April 15, 2026 • 35 mins
Hour 2 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show is dominated by in-depth geopolitical analysis, economic policy discussion, and continued criticism of progressive governance, with a strong emphasis on breaking developments involving Iran, energy markets, taxation, and New York City politics. Clay and Buck open Hour 2 by revisiting the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East, particularly U.S. actions against Iran and the status of the Strait of Hormuz. They analyze President Donald Trump’s public statements and Truth Social posts suggesting that tensions are de-escalating, while clarifying that the United States is enforcing a targeted blockade that restricts Iranian oil shipments without fully halting global maritime traffic. The hosts explore how China’s intervention factors into the strategy, noting that China is Iran’s primary oil customer and effectively underwrites a large portion of Iran’s economy.
Throughout Hour 2, Clay and Buck emphasize the strategic role of American energy dominance under Trump. They cite record U.S. oil and gas production levels, surging exports, and a historic redirection of global energy markets away from Iran and toward the United States. The discussion frames U.S. energy independence as a central national security asset, arguing that controlling oil supply gives Washington leverage not just over Iran, but also over China—particularly in the context of potential future conflicts involving Taiwan. The hosts draw direct parallels between the Strait of Hormuz and hypothetical Chinese attempts to blockade Taiwan, arguing that the current crisis serves as a real-world test case for economic and maritime power projection.
The conversation then turns to broader geopolitical risks, including China’s control over semiconductor manufacturing. Clay raises concerns that while the U.S. has successfully onshored energy production, it remains dangerously dependent on Taiwan for advanced microchips, which could become China’s most powerful retaliatory weapon. Both hosts argue that reshoring semiconductor manufacturing should be treated as an urgent national priority comparable to “drill baby drill” energy policies.
As Hour 2 continues, the focus shifts to domestic policy on Tax Day. Clay presents federal income tax statistics to argue that the U.S. tax burden is already heavily concentrated on high earners, noting that roughly half of Americans pay no federal income taxes while the top 1%, 10%, and 25% cover the vast majority of total revenue. He expresses frustration with government spending inefficiency and wasted taxpayer dollars, tying the issue to broader debates about fairness, accountability, and economic incentives.
New York politics become a major theme in the second half of Hour 2. Clay and Buck sharply criticize New York City’s high taxes, expanding government budgets, and proposals to raise taxes further on affluent residents, arguing these policies are accelerating population and capital flight to states like Florida and Texas. They return repeatedly to mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a city-subsidized grocery store, portraying it as a textbook socialist experiment destined to fail. The hosts break down grocery store economics, emphasizing razor-thin profit margins, high logistical costs in New York City, and the necessity of scale—concluding that a government-run grocery store would likely lead to shortages, waste, and higher long-term costs for taxpayers.
Using examples from past “food desert” policy experiments, Clay and Buck argue that subsidizing staple foods like bread and milk will not meaningfully change consumer behavior or address the real drivers of financial stress, such as housing costs, healthcare expenses, and overregulation. They contend that Mamdani’s plan is primarily a political talking point rather than a serious economic solution and predict it will become a high-profile policy failure.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
In our number two Clay Travis buck Sexton show, we
are continuing to track the absolute latest in Iran. As
President Trump told Maria Bartaromo in an interview that he
feels like everything is winding down. The market seem to
believe that is likely true, as record highs have hit
(00:23):
today in the stock market. That is never.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Before in the history of your four oh.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
One k's have they been more valuable than they are
at this exact moment. So if you are a buy
and holder and you trust that things are going to
get better, you are being rewarded today for having faith
in President Trump, the American economy, and the decision making
of the leadership in this country. Right now, we have
(00:52):
Justice Alito talk. We got a bunch of people who
went away in on a variety of stories. Bartomo, as
we talked about earlier in the program, had a conversation
with President Trump, and for the first time that I
have seen Trump address it, there was the possibility of
a Supreme Court vacancy raised. Remember on polymarket right now,
(01:13):
there is an expectation that Alito will step down. If
that were to happen, President Trump would have the ability
to appoint a replacement. We talked about some of that
eight hundred and two two two eight a two. Do
you want to just just for a minute here on
the Iran thing.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We've been talking about it a lot lately, but I
would just point out, Clay Uh, you have now the
straight we went from. There's a blockade. I think that
was yesterday. So now the strait is open and the
war is almost over. But we don't have an agreement
(01:51):
on the end of the negotiations. But we're not blockading
the strait anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I think we are blockading straight but controlling ingress and egress,
meaning we're not allowing Iran to send from Iranian ports
ships in and out, but we are allowing ships that
are not coming from Iran to traverse the strait. That's
my understanding of exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Trump declared the Straight of Hormuz permanently open just hours
after imposing Iran blockade. As China intervenes, they want me
to do it. US blockade of Iranian port fully implemented
Trump very close. That was yesterday. So if China intervened,
wouldn't that be so they could get Iran's oil?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I my understanding, this is a good question My understanding
is that the blockade is still in effect and we
are not allowing Iranian ships in or out if they
are intending to go to Iranian port, but that ships
that are not starting or concluding their trip in Iran
(03:05):
are being.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Allowed to move in and out. I think that is
the latest. So here, Well, I'm giving you the truth,
social so you tell me what this means. China is
very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
I am doing it for them also and the world.
This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not
(03:26):
to send weapons to Iran. President she will give me
a big fat hug when I get there in a
few weeks. We are working together smartly and very well.
Doesn't that beat fighting? But remember we are very good
at fighting if we have to, far better than anyone else.
President Donald J. Trump, So again, I could be off here,
but China wants Iranian oil. They rely on it more
(03:48):
than anybody. So if we're doing it for China, I
assume that means we're letting Iran se oil back to
China again, right or no? I don't think so. What
I understand, just you guys, understand this is changing like
hour by hour, so it's not I mean, this is
you know, the reading this morning may have changed over
the course of the show.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
There is right now a live uh uh White House briefing.
The headline is soon White House briefs as US blockades Iran.
Iran's ports is the headline right now on Fox News.
So I think what President Trump is saying is, and
again this is me trying to understand, is that the
(04:30):
Straight of Horror moves is open, as China has requested.
But we are not allowing Iranian oil out, but we
are allowing oil that is originating elsewhere out of the
Straight of hor moves right now. That's my that's my understanding.
So we haven't that. That's an important distinction.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So so Trump, because if we've said, you know what,
we're just opening it totally for everybody, and this whole thing,
I mean, what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So okay, correct, I think get is wide open. Sorry
I'm choking on my smoothie here. I think it is
wide open for all countries. But Iran is what the
President was trying to say in that statement, And China
is happy because there was a thought that the Strait
of horror moves. Blockade was not going to allow any
(05:18):
ships out, and we are economically curtailing Iran's ability to
sell its oil. Right now, I think that is the
latest and right now we will have well, I hopefully
we'll get a specific statement from that on the White
House Press vers okay Iran.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The New York Times as of an hour ago says
Iran link ship's slower stop as US blockade is fully implemented.
