Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2: Jack Armstrong and Joe Kaddy Armstrong and.
Speaker 3: Jettating and Arms range.
Speaker 1: Live from studio see signor a diddly lit room deep
Speaker 1: in them the bowels of.
Speaker 3: The Armstrong and Getty Communications Compound. Wow.
Speaker 1: Word that Mike came up in the Diddy trial. I
Speaker 1: probably will what now vowels there's some ball or some
Speaker 1: awful lives. There's some awful words being thrown around in
Speaker 1: the Diddy trial. I wouldn't be surprised that that word
Speaker 1: doesn't come up at.
Speaker 2: Some golly gee, hope not.
Speaker 3: Hey, we were under the tutelage of our general manager.
Speaker 3: Arabs bearing gifts.
Speaker 2: I remember when I was a kid, I heard the
Speaker 2: saying you wear Greeks bearing gifts or somebody bearing gifts.
Speaker 2: It was kind of your old timey.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, if somebody comes at you say, I'd just
Speaker 2: like to give you a little gift, little token of
Speaker 2: my affection. There's a string attached. There's something going on.
Speaker 2: All the Arab governments are coming at Trump with gifts,
Speaker 2: and I'm wary.
Speaker 1: So how about the New York Times. I was just
Speaker 1: reading it as I was coming up in the elevator.
Speaker 1: They did a good job of laying out the whole
Speaker 1: Joe Biden had promised MBS in Saudi Arabia would be
Speaker 1: a pariah on the world stage after the bone sawing
Speaker 1: of Kushogi. Then gas got real high and we decided
Speaker 1: we need your help. So Biden went over there to
Speaker 1: meet him and beg for help. Fist bumped him. Now
Speaker 1: we're fully on back with Trump getting the red carpet
Speaker 1: tree Minton right and the handshakes and hugs all around
Speaker 1: and everything like that. So so much for the pariah
Speaker 1: state that didn't last long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was just an incredibly undisciplined thing to say,
Speaker 2: which is you know Biden's deal. Look, nobody's in favor
Speaker 2: of bone sawing journalists who are dissidents of Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not many people are in favor of it.
Speaker 2: But in geopolitics, a guy is not a basis for
Speaker 2: severing an important relationship, even if it's an unsavory friend
Speaker 2: of me weird relationship. Anyway, Biden was a Seena idiot
Speaker 2: back to you. So, so Trump's there and getting the
Speaker 2: full on I'm a king, You're a king. Treatment And
Speaker 2: I was just listening to the Fox Report on how
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia has got a project twenty thirty that they're
Speaker 2: spending unimaginable amounts of money on it, especially for a
Speaker 2: country that size. They want to be the most technologically
Speaker 2: advanced place on Earth by twenty thirty, particularly around Ai
Speaker 2: and green that all the world. That will be the
Speaker 2: capital of the world if you're going to as a
Speaker 2: country or a business for you know, investments, or where
Speaker 2: all we're all where everybody who's anybody hangs out and
Speaker 2: that's where the deals are made. That's what they want
Speaker 2: to Yeah, well, and.
Speaker 3: They might pull that off. Well.
Speaker 1: Well, meanwhile, out in the you know, one hundred miles
Speaker 1: outside of town, you got a bunch of camel humper
Speaker 1: and fundamentalist Muslims who want to saw off NBS's head.
Speaker 2: But right sure, yeah, and are belly kept under wraps
Speaker 2: by the regime through bribery and threats. Yeah, boy, the
Speaker 2: whole we want to be the world's biggest on AI. Thing.
Speaker 2: That seems promising to me, But the isn't the bloom
Speaker 2: off the green grows.
Speaker 1: I think they're I think they've missed. I think they
Speaker 1: missed the reality of that one.
Speaker 2: Perhaps, Yeah, I mean the Euros are still making all
Speaker 2: sorts of noises and driving tight at right.
Speaker 3: That's what that is. That's to get the whole euro crowd.
Speaker 2: But friends, the populist right is on the rise fast
Speaker 2: in Europe. And one of the things they're just I
Speaker 2: think a little behind the US in that the populace
Speaker 2: is going to say, we're paying enormous amounts and having
Speaker 2: terrible damage done to our standard of living to realize
Speaker 2: these fanciful green energy goals.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't make a difference.
Speaker 2: Anyway, So, uh, can we change?
Speaker 3: Please? That's common trust me.
Speaker 1: I'm all for living in reality. Uh, you got to
Speaker 1: what other choice do you have? But man, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the video of NBS and Trump walking through that palace,
Speaker 1: and I mean, it's just so, you know, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: believe that the world in twenty twenty five could still
Speaker 1: be that way, that people, because of their family that
Speaker 1: they were born into, live that life of luxury, because
Speaker 1: they own the country, because of you know, it's just
Speaker 1: you wouldn't think that could still exist on planet Earth.
