate death of Charlie Kirk or murder
Speaker 6: I should say of Charlie Kirk. You know, enrollment of
Speaker 6: Turning Point is growing, growing Republicans, young Republicans at the
Speaker 6: universities are really sparking. So that's always encouraged and optimistic.
Speaker 6: And if we can get the Save Act on the
Speaker 6: floor and get voter registration, I think you're clean up
Speaker 6: a lot of those was the voter rolls and have
Speaker 6: a really good election. It's going to be tight, right,
Speaker 6: We're not going to win by twenty points, but I
Speaker 6: think we'll continue to keep it run.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: Let me turn over to the redistricting wars.
Speaker 1: I was reading one analysis today that says the Democrats,
Speaker 1: if you add it all up for everything that's been
Speaker 1: done today, they're plus one. Assuming that California doesn't get
Speaker 1: thrown out by Scotus and then we don't get the
Speaker 1: voting rights decision and we don't see anything out of
Speaker 1: Florida and we don't see anything out of Indiana. Is
Speaker 1: that your math.
Speaker 6: If all of those things happen. But those are pretty pessimistic.
Speaker 3: So I think at the end of the day, we.
Speaker 6: As Republicans will probably pick up two because I don't
Speaker 6: think all of those things will go in the democrats favor.
Speaker 6: I think what we really need to focus on. Quite frankly,
Speaker 6: we are on the right side of the issues. He
Speaker 6: We are on the side of lawn or we are
Speaker 6: on the side of lower taxes for every American. We
Speaker 6: are on the side of common sense. For goodness sakes,
Speaker 6: that's what really is going to prevail. And the Democrats
Speaker 6: are just going so far to the left.
Speaker 3: I mean, we.
Speaker 6: Elected a socialist mayor in the city of capitalism, New York.
Speaker 6: I mean, let's give New York the world. Let's give
Speaker 6: them a real experience on what socialism or communism really
Speaker 6: looks like, and let's remember that one that doesn't work,
Speaker 6: and they come begging for Congress for more money because
Speaker 6: at some point in time, people want to get paid.
Speaker 6: So free buses, I think the bus drivers want to
Speaker 6: get paid. Gee, free grocery stores, you think the farmers
Speaker 6: want to get paid that sells their goods and services.
Speaker 6: Everything sounds good, but you know as well as I
Speaker 6: do nothing in.
Speaker 1: Life very young people. Though I mentioned this to Jason Smith,
Speaker 1: Chairman Smith was on with me earlier. How about attack
Speaker 1: credit for first and last month the rent that's really
Speaker 1: a rifle shot aimed right at the twenty one to
Speaker 1: thirty year old demo? Have we done anything for them
Speaker 1: for the twenty one to thirty year olds that you
Speaker 1: can point to?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think we're doing a lot of stuff right
Speaker 6: now with interest rates with home purchases, and the President
Speaker 6: is really.
Speaker 3: Focused on that.
Speaker 6: We haven't done a ton legislatively to do that, other
Speaker 6: than if you look at the no tax on tips
Speaker 6: and no tax on overtime. That will have a big
Speaker 6: effect on those young people as well, because you look
Speaker 6: at a lot of those young people they work while
Speaker 6: they're going to while they're going to college, or you know,
Speaker 6: they work, and they usually work bartending jobs or waitressing jobs.
Speaker 6: That will have a major effect on them as well.
Speaker 6: To keep the more money in their pocket and give
Speaker 6: less money to Uncle Sam.
Speaker 1: Lisa McClain share Women of the House Republican Conference. Always
Speaker 1: good to talk to you, great to have a Michigander
Speaker 1: on although Ohio State did beat Michigan today, I do
Speaker 1: you have to point that out this year.
Speaker 3: To bring that up? Bring that out?
Speaker 1: Of course I do. After the year before it, Yes,
Speaker 1: after four in a row. Yes, of course I have
Speaker 1: to do that. And now we just go back and reset.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about again next year after the game again.
Speaker 1: We'll play up from the Big House next year. Lisa McLain,
Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Don't go anywhere, America. I'll
Speaker 1: be right back on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back
Speaker 1: in America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Mary Katherine Ham is with me.
