Jon Stewart Tackles Harris & Trump's Debate and What This Means for the Election | Steve Ballmer
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You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, an actually live special report. The Daily Show presents Indecision 2024. The first presidential debate, again! Now with 50% less, old man. Here's your host, Jon Stewart! Hey, everybody! Hey!

Hello! Welcome to The Daily Show. My name is Jon Stewart. The second presidential debate has just wrapped up. We are live. Well, technically, I guess this is the second presidential debate. The first presidential debate of this matchup. I can't wait to see who the winner will take on next. I think...

We'll come to you live, ladies and gentlemen. The stakes couldn't be higher as we all try and figure out who will be the next president of Pawanewmiasgank. It's an exciting night for citizens of that esteemed nation. As the rest of us watch with great interest from the neighboring country of No One Gives a Shitistan. By the way, if you have any friends in Pawanewmiasgank...

Can you see if they can do anything about congestion pricing? All right, forget it. But so far, it seems like this presidential race is going to be a tight one. The election, now a dead heat. Separated by razor-thin margins. Neck and neck. Feels like a jump-all race right now. For all intents and purposes, horseshoes and hand grenades, it's a coin flip. The tightest race in a generation. As tight as it can get. As tight as a tick. As tight as a too-tight bathing suit and a too-long car ride home from the beach.

That seems very tight. It's as tight as a teenage boy's pants during a Sidney Sweeney film festival. It's tighter than Sidney Sweeney's scheduling windows, given how busy she is with projects and in demand as a producer to say nothing of the... Anyway, she's very talented.

Of course, with an election this tight, it is important to build out a more diverse coalition. And recently, Donald Trump has picked up the unexpected support of former Democrats, RFKs,

R.F.K. Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard and might even have picked up one of Jeffrey Epstein's most esteemed former lawyers. I am no longer a Democrat. I am no longer a member of the Democratic Party. This was not my party. I just felt appalled when I watched the Democratic National Convention. I can't associate myself with the party itself. No, wait, don't go.

longer the Democratic Party, Alan Dershowitz? Well, guess what? Democrats don't want you anyway, because the Democratic Party has standards, okay? Last week, former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsed Vice President Harris. Would you excuse me one second? I don't know what came over me. Anyway, going into the debate, one thing was clear. I'm sorry. You know what? Dick Cheney, can you meet me over by camera one? Fuck off. Seriously. Fuck off.

You came this close to destroying the entire world. We were this close. Closer than a teenage boy's pants. And no, I'm not going to have any fun with this. And by the way, who in God's name is that endorsement going to sway? Well, I like the Democrats' policy on child tax credits, but are they bombing enough Middle Eastern countries? There's still some buildings standing. Someone should really do something. I'm fine. It's fine.

Seriously, though, fuck that guy. Now, obviously-- oh, please. What an erudite takedown. Obviously, each candidate was gonna have their goals and strategies. For Kamala Harris, it was going to be quite a needle to thread. She really wants to make sure that Americans know her backstory, walk away understanding her policy stances, make sure she needles Donald Trump, gets him to lash out, expose the flaws that she sees in him, stays calm, be ready for all attacks. She's got, like, two minutes.

Is there anything else? There are some people who are worried that she might be overpreparing. Really? After doing all that? You know, Trump was encouraged to take a simpler approach. They expect some goading remarks from Harris. They have stressed to him over and over again, do not respond. If you're going to respond at all, to use facial expressions, not to actually go out there and say anything. Kamala say everything. Trump say nothing.

But here's what you do, Mr. Former President. If Kamala says something that surprises you, you just go, and if Kamala says something that makes you angry, you just go, and if Kamala says something that makes you feel sexy time, you go, oh, yeah.

So those were the goals. Both candidates have now entered the arena. Biden and Trump did not greet each other. And Kamala, oh wait, she went for the handshake, ladies and gentlemen. What an incredible display of the awkward tension that happens when your son is dating a biracial girl and you meet her parents for the first time. Konnichiwa.

As per tradition in American politics, the first question is always asked by the most handsome person in a 10 to 15 mile radius. When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago? Ooh, first, yowza. Oh, yeah. Second, answer the question, Mr. Vice President.

