Latest / Balance of Power / Trump Hits Campaign Trail in Nebraska, Plans Tax-Exempt Diesel Relief
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts.
- 0:05Speaker 2: Radio.
- 0:06Speaker 3: News.
- 0:09Speaker 4: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
- 0:12Speaker 4: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
- 0:15Speaker 4: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- 0:19Speaker 4: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
- 0:22Speaker 4: us live on YouTube.
- 0:25Speaker 5: In the state of Nebraska, right now, diesel on average
- 0:27Speaker 5: is just shy of the six-handle.
- 0:30Speaker 6: $ 5. 99.
- 0:30Speaker 5: 83 for diesel and $ 4. 21 for a regular gallon of
- 0:34Speaker 5: unleaded gas. And this is, of course, what President Trump
- 0:37Speaker 5: is trying to address as the White House, according to
- 0:39Speaker 5: Bloomberg's reporting, is preparing. to announce moves that target red-dyed
- 0:42Speaker 5: diesel in particular, making tax-exempt more fuel to go in
- 0:46Speaker 5: vehicles on the road, things like pickup trucks and semi-trucks
- 0:49Speaker 5: that move goods throughout the country, not just putting it
- 0:52Speaker 5: into the tractors and such things that help power the
- 0:55Speaker 5: agricultural sector already, Joe.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. The president on Truth Social as well.
- 1:00Speaker 7: Taking aim at Ukraine and at blue states, as Kayleigh
- 1:04Speaker 7: mentioned earlier, what's driving up gasoline, he writes, is no
- 1:06Speaker 7: longer the Strait of Hormuz. Because record numbers of barrels
- 1:09Speaker 7: are coming out now on an almost daily basis. But
- 1:12Speaker 7: the word refineries, where rushes are being blown up by
- 1:16Speaker 7: Ukraine and where ours are being closed up in blue
- 1:18Speaker 7: states like California by the Democrats, he says, as Kayleigh mentions,
- 1:24Speaker 7: this will likely be the focus of the president's remarks,
- 1:28Speaker 7: at least some of them, when he gets to Nebraska
- 1:31Speaker 7: a bit later on today, the issue of affordability. And,
- 1:33Speaker 7: of course, he'll be in an agricultural state where this
- 1:36Speaker 7: is something important. that is, of course, top of mind.
- 1:39Speaker 7: Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall joins us ahead of our
- 1:42Speaker 7: conversation with Mick Mulvaney with more on this.
- 1:46Speaker 1: She's live on the North Lawn of the White House.
- 1:49Speaker 7: Tyler, is this something the president will do or is
- 1:52Speaker 7: now doing when it comes to red-dyed diesel?
- 1:55Speaker 8: Well, Joe, our.
- 1:56Speaker 9: Understanding is he hasn't taken the firm action quite yet,
- 1:59Speaker 9: but it does seem likely, according to our reporting, that
- 2:02Speaker 9: he is going to move forward with this idea that
- 2:05Speaker 9: he will limit the restrictions related to red dye diesel.
- 2:10Speaker 9: This doesn't increase the actual supply of diesel, but it would,
- 2:13Speaker 9: in theory, increase. the consumers that are able to access
- 2:17Speaker 9: this tax-exempt diesel. It does mark the latest push by
- 2:21Speaker 9: this White House to try to curb costs as Republicans
- 2:23Speaker 9: continue to face the political headwind that voters are upset
- 2:27Speaker 9: about higher costs of living, and that is punctuated. by
- 2:31Speaker 9: these higher fuel costs. As Kayleigh already mentioned, diesel today,
- 2:34Speaker 9: national average for a gallon, $ 6. 32, while below the mid-September high,
- 2:40Speaker 9: we are still much, much higher than those pre-war levels.
- 2:45Speaker 9: Red dye diesel, as you guys outlined, in and of
- 2:47Speaker 9: itself is an interesting concept, right? It actually has that
- 2:50Speaker 9: dye in it that allows inspectors to go into fuel
- 2:53Speaker 9: tanks and check if the dye comes up. That would
- 2:56Speaker 9: then allow them in their tax exemption status to figure
- 3:00Speaker 9: out who is or is not complying with the law.
- 3:03Speaker 9: And if you don't, it actually carries some pretty hefty fines.
- 3:05Speaker 9: So there is a potential impact here. But we'll have
- 3:09Speaker 9: to see how quickly this could be implemented and how
- 3:11Speaker 9: far it would be implemented, because we know there is
- 3:14Speaker 9: a very tight timeline between now and Election Day for
- 3:17Speaker 9: consumers to really feel any impact when it comes to
- 3:21Speaker 9: to lowering fuel costs. And to your point, Joe and Kayleigh,
- 3:24Speaker 9: President Trump today in Nebraska, where of course we know
- 3:28Speaker 9: that red and rural states are feeling these higher diesel
- 3:31Speaker 9: prices particularly hard.
- 3:34Speaker 5: Well, and so on that trip to Nebraska, frankly, all
- 3:36Speaker 5: of the travel we've seen the president do over the
- 3:38Speaker 5: last several days, Tyler, and with the travel that is
- 3:41Speaker 5: yet to come as he promises to sweep across the
- 3:43Speaker 5: country in this final stretch ahead of the midterms, are
- 3:46Speaker 5: any of these areas other than Ohio on Saturday places
- 3:50Speaker 5: where President Trump's presence is going to make a difference?
- 3:55Speaker 5: Does Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, the incumbent there, need Trump
- 3:59Speaker 5: on the stage? Is he polling closely to his Democratic opponent?
- 4:03Speaker 9: It is closer than expected, Kayleigh, in Nebraska, but part
- 4:06Speaker 9: of that is due to the White House's own policies
- 4:09Speaker 9: when it comes to President Trump defending his action of
- 4:12Speaker 9: allowing foreign beef imports into the U.S. and another bid
- 4:16Speaker 9: by this White House to cut down on talks that
- 4:18Speaker 9: has made farmers and ranchers in Nebraska. pretty upset by
- 4:21Speaker 9: that policy. So it will be interesting to see how
- 4:25Speaker 9: President Trump sort of threads the needle on this one
- 4:27Speaker 9: as he tries to push that he's trying to lower costs. President,
- 4:31Speaker 9: as you mentioned, Ohio, we are expecting to go to
- 4:33Speaker 9: some other battleground states, including Michigan as well. But a
- 4:35Speaker 9: lot of these are red states where we are seeing
- 4:38Speaker 9: more time, money, and energy being poured into them. Also,
- 4:41Speaker 9: Kansas is, of course, on our radar. Interesting to see
- 4:44Speaker 9: that Vice President J.D. Vance had headed there in and
- 4:48Speaker 9: of itself, that a Democrat hasn't won a Senate seat
- 4:51Speaker 9: in Kansas since 1932. But, Kayleigh, as you all know,
- 4:54Speaker 9: this doesn't mean Democrats aren't facing their own headwinds when
- 4:57Speaker 9: it comes to some intraparty fighting around messaging, but also
- 5:00Speaker 9: the fact that The GOP has a massive fundraising advantage
- 5:04Speaker 9: at this point, and it looks like they're using it,
- 5:06Speaker 9: though they're using it in some of these stronghold states
- 5:09Speaker 9: that we weren't really expecting them to.
