Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Democrats Kill your Spirit—How Biden, Warren & Buttigieg Destroyed Spirit Air

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Democrats Kill your Spirit—How Biden, Warren & Buttigieg Destroyed Spirit Air · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Center, Ted Kruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Senator as we are doing this show. It was a
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: pretty crazy week for airline fires, especially if you were
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: on Spirit Airlines. This was a crisis that was created
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: by the prior administration. They had been struggling for a
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: while and there was a bailout in essence in the
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: private sector with Jet Blue merger and guests who stopped it. Yeah,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: the Biden administration and Americans need to know this story.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: It's really important.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Well, it is now an objective fact that Democrats kill
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: your Spirit.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: That of course.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Means Spirit Airlines. As of this week, seventeen thousand employees
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: have lost their jobs. Now, look, Spirit was always an
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: ultra budget airlines. They always had challenges in their business model.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Those challenges resulted in for years Spirit losing money and
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: their customer service has been consistently at the very bottom
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: of airlines. All that being said, in twenty twenty four,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Spirit had a plan to survive and the plan was
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: to merge with Jet Blue. Jet Blue is another budget airline,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: but unlike Spirit, jet Blue actually manages to provide pretty
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: decent customer service, and both Jet Blue and Spirit believed
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: combined they would be a much more effective competitor and
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: able to turn a profit. And in fact, Spirit Airlines
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: believe the only way Spirit could survive is if it
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: merged with Jet Blue. Well that would have happened, except
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: then the Democrats came along to kill it. Elizabeth Warren
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: led the charge saying we must stop Jet Blue and
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Spirit for merging. Pete Boodhajetge led the charge, Merrick Garland
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: led the charge, and Joe Biden led the charge, and
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: they succeeded in blocking the merger. And now this week's
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Spirit has gone totally bankrupt, which is what they said
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: would happen if they were not allowed to merge with
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Jed Blue, and seventeen thousand people have lost their jobs.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: We're going to break it all down for you on
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: today's pod.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an incredible story. And before we get into that,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I want to just talk to you about the International
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the incredible work that they're
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: doing to help people in Israel right now, and so
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: many of you that have gotten involved, number one, thank you,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: But there's still a lot of work to get done,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and for many of you that haven't gotten involved. This
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: is your moment where you can have a huge impact
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: on people's lives in Israel. All right, I want to
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: take a moment and I want to talk to you
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: about the incredible impact that you can have for the
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: people of Israel. Right now, Right now, our Jewish friends
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: are feeling forgotten. There's a Jewish woman named Esther I'd
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: like to tell you about, and her home is in Israel.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Esther is living through days and nights of fear. Sirens
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: are sounding, rockets screaming through the sky, long stretches spent
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: in a bomb shelter. She's eighty four years old. Esther
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: is elderly. She's fragile and all alone. Now imagine that,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: no help, no food deliveries, no medical care, no one
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: knocking at the door. It's a war zone. But because
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: of friends like you, Esther is not alone now through
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: the IFCJ, they are there, bringing her food, meeting her
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: urgent needs, and reminding Jewish people like Esther you are
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: not forgotten in times of fear and uncertainty. Your compassion
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: brings hope and real help. Esther asks that you hear
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: these words quote to those who give you are doing
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: a very great mitzvah, A good deed you give from
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: your heart. May God protect you.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Friends.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I want you to know your gift to God's people
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: is truly hope giving and life saving. So if you've
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: not gotten involved with the IFCJ, please do it now
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: and don't wait. Call eight eight eight four eight eight
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: IFCJ right now. That's eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Or go to IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: All right, Senator, So let's get back to the history
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: of Spirit Airlines. There was a very interesting post and
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it went viral on x and an individual just said
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Spirit Airlines died tonight the hands of socialist crusader Elizabeth Warren.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: She must be proud to add another casket to her achievements.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Tonight at three am, Spirit turn off the lights. Fourteen
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: thousand jobs directly gone, thirty plus smaller airports loss service.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: We now know those numbers are way bigger of the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: number of job losses not just direct but indirect. And
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to go back and remind the American people, JetBlue offered
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: three point eight billion in cash to buy Spirit in
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. The shareholders the fly Right Attendant union.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Literally everyone involved voted yes. The combined company would have
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: held nine percent of the US market against the Big
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: four that already owned eighty percent. And they were saying, oh,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: this could create a monopoly. All right, those numbers don't
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: add up to a monopoly. Elizabeth Warren led the charges
