March 8, 2024 • 49 mins
On this episode of The Middle, we're asking you: What's your State of the Union? Jeremy is joined by USA Today Chief Political Correspondent Phillip Bailey and longtime public media host, journalist and author Ray Suarez. The Middle's house DJ Tolliver joins as well, plus callers from around the country. #immigration #economy #Gaza #abortion #election #Trump #Biden
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to a special edition of The Middle. I'm Jeremy
Hobson along here with Tolliver. Hey, Tolliver, Hey, how you
doing doing well? And you know, as we go to
air live, it is even later than usual, So I'm
hoping that any callers that decide to call in tonight
haven't had too much to drink as they listen to
the President of the United States.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I've actually been drinking black coffee all night, so I'm
like ready to rock all right.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know, the hard part about drinking coffee late at night,
as I know doing a show in the evening, is
that it's hard to sleep. So well, hopefully I'm giving
you good vibes for that. But we are not going
to parse the president's words this hour. We're going to
leave that to others because the goal of the Middle
is to elevate your voices. So we are asking this hour,
what is your state of the union. Do you feel
like the country is on the right track? Our number
(00:48):
is eight four four four six four three three five three.
That is eight four four four Middle. And by the way,
you don't have to give a one hour address when
you call in with your state of the Union. But
before we get the fodes. Let's meet our wonderful panel
this hour. Joining us from Louisville, Kentucky. Philip Bailey, USA
Today Chief political correspondent, Phlip. Great to have you on
the Middle.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Again, Jeremy, as always, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And Race Suarez is also with US veteran public media,
a journalist, historian, and author. His forthcoming book is called
We Are Home. It's an oral history of immigration in
the twenty first century. You also hosts the weekly radio
show and podcast on Shifting Ground, Race Suarez, it's great
to have you on the middle as well.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Great to be with you, Jeremy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And before we get to the funds, I wanted to
talk to each of you about a couple of big
issues that I'm sure we're going to hear about tonight, Philip.
For many people, when they think about their personal state
of the Union, it has to do maybe with their
bank account, with employment, with the economy in general. We
know that economic conditions are historically pretty good. The unemployment
rate has actually been below four percent for about two years.
(01:53):
Inflation has come down a lot from its peak. How
central is the economy do you think too, How people
view the state of the country right now.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Well, Jeremy, look when I'm out on the campaign trail
following the presidential race, whether it's talking to folks in
North Carolina, out in Georgia, my home state of Kentucky.
The one thing I think that Trump supporters often say
to me is that, look, when President Trump was in office,
whether you like his personality or not, I had more
money in my pocket. I was doing better. And they
(02:24):
are even Biden voters who acknowledge that. At the macro level,
You're right, the American economy is doing well. The stock
market is up, unemployment is down. We avoided a recession,
remember when that was always on the top of people's minds,
or we can face.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
On a recession or not.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And at the same time, though, at the micro level,
the way people feel about the economy, particularly who's doing
better now at this point, I have seen reports that
lower income Americans are certainly seeing a bounce back from inflation,
but certainly I think there's a lot of emotion behind this,
more so just in facts and figures. A lot of
Americans are feeling that the economy is not where it
(03:01):
once was, particularly pre pandemic.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And how much do you think by the way that
that is how they are actually interacting with the economy
themselves versus the media coverage of the economy, and that
you know, inflation is in the news all the time,
where people are talking about bad things about the economy.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
I think it's real and has nothing to do with
the media. In fact, I think that what we saw
post pandemic was that look, it's not just inflation, rent.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Prices or sky high.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You have stories about gen Xer's professional people who are
moving back in with their parents. I've seen I think
you saw during the Super Bowl some of those commercials
about previous generations.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
You graduated from school, you bought a house, right, your.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Grandparents' generation did that, Your parents generation did that before
gen Xer's older millennials and particularly gen Z voters. There
is the sense of the American dream, whatever that is
historically for people, is beginning to slip away. So I
don't think it's the media the media's fault and covering
the issue. I think that there are Americans who do
feel like look compared to my previous generations, my parents,
my grandparents, I don't have the same foothold that they do.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Economically, race wars, how important do you think the economy
is for voters right now compared with all the other
elections that you've covered in your career.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Well, very important, And the thing is feeling good or
feeling better is always a lagging indicator, because the memory
of what four point fifty gas and five dollars gas
was like is very present. The fact that it's not
four fifty now it takes a while to go away,
and I think that's what Joe Biden is up against.
