December 11, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 3 of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show delivers a powerful mix of economic analysis, housing affordability challenges, healthcare reform debates, and a sobering update on the Charlie Kirk assassination case. Buck Sexton hosts solo, emphasizing that the economy remains the number one political issue heading into the midterms.
The hour begins with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt outlining President Donald Trump’s commitment to fixing affordability and reversing the damage caused by Biden-era inflation. Buck underscores the urgency of addressing skyrocketing housing costs—up 50–60% nationwide—and explores potential solutions, including deregulation, faster permitting, and even a national housing emergency declaration. He critiques the Federal Reserve for being “too little, too late” on interest rate cuts, arguing that aggressive monetary policy is essential to restore balance in the housing market.
The conversation pivots to breaking news: the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk appears in court in a closed session. Buck previews an upcoming interview with Erica Kirk, Charlie’s widow and CEO of Turning Point USA, who condemns the disturbing online celebration of her husband’s murder. Buck frames this tragedy as a stark reminder of the cultural and moral decay fueled by extremist ideology, warning that the fight for America is not only political but deeply spiritual.
Next, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin joins the show to discuss economic recovery, healthcare reform, and legislative priorities. Johnson explains that permanent dollar devaluation under Biden has locked in higher prices, making affordability a long-term challenge. He advocates for reducing regulatory barriers to housing construction and warns that Democrats are obstructing progress to sabotage Trump’s success. On healthcare, Johnson identifies the third-party payer system as the root cause of soaring costs, calling for a return to consumer-driven models through Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and free-market competition. He highlights examples like cash-only surgical centers offering procedures at one-tenth the cost of hospitals, illustrating the potential for dramatic savings.
The senator also addresses judicial confirmations, oversight of vaccine injuries, and the need to dismantle Obamacare’s consolidation of healthcare markets. Looking ahead to 2026, Johnson stresses that Republican messaging on economic and healthcare solutions will be critical to maintaining Senate control, especially in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
Buck closes the hour with optimism about Trump’s economic agenda, citing Howard Lutnick’s bullish forecast of 4–6% GDP growth under policies focused on lowering interest rates, cutting energy costs, and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime. Listener talkbacks add a personal touch, with humorous exchanges on Christmas traditions, Broadway’s Hamilton, and firearm preferences, reinforcing the show’s blend of serious analysis and relatable conversation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show. Now play will be touching down here in
Miami soon any minute.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
For having you go one well of landed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But we're gonna keep going on this third hour, just
me solo talking to all of you, and tomorrow the
Dynamic Duo will be back together in action here on
the air and talking about everything that matters. We have
a big focus today on the economy, which I think
is the single most important. This is not like a
out there on a limbed kind of thought. This is
(00:34):
the single most important issue politically in the country right now.
The concerns over prices have gotten to be very, very loud.
You're hearing a lot about this, and I've seen some
of the data. For example, on things like housing, you
can basically afford half the house you could four years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Now half the house, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You've had nationwide something like a fifty sixty percent increase
on average. I believe in in housing prices. This is unsustainable.
This is crazy. So there's a bunch of reasons for that.
Where there's the under the failure to construct enough houses
(01:22):
is a big part of it. But we will get
we will get into some more of this. First up, though,
we have Caroline Levitt who has been talking about the
economy today and I want to this is cut twenty
nine and what the President is doing on this. She
just said this, so let's hear from the White House
Press Secretary play.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
He's focused on digging our country and our economy out
of that hole. Every day things are getting better and
they will continue to. And President Trump understands better than
any politician in this city the pain that the American
consumer has been feeling for years now because of the
last administration's policies. You heard him and the Great Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania this past week campaigning and talking to these
(02:05):
voters saying I was elected to fix this problem, and
I am fixing it. Don't forget who created it, and
that's the Democrats. And I think when you hear the
President talk about affordability, he's saying the Democrats are the
greatest con artists in history because they are now trying
to claim ownership of an issue that they created. And
every data point and every economic metric does, in fact
(02:27):
show that the economy is improving. And so I do
wish more people would report on those facts. I do
wish that more people would remind the American public how
we got here and why. It does not mean this
president is discarding the feelings of the American people. He
gets it better than anyone, which is why his entire
administration has been focused on the issue of the economy
and energy prices since day one.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So that is what we need to be hearing a
lot more of. I think the laser like focus from
this administration on these issues that really matter. I mentioned
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen and what he thinks needs to
happen here. Look, this is a guy who has operated
(03:11):
at the highest levels of finance.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Finance. Finance. I feel like in you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Am I the only one I've heard people say finance,
But then I kind of want to smack them finance, right,
we say finance. So he has been advocating for the
FED to bring down interest rates even faster. I know,
we just had a rate cut. I think the FED
is too little, too late on this, which is a frustration.
The whole notion of the Federal Reserve too well creature
(03:41):
from Jacko Island the book.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We can have a whole talk about this.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I feel like we could get into Ron Paul's greatest
hits on this, like what exactly is the FED doing?
How do we have this thing that operates as a
quasi government entity without actual oversight from the government in
a meaningful way? There are problems here. There are problems here,
And to be clear, I think I think that the
(04:08):
FED has been slow. I think the FED has been
operating in a way that you know, why not bring
those Well, they would say it's because inflation, but inflation
has been pretty steady for a while. That's a big
challenge getting the FED to move quickly enough so that
you don't have this over demand and lack of supply
(04:33):
in the housing market. And then you know, Besentt is
talking about even things like a how's declaring a national
housing emergency?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I mean that there has been real conversation out there
about what can the administration really do, what has what
is possibly on the horizon getting rid of the regulations
and the additional costs that are some of you you
know what, I bet we have some home builders, you know,
people that are either general contractors or do home buildings
(05:08):
from the ground up, who could weigh in on this one.
And I know we have many of you listening talk
about some of this. You know, give us what it's like.
What is it like when you try to build a
house from scratch, specifically in a place like New York
or California? What are the hoops you have to go through.
I'm here in Florida, and I'll tell you even to
(05:28):
do home renovations. Now, this is a Miami thing. This
is not a State of Florida thing. But because of Miami,
which is not a super efficient government, you can wait
months and months for permits. Why should you wait months
for permits to do things that are totally lawful and
you have every right to do to your own property.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So now take that and multiply it out millions of times,
and you see the housing crist isis that has played
out across the country. Right, You see, why is it
that we don't have the supply that we need. Well,
(06:10):
everything is slower, everything is more expensive, and it's artificial.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
It's artificial. These are things.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
These are decisions that governments have made, particularly state governments,
and a huge percentage of the cost comes from this.
So getting rid of these regulations and red flags and
all this stuff that go up would be really helpful
and that's something that I think we can count on
this administration to continue to focus on and do more. Oh,
(06:39):
by the way, I am, we're monitoring this. The alleged
assassin of Charlie Kirk is appearing in court now.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It is a closed session.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
We will have Charlie's widow, Erica Kirk, also the CEO
now of Turning Point USA.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We will have her on the show tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
She wants to talk to all of you about her book,
about Charlie's legacy, but a whole range of things. So
we will be talking to her in well in twenty
four hours or so. But I know there's a lot
of eyes on the transparency that people want to see
when it comes to the way this Charlie Kirk assassin
(07:21):
has tried the government's information about everything surrounding the assassination.