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine Ham as the host of the Getting Hammered
Speaker 1: podcast and the Normally podcast. She is a sad SEC
Speaker 1: fan because the SEC was not anywhere to be seen
Speaker 1: in the College National Championship, which was won by the
Speaker 1: Big Ten for the third year in a row, Michigan,
Speaker 1: Ohio State, and now Indiana and Mary Catherine, do you
Speaker 1: think Georgia will ever return to the Big Game?
Speaker 3: Yes, I do.
Speaker 7: The thing about being an SEC fan is that we
Speaker 7: don't need to ask Big Ten fans or Northwestern fans
Speaker 7: to constantly affirm us.
Speaker 1: Well, we do because after all the years we've been
Speaker 1: beaten up by the SEC because of the reps of ESPN.
Speaker 2: We need to remind you people level the blading field.
Speaker 3: I just go, we'll see you next year.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see you next year, and I hope I
Speaker 1: think we open with Texas next year. The Buck guy
Speaker 1: only were going to do it in Texas, so we'll
Speaker 1: start right away. Mary Catherine President was at Davos today,
Speaker 1: gave the longest press conference in history yesterday. Well, maybe
Speaker 1: Chris Christie still holds that title. Put it all together,
Speaker 1: it comes down to we're not going to use for
Speaker 1: us to take greenland. Markets are happy. He thinks we
Speaker 1: have a great economy. I tend to agree with him.
Speaker 1: I also think he's done well in the first year.
Speaker 1: But I want him to hit Iran so hard that
Speaker 1: the eyes go back in their head and they're out.
Speaker 1: What do you think.
Speaker 3: I'm with you on Iran.
Speaker 7: I thought it was interesting to watch everyone go gaga
Speaker 7: over the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Karney, who's certainly a
Speaker 7: cut above Trudeau. But it feels very much like Obama nostalgia.
Speaker 7: They listen to this pretty cynical speech. If you actually
Speaker 7: listen to the meat of it, but given this sort
Speaker 7: of lofty intellectual tone as compared to a Donald Trump
Speaker 7: speech and press conference.
Speaker 3: Which is a very different animal.
Speaker 7: But what he was saying really was like, us middle powers,
Speaker 7: we're going to get together, and we're going to tell everybody,
Speaker 7: you know, we're going to become powerful somehow. We're not
Speaker 7: going to militarize or do the things we need to
Speaker 7: do or create the things we need to create. America
Speaker 7: will still do that, and then sort of like falsely equivalent,
Speaker 7: making false equivalents of China and Russia and the US
Speaker 7: as equal superpowers. It was odd to me, and I
Speaker 7: think there is something to the idea that what he
Speaker 7: was saying was like.
Speaker 3: This old, this old thing that we all understood as
Speaker 3: the world order was kind of fake.
Speaker 7: And now I'm just going to tell you that we're
Speaker 7: exiting it now that it's convenient for us to exit it.
Speaker 3: It was convenient for us.
Speaker 7: The whole time, and now we've decided we don't like
Speaker 7: Donald Trump, and so we're out and we're going to
Speaker 7: say hi to China.
Speaker 3: And I just found the whole thing very off putting.
Speaker 1: I have to be very careful here because my daughter
Speaker 1: in law is Canadian. Was born in Montreal, and my
Speaker 1: my in laws are Canadians, so they have naturalized Americans
Speaker 1: now and now I say bones are high because they're
Speaker 1: from Montreal. But I want to point out I didn't
Speaker 1: read Mark Carney's beach, I didn't watch Mark Carneie's speech
Speaker 1: because I love Canada, love maple syrup, I really do.
Speaker 1: I don't think they matter much to us. We like
Speaker 1: their oil. They can send it to China, but if
Speaker 1: there ever comes a conflict, they'll be with us, or
Speaker 1: they won't be with anyone. Erry Catherine. That's the reality.
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, I think a lot of this is about
Speaker 7: reality is that Europe and Canada don't like the tone
Speaker 7: of Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: But the tone of Donald Trump is.
