Speaker 1: So here's an interesting coink heat ink. We were just
Speaker 1: talking about the messaging by the White House and how
Speaker 1: it is that you've got these headlines going around time magazine.
Speaker 1: Trump gave Americans a massive tax cut. Few are noticing.
Speaker 1: The New York Times face it, you probably got a
Speaker 1: giant tax cut, um and the realization that the vast
Speaker 1: majority of people got tax cuts, but the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people think they didn't. Write would how how does
Speaker 1: the how does the White House not fix that messaging?
Speaker 1: Earlier I would put out that both of those outlets
Speaker 1: are distinctly left leaning, and and it's got to be
Speaker 1: so clear a case, uh, for them to say something
Speaker 1: like that that it's a hell of a clear case.
Speaker 1: It's not like one of the subtleties of immigration or
Speaker 1: something that this will encourage immigration. Well some believe it will.
Speaker 1: Just know it's it's just black and white. And they,
Speaker 1: you know, had to come out as strongly as they did.
Speaker 1: I think that's really notable, uh, to discuss that, and
Speaker 1: and in similar topics. Please welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: Deborah J. Saunders, the White House correspondent for the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Review Journal. Deborah, how are you? I'm great. How
Speaker 1: are you doing? We're fining dandy? Really? Um So, let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about White House messaging. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you want to get all editorialists um as as we've been,
Speaker 1: I think Donald J. Is enormously talented at certain aspects
Speaker 1: of men of messaging. But in general, the White House
Speaker 1: shop has done not a great job. And let me
Speaker 1: hit you with a couple of numbers real quick to
Speaker 1: make the point. For people who make between fifty and
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars a year, that's kind of like
Speaker 1: right in the wheelhouse. For a lot of the country,
Speaker 1: eighty two percent got a tax cut. Only forty one
Speaker 1: think they got a tax cut. Half for people making
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand to a hundred thousand, almost of those
Speaker 1: people got a tax cut. Only forty scent of people
Speaker 1: think they got a tax cuts. Astonishing. It is astonishing.
Speaker 1: And why would that be. Well, you know that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump told people that they get tax cuts. But he's
Speaker 1: not always the most credible person, right So, even though
Speaker 1: he has sent this message out and even though they
Speaker 1: were really clear about it, I think people tend to
Speaker 1: be skeptical about many things that he says. For certain reasons. Um.
Speaker 1: Another thing is that the number of Democrats kept saying
Speaker 1: that it was just a tax cut for the very rich.
Speaker 1: And it was a tax cut for the very rich.
Speaker 1: It was just a tax cut for practically everybody though,
Speaker 1: so uh and so there were think tanks that were
Speaker 1: sort of sending out misinformation, if you will, about the
Speaker 1: early versions of it, and uh. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know what they pay for taxes. They changed
Speaker 1: the withholding tables, so you're not getting a bigger refund
Speaker 1: than you would have gotten before because you're paying less
Speaker 1: every week, and so people are clueless about it. And
Speaker 1: it's just this sort of uh. And it was great
Speaker 1: to say. The New York Times run a story about it,
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump, when he was in Minnesota yesterday, actually
Speaker 1: read the headline face it you probably got a tax cut,
Speaker 1: And you know, he would joked about how these people
Speaker 1: are going to get fired, but they were reporting on
Speaker 1: something that's true and people don't know. But but I
Speaker 1: think it would help that Trump and I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying that a lot of people don't don't believe him,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people do. I mean, he's got
Speaker 1: around fifty approval writing, you would think he could get
Speaker 1: those numbers up a little higher on that they think
Speaker 1: they got a tax cut stuff. If I were him,
Speaker 1: might tweet out that New York Times article every day
Speaker 1: this week. Yeah, I mean, and it would probably get
Speaker 1: lost in an avalanche of other tweets. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: if he would stop tweeting about if he would stop
Speaker 1: tweeting about how the firefighters ought to take on the
Speaker 1: Notre Dame Cathedral, I mean, stay out of that issue.