I'm absolutely all in favor of that transparency, and I
hope that any questions that people have will be put
to rest that you know, whether it's like the guy
who at the assassination stood up and tried to obstruct
(07:43):
a lot, Like what was that guy doing? And there
were comments that seemed to be made online from some
people in the alleged assassins in the alleged assassins circle,
indicating that he may have had or that they may
have had rather some advance warning or knowledge of this.
So that's why the transparency in this case is going
(08:03):
to be so important. But he is in court now,
and that's something that we will certainly continue to follow closely.
You know, actually, I'll play this, Erica Kirk has said,
and this was she sat down with CBS News's new
editor in chief, Barry Wise, and she was asked about
(08:24):
these people. Erica was asked about those who are so
morally uh, what's the corrupted? That's not even that's not
a sufficient word. I'm trying to think of a better
word for it. Deformed, so morally deranged.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
That they would celebrate that what happened to him. It
was a.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Horrific and traumatic and and all all of that. Here
is you know, for any normal person you see this
in the this is one of the worst things I
can remember seeing ever. I can remember, because we read
about horrible things, sure, we hear about horrible things in
other countries, and.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
We saw it. We saw what happened. Charlie saw the
video and it was very clear and it was. It
was traumatic.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And here is Charlie's widow, Erica, addressing those people that
I saw, for example, on Blue Sky after the hours
after the assassination, they were glee, they were expressing glee.
And I told you this was this was very disturbing,
(09:42):
very disturbing, and very real. It was out there. I
saw it myself.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I read.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I read what the people were saying on Blue Sky,
the lib social media site where you got to go.
If you're like an MS now watching New York Times
subscribing loon, I saw what they said. Anyway, here's Erica
weighing in on this play nineteen.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
What do you say to people who justified his death?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
You're sick. He's a human being. You think he deserves that.
Tell that to my three year old daughter. Excuse me,
you want to watch and hi res.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
The video of my husband being murdered and laugh and
say he deserves it. There's something very sick in your soul.
And I pray that God saves you.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
I pray because that is what is so wrong. The
Internet in this world has dehumanized us.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I understand certainly her sense of really almost a bewildered outrage.
How could someone be so sick that they would see
this happen to anyone. And Charlie obviously was a phenomenon
and doing so much important work. If I saw that
(11:08):
video and it was someone I had never heard of before,
and I knew that he had a wife and children
at home, and that he was giving a speech at
a college campus, I would have been sick to my
stomach as I was when I saw what happened to Charlie.
I mean it, truly, you know, it gave you that deep,
this truly visceral, gut level revulsion of something demonic unfolding
(11:33):
before your eyes in this world, and that we as
Americans really just as human beings, aren't all absolutely crystal
clear on that. That there are leftists out there still
to this day, I might add, and immediately on that day,
(11:54):
we're mocking this thought it was funny. We're making jokes
about it, and we're celebrating it. We have a fight
against evil in this country alongside the fight for political
sanity and all the rest of it. In fact, those
two things go really hand in hand. We are fighting
against often. Sure, we can talk about tax rates, and
(12:17):
I was just talking to you about building codes and
regulations and stuff that. Sure, that's in the realm of
government and regulation and what's best for society, and we
can have agreed disagree on some of that. There's no
greed disagree on whether or not what happened to Charlie
Kirk was a horrific and monstrous act. There's the truth,
(12:39):
which is that it was those things, and then there's
the spiritual derangement of those who do not see that truth.
And they are not a tiny, tiny group in this
country unfortunately. This is one of the reasons why I
think it is so important that we stay focused on
not just the things that Trump is trying to do
(13:00):
as a matter of policy, but that people who still
stand for things and have principles speak out because the
forces of the dark side, the forces of evil in
this country, are very much on the march. And sure,
things have been good this year in a lot of ways.
Obviously I'm talking about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk,
(13:22):
but you know, there's been a lot of positivity around
Trump and around the restoration of sanity, and we've talked
about that here.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I worry that the right is.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Losing focus right now, and I say the right politically,
but also those who are in the right. I worry
that we're taking our eye off the ball a little
bit here. There's a lot, like I said, a lot
of squabbling, a lot of the preening and personal you know,
tit for tat on stuff. We got a country to save.
(13:57):
We got a country to save, you know. And I
can tell you there are some people in the administration
who come from the media world, and they know that
as long as they're doing good stuff for Trump, the
American people, for the Constitution, we support them irrespective of
whether we were buddies back in the media days, or
whether we were competitors or anything else, because there's some
(14:18):
stuff that matters more than that sort of petty nonsense.
And we'll talk to Erica Kirk more about all this tomorrow.
But I just I had to note that the yes,
the assassin, I have to say, alleged for legal reasons, right,
But the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk is in court
now as I speak to you. All right, because so
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Speaker 7 (15:37):
News and Politics but also a little comic relief Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Nothing gets me in the Christmas mood like some synthesizers
courtesy of my favorite Mannheim steam Other. Baby, that is
how we roll. That's how we steamroll. In fact, that's
what we say. That's how the steam roll Nation gets
it done.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's how we roll. Okay, we are going to get
into some of your calls and talkbacks.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Also, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, we'll be with us next.
He'll be a great guy to talk to you about
the housing issue and also healthcare and to work through
what the problems are, what the solutions are, what Trump
is doing to get on this stuff, because you know,
unfortunately Biden messed it up so badly, we can't fix
(16:32):
it quickly enough. Even though true is not a is
not a powerful message going into the midterms.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It's just not is this not?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This is like when they remember that they tried to
say that the good Trump economy was actually the Obama
economy and never kind of laughed about that. But oh
my gosh, Trump's doing like the Trump economy. At first
they said he was going to crash the economy. This
I'm going back to twenty sixteen, twenty seven or twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, and they said it's gonna be terrible and
then it was really good, and they said, oh, it's
(17:02):
because of Obama.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Right, you know, you're in charge. You're in charge, for
better or worse. You're in charge.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So you take the good, you take the bad. You
got to deal with it. But we'll talk to you
with Senator Ron Johnson about all of this stuff, and
then can we get Brian in Connecticut real quick here? Brian,
go ahead, buck big fan.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
Let me first say that you are a natural and
you are the rightful air of Russia's spot and I
love the show when it's just you. But I wanted
to talk about what's going on in Connecticut with the
Democrat supermajority. They have rammed through a law.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That effectively and.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
Single family standalone homes in Connecticut because they're allowing developers
to circumvent any local zoning control of of their town
and they have to allow apartment.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And so forth.