Speaker 7: The only thing that's gotten any of them to spend
Speaker 7: money on defense, as the Secretary General of NATO pointed
Speaker 7: out at the World Economic Forum. And so even when
Speaker 7: I'm annoyed with Donald Trump's tone or saber rattling, I
Speaker 7: am reminded that I was incorrect about him and NATO
Speaker 7: the first time around, because that is what got people
Speaker 7: to take care.
Speaker 3: Of their busines and to spend more money on defense.
Speaker 7: So I'm sort of of two minds about his strategies
Speaker 7: on these things. And I think on the Greenland thing,
Speaker 7: this might be, you know, heading towards attempting to get
Speaker 7: a deal by making a bunch of noise, as often
Speaker 7: the case with him.
Speaker 1: Now, tell me about Carney, whether or not he mentioned
Speaker 1: Operation Midnight Hammer or Operation Absolute Resolve, both of which
Speaker 1: helped the West, both of which helped Canada, the first
Speaker 1: one of which helps the world. Actually, we don't want
Speaker 1: now that we know what Iran is capable of, we
Speaker 1: really are glad that they don't have a nuclear weaponry, Catherine.
Speaker 1: Did he mention that.
Speaker 3: I don't think he mentioned that.
Speaker 1: No, All right, so let's go back to Iran. What
Speaker 1: do you expect? And I know we're all guessing here.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to do something. I think we're
Speaker 1: going to see it because he does not want what
Speaker 1: is already surfaced online, because the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: but be he's also had to have seen online the
Speaker 1: taco stuff is already out. Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, I think he is interested in protecting his own
Speaker 7: threat credibility.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 7: That is what he is powerful about him is that
Speaker 7: people think he will act when he says he will act.
Speaker 7: He also was material in getting some folks out into
Speaker 7: the streets in Iran who paid the ultimate price.
Speaker 3: No doubt.
Speaker 7: And so I think, you know, it is morally incumbent
Speaker 7: on him to do something. And I have a lot
Speaker 7: of faith that there's plenty of stuff going on behind the.
Speaker 3: Scenes that we're not seeing.
Speaker 7: But I think you're right, Hugh, that it would do
Speaker 7: the West and everyone a lot of good to take
Speaker 7: action and to make sure that that threat remains credible
Speaker 7: for all the other people who are watching.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask your grizzly math ability. There's a
Speaker 1: math question. Iran's got ninety two million people. If the
Speaker 1: Iranian style execution of Stado Scenry in the streets occurred
Speaker 1: in the United States, how many Americans would be dead?
Speaker 3: What is it? Was it like ten percent of the
Speaker 3: population or something.
Speaker 1: No, it would be sixty eight thousand Americans. We're using
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty million Americans as the non nominator.
Speaker 1: In ninety two million Americans, fifteen thousand in the exit
Speaker 1: would be above three sixty. I've worked it out for
Speaker 1: you there. You can go home and do the master.
Speaker 1: But that's what I like to point out. People call
Speaker 1: Trump a fascist people who call him dictorial. This is
Speaker 1: what a fascist regime actually does. It mows down fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand of its own people in prisons ten thousand more.
Speaker 1: And I see the network's turning away. I got a
Speaker 1: very wisch question coming up that have you seen any
Speaker 1: coverage of the massacre? Since it wasn't front.
Speaker 7: Page there's there's very little, and I think it's because
Speaker 7: they don't know how to frame this. It's not part
Speaker 7: of the narrative that they want to tell, because the
Speaker 7: narrative they want to tell.
Speaker 3: Does not want to put what is you know.
Speaker 7: Ice raids in American cities next to actual fascism and
Speaker 7: what actual totalitarian societies look like, or Venezuelan's talking about
Speaker 7: what actual totalitarianism looks like.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's a story that they want to tell.
Speaker 7: I think it's complicated, and I think the idea that
Speaker 7: Trump would be full to both of these citizen reies
Speaker 7: is uncomfortable too many who cover the networks.
Speaker 3: And by the way, you know I went to the SEC.
Speaker 3: Don't ask me math questions.
Speaker 1: Right now. I want to finish with Barry White. I
Speaker 1: want to tell the audience again. I've talked to with Barry.
