Best of the Program | Guests: Peter St Onge & Tina Descovich | 11/12/24
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On today's Best of the Podcast, we just had a sexy, sexy hour. I mean, talking about tax rates and tariffs. Oh, yeah. We talked tariffs with a Frenchman, and you know how sexy that can get. It's actually a fascinating hour. Learned a lot and actually...

Well, Stu and I disagree on how optimistic we should be on this. Surprisingly, I'm the optimistic one. So don't miss a second of it. This is the best of podcast.

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You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Let's say hello to Stu here. Very well, Glenn. Exciting things happening. Exciting things, right? Yeah. I mean, shutting down the Department of Education. Now, you don't believe that.

Well, I mean, I don't, I'm skeptical whether it will actually occur. I am excited about the prospect of a president who actually wants it to happen. I feel like it's been, we haven't heard that really since Reagan. So I'm excited about that. But of course, Reagan famously did not actually achieve this goal. Of course, Reagan also said that he was going to make Jerusalem a

Right. Exactly. And he didn't do that. I will also say one of the central parts of education policy for Republicans for as long as I've been aware of politics have been the idea of school choice. And nothing ever happened until the past couple of years.

Right. Like now we've come further on school choice than at any other point in my lifetime. I'm really excited about that. I think his his appointments around this area will be really interesting. So here's what he has said. First, let's start with his plan to overhaul leftist colleges. Cut five tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding. And I mean, absolutely exploding colleges.

while academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America's youth. The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left, and we will do that. Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system. It's called accreditation for a reason.

The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers, but they have failed totally. When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs, and lunatics. We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all.

These standards will include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs incredibly,

removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low-cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth.

Furthermore, I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination and schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed,

But through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment. Oh, my. A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal activities.

and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly. Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hard-working taxpayers and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all. We are going to have real education in America. Oh yeah. Again, we need some porn music for this stuff. I mean, this is just, oh, say it again, Donald.

That is a very, very clear, I think. Yes. The clearest I have, I've heard him and the most passionate that I have heard him. These are not campaign promises. He doesn't need to make these promises anymore. These are, here's what we're doing right now. Included in that, that whole rant is this. Cut four, please.

And one other thing I'll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children because they'll do a much better job of it. You can't do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation.

And yet we're absolutely at the bottom. We're one of the worst. So you can't do worse. We're going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C. We're going to close it up. All those buildings all over the place. And you have people that in many cases hate our children. We're going to send it all back to the states again. Oh, yeah. Love that. I think that is really exciting. Now.

Do you think he won't do it or do you think he won't be able to do it? I mean, I hope that it would happen. But I mean, if you're focusing on the natural levels of pessimism that I have when it comes to anything going on in Washington. You're a little black rain cloud. Well, look, I'm trying to be realistic here. But I think that there is, I think he,

It's interesting because Trump, when he puts his mind to it, he can accomplish anything. But there are certain things that he says that are...

Things I think he likes and wants, but aren't central focuses of his life. For example, we know the border is. There's no question he's going to do stuff on the border. Another example I would use would be term limits. He talked often in speeches about term limits in 2016 and 2017. I think you... Wait, wait, wait. Hang on just a second. I think to compare Donald Trump's 2016 version...

You're looking at a new 2.9 version of Donald Trump, almost a 3.0. He's not the same guy. It's true. It's not even a criticism of him, though. It's just like when you have, you can only focus on so many things. You can only get so many things done.

Maybe he's going to come up with a whole new way to do it. Maybe he's putting all these people in, you know, that are going to be able to kind of shepherd these things so he doesn't have to focus on them all the time. Now, that is... But you're Bully Pulpick. You really can only push for one or two things at a time. Mm-hmm.

I don't know. I find these videos that he's putting out to be almost like a fireside chat. And he's putting them out for a reason. Have you ever seen a president do this as president elect? No, I like it. I love this. I like it. I love this. And he's putting these out one after another after another because he is preparing the Washington swamp and America for

These are massive changes coming our way, and we're going to need your support. And he has told me, I've got to do all of this in 100 days, Glenn. I've got 100 days to do it. He's right on that. That's the way he should be thinking. But it's a lot to do. It is. But do you remember that first bill that Barack Obama put in that we looked at? It was one of the first health care bills. It was TARP, and then there was...