Speaker 9 (18:06):
And it's clearly to give thedemic past an electoral advantage.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And let me let me return to this because we
we got thank you for the call. I'll address this
in a second here, but I want to tell you
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Speaker 2 (18:18):
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Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's t the number two t dot org. Come back
in here to Clay and Box.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Senator Ron Johnson is with us from the great state
of Wisconsin's Senator.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Appreciate you, sir, well Buck.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Merry Christmas to you.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Let's tell you're a business guy, right, You're not just
a politician, although there's nothing wrong with the politician, but
you're a business guy as well. What is going to
have to happen here for more people to see the
good things that the administration is doing. What things does
the administration have to focus on more? What changes, if any,
have to be made to deal with prices, bring them down,
(19:28):
make housing more affordable. What's going on here.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Well, they actually had to have see results, and in
many cases they are. Now. The problem the present faces
is you have forty your high inflation. Under the Biden administration,
for again, you devalued the dollar. I've been talking about
this since from nineteen ninety eight, that dollar is worth
fifty one cents. From twenty fourteen, it's worth seventy four cents.
(19:53):
Twenty nineteen that dollar is only worth eighty cents. So
that's permanent devaluation. That raised the prices of everything. Now
there are some products, you know, commodity products, things like oil,
the things like eggs that because of the Avian flu
that type of thing, you know, destroy hers and you
have you know, lower supply, so that artificially drives up
(20:14):
or temporarily drives up the price. And some of those
things come down, and they are coming down. But I
think the administration has to be very careful in terms
of promising things that they can't deliver. When of times,
just generalized prices I mean that evaluates the dollars occurring.
Those prices are where they are. But what you can
do you know, for example, housing starts. I mean to
(20:36):
do everything you can in terms of you know, lowering
regular licensing and per me that type of thing. Now,
Democrats don't cooperate with that, so it's hard to pass
a law to do that. President Trump is obviously in
overdrive in terms of executive orders to try and do
right by the American people and improve our economy. But
(20:57):
but here's the here's what he really faces. The shutdown
was not really about health care. That was the excuse
they used. That was the issue they used. The shutdown
is all about making sure that President Trump is not successful.
That's how devious the Democrats are. They want to see
a paint economy that They don't want health care prices
to go down, they don't want any prices go down.
(21:20):
They want President Trump to be blamed for it so
that they can win elections, so they can regain their
power and maintain it. But for Democrats, it's all about power.
I wish their voters. I wish Americans would understand that
about Democrats, that they're not doing it for you. They're
not thinking of you, the American people. They are thinking
of themselves and the power. They want to accumulate and
(21:40):
hold over.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You tell me about this or these dueling healthcare bills.
You had a Senate vote today didn't pass, which wasn't unexpected,
But trying to get the word out about this. What
is the Republican approach to making health care prices stop
being so crazy? What is the Democrat response to this?
(22:02):
And what do people need to know?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
So, the root cause of our healthcare problem is a
healthcare financing problem, and it's caused by the third party
payer system. Patients pay probably at most ten cents of
every dollar bent on healthcare. Otherwise it's the insurance companies
or it's government, either for Medicare, Medicaid VA, whatever. So
(22:27):
when you have somebody else paying for things, when you
removed consumers and the benefits of free market competition out
of out of the marketplace, you're not going to get
low prices, you're not going to get better quality, you're
not going to get a high level customer service. That's
what a free market does. So what we have in
our healthcare system, every incentive you Obamacare led to a
(22:50):
dramatic consolidation of every sector in the healthcare system. Hospitals,
hospital associations, insurance, companies, PBMs, Drug just a massive consolidation.
There's not one incentive to lower costs. Everybody's making a cut.
And the example I use, I mean, if you're a
realtor and you're making the seven cent commission, you'd much
(23:11):
rather have that house sell for a million dollars than
the one hundred thousands. Worse right, so they're selling us
all kinds of products. It could be dramatically lower. Rick
Scott had a marvelous hearing in his Aging committee and
he brought in I think Mark Cuban is one of
the witnesses. But he brought in a surgeon from Oklahoma
(23:32):
who set up a cash only surgical center, which attracted
some other surgeons wanted to be part of this venture.
They had determined what prices worth. In the end, their
prices for surgery surgical procedures are ten percent a tenth
of what hospitals are charging. That is the potential for
(23:53):
our healthcare pricing if we return consumers. But the problem
we have Buck is most Americans now, because the third
party piers has been in place for decades, don't think
they really ought to pay for health care. They got
to buy insurance. They'll complain about the price of that.
They got to pay taxes, complain about that, but once
that's done, they don't care what they don't even nobody
(24:14):
knows what anything costs. Doctors don't, nurses don't, the patient
doesn't know. Only the bean collars and the insurance companies
and government. That's this. So that's a complete breakdown of
a market and of consumerism. If so, if you want
it back. So this is what the Republican alternative was.
It's a small step, you know, funding hsays, that's the
(24:37):
way you start transitioning people into getting used to paying
for things. So when you go to the doctor, you go,
how much is this fifty minute? Is it going to
cost me? What's that procedure going to cost? What's that
tesking to cost you? Do I really need that? Is
there another way to evaluate this? That's what consumers would do.
That's what we do it everything else. We need to
do that in healthcare. So that's the the root cause
(24:57):
is the third party payer system. The solution is consumerism,
pre market competition. But we are one hundred and eight
degrees from that. I mean, we're so far down the
path of socialized medicine. The question is can we bring
it back. Can we dial it back? And here's some hope.
Obamacare is high deductible plans. It's catastrophic coverage, but it
(25:18):
has all these strings attached to so it's catastrophic coverage.
This costs a fortune. You go back to true insurance,
you know, where you're just covering the big things. And
with HSA's have put people and put money in people's
pockets through these accounts where they start paying for those
business they start paying for those procedures. You can see
just a dramatic reduction. The problem will face is the providers.
(25:41):
They're not gonna like it. You know, if you've got
be in business, you'd much rather be in monopoly. You
you don't really want to have to compete price wise,
but be fat and lazy, you know, don't compete price wise,
don't worry about your quality. People just have to come
to you. It's about consumers and they would love a
competitive system.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Going to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Senator what
is top priority for you next year in terms of
what you'd like to see accomplished in the Senate. It's
a midterm year, going to be a lot of focus
on things. How are we doing with getting judges through,
by the way, and Trump appointees, that's an imminent issue.
(26:22):
And going into twenty six, what's top of your agenda?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Well, first of all, because we changed the rules because
Democrats were so obnoxious that, you know, even reluctantly, we
changed the rules of fifty one votes, so we were
just you know, I can't remember how many they were,
something like eighty to ninety nominees that we just confirmed today.
So the denomination process is fixed. So I want to
continue to focus on the factor of mortgage at kids future.
(26:47):
I would love to repair the damage done by biomcare,
transition to a system that works, or start transitioning, you know.
As Chairman of PSI I PERMA Subcomming Investigations, I continued
to be absolutely committed to advocating for the vaccine and
the COVID injection injured. We're laying the groundwork for that.
We've had good hearings, we're trying to we're uncovering and
(27:10):
you probably saw that the doctor Posade leaked memo that
pretty well conclusively proves that the FDA hid the fact
that they had autoses that proved ten deaths. Now that's
just the tip of the surface though. Okay, that's that's
just the tip of the iceberg in terms of people
that were that were killed by the COVID COVID injection.