- 5:12Speaker 5: Yep, the Senate Leadership Fund throwing $ 14 million into the
- 5:16Speaker 5: Kansas Senate race is not something we necessarily were expecting.
- 5:19Speaker 5: Tyler Kendall live on the North Lawn of the White
- 5:22Speaker 5: House today. Thank you so much. And as we consider
- 5:24Speaker 5: the president's travels, the spending of money in some of
- 5:27Speaker 5: these red states and overall the picture for Republicans 29
- 5:30Speaker 5: days out from the midterms, we turn now to Mick Mulvaney,
- 5:33Speaker 5: of course, a former congressman from South Carolina, one of
- 5:35Speaker 5: the co-founders of the House Freedom Caucus, also former acting
- 5:38Speaker 5: White House chief of staff. in the first Trump administration.
- 5:41Speaker 5: He's back with us now on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Mick,
- 5:43Speaker 5: it's always good to have you on Balance of Power.
- 5:46Speaker 5: As we consider the president's trip to Nebraska today and
- 5:49Speaker 5: his overall travel plan, as we've seen it thus far,
- 5:52Speaker 5: is he going to the right places?
- 5:54Speaker 6: Why go to red states?
- 5:57Speaker 10: Well, I assume they're going there because they think that's
- 5:59Speaker 10: where his time is best spent. Keep in mind, the
- 6:01Speaker 10: president's most valuable asset is his time. So if you
- 6:04Speaker 10: want to know what any president's priorities are, look at
- 6:07Speaker 10: how he spends his time. And You have to assume
- 6:10Speaker 10: that they've seen data that says that he's needed in Nebraska.
- 6:15Speaker 10: Republicans in the White House has put out several statements
- 6:17Speaker 10: over the course of the past several days that says
- 6:19Speaker 10: they don't believe the polls. But look, the polls are
- 6:21Speaker 10: the only data we've got. And the data is apparently
- 6:24Speaker 10: driving Trump to Nebraska. Would you rather see him as
- 6:28Speaker 10: a Republican spending time in Ohio and Michigan and other
- 6:31Speaker 10: swing states? Yes, we would. We'd love to see him,
- 6:34Speaker 10: I guess, in Minnesota because there's a chance for Republicans there.
- 6:37Speaker 10: But every... 10 minutes you spend in Nebraska and Kansas
- 6:40Speaker 10: are 10 minutes you can't spend in those swing states.
- 6:42Speaker 10: But this is not done by accident, Kayleigh, as you
- 6:44Speaker 10: probably anticipated. They've got data that says there's an issue
- 6:49Speaker 10: there that they think Trump can help solve.
- 6:52Speaker 7: I'm curious your thoughts, Mick. It's good to see you.
- 6:54Speaker 7: Your backdrop's much more fun than mine. I'm curious your
- 6:58Speaker 7: thoughts specifically on North Carolina as just kind of a
- 7:01Speaker 7: poster child for what's happening here, moving money from North
- 7:04Speaker 7: Carolina to Kansas. You know that state well, which is
- 7:08Speaker 7: why I bring it up. And I'm just curious your thoughts.
- 7:10Speaker 7: Was Michael Watley, if he loses, as appears to be
- 7:14Speaker 7: the track that's been set here, was he the wrong candidate?
- 7:18Speaker 1: Or would any Republican.
- 7:20Speaker 7: in this case against Roy Cooper, would have struggled in
- 7:22Speaker 7: the face of high gas prices and concerns about affordability?
- 7:27Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I don't think this is a circumstance of
- 7:29Speaker 10: having a bad candidate. Bad candidates lose. They just do.
- 7:31Speaker 10: Ken Paxton is proving in Texas that, you know, they
- 7:34Speaker 10: bring challenges.
- 7:35Speaker 1: Mike Watley's not a bad candidate.
- 7:37Speaker 10: Keep in mind, he's a Republican National Committee chairman, was
- 7:39Speaker 10: the former state chairman in the state of North Carolina.
- 7:43Speaker 10: And yes, there's headwinds that are far beyond his control.
- 7:46Speaker 10: There is a subtext here, Joe, that I don't know
- 7:49Speaker 10: is getting out. Look, I know what the top line
- 7:52Speaker 10: narrative is that a couple of PACs, including, I think, SLF,
- 7:56Speaker 10: Senate leadership, have pulled money out of North Carolina to spend, say,
- 7:59Speaker 10: in Kansas.
- 8:01Speaker 1: And that never is a good look. But Whatley put out.
- 8:03Speaker 10: A statement that I thought was interesting, which is essentially
- 8:05Speaker 10: he said he had enough money There is an aspect
- 8:08Speaker 10: to that that you don't need all the money in
- 8:10Speaker 10: the world to run a campaign. You don't even need
- 8:12Speaker 10: more than your competitor. You just need enough to do
- 8:15Speaker 10: the job. And anybody watching who lives in or near
- 8:18Speaker 10: a North Carolina media market has known there's been plenty
- 8:21Speaker 10: of ads on TV for both candidates over the course
- 8:23Speaker 10: of the last several weeks. So, look, it's not a
- 8:26Speaker 10: good look. I know that the polls say that Michael
- 8:28Speaker 10: is down, and I get that. But if Whatley comes
- 8:31Speaker 10: out and says he's got enough money, Yeah, I guess
- 8:34Speaker 10: the argument is, what else is he going to say?
- 8:36Speaker 10: There's a lot of a lot of red flags in
- 8:38Speaker 10: the North Carolina race, but maybe it's not all bad news.
- 8:42Speaker 5: Well, if he has enough money, do you think Ken
- 8:44Speaker 5: Paxton has enough money? If I interpreted the beginning of
- 8:47Speaker 5: your answer there correctly, Mick, you don't think he's a
- 8:50Speaker 5: great candidate. And there's literally hundreds of millions of dollars
- 8:53Speaker 5: being spent on that race.
- 8:55Speaker 6: Is it enough?
- 8:56Speaker 10: Yeah, I think Paxton is a different story entirely. Paxton,
- 8:58Speaker 10: we all knew as Republicans he was the weakest candidate
- 9:01Speaker 10: to take into this general election, that everything had to
- 9:05Speaker 10: go right for the Democrats in order to have a
- 9:08Speaker 10: snowball's chance of winning this race. We'd have to have
- 9:11Speaker 10: a bad candidate. There'd have to be bad economic news.
- 9:13Speaker 10: There'd have to be an overseas war. All of those
- 9:16Speaker 10: things are happening right now. I still think, look, the
- 9:18Speaker 10: race is going to be extraordinarily close. Texas is still Texas.
- 9:22Speaker 10: It's still a Republican stronghold. And at the end of
- 9:24Speaker 10: the day, you have to think that Republicans are not
- 9:26Speaker 10: going to switch over to vote for a Democrat. The
- 9:29Speaker 10: question is, are they going to show up to vote
- 9:31Speaker 10: at all? And I'm sure there's a bunch of Republicans
- 9:33Speaker 10: out there saying they're not going to vote for Paxton,
- 9:35Speaker 10: who they will. But that doesn't answer your question, which is, is.
- 9:39Speaker 1: There enough money?
- 9:40Speaker 10: There's probably not enough money to fix Ken Paxton. So
- 9:42Speaker 10: the real money is probably being spent in Texas to
- 9:44Speaker 10: make Telerico look as bad as they possibly can. in
- 9:47Speaker 10: order to depress his turnout. But look, there's no arguing.
