December 18, 2024 • 36 mins
Biden says the drones are nothing, but others say the opposite. Who do you believe? There is no solution to America’s budget deficit that does not involve figuring out a solution to Social Security and Medicare. Grinch mode: the truth about Social Security.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, second hour, Clay and Buck kicks off now,
and we've got answers for you on the drones. I'm
not saying we have correct answers, but we got an
answer from Biden and also one from Representative McCall. So
let's go into this, shall we, Because it's been a
(00:20):
big story for last.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Week or so.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
People are seeing these drones all over the sky, particularly
in the New Jersey area, and there have been some
fantastic sopranos UFO memes as a result of this. But nonetheless,
here's a real issue here. We'd like to know what
is going on. It's very straightforward. We should just be
able to get an answer. Clay, our commander in chief,
(00:45):
it is still technically Joe Biden. I just like to
remind everybody of that, the guy whose dementia was too
extreme for him to run again because he's way too old,
is still technically the most powerful man in the world,
the leader of the free world, the commander in chief
of the United States Armed Forces, which is pretty shocking
when you actually let that tumble around in your head
(01:05):
a little bit. But he addressed the drone issue, and
here's what he said. This is four nothing ne farious apparently,
but they're checking it all out there.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
They get just one week because a lot of drones.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Authorized needs to be cut there, I think, once started
and they all guys, everybody's want to get in the deal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Nothing nefarious, he says, Clay. A lot of drones, a
lot of drones authorized, nothing nefarious. Meanwhile, down in Texas,
or rather from the Great State of Texas, Congressman McCall,
who was on the House Intelligence Committee, he waited on
this and he went in the totally opposite. So Biden's
telling you nothing to see here. Finds a lot of
(01:48):
drones in the you know, the usual, right, and yet
Congress and McCall had this to say, this is cut five.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
When need to identify who's behind these morones. My judgment,
based on my experience, is that those that are over
our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming
from the People's Republic of China. The ones flying over
our military bases, by definition, I would say, or adversarial.
(02:17):
We need to know who is behind that because it
I believe there's spy drones and the PRC Chinese comedge.
China is very good at this stuff, and we know
they bought land around military bases. This would be very
consistent with their policy over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Clay.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, So on the one hand, you of Biden saying,
nothing to see here, move along, move along, nothing to
see here, and he's the president, which I just have
to keep reminding you because I think you forget, because
we all forget, because how the heck is that guy
still the president? But he is for now a few
more weeks. On the other side, you have a guy
who has been getting classified briefings for a long time saying,
(02:59):
I think that this is a Chinese spying operation. And
here's how now. I'm not sure who's right, but I
know that Biden saying it's nothing, and McCall saying it's
short of it being little green men from outer space
who are about to start firing lasers at the White
House or something. I think the worst possible option in
(03:19):
some ways, maybe that this is a Chinese spying operation.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So what are we to make of this? They're like,
who's right?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So let's start with your point, which I think is important.
We did the first hour of the show, like, hey,
let's stack some wins, let's talk about positive things. I
remain incredibly afraid that someone is going to take advantage
of Biden as the on his way out chief executive
(03:49):
of the United States between now and January twenty and
I would submit that one of the weaknesses of our
government transition is the link of time that occurs between
November fifth and January twentieth.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
In fact, if I were.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
If you gave me a magic wand, I would set
it so, Hey, the election happens on November fifth, We've
got to get a new president and administration in as
rapidly as possible.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And historically, and this.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Is important, historically, it used to be you didn't inaugurate
a new president till March. This is me being history nerd,
but historically, the reason why we have such a gap
between elections and new administrations is it used to take
months to travel to the capital. Back in the day
Andrew Jackson, it would take him a month by stage
coach to go from Washington, d C. To the Hermit
(04:40):
Engineer where I live in the Nashville area. And there
weren't railroads and it wasn't easy to get around. And
so that's why we had such a huge gap between
when our elections take place. And when a new administration
comes into power. If I were trying to exploit the
United States, the absence of power when you have a
lame duck president and a new adminis stration coming in.
(05:01):
If Taiwan were ever going to get invaded, when I
would do it. If I were China is while something
like this exists, so or if I were a terrorist,
this is when I would attack. So let's the fact
that Biden, and it's particularly exacerbated because Biden is clearly
not capable. And let's just take a moment here, Buck
to reinforce all these people told you that Biden was
(05:22):
sharpest attack and he could do four more years.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Can you imagine and Biden.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Until they did four more years, until suddenly did it,
until they didn't. But can you even imagine if he
were going to try to do four more years? I mean,
the recklessness of that argument is maybe I'm not exaggerating this,
it may be the most dishonest and reckless and dangerous
argument that has been made of a president in any
(05:50):
of our lives. Right that you could say with a
straight face, Biden's sharp as attack behind closed doors, he
can do four more years. I mean, it's it's outrageous
that ever occurred. But to your point, Buck, I think
they're lying to us.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I have zero faith in the United States government to
be honest with the people of this country based on
what they did to us during COVID and based on
the continued lies basically that have been spread by Democrats
since Trump came into office. And people say, oh, Trump lies,
and I think this is important too. Trump lies, like
real estate developers lie. Yes, when you're trying you ever
(06:29):
go try to buy a house? Y dss, Yes, you
ever go try to buy a house. Somebody's like, this
is the greatest view that exists in whatever community.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You live in.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Look this property is I mean, he is a salesman
and so yes, Like I get it when people are like,
you know, Trump said that the United States is the
greatest country that's ever existed. But actually, if you go
look at the gross domestic product produced by Rome in
eighty or BC forty eight or whatever, they actually had
(07:00):
the greatest economy that's existed. Like, right, that's the kind
of fact checks that happen when Trump talks. The lies
that Trump is accused of spreading are almost all, Hey,
this is the greatest building that's ever existed. This is
the biggest crowd that's ever existed. They are hyper ballistic
(07:21):
in nature, and they buy and large have almost no
impact on larger country decisions, whereas the lies from Democrats
go to the very essence of our sanctity as a republic.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's how I typically see it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You know, Donald Trump will say, I just gave the
greatest speech in the history of speeches. No other speech
was as good as my speech. And by the way,
maybe he did. You know, it's in the eye of
the ear of the bar. Or he'll say, but I'm
the best president since Abraham Lincoln for black people, right Like,
I don't know that I buy that, but I don't
begrudge him saying it, right Like, that's hyper ballistic in nature.