I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy. My plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to start up small businesses. I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000.

Holy shit, we're one question in and we're all millionaires. Oh, my God. Donald, your response to the question, is the economy better now than it was four years ago? We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. Ladies and gentlemen.

I just want to say, after surviving the PTSD of the last presidential debate, how unbelievably refreshing it is to go back to the same old, nobody's going to answer any fucking questions! We're back!

Yeah! You ask them a question, they just turn the tide and answer whatever they want to answer. And now that we're returning to the cliches, the standards of American political theater, I think it's only fair if someone would do the honors of the first baseless ad hominem. She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist. Her father's a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well. But when you look at what she's done to our country... Oh, shit!

She's about to be like, motherfucker, let's just do this. I'm gonna boom, boom. She's about to, a Marxist, she's about to open up a can of Ass Capital on Donald Trump. Lindsay Davis, you better change the subject before the fingers on Kamala's hand unite. I want to turn to the issue of abortion. Oh boy. I'm not superstitious, but this is where the wheels fell off.

for Biden. He was asked about abortion and he somehow spun it into, why are immigrants raping people? And he ended with a classic phrase we'll never forget, and that's when we finally beat Medicare. They're feeling it too, ladies and gentlemen. As before, President Trump, you have the first crack at answering why you killed Roe v. Wade.

We've gotten what everybody wanted. Democrats, Republicans and everybody else and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought back into the states and the states are voting. And I did something that nobody thought was possible. Jon Stewart from the I was watching this live Times-Picayune.

What you just said, yeah, that's actually insanely false. The majority of people wanted it. You know what? Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris, can you address this with a bit more eloquence? I have talked with women around our country. You want to talk about this is what people wanted?

Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn't want that? She crushed that. This is like... This is like...

This is like one of those Groundhog Day movies where you get to go back and fix the bad way that something happened earlier to the good way. And then you learn Italian and the piano and then you get sad and then despondent and then you learn how to love yourself. Anyway, Trump will now finally have to answer to his abortion policy. You know what it reminds me of when they said they're going to get student loans terminated and it ended up being a total catastrophe.

Ah, you don't have an answer. Student loan smoke bomb. But we're settling into a rhythm here. Nice back and forth. I got to give it to Trump. He's sticking to his guns and he's not letting Kamala Harris get under his skin. I actually think she's not going to be able to needle him. I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

Oh shit, he just got it off his ears. I feel like, that fucker lets go! Folks, the eagle has landed. She has attacked what is Donald Trump's most cherished family member, his rally crowds. Donald, remember your training. The question is about why you killed the bipartisan immigration bill. You don't need to think about this. First let me respond to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies.

People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. Our country is being lost. We're a failing nation. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. What the fuck just happened?

Against these unbelievable rallies, people don't leave them. They're eating dogs! In Springfield, the immigrants are eating people's dogs! Which reminds me, if I may for just a quick moment, a quick reminder to all the pet owners out there. Always remember to leash your dogs. It's an important way to keep your dogs from fighting other dogs or being hit by a car or being eaten by your immigrant neighbors. Oh, I'm sorry. Also, fuck off, Dick Cheney.

I'm sorry. You were saying?

I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. Well, I've seen people on television. Let me just say here, this is the- The people on television said my dog was taken and used for food. So maybe he said that, and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager. I'm not taking this from television. But the people on television are saying their dog was eaten by-

the people that went there. Again, the Springfield city manager says there's no evidence of that. Having spent some time in Springfield myself, I believe I know what's happening here. I believe Trump himself may be becoming one of Springfield's most famous residents. And I believe we have some footage. It's right in being old. No one listens to you. Someone ate my dog!

And finally, no debate with the former president would be complete without addressing the former president's closing number of the Trump show's first term.

Mr. President, on January 6th, you told your supporters to march to the Capitol. You said you would be right there with them. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? It wasn't done by me. It was done by others. It would have never happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington did their jobs. I wasn't responsible for security. Nancy Pelosi was responsible. She didn't do her job. I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech. You spent...