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: you mentioned. She said no, She wrote letters, She pressured
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Mayor Pete Botajeedge, who was then in charge of the
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Department Transportation, then the Biden Department of Justice suit. A
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: federal judge killed the deal in January of twenty twenty four.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Her argument was simple, the merger would cost consumers a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: billion a year. Will now look at the collateral damage.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: This is the fault of the left who doesn't understand business,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: and these socialists like Elizabeth Warren, in my opinion.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Well and understood.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Spirit Airlines was offered three point eight billion dollars just
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: two years ago.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: That would have been the difference.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: It could well have been the difference between surviving and
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: going under. And yet as a result of Elizabeth Warren
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: and Pete Boodh Judge and Joe Biden, Spirit got zero.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You look at.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Spirit and Jet Blue are two of the smallest players
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: in the entire arena. They're competing against much bigger airlines,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: and so they were trying to come together to have
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: some scale to be a more effective competitor. When the
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Biden administration blocked the merger, Elizabeth Warren celebrated. Here's what
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: she tweeted out quote, I've warned for months that a
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Jet Blue, Spirit Airlines merger would have led to fewer
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: flights and higher fares. The US Department of Transportation was
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I got to say that last sentence. She's absolutely accurate.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: This is a Biden win for flyers. You want to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: see what a Biden win is. It is seventeen thousand
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: people losing their jobs. It is small communities losing the
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: air travel that was going into and out of those communities,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: and it is less competition, which means ticket prices will rise. Altogether,
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: it is a disaster for consumers, which is exactly what
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: a Biden win for flyers is. Now, today, I guess
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Elizabeth Warren realizes that there's a problem, that this is
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: not not good. So today she's tweeting something different. Now
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: she is tweeting the big four airlines American, Delta, Southwest,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: United controls seventy five percent of the US market. Fewer
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: choices equals higher prices for you. Now once again, her
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: last sentence is exactly You're exactly right. Fewer choices equals
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: higher prices for you. And guess what, Elizabeth Warren just
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: gave you. Fewer choices, which means higher is for you.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: This is misguided government control, and sadly it has real consequences.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: You know, it was going viral, the last Spirit Airline
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: flight to be actually carrying passengers, and the official sign
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: if it came into Texas and the DFW airport, the
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: flight attendants or airtrip control, I should say, they even said, Hey,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: we wish you guys luck, you know, after an airline
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: that's been around for quite some time, and you know,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: we feel for you guys. It's not just the seventeen
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: thousand jobs that you mentioned directly. That was just the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: people in Spirit uniforms. The catering people they're gone, the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: fuel guys they've lost their job. The baggage crews for
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: those airplanes they're gone. The gate agents they're gone. The airport,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: coffee shops, the hotels, the rental cars, and seventy series
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: cities at Spirit Flutuo. That's going to change every airline
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: job they say carries three more on its back, so
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: in infrastructure because of that one job in the industry.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: So you're now talking about an honest number of about
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: forty plus thousand people that are either out of work
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: or are basically losing major income, all because Elizabeth Warren's
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: insane crusade against you know this quote consolidation when she
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: just doesn't understand business or the math. Spirit Not only
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: now you talk about the other fallout center, and that
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: is Spirit abandoned ninety routes during the death spiral. Fars
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: on those routes went up about fifteen percent on average.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Oakland to Newark, for example, went from one thirty five
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: to two eighty eight. Fort Myers of San Juan went
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: from ninety two dollars to two hundred nineteen. Kansas City
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: to New York went up sixty six percent. So now
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: every consumer out there is probably going to be paying
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: a lot more money because of her not understanding.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Business well and Elizabeth Warren spin and we're seeing this
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: repeated by a lot of the corporate media. She tweeted
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: out this week quote spiking fuel prices from Trump's war
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: was the nail in the coffin for twice bankrupted Spirit
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Airline and their whole spin on this as well, it's
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: entirely because of fuel prices and that's because of Trump.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: And look understand their talking point as always everything bad
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: is because of Trump. It is true that fuel cut
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: prices have gone up during this military conflict with Iran,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: a military conflict that I believe is making America substantially safer.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Fuel prices go up.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: They go down. That is part of running an airline.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Every other airline is dealing with fuel prices going up.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: And ask yourself one question, would Spirit be better or
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: worse dealing with higher fuel prices if it had merged
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: with Jet Blue and had an additional.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Three point eight billion dollars?