- 9:52Speaker 10: Six months ago, did we think we'd be spending hundreds
- 9:54Speaker 10: of million dollars defending Texas? The answer is no. And
- 9:57Speaker 10: that is hundreds of millions that Republicans have not had
- 10:00Speaker 10: to spend in other races.
- 10:02Speaker 7: Well, very honest analysis today from Mick Mulvaney. I mean,
- 10:05Speaker 7: I can't imagine what the president thinks. Well, 100 percent.
- 10:10Speaker 7: Thank God he's back. I can't imagine what the president thinks.
- 10:14Speaker 7: And you know him pretty well, Mick Mulvaney, when he
- 10:16Speaker 7: sees the comments that are rolling out lately from Ken Paxton.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Last week, it was the RNC did damage.
- 10:22Speaker 7: Today, it's in the playbook, these audio recordings of his
- 10:27Speaker 7: meeting at a lobbyist lunch here in Washington. I don't
- 10:30Speaker 7: have the ability to change anything, so I have to
- 10:33Speaker 7: live with whatever I get. Suggesting that Washington is running
- 10:38Speaker 7: things here. He says, when it comes down to your messaging,
- 10:42Speaker 7: Washington is in charge of the campaign and what he says.
- 10:47Speaker 7: Is that just the way it goes when Trump picks
- 10:49Speaker 7: a candidate?
- 10:51Speaker 9: Look.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Texas is unique.
- 10:53Speaker 10: Generally speaking, as Republican candidates in these really tough states,
- 10:58Speaker 10: if they win, they're going to win because of Donald Trump. Now,
- 11:00Speaker 10: there's exceptions in Maine and New Hampshire, some unusual places
- 11:03Speaker 10: that are sort of different than the rest of the country.
- 11:06Speaker 10: But generally speaking, if they win, they win because of
- 11:07Speaker 10: Trump going out and saying, pretend I'm on the ballot.
- 11:10Speaker 10: If those Republican voters show up, Republicans are going to
- 11:13Speaker 10: do well. By the same token, if they lose, they're
- 11:15Speaker 10: going to lose because of Trump, because Trump motivated the
- 11:17Speaker 10: Democrat base more than the Republican base. Texas is different.
- 11:21Speaker 10: If Paxton wins, it will be because of Trump. He's
- 11:24Speaker 10: the only person right now that can save Ken Paxton.
- 11:26Speaker 10: If Paxton loses, it's probably because of Ken Paxton. That
- 11:29Speaker 10: is unique on the map right now. Look, Paxton was
- 11:34Speaker 10: a flawed candidate. We knew that from the beginning. Certainly
- 11:37Speaker 10: John Cornyn knew it and tried to make the case
- 11:38Speaker 10: to the president. The president decided to go a different way.
- 11:40Speaker 10: We all get that. But I'm sure a lot of
- 11:43Speaker 10: people now are wondering what this race would have been
- 11:45Speaker 10: like if John Cornyn was on the ballot.
- 11:48Speaker 2: Well.
- 11:49Speaker 5: As we wonder about different scenarios, Mick, if you were
- 11:52Speaker 5: still inside the White House advising President Trump, how would
- 11:57Speaker 5: you be talking about the different potential scenarios that could
- 12:00Speaker 5: be facing.
- 12:00Speaker 6: Him depending on the outcome of this midterms?
- 12:03Speaker 5: What is the difference to President Trump if it's simply
- 12:05Speaker 5: a Democratic House versus a Democratic House and Senate?
- 12:11Speaker 10: Not much. Most of the policies are going to stay
- 12:14Speaker 10: the same. Folks ask me all the time, will Trump
- 12:16Speaker 10: change his approach to immigration or law enforcement crime based
- 12:22Speaker 10: on the outcome of the midterms?
- 12:23Speaker 11: No.
- 12:24Speaker 10: Is he going to change his course of action in
- 12:25Speaker 10: Iran because of the midterms?
- 12:26Speaker 2: No.
- 12:27Speaker 10: Most of what he's been doing, 90% of what he's
- 12:29Speaker 10: done in the first two years of this second term,
- 12:31Speaker 10: he's done without Congress anyway, legally through executive authority. And
- 12:35Speaker 10: that will continue. They haven't used legislation up to now.
- 12:38Speaker 10: They're not going to use legislation going forward. What's going
- 12:40Speaker 10: to change? Well, there's gonna be a lot more investigations
- 12:43Speaker 10: if the Democrats take either chamber. There'll probably be an impeachment.
- 12:46Speaker 10: They'll never kick him out of office, but there'll be
- 12:48Speaker 10: a bunch of distractions. I can't tell you, Kylie, how
- 12:51Speaker 10: many times in the first term I walked into the
- 12:53Speaker 10: White House Counsel's office to talk about something on a
- 12:55Speaker 10: policy matter, and the White House Counsel would look at
- 12:57Speaker 10: me and say, look, I'm up to my ears in impeachment.
- 12:59Speaker 10: I don't have time for policy right now. So that
- 13:02Speaker 10: will be different. Things will be slower, but there's not
- 13:04Speaker 10: a dramatic change to Trump. The biggest change is probably
- 13:07Speaker 10: getting his cabinet secretaries appointed, if there's any vacancies there,
- 13:12Speaker 10: getting any new judges appointed to the Supreme Court. That
- 13:14Speaker 10: would be a big deal if the Democrats, for example,
- 13:17Speaker 10: were to take the Senate. So there are changes around
- 13:19Speaker 10: the margins. But at the end of the day, and
- 13:22Speaker 10: I'll close with this, when Trump said he didn't care
- 13:24Speaker 10: that much about the midterms, I think that's right. By
- 13:26Speaker 10: the way, I think it's the right attitude for a
- 13:28Speaker 10: president to have when you're dealing with a war overseas.
- 13:30Speaker 10: You shouldn't change your policies on an ongoing war in
- 13:34Speaker 10: order to get a particular political outcome. But I think
- 13:37Speaker 10: he was speaking honestly when he said he really didn't
- 13:39Speaker 10: care that much about the midterms.
- 13:41Speaker 1: I think that's accurate.
- 13:44Speaker 7: We've got about a minute here, Mick, and we've got
- 13:46Speaker 7: a breaker from CNN. Apparently the White House is not
- 13:49Speaker 7: allowing Politico on Air Force One today, knowing that Politico
- 13:53Speaker 7: was one of the three, CNN and MSNOW, the other
- 13:55Speaker 7: two news organizations that were kicked out. Their credentials were
- 13:59Speaker 7: removed for a while, but they were brought back after
- 14:01Speaker 7: a court ruling yesterday. The final ruling has not been made,
- 14:04Speaker 7: so maybe we keep seeing this kind of stuff from
- 14:07Speaker 7: time to time over the next few days, Mick. I'm
- 14:10Speaker 7: not asking you what is right or about the First Amendment.
- 14:13Speaker 7: Politically speaking, does it hurt the president to not be
- 14:16Speaker 7: on TV? Because that's what this leads to.
- 14:19Speaker 1: No, not really.
- 14:20Speaker 10: I mean, the president has always figured out a way
- 14:22Speaker 10: to speak to his people directly. It's one of his
- 14:24Speaker 10: true geniuses. He's used social media to get to folks
- 14:28Speaker 10: he uses other outlets. I'm with the White House on this.