(27:31):
But again we'll continue to do oversight. The American people
have to understand the brother way. There's a great book
for your audience, Vaccines on Them by Aaron Siri. It's
there are a lot of good books dissolving losions, turtles
all the way down. McCulloch's book Aaron Series book is
sort of the feminal book that brings it all together.
If you want to understand about vaccines, lack of testing,
(27:54):
you know, really how corrupt our pharmaceutic companies and our
federal health in SESI when it comes to vaccines childhood
as well as the COVID dejection. Read Aaron Series book Vaccines.
I'm in.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Any predictions or feelings.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I know it's it's next doors, it's not your state,
but I think we're going to have a big open
Michigan Senate seat right in the next cycle. What are
you hearing because you're close enough to have your ear
to the ground a bit about how things are looking
in the state next to yours. You know, Michigan and
Wisconsin have a friendly rivalry on many, many levels. If
(28:31):
Clay was here, we could talk football, but he's out
right now. But the Senate in general, and perhaps that
Michigan seat, how are you feeling about our chances to
stay in the majority.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, you know, Wisconsin's tough, Michigan's a little you know,
He's even tougher. It really does boil down to how
well's the economy clipping along? Here? How well do Republicans
do in terms of communicating to the American public. This
is what we're trying to accomplish. This is this is
(29:03):
how obstruction this this is what Democrats aren't allowing us
to do. Again, it's enormous task because the mainstream, the
legacy media is the communication wing of the Democrat Party.
So we've got our challenges, but we have a president
doing things that nobody, nobody else would do. That's that's
what you got to love about President Trump. I mean,
you know, I know he rubs a lot of people
(29:24):
the wrong way. I don't agree with them in everything,
but he is a man who loves his country, and
he is a man who is just heally determination to
do what has to be done. To clean up the
enormous messes left by by Biden. But that's also a challenge.
I mean, people expect things fixed overnight that they they're
just not blaming Biden for all the damage and the
(29:47):
Democrats for all the damage they've done with It's our
healthcare system through Obamacare. You know, the crime in streets
because the open borders. It's just it's it's a tough environment. Buck.
I wish you could say, oh, yeah, we got this
one coverage.
Speaker 10 (29:59):
No.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I' you always shoot straight with us, and you're a
guy who has to fight to bring the truth out
in your state. You're in a competitive state, so I
get it. I just wanted one more thing for you, Senator.
This is Howard Lutnik was on this morning on tv
CNBC talking about the Trump economy. I just wanted you
to react to what he had to say about it,
(30:19):
because he's he's sounding very bullish.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Play this is cut thirty guys, play it. I think
you bring affordability.
Speaker 11 (30:25):
You focus on housing and bring the affordability of housing down.
You focus on the farms and bring the price of
groceries down, and you bring down interest rates. You remember,
if you bring down interest rates, and you bring down energy,
you're really grabbing people's pocketbooks and putting more money in them.
You've got taxes coming down, no tax on tips, no
(30:46):
tax on overtime, no tax on our social security, things
like that, these things. And you drive GDP growth, real
GDP growth, not the middling growth that we've gotten used to,
this sort of two percent nonsense. This economy, the thirty
trillion dollar US economy can grow four percent, it can
grow five percent, and I think under President Trump, you're
(31:07):
going to see it grow six percent. And people think, oh,
these things aren't possible. Lower rates, lower energy, You're going
to have that growth. You're going to fix America doing
both sides, raising wages, great jobs coming into this country,
bringing down the cost of energy, bringing down the cost
of interest rates. You're going to have Americans feel good
about the United States.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Of America under Donald Trump. And that's what we're playing for.
Speaker 11 (31:29):
We're playing for fixing both sides of the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
What do you make of it, Senator, Well, if you
had to choose between the president and United States and
an administration that's laying out those kinds of goals that
they're going to focus on, those kind of issues, the
things that actually impact American the American people's lives, versus
the president who's focusing on Hey, let's let all these
(31:54):
criminals in from Venezuela. Let's focus on DEI. Let's make
sure that you know transgenderism, you know, reigns through the country.
I think the choice is pretty obvious. Now are they
going to be able accomplish anything? Listen, you know President Trump,
he sets the sites. Hi, that's a good thing. He's
(32:16):
focusing on the right things. And again, whether it happened
is much as well as Howard Lutnik is predicting. I
sure hope so, but he's they're focusing on the right
things versus what the Democrats focus on, which is just
utterly destructive.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So it's prosperty going to be it's going to be
all about this economy in this next year. So Senator Johnson,
always appreciate you making the time. Merry Christmas, sir, Happy holidays,
Thanks for being here with us.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Merry Christmas to your new listeners. Take care.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It feels like everything moves at two or three times
in normal speed this time of year. So when you
make time for holiday shopping, just get right to Cozy
Earth products Okay, Cozy Earth, this is the best. This
is just stuff you want to have at home. You
want to share this with loved ones. Such incredible products,
so soft, smooth, breathable feel. Their bubble cuddle blanket, that's
a fan favorite. I've got I've actually got one here
(33:08):
at home. My parents have two of them. Now Clay
has one, and he's got family members buying them and
they're not even necessarily giving us credit for telling them
about them. So you need to get yourself a bubble
cuddle blanket and also get some new sheets from Cozy Earth.
And once you get the sheets, the bubble cuttle blanket,
you see those in your in your basket, so to speak,
you're gonna be like, you know what, that that sweatshirt
(33:29):
or that those pajamas. They look really nice.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
And they are.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Cozy Earth has got you covered. Give yourself the gift
of everyday luxury this holiday season. Go to cozyearth dot
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act now. Go to cozyearth dot com code buck.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Want to be in the know when you're on the go.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
The team forty seven podcasts. Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Bug podcast.
Find it on the iHeartRadio, Apple or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Close it up. Shot today on Clay and Buck.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Tomorrow will be Clay and Buck as He'll be back
and we'll be here in my soft flod to studio
doing the show. And I'm gonna have a Chrismas party tonight,
so that'll be fun. Some Christmas holiday cheer going on there.
Let's get to some of your talkbacks. Always appreciate those
podcast listener, Ryan, this is a a hit it.
Speaker 10 (34:29):
Oh Man, Clay and Buck, you guys had me rolling
when you were talking about Christmas. Oh you are my
spirit animals brothers. I appreciate you both. Been listening to
you guys from the beginning. Listened back in the day.
My dad actually turned me on the crush. And I'm
forty six now and I just feel like when I
listen to you guys, I'm hanging out with a couple
(34:49):
of friends.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Buck.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
The fact that you hate Hamilton amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I do too. Love you guys. Keep it up.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hey, thank you so much, Ryan, and we think of
all of you who listen as our our friends and
our our radio families.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So the feeling is mutual.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And I'll just say, yeah, I hate Hamilton. I think
it's terrible. I think it's not I think there's nothing
about it that is good. The music isn't good, the
writing isn't good, the premise isn't good. I don't like
any of it. So that is And during the whole
thing too, I was like, what are people talking about?
This is not This is garbage. This is not It's
like a billion dollar Broadway play. It's total, a total
(35:26):
mass delusion on its own podcast listener, Eric wants to
do a little gun talk here, bb hit.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
It, Hey Buck, this is Eric and Arizona, just letting
you know, with your small hands, the glock nineteen is perfect.
