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Mark interviews economist Steve Moore. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: It's the Mark Simone Show, live from the WOR Life
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  Speaker 1: Facts Studio. Well, with us now, the brilliant economist, Steve Moore.
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  Speaker 1: You should get his book, The Trump Economic Miracle. If
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  Speaker 1: you haven't read that, it's good to, you'll learn a
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  Speaker 1: lot from that, The Trump Economic Miracle. And he runs
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  Speaker 1: the committee to unleash prosperity. Every day they put out
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  Speaker 1: the best daily briefing and analysis.
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  Speaker 2: It's free.
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  Speaker 1: It'll come right to your email. You can go sign
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  Speaker 1: up at unleashprosperity.com. UnleashProsperity.com. Steve Moore, how are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Mark. Doing actually very well, thank you. I think
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  Speaker 2: the economy is doing a lot better than the media
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  Speaker 2: is portraying it to be, that's for sure, and feeling
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  Speaker 2: very upbeat about the direction of things.
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  Speaker 1: Well, wait a minute. I'm looking at the New York Times.
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  Speaker 1: Economy in crisis, in crisis.
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  Speaker 2: Is that true? Did I really say that?
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  Speaker 1: No, but you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean, that's what a lot of the headlines
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  Speaker 2: have been. But you look at these statistics, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: an economist, so I look at what's coming out every day.
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  Speaker 2: We've got a record-booming stock market. We've got a record
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  Speaker 2: amount of investment capital coming into the United States. We're
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  Speaker 2: like a magnet. We have the lowest number of people
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  Speaker 2: collecting unemployment insurance in something like 30 years. We have
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  Speaker 2: the lowest poverty rate probably ever in the history of
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  Speaker 2: the United States. We're producing more oil and gas annually.
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  Speaker 2: than any time before in the history of the country,
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  Speaker 2: and so we're now an exporter. And by the way,
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  Speaker 2: I did read in the Wall Street Journal today that
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  Speaker 2: the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz has record
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  Speaker 2: amount of oil flowing now. So those are all positive signs,
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  Speaker 2: and yet people are in a bad mood.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I see that oil has dropped $ 10 a barrel
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  Speaker 1: in just 36 hours, which is good news. Hey, explain this.
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  Speaker 1: The airlines are a mess. United Airlines, no exception. The
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  Speaker 1: CEO of United Airlines is calling for a national wealth tax.
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  Speaker 2: What is he thinking?
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  Speaker 1: How's it going to help him?
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  Speaker 2: What's his name again? I forget what his name is.
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  Speaker 2: But he gave a speech the other day in an
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  Speaker 2: interview where he said we should have a national wealth
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  Speaker 2: tax tax. Which, by the way, every country that's tried that,
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  Speaker 2: it's torpedoed their economy. And then he said, how about
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  Speaker 2: this one, Mark? He said, we should have an inheritance
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  Speaker 2: tax of up to 100%. So here's the thing. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: think about this. If you were to tell rich people
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  Speaker 2: you can't pass on any of your money to your kids...
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  Speaker 2: everybody would just spend, spend, spend. It would be like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you would spend every penny you have before
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  Speaker 2: the government get a hold of it. It's the dumbest
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  Speaker 2: thing I've ever heard at a hundred. Hasn't this guy
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  Speaker 2: ever heard of the laugher curve? If you tax something,
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  Speaker 2: you get lots of it. And if you tax it
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  Speaker 2: too high, you lose revenue. They wouldn't collect a single
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  Speaker 2: dime of inheritance tax because nobody would have an inheritance. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Has this guy ever heard of go woke, go broke guy, go, go,
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  Speaker 1: go talk to Jaguar, go talk to Budweiser. Uh, What
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  Speaker 1: is he thinking?
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  Speaker 2: Well, think about it this way. Why do people build
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  Speaker 2: up a business over their lifetime? People want to leave
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  Speaker 2: a legacy for their children. That's the American way. My
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  Speaker 2: dad continued to work until he was 75 years old
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  Speaker 2: and worked and worked and put his blood and sweat
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  Speaker 2: and tears into that business for 40, 50 years. The
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  Speaker 2: government said, oh, by the way, you can't pass any
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  Speaker 2: of that on to your kids. Now, it turns out
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  Speaker 2: none of us actually took over that business, but this
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  Speaker 2: is the American way. You build up a farm, you
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  Speaker 2: build up a ranch, you build up a business, and
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  Speaker 2: then you get to pass that on to your kids.
