Speaker 1: And Hi, how are you happy Friday? To you? On
Speaker 1: this the seventh day of November, Year of Our Lord,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. My name is Tom Sullivan. And well,
Speaker 1: we've got some maybe a little breakthrough on the shutdown
Speaker 1: of the government day what is this day? Thirty thirty eight,
Speaker 1: who's counting? We've got that, We've got an update on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the airlines are are cutting back on their flying and
Speaker 1: it's going to get even worse if there if the
Speaker 1: shutdown continues. Some updates about the and updates about that
Speaker 1: ups jet that crashed in Louisville. So a lot to
Speaker 1: go over. Let's start with the breaking news on this.
Speaker 1: It's Friday afternoon while we're recording this, and Chuck Schumer
Speaker 1: just came to the floor of the US Senate and
Speaker 1: had So this isn't something where they're talking behind them,
Speaker 1: but they've been talking behind the scenes. And I told
Speaker 1: you yesterday that the way I see this coming to
Speaker 1: some sort of end is that they're going to try
Speaker 1: to keep the healthcare subsidies going for a year or
Speaker 1: two or maybe three, which is typical in Washington, is
Speaker 1: to kick the can down the road. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean to reach around and pat myself on the back.
Speaker 1: But that's exactly what Chuck Schumer announced this afternoon, was
Speaker 1: why don't we reopen the government and then but kick
Speaker 1: the can down the road one year for the subsidies
Speaker 1: for the Affordable Care Act would continue for at least
Speaker 1: a year while they put together a bipartisan committee to
Speaker 1: negotiate how to fix healthcare. Now, this fixing healthcare has
Speaker 1: been an issue before Obamacare passed and certainly since it's passed,
Speaker 1: and they don't I mean it's the government program was
Speaker 1: originally designed to make it so that we would all
Speaker 1: cave and sign up for a government run healthcare program.
Speaker 1: That was the goal. It hasn't happened. It's been ten
Speaker 1: years and we're still some of us on private insurance,
Speaker 1: some of us on government insurance. So let's listen to
Speaker 1: what Chuck Schumer has to say and then we'll chat
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: Democrats have said we must address the health care crisis,
Speaker 2: but Republicans have repeatedly said they won't negotiate to lower
Speaker 2: the healthcare costs until the government reopens. So let's find
Speaker 2: a path to honor both positions. Democrats would like to
Speaker 2: see an end to this shutdown. And we want to
Speaker 2: respect Leader Thun's desire not to negotiate on ACA until
Speaker 2: after the government reopens. Therefore, we'd like to offer a
Speaker 2: simple proposal that would reopen the government and extend the
Speaker 2: ACA premium tax credits simultaneously, and then have the opportunity
Speaker 2: to start negotiating longer term solutions to health care costs.
Speaker 1: Let's do all three.
Speaker 2: I've spoken with my caucus, and Democrats are offering a
Speaker 2: very simple compromise. Democrats are ready to clear the way
Speaker 2: to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes health
Speaker 2: care affordability. Leader Thun just needs to add a clean
Speaker 2: one year extension of the ACA tax credits to the
Speaker 2: CR so that we can immediately address rising healthcare costs.
Speaker 2: That's not a negotiation. It's an extension of current law,
Speaker 2: something we do all the time around here, as we
Speaker 2: all know. But we also offer this Let's create a
Speaker 2: bipartisan committee that will continue negotiations after the government reopens
Speaker 2: on reforms ahead of next year's enrollment period to provide
Speaker 2: long term certainty that healthcare costs will be more affordable.
Speaker 2: This proposal reopens the government and insures working families who
Speaker 2: are shopping right now for their healthcare, get certainty and
Speaker 2: financial relief. While open enrollment has begun, insurers can update
Speaker 2: their rates after we pass a simple extension of the
Speaker 2: tax credits. With this approach, we do not negotiate health
Speaker 2: care in the shutdown, as leaderthun has maintained he wishes,
Speaker 2: and the American people get the tax credit extension they want.