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Now, that is a question that answers itself is obvious. Now, Look,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: is it possible that even if Spirit and Jet Blue
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: had merged that they might ultimately not survive. Sure, that's possible,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: but the odds of the combined company surviving are much
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: much higher. And now, because Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Pete Budhajeedge jumped in and killed it. Spirit is gone
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and I want you to listen to Pete Boodajedge cheering
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: on their efforts to block this merger.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Give a listen.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Our department, the Department of Transportation, has generally not gotten
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: involved in these merger cases, but that's changing today. It
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: is so important to make sure that passengers have choices,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: that they have access to low fares, that they have
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: access to competition, and yet we've seen less and less
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: and less of that competition over the years. We are
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: taking a step that again is unusual in terms of
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: recent years, but we think is the right thing to do,
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: supporting the DOJ's lawsuit and independently using our own authorities
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: which are a little bit different from the DOJ, starting
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: our own investigation and taking other actions.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: This is again goes back to when you don't understand business,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and you don't understand what's happening in the marketplace, you
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: go and you look. There was studies that were done
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: talking about cheap carriers and markets drop fares by an
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: average of twenty one percent across the board. Southwest, by
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: the Way did this in the nineties. They saved Americans
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: about sixty eight billion over twenty years in fares, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Warren killed it and said, oh, I'm giving you
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: more choice. Well, do we have more or less choice today?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Are we closer further away from a monopoly? Senator, you
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: already answered those two questions well.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Pete Budajedge further tweeted in twenty twenty three, quote, Americans
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: deserve robust competition and affordable airfares, you asked. Department of
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Transfer Tation supports DOJ's antifrust lawsuit, and we plan to
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: deny the Jet Blue Spirit request for an exemption on
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: their merger deal. We will continue with our own investigation
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: while supporting DOJ's work. Now that policy obviously failed. It
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: was a disaster. And by the way, if you're not
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: inclined to believe me on this, maybe you would believe
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Near Attendon. So who was near attended Near attended as
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: a Democrat, she was the head of the Domestic Policy
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Council in the Biden White House. So she is a
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: senior policy person in the Biden White House. Here's what
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: she tweeted this week. Quote, given the news today that
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Spirit Airlines is shuddering and thousands of people are losing
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: their jobs. I think we should honestly assess whether the
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Garland DOJ stopping the Jet Blue.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Merger with Spirit Airlines was the right call.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Perhaps it was, but any analysis must consider as part
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: of the equation the loss to so many families to decide.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Look to her credit.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: That is now I think she got some real pushback
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: as Democrats scream no, no, no, no reason allowed, because
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: then she put a second comment. Lord, of course Trump's
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: war was the Spirit Airlines killer. Here, I'm simply asking
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: if we should assess all the evidence. I'm expecting the
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: third tweet to be I have now been located to
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: witness protection because no Democrat is allowed to dissent on anything,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: but good for her for a moment. She hasn't as
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: of right now, deleted the tweet. It is kind of amusing.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: The first one was sent at five point fifty four am,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: and then the clarification, Oh no, no, no, it wasn't US,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: it was Trump. It was Trump was at ten thirty
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: nine am. Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: That's actually got a lot of heat from people, right.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, enormous heat.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: You're not allowed to say anything remotely, honest, remotely re Instead,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: it is a partisan line. Is the only thing that
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: that is acceptable.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: You you go back to when this merger and it
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: was it was an issue, right and and they decide
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: to flex their muscles. I'm still trying to understand exactly
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: why they thought this was a good idea. Who was
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: behind it? That's the other question I have. Or or
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: is it just that they genuinely have no idea how
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the private sector works? Or is this just socialism and