(08:00):
Barack Obama, for example, as president, said if you like
your doctor, you can keep your doctor, which he knew
and everyone involved in that new was always going to
be a lie. That's a lie that matters, right, That's
a lie of consequence. And Biden is up for doing
this job and does not have cognitive decline that is
(08:22):
severe is also an obvious lie. But back here to
the drone issue, because I'm with Clay. I feel like,
first of all, that when Biden speaks about it, he
speaks about it like he just heard about it for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He's like, I don't know, there's stuff a lot of
drones in the sky, Like what, it's.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Weird, you know, shouldn't shouldn't you be saying I've spoken
to the head of our intelligence agencies, and I'm the
head of the federal government, and I assure you this
is not a US government program, or just say US
government has us in hand, nothing to be alarmed about.
Can't speak about it further. I actually would feel a
lot better if there was some honesty with that. I mean,
even if they wouldn't tell us, if they just would
(09:00):
let us know that they really know.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I don't believe that he really knows. And the Speaker
of the House, third.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Aligned for the Presidency, Mike Johnson cut seven here. He's like,
people aren't buying this. Sorry play it.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, I'm the Speaker of the House. I have the
exact same frustration that you do, and all of us do.
We don't have the answers the administration is not providing it.
I set up a briefing between DoD DHS and FBI
with members last week, and the answers are not forthcoming.
They just say, don't worry about it. It's not foreign entities.
There's not a vessel offshore doing this, and they're not
(09:33):
collecting data. Okay, then what is it? You know you
heard may Orcz, who no one believes. We impeached him
in the House. As you know, the DHS secretary. He
said in an interview a couple of days ago. Well,
because they changed the regulation to allow drones to fly
at night. That's why everybody's seeing them now. They've always
been there. I mean, look, people are not buying the answers.
We are digging in further to get the answers, and
we're demanded that the administration do its job.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I love that entire statement.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Let's also give a little bit of praisier when the
speaker decision was being going through and we told you like,
this is going to be a mess and all the
Mike Johnson's actually done a really good job as Speaker.
I think I think he has grown into the job.
And I understand some of you are out there, you're like,
well we still have budget deficits. Yeah, yeah, there's big
(10:20):
structural issues that aren't going to go away. I don't
think no matter who is in office right now because
and I don't want to get on my soapbox, but
if you actually look at the budget, and I hope
that Elon and Vivek do a great deal on it,
but around eighty percent of our budget, basically politicians acknowledge
they can't touch. Yeah, right, I mean it's it's entitledment.
(10:43):
We're going to get into defense and interest. Let's talk
about this, the Continuing Resolution, the CR so called CR
at the bottom here of the hour because I want
to get into some of this, because this is the
this is the swamp distilled, this is exactly what is
the problem. Fifteen hundred pages. We'll get into all this.
It's total mess. Nobody knows what's in minutes. But I
(11:06):
just think that we are at a point where there's
a greater willingness than we've ever seen for dramatic change
to be made to this system, broadly speaking of our government,
of our government agencies really, although also congressional spending, because
we've seen so much ineptitude, failure, and dishonesty from the system.
(11:29):
So because of the extent of the failures, I think
there's greater willingness now for change from the Trump administration,
and I'm hoping that that translates into big wins.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And yeah, that's what I want for Christmas this year.
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Well, that would be a fantastic Christmas present. But here's
the major takeaway. Biden's not able to do this job,
and we still have to deal with him for another month,
which again I hope doesn't get exploited by foreign adversaries.
Second part of this, though, Buck, is the government has
so burned its legitimacy with large majorities of the American public,
(12:05):
regardless of your politics Democrat, Republican, Independent. The more you
look into the lies that we have all had pedaled
to us since I think Trump came down the escalator
in twenty fifteen, the things that have been said about
him that are fundamentally untrue.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I said this.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Before again, a lot of Trump's so called lies or
hyperbole that is the real estate salesman aspect of him.
I think some people would say, well, he lied about
the election. I do you really think Biden got eighty
one million votes? Now that we've seen the twenty twenty
four election results, do you think Biden legally got eighty
(12:43):
one million votes.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I don't. I don't. I don't believe he did it legally,
now can I was funky, There was funky stuff going on.
There was funky stuff, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I mean, how big is the how big is the
gap between blatant fraud, cheating and using cod to enable
under some veneer of you know that they basically like
the gray area for this stuff. The Shenanigans is very large.
Kamala got seven million less votes, guys, seven million less votes.
(13:14):
That's hard to explain. Trump's numbers are very similar twenty
twenty to twenty twenty four. Yes, he grew, but he
added about two and a half million votes. That seems reasonable.
Kamala dropping seven million.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Argument's really hard to make. So for people out there
say Trump wied about the election, I don't think he did.
I think that they cheated, and the question is how
exactly did they cheat? I just I don't think that
eighty one million is real. I mean, you go look
at the data. I'm a data guy. We're coming to
the end of the year and Clay is in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He's in.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He's in grinch mode. Here for the Democrats, he's like,
Merry Christmas, Biden cheated. I'm sorry, the data doesn't data
for me. When you look at Trump twenty sixteen, twenty
twenty two, twenty four, there's a pretty through line of
him growing in support. How in the world did Kamala
lose seven million votes? That's a good question. A week
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Speaker 2 (15:16):
See La, Why do it today?
Speaker 3 (15:18):
You don't know what?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You don't know right, but you could on the Sunday
Hang with Clay and Buck podcast. Welcome back in, Clay, Travis,
Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with
us as we are rolling through the Wednesday edition of
the program, one week until Christmas. As you hear all
of the Christmas music they are playing as we're rolling
(15:42):
back in. There's a bunch of stuff we're gonna get into.
We're gonna get into this continuing budget resolution. But let
me just kind of mention it right off the moment here.
There is no solution that I don't want to be at.
The Grinch. Buck just called me the grinch because I
there is no Democrat grinch, the Democrat brinch. Okay, here's
(16:05):
the real grinch. Here's the reality. There is no solution
to America's budget deficit that does not involve figuring out
a solution to social Security and Medicare.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If you look, it's just a basic math equation.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
If you look at our budget around I think it's
eighty three percent of our budget now, buck is entitlements,
that is Social Security and Medicare, defense spending, and interest
on the debt. That means even if you cut everything
else the United States government does, you would still have
(16:48):
eighty three percent of the budget. And the part of
the budget that is growing the fastest is that eighty
three percent, leaving out defense spending, which hasn't been growing
that fast but is still a substantial dollar figure. And Buck,
I don't know if you've seen the economic law. Supposedly,
over history, as soon as you start spending more on
(17:12):
interest than you do on defense, your country has become
a country that is on decline. That goes all the
way back. According to a lot of smart history people
to looking at some of the budgets in ancient Rome.
As soon as the interest and what you're spending on
interest exceeds defense spending.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You have become a declining empire. We are now there.