So now we are we're opening the straight entirely. So
this is this is this is where so so she
she asked us to open the straight, But the strait's
not really open. This is why it's a little confusing.
It's not entirely open. The strait is partially open. It's
(05:55):
open for everybody except for Iran, which does affec global oil.
Just to be clear, it's not like, oh, take a
small violin out for Iran. I don't care. But the
issue is global supply. I mean there's still an effect
here because Irani and oil is now blocked from the market.
That's right, I actually have it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I have some data points on this that I thought
were interesting because I was doing my research. A couple
of things here the United States. And this is getting nerdy,
but I'll hit you with some nerd details. The United
States was producing. This is according to or open source Intel.
United States was producing thirteen point six million barrels per
(06:38):
day in twenty twenty five, about sixteen percent of.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The global oil supply, and it.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was exporting roughly four million barrels per day of crude.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right we talked about we're in that exporter. We produce
more than we need.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
When Iran shut down the Straight of Horror Moves, April
exports of oil and gas jumped to four point nine
million barrels per day. May is currently tracking to potentially
be five point two million, which would be an all
time record of oil and gas exported from the United States.
(07:14):
And this says twenty eight supertankers booked for May. Normally
it's around five. Asian buyers that once depended on hor
Moves are now turning to US supply. And so, and
this is the argument that I made the other day,
the Straight of hor Moves being blocked has actually created
the biggest payday for US oil that has ever existed.
(07:38):
So the math on this, and then here's another piece
of the math that I thought was interesting. Is the
impact that comes that comes in to your point, buck,
China purchased ninety percent of a rams oil in twenty
twenty four, right, okay, okay, So China also accounted for
(08:01):
one quarter of Iran's non oil exports during that period.
So basically Iran is being funded by China, right like
much of the Iranian economy directly results to.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
This is why I needed clarification on Yeah, yeah, wants
his oil, but apparently now he just wants the straight
open so you can get the oil from the Saudi's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Or that way exact. I think that's the actual result.
But I thought this was crazy. Thirty percent of Iran's economy,
according to this study, and I read this in the
New York Times actually now comes from directly from China.
Oh yeah, so it's really kind of crazy to think
about what the impact is as it pertains to effectively,
(08:52):
China is driving almost the entirety of this of the
Iranian economy. So with President Trump's scheduled, when is he
going He's going in like next month? Is that right
to a few weeks? A few weeks he's gonna get
a big fat hug. Actually that's what he said said,
but that also is my belief, and you went to Taiwan.
(09:15):
I think all this is really interestingly connected because remember
China has tried to restrict the flow in the South
China Sea of ships, arguing this is Chinese territory, we
can keep anyone they put in new islands they've created
all surrounding the Taiwan situation. The straight up war moves
(09:35):
is a little bit of a test case for what
might be happening in the event that China ever made
a move on Taiwan. And so I think this huge
part of this story. Trump wants there to be a
resolution with Iran that he can present to China as
a gift of sorts by the time he goes to Iran,
(09:59):
I mean goes to China for that state visit.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
One of the possibilities, and this was after talking to
the Taiwanese president, national security advisor and all the rest
this past September. One of the concerns that they have
is of a Chinese blockade of the island of Taiwan. Obviously,
one of the ways that this could be rolled out
against them would be to claim that there's some dispute
between China and Taiwan, whatever it may be, you know,
(10:23):
some pretext, and then they don't actually invade, and they
don't even necessarily hit Taiwan with a lot of missiles
or anything. They just cut off seaborne trade to an island,
including the oil and things that Taiwan needs, and hope
that they could essentially get a capitulation before the United
States and Japan most notably, are able to come to
(10:45):
their aid or come to intervene. This does seem like
we have ways of hitting China the blockade without even
dealing with a possible Chinese blockade of Taiwan. So we
have our own leverage points on the global oil supply
against them, although a lot of it I think comes
from Russia too. I think that's hugely important and not
(11:06):
many people have really thought about it. China is a
very fortunate country in many respects when it comes to
natural resources and economic power and everything else. On oil and.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Gas, we have the ability to curtail the Chinese economy
because we are now energy and dependent in a way
that I don't think a lot of people have contemplated.
And while everybody was trying to say oh Iran controls
the straight of word, moves and all these other different things.
What President Trump did with Venezuela was he took China
(11:40):
was spending a lot of money with Venezuela and buying
their oil and gas. We now control that supply, if
we control the Iran supply of oil and gas, which
it seems like we're going to have in some way.
Obviously we're not allowing it at all right now. In
conjunction with those numbers I just shared you about record
amounts of oil and gas production the United State eights
his ability suddenly when it comes to oil and gas
(12:03):
is maybe the biggest of all of the bargaining chips
that we have on the global stage right now. And
that's a direct result of Republicans saying, let's drill, baby drill,
which used to be a controversial thing to say.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I was going to say, the biggest national security asset
that Trump has deployed in all of this with Iran,
the single most important asset all the oil men and
oil women. A lot of guys tend to be out
in the oil patch, though, who have made us an
energy a true energy superpower in the last couple of decades,
(12:39):
largely because of fracking, which they told us wrongly, was
going to poison all of our drinking water. And you know,
there were idiotic movies and documentaries made about how fracking
was so dangerous. It's not dangerous. Something like ninety something
percent of wells now are fracked because it's so much
more efficient to extract more out of it and involves
(12:59):
mostly water and sand from what I understand, in the process,
and then some solvents. So yeah, it's we're in a
whole different position. This is in nineteen seventy whatever. This
is a whole different world of US energy independence that
we're dealing with. And Trump has seen this all along.
If we can keep this where the strait is open.
(13:19):
The only way that Iran stops this is if they
try to make an example out of a ship and
show that you know that they they have to Iran.
Sorry for the terrorist verbiage here, but Iran has to
show they're willing to shoot a hostage. Yes, if they're
not willing to shoot a hostage, then they can't take
the Strait of Hormuz hostage anymore. And that means that
(13:41):
now we're just in a waiting game for the I mean,
their entire economy is going to implode. Now if we
really blockade to clay, because it's all seaborn trade, it's
every you know, not a lot of important trade coming
from Afghanistan, one of their neighbors, to Iran. Like you
start to look at this, not a ton coming over
the border from Iraq either, like they need access to
the ocean.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Here's one thing I will say that makes me nervous
about the energy independence we have.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
What's China's retaliation taking Taiwan and controlling all the semiconductors
which we don't have the ability to produce in the
United States yet. And President Trump has been smart about this.