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the way that they do socialism where they're just like, oh,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: we get involved in anything to flex our muscles and
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: show you our power because we think government is better
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: than everybody else.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's they have very little understanding basic
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: economics and they believe government power is always the right answer.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: While Spirit and Jet Blue were litigating to merge, here's
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: what they said. They said, quote, we continue to believe
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: that our combination is the best opportunity to increase much
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: needed competition and choice by bringing low fares and great
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: service to more customers in more markets, while enhancing our
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: ability to compete with the dominant US carriers. And look,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: often when you have a couple of giant providers. By
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the way, there was chatter last month about United and
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: American merging. I think that would be terrible. Those are
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: both major and dominant providers, and they quickly abandoned that.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: American put out a public statement saying we're not interested
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: in merging with United. That merger would unquestionably have run
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: into real antitrust concerns, because when you have dominant market
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: players combining, that's what the antitrust laws are designed for.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: In this instance, you had two relatively small players in
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: the most vulnerable position wanting to join forces so that
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: they could be more effective competitors against the big guys.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: The anti trust law is actually designed to allow that
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: and even encourage that. And yet the federal judge and
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: in Boston, Massachusetts, who entered the order blocking the merger,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: wrote the following quote. While it is understandable that JetBlue
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: seeks inorganic growth through acquisition of aircraft that would eliminate
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: one of its primary competitors, the proposed acquisition, in this
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: court's attempt to predict the future in murky times, does
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: violence to the core principle of antitrust law to protect
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: the United States's markets and its market participants from anti
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: competitive harm. Now let me stop right there and We're
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: going to get a little bit wonky on two things.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Number One, what the court said, which was repeating what
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: the Biden DOJ had said to it is flat out
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: wrong as to the purpose of anti trust law, anti
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: trust law is not designed to protect market participants from
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: anti can competitive harm. It is designed to protect consumers.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: That is a very different concept. So when democrats are
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: in charge, they want to use government to protect one
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: competitor from another. The purpose of the antitrust laws is
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: to protect consumers, and the way you do that is
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: by having robust competition. In this instance, JetBlue and Spirit
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: combined would have been a much more effective competitor than
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: the two splintered apart. And the anti trust analysis typically
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: looks at one of the central questions is what percentage
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: of the relevant market are the players that are seeking
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: to merge. The way that DOJ managed to hoodwink the
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: court into blocking the merger is they didn't define the
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: market as commercial air travel like in any normal world,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: That's what you would think. If I want to fly
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: from Houston and New York, my market is who can
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I go buy a ticket from that flies me there.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: That would be a normal way to assess it. So
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: then you would look at Jet Blue and Spirit and
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: you would compare them to American Delta, United Southwest, and
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: then that would be the market. And looking at it
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: that way, jet Blue and Spirit are really small players
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: in that. Well, what doj argut is no, no, no. The
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: argument is not airline travel. The market is not airline travel.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: The market is ultra budget airline travel. So it basically
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: defined the market as Jet Blue and Spirit, and that
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: it's said a well, gosh that if these two combine
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: there'd be no competition in the market. That is an
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: idiotic way to look at it. They literally hurt the
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: lowest cost competitors, and it is the presence of low
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: cost competitors and competitors fighting with each other that drives
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: down prices. And the consequence is they left the lowest
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: cost provider completely vulnerable. And by the way, this was
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: not a mystery. Both Spirit and Jet Blue were telling
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: them this over and over and over again. Do you
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: know what the Biden administration said when the merger was blocked?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: What'd they say?