There was something else. And remember, we stimulus plan, wasn't it? Stimulus plan. That's $780 billion. Yeah. And it was like 2000 pages. And we went through it. Paper. I printed it and said, somebody, I didn't know how long it was. Would you print this up? Let me read this. And it was sitting on our kitchen table in our studios in New York City. Remember? Mm-hmm.

And I looked at that and I went, this is not about stimulus. This is about fundamental transformation. Okay. And they just loaded that bill with everything. The reason why I bring that up is because that showed to me that they did something we never did. And that is plot the entire course.

They knew exactly what they wanted to do. And they never told us. Donald Trump is the first one that I'm seeing doing this. He didn't even do this in 16. He made promises in 16. And he believes in keeping promises. But he didn't get everything done. He has the Congress and the Senate right now. He can make the right appointments right now. If he fails to make the right appointments...

That's going to be a problem because if he has any internal fighting, they are going to unleash on him. Yeah, I think that's true. And if he has anybody on his own side fighting against him,

Which he did have last time. Definitely did, yes. There's a mandate here. And the Republicans should be reminded of that. And he should not put anybody in any position that doesn't understand MAGA. This is where we're going. This truly is fundamental transformation. This is a reset.

back to the constitution in as many ways that i have ever seen this is as impactful as what fdr did in the opposite direction in 12 years hmm it's interesting it's interesting because part and let me i'm playing devil's advocate here because i'm i have the same level of of hope uh here for what might happen but i want you to know though um i don't hope i believe i know

I believe I know. In talking to him, he's not the same guy. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying he's the same guy. I'm just saying it's hard. Oh, I know that. This is a difficult thing to do. Getting rid of the Department of Education. Like, Ronald Reagan really believed that. I know that. He really did. That was not a fake thing. He talked about it for decades.

I know. Leading up to his presidency. It wasn't even one term off and he's planning like maybe Donald Trump has done here. I mean, this is what this man was known for for multiple decades. And still it was hard to do. Not double.

Not Department of Education. That was central to his talks in the 60s. No, no, no, it wasn't. The Department of Education was started by Jimmy Carter. Right. He may have made... Yes. Yes. Education. The consistent policies on education. You're right. Yes, yes, yes. Sorry, I'm not being clear. But regardless of that, I have hope and optimism for what he can do. But when you're talking about...

This is somebody who's, you know, who's going to do whatever MAGA thing he, I mean, his appointments so far have been pretty normal. It makes me nervous. Pretty, like Marco Rubio as Secretary of State is like, I mean. I wanted Richard Grinnell. Any Republican president in that field could have listed Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. It's like, I don't even think, I'm not saying it's a bad pick.

But like, it's not particularly consistent with like what I hear from the audience at times about like how against Ukraine funding they are. How against the... How against Ukraine and the WEF and the...

The United Nations? Yeah, I mean... I mean, I want somebody in the UN that wants to shut it down. I mean, and Elise Stefanik is a normie Republican pick. Yes. And I don't think that's bad. She's solid. I thought she was really, really good on a lot of things. I'm not even against either of these picks. But like... Marco Rubio, I'm borderline on.

That's a disappointing thing. And we've had Rubio on the show. We like Marco. I like Marco Rubio, but I don't want him as a Secretary of State under Donald Trump. It's interesting. I want Richard Grinnell. I want the guy who will walk in and say, hey, by the way, just got off the phone with the president. We're going to make a deal here.

Or I'm going back to tell him we don't have a deal. And instead of sending a signed deal to him, we're going to be sending aircraft your way. You know what I mean? I want somebody who's going to walk into the EU and say, you are either paying your way. What he said, he means. You're either paying your way or we're done.

