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Mamdani-Endorsed Marxists Win Three New York House Primaries · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
0:05
Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
0:07
Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 3: Free martinis coming up.
0:14
Speaker 2: So glad to have you with us for the Wednesday
0:16
Speaker 2: edition of the Three Martini Lunch. Jim, a lot of
0:19
Speaker 2: election stuff to talk about today that happened last night,
0:22
Speaker 2: and a little bit of policy news that I think
0:24
Speaker 2: is connected to an upcoming election. We'll get to that
0:28
Speaker 2: and we'll have a little more fun on some of
0:30
Speaker 2: our crazy Senate candidates in our Chaser today. But Jim,
0:34
Speaker 2: yesterday we previewed how New York City Mayor Zorn Mamdani
0:38
Speaker 2: endorsed three pretty much avowed commies in three congressional races
0:42
Speaker 2: tied to New York City, and two of them were
0:44
Speaker 2: running against Democratic incumbents, so pretty brazen, and Mamdannie's candidates
0:49
Speaker 2: won all three, and only one of them was even close.
0:53
Speaker 2: And so when you look at the seventh Congressional district,
0:57
Speaker 2: you've got Claire Valdez clearly winning that race, easily winning
1:01
Speaker 2: by more than twenty points against Reinoso, the opponent there.
1:06
Speaker 2: Then in the tenth district, I think we knew this
1:07
Speaker 2: was going to happen, Brad Lander, but by more than
1:10
Speaker 2: thirty points over Congressman Dan Goldman. And then in the
1:13
Speaker 2: thirteenth district, Daria Liza Avila Chevalier. They call her DAC.
1:19
Speaker 2: I don't think you can have a DAC and an
1:21
Speaker 2: AOC in New York City. That seems way too confusing.
1:24
Speaker 2: But anyway, she defeated the pretty far left incumbent Congressman
1:28
Speaker 2: there Adriano Espiat by a couple thousand votes. So we'll
1:32
Speaker 2: get to some better news from last night's primaries, But Jim,
1:36
Speaker 2: just to give you an idea of some of these
1:37
Speaker 2: people who will now be coming to Washington, because this
1:39
Speaker 2: is the whole ball of wax in New York City.
1:41
Speaker 2: You win the primary, you're going to be coming to Washington.
1:44
Speaker 2: So here's Claire Valdez. This is not from last night,
1:47
Speaker 2: but from a little over a week ago, explaining a
1:49
Speaker 2: little bit of her platform.
1:50
Speaker 3: So are we ready to free Palestine?
1:56
Speaker 2: Are we ready to abolish ice?
2:00
Speaker 3: Are we ready to win medicare.
2:02
Speaker 1: For all, housing for all? And unions for all?
2:05
Speaker 2: She also wants to abolish prisons, abolish ice, as she said,
2:08
Speaker 2: abolish borders to fund the police, and says that all
2:11
Speaker 2: deportations are wrong, including for violent criminals. She has called
2:14
Speaker 2: the US a quote effing disgrace unquote, and said in
2:17
Speaker 2: a prior social media post, quote I forgot to get napkins,
2:20
Speaker 2: so I just wiped my hand on the American flag
2:22
Speaker 2: behind me unquote. Not exactly a shock. This is Darly's
2:27
Speaker 2: a vilas chavalgie, by the way, who said all that.
2:29
Speaker 2: Claire Valdez also wants to grant a citizenship and voting
2:32
Speaker 2: rights to illegal aliens, and use taxpayer funds for all
2:35
Speaker 2: transgender treatments, and eliminate private health insurance Brad Lander, abolish
2:39
Speaker 2: ice of course, forgive all student loans totaling two trillion dollars,
2:42
Speaker 2: expand the Supreme Court. So Jim. Some people on the
2:45
Speaker 2: writer saying the losers were not only normal people in
2:49
Speaker 2: New York City, but also Hakim Jeffries, Who's going to
2:51
Speaker 2: try to manage these people if he ends up as
2:53
Speaker 2: the speaker next year. But we've got some radicals, and
2:57
Speaker 2: the question I think is is it contained to the
2:59
Speaker 2: deep blue areas or is this where the Democratic Party
3:01
Speaker 2: is now?
3:02
Speaker 3: Greg It was the kind of night where folks like
3:04
Speaker 3: you and I can say ah, I don't know if
3:06
Speaker 3: you saw the winner was the crazy one and you
3:08
Speaker 3: have no idea who we're talking about, because that really
3:11
Speaker 3: doesn't narrow it down that much at all. Would we
3:14
Speaker 3: you and I have preferred for the I'm not even
3:16
Speaker 3: gonna say moderate. I would just say nominally less crazy
3:20
Speaker 3: Democratic incumbents to win. Sure didn't happen. I'm not sure
3:25
Speaker 3: this is a true nightmare for the Republican Party or
3:28
Speaker 3: right of center folks, Conservatives, etc.
3:30
Speaker 1: And I guess a.
3:31
Speaker 3: Question would be do you think that alexandri Ocassio Cortes
3:34
Speaker 3: and ilhan Omar and other members of the squad do
3:38
Speaker 3: you think they have strengthened House Democrats or do you
3:41
Speaker 3: think they've proven to be a liability for House Democrats.