That doesn't seem ideal to me. Wompomp, Yeah, that's that's
actual grinch. I'm sorry, that's the reality.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
We've made a lot of promises through a lot of people, me, you,
everybody out there. Without reforming Social Security, Medicare and getting
rid of some of this debt, we can't balance.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
The budget in any significant way.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
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(18:21):
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(18:42):
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cannon going on here?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Is that a Is that a Christmas tune?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That this was just from weddings? That's what I'm I'm
that's what I usually think of. I was like, Clay,
what's going on over here?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Is this Christmas? And twenty years? I don't know?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It's Laura Laura bailing. Yeah, that's that's really interesting. I've
never I wasn't expecting us to come into a wedding march.
So yeah, anyway, I'm pretty sure that was PoCA Bell's
cat in and uh interesting tunes. Be like, look, we
love our Christmas, our Christmas cheer, we love our Mannheim
steamroller and uh, getting into all the holiday spirit. So
(19:33):
indeed a lot of that going on. Let's we're going
back into Grinch mode here. I just had to say
that to make sure everyone feels like we're getting in
the Christmas spirit. But now I'm gonna take us out
of it by getting into Grinch mode and talking bottom
dollar brass tax about the debt, the deficit, government spending
and all the rest of it. Let's just let's just
(19:53):
set the table before we dive into this. And I
texted our our, our buddy Vivek Ramaswami. We busy him
and Elon trying to save the country.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I told him anytime he wants to come on to
talk about this, you know, we'll we'll make it happen.
You know, I think a lot of people right now
are kind of gearing up to take some time off
before because once we hit in January, I mean that's
when it's you know, everything is imminent, full steam ahead.
There a little bit of a lull right now, but
not for Congress because they're trying to ram this thing through.
(20:23):
You know, it's very classic Congress move. Let's lay out
clay what this is, and we can we get into
the details a little bit. The Wall Street Journal has
this deal to avert government shut down includes one hundred
and ten billion dollars in disaster and farm aid. It
is a sprawling package. It is fifteen hundred pages. The
(20:47):
proposal would extend current government funding until March fourteenth, which
is moving this down the line until the next Congress
would would decide how much money to allocate the federal
agencies until September thirtieth, the remainder for the remainder of
the fiscal year. So there's one hundred and ten billion.
(21:08):
Like I said, disaster and Farm Relieve fifteen hundred and
forty seven pages. Don't want leave out those forty seven pages.
It is a terrible night for the taxpayer. Congressman Burchett
of tennessee your homesteak Clay seventy saw this. People are
not reading this. Vivik I saw was tweeting about this.
I can never you know, posting on X. I still
(21:31):
I wish we could use some of the tweet language,
even though I know X is a far better platform.
Viveke was on this and he's saying, look, he's actually
reading it, which is Isn't that funny? First, Let's start
with that the bill to spend hundreds of billions of
dollars of your money to actually read that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
For the people who are.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Doing it is like a revolutionary idea, right or for
anyone to do that is no one expects that they're
actually eating this whole thing. Why is that clay? This
should be twenty pages long. This should be a clean
spending proposal. Shouldn't be all this stuff they do, the
(22:13):
cr It just becomes an excuse. Everybody throws their goodies
in there, their pork in there.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
This is the mess.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
This is why there's no accountability, there's no stopping this
runaway spending. And Republicans are they going to go along
with this? Is this what we're heading for? Once again,
it's disconcerting all of the time these arguments happen. And again,
I'm gonna be super grinch here. There is no magic bullet.
(22:44):
The only way for the government to balance its budget
is to address Social Security, Medicare, and our massive federal deficit,
which is eating more and more of the budget every year.
If you cut everything from the budget except Social Security, Medicare,
(23:08):
the interest on the debt, and defense, we would still
have a massive federal deficit. And people anytime you mentioned
social security, people get fired up. I'm sure that we
are deluged in emails from people talking about social security.
It's a broken system. Okay, people who are bucking mind's
(23:29):
age and I pay in a massive amount of social
Security the math doesn't add up for us to be
able to get back what we put in. The only
way social Security worked for as long as it did again,
these are cold, hard truths that most politicians won't tell
(23:49):
you because they're worried about getting re elected.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And the easy thing to say is.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I'll never touch your social Security, I'll never touch your Medicare.
That's what they all say, because they just push it
down the line. The reason it worked is because when
they started it, the America was a very very young
country and most people didn't live to the ages where
(24:16):
they would be able to catch social Security checks. Now
America is very much of an aging country, and we
have far fewer workers relative to retirees, and as the
baby boomers are all retiring, the number of younger people
in this country doesn't exist to make social Security work.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
That's the truth.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Most politicians will not tell you that. They all run
around and say, I'm going to balance the budget. It's
impossible to balance the budget without addressing Social Security and Medicare,
and look that deserves and should be a huge part
of our national discussion. Nobody will touch it because every
(25:03):
president only gets eight years and then it's on to
the next guy, and the reality is this is a
ticking time bomb that's going to explode in like twenty years.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I am, by the way, Merry Christmas, everybody. I was
gonna say, you are growing green fur in real time,
mister Grinch.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
But every time we have this happens every time Buck,
every time one of these continuing resolutions comes up, people
get mad and they're like, what are we doing it?
It's gonna get solved. And the solving is we're gonna
take on more debt and it's gonna be greater than
thirty six trillion dollars and most people are not gonna
pay attention again until there's a continuing resolution in a year.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We are the problem, yes, that's what. Not me and
Clay or Clay and I or Clay and me. No,
Clay and I. I am not the problem. Clay is
not the problem. Okay, we are not. Some people would
say we are the problem.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So but that's why I would agree with you that
we yes, right, yeah, yeah, But I mean we, the
American people when it comes to this, are the problem.
And we go through this exercise because we all say,
oh my gosh, the dead team, check me on this
Tea Party is a peaceful political revolution in America in
(26:17):
circa what twenty ten? Not the original tea Party, different,
different kind of tea party, but the Tea Party comes
out twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I think that the deficit is twelve trillion or something.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I think it was ten trillion, ten trillion number that
finally people panicked on ten trillion. We are at thirty
six trillion dollars right now, everybody. So if at ten trillion,
you know, my dear friend Glenn Beck can get one
hundred thousand people out on the mall and try to
bring people into Congress who are prepared to handle the problem.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
What do we do at thirty six trillion?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not that much longer, you know, a decade and change
after that thirty six trillion dollars. And it's because every
time we talk about it, everyone agrees as a problem,
and then we say, well, how do we fix the problem,
and we would get one hundred angry calls from people saying,
but I've paid into Medicare my whole life, and you
can't touch it now. No one's obviously people shouldn't get medicare.