You toured with Taiwan semiconductor everything else. If Taiwan's semiconductor
(14:29):
chips are taken offline, then we are in a huge
world of hurt, almost at the time that you snap
your fingers. And so that is my concern because China
doesn't have a oil and gas but they may say, hey,
we got computer chips and you guys can't produce them,
and you can't power the ai revolution or much of
(14:50):
your entire economy because you can't produce enough of them.
We have to onshore the production of these chips. Like
we onshore oil and gas, and I think it's actually
a hugely important geopolitical decision. But in the meantime, all
the conversation about Iran Israel hasbol Elebanon very little talk
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Speaker 4 (16:21):
If you truly care, pass along this common sense to
family and friends. Clay and Bucking.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Dear wait, welcome back in to Clay and Buck. We've
got a White House briefing going on right now. It's
gott Besten, the Execregar of the Treasury, talking and we
will bring you the highlights of that as they come
to us, because I'm sure there'll be some interesting things
that he has to say about where we're on the
Economy team. Are the Clay you have the most current
(16:47):
lines lit situation. We have time for one call there?
Do we have anybody up? I'm gonna we're running up
against the clock here, but I wanted to get to someone. Yeah,
I think we could. Is Aaron in Colorado? Still there?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Fire Away?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Two things I just wanted to say, can we get
somebody to introduce a constitutional amendment to Cement nine justices
so no party can ever interfere with the judicial branch?
And Two, if we do, can we just throw Janine
Pero out there as a possible candidate for US Supreme
(17:24):
Court justice, just to put a bur in their saddle.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
In reverse order. Janine Pierro is awesome, she's seventy something.
You want the Supreme Court justice to be forties or
fifties at the oldest, because you want it long term.
Second part of that, I think the idea of stacking
the Supreme Court, unfortunately is top of mind for Democrats.
(17:49):
The problem is, I think any constitutional amendment getting passed
is virtually impossible. So I'm afraid that's something that they
may try. We'll talk about it a little bit more
when we come back.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Welcome back in and.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
We will update you a bit on the White House
press conference that is currently going on. Caroline Levitt fielding
questions right now from Peter Deusey of Fox News. We
will give you the latest there. But Buck, it is
tax Day, and I flagged this as I was doing
my research because we hear so much about how often
(18:23):
we are living in a completely unfair tax system. And
so these numbers are a couple of years old, and
I'm sure that they have continued to be to be
addressed and to continue to move so that the so
called rich are paying even more and more. But let's
(18:45):
start here because I do think it's worth mentioning every
single tax.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Day that arises.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Roughly half of all Americans pay no federal income taxes.
So if you are paying tax at all today, where
you have paid tax at all during the past year
federal income tax then you are paying more than half
of Americans are.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And in fact, as we all know, a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Of people get refunds that they didn't ever pay in
the first place, So you're getting paid my dollars, your
dollars going to people that did not actually pay any taxes.
Here's some stats for you. The top one percent pays
forty and this is rough. It's actually increased I since
I think since then pays forty percent.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Of all income taxes.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
The top ten percent pays seventy two percent of all
income taxes, and the top twenty five percent pays eighty
seven percent of all income taxes. So in the United States,
if you are in the seventy five percent of earners
(19:57):
below the top twenty five percent, you only pay thirteen
percent of all federal income tax dollars. Does that seem
like money well spent? And the older I get, the
more frustrated and angry I am about the money that
I pay that gets completely wasted, and the fact that,
(20:19):
like many of you out there, I work two of
the five days every week directly to pay the federal government.
So every time you hear me on Monday and Tuesday
on this radio program, I am not actually making any
money at all. It's going straight to the government. It's
kind of crazy to think about it. And the same
is true for many of you out there now. Buck,
(20:42):
that is never enough.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Though.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So New York City, which I believe we said the
other day, has a bigger government than the state of Florida.
New York State is about twice as big as the
state of Florida's government.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
But I believe New York.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
City by itself has a bigger budget than the entire
state of Florida.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yet it is not enough.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And Kathy Hokeel and Mom Donnie are now saying, Hey,
if you have a second home in New York City
that costs five million dollars or more, they're going to
ratchet up the tax rates on you to a significant degree.
And you know what's going to happen, Buck, Phones are
ringing in Florida, phones are ringing in Texas. Phones are
ringing in Tennessee because you're paying forty percent, and then
(21:30):
you add another thirteen percent, over half of your money
before you even pay property taxes. If you live in
New York City, is going to the city, the state, well,
and the federal government.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
The good news, though Clay is sure the taxes are high.
Sure people are fleeing New York and California and high
tax jurisdictions continuously now. But the good news is that
Mam Donnie is focusing on the really important stuff, like
building a government run grocery store that will cost thirty
million dollars and take three years. Here it is Mamdani
(22:04):
making his case yesterday in Harlem in Manhattan. This is
cut eleven. Let's hear from Kwame Mamdani, the governor of
New York. I'm sorry to Mayor of New York City.
Here he is play on New York City.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
It is time for a grand experiment once again. Just
as LaGuardia us government to respond to the challenges of
the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to
rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city will subsidize a
core set of staples, a private operator will run the store,
but the answer to the standards that the city will set.
(22:40):
These standards include requirements that at our stores, bread will
be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no
longer be an unsolvable equation, and workers will be treated
with dignity.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Okay, so unless he's going to subsidize this directly with
tax dollar, which is just a way just a welfare program,
then right, it's just a version of food stamps, except
you got to go get the food. You don't just
get the money to get the food. This has a
zero percent chance of working the way that is planned.
I think he even maybe at some level, knows that.
(23:17):
And this is why the three year timeline up when
he's up for mayor I might add for reelect three
year timeline is no problem for him because he gets
to keep talking about how great this is going to
be until people realize this is going to be like
a Soviet Union grocery store with really good prices on
bread that isn't even on the shelves.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
How do you think he's really this dumb? Can we
play that cut again? Does he I mean, does he
really think that grocery stores are gouging people, and that
running a grocery store is the greatest business that's ever
existed in the history of mankind. I mean, play that
(24:00):
cut again if we could, because anyone who believes any of.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
This is a complete moron.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Mom, Donnie's not a complete more Like, surely he unders
like and this makes it worse right because he knows
he's lying. Surely he understands what you said earlier in
the program, and all of you know, the profit margin
on groceries is among the lowest profit margins of any
capital of any capital intensive business on the planet.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can This is one of the things I like
about AI, just like I like X, because it shows
more of reality now to people like you see, like
crimes that are happening and how awful they are and
who's committing them. And the media doesn't get to just say, oh,
we have no idea. You can just do really quick
data analysis now you don't have to. It's way better
than Google. At this on groc Clay. It's The Food
(24:50):
Industry Association says that the average profit in twenty twenty
four for a grocery store average one point seven percent
prodeum one point seven percent if someone thinks that's price gouging,
They're an imbecile, They're an ignoramist. They know nothing, but
an ignoramis runs the city of New York right now. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I mean, this is just such basic Rea, So play
this again because and I understand people get frustrated. And
we've talked about this with gas prices too. The gas
stations are not gouging you. They're not making very much
money on gas. Grocery stores is one of the worst,
most difficult businesses that you could possibly get into, because
(25:36):
it is so incredibly difficult to actually make a consistent profit.