3:44
Speaker 3: I get into this argument all the time where I
3:45
Speaker 3: say to people do you think AOC is powerful and influential?
3:50
Speaker 3: And some people say yes, absolutely, look at all her
3:52
Speaker 3: followers on Instagram and Twitter and all that stuff, And
3:55
Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, but like, what's she done? What has
3:59
Speaker 3: she actually done in terms of legislation? What does she
4:03
Speaker 3: actually you know, you can point to some cases where
4:04
Speaker 3: she's questioned witnesses and progressives are real, super excited about it.
4:09
Speaker 3: She gets a lot of media attention, doesn't really do
4:11
Speaker 3: a lot of hostile interviews we've noticed, and she certainly
4:14
Speaker 3: did not wow people at the Munich Security conference where
4:17
Speaker 3: when asked about, you know what the US should do
4:19
Speaker 3: if China were to invade Taiwan, her answer was, we
4:22
Speaker 3: should make sure that doesn't happen, and no further elaboration
4:26
Speaker 3: from that. I don't think these are serious people. I
4:28
Speaker 3: don't think these are people who are well equipped to
4:30
Speaker 3: actually lead the party. They are very well equipped to
4:32
Speaker 3: be gadflaws, They're very well equipped to get a lot
4:35
Speaker 3: of attention because they're going to constantly say controversial things,
4:39
Speaker 3: or they're going to say, oh, I believe that we
4:41
Speaker 3: should have quote no more police at all ever, unquote,
4:45
Speaker 3: which is basically the purge. I think from those horror movies,
4:48
Speaker 3: that's her her vision on security and safety, that she
4:52
Speaker 3: thinks that national borders should not exist, that all deportation
4:55
Speaker 3: is wrong. Like, they're gonna be asked, do you still
4:57
Speaker 3: believe that? And the answers are either going to.
4:59
Speaker 1: Be yes, yes, or no.
5:01
Speaker 3: And here's my really implausible explanation of why I no
5:04
Speaker 3: longer believe that, and so it's just one of those
5:06
Speaker 3: things where I think this is actually going to be
5:08
Speaker 3: a bigger headache for House Democrats, Like given a choice
5:11
Speaker 3: in your districts, Like did Marjorie Tayler Green turn out
5:15
Speaker 3: to be a huge advantage for the Republican Party when
5:17
Speaker 3: she was in Congress?
5:18
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the case.
5:19
Speaker 3: Did Has Lauren Bobert been a huge asset for the
5:23
Speaker 3: party as well? I don't think so. I think the
5:25
Speaker 3: candidates who are most outrageous, most outlandish, most extreme, tend
5:30
Speaker 3: to be more trouble than they're worth. And the Democrats
5:33
Speaker 3: have signed on a bunch of doozies last night.
5:36
Speaker 2: No, that's clearly the case. And now the question becomes,
5:39
Speaker 2: you know what happens with some of these bigger races,
5:41
Speaker 2: these statewide races. Does a guy like Abduel al Sayed
5:44
Speaker 2: end up winning the Michigan Democratic primary. I sought a
5:46
Speaker 2: prediction market last night that he's got a seventy three
5:48
Speaker 2: percent chance of winning the nomination right now, And there's
5:51
Speaker 2: some polls of him and Mike Rogers either neck and neck,
5:53
Speaker 2: and or either one of them had by a couple
5:56
Speaker 2: of points. So it's not going to be a walk
5:57
Speaker 2: in the park necessarily. I think that's probably rod best chance.
6:00
Speaker 2: But in the end, they are trying this beyond the
6:04
Speaker 2: Indigo blue districts in political parts of the country. The
6:07
Speaker 2: question is will it work there? It obviously worked in
6:09
Speaker 2: New York City, Mom, Donnie is kind of the king
6:12
Speaker 2: of the city right now with who he's endorsing. But
6:15
Speaker 2: does it have further tentacles than that? Will we actually
6:18
Speaker 2: have senators who believe some of these things so great?
6:21
Speaker 3: These are the sorts of ideas that popped into my
6:23
Speaker 3: head as we're taping, with absolutely no warning to you whatsoever.
6:28
Speaker 3: So brace yourself. You are a former resident of Michigan,
6:31
Speaker 3: proud Michigan or right?
6:33
Speaker 2: Yeah?
6:34
Speaker 3: Is there a particular Postrami ham sandwich barbecue? Is there
6:40
Speaker 3: something like that from Michigan that everybody in the state
6:44
Speaker 3: knows and.
6:44
Speaker 2: Loves Cony Dog's Coney Island? Yeah?
6:47
Speaker 1: Okay, and they're a poor product, right yeah? Okay.
6:50
Speaker 3: If say it wins the primary, Mike Rogers should say,
6:53
Speaker 3: welcome to the race. I've sent you these complimentary gults.
6:56
Speaker 3: I'll let people wait to get the implications of that.
6:59
Speaker 3: I've got that. Well, then you see yo, So that's
7:01
Speaker 3: going to like the opera book, Mike Rogers has got
7:04
Speaker 3: to be sitting there going go said go.
7:06
Speaker 2: You know, but there were some good news, good results
7:09
Speaker 2: last night, which we'll talk about in just a second.