(27:14):
That's a horrible bait and switch, and that shouldn't. That's
not what anyone's suggesting, zom when anyone's talking about it's
not necessary, that's not what you need to do.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But there are reforms, there.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Are changes to some of these programs that could be
made without leaving people who have paid into them high
and dry. That would change for the future, that would
have a dramatic impact on the budget. And the question
is do we have the political will to do it?
And Clay this time around, I think the answer is
still Unfortunately, if this resolution goes through, this r goes through,
(27:44):
the answer is no, we don't have the political will.
And then what we're on is a conveyor belt to
the edge of a cliff, and by the time we
all agree it has to be fixed, it will be
too late to fix it in a way that does
not result in massive economic devastation and tremendous loss of
(28:04):
financial stability and prosperity for the future.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So, you know, we we can pick, we can pick
our poison. And I think we know what we're doing
right now.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You know, we're we're drinking the eggnog and worrying about
the calories tomorrow totally, and we're going to be one
hundred trillion dollars in debt, and most politicians will not
tell you any of this because if they do and
they try to address it, to Buck's point, the American
(28:33):
public overwhelmingly rejects the idea that you should even talk
about the problem. It's like, to your point, on the
on the drink the eggnog, we're about the calories tomorrow.
It's like being wildly obese and getting mad when somebody says,
maybe you should eat a little bit less.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And that's that's the unfortunate reality.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Whether you're a Democrat, republican, independent, nobody talks about the
ticking time bomb of the entitlements and the fact that
in the next twenty to forty years this is going
to blow up into an even larger issue. Now, that
doesn't mean that there isn't incredible amounts of graft inside
of our government, that we shouldn't have far fewer federal
(29:21):
employees than we do.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It's just that you can't. The analogy I used to
use is, yeah, no, I don't want to interrupt.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Tell me the analogy, and then I'll tell you the
feedback we're getting right now from this conversation.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
In real time. I'm sure people are mad at us
for even bringing it up. But here it's like saying
we've got.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
To go on a diet, but you can only lose
weight in your right arm, Like you can't fix your
body by only addressing issues in the right arm. The
whole body has to be addressed. That's the reality of
our budget depths. That are we getting deluged with people
who are mad about like anytime you mention it, yeah,
of course, yeah the IP Cynthia quit calling so security
(30:00):
and entitlement. It is not welfare. We paid in all
our working lives and are just getting your money out back.
I did, I didn't even think I did, I even did?
We says social securities entitlement. I don't even I was
talking about Medicare, which is a I think again the
way that you classify this, it's an entitlement, meaning the
money has to be spent out. In other words, every
year they don't vote on Hey, what are social security
(30:25):
and medicare going to be?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's an automatic entitlement inside of the government. That's an
accurate phrase. I don't I don't know why she's upset
about that, But in other words, it has to be
spent it isn't a line item. Every year, social Security
grows at a certain rate every year, Medicare grows at
a certain rate adjusted for inflation, and it isn't addressed.
It's not like it's a part of the larger budget resolutions.
(30:50):
It's an entitlement that's accurate. I don't know what that
that quibble with term, Well, it's very it's very straightforward.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I mean, you either.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Address I mean, Medicare is the big one that will
actually just that just continues to blow a massive hole
through the budget every year.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So you can address.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Medicare, and you can address some ways social Security, and
a little bit of defense spending too, you could probably
throw in there as well.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
That's the one that Republicans generally don't want to talk about,
although there are Republicans who love.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Defense spending and then they go work for Lockheed or
sit on the board there, or become lobbyists for it.
But you know, we either care about this or we don't.
And I kind of think that a lot of Republicans
ever reached the point where they say everyone everyone wants
to say they care about the debt, nobody wants to
actually deal with it. Everyone wants to spend. Everyone wants
to say Santa Claus is real. It's just he's the
(31:44):
guy who's paying all the bills for the government that
we don't actually have the money for us. So we
print the money, which debases the currency, which means everything
gets more expensive, which means grandchildren right now of people
who are receiving these programs are going to be in
a less well off es than they would have otherwise
been because paying the interest on the debt is going
to be massive. But you know, man, this is our
(32:06):
this was our grinch segment. You know what spend spend like.
There's no spend, like, there's no tomorrow. Everybody forget about
what's the difference. Let's go to one hundred trillion. Let's
ride that train. Let's ride off the end of the cliff,
because we all are owed it, right, we're all owed it.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want Medicare and Social Security too, exactly as they are. Yay,
Mary Christmas. By the way, Mary Christmas, everybody, I'll just
point this out. Also, I'd prefer the government didn't take
our money, like let you invest for retirement on your
own instead of taking I think the social security program
in general is wildly under disgusted, which has ballooned our
(32:42):
federal government and oftentimes is not actually what I personally
would choose. I don't want the government to take my
money when I'm young and healthy and then give it
back to me if I happen to live to be
seventy five, I'd rather keep all my money all the time.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I think I can use it better than the government.
Maybe that's just me.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
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Speaker 2 (33:49):
Ad Code Radio get an extra five percent off news
and politics, but also a little comic relief.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Clay Travis at buck Sexton find them the free iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in
Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. A lot of people want
a weigh in, as you might imagine, one week from Christmas,
we are the gritches telling you that the reality is
you can't just reform and balance the federal budget by
(34:19):
cutting spending without addressing Social Security Medicare.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
It's impossible.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
But people think, oh, well, if there were just a
little bit less welfare benefits, then no, it requires addressing
Social Security and Medicare.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Terry, what you got for us? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Hi Buck, Yeah, I'm one of those people that don't
believe in that the craft that they're saying.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
It's entitlement. Okay, I paid it to it from the
time I yes, So does that seem like a good deal?
Hold on, Terry four years old. I'm working two part
time jobs to make ends meet. Well, we appreciate that,
but let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Would you you'd rather have had all of the money
that you made since you were sixteen years old and
gotten to keep it, or would you rather the government
take it and then give you back frankly a crappy
rate of return adjusted for inflation. I'd rather the government
not stole the money and put it in the general
(35:20):
fund with an IOU and a supposed lock box.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah all right, so that sounds so you're with us, Terry.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
First of all, I appreciate the fact that you are
working your ass off and you got two different jobs
and you need the money that the government took from
you back.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I one billion percent agree with you. Thank you for
the call.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
My point is just it's not a good deal, and
almost no one will talk about it because since FDR
put in place so security, it's this great, unbelievable. It's actually,
for many people a really crappy deal. And if you
die young, which many people do, it's like the worst
deal ever, especially if you and your spouse both die.
(36:06):
The government just fleeced you completely. I see you keeping
your money. People immediately think that reform means they're getting screwed.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Out of what they're owed.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
No one has to change anything about what's being spent
right now. You can reform the program so that people
that are going to be eligible in ten years have
different things going on. And just by way of definition
Webster's Dictionary, entitlement program quote a government program that guarantees
benefits to a part of the population.