(04:33):
But when it is a lagging indicator, it doesn't lag forever,
and by later this year, more Americans may be feeling
what those macro numbers are telling us right now.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Interestingly, though, a lot of people don't seem to remember
what things were like at the peak of the pandemic,
when unemployment was in the double digits, when you know,
it was just a terrible economic situation at that moment.
I think we all kind of want to forget.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Hungresswoman least Phonic got up in front of a watery
ence the other day and said, are you better off
now than you were four years ago? And just that
same day, popping up in my hey, remember a year
ago social media thing was a picture I took of
empty shelves.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
At my local target.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
There were thousands of people a day dying from COVID
during much of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Did we forget?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I don't know if running against four years ago is
really the play for those guys.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Let's get to the phones and hear from some Americans
who are listening and who've got their ideas. Alan is
calling from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. Alan, welcome
to the middle. Go ahead. What's your state of the union.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Thank you for taking my call. The state of union
in small business America with my own is utter depression.
We have Jerome Powell with the target of inflation of
two percent. Miss actually Gate, uh, Wall Street go ahead.
(06:12):
Wall Street Journal just supported the Wall Journal that real
inflation was as high as eighteen percent in twenty twenty
two and is now at nine percent. When number spoke
your panel and other people, I don't know that you
realize that the people realize that the numbers you're using
(06:36):
are wrong. When you go to buy a sleeve of
chicken today in the store that used to feed four
people to the same amount of money in your own
it doesn't matter what the CPI number is.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You're feeling. You're feeling it. You're saying, Philip Bailey, Uh,
just exactly what you were saying. Alan is feeling the
pain in the economy right now, right.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And I think this is the piece of the economy
story and the economy narrative that Trump and Biden are
going to be having to dive into.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Here.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
It's going to be the most potent for folks, right.
It's all where we enter the economy. Sure, inflation has
gone down at the macro level, and we can talk
about those numbers and figures and statistics, But if you're
a small business owner and the costs of certain products
have not gone down, right, If you're a low wage
person you haven't gotten a raise in the past five
or six years. If you're a middle class person and
(07:33):
you haven't gotten a raise an x amount of years
those price increases, maybe you put away money certain places,
Maybe you don't go out certain times or do certain
things you used to before. There's an emotional part here
that I think the President and Democrats are going to
have to lean into. As much as they talk about statistics,
but when you talk about the information and you don't
talk about the emotion, that's very triggering I think to
(07:55):
a lot of people who've gone through a lot of
personal turmoil, and not just economically, not just with rick costs.
But again, as Ray mentioned, the pandemic had an emotional
toy on people as well. It took an emotional toll
out of us, the loneliness that President Biden spoke to
in the State of the Union, So there was an
emotional piece to this where people feel they didn't just
lose economically, they've lost, you know, a lot of social connections.
(08:17):
A million people died, we faced one hundred year pandemic.
So I think your caller is expressing what I hear
oftentimes when talking to voters in the real world, in
real America, which is that there's an emotional piece to
this that neither party is really speaking to, but that
maybe President Trump tries to explain I think more so
than people give him credit for.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know, race war is speaking of emotion. One of
the issues that has brought out the most emotion in
the last several months has been the situation in the
Middle East, in Israel, in Gaza, and I wonder in
your experience, do you think that an issue like that
as emotional as it is for people on many sides
in the United States that that is going to be
(08:54):
something that people think about when they go into the
voting booth eight months from now November.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It depends on what's happening in October and November. If
election Day was tomorrow, I think it would be still
a pretty salient issue, and the President trying to thread
the needle tonight, both speaking to the concerns of people
who are worried about the number of civilians dying in
Gaza and people who worry about the safety of Israel.