I want that guy. And I'm not sure Marco Rubio is that guy. He could be. Yeah, he could. Maybe he could surprise us. And he's yeah, he's obviously I mean, he was under serious consideration for vice president. Right. At least by all the reporting. But it's just it's interesting. And I think like part of the things with Trump is this.

this is, I think consistent with him. And again, I'm not, this is not, I'm not being critical here. I'm just trying to state what I think is actually true, which is a lot of what Donald Trump says is a negotiation.

And we all know that going back to the art of the deal, right? Like, you know that. And when he says Kim Jong-un is my best friend, he doesn't mean it, right? He doesn't also mean the next day when he says we're sending, we're going to go nuke North Korea tomorrow. He doesn't mean either of those things. They're both different pieces. I think this is fascinating. I want to go through the things that he has said. And I want you to point out what you think is a negotiation.

I don't always know, but I can guess to me. We know that those two positions can't be true, though. And this is a 2016 first term reference here. But saying you're going to...

We're going to blast North Korea like you've never seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, we're great friends. I love the guy. Right. I know that. Those are two obviously... But I think there's a difference the way he deals with dictators. I think that's true. He knows because he's a private businessman who has...

bullied his way in very good negotiating ways. He has, he's used that as a businessman. He knows who these people are. Okay. And so he knows these are the things I would hate in business. And I've done them to people who think they're all that. And I always win. I think that's different.

than what he's doing on, for instance, the Department of Ed. But I think it's consistent with what you would do with Marco Rubio or Elise Stefanik. You're picking people who are maybe more hawkish than you to send a message of being hawkish, while at the same time maybe trying to implement a more, say, J.D. Vance-ish type forward policy. I don't think... Maybe, maybe. Maybe? There could be. I don't want to...

I'm going to give this man the benefit of the doubt because in 16, I didn't. And I was shocked by what he got done and what he meant. And now I really think that he means every word he says on these policies. These are scripted. These are not campaign promises. This is here's what we're going to do. So I take them literally, not just seriously, but literally. But I could be wrong.

But my only thing on some of his appointments is, what does he know that I don't know about Marco Rubio? What does he know that I don't know?

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Kind of like, you know, you should buy Bitcoin, Glenn, when it was 30 cents. Yeah, thanks a lot.

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This is the best of the Glenn Beck Program, and we really want to thank you for listening. Hello, America. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. Oh, it's about to get hot and steamy in here. No, seriously, hot and steamy. We have sexy, sexy tariff talk coming up. Yeah. Let me say it again. Tariff. Oh, yeah.

It was actually the original name for the show, working title, was Tariff Talk. But we thought it was too sexy. We thought too many people would tune in and go, I gotta hear Tariff Talk. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, we got a guy, I think his last name says everything. Peter Sainon, which I believe is French. What?

happening sexy sexy tax tariff talk from the heritage foundation of visiting fellow uh we have uh peter st onish how are you peter

I am great. I appreciate that introduction. Yes, it is that sexy. Yeah, I know. Everybody says it. Everybody says it. So without getting it too steamy in here, let's go over the tariffs because I've always been against tariffs. However, I might be wrong. Donald Trump is making a good case when he's talking about getting rid of the income tax because

Because tariffs will raise the prices of things, especially if he does it the way he's talking about doing it. But if he is getting rid of or lowering the income tax to 10%, it's such a boon for the economy that we could make up that deficit and become a very powerful nation again.

Tell me I'm wrong. That's absolutely correct. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And economists, you know, the vast majority of economists go after tariffs. They attack Trump over tariffs. And I think they are looking at the trees for the forest here, because if you replace a tariff, which is basically a sales tax, but it's one that focuses on imported goods.

If you replace that with either reducing or, you know, in our dream scenario, abolishing the entire income tax is absolutely rocket fuel for the economy. Hold on. The reason is because he just said abolish the income tax. I mean, pay attention, Sarah. This is he just said abolish income tax. Oh, yeah. All right. Go ahead. All right. Go ahead. You up the right.