All right, second hour, Clay and Buck kicks off now,
and we've got answers for you on the drones. I'm
not saying we have correct answers, but we got an
answer from Biden and also one from Representative McCall. So
let's go into this, shall we, Because it's been a
(00:20):
big story for last.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Week or so.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
People are seeing these drones all over the sky, particularly
in the New Jersey area, and there have been some
fantastic sopranos UFO memes as a result of this. But nonetheless,
here's a real issue here. We'd like to know what
is going on. It's very straightforward. We should just be
able to get an answer. Clay, our commander in chief,
(00:45):
it is still technically Joe Biden. I just like to
remind everybody of that, the guy whose dementia was too
extreme for him to run again because he's way too old,
is still technically the most powerful man in the world,
the leader of the free world, the commander in chief
of the United States Armed Forces, which is pretty shocking
when you actually let that tumble around in your head
(01:05):
a little bit. But he addressed the drone issue, and
here's what he said. This is four nothing ne farious apparently,
but they're checking it all out there.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
They get just one week because a lot of drones.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Authorized needs to be cut there, I think, once started
and they all guys, everybody's want to get in the deal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Nothing nefarious, he says, Clay. A lot of drones, a
lot of drones authorized, nothing nefarious. Meanwhile, down in Texas,
or rather from the Great State of Texas, Congressman McCall,
who was on the House Intelligence Committee, he waited on
this and he went in the totally opposite. So Biden's
telling you nothing to see here. Finds a lot of
(01:48):
drones in the you know, the usual, right, and yet
Congress and McCall had this to say, this is cut five.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
When need to identify who's behind these morones. My judgment,
based on my experience, is that those that are over
our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming
from the People's Republic of China. The ones flying over
our military bases, by definition, I would say, or adversarial.
(02:17):
We need to know who is behind that because it
I believe there's spy drones and the PRC Chinese comedge.
China is very good at this stuff, and we know
they bought land around military bases. This would be very
consistent with their policy over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Clay.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, So on the one hand, you of Biden saying,
nothing to see here, move along, move along, nothing to
see here, and he's the president, which I just have
to keep reminding you because I think you forget, because
we all forget, because how the heck is that guy
still the president? But he is for now a few
more weeks. On the other side, you have a guy
who has been getting classified briefings for a long time saying,
(02:59):
I think that this is a Chinese spying operation. And
here's how now. I'm not sure who's right, but I
know that Biden saying it's nothing, and McCall saying it's
short of it being little green men from outer space
who are about to start firing lasers at the White
House or something. I think the worst possible option in
(03:19):
some ways, maybe that this is a Chinese spying operation.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So what are we to make of this? They're like,
who's right?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So let's start with your point, which I think is important.
We did the first hour of the show, like, hey,
let's stack some wins, let's talk about positive things. I
remain incredibly afraid that someone is going to take advantage
of Biden as the on his way out chief executive
(03:49):
of the United States between now and January twenty and
I would submit that one of the weaknesses of our
government transition is the link of time that occurs between
November fifth and January twentieth.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
In fact, if I were.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
If you gave me a magic wand, I would set
it so, Hey, the election happens on November fifth, We've
got to get a new president and administration in as
rapidly as possible.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And historically, and this.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Is important, historically, it used to be you didn't inaugurate
a new president till March. This is me being history nerd,
but historically, the reason why we have such a gap
between elections and new administrations is it used to take
months to travel to the capital. Back in the day
Andrew Jackson, it would take him a month by stage
coach to go from Washington, d C. To the Hermit
(04:40):
Engineer where I live in the Nashville area. And there
weren't railroads and it wasn't easy to get around. And
so that's why we had such a huge gap between
when our elections take place. And when a new administration
comes into power. If I were trying to exploit the
United States, the absence of power when you have a
lame duck president and a new adminis stration coming in.
(05:01):
If Taiwan were ever going to get invaded, when I
would do it. If I were China is while something
like this exists, so or if I were a terrorist,
this is when I would attack. So let's the fact
that Biden, and it's particularly exacerbated because Biden is clearly
not capable. And let's just take a moment here, Buck
to reinforce all these people told you that Biden was
(05:22):
sharpest attack and he could do four more years.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Can you imagine and Biden.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Until they did four more years, until suddenly did it,
until they didn't. But can you even imagine if he
were going to try to do four more years? I mean,
the recklessness of that argument is maybe I'm not exaggerating this,
it may be the most dishonest and reckless and dangerous
argument that has been made of a president in any
(05:50):
of our lives. Right that you could say with a
straight face, Biden's sharp as attack behind closed doors, he
can do four more years. I mean, it's it's outrageous
that ever occurred. But to your point, Buck, I think
they're lying to us.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I have zero faith in the United States government to
be honest with the people of this country based on
what they did to us during COVID and based on
the continued lies basically that have been spread by Democrats
since Trump came into office. And people say, oh, Trump lies,
and I think this is important too. Trump lies, like
real estate developers lie. Yes, when you're trying you ever
(06:29):
go try to buy a house? Y dss, Yes, you
ever go try to buy a house. Somebody's like, this
is the greatest view that exists in whatever community.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You live in.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Look this property is I mean, he is a salesman
and so yes, Like I get it when people are like,
you know, Trump said that the United States is the
greatest country that's ever existed. But actually, if you go
look at the gross domestic product produced by Rome in
eighty or BC forty eight or whatever, they actually had
(07:00):
the greatest economy that's existed. Like, right, that's the kind
of fact checks that happen when Trump talks. The lies
that Trump is accused of spreading are almost all, Hey,
this is the greatest building that's ever existed. This is
the biggest crowd that's ever existed. They are hyper ballistic
(07:21):
in nature, and they buy and large have almost no
impact on larger country decisions, whereas the lies from Democrats
go to the very essence of our sanctity as a republic.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's how I typically see it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You know, Donald Trump will say, I just gave the
greatest speech in the history of speeches. No other speech
was as good as my speech. And by the way,
maybe he did. You know, it's in the eye of
the ear of the bar. Or he'll say, but I'm
the best president since Abraham Lincoln for black people, right Like,
I don't know that I buy that, but I don't
begrudge him saying it, right Like, that's hyper ballistic in nature.