7:10
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, as of right now, these people
7:13
Speaker 2: don't hold power and they're certainly not in the majority.
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8:19
Speaker 2: All right, Jim, let's talk about the good news that
8:22
Speaker 2: happened last night. In some cases it's people who won.
8:25
Speaker 2: In many cases it's people who lost. But let's start
8:28
Speaker 2: in South Carolina, where we spend a lot of time
8:29
Speaker 2: wher folks live down there. There was a runoff just
8:32
Speaker 2: two weeks after the original primary in South Carolina and
8:34
Speaker 2: the governor's race, and by a very wide margin, the
8:37
Speaker 2: Attorney General there, Alan Wilson defeating Pamela Yvette. I think
8:41
Speaker 2: it was better than two to one. Also, David Trone,
8:44
Speaker 2: despite dropping twenty five million bucks in a House primary,
8:48
Speaker 2: got beat, got beat by the incumbent Democrat there, April
8:52
Speaker 2: mclaan delaney. She's no great shakes, but at least I
8:55
Speaker 2: don't have to watch David tronad for at least two
8:57
Speaker 2: more years, and that's a win. And then in New
8:59
Speaker 2: York City there was one race that again didn't turn
9:02
Speaker 2: out great, but I mean, what are you going to get?
9:04
Speaker 2: It's New York City. And so the winner in the
9:07
Speaker 2: twelfth Congressional district where Jerry Nadler is finally retiring is
9:11
Speaker 2: a guy named Lasher. He's a state lawmaker and he
9:14
Speaker 2: was the choice of Jerry Nadler and some of the
9:16
Speaker 2: more typical Democrats. I guess there wasn't a Mom Donnie
9:20
Speaker 2: Marxist in this race. But more importantly, Jack Schlossberg, the
9:23
Speaker 2: grandson of JFK, comes in in a distant third at
9:27
Speaker 2: ten point eight percent, and perhaps even more fun, Jim.
9:30
Speaker 2: George Conway of Lincoln Project Fame garnered an entire whopping
9:35
Speaker 2: sixty two hundred and twelve votes as of right now
9:37
Speaker 2: with about eighty seven percent counted. Jim, I have county
9:41
Speaker 2: commissioners in my county who will get crushed if they
9:43
Speaker 2: get that vote total. So to see George Conway get
9:46
Speaker 2: obliterated as a lot of fun.
9:48
Speaker 3: So, first of all, Greg, you were correct that I
9:50
Speaker 3: probably spend more time in South Carolina than any other
9:53
Speaker 3: state outside of my home state of Virginia. And I
9:56
Speaker 3: have been a fan of Alan Wilson for a while.
9:57
Speaker 3: I should point out that my dad is a fan
9:58
Speaker 3: of him as well. And Dad not as active in
10:00
Speaker 3: South Carolina politics as he used to be, but he
10:02
Speaker 3: used to go to all the Republican events and chat
10:05
Speaker 3: and shake, and he always thought spoke highly of Alan Wilson.
10:08
Speaker 3: Alan Wilson is the adopted son of Congressman Joe Wilson.
10:11
Speaker 3: By the way, we're about to come up on the
10:13
Speaker 3: congressman's favorite month. In fact, on Independence Day. It's happened
10:16
Speaker 3: for the viewly for those who remember the Obama addressed
10:20
Speaker 3: to Congress. Joe Wilson regretted it and he's you know,
10:23
Speaker 3: he was very embarrassed by it. But nonetheless that's you know,
10:26
Speaker 3: I know, Alan Wilson is just the platonic ideal of
10:29
Speaker 3: what a state attorney general ought to be in an
10:32
Speaker 3: era where it feels like more and more candidates are
10:35
Speaker 3: this loud social media hit chasing, trying to go viral.
10:42
Speaker 3: Alan Wilson is just a guy who puts bad guys
10:44
Speaker 3: away and files lawsuits against the administration when he disagrees.
10:47
Speaker 1: And you know, he was shaped by the Tea Party.
10:50
Speaker 3: Just I don't know about you, Greg, It's been so
10:51
Speaker 3: long since a Republican I wanted to see win a primary,
10:54
Speaker 3: won a primary, and he wanted by a lot like almost,
10:57
Speaker 3: you know, seventy percent. I was like, wow, this is
10:58
Speaker 3: you know, a delight full you know, turn of events.
11:02
Speaker 3: And it's South Carolina, so they will hold a general
11:05
Speaker 3: election as a formality. But yes, it's he's in all
11:09
Speaker 3: likelihood Alan Wilson will be the next governor of South
11:11
Speaker 3: Carolina and I'm looking forward to that boy. As Virginians,
11:15
Speaker 3: isn't it a weird saying to say, I can't wait
11:16
Speaker 3: till this guy gets in office. Just a different feeling,
11:18
Speaker 3: you know, than we've had lately. As for the New
11:21
Speaker 3: York Congressional RaaS, I found myself kind of wondering, like,
11:24
Speaker 3: this is the one that I woke up this morning
11:26
Speaker 3: I was most curious about. And it was not I mean,
11:28
Speaker 3: it's not going to say that the actual winner Michaeh
11:33
Speaker 3: Lasher State Assemblymen. Look, this is the most democratic district
11:36
Speaker 3: in the state of New York. It's basically mid town Manhattan.