Two months riling up your base that our country had literally been stolen from them through fraudulent means. That you could never even get a whiff of in a court of law. And let yourself just abuse them. You pressed on. You abused their trust. You showed up for a speech. You fucking tweeted, join me on January 6th. It will be wild.

But suddenly now, I was just a hired magician to the bar mitzvah. I didn't do anything. I showed up with a hat and a rabbit and then the whole party went out of control.

And this is it, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know if this debate's gonna change anything. I really don't. People are awfully set in the manner that they view these proceedings. What I think is a home-run answer for one candidate, someone else views as a dodge or a lie or any of those other things. In some ways, it doesn't matter what they say anymore. But one thing will always be true,

and it is the quality of the former president I respect the least. Whenever he is cornered and forced to face even the smallest of consequences for his own mendacity and scheming, he reverts to the greatest refuge of scoundrels, as Shaggy would say, it wasn't me!

I did nothing wrong. I just showed up. They're the ones who went crazy. This man who constantly professes to be your champion, who says they're going to have to go through him to get to you, will always, when the boat is going down, be the first into the lifeboats because in that moment, he will always say the same thing. I didn't know anything about it. I was just told to show up for a cruise, even though everybody knows he was the fucking captain of the ship in any other country. That laugh. In any...

other country, in any other country, that lack of accountability would be disqualifying. But in this country, it means the race is tighter than a... Would you excuse me for just one second? We'll be right back after this. Steve Ballmer will be right back.

It's time for a brand new season of Survivor. And you know what that means. It means it's also a brand new season of the only official Survivor podcast on fire. Here's our goal with this podcast. We bring you inside the how and the why of Survivor.

of what we do on the show. And we do it from three different points of view. You have the producer in me. You have the fan in Jay, who also happens to be our executive producer in this podcast. And then we bring you the insight from a former player. And this season, it is Survivor 46 runner-up, Charlie Davis. Welcome to the team, Charlie. Well, Jeff, I know firsthand that playing from the couch and playing on the island...

completely different. So I hope you tune in every single week. We're going to dissect the strategy, the misfires and mistakes that change the game. If you want more Survivor than just 90 minutes, this is where you get it. On Fire, the only official Survivor podcast. Listen to On Fire, the official Survivor podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the show. Uh,

I have a quick bit of breaking news. If you'll excuse me, I just... I have some breaking news. I've just been handed this bulletin of breaking news. So we talked a little bit earlier about, you know, these debates. Do they even mean anything? Do they even do anything? Apparently, they did move the needle enough for one undecided voter, a Miss Taylor Swift, has endorsed Kamala Harris. That's what happened. Um...

So, you know what this means. Taylor Swift and I were watching TV at the same program. Damn it! My guest tonight is the former CEO of Microsoft. He owns the Los Angeles Clippers and is the founder of USA Facts. Please welcome to the program, Mr. Steve Ballmer. Come on, man.

So nice to see you. Good to be here. Now, young man, if I say so, a storied career. You were one of the first employees at Microsoft. You become a CEO of Microsoft. You own the Los Angeles Clippers. You have this dream life that as a kid, you probably never even thought those were the heights that you might be able to attain. And in that moment, you turn your attention to creating a fact website.

Exactly. I retired from Microsoft. I have nothing to do. Yes. Except to dive deep, dark into government numbers. Seriously. It feels like an anti midlife crisis. It feels like a man has decided, well, I'm just going to give up.

Well, my wife kind of got after me to start helping with the family philanthropy. And I kept saying, no, no, no, no. Government takes care of all those things. And she said, you're coming with me. And I snuck in the back and said, but I'm going to look up the numbers. And you did look up the numbers. And so what you've done is and it's a phenomenal site. And I make jokes, but it is phenomenal.

so necessary in this world to provide the data from reputable sources? How do you even, how do you decide what to put in there? How do you decide what are the sources? We have a guy here, Adam Chodokoff in Chods We Trust. He is a researcher extraordinaire. He is the one who aligns us with that's kind of a partisan site. You might want to stay away from that. That's kind of a thing. Is that how you operate it or is this an algorithm? How is this done? No, it's,

We started with the concept that said, let's look at government in its totality. Because if you look at little pieces, boom, I grab a number and I can make it sound large. I can make it sound small. So let's put things in context. Let's put them in context with history. Let's only use government numbers. We've got 100 different government databases. And then we said, what does government do?