(08:00):
Barack Obama, for example, as president, said if you like
your doctor, you can keep your doctor, which he knew
and everyone involved in that new was always going to
be a lie. That's a lie that matters, right, That's
a lie of consequence. And Biden is up for doing
this job and does not have cognitive decline that is
(08:22):
severe is also an obvious lie. But back here to
the drone issue, because I'm with Clay. I feel like,
first of all, that when Biden speaks about it, he
speaks about it like he just heard about it for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He's like, I don't know, there's stuff a lot of
drones in the sky, Like what, it's.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Weird, you know, shouldn't shouldn't you be saying I've spoken
to the head of our intelligence agencies, and I'm the
head of the federal government, and I assure you this
is not a US government program, or just say US
government has us in hand, nothing to be alarmed about.
Can't speak about it further. I actually would feel a
lot better if there was some honesty with that. I mean,
even if they wouldn't tell us, if they just would
(09:00):
let us know that they really know.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I don't believe that he really knows. And the Speaker
of the House, third.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Aligned for the Presidency, Mike Johnson cut seven here. He's like,
people aren't buying this. Sorry play it.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, I'm the Speaker of the House. I have the
exact same frustration that you do, and all of us do.
We don't have the answers the administration is not providing it.
I set up a briefing between DoD DHS and FBI
with members last week, and the answers are not forthcoming.
They just say, don't worry about it. It's not foreign entities.
There's not a vessel offshore doing this, and they're not
(09:33):
collecting data. Okay, then what is it? You know you
heard may Orcz, who no one believes. We impeached him
in the House. As you know, the DHS secretary. He
said in an interview a couple of days ago. Well,
because they changed the regulation to allow drones to fly
at night. That's why everybody's seeing them now. They've always
been there. I mean, look, people are not buying the answers.
We are digging in further to get the answers, and
we're demanded that the administration do its job.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I love that entire statement.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Let's also give a little bit of praisier when the
speaker decision was being going through and we told you like,
this is going to be a mess and all the
Mike Johnson's actually done a really good job as Speaker.
I think I think he has grown into the job.
And I understand some of you are out there, you're like,
well we still have budget deficits. Yeah, yeah, there's big
(10:20):
structural issues that aren't going to go away. I don't
think no matter who is in office right now because
and I don't want to get on my soapbox, but
if you actually look at the budget, and I hope
that Elon and Vivek do a great deal on it,
but around eighty percent of our budget, basically politicians acknowledge
they can't touch. Yeah, right, I mean it's it's entitledment.
(10:43):
We're going to get into defense and interest. Let's talk
about this, the Continuing Resolution, the CR so called CR
at the bottom here of the hour because I want
to get into some of this, because this is the
this is the swamp distilled, this is exactly what is
the problem. Fifteen hundred pages. We'll get into all this.
It's total mess. Nobody knows what's in minutes. But I
(11:06):
just think that we are at a point where there's
a greater willingness than we've ever seen for dramatic change
to be made to this system, broadly speaking of our government,
of our government agencies really, although also congressional spending, because
we've seen so much ineptitude, failure, and dishonesty from the system.
(11:29):
So because of the extent of the failures, I think
there's greater willingness now for change from the Trump administration,
and I'm hoping that that translates into big wins.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And yeah, that's what I want for Christmas this year.
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Well, that would be a fantastic Christmas present. But here's
the major takeaway. Biden's not able to do this job,
and we still have to deal with him for another month,
which again I hope doesn't get exploited by foreign adversaries.
Second part of this, though, Buck, is the government has
so burned its legitimacy with large majorities of the American public,
(12:05):
regardless of your politics Democrat, Republican, Independent. The more you
look into the lies that we have all had pedaled
to us since I think Trump came down the escalator
in twenty fifteen, the things that have been said about
him that are fundamentally untrue.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I said this.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Before again, a lot of Trump's so called lies or
hyperbole that is the real estate salesman aspect of him.
I think some people would say, well, he lied about
the election. I do you really think Biden got eighty
one million votes? Now that we've seen the twenty twenty
four election results, do you think Biden legally got eighty
(12:43):
one million votes.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I don't. I don't. I don't believe he did it legally,
now can I was funky, There was funky stuff going on.
There was funky stuff, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I mean, how big is the how big is the
gap between blatant fraud, cheating and using cod to enable
under some veneer of you know that they basically like
the gray area for this stuff. The Shenanigans is very large.
Kamala got seven million less votes, guys, seven million less votes.
(13:14):
That's hard to explain. Trump's numbers are very similar twenty
twenty to twenty twenty four. Yes, he grew, but he
added about two and a half million votes. That seems reasonable.
Kamala dropping seven million.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Argument's really hard to make. So for people out there
say Trump wied about the election, I don't think he did.
I think that they cheated, and the question is how
exactly did they cheat? I just I don't think that
eighty one million is real. I mean, you go look
at the data. I'm a data guy. We're coming to
the end of the year and Clay is in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He's in.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He's in grinch mode. Here for the Democrats, he's like,
Merry Christmas, Biden cheated. I'm sorry, the data doesn't data
for me. When you look at Trump twenty sixteen, twenty
twenty two, twenty four, there's a pretty through line of
him growing in support. How in the world did Kamala
lose seven million votes? That's a good question. A week
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Speaker 2 (15:16):
See La, Why do it today?
Speaker 3 (15:18):
You don't know what?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You don't know right, but you could on the Sunday
Hang with Clay and Buck podcast. Welcome back in, Clay, Travis,
Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with
us as we are rolling through the Wednesday edition of
the program, one week until Christmas. As you hear all
of the Christmas music they are playing as we're rolling
(15:42):
back in. There's a bunch of stuff we're gonna get into.
We're gonna get into this continuing budget resolution. But let
me just kind of mention it right off the moment here.
There is no solution that I don't want to be at.
The Grinch. Buck just called me the grinch because I
there is no Democrat grinch, the Democrat brinch. Okay, here's
(16:05):
the real grinch. Here's the reality. There is no solution
to America's budget deficit that does not involve figuring out
a solution to social Security and Medicare.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If you look, it's just a basic math equation.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
If you look at our budget around I think it's
eighty three percent of our budget now, buck is entitlements,
that is Social Security and Medicare, defense spending, and interest
on the debt. That means even if you cut everything
else the United States government does, you would still have
(16:48):
eighty three percent of the budget. And the part of
the budget that is growing the fastest is that eighty
three percent, leaving out defense spending, which hasn't been growing
that fast but is still a substantial dollar figure. And Buck,
I don't know if you've seen the economic law. Supposedly,
over history, as soon as you start spending more on
(17:12):
interest than you do on defense, your country has become
a country that is on decline. That goes all the
way back. According to a lot of smart history people
to looking at some of the budgets in ancient Rome.
As soon as the interest and what you're spending on
interest exceeds defense spending.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You have become a declining empire. We are now there.