Speaker 2: That is what many of our Republican colleagues have floated
Speaker 2: over the last six weeks as a compromise, a one
Speaker 2: year tax credit extension and reforms to the credit. Beyond that.
Speaker 2: We will agree with the Republican Republican request not to
Speaker 2: start negotiations until after the government reopens. All Republicans have
Speaker 2: to do is say yes to extend current law for
Speaker 2: one year. It makes sense, and since what we're proposing
Speaker 2: is only a simple extension of current law, the Senate
Speaker 2: could do this within a few hours. This is a
Speaker 2: reasonable offer that reopens the government, deals with health care affordability,
Speaker 2: and begins a process of negotiating reforms to the ACA
Speaker 2: tax credits for the future. Now the ball is in
Speaker 2: the Republicans court. We need Republicans to just say yes.
Speaker 2: I yield to Senator Peters.
Speaker 1: So there you go. And by the way, I've got
Speaker 1: other Senators that earlier this afternoon that we're making it
Speaker 1: very clear this is a political game. It's such a
Speaker 1: political game. But what they don't care about, but I
Speaker 1: do as a taxpayer and as a health insurance byer,
Speaker 1: we all are, is that by the subsidies increase the
Speaker 1: cost of health insurance. And they know, They've got to
Speaker 1: know that. Some of them are, though I think maybe
Speaker 1: they're just not bright enough to figure that whole thing out.
Speaker 1: One guy that I've always been impressed with, a Democrat.
Speaker 1: He was a former head of DAH Jay Johnson in
Speaker 1: the Obama administration. He's a big Democrat. But listened to
Speaker 1: what he had to say earlier today, it's real pain
Speaker 1: for the American public. It's real pain for the federal workforce.
Speaker 3: Johnath and I ran a cabinet department of two hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty thousand people, and I feel an obligation to
Speaker 3: speak for them. They have no voice in this process.
Speaker 3: They are political footballs, essentially, and they're either furloughed, sent
Speaker 3: home without pay, or they're forced to work without pay.
Speaker 3: Dedicated to this country's aviation security, border security, cybersecurity, Maritimes security,
Speaker 3: and I will I will break ranks with my party
Speaker 3: to say this has got to stop. This is the
Speaker 3: longest government shut down in history, thirty eight days, and
Speaker 3: we need to get out of the business of leveraging
Speaker 3: one issue on the back of another. Otherwise going to
Speaker 3: become the new norm. When the Republicans are back in
Speaker 3: the minority, and they will be, they will say, well,
Speaker 3: you need sixty votes to reopen the government. Well, we
Speaker 3: want you to also address issue A, B, and C,
Speaker 3: and our democracy will spiral downward. And so at the
Speaker 3: very least, the Republican majority of A to allow us
Speaker 3: straight up and down vote on healthcare, but deal with
Speaker 3: these issues separately so that they rise or fall on
Speaker 3: their own merits. Don't leverage one issue on the back
Speaker 3: of the other. Otherwise we're going to end up with
Speaker 3: the dysfunctional government, which is what we have now. The
Speaker 3: obligation of Congress, first obligation of Congress is to keep
Speaker 3: the lights on from the government, and we are not
Speaker 3: doing that. This has got to stop.
Speaker 1: So he's a powerful guy and influential guy, well respected
Speaker 1: on both sides of the aisle, and I can't help
Speaker 1: but wonder he's basically breaking with the Democrats. He is
Speaker 1: a Democrat. Maybe help the Democrats come to some sort
Speaker 1: of offer that Schumer laid on the floor of the
Speaker 1: Senate late this afternoon. Chris Murphy is a senator from Connecticut.
Speaker 1: He's been making noise about wanting to run for president.
Speaker 1: And the more he acts like a hack, the more
Speaker 1: I think this guy doesn't have a prayer. He was
Speaker 1: with interviewed by punch Bowl News Service earlier today, and
Speaker 1: listen to him. He is totally a hack. This is
Speaker 1: all about. He doesn't care about if you're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to get to your Thanksgiving dinner with
Speaker 1: your family. He doesn't care about the problems with the
Speaker 1: people who aren't getting paychecks that are federal employees. All
Speaker 1: he wants is this is about getting a win for
Speaker 1: the Democrats.