The background music. So, yeah. And he actually floored in abolishing it with Joe Rogan a couple of weeks ago. You know, he had been going after, he said, no tax on tips and then no tax on overtime, no tax on first responders, no tax on social security. And it was kind of like he was really flirting with just breaking up with the income tax altogether. And when he was on there with Rogan, that's exactly what he did. He said, you know, maybe we should go back to the 1800s, 2000s.

when, you know, that was before we had an income tax. It was also before we had a Fed. And back then, the federal government had to live off tariffs. And that was the greatest period, not only of economic growth, but of cultural achievement. It is astounding what we, everything Elon Musk does was invented in the 1880s. Computers, magnetism, rockets, what's his, Hyperloop, every single thing

Came out of there. It was really the golden age of humanity. And the key there was that we did not have an income tax. We did not have a regulatory state. We did not have a Fed. So if Trump can take us back there and all we have to do is like an 8 percent sales tax on Chinese stocks, that is the deal of the century. OK, so let's go over the who pays the tariffs, American companies or the foreign country?

Interestingly, during Trump's first term, he put tariffs on China and China actually paid about 80 percent of those.

So it would issue subsidies to Chinese exporters so they could maintain market share and keep their prices low. So the Chinese government paid the tariffs. So if he does it again, he's talking about hitting China with something like 60% tariffs and then between a 10 and 20% tariff for everybody else. Now, given Trump's style, he is not going to come in and do that across the board. He's going to come in and use that as a club.

So the Europeans specifically, they act like a fortress. They are brutal to outsiders. If you want to export to Europe, they put you over a barrel. You remember a couple of years ago with Brexit, the first thing the European Union did was sat them down and said, nice economy you got here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it.

we're going to need a payment from you every single year. It is literally the mafia. They do that to Norway, Switzerland, all these countries have to fork over billions of dollars to get access to the European market. Now, imagine if we did that. Imagine if we call up Mexico or Canada. We say, hey, listen, we got this beautiful economy. You guys are selling into it. Here, why don't you write me a check for $50 billion?

To keep access exactly the Europeans do. So the first thing Trump's probably going to do, given what he did last time, is he'll call up Europe and he will do the exact same thing. He'll say, you know, I got a 20% tariff burning a hole in my pocket. I need you to do something for some some things for me.

But anyway, even if he does end up applying those to all foreigners, the Europeans are not going to cover the exporters because they're in a deep fiscal hole. They don't have the money. They're already bankrupt. They're not going to do what China did. But a lot of those tariffs, especially the ones for China, are probably going to keep getting paid by China because exports to America are what they live on. If they lose that, the game's over.

And we should not be empowering them, quite honestly. Now, here's why I have possibly turned around. I'm willing to listen to tariff talk because in my cute little head, I keep thinking that all of the...

When you have an extra $20,000 or $30,000 that you're pulling in every year, whatever it is you were paying in income tax and everything goes down that's made here in America if you're not paying that income tax.

You have a lot of extra buying power, which means most Americans will spend that and we'll grow our economy, which will put more taxes. Well, we don't have tax, so that wouldn't work. How does that how does it work when you don't have taxes? Go ahead.

So just kind of running through the numbers. So the first thing that happens is if you get rid of the income tax altogether, so I estimate you get about a 20% jump in incomes in the U.S. So that would be something like $15,000 for a typical family.

That's what you get off the bat. The typical family currently in America pays about $18,000 in income tax. So you save that. And then you knock off about $3,000 for the tariffs. There's a variety of estimates on that, but that seems to be the cluster. So you get a $15,000 raise because the economy is growing faster.

You get an $18,000 raise because you don't have to send your income tax to the government. People don't realize how much they're paying to the government, right? A lot of it is kids. But at any rate, you've got the guy where they call it withholding. Anyway, so that's $33,000. And that's all three for the tariffs. You're looking at a $30,000 raise per year, $2,500 a month. Now, currently, the median American take-home is about $58,000.

Okay, which is about 76 minus the income tax. So you go from taking home 58 to taking home 88, right? That is a massive difference. So that sort of sets the stage. But the next one happens exactly what you just mentioned. Hold on. You go from 58 to 88. Oh, yeah.