That doesn't seem ideal to me. Wompomp, Yeah, that's that's
actual grinch. I'm sorry, that's the reality.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
We've made a lot of promises through a lot of people, me, you,
everybody out there. Without reforming Social Security, Medicare and getting
rid of some of this debt, we can't balance.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
The budget in any significant way.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
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cannon going on here?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Is that a Is that a Christmas tune?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That this was just from weddings? That's what I'm I'm
that's what I usually think of. I was like, Clay,
what's going on over here?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Is this Christmas? And twenty years? I don't know?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It's Laura Laura bailing. Yeah, that's that's really interesting. I've
never I wasn't expecting us to come into a wedding march.
So yeah, anyway, I'm pretty sure that was PoCA Bell's
cat in and uh interesting tunes. Be like, look, we
love our Christmas, our Christmas cheer, we love our Mannheim
steamroller and uh, getting into all the holiday spirit. So
(19:33):
indeed a lot of that going on. Let's we're going
back into Grinch mode here. I just had to say
that to make sure everyone feels like we're getting in
the Christmas spirit. But now I'm gonna take us out
of it by getting into Grinch mode and talking bottom
dollar brass tax about the debt, the deficit, government spending
and all the rest of it. Let's just let's just
(19:53):
set the table before we dive into this. And I
texted our our, our buddy Vivek Ramaswami. We busy him
and Elon trying to save the country.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I told him anytime he wants to come on to
talk about this, you know, we'll we'll make it happen.
You know, I think a lot of people right now
are kind of gearing up to take some time off
before because once we hit in January, I mean that's
when it's you know, everything is imminent, full steam ahead.
There a little bit of a lull right now, but
not for Congress because they're trying to ram this thing through.
(20:23):
You know, it's very classic Congress move. Let's lay out
clay what this is, and we can we get into
the details a little bit. The Wall Street Journal has
this deal to avert government shut down includes one hundred
and ten billion dollars in disaster and farm aid. It
is a sprawling package. It is fifteen hundred pages. The
(20:47):
proposal would extend current government funding until March fourteenth, which
is moving this down the line until the next Congress
would would decide how much money to allocate the federal
agencies until September thirtieth, the remainder for the remainder of
the fiscal year. So there's one hundred and ten billion.
(21:08):
Like I said, disaster and Farm Relieve fifteen hundred and
forty seven pages. Don't want leave out those forty seven pages.
It is a terrible night for the taxpayer. Congressman Burchett
of tennessee your homesteak Clay seventy saw this. People are
not reading this. Vivik I saw was tweeting about this.
I can never you know, posting on X. I still
(21:31):
I wish we could use some of the tweet language,
even though I know X is a far better platform.
Viveke was on this and he's saying, look, he's actually
reading it, which is Isn't that funny? First, Let's start
with that the bill to spend hundreds of billions of
dollars of your money to actually read that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
For the people who are.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Doing it is like a revolutionary idea, right or for
anyone to do that is no one expects that they're
actually eating this whole thing. Why is that clay? This
should be twenty pages long. This should be a clean
spending proposal. Shouldn't be all this stuff they do, the
(22:13):
cr It just becomes an excuse. Everybody throws their goodies
in there, their pork in there.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
This is the mess.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
This is why there's no accountability, there's no stopping this
runaway spending. And Republicans are they going to go along
with this? Is this what we're heading for? Once again,
it's disconcerting all of the time these arguments happen. And again,
I'm gonna be super grinch here. There is no magic bullet.
(22:44):
The only way for the government to balance its budget
is to address Social Security, Medicare, and our massive federal deficit,
which is eating more and more of the budget every year.
If you cut everything from the budget except Social Security, Medicare,
(23:08):
the interest on the debt, and defense, we would still
have a massive federal deficit. And people anytime you mentioned
social security, people get fired up. I'm sure that we
are deluged in emails from people talking about social security.
It's a broken system. Okay, people who are bucking mind's
(23:29):
age and I pay in a massive amount of social
Security the math doesn't add up for us to be
able to get back what we put in. The only
way social Security worked for as long as it did again,
these are cold, hard truths that most politicians won't tell
(23:49):
you because they're worried about getting re elected.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And the easy thing to say is.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I'll never touch your social Security, I'll never touch your Medicare.
That's what they all say, because they just push it
down the line. The reason it worked is because when
they started it, the America was a very very young
country and most people didn't live to the ages where
(24:16):
they would be able to catch social Security checks. Now
America is very much of an aging country, and we
have far fewer workers relative to retirees, and as the
baby boomers are all retiring, the number of younger people
in this country doesn't exist to make social Security work.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
That's the truth.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Most politicians will not tell you that. They all run
around and say, I'm going to balance the budget. It's
impossible to balance the budget without addressing Social Security and Medicare,
and look that deserves and should be a huge part
of our national discussion. Nobody will touch it because every
(25:03):
president only gets eight years and then it's on to
the next guy, and the reality is this is a
ticking time bomb that's going to explode in like twenty years.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I am, by the way, Merry Christmas, everybody. I was
gonna say, you are growing green fur in real time,
mister Grinch.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
But every time we have this happens every time Buck,
every time one of these continuing resolutions comes up, people
get mad and they're like, what are we doing it?
It's gonna get solved. And the solving is we're gonna
take on more debt and it's gonna be greater than
thirty six trillion dollars and most people are not gonna
pay attention again until there's a continuing resolution in a year.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We are the problem, yes, that's what. Not me and
Clay or Clay and I or Clay and me. No,
Clay and I. I am not the problem. Clay is
not the problem. Okay, we are not. Some people would
say we are the problem.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So but that's why I would agree with you that
we yes, right, yeah, yeah, But I mean we, the
American people when it comes to this, are the problem.
And we go through this exercise because we all say,
oh my gosh, the dead team, check me on this
Tea Party is a peaceful political revolution in America in
(26:17):
circa what twenty ten? Not the original tea Party, different,
different kind of tea party, but the Tea Party comes
out twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I think that the deficit is twelve trillion or something.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I think it was ten trillion, ten trillion number that
finally people panicked on ten trillion. We are at thirty
six trillion dollars right now, everybody. So if at ten trillion,
you know, my dear friend Glenn Beck can get one
hundred thousand people out on the mall and try to
bring people into Congress who are prepared to handle the problem.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
What do we do at thirty six trillion?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not that much longer, you know, a decade and change
after that thirty six trillion dollars. And it's because every
time we talk about it, everyone agrees as a problem,
and then we say, well, how do we fix the problem,
and we would get one hundred angry calls from people saying,
but I've paid into Medicare my whole life, and you
can't touch it now. No one's obviously people shouldn't get medicare.