We turn to the prologue of the preamble to the Constitution. It lays out four missions. We took everything government spends money on. Boom. How much taxes are we raising and other money? How much are we spending? And what kind of outcomes are we getting? Because government's not like a lot like a business. So that so that to me is is the crucial aspect. You know, when Democrats talk about we need to tax billionaires more. No offense. And when we need to.

Do these things. I think the one place where it falls short is I don't think people feel that more money is necessarily the answer, but maybe efficacy. It's not like we don't spend money on anti-poverty. The efficacy might not be there. Did you discover programs that seem to be really effective and other areas where that money seems to be squandered? What were some of the

the data points that you found that gave you a clear picture. Let me start with 86% of all federal. I can talk separate about state and local spending. Yes. But 86% of all federal spending is in a few simple areas. Okay, let's go. Number one, paying our debts.

Got to pay the interest on our debt. How much goes to the debt? I've seen breakdown of taxes. I've heard that the third largest or second largest portion of our tax money goes to pay down the interest on the debt. It's creeping up there. It's like number five right now. We go to Social Security's number one. Okay. Medicare, number two. Okay. So two things that we pay into but don't get till we're older. Correct. Okay. Correct. What's number three? Number three is the military.

Okay. Medicaid part of the four. Medicaid is for. Okay. Exactly right. Sorry. The debt is for. Oh, Medicaid is five. Okay. Veterans benefits. Okay. Let me see if I forgot anything. You know what? So let's let's stop right there because I stop right there because there's no inefficiency so far.

So I would disagree with that. Okay, go ahead. So if I'm thinking about this country and I'm looking out into the audience and I'm saying, so what is the tension in their lives? And I don't necessarily know that because we've only worked together as an audience once before. But I would say it's the squeeze. It's people that...

had some college debt, but now they're in their 40s or 50s. And just as they're clearing out all those things and getting into a decent earning place, their kids are getting ready to go to college. And the costs of that have exploded. And just as that's happening, their parents, who they thought were going to be fine with their Social Security and their Medicare and all those other things, are now needing real elder care and assisted living care. So now all the expectations

equity that they have built up over that time is now dissipating between those two groups so child care health care elder care all those things the first 6 tranches of where our tax money goes doesn't seem like it's spent efficiently on relieving that pressure on families that might be the wrong way to look at it. Let me let me push back please push back.

I give you... Well, not you. You can give me. I'm 68. You give me a Social Security check. I take money from you. You take money from me. That's just my premise. Okay, fine. Probably a good one. Your premise is... Probably a good premise. Your premise is fine, too. Probably a good premise. All right. Anyway, a family gets a Social Security check. Right. That's going to help that senior who may need care, may need this, may need that, may need something else. But designed mostly by the government because they thought we would all be dead by 65. Like, we've all...

We've lived much longer than the government thought we would. The promise, yeah. The promise of FDR days, we've outlived it. Nobody's quite sure what to do about it. We do know that people are doing less of their own elder care. More of that's getting paid for by the government in the market through third parties. But you do see a lot of people who...

their elder care is paid for by whatever equity they had left so they can't leave anything to their kids. They mortgage their house or they go through those things where they converted into liquidity and they use that money, hopefully, and it's there till they pass. It's a little bit of whack-a-mole, though. Yes. We can increase taxes. We can borrow more money.

Right. Or we can live with the kind of spending profile we have today. I mean, something gives in that equation. And me personally, I will confess, nonpartisan view for USA Facts, we just give you the data, you make up your own mind. I'm a businessman. Balancing the budget seems good to me. And so I look at it and said, simple. We probably need some more taxes. Probably. And we probably need less spending. Probably. Probably.

Less spending or more efficient spending? Is it a question of are we using, for instance, so Mark Cuban was on and you guys I'm sure go to the billionaire's brunch. Which, by the way, I never understood. Why do they do that at Waffle House? It feels like you could get a better, well, forget it. It's billionaire's basketball lunch in that case. Billionaire's basketball lunch.