Us guys with the bigger hands, glock seventeen plus two
extra rounds.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Bye. You know, maybe I shoot one handed, buddy. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Maybe I don't need two hands to steady my firearm
because I practiced enough and so the size of the
grip doesn't really make much difference to me.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Just throwing that out there.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
But you know, at least you're not a nineteen eleven guy,
because then I'd have to make sure we got you
a sippy cup and got you to bedterly, because that's
what nineteen elevens are for the older crowd.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Thanks for hanging with us guys.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
As always, we will have a lot more to discuss
tomorrow as always, and also go to Crocketcoffee dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Why aren't you drinking Crockett coff.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
If you're a coffee drinker, you should be drinking Crockett Coffee.
It is the great American coffee brand, and ten percent
of our profits goes to Couple the Powers Foundation.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Go to Crocket Coffee dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
We are gonna have a fabulous Christmas celebration tonight. There
may be some clayanbuckphotos up at clayanbuck dot com tomorrow.
Clay may even may even be drinking some rose. We
will see
It's the third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show. Now play will be touching down here in
Miami soon any minute.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
For having you go one well of landed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But we're gonna keep going on this third hour, just
me solo talking to all of you, and tomorrow the
Dynamic Duo will be back together in action here on
the air and talking about everything that matters. We have
a big focus today on the economy, which I think
is the single most important. This is not like a
out there on a limbed kind of thought. This is
(00:34):
the single most important issue politically in the country right now.
The concerns over prices have gotten to be very, very loud.
You're hearing a lot about this, and I've seen some
of the data. For example, on things like housing, you
can basically afford half the house you could four years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Now half the house, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You've had nationwide something like a fifty sixty percent increase
on average. I believe in in housing prices. This is unsustainable.
This is crazy. So there's a bunch of reasons for that.
Where there's the under the failure to construct enough houses
(01:22):
is a big part of it. But we will get
we will get into some more of this. First up, though,
we have Caroline Levitt who has been talking about the
economy today and I want to this is cut twenty
nine and what the President is doing on this. She
just said this, so let's hear from the White House
Press Secretary play.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
He's focused on digging our country and our economy out
of that hole. Every day things are getting better and
they will continue to. And President Trump understands better than
any politician in this city the pain that the American
consumer has been feeling for years now because of the
last administration's policies. You heard him and the Great Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania this past week campaigning and talking to these
(02:05):
voters saying I was elected to fix this problem, and
I am fixing it. Don't forget who created it, and
that's the Democrats. And I think when you hear the
President talk about affordability, he's saying the Democrats are the
greatest con artists in history because they are now trying
to claim ownership of an issue that they created. And
every data point and every economic metric does, in fact
(02:27):
show that the economy is improving. And so I do
wish more people would report on those facts. I do
wish that more people would remind the American public how
we got here and why. It does not mean this
president is discarding the feelings of the American people. He
gets it better than anyone, which is why his entire
administration has been focused on the issue of the economy
and energy prices since day one.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So that is what we need to be hearing a
lot more of. I think the laser like focus from
this administration on these issues that really matter. I mentioned
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen and what he thinks needs to
happen here. Look, this is a guy who has operated
(03:11):
at the highest levels of finance.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Finance. Finance. I feel like in you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Am I the only one I've heard people say finance,
But then I kind of want to smack them finance, right,
we say finance. So he has been advocating for the
FED to bring down interest rates even faster. I know,
we just had a rate cut. I think the FED
is too little, too late on this, which is a frustration.
The whole notion of the Federal Reserve too well creature
(03:41):
from Jacko Island the book.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We can have a whole talk about this.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I feel like we could get into Ron Paul's greatest
hits on this, like what exactly is the FED doing?
How do we have this thing that operates as a
quasi government entity without actual oversight from the government in
a meaningful way? There are problems here. There are problems here,
And to be clear, I think I think that the
(04:08):
FED has been slow. I think the FED has been
operating in a way that you know, why not bring
those Well, they would say it's because inflation, but inflation
has been pretty steady for a while. That's a big
challenge getting the FED to move quickly enough so that
you don't have this over demand and lack of supply
(04:33):
in the housing market. And then you know, Besentt is
talking about even things like a how's declaring a national
housing emergency?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I mean that there has been real conversation out there
about what can the administration really do, what has what
is possibly on the horizon getting rid of the regulations
and the additional costs that are some of you you
know what, I bet we have some home builders, you know,
people that are either general contractors or do home buildings
(05:08):
from the ground up, who could weigh in on this one.
And I know we have many of you listening talk
about some of this. You know, give us what it's like.
What is it like when you try to build a
house from scratch, specifically in a place like New York
or California? What are the hoops you have to go through.
I'm here in Florida, and I'll tell you even to
(05:28):
do home renovations. Now, this is a Miami thing. This
is not a State of Florida thing. But because of Miami,
which is not a super efficient government, you can wait
months and months for permits. Why should you wait months
for permits to do things that are totally lawful and
you have every right to do to your own property.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So now take that and multiply it out millions of times,
and you see the housing crist isis that has played
out across the country. Right, You see, why is it
that we don't have the supply that we need. Well,
(06:10):
everything is slower, everything is more expensive, and it's artificial.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
It's artificial. These are things.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
These are decisions that governments have made, particularly state governments,
and a huge percentage of the cost comes from this.
So getting rid of these regulations and red flags and
all this stuff that go up would be really helpful
and that's something that I think we can count on
this administration to continue to focus on and do more. Oh,
(06:39):
by the way, I am, we're monitoring this. The alleged
assassin of Charlie Kirk is appearing in court now.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It is a closed session.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
We will have Charlie's widow, Erica Kirk, also the CEO
now of Turning Point USA.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We will have her on the show tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
She wants to talk to all of you about her book,
about Charlie's legacy, but a whole range of things. So
we will be talking to her in well in twenty
four hours or so. But I know there's a lot
of eyes on the transparency that people want to see
when it comes to the way this Charlie Kirk assassin
(07:21):
has tried the government's information about everything surrounding the assassination.
I'm absolutely all in favor of that transparency, and I
hope that any questions that people have will be put
to rest that you know, whether it's like the guy
who at the assassination stood up and tried to obstruct
(07:43):
a lot, Like what was that guy doing? And there
were comments that seemed to be made online from some
people in the alleged assassins in the alleged assassins circle,
indicating that he may have had or that they may
have had rather some advance warning or knowledge of this.
So that's why the transparency in this case is going
(08:03):
to be so important. But he is in court now,
and that's something that we will certainly continue to follow closely.
You know, actually, I'll play this, Erica Kirk has said,
and this was she sat down with CBS News's new
editor in chief, Barry Wise, and she was asked about
(08:24):
these people. Erica was asked about those who are so
morally uh, what's the corrupted? That's not even that's not
a sufficient word. I'm trying to think of a better
word for it. Deformed, so morally deranged.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
That they would celebrate that what happened to him. It
was a.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Horrific and traumatic and and all all of that. Here
is you know, for any normal person you see this
in the this is one of the worst things I
can remember seeing ever. I can remember, because we read
about horrible things, sure, we hear about horrible things in
other countries, and.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
We saw it. We saw what happened. Charlie saw the
video and it was very clear and it was. It
was traumatic.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And here is Charlie's widow, Erica, addressing those people that
I saw, for example, on Blue Sky after the hours
after the assassination, they were glee, they were expressing glee.