11:40
Speaker 3: The guy is going to be a liberal, there's no
11:41
Speaker 3: two ways about that. But by the standards of the
11:45
Speaker 3: Democratic Party today, he wants to continue at least some
11:49
Speaker 3: arms sales to Israel. He does not think that Israel
11:52
Speaker 3: has committed a genocide, and he said, quote, I worry
11:55
Speaker 3: sometimes that our political dialogue in this race is obsessed
11:58
Speaker 3: with Israel end quote like bye by the standard, Like
12:02
Speaker 3: that's good by today's standards. That's that's by New York
12:04
Speaker 3: City Democratic state. If you're not burning an Israeli flag,
12:07
Speaker 3: that makes you a moderate. And that's that's with this guy.
12:10
Speaker 3: But both of these two guys, I believe that didn't
12:12
Speaker 3: deserve any serious consideration. They were not serious candidates. And
12:16
Speaker 3: you know, in a rare case in one of the
12:18
Speaker 3: most you know, liberal Democratic districts, they actually agreed with us.
12:21
Speaker 1: They actually looked at.
12:22
Speaker 3: These two and kind of decided, no, they don't belong there.
12:24
Speaker 3: George Conway, I think I'm for better or for worse.
12:27
Speaker 3: Best known as the ex husband of Kelly and Conway,
12:30
Speaker 3: he has been not quiet, like I don't want to
12:34
Speaker 3: talk about their divorce. The problem is that George Conway
12:37
Speaker 3: keeps talking about his divorce and taking shots at an
12:39
Speaker 3: ex wife, and I think, like, look, when you got kids,
12:41
Speaker 3: that's just not the right way to go about that.
12:43
Speaker 3: Founding member of the Lincoln Project, that proud, proud institution
12:47
Speaker 3: reaching out to the youth of America, and of course
12:49
Speaker 3: he basically sleeps in the ms now Green room. Now
12:53
Speaker 3: I look at this like this is our lousy reasons
12:55
Speaker 3: to be in Congress. So, first of all, like his
12:58
Speaker 3: entire campaign was like, I'm the one who's gonna stand
13:00
Speaker 3: up to Donald Trump. Now again, it's a Democratic primary
13:03
Speaker 3: in the most liberal district in the everybody's going to
13:06
Speaker 3: stand up to Donald Trump.
13:07
Speaker 1: That doesn't make you special.
13:08
Speaker 3: Oh, by the way, you haven't lived here until you
13:11
Speaker 3: have moved here for the primary.
13:12
Speaker 1: You've been Washington, d C. It's to twenty seventeen. Who
13:15
Speaker 1: are you?
13:15
Speaker 3: Why are you the one who deserves the vote? It
13:17
Speaker 3: turns out, you know, as you said, less than seven
13:20
Speaker 3: thousand votes. His campaign has spent five more than five.
13:23
Speaker 1: Point six million dollars.
13:24
Speaker 3: So well, we don't have the final numbers there, but
13:26
Speaker 3: at this point he's in the neighborhood of about eight hundred
13:29
Speaker 3: dollars per vote.
13:31
Speaker 1: And I, you know, I'm kind of looking at that.
13:34
Speaker 3: I think you could have gotten these people to not
13:35
Speaker 3: vote for you for much less money.
13:39
Speaker 2: Now that is entirely true. You know, it's a weird
13:42
Speaker 2: night when you're looking at Democratic primary results, and you're like,
13:46
Speaker 2: the guy Nadler endorsed got through. At least when you're
13:49
Speaker 2: watching all these comedies when they're parts of the city,
13:52
Speaker 2: that that's your good news. That's a really long night.
13:55
Speaker 2: I also love the USA Today headline JFK grandson Jack
13:59
Speaker 2: Schlossberg loses NYC primary despite Kennedy Aura aras don't vote.
14:05
Speaker 3: So I've thought about this. There really should not be
14:09
Speaker 3: any Kennedy aur anymore. I did the math on this.
14:13
Speaker 3: Nineteen sixty was the year John F. Kennedy one, or
14:15
Speaker 3: for those watching on YouTube one thanks to some late
14:19
Speaker 3: votes to Chicago. But hey, don't worry, but in sixty
14:22
Speaker 3: years they'll get this worked out. They won't have these
14:23
Speaker 3: problems in Chicago anymore. In nineteen sixty, if you're twenty
14:26
Speaker 3: one years old, remember the voting age was twenty one
14:28
Speaker 3: back then, it wasn't eighteen. If you voted for Kennedy
14:32
Speaker 3: at age twenty one in nineteen sixty, you are eighty
14:35
Speaker 3: seven years old.
14:36
Speaker 1: Now, to give respective on.
14:37
Speaker 3: How old that is, that's older than Joe Biden, that's
14:40
Speaker 3: how old. So like, are there Americans more than eighty
14:43
Speaker 3: seven years old?
14:44
Speaker 2: Sure?
14:44
Speaker 3: But I think I look at you. According the Census Bureau,
14:46
Speaker 3: probably less than a million Americans at that age.
14:47
Speaker 1: You're older.