Speaker 1: Once in my life we tried to write a piece together,
Speaker 1: like ten years ago. It didn't work. And Barry's I
Speaker 1: think center left may be very slightly left, but center left.
Speaker 1: She's a good journalists. There's a story in Variety today
Speaker 1: that ten people from CBS News think she's ruining it.
Speaker 1: Now there are metrics actually for whether or not she's
Speaker 1: ruining it, because the audience already ran away from CBS,
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine, Can you believe Variety counted on ten people
Speaker 1: and said she's going to destroy the network when in fact,
Speaker 1: audience flight is what's destroying the network.
Speaker 7: Look, I think it's so silly, this whole campaign to
Speaker 7: tell me that CBS News hiring a New York Jewish
Speaker 7: lesbian who just moved from la is too far left
Speaker 7: for there's too.
Speaker 3: Far right for these people. How far left do you
Speaker 3: have to be?
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, No, Barry is a curious, interesting, smart person,
Speaker 7: and the audience had already fled, and I am interested
Speaker 7: in what she's doing.
Speaker 1: So my and I hope she goes to I like
Speaker 1: Ed Whittaker, I met him, I like Ed, I worked
Speaker 1: with him. But I hope she goes and just turns
Speaker 1: over sixty minutes into something completely new. That's the next stop.
Speaker 1: She's done. Tony dekoppole, how'd you like Tony with the President?
Speaker 1: Did you watch it?
Speaker 7: I like Tony a lot, and I've liked Tony since
Speaker 7: they dogpiled him over asking ton of He's coats one
Speaker 7: hard question. So I think anyone who can do that
Speaker 7: and stand up to his network should stick around and
Speaker 7: do the hard work.
Speaker 1: Well, said Mary Catherine Ham getting hammered and normally are
Speaker 1: her podcasts. She is unfortunately an SEC gal, but we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that next year as the end as the
Speaker 1: Big Ten begins its third year reigning a top all
Speaker 1: of college football. Thank you, imk H. I'll be right back, America.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned to the Conquet Show. I call up my
Speaker 1: hotbeddy with Washington Examiner to Hewitt. Google it. Welcome back, America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Charles C. W. Cook. You
Speaker 1: can follow him on exit Charles C. W. Cook with
Speaker 1: an EE on the end of that. He is the
Speaker 1: senior writer at National Review. His podcaster carries his podcast
Speaker 1: carries his name, Charles W. Cook.
Speaker 2: He is a Jacksonville Jaguars fan.
Speaker 1: And I'll get to the serious stuff at first seasons
Speaker 1: over the Cleveland Browns have the Jaguars twenty fourth pick
Speaker 1: in the draft. We're going to take an offensive lineman
Speaker 1: with that. I'd be willing to bet my life.
Speaker 2: Are you happy with the trade a year later?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 8: I didn't expect it to go thirteen and four, which
Speaker 8: was a reversal of the previous year, which was four
Speaker 8: and thirteen. So I'm pretty sure the Browns didn't expect
Speaker 8: that either. If you told me that at the beginning
Speaker 8: of the year, I'd have been astonished. Of course, I
Speaker 8: was upset when we lost in the wild card, but
Speaker 8: it was to the Bills, and Josh Allen is a
Speaker 8: pretty good player.
Speaker 1: And McDermot shouldn't have been fired. I'm actually happy with
Speaker 1: twenty four because we were so bad. We have six
Speaker 1: and four so we can get a wide receiver and
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman in the first round. So everybody went.
Speaker 2: Now. I don't want everyone to win in Iran.
Speaker 1: I have a column in the Examiner day should President
Speaker 1: Trump hit Iran? Willie?
Speaker 2: And I think he.
Speaker 1: Should because to murder fifteen thousand people low end estimate
Speaker 1: in the streets by the regime, not to go unpunished.
