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Private Jets and Ranch Towns · I Believe

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to I Believe, where we talk about America.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Joel Douglas, and I believe in America.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining me.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Snow covered the pines through the valley, aspens hanging on to their brown, gold, and yellow leaves.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Many had already fallen.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Cold air and heavy clouds clung to the mountains.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Some white still falling, the snow on the ground reflected a little blue from the sky.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: The valley and peaks looked gray blue.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: In Saratoga, a small mountain ranching town in Wyoming, a row of nice SUVs lined the fence at the town airport.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: About half of them had snow on them.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: A nearby luxury resort brings guests in by private aircraft.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Every day, hardworking people drive by and see it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: They live in the town.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: They work in the businesses that make a place like this possible.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: When they look at their own lives, what reason do they have to believe that the person they elected to represent them takes their welfare as seriously as the welfare of the people flying in?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: That question is the argument about affordability.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: People can judge their leaders by whether those leaders attempt to achieve the national goals, even if they don't consciously think in those terms.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: They expect justice.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: They expect their government to concern itself with their welfare.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: And when they believe their leaders have overlooked them in favor of somebody else, they feel betrayed.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: That same day, Greg Ipp raised a related question in the Wall Street Journal.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: He wrote, All politicians in their gut believe voters can be bought.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yet the puzzling thing is that shoveling money at voters has a terrible electoral track record.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: A government can help people, and people can reward it for helping them.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: A family that receives meaningful help has good reason to value it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: But that help doesn't settle the larger question of how their leaders have governed.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: A family can appreciate a tax cut and still believe the government has treated them unfairly.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Need the money and still judge the leader who offers it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Accept help while wondering why they need so much of it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Inflation, business survival, tariffs, energy costs.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Prices this September were 3.7% higher than a year ago.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Raises come slower than inflation, and hardworking people lose purchasing power.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Producer inflation came in even higher, up 6.3% over the same year.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Things like energy, food, manufactured supplies, services.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Businesses have to survive, and they have a responsibility to pay their labor.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: They need revenue to do it, and they need profit to keep investing and operating.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: If a business can't cover its costs, at some point it has to make the numbers make sense, and labor ends up getting cut.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Bottom line: the business owner needs affordable inputs, the worker, a wage that will support a family, the farmer, a viable market, and the family buying groceries needs food it can afford.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Enough economics.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is a leadership topic.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: What responsibility does government have toward the people living with the consequences of its decisions?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Our national goals give elected leaders a heading.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: We have six union, justice, order, defense, general welfare, and liberty.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: We disagree about how to achieve them, but we elect people to exercise judgment within those disagreements.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: The goals seem independent, but that's not the case.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: They're intertwined.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Calls for justice turn into protests, protests into riots, and people call for order.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Some justify war by calling for blood for defense, and war raises the cost of life for families and threatening welfare.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Union holds us together.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Liberty creates factions that pull us apart.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Serving one goal can put another at risk.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes serving the country means asking people to accept hardship.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Those who have to sacrifice should have good reason to believe that their welfare still counts.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Did protecting the American homeland require Americans to pay significantly more to heat their homes and transport goods?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Who carries that cost?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: Congress made choices in the one big beautiful bill.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: It paired tax cuts with reductions in Medicaid and food assistance.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Households at the bottom lost resources, households at the top gained.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: The leaders who made these choices owe the people carrying the burden an explanation.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: How does their sacrifice serve justice and welfare?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: If the promise is that investment will create jobs and raise wages, when should those families expect to benefit?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: And what will their leaders do if they don't?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: The people deserve a response from the people who ask them to bear the cost.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Is this necessary for the common defense?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: What about the impact to the general welfare?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: When leaders ignore them, they betray the people, and that obligation has no party allegiance.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: In November, the people will judge those choices.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, six national goals that most Americans can't recite and may not even know.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: No matter, they're ingrained in the national consciousness.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: We judge leaders by their attempt to achieve the national goals, even when we never consciously put the judgment into those words.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: When a leader abandons that effort in favor of someone in a private jet in a ranch town, the betrayal falls fresh as the new snow.