But listen to Mom, Donnie, he's gonna I mean, this
is just of all the arguments you could make. I'm
gonna run a grocery store and it's gonna be way
cheaper and you're gonna get a way higher quality product.
Is one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard of
Democrat make. It's right up there with defund the police.
(25:58):
But listen to this again. It's just not true. Buck
just gave you the data.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
New York City. It is time for a grand experiment
once again, just as LaGuardia use government to respond to
the challenges of the Great Depression. We will use government
to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city
will subsidize a core set of staples. A private operator
will run the store, but the answer to the standards
(26:23):
that the city will set. These standards include requirements that
at our stores, bread will be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper,
grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation, and
workers will be treated with dignity.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, so he's saying they're going to subsidize the price
of groceries buck, which means taxpayers are going to give
money to buy groceries, software program other people, which means
everybody has less it's it's less efficiency.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I would actually just prefer that they be honest about
this and like increase the EBT benefits or whatever the
food stamps benefits, so least people we all know exactly
what's going on. But he said only for staples. Now
this brings up some really interesting So he's like milk
and bread, no one is poor, and I mean no
one because of the price of milk and bread. There
(27:17):
are other things where red meat has gotten a lot
higher spine, but milk and bread is not actually where
people are. The budget is finally just too constrained. That's
not what's breaking the soak the proverbial camels back. There
are other things and other budgetary matters that are far
but by the way, that cost of health care, the
cost of housing like those are things if you're in
New York City that are crushing people. The expectation that
(27:38):
people are going to spend forty fifty sixty percent on rent.
And you might say, oh, well, Mam Donnie wants to
help with that too. He's going to make that worse.
You want to deal with that issue, then you have
to deal with all the regulations in New York City
that artificially constrain supply. But they don't believe in supply
and demand in Kami, mam Doniville. They think they can
(27:59):
just wave a magic Marxist wand clay on this issue
of the milk and bread. Also, New York City was
where they ran an experiment some years ago about food deserts,
and the whole premise was I've talked about this in
the show before, so I'll give you a short version,
but it's really interesting and the New York Times was
who did a story on it. It was under the
Obama administration, No surprise federal program. Hey, you know why
(28:23):
they aren't eating enough arugula in low income, high crime areas.
You know why they aren't really digging into the quenwa.
It's because we haven't subsidized it. If we only made
it cheaper, the arugula and the quen wa and the
free range, you know, Duca la range, it would be
(28:45):
flying off the shelves. You know what they found when
they did this project, this pilot project that the so
called food desert by giving people artificially cheap access to radishes,
and by the way, I'm being serious, those were the
kinds of foods that are didn't change buying behavior at all.
You know what people wanted to buy, particularly with food stamps,
soda chips and candy. Yep, soda chips and candy, biggest
(29:10):
items ever. Go to a grocery store in a low
income area. I've been to them because of my time
at the NYPD long story we talked about another time.
It been to many of them, actually, and clay, that's
what they're mostly selling at the front. It's not because
people don't have access to cheap produce, they don't want it.
So they're also going to call up against this issue.
They're gonna make milk and bread really cheap, and you
(29:30):
know what's gonna happen. They're going to run out of
the milk and the bread. Their milk and the bread
is not going to be well stocked. It's not gonna
be what people want, and they're going to find out
that's actually not what people are buying anyway.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Also, of all the places to deliver food too, the
cost to get product into New York City has to
be off the charts. Yeah, so even if you were
going to run a government funded grocery store, I think
it would fail everywhere. Kansas City did this recently and
(30:00):
they had to shut down because they couldn't keep produce
on the shelves and they couldn't keep a product and
nobody wanted it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Getting product to New York City to a grocery store
is going to be virtually impossible. And this is going
to be an unmitigated disaster. Just put a pin in this.
It's going to fail epically.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I doubt whether it will ever even really start to run,
and it's going to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,
which is also they've got to raise more money because
they keep spending and wasting what they get.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Publics is a very well known Florida based grocery chain.
I go to Publics all the time. They then annual
net sales is something like forty million dollars billions public
data million sorry per per store. Oh, forty million in
sales per store. Now this is where you start to see, Okay,
(30:53):
there is a profit motive here, meaning if you if
you sell forty million dollars of groceries at a one
or two percent profit margin, you're making money. And that's
when you've covered everything that's with taxes and everything else.
But you're you're doing fine. And if you do one
hundred of these, now you've really got a big business.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
The point is it's all about scale, Yeah, and what
they're going to do at this grocery store that New
York City is going to run, which I'm telling you
is gonna be the sad give it. Six months after opening,
it'll be the saddest, most pathetic grocery store you've ever seen.
They don't understand the way that scale actually works, so
they think, oh, well, We're gonna sell three million dollars
(31:31):
of groceries just thirty percent cheaper than everybody else in
the city. And it's going to be a disaster and
the whole thing is going to collapse. And I think
Mum Donnie knows it, Clay, but he's doing it anyway
because it's about the story. It's not about the groceries.
It's not about helping people with their costs. It's the
talking point.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
But we want to help all of you have beautiful plants,
beautiful trees, beautiful roses. I look outside while I'm doing
the show every single day. I've got the open blind.
Sometimes they say, oh, your studio's too bright. I like
to be able to look outside. I like to be
able to enjoy the trees that are growing in my yard.
(32:13):
I like to be able to check and see how
the plants are doing. I like to be able to
do all of those things. And right now across the country,
as we come up on mid April, a lot of
you are getting into the spring season. When it comes
to gardening, when it comes to making decisions about trees, plants,
all the different aspects that you may want in your home.
You've got a yard in your condo and your apartments
(32:36):
in your town homes. They can have everything you can
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(32:59):
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Speaker 4 (33:16):
Lash learn hang with the guys right there when you
need them most, Clay and fuck just preset them on
the iHeart.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
As we are rolling through the Wednesday edition of the program,
Tax Day edition, and we are going to be joined
by a LEAs Stephonic congresswoman from New York's got a
great book out. At the top of the next hour,
we will dive into some of these New York related
issues that we have been talking about so far. We
got a ton of talkbacks. Let me try to hit
(33:46):
some of these before we finish out the second hour
of the program, and let's go, Oh my goodness, there's
so many.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Uh. John in Orange County, California is teeing off on you. Buck.
I'll go to b Buck.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Drawstring pants?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Maybe if you're eighty five years old?