- 14:31Speaker 10: I fought with the White House Correspondents Association on things
- 14:34Speaker 10: like access when I was chief of staff. I've never
- 14:36Speaker 10: understood why they think there's a right to be in
- 14:39Speaker 10: the White House or a right to be on Air
- 14:41Speaker 10: Force One. But no, politically, I don't think it helps.
- 14:45Speaker 10: I don't think anybody wakes up and says, well, I
- 14:46Speaker 10: don't know how I'm going to vote for President Trump.
- 14:48Speaker 10: How's he treating Politico? Every minute he's not talking about
- 14:52Speaker 10: the economy is a minute he's lost.
- 14:55Speaker 7: Well, and TV helps you get into people's living rooms,
- 14:57Speaker 7: which is why I ask. It's great to see you,
- 14:59Speaker 7: Mick Mulvaney, as always, live on Balance of Power. Alongside
- 15:03Speaker 7: Kaylee Lyons, I'm Joe Matthew. Thanks for joining us here
- 15:05Speaker 7: on the Monday edition. We've got much more ahead with
- 15:08Speaker 7: our political panel. Jeannie Shanzano and Rick Davis on the
- 15:10Speaker 7: way with 29 days to go until the midterms.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
- 15:15Speaker 1: more coming up after this.
- 15:20Speaker 4: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
- 15:23Speaker 4: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
- 15:27Speaker 4: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- 15:30Speaker 4: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
- 15:33Speaker 4: flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.
- 15:39Speaker 5: We're tracking the latest moves that we expect the White
- 15:41Speaker 5: House will make when it comes to diesel and trying
- 15:44Speaker 5: to find ways to relieve high diesel costs for the
- 15:47Speaker 5: American electorate with 29 days to go until the midterms.
- 15:50Speaker 5: Red dye diesel apparently is what he's going to target
- 15:53Speaker 5: with a tax exemption of the federal excise tax of
- 15:55Speaker 5: 24 cents. That'll help take off some of the sticker
- 15:59Speaker 5: price at retail gasoline stations, though it might do little.
- 16:02Speaker 5: to address the structural challenges that have led to elevated
- 16:05Speaker 5: diesel costs. And Joe, it is worth pointing out that
- 16:08Speaker 5: it's simply a tax exemption for on-road vehicles. Already, this
- 16:11Speaker 5: wasn't taxed for things like tractors, for example, for off-road
- 16:15Speaker 5: uses on farms. So it's not clear exactly if this
- 16:18Speaker 5: is going to bring any more relief to agricultural sector-oriented
- 16:23Speaker 5: voters as the president travels to Nebraska today.
- 16:26Speaker 6: They already haven't been paying a tax on this.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Well, that's true.
- 16:28Speaker 7: I guess this would allow more people to use it, though,
- 16:31Speaker 7: which is the idea. Maybe you could get a cheaper tank.
- 16:33Speaker 7: But the fact of the matter is We're pretty darn
- 16:36Speaker 7: close still, while we've pulled back a bit. It's pretty
- 16:38Speaker 7: darn close to all-time highs, and essentially double where the
- 16:41Speaker 7: price was a year ago. So whether the headline has
- 16:44Speaker 7: an impact, I guess we're about to find out, because
- 16:46Speaker 7: the president will be wheels up soon to Nebraska. And
- 16:49Speaker 7: it's where we start with our political panel, with a
- 16:51Speaker 7: lot to talk about on the midterm campaign trail and
- 16:54Speaker 7: a boatload of polling that came out from over the weekend.
- 16:57Speaker 7: Rick Davis and Jeanne Shanzano join us now. Our Bloomberg
- 16:59Speaker 7: Politics contributor, she is our Democratic Analyst and Democracy Visiting
- 17:03Speaker 7: Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center. Rick is our
- 17:06Speaker 7: Republican strategist and partner at Stonecourt Capital.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Not sure your thoughts on this, Jeannie.
- 17:11Speaker 7: Does it matter if it works when there's only 29
- 17:14Speaker 7: days left, or is it about being caught in the
- 17:16Speaker 7: act of trying?
- 17:19Speaker 3: You know, it's probably better than nothing, but at this point,
- 17:24Speaker 3: it's really uncertain what kind of impact this could have.
- 17:27Speaker 3: I mean, just very minimally, it's got to be passed
- 17:30Speaker 3: down to consumers to I have to confess to you
- 17:33Speaker 3: and Kayleigh, I have never heard of red dye diesel
- 17:36Speaker 3: in my life until today.
- 17:38Speaker 1: A lot of people are learning.
- 17:40Speaker 3: So, I mean, you know, I don't know that regular
- 17:43Speaker 3: voters like me are going to be sitting at home
- 17:45Speaker 3: and saying, wow, you know, red dye diesel costs, you know,
- 17:49Speaker 3: we don't have to pay taxes on that. So I
- 17:52Speaker 3: think it's a little bit too far. I think the
- 17:54Speaker 3: president's time at these rallies is would be better spent
- 17:58Speaker 3: talking about what he is going to do to deal
- 18:01Speaker 3: with the structural issues. Number one, the war in the
- 18:05Speaker 3: Middle East that he got us into. And of course,
- 18:08Speaker 3: the Truth Social post blaming this on Ukraine and blue
- 18:11Speaker 3: states is just another example of him not talking about
- 18:16Speaker 3: what people really care about, which is how are you
- 18:18Speaker 3: going to address this problem in a full-throated way and
- 18:22Speaker 3: make my life easier and more cost-effective?
- 18:27Speaker 5: So, Rick, does the president need to bring more in
- 18:29Speaker 5: hand to Nebraska than here? I'm taking this action on
- 18:32Speaker 5: red dye diesel.
- 18:35Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I mean, look, Nebraska is a rural state
- 18:38Speaker 8: and there have been a lot of big impacts from
- 18:40Speaker 8: this administration's last two years on rural America. And so
- 18:44Speaker 8: part of the message. that he needs to be sending
- 18:48Speaker 8: to a state like Nebraska is what is he doing
- 18:51Speaker 8: to try and make rural America better, right? I mean, obviously,
- 18:54Speaker 8: cost of living is foremost in that, but also health care.
- 18:58Speaker 8: What's the message on health care? The president has been
- 19:00Speaker 8: talking about, you know, additional spending, you know, $ 50 checks,
- 19:04Speaker 8: $ 90 checks, $ 5, 000 checks. you know, to Medicaid and Medicare recipients,
- 19:13Speaker 8: you know, but I bet you we don't hear much
- 19:15Speaker 8: of that today in Grand Isle. So, you know, there's
- 19:20Speaker 8: there are things he should be talking about to impact
- 19:23Speaker 8: voters in a state like this. But if you if
- 19:26Speaker 8: the rural voters that went for Donald Trump in such
- 19:29Speaker 8: huge numbers in 24 decided to stay home and not vote,
- 19:32Speaker 8: it actually could make this an interesting race.
- 19:36Speaker 1: Rick, I want to get your take on Texas. We've
- 19:38Speaker 1: talked a lot about it.
