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America’s National Debt Surges Past $40 Trillion · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garritty of National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Three martinis coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: So glad you're with us for the Thursday edition of
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: the Three Martini Lunch. I regret to inform you there
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: are no good martinis today. But let's start with an
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: issue that Jim and I talk about a lot, but
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: as we'll admit, neither party wants to do anything about,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: and that is the national debt. Congratulations, Congress, Congratulations, both
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: parties really forty trillion dollars in debt officially, and that
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: doesn't even take into consideration unfunded liabilities and things like that,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: but forty trillion dollars, and we've been careening faster and
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: faster towards that number. Of course, in recent years, usually
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: the people pointing out that the debt is a big
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: problem are either dismissed as kooks are they're ignored altogether,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: because neither party wants to make the case to voters
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: that we need to cut their favorite programs, so we
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: just keep spending. But as we know, social Security is
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: going to be in trouble pretty darn soon. Medicare is
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: pretty much on the same schedule. But one of the
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: last people speaking out on this, Arizona Republican Congressman David Schweikert,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: recently was defeated in the GOP primary for governor out
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: there in Arizona. But listen to some of these numbers
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: about how fast our debt's piling out.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: We are now at two trillion, twenty two billion dollars
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: in borrowing this fiscal year, this total year. The original
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: projections were like one point six one point seven trillion dollars.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: We're heading to borrowing two point three trillion. I know
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: these it's hard to see twelve zeros. I know no
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: one cares, but just understand this is really crappy. Maybe
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: we all understand this number at the current rate of
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: total borrowing. Remember, net borrowing is borrowing from the public.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: Growth borrowing is borrowing from the public and from the
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: trust funds. Anyone want to take a guess how many
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: days it takes us to borrow another trillion dollars one
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: hundred and twenty three days. Every one hundred and twenty
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: three days, we're ticking off another trillion dollars.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Jim, you could throw a bunch of PhD economists out there.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: But I think that's really crappy. Is about the best
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: way to sum up the irresponsible spending what we've seen
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: for decades.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Now, you beat me to the joke. I was going
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to say, that's a complicated economic term, but I think everyone. Yeah, so, Greg,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you and I have been doing this podcast since twenty ten. Yeah, right,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: twenty ten. You know, at that point, Republicans were up
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in arms, and I would argue at that time justifiably
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: because the deficit had reached one trillion dollars per year
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and it was considered outrageous, like, oh my goodness, how
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: can you possibly Well, we're now at an era where
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: like two trillion per year is standard. Right, The deficit
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: was in the ballpark of twenty trillion when Obama left office.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Since then, we've had one term of Trump, one term
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of Biden, and we really haven't completed two years of Trump,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and in time we have doubled it. Now, we had
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: COVID in there, which was going to be a big
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you know effect that was going to reduce tax revenues.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Is the economy tanked, it was going to put on
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of new expenses upon the government indisputably,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but two trillion a year becoming normal, and everyone's like,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: ah because and I keep saying, if the deficit and
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the debt looked like godszilla, we would do something about it.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It's the thing is, it's not something that's tangible, it's
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: not something that's visible, and as a result of it,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: people just kind of it's just this thing. Well, as
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: you know, we point out for several years now, we
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: pay more on interest on our debt than we do
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: on national defense, which is one of the reasons why
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: people like, oh, you know that. You know, usually it's
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: voices and the left like I just cut defense spending,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you'll be fine. That's really not where the problem is.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And at least for that you can see, ah, well,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: we got that aircraft carrier for that money we spent.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: We're getting these troops for this money that we're paying them,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and things like that. Money on the debt, the debt,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the interest payments are what you're paying for all the dumb,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: bad borrowing you did in previous years. So as the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: debt gets higher, you have to pay more and more
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: on interest in the debt, and you really can't borrow
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to like, in effect, we are borrowing to pay off
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the interest on the debt for the money we borrowed before.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: But that money's got to come from somewhere. So the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: expenditures keep going higher and higher. The tax revenue did
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it go down a bit because of the tax cuts
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that were inactive at the start of Trump's second term. Yeah, yeah,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that was a factor. I would have preferred to not
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: quadruple the state and local tax deduction. I knew it
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: was probably going to go up to get a deal,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: but they do. But by and large, this is entitlements,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and you and I have you know, talk Kibler blue
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in the face on this, Medicare, Medicaid and social Security,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you know, particularly for social Security. You know, I don't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: understand why if you have a net worth of a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: million dollars the government is obligated to keep paying you
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: old age benefits. I think at that point you're fine.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I think Warren Buffert's going to be okay. We can
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: argue about what that income level is, but that's one
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: way to reduce the expenditures and social security. But when
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you do that, a crowd of senior citizens like they
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: look like the cast a cocoon will break through my
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: wall like the kool Aid guy and beat me with