Ding dong, pizza delivery man. Anyway. Why is that the part you like so much in his movies? It's interesting what he's excited about. I don't know. All right, go ahead. All right. I love it. And it's true. I mean, you know, if you make it 88, you can go to Vegas and things happen in Vegas. Yeah, right. Right. Creating jobs.

Yeah, well, and so that's the fun part, right, is you mentioned earlier that if you're not paying income tax, then production in the U.S. is cheaper. So instead of the Chinese stocks coming in, you know, they used to come in for whatever, six dollars. Now they're coming in at nine dollars. Fine. But China's paying for that. So they're probably still coming in at six. But meanwhile, American factories.

factories can make socks for less because they are not paying the income tax. There's a very good chance that we're going to steal a lot of that manufacturing, even if the Chinese government pays for the tariffs. And that means also because the economy, we're building factories, we're doing things ourself because we can, everybody's pay goes up because we need more workers, right? Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. And then if you do mass deportations, then those jobs will actually go to Americans. So you've got two possibilities, right? One of them is that China covers the tariffs, in which case it's a free lunch for us. You know, China's what? Sending us about...

500 billion, well, their share would be, let's say, 300 billion. So that would be fantastic. Thank you very much. Or China does not cover the tariffs, in which case Chinese goods are priced out of the market. American goods pay no income tax, so they're cheaper. By the way, every headquarter on Earth, which

would try to move to the United States. If you're paying no income taxes in the single biggest economy on earth, everybody is going to be moving here, including the Chinese companies. So right. The worst case scenario, the Chinese don't cover it. And then they get out competed and all those jobs come back to America. And if it's only Americans living here, then Americans are going to be swimming in jobs. I mean, this is just, this is big.

How much? Oh, yeah. I mean, he has only kind of floated this on the Rogan show. How real do you think this is? Because I know he loves tariffs. I know he loves tariffs.

He loves tariffs and he hates the income tax. So it's beautiful. It's like a just like the perfect mutant president that we got. Peter, isn't the complication here, though, that he can essentially do what he wants with tariffs, but he can't do what he wants with the income tax? And that becomes the heavy lift here.

Right. So he would need Congress to play ball on the income tax. And Congress is very tight, as we're all discussing at the moment. There's a ton of rhinos over there.

So that's going to need, you know, the pressure and the passion that people showed during the campaign. Yeah, but millions of Americans showed. Yeah, we're going to put that on the rhinos. Yeah, I think that if he did, you know, a tour even and it was just all about income tax, you just have to say to people, you go from 58 to 88 in take home pay.

I think a lot of people will be like, you know what? I love that. I agree, but you're not going to get, obviously... So, in theory, you could put it into a reconciliation bill, right? You could put at least a massive reduction. Yeah. You couldn't... Not a constitutional amendment, unfortunately. That's what I would prefer, repealing the 16th. Yeah, me too. But you could capture Americans' imagination with this. Yeah. I think that's pretty... That would be pretty great. I do think you'd have...

with some of these, as you point out, rhino-type Republicans who would complain about all sorts of things, including deficit stuff, right? Like they would say, oh, we're going to lose all this income.

Peter St. Onge, he is, I'm not going to hold it against him for being French. I mean, somewhere in his past, somebody had sex with a Frenchman. Okay, let's move past that. He's with the Heritage Foundation, a visiting fellow. This is definitely the weirdest interview he's ever done. He's regretting every minute of this. He's like, this is the end of my career and my credibility. You're streaming the best of Glenn Beck. To hear more of this interview and others, download the full show podcasts wherever you get podcasts.

So we were talking about the average person's take-home pay going from $58,000 to $88,000. Oh, yeah. What is this music? Is this supposed to be like 70s porn music? I don't... Yeah. There's no women singing in 70s porn music. Are you hearing the women?

Oh, there it is. Yeah. What is this? Well, I don't know. We're... I'm not up on my 70s porn music. Oh, no. You've never heard a parody of a... In fact... I have. I thought this was pretty close, but... It's not. No. What is this? What is she singing about, Sarah? She's just singing... All right. Stop. So, Stu, of course, is a little black rain cloud on the...