14:48
Speaker 3: This is like in nineteen eighty when Reagan won, you
14:51
Speaker 3: and I were probably around kindergarten age. This would be
14:53
Speaker 3: like trying to restore the Woodrow Wilson dynasty in that,
14:56
Speaker 3: like Kennedy was a long time ago. Why are you
15:00
Speaker 3: running on this image that is now? It's in the dusty, old,
15:04
Speaker 3: yellowed pages of the history books. And I don't I
15:07
Speaker 3: don't know if there's a proud history. I mean, you
15:08
Speaker 3: want to talk about seducing nineteen year old interns, Sure,
15:11
Speaker 3: waitress sandwich is sure, you know, like but like, never mind.
15:15
Speaker 1: John F.
15:15
Speaker 3: Kennedy Ted Kennedy, his last reelection was two thousand and six.
15:19
Speaker 3: At that time, Barack Obama was a senator. There was
15:22
Speaker 3: no iPhone, and Ted Kennedy never had an Instagram account
15:26
Speaker 3: because it was invented after he died. Right, Like, there's
15:29
Speaker 3: been a long time since anybody in the Kennedy family
15:32
Speaker 3: had a significant role in national politics. And the idea
15:35
Speaker 3: that there's this yearning for that, I understand if the
15:39
Speaker 3: Kennedy family feels this. I don't think there's a broa
15:41
Speaker 3: up and I think this election result should be that.
15:43
Speaker 3: You know, when you see him saying, ah, here I am.
15:46
Speaker 1: Jack Kennedy, schlawsperg.
15:47
Speaker 3: But how he appeared on the bell, he had to
15:49
Speaker 3: have his middle name listed to remind people he's a Kennedy.
15:51
Speaker 3: He's a walking, talking embodiment of NEPO baby. He's never
15:54
Speaker 3: had a job for more than four months. Everything's been
15:57
Speaker 3: based on his family connections. And you know, he can't
16:00
Speaker 3: control being born into the Kennedy family. But when you're
16:02
Speaker 3: you know, oh, he had no income in twenty twenty five.
16:05
Speaker 1: None. He lives on his trust fund.
16:07
Speaker 3: Right like everywhere else in society, it's like, ah, trust
16:10
Speaker 3: on necho babies there the worst.
16:11
Speaker 1: Ah, But if you're a Kennedy, that we make thankfully,
16:13
Speaker 1: we don't make exceptions. Right.
16:15
Speaker 3: The district was not that impressed with him, and so,
16:18
Speaker 3: you know, because he just is like, well, I've done
16:19
Speaker 3: nothing in my life.
16:20
Speaker 1: I'm young, but I have a famous last name of
16:22
Speaker 1: the Kennedy's.
16:23
Speaker 3: I deserve this this seat in a legislature, and we
16:27
Speaker 3: only do that for folks like Patrick Kennedy.
16:28
Speaker 1: Okay, like that's yeah.
16:31
Speaker 3: Patrick Kennedy got elected to the Rhode Island State Legislature
16:34
Speaker 3: as a junior in college, knocking off an incumbent Democrat
16:37
Speaker 3: because his.
16:38
Speaker 1: Dad wanted him to have it.
16:39
Speaker 3: That's, you know, we're not in that era anymore, and
16:41
Speaker 3: I'm glad, so I hope Kennedy's go off and do
16:44
Speaker 3: new things with your life. Go You're you're you're very wealthy,
16:47
Speaker 3: You're very privileged to get you know, near automatic acceptance
16:50
Speaker 3: to all the top schools in the country.
16:52
Speaker 1: Do something in your.
16:53
Speaker 3: Life beyond expecting to inherit seats in Congress. It's just,
16:58
Speaker 3: you know, you've got a million opportunities. Running the country
17:01
Speaker 3: really is going to be one of them anymore. So
17:03
Speaker 3: I came out of last night primary is feeling pretty good. Greg.
17:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jim. Even if you go to the era of
17:07
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight with RFK, you're looking at seventy nine
17:11
Speaker 2: year olds as the youngest who could have participated in that.
17:14
Speaker 2: So definitely a bygone era. By the way, Joe Wilson
17:17
Speaker 2: was wrong to shout, but he was right that Obama
17:19
Speaker 2: was lying about tax dollars going to pay for health
17:22
Speaker 2: care for illegals. Anyway, different story for a different day.
17:25
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Speaker 2: dot com code three m L. All right, Je, moving
18:36
Speaker 2: away from election results to policy proposals here, But I
18:39
Speaker 2: think the upcoming elections are playing into this, at least
18:42
Speaker 2: in terms of one person who's proposing this idea. There's
18:45
Speaker 2: a new op ed from Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno
18:49
Speaker 2: and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Bernie, there's your first
18:53
Speaker 2: problem right there. Whatever Elizabeth Warren is proposing is probably
18:57
Speaker 2: the one you want to take a very long look
18:59
Speaker 2: at before or jumping in publicly, if you jump in
19:02
Speaker 2: at all. But they are focused on one of the
19:05
Speaker 2: things we talked about before, Jen one on vacation, and
19:08
Speaker 2: that is that a new report from the trustees who
19:10
Speaker 2: oversee the Social Security Trust funds shows they are running
19:13
Speaker 2: out of money unless Congress acts. They say, the fund
19:16
Speaker 2: from which most Social Security beneficiaries are paid will be
19:19
Speaker 2: significantly depleted by late twenty thirty two, and after that
19:22
Speaker 2: social Security benefits could be cut by more than twenty percent.