Speaker 2: But it does because they were the fist camel herders
Speaker 2: back in the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred and fifty years ago.
Speaker 2: First to sign a big contract with the the Aramco,
Speaker 2: the big oil company FDR. I don't know, you know
Speaker 2: more about the history so out of Arabia in ninety.
Speaker 1: I think FDR in the original house Asad is when
Speaker 1: it started with this particular family. But it is something
Speaker 1: that continues to be a thing. And you know, we're
Speaker 1: as powerful as we are, we still got to deal
Speaker 1: with them. They got a lot of oil, they got
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and that's just the way that
Speaker 1: the world works.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: H Meanwhile, is Putin and earned Zolensky are they're gonna
Speaker 1: show up on Thursday to that meeting.
Speaker 3: I think that's an exciting story.
Speaker 1: Haven't heard anything lately of you, Well, Zelenski's still saying
Speaker 1: he's gonna show. There hasn't been a word out of
Speaker 1: Russia about it was his idea, Hey, Putin, it was
Speaker 1: your idea, dude. You're the one who said you wanted
Speaker 1: a meeting. He said okay, and then you haven't said
Speaker 1: a word. What's going on there? The old tricker room,
Speaker 1: you'ld switch a room, the old bait and switch.
Speaker 2: Oh it's one of those. Certainly. Yeah, I still am
Speaker 2: highly skeptical that it will happen. I think Putin may
Speaker 2: have written a check for more what do they have
Speaker 2: over rubles than his his mouth can cash or something
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 3: And then so it's the old switcher roo. I don't know.
Speaker 1: And how much time should we be spending on the
Speaker 1: qataris give Trump a plane story that for much of
Speaker 1: the mainstream media is a very big gift.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's not a good idea, it's a
Speaker 2: bad idea, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: Said yesterday, who turns down a gift? Who turns down
Speaker 1: a free plane?
Speaker 3: Who would do that? That's what Trump said yesterday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know what, I've got a great example
Speaker 2: of that, A fabulous example of that. Would you like
Speaker 2: to hear it? Yes, you would. He's taking a drink
Speaker 2: of water. I'll answer for you. In certain highly dysfunctional families,
Speaker 2: sometimes gifts come from a controlling parent, and you know
Speaker 2: there'll be strings attached and hell to pay and guilt
Speaker 2: designed and the rest of it. You turn down a
Speaker 2: gift when you know this is going to ensnare me
Speaker 2: and do something unsavory and that's the quitar is evil folks.
Speaker 1: Well, is there a chance Trump thinks you think you're
Speaker 1: gonna ensnare me into something? I'm gonna take your plane?
Speaker 1: You ain't getting nothing from me? Sure, yeah, yep, that's possible.
Speaker 3: I was listening to the.
Speaker 1: Just from a technological standpoint, the how would you take
Speaker 1: that plane apart to make sure there's not you know,
Speaker 1: any sort of like listening device or tracking device or
Speaker 1: you know, stores data somehow you how would you do that?
Speaker 1: You'd have to take it completely apart, wouldn't you? Like
Speaker 1: every joy goodness goodness knows.
Speaker 2: I am not up on the state of the art
Speaker 2: of listening device, sweeping and surveillance equipment, you know, a detection.
Speaker 2: But could there be anything more complex and difficult search
Speaker 2: than a zillion dollar wildly tricked out seven forty seven
Speaker 2: I mean, great, Scott, It's got miles and miles, hundreds
Speaker 2: of miles probably of wiring, right for instance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, every tiny little piece of metal could be something.
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, and to be tricked out to be
Speaker 2: Air Force one. It has astounding capabilities of you know,
Speaker 2: evasion and self defense and communications and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't just take the plane from the Qataris
Speaker 1: and then say, oh cool, there's a USB plug in
Speaker 1: here right next to my chair.
Speaker 2: I'll plug my phone in and charge it. Mean he
Speaker 2: could work like that. Yeah, I would love to hear
Speaker 2: from somebody. I wonder if we could seek out a guest.
Speaker 2: What is the state of the art in A hiding
Speaker 2: and B detecting the sort of surveillance devices that we're
Speaker 2: talking about here. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know either.
Speaker 1: We should start the show officially before we get in trouble.
Speaker 1: I'm Jack Armstrong, He's Joe getting on. This is Tuesday,
Speaker 1: May the thirteenth.
Speaker 2: We need a plane, the A and G force one cool,
Speaker 2: probably Ford, a little Cessna. Don't need as much gold
Speaker 2: then these work missing one wing. The Saudis like their goal.