Speaker 4: I think there will be some pretty substantial damage done
Speaker 4: to a Democratic brand that has been rehabilitated. If on
Speaker 4: the heels of an election in which the people told
Speaker 4: us to keep fighting, we immediately stop fighting, if we
Speaker 4: surrender without having gotten anything, and we cause a lot
Speaker 4: of folks in this country who had started to believe
Speaker 4: in the Democratic Party to retreat. And again, I worry
Speaker 4: that it will be hard to sort of get them
Speaker 4: back up off the mat in time for next fall's
Speaker 4: election cycle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he knows that the Democrats had a big win
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, but that wasn't a message for them to
Speaker 1: continue to keep fighting and keep the government shut down.
Speaker 1: That they were voting for some candidates that were put
Speaker 1: before them. But Chris Murphy's worry about the Democrat brand,
Speaker 1: it might be damaged. And just when they got all
Speaker 1: excited about their win and then they cave on giving
Speaker 1: in to the Republicans, those evil Republicans. He's such a hack,
Speaker 1: such a hack. John Thune, the Senate Republican leader, this
Speaker 1: is his reaction.
Speaker 5: Now the Democrats just have to take yes for an answer.
Speaker 5: We've given them everything essentially that they were asking for,
Speaker 5: the reasonable Democrats, not the crazy ones like what you
Speaker 5: just heard. But they literally yesterday at their Democratic Caucus
Speaker 5: meeting in the Senate had a pep rally. I mean,
Speaker 5: they are celebrating this. It's insane. And what's happening is
Speaker 5: the far left, which is the tail wagging the dog,
Speaker 5: is bullying the reasonable Democrats out of coming to the table.
Speaker 5: We have a proposal that they have been reviewing and
Speaker 5: looking at now for several days, mostly with things that
Speaker 5: they asked for, including a normal appropriations process, we open
Speaker 5: up the government, they get a vote on their Obamacare fix,
Speaker 5: they want to sit down meet with the President on
Speaker 5: a path forward. He's more than willing to do that.
Speaker 5: All those things are in play, but they can't take
Speaker 5: yes for an answer for fear. I mean, these people
Speaker 5: are scared, spitless of their base, and that's what's happening.
Speaker 5: Yes Day was a bullying session. The far left and
Speaker 5: the Democrat Caucus bullied the reasonable ones out of coming
Speaker 5: to the table and settling this. I'm still hoping that
Speaker 5: these people are going to come to the table and
Speaker 5: we'll find out's in enough.
Speaker 1: So there's no doubt. I'm sure that you've heard that
Speaker 1: a lot of people accuse the Republicans in Congress of
Speaker 1: being afraid of President Trump. They don't want to make
Speaker 1: him mad. They otherwise they're going to get primary they'll
Speaker 1: lose their fat, cushy job. Well, this is you can
Speaker 1: believe that or not, it doesn't matter. This is going
Speaker 1: on on the Democrat side. They're afraid of the far left.
Speaker 1: AOC is going to go to primaryim they'll lose their fat,
Speaker 1: cushy jobs. So everybody's afraid of something. We don't have
Speaker 1: true representation. These are supposed to be the four hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty five members of the House one hundred members
Speaker 1: of the Senate are supposed to represent our voices, and
Speaker 1: they're just playing political games. And Jay Johnson's right. I mean,
Speaker 1: if they keep holding up the government because of one
Speaker 1: issue that they have a problem with, no sit down
Speaker 1: at the table, negotiated like Congress has done forever since
Speaker 1: the start of the country. So this is very, very frustrated.
Speaker 1: It's also damaging the economy. Kevin has, the head of
Speaker 1: the Director of the Director of the National Economic Council,
Speaker 1: laid it out this way.