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Seriously, brother, come on.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Hey, look John, I'm here for you. It's okay, buddy,
let it all out. Try those drawstring pants. Don't worry,
don't tell anybody. Just try those draw string pants before
you before you just go down this dark path of
forswearing the draw string pants. They make them now where
they look just like khakis. This is what I'm trying
to tell you. You'll never know and you'll just be
(34:30):
so comfortable and happy, John, trust me, we got.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
So many funny talkbacks. I'm gonna get to a bunch
of these. Buck in the uh. In the third hour
of the program.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let's do see Jay and tempe Arizona play that one.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
I love the elastic way span with the button, but
draw strings and this casualization, do you guys sound like
a bunch of Fetterman's And I just want to say.
Can you picture Bond rolling into the casino like tying
up his is drawstring pants? No where are talks? You
look good?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Come on guys, Wow, betterman's dude. That was harsh. Feel.
I felt the sting on that one, like a two
by four to the face. A betterman.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I think there's a different sween hoodie and shorts everywhere
you go, and normal pants and normal shirt without needing
to go full tuxedo. But we will talk with the
least Stephonic. We'll get her read on this and more.
When we come back, we'll get to a ton of
your talkbacks as well. We appreciate all of you, and
(35:35):
also we'll update you on the press conference that is
going on right now in the White House featuring Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessett, SB eight head, Kelly Loffler, and Caroline
Leavitt here on Tax Day.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thanks for hanging out with us on playing Book.
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
In our number two Clay Travis buck Sexton show, we
are continuing to track the absolute latest in Iran. As
President Trump told Maria Bartaromo in an interview that he
feels like everything is winding down. The market seem to
believe that is likely true, as record highs have hit
(00:23):
today in the stock market. That is never.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Before in the history of your four oh.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
One k's have they been more valuable than they are
at this exact moment. So if you are a buy
and holder and you trust that things are going to
get better, you are being rewarded today for having faith
in President Trump, the American economy, and the decision making
of the leadership in this country. Right now, we have
(00:52):
Justice Alito talk. We got a bunch of people who
went away in on a variety of stories. Bartomo, as
we talked about earlier in the program, had a conversation
with President Trump, and for the first time that I
have seen Trump address it, there was the possibility of
a Supreme Court vacancy raised. Remember on polymarket right now,
(01:13):
there is an expectation that Alito will step down. If
that were to happen, President Trump would have the ability
to appoint a replacement. We talked about some of that
eight hundred and two two two eight a two. Do
you want to just just for a minute here on
the Iran thing.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We've been talking about it a lot lately, but I
would just point out, Clay Uh, you have now the
straight we went from. There's a blockade. I think that
was yesterday. So now the strait is open and the
war is almost over. But we don't have an agreement
(01:51):
on the end of the negotiations. But we're not blockading
the strait anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I think we are blockading straight but controlling ingress and egress,
meaning we're not allowing Iran to send from Iranian ports
ships in and out, but we are allowing ships that
are not coming from Iran to traverse the strait. That's
my understanding of exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Trump declared the Straight of Hormuz permanently open just hours
after imposing Iran blockade. As China intervenes, they want me
to do it. US blockade of Iranian port fully implemented
Trump very close. That was yesterday. So if China intervened,
wouldn't that be so they could get Iran's oil?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I my understanding, this is a good question My understanding
is that the blockade is still in effect and we
are not allowing Iranian ships in or out if they
are intending to go to Iranian port, but that ships
that are not starting or concluding their trip in Iran
(03:05):
are being.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Allowed to move in and out. I think that is
the latest. So here, Well, I'm giving you the truth,
social so you tell me what this means. China is
very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
I am doing it for them also and the world.
This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not
(03:26):
to send weapons to Iran. President she will give me
a big fat hug when I get there in a
few weeks. We are working together smartly and very well.
Doesn't that beat fighting? But remember we are very good
at fighting if we have to, far better than anyone else.
President Donald J. Trump, So again, I could be off here,
but China wants Iranian oil. They rely on it more
(03:48):
than anybody. So if we're doing it for China, I
assume that means we're letting Iran se oil back to
China again, right or no? I don't think so. What
I understand, just you guys, understand this is changing like
hour by hour, so it's not I mean, this is
you know, the reading this morning may have changed over
the course of the show.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
There is right now a live uh uh White House briefing.
The headline is soon White House briefs as US blockades Iran.
Iran's ports is the headline right now on Fox News.
So I think what President Trump is saying is, and
again this is me trying to understand, is that the
(04:30):
Straight of Horror moves is open, as China has requested.
But we are not allowing Iranian oil out, but we
are allowing oil that is originating elsewhere out of the
Straight of hor moves right now. That's my that's my understanding.
So we haven't that. That's an important distinction.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So so Trump, because if we've said, you know what,
we're just opening it totally for everybody, and this whole thing,
I mean, what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So okay, correct, I think get is wide open. Sorry
I'm choking on my smoothie here. I think it is
wide open for all countries. But Iran is what the
President was trying to say in that statement, And China
is happy because there was a thought that the Strait
of horror moves. Blockade was not going to allow any
(05:18):
ships out, and we are economically curtailing Iran's ability to
sell its oil. Right now, I think that is the
latest and right now we will have well, I hopefully
we'll get a specific statement from that on the White
House Press vers okay Iran.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The New York Times as of an hour ago says
Iran link ship's slower stop as US blockade is fully implemented.
So now we are we're opening the straight entirely. So
this is this is this is where so so she
she asked us to open the straight, But the strait's
not really open. This is why it's a little confusing.
It's not entirely open. The strait is partially open. It's
(05:55):
open for everybody except for Iran, which does affec global oil.
Just to be clear, it's not like, oh, take a
small violin out for Iran. I don't care. But the
issue is global supply. I mean there's still an effect
here because Irani and oil is now blocked from the market.
That's right, I actually have it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I have some data points on this that I thought
were interesting because I was doing my research. A couple
of things here the United States. And this is getting nerdy,
but I'll hit you with some nerd details. The United
States was producing. This is according to or open source Intel.
United States was producing thirteen point six million barrels per
(06:38):
day in twenty twenty five, about sixteen percent of.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The global oil supply, and it.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was exporting roughly four million barrels per day of crude.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right we talked about we're in that exporter. We produce
more than we need.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
When Iran shut down the Straight of Horror Moves, April
exports of oil and gas jumped to four point nine
million barrels per day. May is currently tracking to potentially
be five point two million, which would be an all
time record of oil and gas exported from the United States.
(07:14):
And this says twenty eight supertankers booked for May. Normally
it's around five. Asian buyers that once depended on hor
Moves are now turning to US supply. And so, and
this is the argument that I made the other day,
the Straight of hor Moves being blocked has actually created
the biggest payday for US oil that has ever existed.