So he finds out that these pharmaceutical benefit managers are jacking up and hiking all these pharmaceutical prices. The government is not really allowed to negotiate with them, so he creates this business in which he does that. Is too much of our money that we spend on poverty programs or elder programs going through these middlemen that are enriching themselves? Even the ACA, right? You think about Obamacare, what it really is is a boon for insurance companies.

companies to jump into another marketplace where the government says, well, we'll keep this same inefficient system where you get to deny care when you want to. And the pricing isn't transparent and it's not really a free market system because health care is in a free market system. And we're just going to subsidize that insurance policy. It doesn't really change the dynamic of how health care is is given. Isn't that inefficient?

Yes, and? Son of a bitch! Yeah, son of a bitch. You put it in a little bit of context. Okay. It's inefficient. But if I tell you it's less than 1% of total health care spending in the U.S., less than 1%, you can say it's inefficient. I won't disagree with you. I can say it's 1%. And so even if we crushed the issue you're talking about down to nothing, down to absolute nothing, we still have a problem with health care spending.

We still are the need to deliver health care. But isn't some of the problem we have with health care spending because the largest tranche of customers are unable to really negotiate effectively because it's not we have a for profit health care system when you can't comparison shop for heart attack doctors. You basically get driven to wherever is closest.

There's three people basically who insure almost everybody. 92% of Americans are not sure. But let's just talk about who the three are. Medicare?

where they can negotiate some things, but not others. For example, prescription benefits, except for the new caveats. Medicaid, where government negotiates really hard. Really hard. I'm really impressed by what the government negotiates on behalf of the Medicaid patient. And then private insurance, for private insurance companies. And they're grinders, baby. They're delivering health care, $6,000 a person. Now they're younger.

Medicaid, the most vulnerable people in our population, $10,000 a person, harder to take care of. And then seniors, $16,000 a year Medicare. Who do you think is most satisfied with their care in those three tranches? Private insurance, no question. Private insurance over... I mean, again, I don't have data from the U.S. government, but I'm going to guess private insurance. Right. Is there any qualm in your mind of, you know, they say that the biggest reason people go bankrupt...

is medical bankruptcy. Is there any reason in your mind that a country like ours, with the wealth that we have, should ever have a situation where people who are sick-- so they might be more satisfied, but is it at the cost of the percentage of them that will go bankrupt because there's no government backstop on it?

Well, do I think it's a good thing? No. I don't think anybody should go bankrupt for their health. I don't. Now, how do we get from where we are to there is important. It is important. I have no prescription for that, but me personally and emotionally, I agree with you a thousand percent.

To solve that problem, what other changes are we going to make? What are the things that we're going to give up? What are the things that we're going to get? It seems like a much smaller fix to fix that problem than to try to reinvent the health care system again. When health care, look, we have problems in our health care system, but the inefficiency I think right now tends to be, if you just compare us to Europe,

We do about twice as many procedures as they do in Europe. And our medical professionals get paid about twice as much as European medical professionals. So doesn't that sound like it's a system incentivized to that? It is. And it is. And it is. Absolutely. Except Medicaid. Right. So they don't do twice as many. Except Medicaid, because Medicaid is essentially it's on an HMO model. Right. And things get negotiated differently.

Do you think that a public option, you know, the one that everybody shouts is the death of it all, is the thing that blows up the system? Because in some ways I always look at it like, what do I think government's purpose is? Like, I love the fact that we're a checks and balances system, right? And it seems like within the government there is, okay, judicial, congressional, executive, and they're all pushing and pulling. They weren't expecting the kind of partisan battles that we get, but we get them.

But it does seem like corporate power, transnational, multinational corporate power also needs a check and a balance because capitalism is at its heart, like, destructive. There's collateral. It generates wealth, but it's destructive. Why do we fight so hard against the government being a proper check on that against that exploitation, whether it be in the medical field or in the college education field or any of those other things? It seems like...