Speaker 6: The impact on the economy is far worse than we
Speaker 6: expected because it's gone on for so long, and so
Speaker 6: they are now like gold minestments that it's over a
Speaker 6: percent or percent a half of GDP. I will say travel,
Speaker 6: travel at leisure is a place that's really being heavily
Speaker 6: hit right now. And if it continues to get hit,
Speaker 6: if the air travel thing goes south for another week
Speaker 6: or two, then you could say that they would have
Speaker 6: at least a near term, yeah.
Speaker 1: A new term disaster. By the way, Transportation Secretary Sean
Speaker 1: Duffy was also out speaking again today and said that
Speaker 1: they've already cut four percent of the flights and that
Speaker 1: that will get ramped up to ten percent by this
Speaker 1: by next Friday. And then he said, and if it
Speaker 1: continues past that, it could be twenty percent of the
Speaker 1: flights will be canceled. That's heading right into the Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: travel season. There, Well, let's go through some of this.
Speaker 1: Here's some of the travelers that were stopped by the
Speaker 1: media at the airport today.
Speaker 7: This is very tacky, but I hope some of those
Speaker 7: senators and Congressmans get stuck because they can't get somewhere,
Speaker 7: so they'll get there and figure this out and get
Speaker 7: it going again.
Speaker 8: He said, shut down, so you'd never know. So we
Speaker 8: are coming from Singapore. Imagine we have trap hearing the
Speaker 8: America from US. The first flight gets canceled, probably have
Speaker 8: to rent a car and.
Speaker 1: Drive, thought about driving the Arizonable. We change your mindn't all.
Speaker 1: We're gonna chance it.
Speaker 2: We're going to likely experience a big rush of folks
Speaker 2: coming in over the weekend, and you know, and then
Speaker 2: just general panic.
Speaker 9: I mean, people don't know what to expect.
Speaker 1: People who are working are obviously overworked and getting tired,
Speaker 1: and so that's nerve wracking a little bit. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is nerve wracking. And this is all because of some
Speaker 1: political hacks that are playing political games. They don't care
Speaker 1: about you. I know, if you remember, I've always told
Speaker 1: you if you want to be an elected official, remember
Speaker 1: you always end every sentence with for the American people,
Speaker 1: which is totally bogus. It's for them and their power.
Speaker 1: Kevin Bailey, former FAA safety guy. It talks about that angle.
Speaker 10: This is going to be at the most a really
Speaker 10: big headache. I think the administration is being proactive, and
Speaker 10: you know, safety is not going to be the issue here.
Speaker 10: It's not an issue of safety. They're being very proactive.
Speaker 10: It's pretty much to be a big headache. I think
Speaker 10: four travelers, especially as we get into the really big
Speaker 10: travel rush towards the end of November. What I think
Speaker 10: they're gonna do is pretty much target the smaller airplane.
Speaker 10: So in other words, they're not cutting ten percent of
Speaker 10: the passengers, they're cutting ten percent of the operations. So
Speaker 10: they're going to probably target the smaller regional jets that
Speaker 10: maybe hohold twenty or thirty passengers, not a big seven
Speaker 10: sixty seven or seven seventy seven that's making connections. So
Speaker 10: I think if you're on a big airplane, you're pretty safe.
Speaker 10: But if you're like on a flight where they say
Speaker 10: you're going to Florida, they have ten flights per day,
Speaker 10: maybe they'll cut one or two, but it's going to
Speaker 10: be a headache, I think at the most.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's a little bit heartening that it's not
Speaker 1: a safety issue, it's simply and he's the former FAA
Speaker 1: safety head. Yeah, this is where I again, I gotta
Speaker 1: pap myself on the back. I told you yesterday. They'll
Speaker 1: probably be cutting the smaller planes because a plane, any plane,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, if it's a single engine cessing a propeller plane,
Speaker 1: it takes up one space or an airplane in the sky,
Speaker 1: and they can't have two airplanes in the same space.