(07:38):
So the math on this, and then here's another piece
of the math that I thought was interesting. Is the
impact that comes that comes in to your point, buck,
China purchased ninety percent of a rams oil in twenty
twenty four, right, okay, okay, So China also accounted for
(08:01):
one quarter of Iran's non oil exports during that period.
So basically Iran is being funded by China, right like
much of the Iranian economy directly results to.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
This is why I needed clarification on Yeah, yeah, wants
his oil, but apparently now he just wants the straight
open so you can get the oil from the Saudi's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Or that way exact. I think that's the actual result.
But I thought this was crazy. Thirty percent of Iran's economy,
according to this study, and I read this in the
New York Times actually now comes from directly from China.
Oh yeah, so it's really kind of crazy to think
about what the impact is as it pertains to effectively,
(08:52):
China is driving almost the entirety of this of the
Iranian economy. So with President Trump's scheduled, when is he
going He's going in like next month? Is that right
to a few weeks? A few weeks he's gonna get
a big fat hug. Actually that's what he said said,
but that also is my belief, and you went to Taiwan.
(09:15):
I think all this is really interestingly connected because remember
China has tried to restrict the flow in the South
China Sea of ships, arguing this is Chinese territory, we
can keep anyone they put in new islands they've created
all surrounding the Taiwan situation. The straight up war moves
(09:35):
is a little bit of a test case for what
might be happening in the event that China ever made
a move on Taiwan. And so I think this huge
part of this story. Trump wants there to be a
resolution with Iran that he can present to China as
a gift of sorts by the time he goes to Iran,
(09:59):
I mean goes to China for that state visit.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
One of the possibilities, and this was after talking to
the Taiwanese president, national security advisor and all the rest
this past September. One of the concerns that they have
is of a Chinese blockade of the island of Taiwan. Obviously,
one of the ways that this could be rolled out
against them would be to claim that there's some dispute
between China and Taiwan, whatever it may be, you know,
(10:23):
some pretext, and then they don't actually invade, and they
don't even necessarily hit Taiwan with a lot of missiles
or anything. They just cut off seaborne trade to an island,
including the oil and things that Taiwan needs, and hope
that they could essentially get a capitulation before the United
States and Japan most notably, are able to come to
(10:45):
their aid or come to intervene. This does seem like
we have ways of hitting China the blockade without even
dealing with a possible Chinese blockade of Taiwan. So we
have our own leverage points on the global oil supply
against them, although a lot of it I think comes
from Russia too. I think that's hugely important and not
(11:06):
many people have really thought about it. China is a
very fortunate country in many respects when it comes to
natural resources and economic power and everything else. On oil and.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Gas, we have the ability to curtail the Chinese economy
because we are now energy and dependent in a way
that I don't think a lot of people have contemplated.
And while everybody was trying to say oh Iran controls
the straight of word, moves and all these other different things.
What President Trump did with Venezuela was he took China
(11:40):
was spending a lot of money with Venezuela and buying
their oil and gas. We now control that supply, if
we control the Iran supply of oil and gas, which
it seems like we're going to have in some way.
Obviously we're not allowing it at all right now. In
conjunction with those numbers I just shared you about record
amounts of oil and gas production the United State eights
his ability suddenly when it comes to oil and gas
(12:03):
is maybe the biggest of all of the bargaining chips
that we have on the global stage right now. And
that's a direct result of Republicans saying, let's drill, baby drill,
which used to be a controversial thing to say.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I was going to say, the biggest national security asset
that Trump has deployed in all of this with Iran,
the single most important asset all the oil men and
oil women. A lot of guys tend to be out
in the oil patch, though, who have made us an
energy a true energy superpower in the last couple of decades,
(12:39):
largely because of fracking, which they told us wrongly, was
going to poison all of our drinking water. And you know,
there were idiotic movies and documentaries made about how fracking
was so dangerous. It's not dangerous. Something like ninety something
percent of wells now are fracked because it's so much
more efficient to extract more out of it and involves
(12:59):
mostly water and sand from what I understand, in the process,
and then some solvents. So yeah, it's we're in a
whole different position. This is in nineteen seventy whatever. This
is a whole different world of US energy independence that
we're dealing with. And Trump has seen this all along.
If we can keep this where the strait is open.
(13:19):
The only way that Iran stops this is if they
try to make an example out of a ship and
show that you know that they they have to Iran.
Sorry for the terrorist verbiage here, but Iran has to
show they're willing to shoot a hostage. Yes, if they're
not willing to shoot a hostage, then they can't take
the Strait of Hormuz hostage anymore. And that means that
(13:41):
now we're just in a waiting game for the I mean,
their entire economy is going to implode. Now if we
really blockade to clay, because it's all seaborn trade, it's
every you know, not a lot of important trade coming
from Afghanistan, one of their neighbors, to Iran. Like you
start to look at this, not a ton coming over
the border from Iraq either, like they need access to
the ocean.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Here's one thing I will say that makes me nervous
about the energy independence we have.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
What's China's retaliation taking Taiwan and controlling all the semiconductors
which we don't have the ability to produce in the
United States yet. And President Trump has been smart about this.
You toured with Taiwan semiconductor everything else. If Taiwan's semiconductor
(14:29):
chips are taken offline, then we are in a huge
world of hurt, almost at the time that you snap
your fingers. And so that is my concern because China
doesn't have a oil and gas but they may say, hey,
we got computer chips and you guys can't produce them,
and you can't power the ai revolution or much of
(14:50):
your entire economy because you can't produce enough of them.
We have to onshore the production of these chips. Like
we onshore oil and gas, and I think it's actually
a hugely important geopolitical decision. But in the meantime, all
the conversation about Iran Israel hasbol Elebanon very little talk
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dot org.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
If you truly care, pass along this common sense to
family and friends. Clay and Bucking.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Dear wait, welcome back in to Clay and Buck. We've
got a White House briefing going on right now. It's
gott Besten, the Execregar of the Treasury, talking and we
will bring you the highlights of that as they come
to us, because I'm sure there'll be some interesting things
that he has to say about where we're on the
Economy team. Are the Clay you have the most current
(16:47):
lines lit situation. We have time for one call there?
Do we have anybody up? I'm gonna we're running up
against the clock here, but I wanted to get to someone. Yeah,
I think we could. Is Aaron in Colorado? Still there?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Fire Away?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Two things I just wanted to say, can we get
somebody to introduce a constitutional amendment to Cement nine justices
so no party can ever interfere with the judicial branch?
And Two, if we do, can we just throw Janine
Pero out there as a possible candidate for US Supreme
(17:24):
Court justice, just to put a bur in their saddle.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
In reverse order. Janine Pierro is awesome, she's seventy something.
You want the Supreme Court justice to be forties or
fifties at the oldest, because you want it long term.
Second part of that, I think the idea of stacking
the Supreme Court, unfortunately is top of mind for Democrats.