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: their canes and their and you'll run their wheelchairs over me.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Because I am a terrible young person. Yes, despite the hair,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I like to think myself as a young person who
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: wants to reduce Social Security benefits.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Every was like, no, no, we're not going to do that. Well, okay,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: if we don't do this by twenty thirty two, I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: believe is the most recent number, which is like, you
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: get elected president next year. This happens on your watch.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: We are fresh out of later. There is no time
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of kicking the can down the road. In that case,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you end up with what I believe in eighteen percent
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: across the board cut.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: At least, Yeah, it's some.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Some set it closer to twenty twenty three percent. So
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: here social Security is going to get cut one way
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: or the other. The question or we're going to raise
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: tax is way more and have a much more sluggish
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: economy because we've increased the tax burden. The other thing
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of struck by Greg as we see it's good.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: The good news is this is front page store of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: top of the headline Wall Street Journal, Like this is
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: big news. People are forty trillion is a big number
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: that people are sitting up and taking notice of. Everybody
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: seems to think like, well, if I win the blame game,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the problem is solved. First of all, as I mentioned,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: this has happened under Trump, this has happened under Biden,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: This has happened with Republican controlled congresses. This has happened
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: with Democratic controlled congresses. But they're really You're like, well,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: if I win the blame game, my work here is done. No. No,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you are still left with the problem of a fifty
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: trillion dollars debt. Nothing gets better even if you win
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the blame game. So you know, there's this adamant attitude
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: amongst Democrats and Republicans. We're not going to do anything
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: about it. We're going to tie the other side and
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: we'll deal with it next year and next year never comes.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, we've been talking about this forever. I always
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: talk about the commission Bill Clinton set up in the
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: late nineties that nobody ever listened to. That was the
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: John bro Commission. Bill Clinton turned eighty yesterday, by the way,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: so that should make you feel old. And then I
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: think George W. Bush had the Alan Simpson Erskine Bowles Commission,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: which had a bunch of recommendations and nobody listened to that,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: and so on on it goes.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, has the stock market gone up since the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties and it had two thousands? Yeah, So like
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: if you'd taken some of your social security tax and
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: put it into a four oh one k or something,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: would it have gone up since then or would it
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: have gone down? So I think would have gone up
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a lot. It would have been way more so. Yeah. Yeah,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: his Democrats saved us from that terrible idea of having
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: way more money in our retirement.
• 7:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And some Republicans were skinnish to go along with
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: it as well. I remember in two thousand al Gore
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: called it a risky scheme to invest a tiny fraction
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: of your social Security payment.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: There's some old lady who said, you know, mRNA, are
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you going to become a day trader and all that stuff. Like,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you know, al Gore is a very wealthy guy, so
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: he does know how money works. So what it is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: is most in time with the four oh one k,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: you know, rough ira individual. By the way, the difference
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: between myself and Michael Brennan Doherty.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: Is it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: When I say IRA, I mean individual retirement account. There's
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: another IRA that Michael's more enthusiastic about. It is I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: love the guy, and I'm really glad he's around the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: But but the things like you. Traditionally it's like buy
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: and hold, right, you take it, You collect evidends on
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the stocks, your mutual, your your people running your fund
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: will then use it to buy more shares of that stock.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Usually you're enough funds, you're diversified. You don't have everything
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in Coca Cola stock or Amazon or something like that.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: You're accumulating assets, you're in cubilating more over time. And
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the whole idea is not that your retirement savings shoot
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: up in one year. The idea is that it goes
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: up gradually decade over decade, and by the end of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it you're like, oh wow, I've got this really nice
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: nest egg. And then solid security, supplemental security and cup supplemental.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It's right in there. You're not supposed to be living
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: on social security and retirement. Then all of a sudden
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you can retire comfortably. But nobody wants to do that,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and al Gore felt the need to demonize it. Back
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in two thousand back what actually ironically investing was getting
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: really popular thanks to the dot com boom that almost
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: immediately imploded right after that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I don't want to risk my money and scheme like
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: that on Wall straight from George W. Bush down John's
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: industrial average began around ten thousand and seven eighty three
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: in January two thousand and five, which is right after
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the Bush reelection, and that's when he really made the
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: push for privatizing some some action of Social Security, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: really at that point neither party wanted anything to do
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: with it. If Republicans acted all the time like they
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: do when they're Democratic presidents, I think we would have
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: probably done pretty well in this situation. But the problem
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: is is that when they do have power Bush administration,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Trump administration, then all of a sudden they're not as
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: tight with the belt so and the Democrats will always
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: outspend you. No matter what you want to do, the
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Democrats will always always be able to outspend you.
