Join Jim and Greg as they welcome news of a “blackout: at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, and whether Israel is behind it or not, they’re glad to see it. They also unload on President Biden who is unconcerned about inflation following his massive spending binge because someone else will likely be in office when it gets really bad. They also call out Vice President Harris for apparently doing nothing about the border crisis since she was put in charge of it and the media who refuse to demand answers. Finally, they offer their well wishes to Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw in the wake of concerning medical news.
inflation
COVID Relief Con Job, CDC’s Confusing Caution, Media’s Texas Tantrum
Listen to “COVID Relief Con Job, CDC’s Confusing Caution, Media’s Texas Tantrum” on Spreaker.
Join Jim and Greg as they hammer the COVID relief provides very little COVID relief but hundreds of billions to irresponsible states and cities and political allies of the Democrats. They also throw up their hands as the CDC and Dr. Fauci are reluctant to let fully vaccinated people resume their lives. And Jim explains why the media ‘s hysterical coverage of Texas opening back up is way overblown.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Theragun
https://theragun.com/martini
Try Theragun for 30-days starting at only $199!
My Pillow
https://mypillow.com.martini
Use code ‘Martini” to get buy one get one on all 6-piece towel sets and Giza Dream Sheet sets.
Biden’s Big Inflation Risk, Psaki’s Shameless Spin, Hunter’s Tell-All
Listen to “Biden’s Big Inflation Risk, Psaki’s Shameless Spin, Hunter’s Tell-All” on Spreaker.
Join Jim and Greg as they discuss former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers warning that the Biden COVID relief bill is way too big and could trigger the worst inflation in decades. They also shake their heads as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggests the CDC director’s recommendation to open schools is just her personal opinion and they have to wait for the science. And they react to news that Hunter Biden is writing a tell-all book and are pretty sure he plans to skip a lot of stuff.
What Will Be the Economic Toll from COVID-19?
Listen to “What Will Be the Economic Toll from COVID-19?” on Spreaker.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor reported more than 4.4 million jobs lost in the past week. Over the past five weeks, 26.4 million people have filed first-time jobless claims.
What are the short-term and long-term economic impacts of this hemorrhaging of jobs, productivity, and revenue? How much has the Paycheck Protection Program helped? And how aggressively can our economy re-engage when we’re already hearing some schools may not be opening in the fall and the Centers for Disease Control believes the coronavirus could be worse in the coming winter than it is now?
Brian Wesbury is chief economist at First Trust Advisors in Wheaton, Illinois, and formerly served as chief economist for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. He walks us through these difficult questions, explains the indicators for and against a rise in inflation, and sizes up the recent volatility in the oil markets.
Don’t miss this critical conversation on the state of our economy.
Brat: Senate ‘Scared of Shadow’ on Spending
Rep. Dave Brat, R-Virginia, is slamming Republican congressional leaders for caving to spending demands by Democrats in a two-year budget bill that he anticipates will spark trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see while Republicans unilaterally surrender their greatest weapon for passing meaningful entitlement, welfare, or health care reforms.
On Wednesday, just one day before another government funding deadline, the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate announced an agreement to keep operations running for two years, but with a hefty price tag for the American taxpayers.
Republicans who favor the bill are celebrating the lifting of sequester spending caps on national defense. They also included language to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, often referred to as “death panels” in the Affordable Care Act. And they contend there is money well spent on veterans programs, infrastructure, disaster relief, and opioid addition programs.
But Brat says everything is getting more money and the media’s estimate of $300 billion in new spending is actually low.
“It’s actually $400 billion now and wait til you see what policies get plowed into that $400 billion,” said Brat.
The congressman says the House of Representatives addressed appropriations last year, passing a budget that cut spending as well as 12 separate departmental spending bills. He says things fell apart once those bills got sent to the U.S. Senate.
“They failed. They failed on Obamacare. They failed on keeping their word to the American people on being fiscally responsible,” said Brat.
Earlier this week, the House passed a continuing resolution that boosted defense spending but left other levels unchanged.
“The House Freedom Caucus plussed up defense spending. The entire Republican Conference was in favor, plus up the military but nothing else. We were going to stay as a team on that call.