Speaker 8: What do you think, Charles, Yeah, that's certainly one way
Speaker 8: of looking at it. I don't disagree with you if
Speaker 8: the aim is merely to be punitive, I worry that
Speaker 8: we would not be able to affect the change that
Speaker 8: we want. I also worry a little bit that we
Speaker 8: promised that we would help in Iran. Then all those
Speaker 8: brief people went out in the streets, and then we
Speaker 8: didn't for whatever reason, and then fifteen thousand of them
Speaker 8: were murdered. I'm not against hitting them for what they
Speaker 8: did on human rights grounds. What I really want is
Speaker 8: for a shift in Iran's government. And I was more
Speaker 8: hopeful than I had been for a long time, although
Speaker 8: I was still pretty skeptical because I keep being promises
Speaker 8: and it never happens.
Speaker 1: You know, Charles, I'm going to put the argument forward
Speaker 1: that we can't put the people in the streets who
Speaker 1: got shot on Trump's promise because their internet was down.
Speaker 1: I think they went to the streets like they did
Speaker 1: in twenty two in two thousand and nine because they
Speaker 1: hate this regime. They've just been They've never been met
Speaker 1: with machine guns and weapons of mass destruction this way,
Speaker 1: and I want a punitive I don't think you can
Speaker 1: do regime change from the air, and we aren't sending
Speaker 1: troops in. But we can do to Iran what he
Speaker 1: did to Syria twice, which was to communicate to Asad,
Speaker 1: you use the chemical weapons and we will blow up
Speaker 1: buildings that you want. And I don't know why we
Speaker 1: don't hit carg Island. I've had a friend of mine
Speaker 1: in the business tell me that could get the Chinese
Speaker 1: involved rebuilding it, and they need that oil. But that's
Speaker 1: what I would blow up.
Speaker 2: What would you blow up?
Speaker 8: Well, I don't know. I don't know about how this works.
Speaker 8: I think that our last target was over due out
Speaker 8: obviously being the Iranian nuclear program. I'm not a military strategist.
Speaker 8: As a sort of foreign policy question. From a perspective
Speaker 8: of a citizen, I'm quite happy to make them squeal
Speaker 8: for what they've done. I think you make a good case.
Speaker 8: I'm not blaming Trump, just so we're clear. I'm just
Speaker 8: saying that I hope that's not what happened.
Speaker 1: Oh, I get you.
Speaker 8: I hope that there weren't people who went out there
Speaker 8: and thought, you know, if we push over the top
Speaker 8: this time, there will be support coming from the United
Speaker 8: States and then there wasn't.
Speaker 5: I don't think, you know, Trump can be.
Speaker 8: Blamed for that, but I just hope that there weren't
Speaker 8: people who thought there was helpcoming that wasn't.
Speaker 1: And I want him to follow through on a spoken
Speaker 1: promise because other people will hear other things in the future.
Speaker 1: He said it to me, he said it to Sean Hannity,
Speaker 1: he said it to Tony ducoppole, he said it online
Speaker 1: eight times. I think he said help is on the
Speaker 1: way or some variation. So I think he had to
Speaker 1: follow through.
Speaker 2: Now, Greenland.
Speaker 1: We began yesterday with the demand and a promise of
Speaker 1: a tariff that was reiterated in the speech. It was
Speaker 1: walked back in the pressure, and then it was definitively
Speaker 1: walked back in the president's exchange with Joe Cernham, which
Speaker 1: you and I listened to off air without specifics. What
Speaker 1: do you think that Trump walk himself back or did
Speaker 1: he have a real deal.
Speaker 8: No, I think he walks himself back. I'll take this
Speaker 8: from the beginning. I think that the notion that the
Speaker 8: United States would benefit from acquiring Greenland is solid. Yes,
Speaker 8: It's been in American mind since the mid nineteenth century
Speaker 8: when Seward was doing the Alaska deal. He also wanted
Speaker 8: to take Greenland, and Harry Truman famously tried to buy
Speaker 8: the place in nineteen forty six. So the idea you
Speaker 8: hear from some people that this is Trump being crazy,
Speaker 8: or that this is a complete distraction based on nothing
Speaker 8: is wrong. I also think if we weren't so much
Speaker 8: in debt that by it would be well within the
Speaker 8: tradition of American foreign policy. So I am very open
Speaker 8: to the idea. But I think that Trump's behavior in
Speaker 8: the last three or four days has been erratic and
Speaker 8: bizarre and indefensible. I think that even muttering about invading
Speaker 8: I know he's walked that back now is counterproductive. I
Speaker 8: think that putting tariffs on allies, I know he's not
Speaker 8: going to do that now, but that was the threat
Speaker 8: and the markets responded is crazy. And I think ultimately
Speaker 8: he has backed off here and pretended that there is
Speaker 8: some sort of deal that there's not, at least not
Speaker 8: that alters the status quo in ways that would satisfy
Speaker 8: those of us who think this.