• 9:24
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• 9:27
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• 10:22
  Speaker 6: What did David Schwiker say?
• 10:24
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• 10:44
  Speaker 3: three m L. All right, Jim, We'll be talking in
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the chaser as well about elections in California, but for
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: the moment, we're going to focus just a little bit
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: on the LA Mayor's race, which is at this point
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: now just a complete dumpster fire of who's going to
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: lead the city for the next four years. You've got
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Karen Bass, who's been a total failure and once trained
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: under Castro Apparatrics in Cuba the number of decades ago,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: and she's running against Nithia Rahman here in the runoff.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Ramen beats a head of Spencer Pratt there as the
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: vote count came in in a trickle back during the
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: primary season there in June. But there's an issue now
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: with fundraising. Karen Bass, of course wants to stay as
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: mayor of Los Angeles and listen to how she explains
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: how your dollar if you donated to her and you
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: live in LA, stretches for this campaign. It's an unbelievable fact.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: If this is really a policy that you can get
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: away with in LA.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Your donation to our campaign is more critical right now
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: than ever before. Let me explain. Thanks to LA's super
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: match program, every qualified donation from Los Angeles residents is
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: max six to one by the city. But after the primary,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: we had to start over from scratch. So we need
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: you to rush your matching donation right now to help
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: fuel this campaign. Chip in five dollars right now and
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: the city turns it into thirty prime. Chip in twenty
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: five dollars right now and the city turns it into
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy five dollars. Make your matching donation today.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: Dim.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: I know a lot of people on the left one
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: public financing of campaigns across the board, but honestly, flushing
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: your money down the toilet, or in case of LA,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: lighting it on fire, is probably a better use of
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: it than giving it to a Karen Vassard Nithia Ramin.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: But the fact that so many taxpayer dollars are just
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: getting then sent to these radical campaigns.
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: Is insane.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Don't let on fire, Los Angeles knows, because if you do,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it might start another wildfire. That's Joe Karen Bass would
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: have to leave the country again. So yes, this is legal.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: The super match program was overhauled by the LA City
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Council back in twenty nineteen. Under that program, any candidate
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: running for mayor, city attorney, city controller, or city council
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: eligible to participate in the program. And basically, you know,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty seven dollars per contributor and up
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to one point five million per candidate in the general
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: election can be matched. So yes, this is legal. I
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: think it's a terrible use of tax payer money, but
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that's what you're paying for Los Angelinas. Gee, if you know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: if only someone else had run for mayor, who you
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: could have elected and could have made it to the runoff.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: But no, no, you couldn't do that. The other things
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I'm generally skeptical of. Every time somebody is doing fundraising
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and say we have this matching program, at least you
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: understand where the money he's coming from. Greg, how many
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: fundraising messages have you gotten, often from political campaigns and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to some version of we have a wealthy donor who
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: said they're willing to donate up to two million dollars,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: but only if we can match. Now it's an eight
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: to one match, so every dollar you donate will be
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: raising another eight or something like that. And I'm sitting
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: there thinking, like who are these wealthy donors? Or like
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I could give you a two million dollars, but instead
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to have some fun with it, and I'm
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: going to set a share if you could raise. If
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you can get all these other people who don't have
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the wealth that I do to donate to you, you'll
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: get all the money that can donate, but if you can't,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you get nothing. And Greg, I imagine these are the
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: people who run the squid game competitions over in Korea.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: This citate for those, or those are the ones who
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: run the Hunger Games in the near future. In those
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: novel series, it's always some sort of like I am
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: evil and rich and if you can jump through this
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: flaming hoop, I will donate money. But not so the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: campaign has always come to you say please, there's a
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: billionaire who's holding our donation hostage. Why what if you
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: just gave the money. Oh, by the way, most of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: these are fake and are made up or something. But
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: in the case of La we know it's true because
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: it's coming from Los Angeles taxpayers.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: I realized, the weather's really nice in La Jim, but
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the lack of quality in the leadership.