And I told you this was this was very disturbing,
(09:42):
very disturbing, and very real. It was out there. I
saw it myself.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I read.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I read what the people were saying on Blue Sky,
the lib social media site where you got to go.
If you're like an MS now watching New York Times
subscribing loon, I saw what they said. Anyway, here's Erica
weighing in on this play nineteen.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
What do you say to people who justified his death?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
You're sick. He's a human being. You think he deserves that.
Tell that to my three year old daughter. Excuse me,
you want to watch and hi res.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
The video of my husband being murdered and laugh and
say he deserves it. There's something very sick in your soul.
And I pray that God saves you.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
I pray because that is what is so wrong. The
Internet in this world has dehumanized us.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I understand certainly her sense of really almost a bewildered outrage.
How could someone be so sick that they would see
this happen to anyone. And Charlie obviously was a phenomenon
and doing so much important work. If I saw that
(11:08):
video and it was someone I had never heard of before,
and I knew that he had a wife and children
at home, and that he was giving a speech at
a college campus, I would have been sick to my
stomach as I was when I saw what happened to Charlie.
I mean it, truly, you know, it gave you that deep,
this truly visceral, gut level revulsion of something demonic unfolding
(11:33):
before your eyes in this world, and that we as
Americans really just as human beings, aren't all absolutely crystal
clear on that. That there are leftists out there still
to this day, I might add, and immediately on that day,
(11:54):
we're mocking this thought it was funny. We're making jokes
about it, and we're celebrating it. We have a fight
against evil in this country alongside the fight for political
sanity and all the rest of it. In fact, those
two things go really hand in hand. We are fighting
against often. Sure, we can talk about tax rates, and
(12:17):
I was just talking to you about building codes and
regulations and stuff that. Sure, that's in the realm of
government and regulation and what's best for society, and we
can have agreed disagree on some of that. There's no
greed disagree on whether or not what happened to Charlie
Kirk was a horrific and monstrous act. There's the truth,
(12:39):
which is that it was those things, and then there's
the spiritual derangement of those who do not see that truth.
And they are not a tiny, tiny group in this
country unfortunately. This is one of the reasons why I
think it is so important that we stay focused on
not just the things that Trump is trying to do
(13:00):
as a matter of policy, but that people who still
stand for things and have principles speak out because the
forces of the dark side, the forces of evil in
this country, are very much on the march. And sure,
things have been good this year in a lot of ways.
Obviously I'm talking about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk,
(13:22):
but you know, there's been a lot of positivity around
Trump and around the restoration of sanity, and we've talked
about that here.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I worry that the right is.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Losing focus right now, and I say the right politically,
but also those who are in the right. I worry
that we're taking our eye off the ball a little
bit here. There's a lot, like I said, a lot
of squabbling, a lot of the preening and personal you know,
tit for tat on stuff. We got a country to save.
(13:57):
We got a country to save, you know. And I
can tell you there are some people in the administration
who come from the media world, and they know that
as long as they're doing good stuff for Trump, the
American people, for the Constitution, we support them irrespective of
whether we were buddies back in the media days, or
whether we were competitors or anything else, because there's some
(14:18):
stuff that matters more than that sort of petty nonsense.
And we'll talk to Erica Kirk more about all this tomorrow.
But I just I had to note that the yes,
the assassin, I have to say, alleged for legal reasons, right,
But the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk is in court
now as I speak to you. All right, because so
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Speaker 7 (15:37):
News and Politics but also a little comic relief Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Nothing gets me in the Christmas mood like some synthesizers
courtesy of my favorite Mannheim steam Other. Baby, that is
how we roll. That's how we steamroll. In fact, that's
what we say. That's how the steam roll Nation gets
it done.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's how we roll. Okay, we are going to get
into some of your calls and talkbacks.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Also, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, we'll be with us next.
He'll be a great guy to talk to you about
the housing issue and also healthcare and to work through
what the problems are, what the solutions are, what Trump
is doing to get on this stuff, because you know,
unfortunately Biden messed it up so badly, we can't fix
(16:32):
it quickly enough. Even though true is not a is
not a powerful message going into the midterms.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It's just not is this not?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This is like when they remember that they tried to
say that the good Trump economy was actually the Obama
economy and never kind of laughed about that. But oh
my gosh, Trump's doing like the Trump economy. At first
they said he was going to crash the economy. This
I'm going back to twenty sixteen, twenty seven or twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, and they said it's gonna be terrible and
then it was really good, and they said, oh, it's
(17:02):
because of Obama.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Right, you know, you're in charge. You're in charge, for
better or worse. You're in charge.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So you take the good, you take the bad. You
got to deal with it. But we'll talk to you
with Senator Ron Johnson about all of this stuff, and
then can we get Brian in Connecticut real quick here? Brian,
go ahead, buck big fan.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
Let me first say that you are a natural and
you are the rightful air of Russia's spot and I
love the show when it's just you. But I wanted
to talk about what's going on in Connecticut with the
Democrat supermajority. They have rammed through a law.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That effectively and.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
Single family standalone homes in Connecticut because they're allowing developers
to circumvent any local zoning control of of their town
and they have to allow apartment.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And so forth.
Speaker 9 (18:06):
And it's clearly to give thedemic past an electoral advantage.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And let me let me return to this because we
we got thank you for the call. I'll address this
in a second here, but I want to tell you
about Tunnel the Towers Foundation.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
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Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's t the number two t dot org. Come back
in here to Clay and Box.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Senator Ron Johnson is with us from the great state
of Wisconsin's Senator.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Appreciate you, sir, well Buck.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Merry Christmas to you.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Let's tell you're a business guy, right, You're not just
a politician, although there's nothing wrong with the politician, but
you're a business guy as well. What is going to
have to happen here for more people to see the
good things that the administration is doing. What things does
the administration have to focus on more? What changes, if any,
have to be made to deal with prices, bring them down,
(19:28):
make housing more affordable. What's going on here.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Well, they actually had to have see results, and in
many cases they are. Now. The problem the present faces
is you have forty your high inflation. Under the Biden administration,
for again, you devalued the dollar. I've been talking about
this since from nineteen ninety eight, that dollar is worth
fifty one cents. From twenty fourteen, it's worth seventy four cents.
(19:53):
Twenty nineteen that dollar is only worth eighty cents. So
that's permanent devaluation. That raised the prices of everything. Now
there are some products, you know, commodity products, things like oil,
the things like eggs that because of the Avian flu
that type of thing, you know, destroy hers and you
have you know, lower supply, so that artificially drives up
(20:14):
or temporarily drives up the price. And some of those
things come down, and they are coming down. But I
think the administration has to be very careful in terms
of promising things that they can't deliver. When of times,
just generalized prices I mean that evaluates the dollars occurring.