Speaker 5: Is a good idea.
Speaker 8: Is a reaction to the bond market and the economic
Speaker 8: fallout from these threats, rather than to a real change
Speaker 8: in diplomacy.
Speaker 1: Okay, my prediction is going to be the Danes are
Speaker 1: growing to agree that he can interpret the military Treaty
Speaker 1: and Existence expansively extended for many, many years, and commit
Speaker 1: to the United States the protection of the exclusive economic
Speaker 1: zone of two hundred and thirty miles around their twenty
Speaker 1: seven thousand miles of shoreland, so we can keep the
Speaker 1: Chinese fishing fleet out from destroying the Arctic fishing ponds.
Speaker 1: But we will see Charlie. Generally speaking, are you better
Speaker 1: off today than you were a year ago?
Speaker 5: Yes? I think I am. How are we measuring that anyway?
Speaker 1: I just put it to the audio. I just got
Speaker 1: a call from a guy in Orlando who's an importer
Speaker 1: of toys from China and greeting cards from around the world,
Speaker 1: and he had to lay off eight employees. He's crushed.
Speaker 1: That's actually somebody. I believe. He spoke like a guy.
Speaker 1: I really believe him. But if you buy gasoline and
Speaker 1: you're a trucker, you're better off today than you were
Speaker 1: a year ago. So I usually think of economic terms.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I have been and continue to be outspoken against
Speaker 8: the tariffs. I think, with the exception of those on
Speaker 8: China the counterproductive. I don't believe the president has the
Speaker 8: legal authority to impose them. I don't know the Supreme
Speaker 8: Court will uphold that or not. But I am of
Speaker 8: the view that the interpretation of AEPA is wrong. And
Speaker 8: as a non delegation guy, I'm not sure YEPA is constitutional.
Speaker 8: So I do believe that your interlocutor is suffering as
Speaker 8: many are.
Speaker 5: But yes, I am better off.
Speaker 8: I'm also better off because I can plan better for
Speaker 8: my future given the renewal of the SAX cuts from
Speaker 8: twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5: Yes, and that was not just important.
Speaker 8: Financially, you cannot have the largest tax increase in American history,
Speaker 8: which was the alternative, but making those permanent and also
Speaker 8: adding in things like full expensing for businesses just allows
Speaker 8: a level of economic planning and assumptions.
Speaker 5: That are really important.
Speaker 8: Add into that the deregulation that the president's been engaged in,
Speaker 8: which is good. Yeah, I think I am better off.
Speaker 8: I think he's made a lot of mistakes, but overall,
Speaker 8: I think I am.
Speaker 1: And have you listened to yesterday's argument before the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: we're in Justice Jackson and Brown. Jackson introduced the black
Speaker 1: Coach as history and tradition relevant.
Speaker 2: To the Okay, well you did listen.
Speaker 1: What did you think I had fun with it yesterday?
Speaker 8: Well, at Hawaii's law here is crazy, and Hawaii's crazy
Speaker 8: because whenever Hawaii is challenged on Second Amendment issues that
Speaker 8: it's Supreme Court at the state level puts out things like, oh,
Speaker 8: we have the spirit of Aloha is supreme.
Speaker 5: But yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 8: I never thought I would hear a Supreme Court justice
Speaker 8: say that, you know, Jim crow Law has justified gun control.
Speaker 2: I know it's a moment.
Speaker 9: It's a moment for people who follow gun law and
Speaker 9: mark down and say I read nobody saw that one
Speaker 9: coming and they didn't get that question. At the mock
Speaker 9: oral arguments for the Court, Charles c. W.