Speaker 1: So if they can reduce the number of smaller planes
Speaker 1: that have maybe he said ten twenty passengers, it could
Speaker 1: some of them hold fifty to sixty seventy passengers, called
Speaker 1: regional jets. They will probably be cutting those first. And
Speaker 1: the way you can tell if you're booking a flight.
Speaker 1: If you're going into a small or medium sized airport,
Speaker 1: there's a better chance that you might be on a
Speaker 1: regional jet. If you're going into a major airport from
Speaker 1: a major city, you're probably on a legacy airline. For example,
Speaker 1: American Airlines, Delta, United, they all have companies that fly
Speaker 1: the regional flights they have. They have the American and
Speaker 1: Delta tail on them. But there if you look on
Speaker 1: your ticket or your reservation, it will say American Airlines
Speaker 1: flight one, two, three, four operated by and they'll have
Speaker 1: a Pinnacle Airlines, or there's another three or four regional carriers,
Speaker 1: but they they go under the flag of the major carrier.
Speaker 1: But that's where if you have a flight that is
Speaker 1: quote operated by and then fill in the blank, you're
Speaker 1: probably those are the ones that are probably going to
Speaker 1: get cut first. I love this guy. This guy is
Speaker 1: an air traffic controller from Denver, and he thinks I
Speaker 1: think he's dead on right, that this is all bogus.
Speaker 7: Whether I'm talking to you know, fifty planes in an hour,
Speaker 7: or I'm talking to you know, forty five planes in
Speaker 7: an hour, it's it's not much of a difference seeing
Speaker 7: it by ten percent.
Speaker 9: Is it's a joke.
Speaker 11: Like I said, it's just something that's being used by
Speaker 11: the administration to make the flying public feel the pain.
Speaker 11: Controllers are just being used as a pawn in this
Speaker 11: whole game of the shutdown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so flying passagers are being used. It's all part
Speaker 1: of a game. And he's right. I mean, whether he's
Speaker 1: talking to forty five or fifty planes in an hour
Speaker 1: doesn't really make any difference to him. It doesn't change
Speaker 1: his workload. But the problem is you still need them
Speaker 1: to show up at work, and they are well, they're second.
Speaker 1: I believe a second paycheck was due today, so they've
Speaker 1: now missed two full paychecks, which I don't want to
Speaker 1: go down that ramp again. But I learned very early
Speaker 1: on in life that you should and it's hard when
Speaker 1: you're young and you don't make a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but you should have three to six months worth of
Speaker 1: living expenses tucked away somewhere that you can get your
Speaker 1: hands on it. Not on some five year CD, No,
Speaker 1: it should be something that you can reach out and use.
Speaker 1: And when I say three to six months worth of
Speaker 1: living expenses, I'm not talking about three to six months
Speaker 1: of what your your paycheck is but close what I'm
Speaker 1: then it takes time to build that up and put
Speaker 1: that in some place where you can get your hands
Speaker 1: on it, some interest bearing account, and that's your slush fund.
Speaker 1: That that's your emergency fund. And the way I always
Speaker 1: did it was you go through and you take a
Speaker 1: look at your expenses for the month, and you go, well,
Speaker 1: let's see there was the rent or the mortgage. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have a car payment. You can't. You
Speaker 1: can't have the roof over your head taken away. You
Speaker 1: can't have your car taken away by the repoman. But again,
Speaker 1: the bills that you pay through your groceries, those are
Speaker 1: the things that you should have that amount tucked aside.
Speaker 1: Three to six months worth, as far as going out
Speaker 1: to dinner, going to movies, having entertainment, having a good time,
Speaker 1: that's nice, But for an emergency fund, you don't need
Speaker 1: to count all that because if you're in an emergency,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be living the high life. So again,
Speaker 1: three to six months of the real minimum that you
Speaker 1: must have in order to meet your monthly obligations. But
Speaker 1: David Riley from Air Traffic Controller in Denver's right doesn't
Speaker 1: make this whole thing about cutting back ten percent doesn't
Speaker 1: make a change in his life. Speaking of airplanes, and
Speaker 1: TSB came out today and gave us a little bit
Speaker 1: more information about the crash of the ups MD eleven
Speaker 1: in Louisville the other day.