Those prices are where they are. But what you can
do you know, for example, housing starts. I mean to
(20:36):
do everything you can in terms of you know, lowering
regular licensing and per me that type of thing. Now,
Democrats don't cooperate with that, so it's hard to pass
a law to do that. President Trump is obviously in
overdrive in terms of executive orders to try and do
right by the American people and improve our economy. But
(20:57):
but here's the here's what he really faces. The shutdown
was not really about health care. That was the excuse
they used. That was the issue they used. The shutdown
is all about making sure that President Trump is not successful.
That's how devious the Democrats are. They want to see
a paint economy that They don't want health care prices
to go down, they don't want any prices go down.
(21:20):
They want President Trump to be blamed for it so
that they can win elections, so they can regain their
power and maintain it. But for Democrats, it's all about power.
I wish their voters. I wish Americans would understand that
about Democrats, that they're not doing it for you. They're
not thinking of you, the American people. They are thinking
of themselves and the power. They want to accumulate and
(21:40):
hold over.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You tell me about this or these dueling healthcare bills.
You had a Senate vote today didn't pass, which wasn't unexpected,
But trying to get the word out about this. What
is the Republican approach to making health care prices stop
being so crazy? What is the Democrat response to this?
(22:02):
And what do people need to know?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
So, the root cause of our healthcare problem is a
healthcare financing problem, and it's caused by the third party
payer system. Patients pay probably at most ten cents of
every dollar bent on healthcare. Otherwise it's the insurance companies
or it's government, either for Medicare, Medicaid VA, whatever. So
(22:27):
when you have somebody else paying for things, when you
removed consumers and the benefits of free market competition out
of out of the marketplace, you're not going to get
low prices, you're not going to get better quality, you're
not going to get a high level customer service. That's
what a free market does. So what we have in
our healthcare system, every incentive you Obamacare led to a
(22:50):
dramatic consolidation of every sector in the healthcare system. Hospitals,
hospital associations, insurance, companies, PBMs, Drug just a massive consolidation.
There's not one incentive to lower costs. Everybody's making a cut.
And the example I use, I mean, if you're a
realtor and you're making the seven cent commission, you'd much
(23:11):
rather have that house sell for a million dollars than
the one hundred thousands. Worse right, so they're selling us
all kinds of products. It could be dramatically lower. Rick
Scott had a marvelous hearing in his Aging committee and
he brought in I think Mark Cuban is one of
the witnesses. But he brought in a surgeon from Oklahoma
(23:32):
who set up a cash only surgical center, which attracted
some other surgeons wanted to be part of this venture.
They had determined what prices worth. In the end, their
prices for surgery surgical procedures are ten percent a tenth
of what hospitals are charging. That is the potential for
(23:53):
our healthcare pricing if we return consumers. But the problem
we have Buck is most Americans now, because the third
party piers has been in place for decades, don't think
they really ought to pay for health care. They got
to buy insurance. They'll complain about the price of that.
They got to pay taxes, complain about that, but once
that's done, they don't care what they don't even nobody
(24:14):
knows what anything costs. Doctors don't, nurses don't, the patient
doesn't know. Only the bean collars and the insurance companies
and government. That's this. So that's a complete breakdown of
a market and of consumerism. If so, if you want
it back. So this is what the Republican alternative was.
It's a small step, you know, funding hsays, that's the
(24:37):
way you start transitioning people into getting used to paying
for things. So when you go to the doctor, you go,
how much is this fifty minute? Is it going to
cost me? What's that procedure going to cost? What's that
tesking to cost you? Do I really need that? Is
there another way to evaluate this? That's what consumers would do.
That's what we do it everything else. We need to
do that in healthcare. So that's the the root cause
(24:57):
is the third party payer system. The solution is consumerism,
pre market competition. But we are one hundred and eight
degrees from that. I mean, we're so far down the
path of socialized medicine. The question is can we bring
it back. Can we dial it back? And here's some hope.
Obamacare is high deductible plans. It's catastrophic coverage, but it
(25:18):
has all these strings attached to so it's catastrophic coverage.
This costs a fortune. You go back to true insurance,
you know, where you're just covering the big things. And
with HSA's have put people and put money in people's
pockets through these accounts where they start paying for those
business they start paying for those procedures. You can see
just a dramatic reduction. The problem will face is the providers.
(25:41):
They're not gonna like it. You know, if you've got
be in business, you'd much rather be in monopoly. You
you don't really want to have to compete price wise,
but be fat and lazy, you know, don't compete price wise,
don't worry about your quality. People just have to come
to you. It's about consumers and they would love a
competitive system.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Going to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Senator what
is top priority for you next year in terms of
what you'd like to see accomplished in the Senate. It's
a midterm year, going to be a lot of focus
on things. How are we doing with getting judges through,
by the way, and Trump appointees, that's an imminent issue.
(26:22):
And going into twenty six, what's top of your agenda?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Well, first of all, because we changed the rules because
Democrats were so obnoxious that, you know, even reluctantly, we
changed the rules of fifty one votes, so we were
just you know, I can't remember how many they were,
something like eighty to ninety nominees that we just confirmed today.
So the denomination process is fixed. So I want to
continue to focus on the factor of mortgage at kids future.
(26:47):
I would love to repair the damage done by biomcare,
transition to a system that works, or start transitioning, you know.
As Chairman of PSI I PERMA Subcomming Investigations, I continued
to be absolutely committed to advocating for the vaccine and
the COVID injection injured. We're laying the groundwork for that.
We've had good hearings, we're trying to we're uncovering and
(27:10):
you probably saw that the doctor Posade leaked memo that
pretty well conclusively proves that the FDA hid the fact
that they had autoses that proved ten deaths. Now that's
just the tip of the surface though. Okay, that's that's
just the tip of the iceberg in terms of people
that were that were killed by the COVID COVID injection.
(27:31):
But again we'll continue to do oversight. The American people
have to understand the brother way. There's a great book
for your audience, Vaccines on Them by Aaron Siri. It's
there are a lot of good books dissolving losions, turtles
all the way down. McCulloch's book Aaron Series book is
sort of the feminal book that brings it all together.
If you want to understand about vaccines, lack of testing,
(27:54):
you know, really how corrupt our pharmaceutic companies and our
federal health in SESI when it comes to vaccines childhood
as well as the COVID dejection. Read Aaron Series book Vaccines.
I'm in.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Any predictions or feelings.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I know it's it's next doors, it's not your state,
but I think we're going to have a big open
Michigan Senate seat right in the next cycle. What are
you hearing because you're close enough to have your ear
to the ground a bit about how things are looking
in the state next to yours. You know, Michigan and
Wisconsin have a friendly rivalry on many, many levels. If
(28:31):
Clay was here, we could talk football, but he's out
right now. But the Senate in general, and perhaps that
Michigan seat, how are you feeling about our chances to
stay in the majority.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, you know, Wisconsin's tough, Michigan's a little you know,
He's even tougher. It really does boil down to how
well's the economy clipping along? Here? How well do Republicans
do in terms of communicating to the American public. This
is what we're trying to accomplish. This is this is
(29:03):
how obstruction this this is what Democrats aren't allowing us
to do. Again, it's enormous task because the mainstream, the
legacy media is the communication wing of the Democrat Party.