Speaker 1: But he tass this way of exaggerating. So when he
Speaker 1: says this, I think a lot of people are like,
Speaker 1: uh huh is there. He's just not the most credible,
Speaker 1: credible salesperson. Even so he actually has to turn to
Speaker 1: The New York Times to prove that what he's been
Speaker 1: saying about the tax cut is true. That would be
Speaker 1: an unfortunate aspect of his proclivity for hyperbole. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: That's true. It's a little boy cried wolfish. Yeah. Deborah J. Saunders,
Speaker 1: White House correspondent for the Las Vegas Review Journalist Online. So, Deborah,
Speaker 1: who is the messaging guru in the White House? Is
Speaker 1: there one? It's Donald Trump? Right? I mean, how many
Speaker 1: briefings have we had this year. I think too, the
Speaker 1: Press Secretary of Sarah Sanders is not really the face
Speaker 1: of the administration for the press corps anymore. It's Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump in pool sprays, sitting in the Oval Office,
Speaker 1: having reporters shot questions to him, walking to Marine One,
Speaker 1: making stray comments during rallies and roundtables. That that's where
Speaker 1: the message all comes from. And it can be garbled
Speaker 1: at times. And uh, I mean we just don't have
Speaker 1: Uh it's there are no public events scheduled today in
Speaker 1: the White House. Um. And when you know, and when
Speaker 1: we do have contact with the White House, and we
Speaker 1: are I mean we asked questions of the Press Office
Speaker 1: all the time. We frequently get answers, not always. I
Speaker 1: mean we know that they are not the highest step
Speaker 1: place in the world. Um. But I Trump wants to
Speaker 1: be the person who says everything. Okay, fine, But if
Speaker 1: I'm if I'm Donald Trump, the day after Tax Day
Speaker 1: or yesterday would have been even better. I'm hammering these
Speaker 1: numbers from the New York Times all day, day long
Speaker 1: until people are sick of it. And they can't they
Speaker 1: can't ignore it in their news coverage. I Mean, here's
Speaker 1: another one for people who make more than a thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year, households that make more than a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, which is the case for a
Speaker 1: lot of people in uh and and a lot of
Speaker 1: the cities were on in eighty nine point five percent
Speaker 1: of them got a tax cut. Only feel like they
Speaker 1: think they got a tax again consistently half that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Even a lot of people feel that because of the
Speaker 1: fact that state and local taxes are are not deductible
Speaker 1: as they had been before, that that means that they
Speaker 1: got a tax hike. But it's not necessarily true because
Speaker 1: the rates were lowered all these other things happened. So
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people who may think they're
Speaker 1: paying higher taxes and they're just long, and they really
Speaker 1: ought to be paying attention, and they have to be
Speaker 1: looking at their pay stumps, and they ought to have
Speaker 1: a better idea of what they're paying that they don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. And and griping is more common in terms
Speaker 1: of conversation than than shouting hallelujah. It's just the way
Speaker 1: human beings are made. The number that came out of
Speaker 1: Bernie's taxes yesterday, his his twenty six effective tax rate.
Speaker 1: Everybody should know their number that maybe I'd like to
Speaker 1: pass a law or the I R. S. Has to
Speaker 1: put that out. I don't have the slightest idea what
Speaker 1: mine is. I don't. I don't either. Everybody ought to
Speaker 1: know their number, and that would help a lot. Did
Speaker 1: my number go? Yeah, I've forgotten it changes because I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you pay a certain percentage on the on the
Speaker 1: first let's say your income, and then and then it
Speaker 1: goes up, so there isn't one exact number. Also, another
Speaker 1: wonderful thing about our tax system, right right, our bizarro
Speaker 1: tax system. Well, you know, just one final thought on
Speaker 1: the White House messaging thing, you know, the the seat
Speaker 1: of the pants not slick practiced politico speak, um aspect
Speaker 1: of it is really appealing to a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a substantial part of what got Trump elected,
Speaker 1: I think. But in the kind of music I really
Speaker 1: like and I like to play. Uh, there's a phrase
Speaker 1: ragged but right um, And I just sometimes I think
Speaker 1: the White House messaging is is mostly ragged. Uh. Deborah J. Saunders,
Speaker 1: White House correspondent, Las Vegas Review Journal. It's always great
Speaker 1: to talk, Debrah go get him. Thank you all right,
Speaker 1: see you later. Uh. Yeah, there's a law I would pass.
Speaker 1: I think it could change taxes overnight. Maybe if if
Speaker 1: everybody knew their number for the year, their effective tax rate.
Speaker 1: Do the average of all your taxes you're paid. However,
Speaker 1: they came up with Bernie's number from yesterday, do that
Speaker 1: for everyone, and uh and know what it is. We
Speaker 1: should know that, like our cholesterol or our blood pressure
Speaker 1: or weight. Right, I think we gotta come up with
Speaker 1: five numbers. You gotta know five numbers. That's several of
Speaker 1: them right there. Oh. I like I know my height.
Speaker 1: I've known that for quite sometimes probably truck and you're
Speaker 1: going under underpasses. You don't need to know your height.
Speaker 1: That's that's dumb. Bad number. Blood pressure, that's a big one.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how often I have to write down my height. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no kidding. It comes up a lot. That is interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if I committed a crime, am I in
Speaker 1: a lineup? Is the cops looking for who cares? And
Speaker 1: my five nine and my five eleven? Who cares?