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Attorney General Merrick Garland said the statement that the ruling
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: quote is a victory for tens of millions of travelers,
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: who would have faced higher fares and fewer choices had
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: the proposed merger between Jet Blue and Spirit been allowed
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: to go forward. Garland added that DOJ QUOTE will continue
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: to vigorously enforce the nation's antitrust laws to protect American consumers.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Now every word of that is gobbledegook and wrong, and
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: right now, seventeen thousand workers have lost their job and
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: American consumers are facing fewer choices and higher prices.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Love, generosity, and compassion. We say those words all the time,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: and they sound good, they feel good.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: But here's the truth.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Those words don't mean anything unless they turn into action,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: and right now, not later, today, not tomorrow. There's a
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: child in the world who doesn't know if they'll eat,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: if they'll have a chance to learn, or if there's
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: any hope at all. And while we're all busy, life
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: keeps moving forward, but that child is waiting. This is
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: where you come in with Compassion International. You have the
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: chance to change a child's future, not just with words,
• 21:41
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• 21:50
  Speaker 2: their community. Put your words into action and join me.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Introduce a child to a loving heavenly Father today at
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Compassion Die that's Compassion dot com. Let's talk about another
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: aspect of this, and it was the there was a
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: lot of you know, fodder online and there was a
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: lot of media reports that well, maybe America would would
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: give a government would give a bailout, we'd own you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: eighty ninety percent of the company, whatever the number was.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Ultimately that did not happen. Explain, I hear bailout and
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I always get real cringey. We've had some that have
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: been really good where we've gotten our money back as taxpayers,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: but in this scenario, there's many that say, you know what,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: it makes me really nervous. It did not happen. But
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: can you explain how the government getting involved with that
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: and and how that works and who's making that decision
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: of saying yes or no.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: So, this last week there was considerable discussion about the
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Trump administration potentially bailing out Spirit Airlines. And the bailout
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: that was being discussed was the federal government would give
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Spirit Airlines five hundred million dollars and an exchange for that,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: the federal government would own ninety percent of the airline.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: And there were differences of opinions within the administration on that.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: So the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy was vocally arguing
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: against that, saying that's a bad idea. Howard Lutnik, the
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Secretary of Commerce, was the one who was advocating this idea.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I publicly came out against it. I came out loudly.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: I sent a tweet a little over a week ago
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: that said the following quote, this is an absolutely terrible idea.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake, and the
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: government doesn't know a damn thing about running a failed
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: budget airline that the Biden administration killed. Now, when I
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: said that, I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: which has jurisdiction over re aviation. When I came out
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: against it, that got quite a bit of media, and
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: it prompted a number of other members of Congress spoke
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: out against it after I did so. I will tell you, Ben,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: that was my public statement. I also went so last
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: week I had dinner with Howard Ludnik. Howard is a friend.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: He and I worked together very very closely. He's the
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Secretary of Commerce, and the Commerce Committee is is the
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Senate committee that has jurisdiction over the Commerce Department. So
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: Howard and I had dinner last week, and a good
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: chunk of the dinner was spent discussing the potential Spirit bailout.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: And I will tell you one on one with Howard.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: It was just the two of us having dinner. I
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: leaned in really hard and said, this is an absolutely
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: horrible idea. Corporate bailouts are a bad, bad strategy. They
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: were a bad strategy when we did TARP. They're a
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: bad strategy when you had the government coming in and
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: bailing out giant corporation. But they're particularly bad when the
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: government doesn't know a damn thing about the business. And
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: so if we'd ended up giving five hundred million dollars
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: to Spirit and having the federal government own ninety percent
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: of Spirit Number one, I believe we would have lost
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: our money. In fact, I had said, somewhat cynically, a
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: better idea was simply to put five hundred million dollars
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: in a pile on the floor, pour gasoline on it,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: and light it, because then at least you'd get some warmth.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: You could like roast marshmallows by it. That would get
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: something positive and beneficial from it. But fundamentally, who in
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: their right mind thinks the federal government knows anything about
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: how you run an airline? How do you set pilot schedules,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: how do you run baggage handling? How do you make
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: sure somebody's suitcase that's headed to Pittsburgh doesn't end up
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: in Milwaukee?
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: How do you negotiate with.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Pilots unions, with with flight attendant unions, how do you
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: ensure safety?