19:26
Speaker 2: So what is the idea from Moreno and Warren lifting
19:29
Speaker 2: the Social Security payroll tax cap? They point out that
19:33
Speaker 2: right now the taxable maximum for Social Security at six
19:36
Speaker 2: point two percent is one hundred eighty four thousand, five
19:39
Speaker 2: hundred dollars in wages. So at six point two for
19:43
Speaker 2: your employer, at six point two for you as an employee,
19:45
Speaker 2: or if you're self employed, it's twelve point four percent,
19:47
Speaker 2: because you're both right, And they say today the maximum
19:50
Speaker 2: social Security withholding for one worker is twenty two thousand,
19:53
Speaker 2: eight hundred and seventy eight dollars, or twelve point four
19:56
Speaker 2: percent of that one hundred eighty four thousand, five hundred
19:59
Speaker 2: and so some people are saying, yeah, why shouldn't the
20:02
Speaker 2: rich pay the same percentage regardless of how much they make.
20:06
Speaker 2: Other people are pointing out, you know a lot of
20:09
Speaker 2: small businesses file taxes as individuals, and if they have
20:13
Speaker 2: to double, who knows how much they would have to
20:15
Speaker 2: pay in Social Security. A lot of these businesses could
20:18
Speaker 2: flounder businesses have to pay more in taxes. Guess who
20:21
Speaker 2: has to pay more at those businesses. That would be us.
20:24
Speaker 1: Greg.
20:24
Speaker 3: If I said to you a year ago that in
20:26
Speaker 3: June twenty twenty six, Elizabeth Warren is going to propose
20:29
Speaker 3: a social Security plan that's going to involve raising taxes
20:33
Speaker 3: a lot. She's going to co sponsor it with a
20:34
Speaker 3: senator named Bernie. How much would you have bet that
20:38
Speaker 3: I bet Sanders and not Moreno, I suspect it would
20:41
Speaker 3: be a considerable amount of money. Look, my colleague Rameshpereneurro
20:46
Speaker 3: points out that like look, under this plan, the top
20:48
Speaker 3: federal tax rate goes from thirty seven percent.
20:50
Speaker 1: To forty nine point four percent, the government taking half
20:54
Speaker 1: of what you make.
20:55
Speaker 3: Top tax rate hasn't risen that fast since the nineteen thirties.
20:59
Speaker 3: The more a social security plan relies on taxes, the
21:02
Speaker 3: lesson relies on benefit restraint, the worst the effects are
21:04
Speaker 3: on economic growth. And while the cap on soil security
21:07
Speaker 3: taxes the common feature of advanced country's pension systems, the
21:10
Speaker 3: US already taxes high income earners more heavily than most
21:13
Speaker 3: countries do. Do you and I want to see somebody
21:15
Speaker 3: do something about social security? Yes, we've been We've been
21:17
Speaker 3: doing this podcast fifteen years, that's going on sixteen and
21:21
Speaker 3: during this time, the preferred answer has been to not
21:24
Speaker 3: pay any attention to it, not do anything about it.
21:27
Speaker 3: It hits the it hits the limit. In twenty thirty two,
21:30
Speaker 3: if you had elected to the Senate this year. It's
21:32
Speaker 3: going to happen on your term. You know, we always
21:33
Speaker 3: say we're gonna deal with it later. We are rapidly
21:35
Speaker 3: running out of later. However, if you look at this
21:38
Speaker 3: and you say, well, the more we have to do
21:40
Speaker 3: is just raise taxes, no, No, there's all kinds of
21:42
Speaker 3: bad reasons to you know, not want to raise taxes.
21:44
Speaker 1: Warren Buffett is collecting Social Security? Does he need that?
21:47
Speaker 3: No?
21:47
Speaker 1: I think he's fine. I think it's gonna be okay.
21:49
Speaker 3: Could we start with somebody like him and say, yeah,
21:52
Speaker 3: I know it feels kind of unfair to pay into
21:54
Speaker 3: a system and then not get it. But on the
21:55
Speaker 3: other hand, your name Warren Buffett, You're going to be fine,
21:58
Speaker 3: you know. Could you start at the very up and
22:00
Speaker 3: then could we kind of start gradually bringing down the
22:03
Speaker 3: threshold in which the government says you have surpassed a network,
22:06
Speaker 3: Like is a billion too high? I think that, I
22:09
Speaker 3: think is five hundred million too high? Is that going
22:12
Speaker 3: to solve the problem.
22:13
Speaker 1: No, But at least we.
22:14
Speaker 3: Would establish the principle that, yes, the government can say
22:17
Speaker 3: your net worth has exceeded it.
22:19
Speaker 1: We will because here's the thing. The people who.
22:20
Speaker 3: Are paying into social Security. No, by the way, don't
22:23
Speaker 3: buy it. There's no trust fund, there's no block box.
22:27
Speaker 3: I can't do it nearly as well as Gray can.