(17:49):
The problem is, I think any constitutional amendment getting passed
is virtually impossible. So I'm afraid that's something that they
may try. We'll talk about it a little bit more
when we come back.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Welcome back in and.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
We will update you a bit on the White House
press conference that is currently going on. Caroline Levitt fielding
questions right now from Peter Deusey of Fox News. We
will give you the latest there. But Buck, it is
tax Day, and I flagged this as I was doing
my research because we hear so much about how often
(18:23):
we are living in a completely unfair tax system. And
so these numbers are a couple of years old, and
I'm sure that they have continued to be to be
addressed and to continue to move so that the so
called rich are paying even more and more. But let's
(18:45):
start here because I do think it's worth mentioning every
single tax.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Day that arises.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Roughly half of all Americans pay no federal income taxes.
So if you are paying tax at all today, where
you have paid tax at all during the past year
federal income tax then you are paying more than half
of Americans are.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And in fact, as we all know, a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Of people get refunds that they didn't ever pay in
the first place, So you're getting paid my dollars, your
dollars going to people that did not actually pay any taxes.
Here's some stats for you. The top one percent pays
forty and this is rough. It's actually increased I since
I think since then pays forty percent.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Of all income taxes.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
The top ten percent pays seventy two percent of all
income taxes, and the top twenty five percent pays eighty
seven percent of all income taxes. So in the United States,
if you are in the seventy five percent of earners
(19:57):
below the top twenty five percent, you only pay thirteen
percent of all federal income tax dollars. Does that seem
like money well spent? And the older I get, the
more frustrated and angry I am about the money that
I pay that gets completely wasted, and the fact that,
(20:19):
like many of you out there, I work two of
the five days every week directly to pay the federal government.
So every time you hear me on Monday and Tuesday
on this radio program, I am not actually making any
money at all. It's going straight to the government. It's
kind of crazy to think about it. And the same
is true for many of you out there now. Buck,
(20:42):
that is never enough.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Though.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So New York City, which I believe we said the
other day, has a bigger government than the state of Florida.
New York State is about twice as big as the
state of Florida's government.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
But I believe New York.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
City by itself has a bigger budget than the entire
state of Florida.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yet it is not enough.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And Kathy Hokeel and Mom Donnie are now saying, Hey,
if you have a second home in New York City
that costs five million dollars or more, they're going to
ratchet up the tax rates on you to a significant degree.
And you know what's going to happen, Buck, Phones are
ringing in Florida, phones are ringing in Texas. Phones are
ringing in Tennessee because you're paying forty percent, and then
(21:30):
you add another thirteen percent, over half of your money
before you even pay property taxes. If you live in
New York City, is going to the city, the state, well,
and the federal government.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
The good news, though Clay is sure the taxes are high.
Sure people are fleeing New York and California and high
tax jurisdictions continuously now. But the good news is that
Mam Donnie is focusing on the really important stuff, like
building a government run grocery store that will cost thirty
million dollars and take three years. Here it is Mamdani
(22:04):
making his case yesterday in Harlem in Manhattan. This is
cut eleven. Let's hear from Kwame Mamdani, the governor of
New York. I'm sorry to Mayor of New York City.
Here he is play on New York City.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
It is time for a grand experiment once again. Just
as LaGuardia us government to respond to the challenges of
the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to
rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city will subsidize a
core set of staples, a private operator will run the store,
but the answer to the standards that the city will set.
(22:40):
These standards include requirements that at our stores, bread will
be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no
longer be an unsolvable equation, and workers will be treated
with dignity.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Okay, so unless he's going to subsidize this directly with
tax dollar, which is just a way just a welfare program,
then right, it's just a version of food stamps, except
you got to go get the food. You don't just
get the money to get the food. This has a
zero percent chance of working the way that is planned.
I think he even maybe at some level, knows that.
(23:17):
And this is why the three year timeline up when
he's up for mayor I might add for reelect three
year timeline is no problem for him because he gets
to keep talking about how great this is going to
be until people realize this is going to be like
a Soviet Union grocery store with really good prices on
bread that isn't even on the shelves.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
How do you think he's really this dumb? Can we
play that cut again? Does he I mean, does he
really think that grocery stores are gouging people, and that
running a grocery store is the greatest business that's ever
existed in the history of mankind. I mean, play that
(24:00):
cut again if we could, because anyone who believes any of.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
This is a complete moron.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Mom, Donnie's not a complete more Like, surely he unders
like and this makes it worse right because he knows
he's lying. Surely he understands what you said earlier in
the program, and all of you know, the profit margin
on groceries is among the lowest profit margins of any
capital of any capital intensive business on the planet.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can This is one of the things I like
about AI, just like I like X, because it shows
more of reality now to people like you see, like
crimes that are happening and how awful they are and
who's committing them. And the media doesn't get to just say, oh,
we have no idea. You can just do really quick
data analysis now you don't have to. It's way better
than Google. At this on groc Clay. It's The Food
(24:50):
Industry Association says that the average profit in twenty twenty
four for a grocery store average one point seven percent
prodeum one point seven percent if someone thinks that's price gouging,
They're an imbecile, They're an ignoramist. They know nothing, but
an ignoramis runs the city of New York right now. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I mean, this is just such basic Rea, So play
this again because and I understand people get frustrated. And
we've talked about this with gas prices too. The gas
stations are not gouging you. They're not making very much
money on gas. Grocery stores is one of the worst,
most difficult businesses that you could possibly get into, because
(25:36):
it is so incredibly difficult to actually make a consistent profit.
But listen to Mom, Donnie, he's gonna I mean, this
is just of all the arguments you could make. I'm
gonna run a grocery store and it's gonna be way
cheaper and you're gonna get a way higher quality product.
Is one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard of
Democrat make. It's right up there with defund the police.
(25:58):
But listen to this again. It's just not true. Buck
just gave you the data.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
New York City. It is time for a grand experiment
once again, just as LaGuardia use government to respond to
the challenges of the Great Depression. We will use government
to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city
will subsidize a core set of staples. A private operator
will run the store, but the answer to the standards
(26:23):
that the city will set. These standards include requirements that
at our stores, bread will be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper,
grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation, and
workers will be treated with dignity.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, so he's saying they're going to subsidize the price
of groceries buck, which means taxpayers are going to give
money to buy groceries, software program other people, which means
everybody has less it's it's less efficiency.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I would actually just prefer that they be honest about
this and like increase the EBT benefits or whatever the
food stamps benefits, so least people we all know exactly
what's going on. But he said only for staples. Now
this brings up some really interesting So he's like milk
and bread, no one is poor, and I mean no
one because of the price of milk and bread. There
(27:17):
are other things where red meat has gotten a lot
higher spine, but milk and bread is not actually where
people are. The budget is finally just too constrained. That's
not what's breaking the soak the proverbial camels back. There
are other things and other budgetary matters that are far
but by the way, that cost of health care, the
cost of housing like those are things if you're in
New York City that are crushing people. The expectation that
(27:38):
people are going to spend forty fifty sixty percent on rent.