So we've got our challenges, but we have a president
doing things that nobody, nobody else would do. That's that's
what you got to love about President Trump. I mean,
you know, I know he rubs a lot of people
(29:24):
the wrong way. I don't agree with them in everything,
but he is a man who loves his country, and
he is a man who is just heally determination to
do what has to be done. To clean up the
enormous messes left by by Biden. But that's also a challenge.
I mean, people expect things fixed overnight that they they're
just not blaming Biden for all the damage and the
(29:47):
Democrats for all the damage they've done with It's our
healthcare system through Obamacare. You know, the crime in streets
because the open borders. It's just it's it's a tough environment. Buck.
I wish you could say, oh, yeah, we got this
one coverage.
Speaker 10 (29:59):
No.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I' you always shoot straight with us, and you're a
guy who has to fight to bring the truth out
in your state. You're in a competitive state, so I
get it. I just wanted one more thing for you, Senator.
This is Howard Lutnik was on this morning on tv
CNBC talking about the Trump economy. I just wanted you
to react to what he had to say about it,
(30:19):
because he's he's sounding very bullish.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Play this is cut thirty guys, play it. I think
you bring affordability.
Speaker 11 (30:25):
You focus on housing and bring the affordability of housing down.
You focus on the farms and bring the price of
groceries down, and you bring down interest rates. You remember,
if you bring down interest rates, and you bring down energy,
you're really grabbing people's pocketbooks and putting more money in them.
You've got taxes coming down, no tax on tips, no
(30:46):
tax on overtime, no tax on our social security, things
like that, these things. And you drive GDP growth, real
GDP growth, not the middling growth that we've gotten used to,
this sort of two percent nonsense. This economy, the thirty
trillion dollar US economy can grow four percent, it can
grow five percent, and I think under President Trump, you're
(31:07):
going to see it grow six percent. And people think, oh,
these things aren't possible. Lower rates, lower energy, You're going
to have that growth. You're going to fix America doing
both sides, raising wages, great jobs coming into this country,
bringing down the cost of energy, bringing down the cost
of interest rates. You're going to have Americans feel good
about the United States.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Of America under Donald Trump. And that's what we're playing for.
Speaker 11 (31:29):
We're playing for fixing both sides of the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
What do you make of it, Senator, Well, if you
had to choose between the president and United States and
an administration that's laying out those kinds of goals that
they're going to focus on, those kind of issues, the
things that actually impact American the American people's lives, versus
the president who's focusing on Hey, let's let all these
(31:54):
criminals in from Venezuela. Let's focus on DEI. Let's make
sure that you know transgenderism, you know, reigns through the country.
I think the choice is pretty obvious. Now are they
going to be able accomplish anything? Listen, you know President Trump,
he sets the sites. Hi, that's a good thing. He's
(32:16):
focusing on the right things. And again, whether it happened
is much as well as Howard Lutnik is predicting. I
sure hope so, but he's they're focusing on the right
things versus what the Democrats focus on, which is just
utterly destructive.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So it's prosperty going to be it's going to be
all about this economy in this next year. So Senator Johnson,
always appreciate you making the time. Merry Christmas, sir, Happy holidays,
Thanks for being here with us.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Merry Christmas to your new listeners. Take care.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It feels like everything moves at two or three times
in normal speed this time of year. So when you
make time for holiday shopping, just get right to Cozy
Earth products Okay, Cozy Earth, this is the best. This
is just stuff you want to have at home. You
want to share this with loved ones. Such incredible products,
so soft, smooth, breathable feel. Their bubble cuddle blanket, that's
a fan favorite. I've got I've actually got one here
(33:08):
at home. My parents have two of them. Now Clay
has one, and he's got family members buying them and
they're not even necessarily giving us credit for telling them
about them. So you need to get yourself a bubble
cuddle blanket and also get some new sheets from Cozy Earth.
And once you get the sheets, the bubble cuttle blanket,
you see those in your in your basket, so to speak,
you're gonna be like, you know what, that that sweatshirt
(33:29):
or that those pajamas. They look really nice.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
And they are.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Cozy Earth has got you covered. Give yourself the gift
of everyday luxury this holiday season. Go to cozyearth dot
com use my code buck for forty percent off. Make
sure to order by tomorrow for guaranteed Christmas delivery. So
act now. Go to cozyearth dot com code buck.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Want to be in the know when you're on the go.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
The team forty seven podcasts. Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Bug podcast.
Find it on the iHeartRadio, Apple or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Close it up. Shot today on Clay and Buck.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Tomorrow will be Clay and Buck as He'll be back
and we'll be here in my soft flod to studio
doing the show. And I'm gonna have a Chrismas party tonight,
so that'll be fun. Some Christmas holiday cheer going on there.
Let's get to some of your talkbacks. Always appreciate those
podcast listener, Ryan, this is a a hit it.
Speaker 10 (34:29):
Oh Man, Clay and Buck, you guys had me rolling
when you were talking about Christmas. Oh you are my
spirit animals brothers. I appreciate you both. Been listening to
you guys from the beginning. Listened back in the day.
My dad actually turned me on the crush. And I'm
forty six now and I just feel like when I
listen to you guys, I'm hanging out with a couple
(34:49):
of friends.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Buck.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
The fact that you hate Hamilton amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I do too. Love you guys. Keep it up.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hey, thank you so much, Ryan, and we think of
all of you who listen as our our friends and
our our radio families.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So the feeling is mutual.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And I'll just say, yeah, I hate Hamilton. I think
it's terrible. I think it's not I think there's nothing
about it that is good. The music isn't good, the
writing isn't good, the premise isn't good. I don't like
any of it. So that is And during the whole
thing too, I was like, what are people talking about?
This is not This is garbage. This is not It's
like a billion dollar Broadway play. It's total, a total
(35:26):
mass delusion on its own podcast listener, Eric wants to
do a little gun talk here, bb hit.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
It, Hey Buck, this is Eric and Arizona, just letting
you know, with your small hands, the glock nineteen is perfect.
Us guys with the bigger hands, glock seventeen plus two
extra rounds.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Bye. You know, maybe I shoot one handed, buddy. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Maybe I don't need two hands to steady my firearm
because I practiced enough and so the size of the
grip doesn't really make much difference to me.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Just throwing that out there.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
But you know, at least you're not a nineteen eleven guy,
because then I'd have to make sure we got you
a sippy cup and got you to bedterly, because that's
what nineteen elevens are for the older crowd.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Thanks for hanging with us guys.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
As always, we will have a lot more to discuss
tomorrow as always, and also go to Crocketcoffee dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Why aren't you drinking Crockett coff.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
If you're a coffee drinker, you should be drinking Crockett Coffee.
It is the great American coffee brand, and ten percent
of our profits goes to Couple the Powers Foundation.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Go to Crocket Coffee dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
We are gonna have a fabulous Christmas celebration tonight. There
may be some clayanbuckphotos up at clayanbuck dot com tomorrow.
Clay may even may even be drinking some rose. We
will see
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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