Speaker 3: They gold.
Speaker 1: They got the same sort of decoration thing going as
Speaker 1: Trump does. It looks like a Trump property, that big
Speaker 1: Saudi building they're in right now. I'm looking at it.
Speaker 1: So what is it about certain mindsets that really like
Speaker 1: lots of gold and chandeliers.
Speaker 3: I don't know what that is exactly. It's not my tastes.
Speaker 1: Particularly, they're twenty twenty five Armstrong in getting we approve
Speaker 1: of this program. You're more a chandelier fashioned out of
Speaker 1: a wagon wheel type con exactly.
Speaker 2: Handler's yeah, all right, let's beg in the show now. Officially,
Speaker 2: according to the FCC Rules of Regulations, here we go
Speaker 2: at mark.
Speaker 4: Their economic plans are really focused on how do we
Speaker 4: keep the Chinese Communist Party in power? How do we
Speaker 4: keep people employed, how do we keep people happy so
Speaker 4: that their regene can stay in place? That they're economic goals.
Speaker 4: They're just different than ours in the West, and we
Speaker 4: have to figure out a way how to fit us.
Speaker 4: We're peg into a round circle, if that's possible.
Speaker 2: So true came across a great piece by one of
Speaker 2: America's favorite business thinkers about how rotten China is to
Speaker 2: deal with. Our theme seems to be frenemies this morning today,
Speaker 2: because China is the weirdest sort of frenemy that I've
Speaker 2: ever observed on the world scene. Honestly, to be this
Speaker 2: entangled and this at odds weird.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to be dead soon, so I
Speaker 1: feel like I should say everything I've ever wanted to say,
Speaker 1: oh good about any topic. I mean, I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be dead soon. Of the whooping cough. I didn't
Speaker 1: mean oh good.
Speaker 2: I meant that seems like an appropriate thing to do,
Speaker 2: given your you know, hell love it.
Speaker 3: You said, oh good, Yeah I did.
Speaker 1: I meant to be supported, said I'm going to die,
Speaker 1: and you said, oh good. I mean, go back to
Speaker 1: the tape if you want to, perhaps you have something
Speaker 1: you'd like to say about that, for instance. I meant
Speaker 1: to be encouraging that. Oh you're going to say all
Speaker 1: the things you want to say. Oh good, that was
Speaker 1: my Oh good, there you go, Yes, express you to get.
Speaker 3: It off your ches. That's the way I took it.
Speaker 3: That's the way. Were good. Thank god. And we got
Speaker 3: Katie's just don't croak. We got Katie's.
Speaker 1: Headlines next on the way and our text line is
Speaker 1: four one five two nine five k FTC. I noticed
Speaker 1: the pencil store near my house and taking down there
Speaker 1: going out of business sign.
Speaker 3: So they're very excited about things. The turn. Everything is taken.
Speaker 2: America's doll and pencil imports and continued now been reinvigorated.
Speaker 2: Thank god. Hey, there's all sorts of stuff going on.
Speaker 2: Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story
Speaker 2: with Katie Green, Katie Well with USA today to begin.
Speaker 5: Inflation eased to a four year low in April as
Speaker 5: Trump's tariffs took effect.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, four year low on inflation like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't see any reason it shouldn't continue
Speaker 2: to stay low, honestly, go with the tariff roll back
Speaker 2: so far.
Speaker 5: From ABC, of course, you guys talked about Trump lens
Speaker 5: in Saudi Arabia for big Middle East trip.
Speaker 3: He's not going to Israel though.
Speaker 2: No, there are signs of a little several signs of
Speaker 2: a little discomfort between the US and Israel, some space
Speaker 2: between us. But the Israelis said the other day, Hey,
Speaker 2: we're not lockstep. Sometimes when you tango, you step on
Speaker 2: each other's toes.
Speaker 3: That's fine.
Speaker 2: I didn't know the tango was so big in Israel,
Speaker 2: but that's what the guy said. I thought they did
Speaker 2: the more of the haven the thing.
Speaker 3: But whatever.
Speaker 5: From Fox News, Colorado Capital, female staffers fear retaliation after
Speaker 5: filing bathroom complaint against transgender AID.
Speaker 3: Oh really gotta do it in their bathroom.
Speaker 2: They don't like it. Boiling that down if you're not
Speaker 2: hip on the modern lingo from the Washington Post.
Speaker 5: From Elephants to inline skates, a history of foreign gifts
Speaker 5: given to presidents.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's in the first time. Who got an elephant? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Wow, who gave who an elephant? When I need the
Speaker 1: details on that, I'll look into that story, Katie.