22:28
Speaker 3: But like, this is one of those things, like the
22:30
Speaker 3: money goes out as fast as it comes in, and
22:33
Speaker 3: as long as you have a whole lot of workers
22:34
Speaker 3: and not so many retirees, that'll work out. Okay, we
22:37
Speaker 3: have the baby boomers retire. The baby boomers are retired.
22:40
Speaker 3: We've been warning about that for a long time. They're retiring.
22:43
Speaker 3: And while everyone in a while we have something like
22:45
Speaker 3: COVID come along that kills off the elderly, we can't
22:48
Speaker 3: count on that every year, despite the best efforts of
22:50
Speaker 3: Chinese labs, and old people are going to keep living.
22:53
Speaker 3: They need their Social Security benefits. You can't just say
22:56
Speaker 3: we're not going to keep paying them so at minimum.
22:58
Speaker 3: This is basically a wealth transfer from the young and
23:01
Speaker 3: working to the old and retired. And let's face it,
23:04
Speaker 3: the net worth of retirees is generally higher than young
23:06
Speaker 3: people because they've had their whole careers to start building
23:09
Speaker 3: up savings. By the way, social Security is called supplemental
23:12
Speaker 3: security insurance supplemental. It's not supposed to be the only
23:15
Speaker 3: thing that you defend on. And I've been saying this,
23:18
Speaker 3: lots of people have been saying this for decades, and
23:20
Speaker 3: Americans do not care. Americans say no, I'm going to
23:23
Speaker 3: say nothing for insurance, and then I'm goen it can
23:24
Speaker 3: be completely dependent on Social Security. And then when I
23:26
Speaker 3: say it's not too much, I'm gonna say, oh, it's
23:28
Speaker 3: so unfair. Wise of the government paying more. This is
23:31
Speaker 3: bailing out the voters who are most likely to show
23:33
Speaker 3: up and vote in midterm elections and off your elections
23:36
Speaker 3: and all that stuff, and.
23:37
Speaker 1: Screwing over the voters who show up the least. I'm
23:39
Speaker 1: talking to you, young listeners that one.
23:42
Speaker 3: Of those recognition that like this is what a reflection
23:45
Speaker 3: of the people who show up and will vote in
23:47
Speaker 3: elections have their needs catered to. But this is like
23:50
Speaker 3: a you know, gold plated offering to retirees. It is
23:53
Speaker 3: screwing over workers who are in younger workers. It basically
23:56
Speaker 3: is a formula for an even slower rate of economic growth.
23:59
Speaker 3: I have no idea why bernerd Marino is signing on
24:01
Speaker 3: to this, but you know there must be something in
24:03
Speaker 3: his numbers. It says, ah, you know, Ohioan's they really
24:06
Speaker 3: love Elizabeth Warren and her groundbreaking, innovative edgy approach to finances.
24:11
Speaker 2: My suspicion is is that he knows that Ohio shifted
24:15
Speaker 2: more red with Trump because of his populist approach. Shared
24:19
Speaker 2: Brown brings a populist approach from the left. This is
24:21
Speaker 2: kind of a populist approach. Hey, why aren't those rich
24:24
Speaker 2: paying more? And so he's trying to cut off shared
24:26
Speaker 2: Brown's efforts to take the populist lane here, that's my guest.
24:30
Speaker 3: But it really isn't because it's actually, you know, taking
24:32
Speaker 3: care of a demographic that is much more well off
24:35
Speaker 3: than working Americans right now.
24:36
Speaker 2: It makes no sense, but I think that's his logic.
24:38
Speaker 2: It's bad logic, but that's where we are. Nonetheless, all right, well,
24:43
Speaker 2: one of the best ways to make sure that you
24:45
Speaker 2: have a long and illustrious retirement first of all, save well,
24:50
Speaker 2: invest well, and then also take care of your health,
24:52
Speaker 2: make sure you're around to enjoy it. And with that,
24:55
Speaker 2: let's turn to a g one. Summer is great because
24:58
Speaker 2: schedules in many cases go out the window. Oh, you
25:00
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25:02
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25:06
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 2: com slash three m L. All right, Jim, we haven't
26:27
Speaker 2: talked about the main Senate race, at least in a
26:28
Speaker 2: little while. We talked about it obviously in the wake
26:30
Speaker 2: of the primary on June ninth and Platiner easily coasting
26:34
Speaker 2: to the nomination. We've talked about him a lot, and
26:37
Speaker 2: I think, in addition to just the train wreck that
26:40
Speaker 2: he is in so many different ways personally and ideologically,
26:43
Speaker 2: perhaps the biggest surprise, or at least biggest disappointment is
26:47
Speaker 2: how many mainstream Democrats are like, well, we need that
26:50
Speaker 2: Senate seat, so I guess he's our guy, so sure
26:54
Speaker 2: In a ninde Gate interviewed and they're like, well, sure, sure,
26:57
Speaker 2: I believe the accusers. I believe everything there, but look,
27:01
Speaker 2: we got to get to fifty one. So that's the
27:03
Speaker 2: whole thing. It's all about the power. These are people
27:06
Speaker 2: who for years, in really decades, have called people on
27:09
Speaker 2: the right Nazis or fascists or whatever. Donald Trump gets
27:13
Speaker 2: accused of that all the time. Ice is the Gestapo, right,
27:17
Speaker 2: George W. Bush was called Nazi on a regular basis.