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And all of that.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: The federal government doesn't know a blooming thing about it,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: And and it is a really dangerous road. Look, there
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: are some voices and some voices within the administration that
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: are pretty excited about the federal government taking ownership shares
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: in lots and lots of companies. I think that is
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: a really bad idea. And and and Ben, I'm going
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: to harken back to when I was a kid, when
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: I was in high school, and and you may recall
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I was I was part of a group in Houston
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: that that that was called the Constitutional Corroborators, And it
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: was started by this nonprofit in Houston called the Free
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Enterprise Education Center. And as high school kids, we studied
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: free market economics. We read Milton Friedman and Hayek and
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Bastiat and von Mises, and we studied the Constitution and
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: we ended up touring around Texas speaking on the Constitution.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: And it was five high school students. We would set
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: up easels and say we'd go to a Rotary club
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: or a Kawanas club or Alliance club, and folks would
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: be sitting there having lunch, and the five high school
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: students would set up easels and we would write from
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: memory the entire Constitution in shortened demonic form, and we
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: would write a definition of socialism, which is government ownership
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: or control of the means of distribution or production. And
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: the reason we wrote this, and this is what I
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: was doing at fourteen fifteen years old, is if you
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: don't know what it is, you can't identify it when
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: you have it. Well, the folks who are arguing the
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: federal government should own or control the means of production
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: and distribution and economy are directly arguing we should adopt
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: socialism for our economy.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: That is a really, really bad answer.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: And I think a budget airline made it obvious to
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: most observers. Look, there are limited circumstances, so, for example,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: in national security, areas where you're dealing with critical minerals
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: and rare earth minerals, where it makes sense to have
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: some government control because you because you need to be
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: able to ensure that we can defend our nation from
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: national security threats. But outside that very limited category, it
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: is a really dangerous slippery slope to start having the
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: government be a shareholder, and especially be the biggest shareholder
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: in major companies. That's how you lose the competitiveness. How
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: that's how you lose the incredible success of the American
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: for enterprise system.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is there. You know, when things like
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: this happen, I always go back to their real people
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: that are affected by it, and there's always, you know,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: people that are out without a job today. There's also
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: stories that come out of it that I think are amazing.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: The New York Post had this story, and I think
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: it's a great way to just wrap this up in
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: a human way. It said, Spirit Airlines pilot give an
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: emotional sendoff from rival airline after his retirement flight, which
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: is a huge deal when you're a pilot was cut
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: amid the shutdown. The Spirit Airline pilot received a hero
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: sendoff with the help of another Airline Captain John Jackson
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: was scheduled to fly one last time for Spirit into
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Baltimore Washington International on Saturday. When they ceased operations and
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: went out of business in the dead of the night.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Jackson was left stranded by the permanent shutdown. He hitched
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: a ride with Southwest Airlines in Fort Lauderdale. He rode
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: alongside his son, who was a first officer. And this
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: was the coolest part. It went online viral. They basically
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Southwest gave him the send off that he deserved. Southwest
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: put it up on their social media. It went to
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: well over one hundred thousand people that respond to it
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: very quickly. They showed him in the cockpit with his son.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: It was awesome, and I just got to say, even
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: when things like this happen, I do love seeing the
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: hearts of Americans and people that do this and gave
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: him a send off. The Southwest Airlines carry him. They
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: went under the Water Canyon salute after arriving at BWI.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I tell you it's awesome when you see things like
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: that happen. So to that retiring pilot he didn't get
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: his final flight job, well done to Southwest and thanks
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: for making that Guy's Day special.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Well, good for Southwest that that was the right thing
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: And I'll say Southwest is a great Texas company. American
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Airlines was also a great Texas company. You know, Texas
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: is is really a critical hub for aviation. And I'll
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: say I fly just about every airline all the time.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: I jokingly refer to Southwest as the company plane. Yet
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: you know, people ask sometimes they assume senators fly private
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: jets all around, and the vast majority of the time.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: You fly commercial and you fly coach.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: And so I tell people, I say, oh, yeah, I've
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: got a private jet. It's a seven thirty seven, and
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: it's with one hundred and thirty five of my closest
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: friends on Southwest. That's my private jet. But you know,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Southwest I think does a great job. And and that
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: was a very class move. I'm glad they honored the
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: spirit pilot who was retiring. I'm sorry that so many
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: other pilots are now out of a job. I think
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: many of them will end up getting hired by other airlines.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: But it's still an awful lot of pain and hurt
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: from the disastrous Biden economic policies.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's real life. This is going to affect people,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: and I hope you will pay attention to exactly what
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: brought this to become a reality and the disaster it
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: ended up being. Don't forget we do this show Monday,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Wednesday Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: you get your podcasts, and make sure you also foll
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: us on YouTube as well the Center. I will see
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: you back here on Wednesday morning.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Ye