Speaker 3: That's up the.
Speaker 2: Elephant wearing the inlinees case. Now you've got something exactly
Speaker 2: a roller blading elephants.
Speaker 3: Somebody gave Harding a roller skating.
Speaker 5: Elephant from Axios.
Speaker 3: There is no there.
Speaker 2: It is skating on buy.
Speaker 5: From Axios exclusive. As new book says Biden Aids discussed
Speaker 5: wheelchair use if he were re elected.
Speaker 2: Wow, apparently that's in Tapper's book. Really Yeah, yeah, well
Speaker 2: that's not surprised given his decreasingly you know, ambulance or
Speaker 2: he show.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: From the New York Post, rfkge Junior takes a dip
Speaker 5: in DC Creek, known.
Speaker 3: For high levels of fecal bacteria.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that seemed like marka Pope again.
Speaker 3: It seemed like a hit piece on RFKA Junior when
Speaker 3: I read it yesterday.
Speaker 5: Right from the Wall Street Journal, United Airlines adds caviar
Speaker 5: service and Jammys in race for super premium travelers.
Speaker 3: There you go, they're gonna give you pgs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is for their Polaris studio suites that they
Speaker 5: have and can just wear something comfy.
Speaker 2: Where am I changing in this scenario? I guess do
Speaker 2: they have like little suites?
Speaker 3: Wow? Interesting.
Speaker 5: Caveon from study fines this ping pong playing robot can
Speaker 5: return balls with precision at thirty one miles per hour.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: That seems like a lot a ping pong robot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what have time to be alive? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be kind of fun though, if you know
Speaker 2: you had nobody to play with him. You want to
Speaker 2: keep your game in shape until.
Speaker 5: It keeps kicking your ass because it can hit the ball.
Speaker 2: At your thirty one miles per hour.
Speaker 3: You surely you would have settings.
Speaker 1: You put that us, You put that on top of
Speaker 1: a roller skating elephant, and your life is complete.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there's no reason to get up in the morning.
Speaker 3: You've seen it all.
Speaker 2: There, he's doing another lap around the studios.
Speaker 5: From Newsweek, study warns that psychopaths are more attractive.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 5: Said something about someone who is a narcissist makes them
Speaker 5: look more trustworthy.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, yeah, that's troubling. I'd like to know more
Speaker 2: about that. Perhaps you could bring that to us later.
Speaker 5: That's odd and finally from the Babylon be Trump accepts
Speaker 5: generous gift of him curial class start Destroyer from Emperor Palpatine.
Speaker 1: I think they're trying to make a point there. Star
Speaker 1: Wars person, is that a Star Wars reference? That's the
Speaker 1: the the evil evil list of the evil. That's the
Speaker 1: head evil guy. You don't want to be ensnared in
Speaker 1: his web of deceit.
Speaker 5: And it was Reagan that got the roller skating elephant,
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, just the elephant.
Speaker 3: Elephant? And who gave it to him?
Speaker 5: Do we know this presented to him by a President
Speaker 5: Jawar Regene of Sri Lanka.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, you say that. I kind of remember it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it lived, it slept in the Lincoln bedroom there for.
Speaker 2: Several hours, questioning the accuracy of that report.
Speaker 1: Was it some sort of a gift of the people's
Speaker 1: because one of those they go straight to a zoo,
Speaker 1: one of those.
Speaker 2: Kind of yeah, yeah, like the pander Bears.
Speaker 1: So that girl that PDD Combs had by the hair
Speaker 1: and was dragging down the hallway, and the video everybody's
Speaker 1: seenes she is going to testify, it looks like and
Speaker 1: she's got some pretty disgusting things.
Speaker 3: She's going to testify too.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I want to say him
Speaker 1: on the air, but if she does testify, that's going
Speaker 1: to be the trial. I don't know if there's any
Speaker 1: bouncing back from that, among other things we have to
Speaker 1: tell you about today.
Speaker 3: I hope you can stick around. If you miss the
Speaker 3: SEC we get.
Speaker 2: The podcast Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 6: I think Trump is setting up a two front strategy.
Speaker 6: You've got the oil leverage in the Middle East, the
Speaker 6: economic leverage on China, so expect Trump to look down
Speaker 6: to his Middle East partners with the tech and the
Speaker 6: arms and those trade deals to freeze China out of
Speaker 6: the region.
Speaker 2: So Trump is on the road in the Middle East
Speaker 2: to cutting all sorts of deals and managing all sorts
Speaker 2: of interesting relationships.
Speaker 3: I would like.