- 19:39Speaker 7: And over the weekend, we got a new number, James
- 19:41Speaker 7: Talrico leading Ken Paxton by six points. That's according to
- 19:46Speaker 7: Sienna and the New York Times. Ken Paxton caught on tape,
- 19:50Speaker 7: and we were just talking about this with Mick Mulvaney,
- 19:52Speaker 7: which makes me want to bring this up. Mick had
- 19:54Speaker 7: some pretty tough words for Ken Paxton, labeling him as
- 19:58Speaker 7: a just bad candidate who may well lose to the
- 20:02Speaker 7: Democrat and do something that Democrats were unable to pull
- 20:05Speaker 7: off for a generation, which is actually win the Senate
- 20:10Speaker 7: seat here. He was caught on tape meeting with lobbyists
- 20:13Speaker 7: in Washington, which is also never a great look, saying,
- 20:16Speaker 7: I miss the days when I could go get around
- 20:18Speaker 7: with all the people. He said, when it comes to
- 20:20Speaker 7: your messaging in a federal race, it comes from other
- 20:23Speaker 7: people a lot of times, which you don't control. Is
- 20:27Speaker 7: that the fact? Is that the reality for most Senate candidates?
- 20:30Speaker 7: Or is this Ken Paxton's world?
- 20:34Speaker 8: Well, it certainly is Ken Paxton's world. And, you know, like, Ken,
- 20:37Speaker 8: I beg to differ. I mean, you spent the entire
- 20:39Speaker 8: summer traveling all over the world with your girlfriend and
- 20:42Speaker 8: not in Texas campaigning. So maybe there needed to be
- 20:45Speaker 8: a change in the outlook of his campaign a little bit.
- 20:48Speaker 8: And then when hundreds of millions of dollars come in,
- 20:51Speaker 8: those people who raise that money and take the polls
- 20:54Speaker 8: and are concerned about that race are going to want
- 20:56Speaker 8: to say and how that money is spent and how
- 20:58Speaker 8: that campaign's going. I mean, it is arguable that Ken
- 21:01Speaker 8: Paxton may be the worst candidate the Republicans have running
- 21:04Speaker 8: for the United States Senate in this cycle.
- 21:08Speaker 5: Well, and Mick Mulvaney, I think, agreed with you referring
- 21:12Speaker 5: to him as the weakest one. So, Jeannie, weigh in
- 21:15Speaker 5: here on Ken Paxton's issue. Is it that D.C. is
- 21:19Speaker 5: driving the messaging of his campaign or is it simply
- 21:22Speaker 5: the candidate himself?
- 21:25Speaker 3: The candidate himself. It is the fact that the president
- 21:28Speaker 3: insisted on pushing out a Republican incumbent in John Cornyn
- 21:33Speaker 3: who could have made this, you know, I think probably
- 21:36Speaker 3: would have won or made this a race. Kayleigh, I
- 21:40Speaker 3: have to say, things have gotten so bad for Paxton
- 21:43Speaker 3: that his estranged wife is now cutting ads for him.
- 21:47Speaker 3: The latest one, she doesn't mention him, but she says,
- 21:51Speaker 3: you know, we need to vote for the Republican team
- 21:54Speaker 3: down here. And, of course, he's also appearing on an
- 21:58Speaker 3: interview with his daughter. And you know things have gotten
- 22:02Speaker 3: bad when that is where he is, not to mention,
- 22:05Speaker 3: you know, now the second drop of audio from a
- 22:10Speaker 3: closed meeting. I mean, Republicans are so frustrated with Ken Paxton.
- 22:16Speaker 3: Even the president is calling him a pain in the
- 22:18Speaker 3: you-know-what and not well-dressed and all these things. But it
- 22:21Speaker 3: is the president's fault that he is there. And, of course—
- 22:25Speaker 3: Donald Trump owns this. And by the way, I should
- 22:28Speaker 3: just add, Tallarico is a really, really good candidate. You
- 22:32Speaker 3: combine that with the environment, the economy and everything else.
- 22:36Speaker 3: And I may be able to bet Rick Davis that
- 22:39Speaker 3: Texas goes Democrat in the Senate this year.
- 22:42Speaker 1: So there you go.
- 22:44Speaker 7: Would that be tripling down? I'm going to have to
- 22:46Speaker 7: follow up with both of you guys. By the way,
- 22:49Speaker 7: the president's going back there. He's going to be on
- 22:52Speaker 7: stage with Ken Paxton in just a couple of days
- 22:54Speaker 7: from now.
- 22:55Speaker 3: J.D.
- 22:56Speaker 1: Vance today, Rick, is in Alaska. This is another interesting one.
- 22:59Speaker 7: The same CNN, New York Times poll finds Mary Paltola, again,
- 23:02Speaker 7: the Democrat, ahead of Senator Dan Sullivan with the S
- 23:06Speaker 7: by seven percentage points.
- 23:09Speaker 1: What should be J.D. Vance's message today? You know, look,
- 23:14Speaker 1: I mean, J.D.
- 23:14Speaker 8: Vance's message should be the same as the president's, which
- 23:18Speaker 8: should be right out of the polling data. We care
- 23:20Speaker 8: about what you're doing with your economy. We care about
- 23:25Speaker 8: kitchen table issues. We care about the price of gas
- 23:28Speaker 8: and diesel. We care about the cost of goods that
- 23:31Speaker 8: you have in your refrigerator. It really should be a
- 23:34Speaker 8: personal message. I mean, look, the nice thing about Alaska
- 23:37Speaker 8: is there aren't very many voters. And so it's not
- 23:40Speaker 8: that hard to communicate with them, even though they're spread
- 23:42Speaker 8: all over you know, the big state of Alaska. The
- 23:45Speaker 8: downside is there are very few minds to change. So,
- 23:49Speaker 8: you know, this election is locking up. People are voting
- 23:53Speaker 8: in 43 states today, and Alaska is no exception to
- 23:57Speaker 8: that rule. So the clock is ticking, and it's probably
- 23:59Speaker 8: going to take a lot more, you know, trips from
- 24:02Speaker 8: the vice president or the president to try and change
- 24:05Speaker 8: the public's attitude toward this administration's approach to cost of living.
- 24:10Speaker 7: Did you hear Trump say Friday night, Kayleigh, that people
- 24:12Speaker 7: go ahead and vote by mail? He said, get out
- 24:14Speaker 7: and vote, vote by mail, vote in person.
- 24:16Speaker 6: Consistent messaging.
- 24:17Speaker 1: It's getting down to be that time, though.
- 24:19Speaker 6: The messenger who has so frequently cast doubt on vote
- 24:22Speaker 6: by mail.
- 24:23Speaker 1: That's true.
- 24:24Speaker 5: As Rick talks about, Jeannie, the idea that things are solidifying,
- 24:27Speaker 5: that there's little time left to change minds, does sending
- 24:30Speaker 5: out $ 90 checks to seniors to help with Medicare Part
- 24:34Speaker 5: B help? premiums do anything if those checks go out
- 24:39Speaker 5: this month? Because that's what the president says that they're
- 24:42Speaker 5: going to do.
- 24:45Speaker 3: Yeah, Kayleigh, this to me is the biggest let them
- 24:48Speaker 3: eat cake moment we've seen from Donald Trump. This is
- 24:53Speaker 3: a party that cut access to health care amongst the elderly,
- 24:59Speaker 3: amongst the poor, in rural areas. It has been a
- 25:03Speaker 3: disastrous disaster. disastrous impact on the one big beautiful or
- 25:08Speaker 3: one big ugly bill as people talked about. They ended
- 25:11Speaker 3: Medicare D subsidies, the expiration of the ACA tax credits.