And you might say, oh, well, Mam Donnie wants to
help with that too. He's going to make that worse.
You want to deal with that issue, then you have
to deal with all the regulations in New York City
that artificially constrain supply. But they don't believe in supply
and demand in Kami, mam Doniville. They think they can
(27:59):
just wave a magic Marxist wand clay on this issue
of the milk and bread. Also, New York City was
where they ran an experiment some years ago about food deserts,
and the whole premise was I've talked about this in
the show before, so I'll give you a short version,
but it's really interesting and the New York Times was
who did a story on it. It was under the
Obama administration, No surprise federal program. Hey, you know why
(28:23):
they aren't eating enough arugula in low income, high crime areas.
You know why they aren't really digging into the quenwa.
It's because we haven't subsidized it. If we only made
it cheaper, the arugula and the quen wa and the
free range, you know, Duca la range, it would be
(28:45):
flying off the shelves. You know what they found when
they did this project, this pilot project that the so
called food desert by giving people artificially cheap access to radishes,
and by the way, I'm being serious, those were the
kinds of foods that are didn't change buying behavior at all.
You know what people wanted to buy, particularly with food stamps,
soda chips and candy. Yep, soda chips and candy, biggest
(29:10):
items ever. Go to a grocery store in a low
income area. I've been to them because of my time
at the NYPD long story we talked about another time.
It been to many of them, actually, and clay, that's
what they're mostly selling at the front. It's not because
people don't have access to cheap produce, they don't want it.
So they're also going to call up against this issue.
They're gonna make milk and bread really cheap, and you
(29:30):
know what's gonna happen. They're going to run out of
the milk and the bread. Their milk and the bread
is not going to be well stocked. It's not gonna
be what people want, and they're going to find out
that's actually not what people are buying anyway.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Also, of all the places to deliver food too, the
cost to get product into New York City has to
be off the charts. Yeah, so even if you were
going to run a government funded grocery store, I think
it would fail everywhere. Kansas City did this recently and
(30:00):
they had to shut down because they couldn't keep produce
on the shelves and they couldn't keep a product and
nobody wanted it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Getting product to New York City to a grocery store
is going to be virtually impossible. And this is going
to be an unmitigated disaster. Just put a pin in this.
It's going to fail epically.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I doubt whether it will ever even really start to run,
and it's going to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,
which is also they've got to raise more money because
they keep spending and wasting what they get.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Publics is a very well known Florida based grocery chain.
I go to Publics all the time. They then annual
net sales is something like forty million dollars billions public
data million sorry per per store. Oh, forty million in
sales per store. Now this is where you start to see, Okay,
(30:53):
there is a profit motive here, meaning if you if
you sell forty million dollars of groceries at a one
or two percent profit margin, you're making money. And that's
when you've covered everything that's with taxes and everything else.
But you're you're doing fine. And if you do one
hundred of these, now you've really got a big business.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
The point is it's all about scale, Yeah, and what
they're going to do at this grocery store that New
York City is going to run, which I'm telling you
is gonna be the sad give it. Six months after opening,
it'll be the saddest, most pathetic grocery store you've ever seen.
They don't understand the way that scale actually works, so
they think, oh, well, We're gonna sell three million dollars
(31:31):
of groceries just thirty percent cheaper than everybody else in
the city. And it's going to be a disaster and
the whole thing is going to collapse. And I think
Mum Donnie knows it, Clay, but he's doing it anyway
because it's about the story. It's not about the groceries.
It's not about helping people with their costs. It's the
talking point.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
But we want to help all of you have beautiful plants,
beautiful trees, beautiful roses. I look outside while I'm doing
the show every single day. I've got the open blind.
Sometimes they say, oh, your studio's too bright. I like
to be able to look outside. I like to be
able to enjoy the trees that are growing in my yard.
(32:13):
I like to be able to check and see how
the plants are doing. I like to be able to
do all of those things. And right now across the country,
as we come up on mid April, a lot of
you are getting into the spring season. When it comes
to gardening, when it comes to making decisions about trees, plants,
all the different aspects that you may want in your home.
You've got a yard in your condo and your apartments
(32:36):
in your town homes. They can have everything you can
get hooked up right now with Fast Growing Trees at
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new trees and plants. And if you want a brand
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Check out Fast Growingtrees dot Com. You'll be glad that
(32:59):
you did use my name Clay as the promo code
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My name Clay, Clay for twenty percent off. That's Fast
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Speaker 4 (33:16):
Lash learn hang with the guys right there when you
need them most, Clay and fuck just preset them on
the iHeart.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
As we are rolling through the Wednesday edition of the program,
Tax Day edition, and we are going to be joined
by a LEAs Stephonic congresswoman from New York's got a
great book out. At the top of the next hour,
we will dive into some of these New York related
issues that we have been talking about so far. We
got a ton of talkbacks. Let me try to hit
(33:46):
some of these before we finish out the second hour
of the program, and let's go, Oh my goodness, there's
so many.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Uh. John in Orange County, California is teeing off on you. Buck.
I'll go to b Buck.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Drawstring pants?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Maybe if you're eighty five years old?
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Seriously, brother, come on.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Hey, look John, I'm here for you. It's okay, buddy,
let it all out. Try those drawstring pants. Don't worry,
don't tell anybody. Just try those draw string pants before
you before you just go down this dark path of
forswearing the draw string pants. They make them now where
they look just like khakis. This is what I'm trying
to tell you. You'll never know and you'll just be
(34:30):
so comfortable and happy, John, trust me, we got.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
So many funny talkbacks. I'm gonna get to a bunch
of these. Buck in the uh. In the third hour
of the program.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let's do see Jay and tempe Arizona play that one.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
I love the elastic way span with the button, but
draw strings and this casualization, do you guys sound like
a bunch of Fetterman's And I just want to say.
Can you picture Bond rolling into the casino like tying
up his is drawstring pants? No where are talks? You
look good?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Come on guys, Wow, betterman's dude. That was harsh. Feel.
I felt the sting on that one, like a two
by four to the face. A betterman.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I think there's a different sween hoodie and shorts everywhere
you go, and normal pants and normal shirt without needing
to go full tuxedo. But we will talk with the
least Stephonic. We'll get her read on this and more.
When we come back, we'll get to a ton of
your talkbacks as well. We appreciate all of you, and
(35:35):
also we'll update you on the press conference that is
going on right now in the White House featuring Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessett, SB eight head, Kelly Loffler, and Caroline
Leavitt here on Tax Day.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thanks for hanging out with us on playing Book.
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