Speaker 2: To take a few minutes to kick the Kataris at
Speaker 2: some point during the show today, as they have unholy
Speaker 2: influence in the US, particularly in our college campuses, and
Speaker 2: I would like to talk about that. But and a
Speaker 2: completely different topic. First of all, this preamble disclaimer, it's
Speaker 2: more disclaimer. We usually don't talk much about the big
Speaker 2: budget bills as they're taking shape. No budget conciliate reconciliation,
Speaker 2: grand compromise stuff. For a couple of reasons. Number one
Speaker 2: a strategic reason. When you go into any depth of
Speaker 2: these things, people's eyes glaze over. They quickly become bored,
Speaker 2: and our strategy is to have listeners, and so it
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like a great idea to drown you in that.
Speaker 2: The second is a more practical concern. They change so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always talking about what actually gets past is interesting,
Speaker 1: but all of the hypotheticals leading up to it are
Speaker 1: mostly wasted air. Well, right exactly.
Speaker 2: If you're some budget wonk policy wonk inside the Beltway
Speaker 2: and this is what you do for a living, that's fine.
Speaker 2: It's like I will talk about April baseball games with
Speaker 2: you just because I really like baseball, but they don't
Speaker 2: really matter that much to who's going to win the
Speaker 2: World Series anyway. Having said that, there are some really
Speaker 2: interesting trends going on right now, and they're not super great.
Speaker 2: I'm going to hit you with a handful of headlines
Speaker 2: then get to a piece. Ron Johnson, one of the
Speaker 2: real fiscal conservatives in America, wrote headline number one, Alicia Finley,
Speaker 2: the great editorialist welfare as we know it is back,
Speaker 2: and it's bipartisan. It's the Clinton years in reverse. Democrats
Speaker 2: and some Republicans refuse to reform Medicaid. Combination of swing
Speaker 2: state folks and Republicans sensitive to how easy it is
Speaker 2: to demagogue people losing their health insurance, even if it's
Speaker 2: a healthy, working age male who's getting unholy subsidies from
Speaker 2: the federal government.
Speaker 1: More on that another time. There's another heavy meet the
Speaker 1: press on Sunday. They had the governor of New Mexico
Speaker 1: on in New Mexico, for whatever reason, has the highest
Speaker 1: percentage of people on Medicaid apparently, and so they had
Speaker 1: the governor on there and lots of sad stories about
Speaker 1: people that would lose this or that if the Republican
Speaker 1: plan went through.
Speaker 3: So that's the sort of demagoguing you're talking about.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And if you pull that sort of stuff,
Speaker 2: it's so easy to get people convinced that, oh, oh,
Speaker 2: I heard the Republicans are cutting taxes on the rich
Speaker 2: and canceling poor people's insurance. I mean, it's just so
Speaker 2: easy to sell that to low information.
Speaker 3: It's funny. I've never reacted that way to those stories,
Speaker 3: even when I was poor. No, I don't neither.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I've just always been get
Speaker 1: a job with healthcare like everybody else.
Speaker 2: Then there's this from the Wall Street Journal editorial Board,
Speaker 2: the case for fixing food Stamps. Its work requirement is evaded,
Speaker 2: and states don't share its costs, and it's wildly out
Speaker 2: of control. More than forty one million Americans are on
Speaker 2: food Stamps. Forty one million. The program long ago seems
Speaker 2: to be temporary help for those who fall on hard times.
Speaker 2: Enrollment doesn't shrink in strong economies, and the roles include
Speaker 2: millions of adults who can work. The program is contributing
Speaker 2: to one of America's most pressing social ailments, Prime age
Speaker 2: men attenuated from work. That's not a word, I use
Speaker 2: that much kept away from working or induced to not work.
Speaker 2: And it's a tendant to disciplines and contributions to society.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a huge challenge with working age
Speaker 2: men who don't work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I just has been growing our entire lives.
Speaker 1: I suppose people who are willing to gain the system
Speaker 1: will realize, well, there's money out there to grab in
Speaker 1: a variety of ways. If I'm willing to make this
Speaker 1: claim or that claim. So yesterday we did the big
Speaker 1: sixty minute story from Sunday night that there was a
Speaker 1: trillion dollars of theft of COVID relief money, a trillion dollars,
Speaker 1: and the number one text reply we got, uz, why
Speaker 1: didn't I figure out a way to get some of
Speaker 1: that at some point?
Speaker 3: That's what you think. I thought the same thing I thought, Geez.
Speaker 1: I should have claimed I was a business in Florida
Speaker 1: and just sending the paperwork and see if I could
Speaker 1: have grabbed one hundred thousand dollars or something. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no kidding, I'm not a thief, but I mean if
Speaker 1: a trillion dollars a taxpayer money is going out the door,
Speaker 1: you know, it reminds me of the situation that you
Speaker 1: have in like former Soviet socialist republics Russia, obviously in
Speaker 1: Ukraine and will name them, or like in Afghanistan, places
Speaker 1: in the Middle East where Americans say, look, there's so
Speaker 1: much corruption, and the locals say, we don't.