Speaker 9: Are we found multiple pieces of engine fan blades along
Speaker 9: with the main component of the engine of the number
Speaker 9: one engine, which is on the left side of the aircraft.
Speaker 9: We have transferred all of those to a secured location
Speaker 9: for further examination, and we'll be using that to further
Speaker 9: analyze any mechanical aspects. I brief the families of those
Speaker 9: who were on the ground. There were approximately fifty sixty people,
Speaker 9: and it's a tough situation. It's hard. Their main issue
Speaker 9: is where's my loved one, because right now no one's
Speaker 9: been identified.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the statistics on this are simply this. There were
Speaker 1: three crew members on this cargo jet. They're perished, but
Speaker 1: you've got a total of thirteen people that have died,
Speaker 1: so the rest of them are people that were in
Speaker 1: the industrial area off the end of the airport. There's
Speaker 1: still nine missing, so we've got a potential of twenty
Speaker 1: one people that perished in this jet. Crash. Again, it's
Speaker 1: not like a passenger jet. You've only got three members
Speaker 1: of there. But it went off the end of the
Speaker 1: runway and into this bunch of warehouses essentially, And there's
Speaker 1: employees that worked in those warehouses who were killed instantly
Speaker 1: as the jet came crashing in on them. So Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: isn't that far away. We're worried about the travel angle
Speaker 1: to it, but also the whole thing. Ever since Tuesday
Speaker 1: in the election and the Democrats swept the board, the
Speaker 1: Republicans are trying to lick their wounds that they're trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what happened, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: are saying that Joe Biden did not get a second
Speaker 1: term because the economy stupid, it's always the economy, and
Speaker 1: because of the fact that inflation was up over nine
Speaker 1: percent at one point during his four year term. They
Speaker 1: it came back down again, but at the same time
Speaker 1: it prices went up and inflation slowed down, but prices
Speaker 1: did not necessarily come down. And that's why a lot
Speaker 1: of people today are still looking at the bill that
Speaker 1: they get from the grocery when you check out with
Speaker 1: the cashier at the grocery store and going holy smokes,
Speaker 1: this is expensive. It's truly because and this is where
Speaker 1: everybody gets the description of inflation. It wasn't nine percent
Speaker 1: now it's at three percent, So therefore inflation is way down. No,
Speaker 1: it's not. It just is going up slower prices overall.
Speaker 1: Now there are some prices that went down, there are
Speaker 1: some prices that went way up, but the overall macro
Speaker 1: of inflation, the basket of inflation, prices never came down.
Speaker 1: We never had a minus sign. So that's that's why
Speaker 1: people are going, Man, it's expensive about there. And that
Speaker 1: was the number one reason it always is. People vote
Speaker 1: their pocketbook. And that's why Joe Biden got tossed out.
Speaker 1: And let's bring in Donald Trump because Donald Trump said
Speaker 1: that he would get prices down, and prices are not down,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how he can get them down.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing with the two ladies that won
Speaker 1: the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia. They were
Speaker 1: also promising, where I vote for me, I'm going to
Speaker 1: get prices. I don't know how any governor, any president,
Speaker 1: any politician is going to be able to get prices down,
Speaker 1: other than in the case of the president. One thing
Speaker 1: he was excellent at in the first term was a deregulation.
Speaker 1: He's cut the cost of doing business, which therefore allowed
Speaker 1: businesses to lower their prices and or hire more people
Speaker 1: and expand their companies, which they did. And I know
Speaker 1: he's been busy with foreign affairs and solving wars and
Speaker 1: doing all of the things he does around the world.
Speaker 1: Got investments to come into the United States. That's all nice.