Speaker 1: Cook call, you's got to talk to you. Follow him
Speaker 1: on x at Charles c. W. Cook with an E
Speaker 1: at the end of you. Right back with Sarah Bedford
Speaker 1: on the New Yaler Show. Hi you, Hewett. You've heard
Speaker 1: me talk a lot about Consumer Shlller, how you can
Speaker 1: switch your care save money without sacrifice. That's because Consumer
Speaker 1: Cellular uses the same towers as the major carrier. You'll
Speaker 1: save money every month on your bill without having to
Speaker 1: sacrifice the quality of coverage. Right now, you get your
Speaker 1: second month free plus. Folks over fifty get two lines
Speaker 1: of unlimited talk, text and data for sixty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: That's in addition to this second month totally free using
Speaker 1: promo code Q and are you tired of your wireless
Speaker 1: company telling you have to talk to an AI robot,
Speaker 1: download an app, or Horizon pay ten dollars to talk
Speaker 1: to someone when paying your bill? Yeah? No thanks. Consumer
Speaker 1: Cellular ranks number one for network coverage and customer satisfaction.
Speaker 1: According to ACSI, whether you're switching online or over the phone,
Speaker 1: you'll be working with an actual human being based right
Speaker 1: here in the US. So switch and get your second
Speaker 1: month free plus two unlimited lines of sixty dollars. If
Speaker 1: you're over fifty, go to Consumer slllar dot com, slash
Speaker 1: HU promo HU or call one hundred eight or call
Speaker 1: one eight hundred four one forty four fifty four one
Speaker 1: eight hundred four one one forty four fifty four. That's
Speaker 1: one eight hundred four to one one forty four to
Speaker 1: fifty four. Don't forget My code is Hugh. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Berica. I'm Hugh Hewittt. Sarah C. Bedford of The
Speaker 1: Washington Examiner joins me, I'm about to read my Washington
Speaker 1: Examiner column from today next segment, Sarah, But I want
Speaker 1: to ask you as a Beltway resident. I'm out in
Speaker 1: California for a couple of weeks more, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Given the mixed signals we're getting. Uh, you're either going
Speaker 1: to be hit by an asteroid or you're not going
Speaker 1: to be elbow open your door because of snow or
Speaker 1: freezing ice will make it impossible to get to the safeway.
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
Speaker 3: Listen? I already loaded up my grocery cart last night.
Speaker 3: I've got soup, I've got water.
Speaker 10: You're never gonna regret buying necessities, right, So I am
Speaker 10: on the panic side, off the spectrum for the storm.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: I think it's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Now, what does Can you work from home? Can you
Speaker 1: turn in copy from home? Are you able to do that?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 10: Unfortunately COVID killed adult snow days, so I will be
Speaker 10: working from home if that occurs.
Speaker 1: COVID did kill adults.
Speaker 2: What do you think is the best forecast? What is
Speaker 2: your operating theory?
Speaker 1: Because my daughter and my four grandkids are debating taking
Speaker 1: a trip. They're on the southern edge of this thing,
Speaker 1: up to Maine and back to do a little skiing.
Speaker 1: And I have no opinions because I don't want to
Speaker 1: get involved. What do you think is going to happen?
Speaker 10: I don't know if it's just my social media algorithm
Speaker 10: that's feeding into all of this fear, But if you
Speaker 10: looked at my Twitter feed, you would think that this
Speaker 10: is the storm of the century. The history books will
Speaker 10: record it, the streets will be littered with bodies like
Speaker 10: I'm nervous for it.
Speaker 3: But also nothing could happen, So who knows that I thought?
Speaker 1: I love the forecast. The snow will between one and
Speaker 1: seventy eight inches, maybe possibly. But what I really hate
Speaker 1: as a long time in and out resident, is freezing rain.
Speaker 1: Have you gone through a freezing rain storm yet?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Well, you know, I'm from the South, so a quarter
Speaker 10: inch of ice just absolutely crippled the city. Ice was
Speaker 10: actually worse, you know, when I lived in Atlanta than
Speaker 10: when I lived here.
Speaker 2: You were there for that nightmare.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 10: Yeah, So it's just a youth, But ice, especially in
Speaker 10: the South, can be much more damaging than snow.
Speaker 3: Nobody knows how to drive or do anything when there's ice.