- 25:16Speaker 3: I mean, you can keep going down the list. And
- 25:19Speaker 3: he is now saying, I am going to send you
- 25:21Speaker 3: a $ 90 check to make up for enormous tax cut
- 25:27Speaker 3: that I levied on or enormous cuts that I levied
- 25:30Speaker 3: on you. and giving tax breaks to billionaires with all
- 25:33Speaker 3: that funding. I mean, this to me is the most
- 25:38Speaker 3: maddening of his giveaway proposals. And we've seen a lot because,
- 25:43Speaker 3: of course, it is something that they have worked to
- 25:47Speaker 3: really undercut in so many ways. And there's not an
- 25:51Speaker 3: elderly person in the country or a person in the
- 25:54Speaker 3: country impacted by these cuts who is going to say, oh,
- 25:56Speaker 3: thank you for this $ 90. I feel good about the
- 26:00Speaker 3: thousands of other rest of the dollars I have to
- 26:02Speaker 3: spend on health care now, thanks to what you've.
- 26:04Speaker 6: Done in office.
- 26:06Speaker 1: Yeah. So you mentioned this, Rick, what's your thought on this?
- 26:10Speaker 7: I mean, this is not obviously going to be life-changing
- 26:12Speaker 7: money for people. Maybe this is good politics, but nobody's
- 26:16Speaker 7: going to take that check and say, all right, mom
- 26:19Speaker 7: can have that surgery now. Mom can afford that operation.
- 26:24Speaker 7: What's the benefit of sending checks for that amount?
- 26:27Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 26:27Speaker 8: At this day and age, uh, it's like a tank
- 26:31Speaker 8: of diesel fuel.
- 26:34Speaker 1: I guess that's right.
- 26:36Speaker 8: Just to fill up your car.
- 26:39Speaker 1: So yeah, look, it's a talking point.
- 26:41Speaker 8: I think he's trying to connect with an audience that
- 26:43Speaker 8: he hasn't spent a lot of time with, and Congress
- 26:46Speaker 8: has unfortunately cut a lot of these programs that they
- 26:51Speaker 8: would have otherwise been supported with. So it is a
- 26:55Speaker 8: change in heart, a change in messaging, and I think
- 26:59Speaker 8: It's certainly better than what's been happening up until this
- 27:03Speaker 8: point in time. And whether it actually changes the vote
- 27:07Speaker 8: by 90 bucks is not likely, but it hopefully will
- 27:09Speaker 8: change some minds from a policy point of view.
- 27:14Speaker 2: All right.
- 27:14Speaker 5: Rick Davis and Jeanne Shanzano, both of them Bloomberg Politics
- 27:17Speaker 5: contributors in our political panel today. Thank you so much.
- 27:20Speaker 1: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
- 27:23Speaker 1: more coming up after this.
- 27:28Speaker 4: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
- 27:32Speaker 4: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
- 27:35Speaker 4: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- 27:38Speaker 4: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
- 27:41Speaker 4: us live on YouTube.
- 27:44Speaker 7: Thanks for being with us on the Monday edition. We're
- 27:46Speaker 7: always checking crude oil, and that's part of the markets.
- 27:49Speaker 7: Part of the direction the markets take is based on
- 27:52Speaker 7: whether oil is up or down. But it's distillates that
- 27:54Speaker 7: we're talking about today, not just gasoline at a national
- 27:58Speaker 7: average of $ 4. 36, but diesel, more importantly, $ 6. 32. essentially double
- 28:06Speaker 7: where it was, Kayleigh, one year ago. And that's why
- 28:09Speaker 7: the president is seizing on red dye diesel. A lot
- 28:11Speaker 7: of people are getting a lesson in this. They actually
- 28:14Speaker 7: dye it red so the taxman can tell, inspectors can
- 28:17Speaker 7: tell whether this is tax exempt or not. It's used
- 28:19Speaker 7: by the agricultural sector and the president's going to be
- 28:22Speaker 7: easing limits on this. So I guess we can all
- 28:24Speaker 7: dip into the red dye, whether it lowers prices is
- 28:27Speaker 7: the question.
- 28:28Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 28:28Speaker 5: So that you can put this to any vehicle that
- 28:30Speaker 5: drives on the road, not just through a cornfield, for example,
- 28:33Speaker 5: and this would essentially eliminate a 24 cent tax on
- 28:37Speaker 5: a gallon of diesel, diesel, as that's the federal excise amount.
- 28:40Speaker 5: But to your point, 24 cents does not take dollars
- 28:44Speaker 5: off of a gallon. And that is how much these
- 28:46Speaker 5: prices have increased over a relatively short period of time.
- 28:48Speaker 5: So let's get more now as we turn to Tom Kloza,
- 28:51Speaker 5: who is, of course, an oil analyst. We speak to
- 28:53Speaker 5: you frequently on this program. He's founder and chair of
- 28:55Speaker 5: Kloza Advisors, chief energy advisor to Gulf.
- 28:59Speaker 1: Oil as well.
- 28:59Speaker 6: And he's back with us on Bloomberg TV and radio.
- 29:02Speaker 5: Tom, it's always good to have you, especially on a
- 29:05Speaker 5: day like today where we expect the president to make
- 29:07Speaker 5: this move. What will it really accomplish?
- 29:11Speaker 2: It won't accomplish much. This is really a cosmetic gesture.
- 29:15Speaker 2: It's not a major lever. There's about 105 million barrels
- 29:20Speaker 2: of diesel in the country, and there aren't that many
- 29:23Speaker 2: that are red. So it's probably really good news if
- 29:27Speaker 2: you're the manufacturer of the dye, but otherwise it doesn't
- 29:30Speaker 2: mean much. It's just a way to basically grant tax
- 29:34Speaker 2: relief on a lot of the product that's used by farmers.
- 29:39Speaker 1: Are we plateauing? here, Tom?
- 29:41Speaker 7: I'm looking at $ 6.
- 29:42Speaker 1: 32.
- 29:43Speaker 7: It's down from $ 6. 45 a week ago, realizing it's doubled
- 29:48Speaker 7: in a year. Have we found or discovered the new price,
- 29:52Speaker 7: or could it keep rising?
- 29:54Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think this is the new normal.
- 29:57Speaker 2: I think that if you look at, let's say, Election Day,
- 30:00Speaker 2: it's going to be a four and a six handle
- 30:02Speaker 2: for gasoline and diesel. We're already looking at some modest
- 30:07Speaker 2: decreases for gasoline, maybe not so much for diesel. And
- 30:12Speaker 2: there's a lot of talk about different things, but people
- 30:15Speaker 2: don't realize that this is going to make a lot
- 30:16Speaker 2: of difference. It's like the European Union sale of what
- 30:21Speaker 2: they call their strategic diesel. That could be a lot
- 30:24Speaker 2: of fuel that's moving from one pocket to another and
- 30:27Speaker 2: not really making that much of an impact in markets.
- 30:32Speaker 5: So you don't think that 100 million barrels of reserve
- 30:35Speaker 5: releases that they announced last week does much at all? Tom,
- 30:38Speaker 5: if that doesn't work, if the excise tax relief doesn't work,
- 30:42Speaker 5: then what will?