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: What do you do if you're a Republican.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: I realized there's not many of them in La County
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: and you've got Bass versus Ramen. Do you just not
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: vote there? It's not like ones even remotely acceptable. So
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: do you just skip it? Or do you hold your
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: nose and vote? Do you write in somebody? And that
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: person obviously got no chance.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I had thought that Karen Bess, But it's not just
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: being on the other side of the world at the
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: inauguration of the president of Ghana during the wildfires and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: leaving when there were warnings about the high risk of
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: wildfires and all that stuff. But the other thing was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the degree. It was like she there's no sign that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: she rushed back as the city was suffering one of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the worst disasters in its history. That to me was
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: like the greatest failure any mayor had ever done for
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: any city, and automatically disqualifying, and I put out the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: information about a recall. Various folks decided, including Ricruso, was like,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: as much as she may deserve it, we shouldn't waste
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: time with this. Ricruso chose not to run for mayor,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: chose not to run for governor. Spencer Pratt kind of
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: jumped into the uh you and I, you know, like,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to me, the benefits of Prett were self evident. So
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: on the one hand, Karen Bess absolutely does not deserve
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: another term. On the other hand, this is West Coast
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Mondami as the alternative who also like, who's been in
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: charge of homelessness when Los Angeles has arguably the worst
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: homeless problem in the entire country. So I think if
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I were conservaive, I don't know if I vote for
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: either one of them, you know, like, I don't think
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you can. I think if I were conservative, i'd move Like,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I don't see any way anything gets better in Los
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Angeles in the next four years. And you know there's
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: somebody who was moving out to I think it was
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: like uc Burke. Just the entire West Yea Coast in
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: California has been very poorly run for a while, and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: for a long time, all the natural advantages of the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: state and of the city. Like the people who told
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: me the Paramount merger, this could like really dramatically reduce
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the amount of filmmaking made in Hollywood, because there's just
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: more advantages taxwise in Georgia and in Vancouver and in
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: other places like Los Angeles may look like a very
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: different city in ten years, and it may be significantly worse.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: We may well need Snakeliscan to help us make an
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: escape from La.
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: I hope that's not the case.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: But La residents, you keep voting yourself into these situations,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: and for those of you who didn't vote yourself into
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: these situations, there's not a lot of hope on the
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: horizon here, certainly not in November. Just unbelievable. All right, Well,
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• 18:29
  Speaker 3: We've talked a lot about primary results here in the
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: last few weeks, and just last week we had some
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: important primary results in Minnesota in the governor's race. Some
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: of the polls leading up to it had Mike Lindell
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: of my pillow fame as the front runner. That was
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: not the case when the votes were counted last Tuesday night.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Lisa Dumouth, the State House Speaker, ended up being the
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota by a pretty wide
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: margin forty three point four percent to thirty two point
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: five percent from Mike Well. But of course, Mike Lindell
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: is not taking those results sitting down. As you know,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: he was one of those who were most vocal about
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: the results of the twenty twenty election and challenging that.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: He has now challenging the results of this election forty
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: five thousand vote difference, and he says this needs to
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: be fully investigated, and he's willing to put up more
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: than eight hundred grand to get to the bottom of it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: And today I'm announcing the largest privately funded recount audit
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: in US history. As you know, my primary race for
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: Minnesota governor had major deviations and anomalies on election night. Well,
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: we've now analyzed the election night reporting from the August
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: eleventh Minnesota Governor's primary and what we've found demand's answers.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: During that election, reported vote totals actually went backwards fifty
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: five different times across twenty five of Minnesota's eighty seven counties.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Jim, you know recounts, Some are triggered automatically if you're
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: within half a percentage point. Sometimes the campaign will pay
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: if it's within one percentage point. Being down forty five
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: thousand and eleven percentage points, I'm not sure what he
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: legitimately thinks can be accomplished here, but I guess this's