Speaker 1: Now, you can't drive. That's the bottom line. You can't drive.
Speaker 1: And the metro edit work. So Sarah, I had Jason
Speaker 1: on from Housewaves and Means today and the chairman told
Speaker 1: me that it basically said there isn't going to be
Speaker 1: a reconciliation. Is that what you're reporting is as well? Well?
Speaker 10: The Republican Study Committee is keeping the flame of hope alive.
Speaker 10: They put out this sweeping proposal on affordability that they
Speaker 10: think can be done through reconciliation. I think it'll ultimately
Speaker 10: depend on whether the White House ends up backing this move,
Speaker 10: and Trump and the White House officials have play their
Speaker 10: cards pretty close to the vest on whether this is
Speaker 10: something they're interested in.
Speaker 3: It would be less ambitious than the One Big.
Speaker 10: Beautiful Bill Act, the Reconciliation package from last year, but
Speaker 10: Republicans seem to understand that this is probably their last
Speaker 10: shot for a few years to get anything done legislatively,
Speaker 10: given the likelihood the Democrats will retake the House in November.
Speaker 1: What Sherman Smith noted is that they can only lose
Speaker 1: one vote because Massey will vote now, so they have
Speaker 1: to get it through the Budget Committee. They have to
Speaker 1: get it through all the committee, they have to get
Speaker 1: it through the Rules Committee, got chip Roy and the
Speaker 1: gang over there. I mean, is it worth the effort?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's worth the lift?
Speaker 3: It depends on what it is they're doing. Right.
Speaker 10: One of the proposals that has a lot of interest,
Speaker 10: not just from conservatives, but from a lot of independence,
Speaker 10: you know, across the spectrum. The potential for broad appeal
Speaker 10: is allowing Americans to use their retirement savings or their
Speaker 10: hsas are all kinds of money that they have tied
Speaker 10: up places tax advantaged money for a down payment on
Speaker 10: a first time home purchase.
Speaker 3: That would be.
Speaker 10: Huge for people in my age group who are saving
Speaker 10: up to buy their first home. Right, if they focus
Speaker 10: on something narrow that has brought appeal, maybe they can
Speaker 10: get it through right now. The reconciliation proposal has stuff
Speaker 10: like eliminating the estate tax, It has healthcare reforms, it
Speaker 10: has those home affordability reforms, So they might have to
Speaker 10: pair that back significantly.
Speaker 3: If they want to have a shot it consensus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would like that idea. I think that's a
Speaker 1: fine idea, and I think Democrats would vote for it.
Speaker 1: Have you been following the Virginia legislature now it's all
Speaker 1: democratic state. The very first bill I saw introduced is
Speaker 1: a death tax of three point eight percent. I will
Speaker 1: not be living in Virginia if that passes. It's like
Speaker 1: and make people leave tax right.
Speaker 10: And it's not just that the Democrats out they have
Speaker 10: a trifecta in Virginia put forward a bunch of really
Speaker 10: progressive stuff, tax on services, all sorts of proposals that
Speaker 10: really fly in the face of the affordability agenda that Spamberger,
Speaker 10: the new governor, and a lot of those local Democrats
Speaker 10: ran on.
Speaker 3: It's actually kind of baffling that they chose that as
Speaker 3: their first move.
Speaker 1: Would you think it's fair to say she's gone full
Speaker 1: mom Donnie, Well, she's.
Speaker 10: Certainly leaning that way because one of her the first
Speaker 10: things that she did unilaterally as the governor was to
Speaker 10: cancel any sort of cooperation agreements that Virginia had with
Speaker 10: immigration authorities, which is not something that she ran on,
Speaker 10: not something that Virginians are even really demanding.
Speaker 1: Did she say free busses yet.
Speaker 3: Not yet? Give it another week?
Speaker 9: I know, because it really is Mom Donnie, a blonde
Speaker 9: mom Donnie, and we'll follow that space.
Speaker 1: Sarah C. Bedford can be followed on. Actually is with
Speaker 1: the Washington generally the investigative team there, and she's ready
Speaker 1: for whatever the weather brings, which I've port for recovering
Speaker 1: after the break were President