- 30:44Speaker 2: The only thing that works is to resolve the conflicts,
- 30:46Speaker 2: whether it be the conflict in Russia, you know, where
- 30:49Speaker 2: they're down 3 million barrels a day of refining. conflict
- 30:52Speaker 2: in the Persian Gulf, which has been quiet, but which
- 30:55Speaker 2: knocked out a lot of refining early on. And then
- 30:58Speaker 2: the conflict in the Red Sea. You know, within the
- 31:00Speaker 2: morning here, we're hearing about a couple of refineries in
- 31:04Speaker 2: Western Saudi Arabia that may have been attacked by the Houthis. And,
- 31:07Speaker 2: you know, this drone warfare is really a genie out
- 31:10Speaker 2: of the bottle for a lot of different places.
- 31:12Speaker 7: I want to ask you about the president's reference to
- 31:18Speaker 7: record numbers of barrels leaving from Hormuz.
- 31:22Speaker 1: J.P.
- 31:23Speaker 7: Morgan and Goldman Sachs both indicated that we're approaching pre-war levels.
- 31:27Speaker 1: Are we there yet, Tom? Does it matter?
- 31:30Speaker 2: You know, I think we might be close to pre-war.
- 31:33Speaker 2: I think we might be close to pre-war levels. But
- 31:35Speaker 2: here's the rub. You're at pre-war levels that are moving
- 31:38Speaker 2: out of the Persian Gulf and moving out of the
- 31:40Speaker 2: Red Sea. But the big difference is back in the
- 31:44Speaker 2: end of February, it cost $ 1. 75 to move that oil
- 31:47Speaker 2: to markets in Asia. Today, it costs about $ 33 a barrel.
- 31:52Speaker 2: And that increase in freight and transportation is really embedded
- 31:57Speaker 2: within the price for not just crude oil, but for
- 32:00Speaker 2: refined products around the world.
- 32:04Speaker 5: Well, and the refining is another challenge that you were
- 32:08Speaker 5: alluding to, Tom, with what's happening in Russia with Ukrainian
- 32:12Speaker 5: attacks on Russian refineries in particular. President Trump actually talked
- 32:15Speaker 5: about this on True Social today, saying, and I'm quoting
- 32:18Speaker 5: him directly, what's driving up gasoline is no longer the
- 32:21Speaker 5: Strait of Hormuz because record numbers of barrels are coming
- 32:23Speaker 5: out now on almost a daily basis, but the word refineries.
- 32:26Speaker 1: where.
- 32:27Speaker 5: Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine and where ours
- 32:29Speaker 5: are being closed up in blue states like California by
- 32:33Speaker 5: the Democrats.
- 32:33Speaker 6: Is he totally right with all of that?
- 32:36Speaker 5: Is it really more about the refineries and no longer
- 32:39Speaker 5: about the straight?
- 32:41Speaker 2: He's partially right. Certainly refining is a major, major issue
- 32:45Speaker 2: right now, but it's not exactly supportive of Zelensky. They're
- 32:49Speaker 2: facing a crisis, an existential crisis. And The only way
- 32:54Speaker 2: they can lash out at Russia is to hurt Putin
- 32:57Speaker 2: in his wallet. Now, he said, I think yesterday, Zelensky
- 33:01Speaker 2: said that we're going to aim for more refineries to
- 33:04Speaker 2: have a bigger impact. And by the way, about the
- 33:07Speaker 2: blue states, yeah, the blue states, California, really. did inaugurate
- 33:11Speaker 2: some rules that drove a couple of refineries out, but
- 33:14Speaker 2: that's kind of old news. Right now, if you're operating
- 33:17Speaker 2: a refinery in the United States, you are minting money,
- 33:20Speaker 2: not because of any malfeasance, but just simply because the
- 33:23Speaker 2: market is rewarding you.
- 33:26Speaker 7: Tom, there was some remarkable reporting in the Wall Street
- 33:28Speaker 7: Journal earlier over the weekend about how truckers are taking
- 33:34Speaker 7: different shortcuts to try to survive soaring diesel prices.
- 33:39Speaker 1: Cooking meals in their cabs.
- 33:41Speaker 7: They're sleeping where they unhook their trailers to avoid overnight
- 33:44Speaker 7: parking fees.
- 33:46Speaker 1: In many cases.
- 33:48Speaker 7: actually losing money when they put $ 1, 000 in the tank,
- 33:52Speaker 7: what would have been $ 500.
- 33:55Speaker 1: Six or seven months ago.
- 33:56Speaker 7: The stories that came from the Flying J Travel Center
- 33:59Speaker 7: off I-10 in Orange, Texas, bring home what this means
- 34:04Speaker 7: for owner-operators.
- 34:05Speaker 1: How many of them will go out of business because
- 34:08Speaker 1: of this? Well, I hope not.
- 34:11Speaker 2: And I'd really like to be a motivational rep as
- 34:14Speaker 2: opposed to a demotivational speaker. But boy, driving a truck
- 34:17Speaker 2: is a tough business right now. And I believe I've
- 34:20Speaker 2: seen it on the maps that you see posted every
- 34:23Speaker 2: once in a while. It's probably the number one occupation
- 34:26Speaker 2: in like 30 or 40 states.
- 34:28Speaker 1: So it is a.
- 34:29Speaker 2: Terrible, terrible onus on them at the moment. If they're
- 34:33Speaker 2: doing that all from, let's say, Long Beach, The busiest
- 34:36Speaker 2: port in the country to Dallas, it's $ 1, 450 in costs
- 34:41Speaker 2: for diesel. And that's got to impact something. And beyond
- 34:44Speaker 2: impacting that poor truck driver, it's going to impact people
- 34:47Speaker 2: on whatever they buy.
- 34:50Speaker 5: Well, yeah, this is the feed-through inflationary costs that we've
- 34:54Speaker 5: long been questioning, Tom, as to when that might show up.
- 34:57Speaker 5: to a larger extent in the economy. The thinking, of course, though,
- 35:00Speaker 5: is that at some point, and we've talked about this before,
- 35:03Speaker 5: the cure for higher prices becomes higher prices. Would you
- 35:06Speaker 5: expect to start seeing just outright demand destruction anytime soon
- 35:11Speaker 5: if we remain at these elevated levels?
- 35:14Speaker 1: I think so, but it's not like gasoline.
- 35:16Speaker 2: With gasoline, it's easier to assume that there's going to
- 35:19Speaker 2: be tremendous demand destruction because people don't need necessarily to
- 35:24Speaker 2: go to the mall three or four times a month.
- 35:27Speaker 2: But with diesel, it's much more difficult. If you're using
- 35:30Speaker 2: it for mining, you're going to continue to use it.
- 35:32Speaker 2: If you're using it for agriculture, you need to use
- 35:36Speaker 2: it because you don't want to leave those crops in
- 35:39Speaker 2: the field. And in heating oil, you know, we're looking
- 35:42Speaker 2: at a season in the Northeast where 4 million people
- 35:44Speaker 2: use heating oil, and that's going to cost them $ 6. 25.
- 35:48Speaker 2: You can buy only so many sweaters, but you're going
- 35:50Speaker 2: to have to probably shut off zones in the house
- 35:53Speaker 2: based on what's coming down our way. And by the way,
- 35:55Speaker 2: just to add a little bit more gloom and doom
- 35:58Speaker 2: on a Monday, if you look in the Gulf of Mexico,
- 36:01Speaker 2: there's a storm forming in the southwestern Gulf, and it
- 36:04Speaker 2: looks like it could actually brush up against New Orleans
- 36:08Speaker 2: or Mississippi later.