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: gonna happen anyway.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, I can think of like
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: two nice things to say about Mike Lindell for everybody
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: who thinks I'm always so mean and grumpy and cranky.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: One is, at least Mike Lindell's nonsense is privately funded
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: out of his own pocket, while Karen Bass is publicly funded.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: And the other is, let's face it, Greg, this is
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: very on brand for him. You know, the moment you
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: acknowledge that you lost a race legitimately well, one that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: means that maybe the public does not believe you're often
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: spun theories and conspiracies and claims about Venezuelan hackers, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: there's Chinese bamboo in the papers and ballots of Arizona
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and all this kind of crazy stuff. So he was
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: saying this on election night, and I remember thinking, you know,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I think at that point the margin was in the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: maper fifty five thousand. Now we're down to forty five thousand.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: This is not a box of ballots being found in
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: a car trunk. This is not you know, one machine
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: here or something, and the idea of like, so this
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: this is a grand vast conspiracy to hurt Mike Lindell
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and help the Republican state speaker at the House. Okay,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: so this is quite the conspiracy that it's really it's
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: only against Mike Lindell. It's only against circumstances like that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: So again, like on the one hand, I suppose he
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: can do this. I don't think this recount is going
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to find anything, you know, really huge change. Maybe it's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: comes down to forty four thousand, five hundred votes instead
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: of forty five thousand votes. I'm not expecting you state
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: wide elections, the margins are pretty big. This was not
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a close election. You lost by about nine ten percentage points.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: You know, well, I don't think it but I think
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I kind of he's kind of reached the point where
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: like if he were to say, yeah, I lost, well like, oh, well,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: some some elections are legitimate. Then in the Mike Lindell,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: you know alternate universe, all elections are fake. Everything is rigged.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: None of the voting machines can be trusted. And he
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: argued on election night that because we use machines, greg
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: we're like a third world country. So like if we
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: use paper, we would be more advanced. The other thing
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: somebody pointed out is like when you look at most
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: oh you know, England counts the votes in one night,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: and look, there's a lot of legitimate gripes to me
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: about how we count the vote in certain states. We'll
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: talk about that in a little about a moment or two.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: But somebody pointed out that, like one of the reasons
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: count voting voting, Counting the votes in the United States
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is complicated is that usually you're not just voting for
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: one office parliamentary system, you vote for your member of
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: parliament and they vote for whom the Prime Minister is
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: going to be right in this. You've got your statewide offices,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: your county offices, your local offices. Usually is there some
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: referendu or a bond or something like that. There's a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of stuff. That's why they like having machines
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: count the votes because they can do it there. They
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: can count the votes faster, particularly when you've got a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: ballot that's got like, you know, seven to eight to nine,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes even a doesn't. I remember out in California they
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: always have like ninety four referendum, which is one of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the reasons things get counted so slowly out there. But nonetheless,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Mike Lindell's crazy. He's always been crazy, and he's up
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to his usual nonsense again. The only upside is he's
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: paying for it himself.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Well, like you said, Jim, his big thing is here
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: that even if he doesn't overturn the vote totals with
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: the recount or the audit or whatever terminology we're using here,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: he wants to use this as a push to get
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: rid of electronic voting machines. And there are other people
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: that want to do that. They like either the fill
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: in the bubble with the pen and put it through
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: the optical scanner, or some people literally want pens and
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: paper and counting ballots by hand.
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: So I mean, there's.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Different opinions on this, but again, forty five thousand vote difference,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: more than eleven percentage points. Just it ain't happened in
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Mike and more than eight hundred thousand dollars down the
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: drain anyway, more on elections in California in just a moment.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: But instead of paying over eight hundred grand for a
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: recount there you have no hope of winning, you could
• 23:54
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  Speaker 3: m L. All right, Jim for our chaser, let me
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: just hit the refresh real quick here.