In European countries, I'm not saying it's a panacea. They pay more money, but they seem to get the services that connect more directly with their lives sort of back to the earlier conversation that we were having. I think if you read these tranches out to a European social Democrat, whatever, they would think, well, that's crazy. You haven't gotten anything. You haven't gotten any child care. You haven't gotten any of the things. You haven't gotten free education. Why is it that we have so much trouble getting

We generate so much wealth. Why do we distribute it so inefficiently, it would seem? Well, let me give a perspective. Please. I think the twin towers of America are democracy and capitalism. Okay. I really believe that wholeheartedly. I don't want to tell you how that story ends, but go ahead. Good point. No, but you, so, you're killing me here! You're killing me here! You broke April for fuck's sake! Jesus! What are you doing to me? Boys!

I walked right into it. I'm sorry. I apologize. What do you think I'm doing all day tomorrow? All right. My bad. Capitalism and democracy. The two pillars. I'm going to go back to pillars. Pillars. Thank you. Much better. Capitalism is the predictable one, actually. Really? That's interesting. You give capitalism a set of rules. People are going to compete. They're going to try to make as much money as they can, and that's what's going to happen. It's predictable.

But you don't think it's by its nature exploitative, though, like the monopolies, the rigging of this is that seems all built into. I'm going to get to the second. I'm sorry. Democracy. So the fact that capitalism is predictable is actually a great tool for government. OK. Government needs to then train this highly predictable tool to do what society wants it to do.

That's the role of democracy is to in some not it is a role of democracy is to inform where you want to point this highly predictable capitalist motive. And look, if the world needs more regulations, put them in. But you're going to get more regulation. But it certainly needs to be something that helps protect us against capitalism's baser instinct.

In some respect. Let me give a base instinct. Okay. Let's say my base instinct is to, I want to destroy the habitat of a set of birds by building a windmill. Okay. Let's say that's the topic. Can I just say something very quickly? Yeah. You bastard. Why, you son of a bitch. Oh.

Mr. Democracy, let's take it on! The birds? Yes. The capitalist is going to try to get that windmill built. Sure. If you want it built, capitalists will get it built. If you want to protect the birds, the capitalists will stop trying to build that windmill. I talked to a guy who's actually trying to build one of the largest wind farms in the world. I'm going to give you a different example. Give me a different example.

Capitalists want to find the cheapest labor they can possibly find. So they offshore all the jobs in manufacturing and all these other things to Vietnam and Bangladesh and India and China and places where worker protections don't exist, undercutting American workers. And the democratic system fails its own workers and not only allows it, encourages it, and then decides, well, you're doing so well on labor costs, why don't we cut your taxes as well?

So that's, in my mind, I view it as the pendulum has swung completely and we are at the mercy of those instincts. And democracy is failing in whatever its directive is. It doesn't sound to me like democracy points capitalism. It sounds to me like capitalism points democracy. I'll speak now. I would think. I'll speak now as a former CEO.

capitalism responds maybe look people are generally good people they'll respond to you give us an incentive we'll go do it you give us a regulation we're going to obey it you you that's what that's what no it's what happens it really is all right to the 99 percent we're here i give you 2008 but no i so so all i'm saying is

If somebody, let's take your labor cost issue. Perfectly good issue. Yes, businesses are going to try to reduce labor costs. If you don't want those jobs to move, then government needs to put a tax or an incentive. There's sort of

kissing cousins, if you will, to keep the jobs on shore and take the consequences. But then we're competing for their love. What about this? They get the benefit of our stability, of our capital, of all the things that make us a free market, stable democracy. And they have no responsibility. They get all of the infrastructure and none of the toll.

And that's the part that I don't understand. You know, we have states competing with each other for who can fuck over workers the best. You know, when everybody talks about globalization and, you know, Mexico and India are stealing our jobs, well, South Carolina's stealing them from New York. So they're all competing to see who can give the sweetest deal. And that feels like where the balance is off, where the pendulum has to swing, right?