- 36:09Speaker 3: In the week.
- 36:10Speaker 7: Wow.
- 36:11Speaker 8: Oh, my God.
- 36:12Speaker 1: Well, that would be a big deal. Just what we needed.
- 36:14Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 36:14Speaker 7: Tom's been warning us about that very thing since the
- 36:17Speaker 7: beginning of hurricane season.
- 36:19Speaker 1: Tom Kloza, thank you, joining us as energy advisor, the
- 36:23Speaker 1: chief at Gulf Oil.
- 36:25Speaker 7: The other big story that we haven't touched today, and
- 36:28Speaker 7: of course, we'll get back to all of this as
- 36:29Speaker 7: we make our way toward the late edition of Balance
- 36:32Speaker 7: of Power, is the new term, the Supreme Court. Kayleigh,
- 36:35Speaker 7: we've been talking about the fact that the Senate House
- 36:37Speaker 7: out of session, there's nobody in town, but there's something
- 36:39Speaker 7: pretty important happening on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
- 36:41Speaker 7: 10 a.m., oral arguments in a case that will answer
- 36:44Speaker 7: whether big oil can be sued for damages in climate change.
- 36:49Speaker 6: Yeah, this is the Exxon Suncorp case.
- 36:51Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 36:52Speaker 5: Knowing that they were facing a suit from Boulder, Colorado.
- 36:56Speaker 5: And this is also an interesting one because not every
- 36:58Speaker 5: justice is going to be weighing in. Justice Alito recused himself.
- 37:01Speaker 5: So a 4-4 decision is possible here. And he was
- 37:05Speaker 5: listening to the arguments today and covering this case and
- 37:07Speaker 5: all of the cases before the court for us is Bloomberg's.
- 37:09Speaker 5: Greg Storr, who's here with us in our DC studio.
- 37:12Speaker 5: So Greg, we have a lot to talk about, but
- 37:13Speaker 5: let's start with this first case. How did the justices
- 37:16Speaker 5: indicate they're thinking about this one and the eight of them.
- 37:18Speaker 6: That are actually involved?
- 37:20Speaker 11: Yeah, Kaylee, it was a bit inconclusive. So the core
- 37:23Speaker 11: question is whether federal law precludes this suit, which was
- 37:26Speaker 11: filed under Colorado state law from going forward. As you said,
- 37:30Speaker 11: there were only eight justices, so that opens up the
- 37:32Speaker 11: possibility of.
- 37:33Speaker 10: A 4-4 split.
- 37:35Speaker 11: And there were really questions kind of all over the map.
- 37:38Speaker 11: Some justices suggesting that their precedents said that this is
- 37:41Speaker 11: not an area where states and local governments have a
- 37:44Speaker 11: role where it's exclusively federal because we're talking about inherently
- 37:48Speaker 11: interstate stuff, pollution, climate change, actually international. And some other
- 37:52Speaker 11: justices saying, hey, we've got these other precedents that say
- 37:57Speaker 11: that you can sue over stuff that happens out of
- 37:59Speaker 11: state as long as it has an effect in state.
- 38:02Speaker 11: And hard right now to say how it's going to
- 38:04Speaker 11: come out.
- 38:05Speaker 7: Kaylee mentioned Alito is recusing himself.
- 38:08Speaker 1: How come?
- 38:09Speaker 11: I talked to him last week, and what he said
- 38:11Speaker 11: was his wife owns some individual oil company stocks, not
- 38:16Speaker 11: Exxon or Suncor, a couple other companies. And he said
- 38:19Speaker 11: that even though the counsel's office there at the court
- 38:22Speaker 11: said he didn't have to, he said, I looked at
- 38:24Speaker 11: the briefs, and I thought the prudent thing to do
- 38:26Speaker 11: was to not be involved. By the way, there are
- 38:29Speaker 11: about 30 other lawsuits out there, very similar, and a
- 38:34Speaker 11: couple of those have to do with companies that his
- 38:36Speaker 11: wife does own stock in.
- 38:38Speaker 9: I see.
- 38:38Speaker 5: Well, and of course, there's plenty of other suits and
- 38:40Speaker 5: cases that are going to be coming before the court
- 38:42Speaker 5: this term. Other than the Sex on Suncor case, there's
- 38:45Speaker 5: a few immigration ones as well, including.
- 38:47Speaker 6: The third-party deportations.
- 38:49Speaker 5: When are we expecting arguments on that, and how quickly
- 38:52Speaker 5: could we get a decision?
- 38:53Speaker 2: Yes.
- 38:53Speaker 11: So that one is one that they've expedited. They're going
- 38:55Speaker 11: to hear arguments in December. And the question is, when
- 38:58Speaker 11: somebody is deportable because they're at risk of torture if
- 39:03Speaker 11: they go back to their own country, when the government says, okay,
- 39:06Speaker 11: we're going to send you to a different country, a
- 39:08Speaker 11: third country, the question is how much notice should they
- 39:11Speaker 11: have so they have a chance to say, hey, actually,
- 39:13Speaker 11: that third country is also really, really dangerous and I
- 39:16Speaker 11: shouldn't be sent there. The Supreme Court in an emergency
- 39:20Speaker 11: order said, The administration could continue sending people without giving
- 39:25Speaker 11: them much of any notice. So that's the state of
- 39:27Speaker 11: play right now. That may be where they're leaning. But
- 39:30Speaker 11: we'll find out for sure when they hear arguments in
- 39:32Speaker 11: December and presumably rule a few months later.
- 39:35Speaker 1: What else should our viewers and listeners be focused on
- 39:37Speaker 1: this term, Greg?
- 39:38Speaker 11: So certainly there's a big case about assault weapons. The
- 39:41Speaker 11: court's going to hear arguments whether states and local governments
- 39:44Speaker 11: can ban them or whether the Second Amendment says you
- 39:46Speaker 11: have a constitutional right to own them. And then, of course,
- 39:51Speaker 11: we're thinking about the election. There are not any major
- 39:54Speaker 11: election cases on the docket right now, none that I
- 39:57Speaker 11: see in the pipeline before the election. But if this
- 40:00Speaker 11: ends up close, you could certainly see battles over the
- 40:03Speaker 11: certification of results at individual states, or perhaps whether a
- 40:08Speaker 11: new Congress can take their seats or whether we're going
- 40:10Speaker 11: to have a fight within Congress over that.
- 40:12Speaker 5: Well, and when you consider just the number of court
- 40:15Speaker 5: challenges that have preceded the midterms.
- 40:17Speaker 6: You can only imagine how litigious it could get in
- 40:19Speaker 6: the aftermath.
- 40:20Speaker 5: Greg Storr covering all of it for us as our
- 40:22Speaker 5: Supreme Court reporter here at Bloomberg. Thank you so much.
- 40:25Speaker 5: And we'll continue to track the court as these cases
- 40:29Speaker 5: move forward.
- 40:31Speaker 7: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make
- 40:34Speaker 7: sure to subscribe if you haven't already at Apple, Spotify,
- 40:37Speaker 7: or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find
- 40:40Speaker 7: us live every weekday from Washington, D.C. at noontime Eastern
- 40:43Speaker 7: at Bloomberg.com.