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: Nope, nope.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Not a single vote counted in California since Tuesday night
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: in this special runoff in the fourteenth Congressional district.
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: This was Eric Swalwells seat in the House.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: He of course, resigned shortly after the scandal broke on
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: all of his predations against women. The runoff is between
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: two I assume far lefties. This is you know, San
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Francisco Bay area seat.
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: There's no hope.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: For getting a good congressman or woman out of there,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: so but it's tight right now. It's a fifty one
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: to forty nine count right now with sixty two percent
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: of the vote in between Aisho Wahab and Melissa Hernandez
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: and so Jim. We see this every time in California,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: where they count up to roughly sixty percent on election
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: night and then it's like a speedboat coming to the
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: no wake zone and then all of a sudden, people
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: just sit there and wait and stare at the clock.
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: Call California election officials take forever. Just somebody just pay
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: attention to what's going on in Florida and fix this thing.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, even if it wasn't a super
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: close race, greg like nearly four out of ten votes
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: is not counted yet. And the other thing is is like, look, okay,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: you know we've grown used to us a lot of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: races where you don't know on election night or you know,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: somebody gives a non concession, non victory speech. But also
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: like we're now at a point where like what California
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: doesn't count votes on Wednesdays, because if that's the case,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: you really shouldn't hold elections on Tuesdays. Like all right,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, we got a lot of them. Okay, everybody,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: take the day off. It's cool, never mind, relax, you know,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: we'll pick this up on Thursday. Would be nice to
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: know who the winner is. Everybody put your like. The
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: other thing, which I think is that the subtle reaction
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of this and people a lot of you know, we
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: talked a bit about California, you know, Los Angeles Republicans.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I suspect a lot of Republicans all across the state.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: When it takes forever to count the votes, it is
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: a not so subtle psychological signal that none of this
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: stuff really matters, that we don't really need to know
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: that it does.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: You.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: One is because obviously the Democrat's going to win in
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: most general elections. I know they have the jungle primary
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: over there. Sometimes you get two Democrats going out each other.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: But like in the end, it's like, don't worry who won,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: We'll let you know in a couple of weeks. That's
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: assigned to the public. You don't have the right to
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: know who won the election within like a month of
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: election day, which is obviously leaving much more opportunity. Again,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: is Mike Lindell a reliable source on this, No, but
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: that you're providing ample opportunity for shenanigans. When it takes
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: that long to say, hey, we've counted most of the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: votes and this guy looks like the one's going to win.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: There're this many remaining when it's thirty eight percent and
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: here we are on Thursday. That's absolutely appalling.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's that a two thousand vote difference, and according
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: to NBC News, probably about forty one thousand votes left,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: so obviously more than enough to make a difference in
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: the outcome of it. And so, I mean, Jim, did
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: they get no mail on Wednesday? Did they not look
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: at this stuff? Did they not well, okay, stuff they
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: hadn't gone through.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: That would be that would make sense. That's an excuse
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: for like, hey, don't blame us, that's the postal service
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: just never delivered it. Okay, now I buy it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: I don't think that's what happened though, And we know
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: they're not all that strict about signature and verification on
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: that thing.
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: So it's just a mess out there in California.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I guess the one the one silver lining here is
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: it still happens when it's too far left Democrats running
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: against each other and not just to.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: Win the Republican It's like, hey, what's going on here.
• 28:33
  Speaker 6: They're they're just this bad all the time.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know how that's a silver lining, but somehow
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: that's a.
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: Little bit reassuring that it's just bad all the time.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: As we point out, Florida counts the votes really quickly
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: because everybody in the state who lived in the state
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: in the year two thousand remembers it and was embarrassed.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: And you know, the guy staring at the hanging chats
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and they're like, we're never doing that again. And it
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: took a while to get every county as good Member
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Paul Beach County used to take forever to count them
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But now we're in a situation
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: where this was an extraordinary frustrating situation, and they're like,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: we're going to fix up our reputation. California has this
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: embarrassment cycle after cycle, and they're just like, eah, as
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: we said, Greg, must be the nice weather out there.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Just unbelievable. They have no embarrassment about this or any
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: desire to fix it.
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: Just crazy. Anyway, Jim, have a good day, see tomorrow.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: See tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today.
• 29:26
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• 29:28
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• 29:45
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