I personally have no problem with government providing more direction to capitalism. I don't. Right. But then there sometimes are untoward consequences. Let's just take the offshoring. Sure, sure. OK, let's just say whatever the policy is, it gets more jobs on short at higher wages. Right. Prices will go up. Prices will go up. And as long as that tradeoff is the tradeoff that people want.

less buying power, but more people have higher paying jobs. How that actually shakes out for the American, I'm not an economist, I'm not going to make predictions, but there is a trade-off on most of these decisions. Is there a possibility, though, that there's a renegotiation of what normal is in terms of profit margin and in terms of capitalization and in terms of corporatization and in terms of taxation? Is there a new normal that can be

You know, we saw it in the pandemic where, of course, there were supply chain crunches and that drove up prices. But there's no question that a lot of companies took advantage of a difficult moment to set a new bar of expectation for people. And now that the supply chain has eased, that expectation still exists. Since the start of the pandemic. Yeah. CPI price index is up about 19 percent. Right. OK.

We still have inflation. Those prices are not going to come back down. They're just going to grow more slowly. Wages were up 21%. Right. Wages were actually up more than prices. Right.

And so if you take a look at it, the buying power, it's not much, but the buying power of Americans increased slightly. So nobody likes inflation. It's too disorienting, et cetera. But it wasn't a net negative trade. It feels bad. People feel bad. I know that. Do you think, though, that as complex as inflation is and all the different avenues that go into it, do you think a portion of it, at least, because I listened to some of those earnings calls,

In the pandemic, and people were like, we're killing it. Our profits have never been higher. And everybody's like, yeah. So isn't that a part of it? Then I would say, if I was to make a suggestion, go increase corporate income taxes. Just increase corporate income taxes. That reduces profit. Yeah.

I just don't know. I just don't know if it's politically viable. You don't want the business regulating individual decisions. This is my point of view. Right. Bad. Do you want to take my profits as a company? Do you think there is a transaction to be had between government and corporate leaders where they come to an understanding that it's a more symbiotic relationship and not an exploitative relationship?

The invisible hand, so to speak, of Adam Smith. Yes. There is no master planning. No, no. You can't say be nice. But we're not free. There is, though. There's subsidies that they get. There is no free. There's subsidies and there's regulations. There are rules. And I love that. Right. I love. There's some regulations if I'm running a company, am I like or not like? We just built an arena for our basketball team. Why? Why?

We had to have our own home so we can beat the Knicks when they come to town. Let me just explain very quickly. No, it makes sense. Listen, man, it's an incredibly complex conversation, and I really do appreciate your patience with me on it and all that. It's just...

I think the frustrations have been with what I love about your site. And let's bring it back to that is that you've brought together all the data and context necessary to have these conversations because these conversations feel like they don't occur. All that occurs on the news is how do you think that's going to play in Wisconsin? Like nobody seems to want to get into the weeds on what you're talking about. Well,

Well, that's what we're trying to do. We have very conscious, nonpartisan, here's the data. We're going to make it digestible for you. We're not going to try to tell funny stories. We're not going to make forecasts about the future. There's a quote that's very motivating to me as we started this thing from James Madison. So you go all the way back to the founding of the country. He said something like, a popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it

is a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. And as I sit here and I observe lots in American politics, I believe that. -Right. -And our side is trying to combat that by making popular information available to our populace. -And you make videos. -We make videos. We make videos. -And who's the star of the videos? Steve Ballmer. I'm just gonna say something real quick. Not for nothing, you live in Los Angeles.

You couldn't grab Hanks? Come on. You know what I'm talking about? Throw him out there to give some facts? It's a fabulous site, and you're doing great work there, and I so appreciate you coming on and giving us such interesting perspective on business and government and regulation and all those different things. It's really helpful. So thank you for doing that. Check out USAFacts.org. Mr. Steve Butler. We'll be right back after this. Let me tell you something. Are you...

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If we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people, our population less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then, I'd run it as good as it can be run. So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan. I have concepts of a plan.

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Welcome to the Cooper residence. Cooper McAllister. I'm surprised you put my name first. Come on in. From the brains behind the Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, CBS is excited to welcome back some beloved, familiar folks. I am so glad that you and Cece are here. And Georgie. Atta girl. It's a whole new chapter. Georgie and Mandy's first marriage premieres CBS Thursday, 8, 7 central and streaming on Paramount+.

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