58,000. The average person's take-home pay, 58,000 to 88,000. Okay. Let me just lay this out briefly. All right. Go ahead. I like going from 58,000 to 88,000 dollars. You do like it. That's good. You like it. I'm very much... He wants it. I am... Look at the way he's dressed.

I hate... StuDoesMerch.com has mugs that say repeal the 16th Amendment. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I know. You're for it. I'm for it. Yeah. I... If... If you can do the three things needed in this plan. One, eliminate the income tax. Yeah, I think you could do that. Two...

spending by multiple trillions of dollars. I think you might be able to do that. You do those things, you can have any tariff you want. I'm fine. I don't like tariffs at all. And I would be completely for eliminating all of them. However, if you can do all that, I'm completely fine with whatever. You can put 1 trillion percent tariffs on

Chinese whatever goods whatever you want right I'm fine with it if you can do those other two things I'm can we be honest about this isn't it a bit of a fantasy to get those two things done I want these things lots of things are fantasies too I was surprised that never that happened to me oh oh mister he doesn't know porn knows all the tropes

It's interesting how you could just immediately go into the exact porn. Hey, the pizza delivery guy. The thing he brought up over and over again. Apparently his favorite part of all the movies is when the pizza shows up. What a surprise.

He stops there. He doesn't even make it to the sex. He stops at the pizza. That's exactly right. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can you put the camera back on the pizza? What's happening? That looked good. All right, anyway. But I mean, come on. Do we really? May I say three words to you? Two words, two letters, may I just say.

Yeah. Roe versus Wade. I would have said the exact same thing about Roe versus Wade being overturned. Let me give you two other words. That's true. Three words. President Donald Trump. I would have also told you that would not occur in 2015. I would have said that. So it's, so look, miracles happen. Yeah.

Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah, they do. But it does, to me, noting my experience of the past 40 plus years of life, seems highly, highly suspect that those two things will get done. I have the feeling.

That the world's changed. And everything that we've known from experience should go bye-bye. I like your world better than my world. I want to make sure I'm clear on that. But what I'm concerned about here is that you need... I would be surprised if they can't get a tax cut done.

They'll get something done on taxes. They get a reconciliation bill. They get one shot at that. They have 50 set. They were going to have 53 senators. Do you not think the American people will embrace a 58,000 to 88,000 in take home pay? I think they'll like that. I think they will love that. What they will not like is hearing about all the programs that will go away and all the single. And all you'll have to say is $58,000. Yeah.

to $88,000. And yes, I'm sure Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and a bunch of other RINO senators will go along with it. If people stand up the way they've stood up, this is a positive thing to rally about. I agree. You don't think there would be marches all over? You don't think he would just pack people by the buttload into stadiums across and just say...

call your congressman call your senator that he would be able to rally american people like nobody's nobody else i mean look you need what 80 you need uh how what is the percentage you need to to cut the federal budget what do you mean cut the federal but for instance um

Calvin Coolidge did this. He cut the federal budget by 50%. Yes. And then he cut the budget again by 50%. Incredible. And he lowered the income tax from like 95 to like 5%. You don't have to sell me on the Calvin Coolidge presidency. I love Calvin Coolidge. What do you... I don't...

What do you need to... Who is listening to this show? I don't know. You don't have to sell me on Calvin Coolidge. Oh, yeah. Talk some more, Calvin Coolidge. Is that before or after the pizza shows up? Oh, my gosh. What a nerd program this is today. I would love Calvin Coolidge to come back to life and his policies to be passed. But that's all that Donald Trump is saying.

Let's do Calvin Coolidge. That gave a... It was hard to... In 1920... Calvin Coolidge is known as a great president to conservatives because he accomplished something very difficult. You know why he did? And I'm acknowledging that this is difficult. Do you know why he did? Because Woodrow Wilson, the progressive, just started gobbling everything up and everybody went, I don't want that. Hmm.

That was the uniqueness of Calvin Coolidge. He was put into a situation where they scared the hell out of every American. And they were like, okay, this isn't going to work. I don't like that. And that's why he put that in, why he was able to put that in. I like... By the way, let me just say...