Speaker 3: Call it corruption.
Speaker 2: We have a different word for it, like in the
Speaker 2: Middle East or Afghanistan is bakshish. It's the fee you
Speaker 2: pay to get things done, and they don't see it
Speaker 2: as corruption. At all.
Speaker 3: They just see that as a way of life.
Speaker 2: And if you were living in the Soviet Union, you know,
Speaker 2: you might have had derogatory words for the way you
Speaker 2: get ahead by bribing Communist party officials are getting to know,
Speaker 2: or your uncle is the guy, or whatever. But that's
Speaker 2: just the way you run your life. And I worry
Speaker 2: we're getting closer to that in this country where people
Speaker 2: think all my neighbors are scamming the system and they
Speaker 2: have a better life than me. I'm getting in on it, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that would be a bad tipping point. I don't
Speaker 2: know if we're already at it, but anyway, I could
Speaker 2: howl about the food stamps program and how it's feeding healthy,
Speaker 2: working age people, but I'll move along.
Speaker 1: If you're an a shame, That's what I've been talking
Speaker 1: about forever. You should be ashamed of yourself if you're
Speaker 1: grabbing food stamps and you're an able bodied man, ashamed
Speaker 1: of yourself.
Speaker 2: Shamed ring a bell baby, show it out.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: This editorial have medicaid courage Republicans. The politics of reform
Speaker 2: isn't nearly as dangerous as some of them think. And
Speaker 2: again they point out that the Feds currently pick up
Speaker 2: ninety percent of the bill for able bodied adults eligible
Speaker 2: under the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare's expansion, but the federal
Speaker 2: share is a tiny fraction of that for like a pregnant,
Speaker 2: poverty stricken lady. So Obamacare distorted what medicaid is wildly.
Speaker 2: And then the states play these games, and I wish,
Speaker 2: you know, there's part of me that would like to
Speaker 2: describe them to you, because you get an idea of
Speaker 2: how crooked our system is. But like the states, they
Speaker 2: put all these people on Medicaid, and then they charge
Speaker 2: these taxes to hospitals and healthcare providers that then beefs
Speaker 2: up how much money the state is spending. But then
Speaker 2: they get that back from the Fed, and then they
Speaker 2: give it back to the hospitals who know what's going
Speaker 2: on and wink and nod because it's all induced to
Speaker 2: get more federal money going. It's it's just a you
Speaker 2: want to talk about corruption, good lord, And the Wall
Speaker 2: Street journal is trying to convince the Republicans, guys, you
Speaker 2: gotta do something about this, but the Republicans are afraid anyway.
Speaker 2: That brings us to the main point, which is a
Speaker 2: piece by Ron Johnson, the ugly truth.
Speaker 3: About the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2: Year after year, I'm sorry, years after COVID, the overspending
Speaker 2: continues even with the Republican Congress. The one big beautiful
Speaker 2: bill the Congress is working on is certainly big, but
Speaker 2: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Too often,
Speaker 2: the reality these budget debates gets obscured in details, politically
Speaker 2: charged issues in demagogurey. Let me attempt to clarify the
Speaker 2: current discussion by focusing on the most important facts in numbers.
Speaker 2: In fiscal twenty nineteen, federal outlays total four point four
Speaker 2: to five trillion, or almost twenty one percent of gross
Speaker 2: domestic product. This year, according to the CBO's report, total
Speaker 2: outlays will.
Speaker 3: Be seven point oh three trillion.
Speaker 2: Why that's more than two and a half trillion dollars
Speaker 2: more than twenty nineteen, a growth of almost fifty percent,
Speaker 2: and gone from almost twenty one percent of gross domestic
Speaker 2: product to over twenty three percent of it. That's a
Speaker 2: fifty eight percent increase over six years.
Speaker 3: Well, the country doubled in size, so good lord.
Speaker 2: The CBO projects federal outlays will total There are so
Speaker 2: many numbers here, here's where we get into the glazing eyes.
Speaker 3: But this is important.
Speaker 2: The CBO projects federal outlays will total eighty nine trillion
Speaker 2: dollars across fiscal twenty six to thirty five. Much of
Speaker 2: the blame goes to pandemic spending, but lockdowns are long over.