“Then leadership got together and went to the Senate. They need nine Democrats and it morphed into a Democrat bill in five minutes. They plussed it up to $300 billion. When you add in contingency funding, it’s $400 billion,” said Brat.
“When you’ve got (Senate Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer saying this is a great bipartisan bill, and Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, and the White House, you might have a problem on your hands,” said Brat, who points out the two-year deal allows the Senate to wash its hands of the issue until late next year.
“The Senate basically doesn’t even want to vote on a budget next year. They’re scared of their shadow,” he said.
Brat is generally positive on Speaker Paul Ryan’s leadership but is not impressed with his actions on this bill.
“We got backed into a trap, but still [Ryan’s] got to take the boxing gloves and put them on and go over their to (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell and say no,” said Brat.
Brat says there’s only one reason why a bill like this gets passed in the GOP-run Congress.
“None of this has to d with rational policy. No one’s in favor of a trillion dollar deficit and so it’s all politics. It’s people protecting their hide and their slot up here . Taking the ‘yes’ vote is the easy vote. Sure, yes, yes, yes to everything. Put it on the credit card and the kids will pay it off. You know, were $21 trillion in debt right now,” said Brat.
And that’s about to get much worse.
“We’re going to have over trillion dollar deficits as far as they eye can see. If you’re a Republican and you’re fine with that, then I don’t get it,” said Brat.
Not only that, the required payments on the interest for the national debt were tamped down in recent years since interest rates were next to nothing. Brat says the markets are facing volatility now because of inflation fears brought on by rising wages. He says the tab to preserve the government’s solvency will also be on the rise.
“That wage inflation set off a signal. Markets are rational and they say, ‘Oh oh, interest rates are going to bump up once wages bump up,'” said Brat.
“We’re going to have inflation, interest rates going up, and then we’ve got to pay off $21 trillion in debt at normal interest rates like three, four, five percent, That’s going to be hugely costly and the market has properly recognized that,” said Brat.
In addition to being awash in red ink, Brat is aghast that GOP leaders effectively handcuffed themselves from getting any major reforms done in the next two years.
“They deemed the budget and gave up our ability to do budget reconciliation again this year in the budget. It’s a huge deal. That’s how we tried to get rid of Obamacare and that’s how we passed the very successful tax cut.
“This year, we were going to work on welfare reform and maybe some mandatory spending programs because they’re a $100 trillion unfunded (liability). Now for some reason e just unilaterally disarmed and gave away our power,” said Brat.
The reconciliation tool allows legislation to pass with a simple majority rather than having to meet the 60-vote threshold to cut off debate. Republicans will now have to keep their entire conference together and pick up nine Democrats to pass any legislation.
Brat, who calls this bill “a Christmas tree on steroids,” is getting some blowback from critics who want to know why he is so upset at a bill boosting federal spending by $400 billion when he just voted in favor of a tax bill that adds $1.5 trillion to the debt over 10 years.
Brat says the explanation is simple.
“I did my Ph.d on economic growth and you’ve got to compete with the mainstream media that doesn’t know anything about economics. All you need is an additional 0.75 percent economic growth to pay for our tax cut,
So when you put together the regulatory relief we have and the tax cut bill itself. The bill itself won’t pay for all of it, but the economy is more than compensating for it. We’re only at one-and-a-half or two (percent growth), so if you get to 2.75 you’ve paid for it and the Fed of Atlanta has us growing at 5.4 next quarter,” said Brat.
He says this line of attack is proof positive that liberals are clueless on fiscal policy.
“The tax cut does pay or itself but government spending does not pay for itself. That’s Econ 101 and unfortunately I don’t think the Democrats took the class,” said Brat.
Economy Is Growing…But How Strong Is it?
On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced the economy grew by 1.9 percent in the second quarter of 2008. That means we are not in a recession and have not been in one during this entire economic downturn.
Does this suggest the doom and gloom is overblown? Or do other economic indicators such as inflation and the price of gasoline prove that we are in an economic mess, regardless of what the official numbers suggest?
Read more in the link below and share your thoughts with us!