(09:21):
But boy, by November, the situation may not be in
the same place.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It must be also a very big challenge for a president,
any president to when they give their State of the
Union address. They're thinking about how things will be viewed
all around the world and the countries that they're talking about,
and also how it's going to be viewed politically at home,
and the decisions that they're making, whether they're good for
the policy that they may believe in versus the politics
(09:48):
at home.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Ray well, you know, the TV cameras cut away to
Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln while Joe Biden was talking
about those issues. Has been doing very active shuttle diplomacy
trying to back channel the Israelis into changing their approach
while not leaning on them as heavily publicly. But I
(10:14):
think that's changed in the last week. Vice President Harris
and now the President himself during the State of the
Union address, leaned on the Israelis a lot more heavily
to change tactics in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And Jimi hit't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I think that that's a piece right there we have
to speak to, which is that that's all should be
credited to those gen Z activists and others involved in
the Gaza ceasefire movement.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Remember, it wasn't too.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Long a period ago where the State Department others were
saying even using the term peace was kind of something
that the United States the administration wanted to back off of.
We saw before President Biden arrived at the Capitol boards
of young people blocking the streets.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So again, I think that I agree with Ray that
we don't know what this issue will look like eight
months from now, but I know for a lot of
young people, this is their Vietnam War, right. For a
lot of younger Americans who are plugged into different social media,
different media outlets, not necessarily reading just mainstream US outlets,
but looking and getting their news from international outlets.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
They're seeing this in a whole different way.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I want to let our listeners know in case they're
just tuning in, you can reach us at eight four
four four Middle that's eight four four four six four
three three five three, or you can write to us.
What's your state of Union? We're at listen Toothemiddle dot com. Tolliver,
we heard President Biden's have plenty of his administration's achievements
during his speech. But then again, it's not exactly uncommon
(11:36):
for a president to give the nation a glowing review
during the State of the Union address.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Absolutely, unless you go back to nineteen seventy five when
President Gerald Ford gave a very blunt assessment of how
things are going.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I must say to you.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
That the state of the Union is not good.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Millions of Americans are out of work, recession and inflation
are eroding the money of millions more. Prices are too high,
and sales are too slow.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, you heard the word inflation there, Tolliver. Back in
nineteen seventy five, the inflation rate was nine percent around
that and right now by comparison. Even though some people
might think it's nine percent, it's actually around three percent
at this point. Yeah, exactly. By the way, make sure
that you are contributing with if you've got any money
left over after the three percent inflation to the middle
at Listen toothemiddle dot com in any amount. We really
(12:28):
appreciate its tax deductible, and we'll be right back with
more of the middle. This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
If you're just tuning, in the Middle is a national
call in show. We're focused on elevating voices from the
middle geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you just want to
meet in the middle. This hour, we're asking what is
(12:49):
your state of the Union? Are things getting better or
worse for you? Or staying the same? Tolliver? How can
people reach us?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You can call us at eight four four four Middle.
That's eight four four four six four three. You can
also write to us at Listen to the Middle dot
com or on social media.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I'm joined by Philip Bailey, chief political correspondent for USA Today,
and Ray Suarez, longtime public media journalist and author who
now hosts on Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez. Before we
get back to the phones, Philip, we did hear in
the speech about immigration from the President and from the
Republican response. The polling shows it is a top concern
(13:25):
for voters. Why do you think that is especially for
voters who are not near the border and aren't in
cities like Chicago and Denver where migrants are being bussed.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Well, I think, first and foremost President Donald Trump and
I was at his get out to Vote rally in Greensboro,
North Carolina over the weekend. President Trump is certainly hitting
the buttons and hitting a nerve. He describes immigration as
this invasion. Right, this has been going on on a
political right for some time now. I think the migrant issue,
in how it affected blue cities, liberal cities where you
(13:58):
had Republican governors sending those folks into those cities, that
really present a wedge issue for Democrats. But again, I
think the immigration is always going to be something that
our country is going to have to grapple with. Right,
we are melting pot. We are a diverse, multiracial, multi
ethnic democracy. And for the first time, Jeremy, I think
you and I talked about this before that twenty twenty
census shows for the first time the white population in
(14:19):
this country is declining. So whatever the founders may have envisioned,
I don't know if they envisioned this sort of country.