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  Speaker 2: And that's outrageous to think of. By the way, in
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  Speaker 2: the Communist Manifesto, one of the first commandments of the
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  Speaker 2: Communist Manifesto is to eliminate inheritance.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, God. Now, what else?
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  Speaker 2: By the way, I'm not flying United. If I have
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  Speaker 2: a choice You know, like if I have to go
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  Speaker 2: to fly to Chicago, I can fly to Chicago on
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  Speaker 2: American or United. I'm so pissed off at this guy.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going on American. He's not getting my business anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody avoid United for a while until the CEO goes. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: President Trump, there's a lot of stuff that never gets reported,
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  Speaker 1: but you report it in your daily hotline. Like as
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  Speaker 1: a result of the border being closed, drug deaths are
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  Speaker 1: way down. That's not been reported.
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  Speaker 2: It's an amazing statistic. I mean, I was shocked when
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  Speaker 2: I saw them. Fentanyl deaths are down. Remember, we had
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  Speaker 2: a fentanyl crisis three, four years ago. Remember that? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: of course. Now, fentanyl has almost fallen, you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: fallen like 80%. Wow. And deaths from cocaine, deaths from
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  Speaker 2: other major, you know, drug, dangerous drugs have fallen very substantially.
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  Speaker 2: But the big one is fentanyl. And fentanyl was coming
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  Speaker 2: in through the border, remember? And we've, as a result of,
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  Speaker 2: you know, sealing up the border, we have cut those fentanyl.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think there were like 60,000 deaths a year.
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  Speaker 2: from fentanyl under Biden. Now it's down to like 10,000,
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  Speaker 2: which is still too many, but that's a big decline.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, down 80%. Now, had it gone up 3%, the
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  Speaker 1: media would be covering that story day and night.
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  Speaker 2: Of course it would.
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  Speaker 1: It would.
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  Speaker 2: And so this is a real victory for Trump. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he is saving lives by keeping all these dangerous poisons
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  Speaker 2: out of our country.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, one thing I don't like about the Trump administration,
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  Speaker 1: this thing about we'll buy some businesses, we'll invest in companies.
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  Speaker 1: There's no good that would come of that, is there?
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  Speaker 2: No. I mean, there's two problems with that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: when I first came to Washington in the mid-' 80s, I
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  Speaker 2: actually worked for one year in the Reagan administration, believe
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  Speaker 2: it or not. And I was working on privatization, where
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  Speaker 2: we were actually looking at how the federal government could
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  Speaker 2: sell assets, like federal lands and the post office and
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that, and sell these assets and collect money
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  Speaker 2: so we could use that to reduce our debt. And so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and we did some of that. We didn't
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  Speaker 2: do near enough of it. But now we have the opposite.
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  Speaker 2: When you have an institution like the United States government
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  Speaker 2: that's $ 40 trillion in debt, why is it buying assets?
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  Speaker 2: It should be selling assets. We should be selling, you know,
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  Speaker 2: things and making money so that we can help reduce
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  Speaker 2: our debt burden. So I don't like this. That's point
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  Speaker 2: number one. And just philosophically, I guess that's it. But
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  Speaker 2: the second reason I'm against it is, you know, what
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  Speaker 2: the government's trying to do here is pick winners and losers.
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  Speaker 2: But guess what? The government's not very good at that.
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  Speaker 2: They're not very good at picking winners and losers. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: what they're really good at is picking losers. Remember Solyndra?
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  Speaker 2: Remember that one? Remember, what was it, Fisker Auto and
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  Speaker 2: all these companies that I think it was the Obama
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  Speaker 2: administration invested in. Like every one of them went bankrupt.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't think these people running government who can't
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  Speaker 2: balance their own books are going to be very good
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  Speaker 2: at figuring out what companies to invest.
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  Speaker 1: In, do you? No, it's crazy.
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  Speaker 2: I'd rather go to my broker rather than have the
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  Speaker 2: government tell me where to invest.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, you were talking about this a while back. The
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  Speaker 1: flat tax is the smartest, most brilliant thing. Everybody pays 17%.