Speaker 1: And that's where Joe Biden got caught. Remember the Biden
Speaker 1: administration kept talking about the economic indicators. The economy is
Speaker 1: doing fine. Biden nomics was great. Don't you people see
Speaker 1: how wonderful the economy is. What's the matter with you? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of hearing that same tone coming out of
Speaker 1: the White House right now. Well, the economic indicators say,
Speaker 1: I mean, inflation is no longer going up nine percent,
Speaker 1: It's only going up three percent. So therefore inflation is down.
Speaker 1: Inflation is down, but prices are not down. And I'm
Speaker 1: afraid they're going to get caught in the same trap.
Speaker 1: And one of the ways that really caught my attention
Speaker 1: was the President was asked about Thanksgiving meals and that
Speaker 1: Walmart has some basket of things that they sell as
Speaker 1: a as a Thanksgiving meal, and the President was all
Speaker 1: thrilled about that. Here's President Trump.
Speaker 12: So Walmart to me, you know, it's triple A came
Speaker 12: out that nobody going to influence them. I don't know them,
Speaker 12: but they just came out with a very powerful satement.
Speaker 12: They've done it for many years that under the Biden administration,
Speaker 12: Thanksgiving meal, a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings costs
Speaker 12: twenty five percent more. In other words, our Thanksgiving this
Speaker 12: year coming up will cost twenty five percent less than
Speaker 12: slippy Joe Biden's. Now, to me, that's better than anything
Speaker 12: there is. I was angry less that with the Republicans.
Speaker 12: They say, you don't talk about this. Nobody talks about it.
Speaker 12: You know, I rely on the question from a reporter
Speaker 12: to get that out. We should be talking about it
Speaker 12: because they talk about affordable so that he didn't have affordability.
Speaker 12: What the Democrats do is they lie. We are the
Speaker 12: ones that have done great for an affordability. They're done
Speaker 12: horribly on affordability. The only thing is they go out
Speaker 12: and they took they take commercials out. Under the Democrats,
Speaker 12: you have affordability.
Speaker 9: It's just the opposite.
Speaker 12: We have much lower prices than they do, and we
Speaker 12: only have one thing, beef. Because the cattle ranches are
Speaker 12: doing well, we're going to bring the beef prices down,
Speaker 12: and they understand that, even if we have to help
Speaker 12: them out. But the beef also is not a big difference.
Speaker 12: But every price is down. The beggest price is energy.
Speaker 12: We're at almost two dollars for gasoline.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack some of that. First of all, we're
Speaker 1: at two dollars gasoline. No gas prices across the country
Speaker 1: are the national average, according to Triple A, three dollars
Speaker 1: and eight cents for the cheap stuff. That's today three
Speaker 1: oh eight. A year ago it was three, So it's
Speaker 1: come down two cents on average. Now I look at
Speaker 1: the national map of gas prices. Out west, where it's
Speaker 1: always been super expensive, it's still California four dollars sixty
Speaker 1: nine cents, Nevada three dollars ninety eight cents, State of
Speaker 1: Washington four dollars twenty four cents. It's all over four
Speaker 1: dollars mostly on the West coast. You go down to
Speaker 1: the south Texas is there's a two dollars gas to
Speaker 1: sixty three, Louisiana to sixty two, Mississippi to sixty So
Speaker 1: it's in the twos down there in oil country, where
Speaker 1: you would expect it to be. But the average across
Speaker 1: the country is three toh eight compared to three dollars
Speaker 1: and ten cents a year ago. So prices technically are down,
Speaker 1: but not a lot. And when you take a look
Speaker 1: at the Consumer Price Index, the last time we got
Speaker 1: it was back in September. The September numbers came out
Speaker 1: early October, food prices were up three point one percent
Speaker 1: over the past year. So they're not down, they're up,
Speaker 1: and they're going up at a rate of three point
Speaker 1: one percent. Now, when you take a look at Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: on the bird is up six tenths of a percent,
Speaker 1: Canned fruit and vegetables up five percent, fresh biscuits, rolls
Speaker 1: and muffins up four percent, potatoes up three point seven,
Speaker 1: eggs the own well and butter. Eggs down one point three,
Speaker 1: butter down one point eight. Those are the only two
Speaker 1: that are down. Bread is up one point eight percent.