27:19
Speaker 2: They don't remember that anymore because now they.
27:22
Speaker 1: Should be mc Bushitlerla Burt.
27:24
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so, I mean the obvious word for this
27:28
Speaker 2: Jim is hypocrite, but you know that kind of gets
27:30
Speaker 2: lost in the sauce. So yesterday I thought of this term.
27:33
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if it's gonna stick or if it's
27:36
Speaker 2: just a dad joke. But when you look at the
27:38
Speaker 2: Democrats who look at Platner and they'll excuse the Nazi tattoo,
27:43
Speaker 2: they'll excuse the socialist approach and you know, the you know,
27:47
Speaker 2: Nazi adjacent thoughts that he's had over the years, and
27:51
Speaker 2: instead of condemning that and saying we can't get behind that,
27:53
Speaker 2: they play foot see with that candidate. And I think
27:56
Speaker 2: the proper term of the proper diagnosis is and or fasciitis.
28:01
Speaker 3: NA say, okay, listeners should know before we tape Greg's like,
28:06
Speaker 3: I got this joke. I don't know if it's gonna work.
28:08
Speaker 3: I think it's pretty good. I think Platner humor can
28:11
Speaker 3: go way darker. For a moment ago, you'd said much
28:15
Speaker 3: much like the ink on his skin, it can get
28:17
Speaker 3: pretty darn dark. You know, you said a moment ago
28:20
Speaker 3: that he's a train wreck of a candidate. We should
28:21
Speaker 3: be clear the training question is a box car. Now
28:25
Speaker 3: when he says Collins and Fetterman are controlled by Apex,
28:29
Speaker 3: you know who else contended the Jews controlled society, a
28:32
Speaker 3: particular figure in Germany back in the nineteen thirties, and
28:35
Speaker 3: things like that. He also liked to say about how he,
28:38
Speaker 3: in his mind, any billionaire who even thought about tv ads,
28:42
Speaker 3: you know, be put into jail. You know who else
28:44
Speaker 3: believe in jailing his opponents and putting them in camps
28:47
Speaker 3: in prisons without with that, hmm, how else do I know?
28:50
Speaker 3: It is a little unnerving that this guy keeps making
28:54
Speaker 3: arguments that are kind of sort of fascist sounding if
28:58
Speaker 3: you think about what he's saying wants to do. I've
29:02
Speaker 3: seen a whole bunch of people who say, honest to God,
29:04
Speaker 3: they've made this argument.
29:05
Speaker 1: Jim other than the tattoo. What makes you think he's
29:08
Speaker 1: a Nazi?
29:09
Speaker 3: Oh you mean other than the SS Concentration camp logo
29:12
Speaker 3: that he had over his heart for eighteen years?
29:15
Speaker 1: Do I have anything else that thinks he might be
29:17
Speaker 1: a Nazi?
29:18
Speaker 3: I have a very hard time believing that you make
29:21
Speaker 3: that selection and keep it as a self professed history buff,
29:26
Speaker 3: and numerous people have said describing he called it his
29:29
Speaker 3: tot and cough. Not just ex girlfriends, but also his
29:32
Speaker 3: former campaign manager said I've got a troublesome tattoo before
29:35
Speaker 3: he said, oh I just discover Oh my goodness, who
29:38
Speaker 3: do I know? I also point out that like it
29:40
Speaker 3: took him like several weeks to take it off, because
29:42
Speaker 3: I've asked you before, Greg, if you found out that
29:44
Speaker 3: you accidentally got a Nazi tattoo, how many traffic laws
29:48
Speaker 3: would you violate on your way to get it laser scan?
29:51
Speaker 3: Or would you just take up a knife and cut
29:53
Speaker 3: it off right then and there? But he guy just
29:57
Speaker 3: keeps saying how he wants to put people in jail
29:59
Speaker 3: for their view. Like, I think, at minimum this guy
30:02
Speaker 3: was neo Nazi curious in.
30:03
Speaker 1: His younger days.
30:04
Speaker 3: And if you were that category, not only do I
30:07
Speaker 3: not want you in elected office. I don't want you
30:09
Speaker 3: to operate heavy machinery. Everybody to the right of Lincoln
30:13
Speaker 3: Shafey has been called a Nazi at some point in
30:15
Speaker 3: their lives and being active in politics. The one person
30:18
Speaker 3: Democrats are absolutely certain is not a Nazi is the
30:21
Speaker 3: guy who had a toten kof tattoo for all those years.
30:23
Speaker 2: He's had quite a run here, and he's even had
30:25
Speaker 2: quite a week because he was talking about universal healthcare
30:27
Speaker 2: and he so it's one of the reasons he loves
30:29
Speaker 2: it is because he really appreciated all the STD tests
30:32
Speaker 2: he got at the health clinics and when he was younger.
30:34
Speaker 1: So, Greg, you know who else had STDs.
30:42
Speaker 2: Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.
30:45
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
30:47
Speaker 2: sure to subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Podcast if
30:49
Speaker 2: you don't already, tell your friends about us as well.
30:51
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30:54
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30:56
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31:04
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