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  Speaker 1: It's fair. But you can never do it because selling
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  Speaker 1: those loopholes and deductions is what Congress does for a living.
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  Speaker 1: So How could you ever get it passed?
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  Speaker 2: I know. It's really tough because it really is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Washington makes its living. You know, we get rich. You know,
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  Speaker 2: three of the five richest counties in America are in
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  Speaker 2: and around Washington, D.C. Because we get rich because you
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  Speaker 2: send us all your money. Thank you. Thank you for
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  Speaker 2: doing that, Mark. You're so nice to send us all
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  Speaker 2: your money. And, you know, you send us a dollar
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  Speaker 2: and we send you 80 cents back. It's a really
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  Speaker 2: great gambit we got. But anyway, so one of the
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  Speaker 2: ways we make a lot of money in Washington and
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  Speaker 2: create whole industries is, is by the whole tax preparation industry.
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  Speaker 2: And we've got armies of tax lawyers out there. When
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  Speaker 2: I get to the bottom line of my tax return
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  Speaker 2: every year, and mine isn't especially complicated, but it's a
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  Speaker 2: little complicated, you have to attest to the fact that
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  Speaker 2: the information you've given to the United States government is
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  Speaker 2: valid and true. And I signed that, but I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if it is. I mean, I do my best,
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  Speaker 2: but I have no idea whether I paid the right
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  Speaker 2: amount because the whole thing is so damn confusing. Why
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  Speaker 2: does the tax system have to be so confusing? With
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  Speaker 2: a flat tax, you literally have a postcard return. You've
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  Speaker 2: got seven lines on the return. How much money did
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  Speaker 2: you make? You get a deduction on your kids. You
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  Speaker 2: get just a few deductions, and then you pay a
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  Speaker 2: small flat rate on that. And it doesn't matter whether
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  Speaker 2: you're Bill Gates or Steve Moore, you're going to pay
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  Speaker 2: the same rate, but he's going to pay a hundred
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  Speaker 2: times more tax than I do. Cause he has a
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  Speaker 2: hundred times more money than I do. That's a fair system.
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  Speaker 2: And I bet most Americans love it, but everybody in
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  Speaker 2: Washington hates it. Cause it takes power away from the,
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  Speaker 2: from the, you know, the Congressman and lobbyists. And, and
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  Speaker 2: by the way, if you know who was one of
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  Speaker 2: the instigators of the flat tax was our friend, Steve Forbes. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Should have been elected on it, but yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now, By the way, when he ran for president and
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  Speaker 2: started talking about the flat tax, oh, my God, Washington
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  Speaker 2: went into conniptions. They're like, oh, my God, stop this man.
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  Speaker 2: He's dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: Besides the fact that it's the easiest, most logical, fair
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  Speaker 1: thing in the world, what about people saying, well, we'll
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  Speaker 1: get less revenue that way?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, no, you get so much more because now there's
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  Speaker 2: no way to stash away and hide your money. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, what we've created all these tax shelters and
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  Speaker 2: who takes advantage of the tax shelters, you know, rich
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  Speaker 2: people with fancy pants lawyers. So now, you know, if you're,
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  Speaker 2: you know, somebody like a Bill Gates, you're going to
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  Speaker 2: pay your fair share, but you're going to pay a
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  Speaker 2: lower rate. So your incentive to continue to invest in
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  Speaker 2: the economy and so on goes up. I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: you imagine we had a 17% tax rate in this country,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we would be a vacuum cleaner of capital
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  Speaker 2: from all over the world. Nobody could possibly compete with
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  Speaker 2: the United States. So the only problem is we'd have
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  Speaker 2: to find a job for all those IRS agents and
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  Speaker 2: all the tax accountants.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah and those congressmen find something else to sell for
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  Speaker 1: a donation right exactly well steve more great stuff and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you that daily briefing you put out the hotline it's
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the best.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: It's for did you mention it's free it's.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Absolutely free you go to unleashprosperity.com sign up for it
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: i urge you to do that unleashprosperity.com sign up for
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the hotline best daily briefing and analysis and Great stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Moore, thanks for being with us.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, Mark. Have a great weekend. Take care.
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  Speaker 1: Take care. Hey, we've got another hour to go. Don't forget,
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