(27:14):
That's a horrible bait and switch, and that shouldn't. That's
not what anyone's suggesting, zom when anyone's talking about it's
not necessary, that's not what you need to do.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But there are reforms, there.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Are changes to some of these programs that could be
made without leaving people who have paid into them high
and dry. That would change for the future, that would
have a dramatic impact on the budget. And the question
is do we have the political will to do it?
And Clay this time around, I think the answer is
still Unfortunately, if this resolution goes through, this r goes through,
(27:44):
the answer is no, we don't have the political will.
And then what we're on is a conveyor belt to
the edge of a cliff, and by the time we
all agree it has to be fixed, it will be
too late to fix it in a way that does
not result in massive economic devastation and tremendous loss of
(28:04):
financial stability and prosperity for the future.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So, you know, we we can pick, we can pick
our poison. And I think we know what we're doing
right now.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You know, we're we're drinking the eggnog and worrying about
the calories tomorrow totally, and we're going to be one
hundred trillion dollars in debt, and most politicians will not
tell you any of this because if they do and
they try to address it, to Buck's point, the American
(28:33):
public overwhelmingly rejects the idea that you should even talk
about the problem. It's like, to your point, on the
on the drink the eggnog, we're about the calories tomorrow.
It's like being wildly obese and getting mad when somebody says,
maybe you should eat a little bit less.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And that's that's the unfortunate reality.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Whether you're a Democrat, republican, independent, nobody talks about the
ticking time bomb of the entitlements and the fact that
in the next twenty to forty years this is going
to blow up into an even larger issue. Now, that
doesn't mean that there isn't incredible amounts of graft inside
of our government, that we shouldn't have far fewer federal
(29:21):
employees than we do.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It's just that you can't. The analogy I used to
use is, yeah, no, I don't want to interrupt.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Tell me the analogy, and then I'll tell you the
feedback we're getting right now from this conversation.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
In real time. I'm sure people are mad at us
for even bringing it up. But here it's like saying
we've got.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
To go on a diet, but you can only lose
weight in your right arm, Like you can't fix your
body by only addressing issues in the right arm. The
whole body has to be addressed. That's the reality of
our budget depths. That are we getting deluged with people
who are mad about like anytime you mention it, yeah,
of course, yeah the IP Cynthia quit calling so security
(30:00):
and entitlement. It is not welfare. We paid in all
our working lives and are just getting your money out back.
I did, I didn't even think I did, I even did?
We says social securities entitlement. I don't even I was
talking about Medicare, which is a I think again the
way that you classify this, it's an entitlement, meaning the
money has to be spent out. In other words, every
year they don't vote on Hey, what are social security
(30:25):
and medicare going to be?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's an automatic entitlement inside of the government. That's an
accurate phrase. I don't I don't know why she's upset
about that, But in other words, it has to be
spent it isn't a line item. Every year, social Security
grows at a certain rate every year, Medicare grows at
a certain rate adjusted for inflation, and it isn't addressed.
It's not like it's a part of the larger budget resolutions.
(30:50):
It's an entitlement that's accurate. I don't know what that
that quibble with term, Well, it's very it's very straightforward.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I mean, you either.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Address I mean, Medicare is the big one that will
actually just that just continues to blow a massive hole
through the budget every year.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So you can address.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Medicare, and you can address some ways social Security, and
a little bit of defense spending too, you could probably
throw in there as well.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
That's the one that Republicans generally don't want to talk about,
although there are Republicans who love.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Defense spending and then they go work for Lockheed or
sit on the board there, or become lobbyists for it.
But you know, we either care about this or we don't.
And I kind of think that a lot of Republicans
ever reached the point where they say everyone everyone wants
to say they care about the debt, nobody wants to
actually deal with it. Everyone wants to spend. Everyone wants
to say Santa Claus is real. It's just he's the
(31:44):
guy who's paying all the bills for the government that
we don't actually have the money for us. So we
print the money, which debases the currency, which means everything
gets more expensive, which means grandchildren right now of people
who are receiving these programs are going to be in
a less well off es than they would have otherwise
been because paying the interest on the debt is going
to be massive. But you know, man, this is our
(32:06):
this was our grinch segment. You know what spend spend like.
There's no spend, like, there's no tomorrow. Everybody forget about
what's the difference. Let's go to one hundred trillion. Let's
ride that train. Let's ride off the end of the cliff,
because we all are owed it, right, we're all owed it.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want Medicare and Social Security too, exactly as they are. Yay,
Mary Christmas. By the way, Mary Christmas, everybody, I'll just
point this out. Also, I'd prefer the government didn't take
our money, like let you invest for retirement on your
own instead of taking I think the social security program
in general is wildly under disgusted, which has ballooned our
(32:42):
federal government and oftentimes is not actually what I personally
would choose. I don't want the government to take my
money when I'm young and healthy and then give it
back to me if I happen to live to be
seventy five, I'd rather keep all my money all the time.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I think I can use it better than the government.
Maybe that's just me.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
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Speaker 1 (33:56):
Clay Travis at buck Sexton find them the free iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in
Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. A lot of people want
a weigh in, as you might imagine, one week from Christmas,
we are the gritches telling you that the reality is
you can't just reform and balance the federal budget by
(34:19):
cutting spending without addressing Social Security Medicare.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
It's impossible.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
But people think, oh, well, if there were just a
little bit less welfare benefits, then no, it requires addressing
Social Security and Medicare.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Terry, what you got for us? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Hi Buck, Yeah, I'm one of those people that don't
believe in that the craft that they're saying.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
It's entitlement. Okay, I paid it to it from the
time I yes, So does that seem like a good deal?
Hold on, Terry four years old. I'm working two part
time jobs to make ends meet. Well, we appreciate that,
but let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Would you you'd rather have had all of the money
that you made since you were sixteen years old and
gotten to keep it, or would you rather the government
take it and then give you back frankly a crappy
rate of return adjusted for inflation. I'd rather the government
not stole the money and put it in the general
(35:20):
fund with an IOU and a supposed lock box.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah all right, so that sounds so you're with us, Terry.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
First of all, I appreciate the fact that you are
working your ass off and you got two different jobs
and you need the money that the government took from
you back.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I one billion percent agree with you. Thank you for
the call.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
My point is just it's not a good deal, and
almost no one will talk about it because since FDR
put in place so security, it's this great, unbelievable. It's actually,
for many people a really crappy deal. And if you
die young, which many people do, it's like the worst
deal ever, especially if you and your spouse both die.
(36:06):
The government just fleeced you completely. I see you keeping
your money. People immediately think that reform means they're getting screwed.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Out of what they're owed.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
No one has to change anything about what's being spent
right now. You can reform the program so that people
that are going to be eligible in ten years have
different things going on. And just by way of definition
Webster's Dictionary, entitlement program quote a government program that guarantees
benefits to a part of the population.
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