Speaker 1: So when you cut all of this, well, Thanksgiving dinner
Speaker 1: is going to be more expensive. Now, Walmart is not
Speaker 1: an economic indicator they're they're a marketing retailer, and they
Speaker 1: come up with specials to try to get you to
Speaker 1: come in to get your Thanksgiving dinner, and while you're there,
Speaker 1: you'll buy a bunch of other stuff. But taking a
Speaker 1: look at the Walmart promotion that they came up with,
Speaker 1: which the President was referring to, the reason it's twenty
Speaker 1: five percent cheaper is because they have fewer items. Last year,
Speaker 1: they had twenty one items in their Walmart Thanksgiving dinner promotion,
Speaker 1: twenty one items. This year they got fifteen. And that's
Speaker 1: the way they make it so that the price is
Speaker 1: lower because there's less food in their item. But using
Speaker 1: Walmart as an economic indicator is no. It's a retailer
Speaker 1: and they're hustling promotions to get you to come in
Speaker 1: their door. So good for Walmart, but a real economic
Speaker 1: indicator that is not a government produced number. I've told
Speaker 1: you before about the Consumer Attitude checksters two big surveys
Speaker 1: every month. One of them is by the University of Michigan.
Speaker 1: The other one is the Conference Board. And today the
Speaker 1: University of Michigan came out with their consumer sentiment and
Speaker 1: it fell to levels that are historic lows. We had
Speaker 1: a level that was very similar in June of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. That's one inflation was through the roof and
Speaker 1: we're back down to those levels, back down, so the
Speaker 1: mood of consumers dropped further. In November, according to the
Speaker 1: University of Michigan, the headline index felled of fifty, down
Speaker 1: from fifty four the previous month. That again is about
Speaker 1: where it was during COVID slash nine percent inflation. So
Speaker 1: people are in and it's been The economists describe it
Speaker 1: as a K economy K the letter K, so you've
Speaker 1: got one arm of the K going up and you've
Speaker 1: got the other arm of the K going down. That's
Speaker 1: the problem is we have people both with improving in
Speaker 1: this economy and people that are not. As far as
Speaker 1: retail sales go, I think this is a shocking number,
Speaker 1: but it's been a number of outfits are reporting the
Speaker 1: same thing and they have for a couple of months.
Speaker 1: Is that the top ten percent income in this country
Speaker 1: is responsible for fifty percent of retail sales. So retail
Speaker 1: sales are being held up by and doing well by
Speaker 1: the top ten percent who are doing well, but everybody
Speaker 1: else makes up the rest of it. So I think
Speaker 1: the President and the White House, it's easy to not
Speaker 1: have your ear on the ground. They're kind of locked
Speaker 1: up in the White House and you don't really get
Speaker 1: a sense of what's going on with the public. And
Speaker 1: the president's not out there doing rallies like he used
Speaker 1: to do during campaign season. But I really think they
Speaker 1: need to pay attention. They got one year to get
Speaker 1: the economy in a shape where people feel better about it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that don't, and the economy
Speaker 1: is number one reason why people vote the way they vote.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see what Wall Street. Speaking of money,
Speaker 1: see what Wall Street did today. The Dow Jones industrials
Speaker 1: took a bit of a roller coaster ride. We were
Speaker 1: down midday about three hundred points, and it worked its
Speaker 1: way back to a gain of at the close, up
Speaker 1: seventy four. The Dow at forty six nine eighty seven,
Speaker 1: the S and P up eight, NASDAK down forty nine.
Speaker 1: This is caps the worst week for the Nasdaq since
Speaker 1: back in Liberation Day back in April. Price of gold
Speaker 1: up nineteen dollars to four thy ten, price of oil
Speaker 1: up half a buck to fifty just under sixty dollars
Speaker 1: now fifty nine to ninety for a barrel of oil.
Speaker 1: That's it for today, have a wonderful weekend. We'll be
Speaker 1: back on Monday. I hope to see you then