Speaker 2: There's nothing now to justify this abnormal level of government spending. Pathetically,
Speaker 2: Congress is having a hard time agreeing on a reduction
Speaker 2: of even one and a half trillion dollars from that
Speaker 2: ten year amount. That's a one point six to eight
Speaker 2: percent cut, a little more than a rounding error. My
Speaker 2: guess is that much of that minuscule decrease will be
Speaker 2: backloaded to the end of the ten years for which
Speaker 2: Congress is now budgeting, increasing the probability that those savings
Speaker 2: will never be realized. There are a handful of Ron
Speaker 2: Johnson's and Chip Roy's and guys like that who are
Speaker 2: being pushed to the edges of the Republican Party. And
Speaker 2: I think they ought to be our heroes. I think
Speaker 2: they ought to be the guiding lights the north stars,
Speaker 2: and I just am starting to lose hope.
Speaker 1: Well, how would you not, I mean, from twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: to this year, We've gone from four point four or
Speaker 1: five trillion to seven point h three trillion with roughly
Speaker 1: the same population of people. So I mean, explain why
Speaker 1: that's necessary.
Speaker 2: Well, right, And once the program has started, it just
Speaker 2: doesn't go away because they're cutting look ato one armed
Speaker 2: dimish farmers, the a that they depend on to feed
Speaker 2: their children. I mean, it's just it's so nakedly obvious
Speaker 2: a scam that DC wants more power, which means more money.
Speaker 2: They will come up with any rationale for it. They
Speaker 2: will call a giant green energy new Deal, the Inflation
Speaker 2: Reduction Act, and guff faw as it echoes down the
Speaker 2: halls of Congress, just the laughter. And then because it
Speaker 2: appeared once upon a time, those those spending levels must continue.
Speaker 2: Otherwise you're you're yanking chicken soap out of the mouth
Speaker 2: of blind little girls in America votes for it. So
Speaker 2: I know, I give up a monarchy now.
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 2: You know what Trump is over there in the Middle
Speaker 2: East is learning how monarchies work, because that's.
Speaker 3: Our only hope.
Speaker 1: And neither party even pretends anymore to care really, and
Speaker 1: and the public demands that one dollar ninety cents worth
Speaker 1: of government for the price of a dollar and is
Speaker 1: willing to borrow against it. Yeah, it's it's a it's frustrating, it's.
Speaker 2: Very very Has anybody still got their tea party hats
Speaker 2: and T shirts and placards and stuff? Can we fire
Speaker 2: that up again? And then the media will say it's
Speaker 2: about race again. That'll be tougher to call. Well, it's
Speaker 2: Hakeem Jeffries is the minority leader of the House and
Speaker 2: these crazy white people.
Speaker 3: Are against him, so clearly it's racism.
Speaker 1: If you're an NBA fan, everything changed last night. Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the league from the
Speaker 1: defending champs, went down. He may never play again, certainly
Speaker 1: probably not going to play next year, let alone this year.
Speaker 1: So everything's up in the air in the NBA right now.
Speaker 2: That's the Dallas Mavericks, who made what may be the
Speaker 2: worst trade in the history of sports, got bailed out
Speaker 2: by an incredibly unlikely pulling of the ping pong ball,
Speaker 2: and they get the number one pick in the draft
Speaker 2: and get that gifted bmth from.
Speaker 3: Duke Yeah yeah, what's his face? Yeah?
Speaker 1: God, I can't imagine what it's like to be twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old in the peak of your career. I
Speaker 1: meany you're young, godly rich, but then to have an
Speaker 1: injury that might all be over, that'd be hard to
Speaker 1: wrap around your head.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 1: It's a wide open season, now, wide open playoffs. Now
Speaker 1: we got mail bag on the way. Hope you can
Speaker 1: stay here. One of the Shark Tank guys takes his
Speaker 1: puts both fists. I'm sorry, I'm trying to read and
Speaker 1: talk at the same time.
Speaker 2: One of the Shark Tank guys beats the hell out
Speaker 2: of China for the trade policies and says they're the
Speaker 2: tariffs against them ought to be four hundred percent plus.
Speaker 2: Cutter is trying to win the hearts and minds of
Speaker 2: your children by turning them into Islamists. So more on
Speaker 2: that to come next hour. I hope you can stay around. First,
Speaker 2: your freedom loving quote of the day. I absolutely love
Speaker 2: this from legendary sci fi author Robert Heinlein, who I
Speaker 2: read avidly as a youth. I am free because I
Speaker 2: know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Speaker 2: I am free no matter what rules surround me. If
Speaker 2: I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. If I find
Speaker 2: them too obnoxious, I break them. I'm free because I
Speaker 2: know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Speaker 2: Like that, just have to be willing to take the repercussions.