The roaring 20s. Yes. At the beginning, nobody had a telephone, refrigeration, electricity. By 1930, almost everybody had that. I'll note.

We're currently in the 20s. It would be a nice little retro thing to have another roaring 20s. It would be a great way to kick it off. I am, of course, support these ideas. You know, and I think it's better than previous approaches, right? Previously, it was like, well, what if we only increase the budget by 1% a year? And in 10 years, we would be able to balance the budget. Like those type of approaches, which are kind of technically maybe accurate, but

They don't inspire anybody. There's no excitement behind that. This is what I've been asking for since 2010. Who is stepping up with a moonshot idea? And Donald Trump is. He's stepping up and saying, see that space that everybody says we can't get to?

We're going there. I like it. I like it. I want it to happen. I'm a bit skeptical that it can. But hey, I've been totally skeptical that it will occur. And I'm concerned because, look, we know that Donald Trump likes tariffs. I am not a tariff guy.

But the problem is, like, you have two very difficult things to do, which is cut multiple trillions of dollars from a budget, which there's been no appetite. By the way, we should also note here that Donald Trump ran on multiple times not digging in to –

massive programs that are the massive major cause of our debt. Things like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid. He doesn't want to touch those programs, which is okay. I mean, he won the election on it. I get it. But like, you can't cut 70%, 75% of your budget unless you touch those programs. So wait,

What do you say about this? What do you say if Donald Trump proposes anyone making under $100,000 a year and we're not going to combine salaries? If you're married, we're not going to punish you with a combined income. So 50K a person. 50K a person, 58K is the average salary, 58K times two.

We're going to count both of you under $100,000. You pay zero income tax. Everybody above them pays a flat tax of 15%. Yeah. Thank you, Sarah. Everybody wins in that. Everybody wins. I love it. I love it.

First of all, you know what the media is going to do with that claim. Who cares? The media doesn't matter anymore. I think there's something to that, but I think there would be a lot of – it would be difficult for a lot of these, let's say, purple state, purple district representatives to go along with such things when their programs are being cut. But okay, all right, we go through that process and we do that. Yeah.

You know, I don't see how you cut the trillions of dollars out of the budget without touching the programs that Donald Trump has promised not to touch. So that would be a difficult thing to deal with. And second, beyond that, he can just do the tariffs. And the problem with the tariffs are if you go through this fantasy league situation where all of this goes comes true and all of our wildest dreams are here. And now you're depending on tariffs to fund the government.

That's fantastic, except for the fact that if the tariffs work and we move all of our manufacturing back to America, there's no one paying tariffs anymore. So then you have no income there either. So now you're cutting another 75% off, which again, I'm probably fine with, but I don't know that America is. This is the reason why I want tariffs and I'm for tariffs in the first place. We've got to build our manufacturing base back.

So if you just go, let's say you say you pay tariffs, you pay nothing here if you make it here. Everybody moves back. You give them a 15% income tax when the tariffs don't work anymore. They're not going anywhere because nobody's offering a 15% tax.

Corporate tax. Nobody. So you're then reinstituting the theory. You address that when you get there. And probably the answer to all of this is they're less extreme options that sort of balance each other out. Yeah, I don't really like that.

I don't either, but we're not going to move all of our manufacturing back, like obviously, and nor would that even be a good thing, frankly. I mean, like if anything, we've learned that maybe having diversity of where places are, where things are made is probably a good thing, right? Because if we get a bad president here that says, hey, I'm going to shut down this industry because I don't like it.

We want to make sure that stuff is still being made somewhere in the world because Donald Trump will not be president forever. Think of that statement. Yeah. You have to. No one in their right mind 25 years ago, 30 years ago, any time in America would have said, well, except for prohibition, when the progressives were doing it. Yeah. No.

Nobody would have ever said, well, they're going to destroy this industry. They're just going to destroy it. Nobody. You didn't have that fear of the government. You shouldn't have that fear. It's crazy. But I do have that fear. I know. That's why I worry about all this stuff whenever. That's why this stuff has to be passed into law. Yes. Not just executive order. No, no, no, no.