Once again, the Freedom Caucus got rolled and agreed to pass the trashy Senate budget bill in return for yet another verbal promise to cut spending the next time. I discuss the details of Trump’s maneuvers on both trade and debt to show how he only pressures the right but not the RINOs. For the first time, I reveal my theory behind this inconsistency. Also, Con Inc. is gaslighting you about the state of the economy, the reason for the easing of inflation, and the timeline of Trump’s decision on tariffs. Finally, I offer some more examples of why the Supreme Court will not fundamentally save Trump’s agenda.    

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Trade is not the biggest problem; debt is our biggest problem. And the biggest driver of the debt is health care. We’re joined for a special episode by Twila Brase, president of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom. She gives us a checklist of how to bring back patient-centered and affordable health care. We discuss everything from returning to catastrophic insurance, promoting direct primary care, and breaking the hospital conglomerate monopoly to making Medicaid function more like a charity program rather than a third-party grift. She is also passionate about the need to reform the electronic medical record regime before it completely destroys medicine.

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Some of you might be celebrating the Supreme Court nibbling around the edges of lower-court tyranny, but make no mistake about it, we will still have to litigate every deportation one by one … unless we delegitimize judicial supremacism. We’re joined today by constitutional law professor Josh Blackman, who makes it clear that judicial supremacism was something nobody accepted until Cooper v. Aaron during the 1950s. He does not have faith in the current Supreme Court fully solving the problem and also makes the case that focusing on district court universal injunctions is also merely nibbling around the edges. He also explains the difference between a Thomas and a Barrett, those who are fighters vs. those who are climbers, and how Republicans have gotten judicial selection wrong for so many years.

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Today, we delve into two applicable words from the English language to describe Con Inc. and its arguments for the mix of policies we are seeing from the Trump administration: sophistry and demagoguery. It is taking broad principles we all support in their proper spheres and misapplying them to the extreme to play on people’s emotions. Also, to the extent a trade deficit is a problem, it’s only because of the fiscal deficit. The problem is Trump is now supporting a horrible Senate reconciliation bill to make matters worse. If only he cared about the fiscal deficit as much as the trade deficit, we would achieve his stated goals without spending as much political capital.

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The gaping hole in Trump’s righteous agenda to re-privatize the economy is a plan to fully wean off corporate and individual welfare. Lawmakers are trying to find every way imaginable to solve the debt problem without actually cutting spending. I also offer some more thoughts on the trade plan and how Republicans are taking legitimate observations and applying them in the wrong way and to a degree of demagoguery and sophistry. NAFTA was wrong, in my view, but it is not the primary reason for what ails us, and the notion that other countries taking advantage of us is the source of all ills is misleading. We can’t give people the impression that simply by ending illegal immigration and rebalancing trade, America will come back without internal reforms and sacrifices. Next, we’re joined by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who is trying to fight for some sense of purpose in this Congress. We discuss the horrible Senate reconciliation bill and how there is zero interest in cutting spending. Chip says he will not support the bill without concrete evidence of real spending cuts or some sort of transformational policy change, such as health care reform. He also weighs in the judicial tyranny and why he believes the best approach is for Congress to cut funding for certain district courts that are violating the Constitution.

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The problem with Trump’s trade policies is that they can’t be viewed in a vacuum. Together with the debt and the failure to solve other problems, there is no broader economic vision. In today’s long and in-depth show, I explain when tariffs are appropriate and when not. Most of what ails us is due to other economic and domestic policies, and absent a fix for those problems, higher tariffs will not result in more revenue, more onshoring, and more jobs. I also discuss the balance of trade deficits, onshoring, and tariffs and how they intersect with other policies. We go through five often muddled and conflicting objectives being proffered by Trump administration officials and how each one is built upon a false choice or downright false data. Finally, I discuss why it’s indefensible to be hawkish on trade but dovish on foreign labor and weak on debt policy.

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Republicans got crushed in last night’s elections as part of a broad, uniform pattern we are seeing everywhere. I explain how Republicans are repeating the same failed policy and electoral approach of 2017-2018, when we saw Republicans suffer all the liabilities of being in power but reap none of the benefits. Republicans need to develop a message and brand that is more than just fealty to Trump’s personality, because Trump is not on the ballot any more. Sadly, the RINOs are more ascendant in red states than ever before, even as we lose competitive races in the general election. All the while, what have we accomplished in a durable way that will survive once Democrats take power?

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We begin today with a discussion about the special elections. Where was the focus on primaries to ensure we had better candidates? Also, I’m sick of hearing about judicial tyranny as if there’s nothing we can do about it. I prove that our founders never envisioned the executive branch would give force to judicial usurpations. Next, we’re joined by Mike Carter, producer for BlazeTV host Kevin Freeman’s "Economic War Room," to update us on the amazing progress of the transactional gold movement. This is the most successful movement regarding such a transformational issue of our time. He explains how he has been able to secure unanimous support for the concept of allowing people to transact in gold in a way that is accessible to everyone. Most movements take years of legislative terms to get something of this magnitude passed, but this movement will likely have numerous states on board with transactional gold in a matter of two years. What are some of the lessons we can learn about building legislative activist movements on other issues?

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Sadly, nine years into Trump’s dominion and this supposed juggernaut of a MAGA movement, the RINOs are actually stronger than ever. Beginning in Florida, then moving to South Carolina and Idaho, I explain how RINOs are subverting Ron DeSantis’ agenda and fighting with Freedom Caucuses everywhere. Yet they are now able to do so without fear of reprisal because conservative media have distracted the base with fake wins, they have failed to properly steer Trump’s endorsements, and the RINOs lie to voters about the facts and motivations behind their actions. We also have candidates running for governor who are invited by conservative media, but they never press the candidates to take a stand on specific fights that will actually determine the outcome of their stated campaign promises. Finally, I note how congressional Republicans continue to subvert the election mandate, specifically to get rid of the Green New Deal.

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The reactionary Right. That is the new threat to patriotic conservatives. I explain how those with no affirmative beliefs are undermining our ability to reclaim America because they only know how to critique the Left, but then, absent their own beliefs, land in the same place. One of the areas in which this is most prominent is the rise of the secular, anti-Israel right. We’re joined by Josh Hammer, whose new book, "Israel and Civilization," traces the importance of Israel and the Hebrew Bible to the foundation of America and how it still has meaning today. In a wide-ranging discussion, we delve into the reactionary Right that is joining with the Left against Israel, why we should support Israel's struggle against the Left but also end its dependence on us for weapons, and how we can form a new Jewish-Christian alliance to fight jihad and paganism. At the end, we discuss the trend of secular Israelis returning to God and how that echoes Josh’s own personal journey.

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