Speaker 2: As we've discussed many times, the brave little would be
Speaker 2: Chay Guavera's at our nation's universities who like to chant
Speaker 2: and commit nets of civil disobedience and vandalize and block
Speaker 2: Jewish students from going to class. Then when you arrest them,
Speaker 2: they squeal like hurt little children, say you're hurting my wrists. Mommy, mommy.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Oh, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: Mailbag perups note mail bag at Armstrong and getty dot com.
Speaker 3: I want to get this one in from Poolo.
Speaker 2: Guys, you're talking about is there some sort of unified
Speaker 2: explanation for all that troubles us these days? We're talking about,
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's anxiety and depression and weird sexual
Speaker 2: stuff and incumbents being thrown out of office and the established
Speaker 2: political parties losing power and just there seems to be
Speaker 2: a global angst and dissatisfaction anyway, Powell says.
Speaker 3: Polo says, I.
Speaker 2: Honestly don't know what it is, but I always enjoy
Speaker 2: theorizing i e.
Speaker 3: Making stuff up.
Speaker 2: So I think we're changing our environment much faster, and
Speaker 2: we're able to change ourselves right now. I don't think
Speaker 2: any species has ever done that. If humans expect to
Speaker 2: live satisfying lives into the future, we'll need to radically
Speaker 2: modify what it is that gives meaning and satisfaction to
Speaker 2: our lives. For example, much, if not all, of the
Speaker 2: work we do now will eventually become unnecessary. That should
Speaker 2: be a good thing, not a bad thing. The reason
Speaker 2: we get satisfaction from doing work is that it's been
Speaker 2: necessary for us to thrive. Feeling rewarded for doing that
Speaker 2: work is an important survival mechanism. In the future, of
Speaker 2: very different things will be important to us. It's up
Speaker 2: to us to learn to derive the same or even
Speaker 2: greater satisfaction from these new things. If we can't do that,
Speaker 2: maybe the human race just doesn't cut out for the
Speaker 2: long haul, and then we have, of course, Katie, the
Speaker 2: planet of the beavers. Here's the problem, though, You can't
Speaker 2: will yourself to have different fundamental primal urges. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're the beast that we are because of millions of
Speaker 2: years of experience and evolution. I don't think you can
Speaker 2: just will yourself as an average working guy or girl
Speaker 2: all of a sudden not need a life of purpose
Speaker 2: and just write like groovy poetry and lay around and
Speaker 2: feel good about that and amuse yourself.
Speaker 5: I feel like that's making an excuse for giving up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's well, yeah, but if there's no point
Speaker 2: in working, there's no need to or what have you.
Speaker 2: I don't. Yeah, Paolo, I wish you were right. I
Speaker 2: wish you could will yourself to do that. Let's see,
Speaker 2: you got this from Brad. Your coverage of the teriff
Speaker 2: issues have been mostly terrible. You continue to not discuss
Speaker 2: the impact of these tariffs on small business. The explains
Speaker 2: how no small business can handle that kind of price
Speaker 2: shock on stuff they've already ordered. In addition, lead times
Speaker 2: are weeks and months.
Speaker 1: These changes can't be fixed because Trump played golf is
Speaker 1: chesion ping. These changes are devastating two thousands of business, says.
Speaker 1: You always say you stand up for the little man,
Speaker 1: but only the large corporations had any reasonable way to
Speaker 1: mitigate these drives to consudden changes. Shame, shame, shame. He
Speaker 1: hits us with a triple shame. I wrote back to him, We've.
Speaker 2: Talked about that specific aspect of this many times. But
Speaker 2: thanks for your hysterical shaming. Nonetheless, best wishous. Yeah, we've
Speaker 2: talked about that a bunch.
Speaker 5: I was just gonna say, you've covered the hell out
Speaker 5: of that.
Speaker 2: We've covered how tariffs become a cesspool of swampy lobbying, yea,
Speaker 2: And how favorites get picked and winners and losers are
Speaker 2: chosen by government and how that's that's awful in a
Speaker 2: what ought to be a free ish market.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But you know what, Brad, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe A, if you're gonna come at us with that
Speaker 2: sort of you know, tears running down your cheeks shaming, A,
Speaker 2: you got to listen to every minute of the show,
Speaker 2: and B you've got to.
Speaker 3: Like take detailed notes.
Speaker 2: I can't remember what we talked about last hour, you know.
Speaker 2: It's so yeah, Wow, ease up, brother, that was a beating. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he triple shamed us. Let's see. Kelly writes the plane
Speaker 2: is a trojan horse. Obviously it's something like that. Beware
Speaker 2: a Katari's bearing gifts more to come. Stay with us
Speaker 2: if you can't subscribe to the podcast Armstrong and Getty
Speaker 2: on demand armstrong and Getty