We are becoming that multi racial democracy, not five years
from now, ten, fifteen, you know, fifty years from now.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's here.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
States like Georgia are majority minority now city. You know,
states like North Carolina are becoming no longer the Jesse
Hilm's Southern Fried politics.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
They're becoming more diverse.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Right, So the browning of America is here, and I
think that's something that's very alarming to a certain segment
of the population and those who are very supportive of
President Trump.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So race wars, Why do you think it's so difficult
given that this is such a top issue for so
many people in this country, including immigrants, that nothing has
been able to get done comprehensively since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Well, the gears in our politics are totally seized up.
Nothing of any consequence can move through the Congress right now.
But the discourse over this issue is astonishing and bizarre
to me. The Republicans have been on full blast assault
for the last year and a half without a moment's
led up, and the Democratic response to that, I don't
(15:29):
even know what it is. It's not that I don't
know how to describe it. I don't even know what
it is. When Republicans portray the border as out of
control and the country being swamped by millions of new arrivals,
what is the Democratic response, No, it's not. There's a
system at the border. Those people are not sneaking across
(15:49):
in the main They're coming across the border and basically
saying here I am to men in uniform and women
in uniform, getting their names taken down, getting their documents scanned,
getting hearing dates. You would never know any of this
from the way we're talking about immigration right now. You
would never have any idea what's really going on in
(16:10):
the border. So the way we're talking about it right
now is very affecting to people in Ohio and the
Dakotas and Washington State because they are fifteen hundred miles
away from the southern border and only believe what they
hear from people they believe. I think the Democratic response
(16:30):
to the Republican assault on the way the Biden administration
is handling immigration. It's not just inadequate, it's missing in action.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Let's go to Kate, who is calling from New Jersey. Kate,
welcome to the middle Go ahead, what's your state of
the Union.
Speaker 9 (16:49):
Thank you. I'm a seventy eight year old widow of
a World War Two hero. I feel I'm one of
the forgotten Americans today. During COVID, mister Biden told tenants
they did not have to pay their rent, and for
two years, the tenant of the single unit that I
rent out, which is my only support with my Social
Security and a small army pension, during that two year period,
(17:12):
I was not paid any rent or any utilities by
a tenant. All I had to do, the Biden government said,
was apply for a program which would reimburse me. I
applied to eleven of these programs. None of them worked.
One paid less than half of the fifty six, six
hundred and thirty dollars that I'm owed for that two
(17:35):
year period. Ever since then, for the last two or
three years, I've been writing to mister Biden, to Jill Briden,
to mister Schumer, to every Senator and congress person. There
is straight up and down from federal level down to
my local people. I worked in the Senate, by the way,
in the seventies for Sam Irvin on up to the
(17:57):
Watergate hearings, although our Subcommittee on Separation of Powers of
the Committee on the Judiciary was not involved. So I
know how the government works. But this was a screw
up of the worst kind. And like many Americans now,
we're being told everything is getting better. I know mister
Biden's trying, but we're not getting We're not being feel.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Things are not getting better. Things are not getting better
for you, and you're not being treated right. Just quickly, Kate,
are you planning to vote for Donald Trump in the
fall as a result of this?
Speaker 10 (18:26):
Good God?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
No, okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Philip, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Are your thoughts that right there, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Is the emotional piece of this is that, Okay, maybe
things statistically are getting better for some people now, but
at the time, what did I go through the Biden
administration program that was supposed to offset that rit crisis
for not just.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Tenants but also landlords.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
A lot of that just got stuck with state governments
and local governments and never got to the people.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Who actually needed it.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But that comment she made just there, This is what
we're facing. We have two gentlemen, both born before the
United Nations was even formed, who are have their own
issues with unpopularity in their own bases. And when you
ask them, well, you're going to vote for Donald Trump, well,
absolutely not right. And I think we are going to
see a race to the bottom in a lot of
ways in this contest this year. This is the remassage
(19:15):
nobody wanted between two gentlemen who have a lot of
problems with their own respective party bases. And I think again,
not just the policy solution, not just the policy prescription,
but what is the emotional What is the emotional reparation
people who lost their businesses, who haven't been paid in
two three years as a result of not just COVID
but the economic crisis they followed it.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well and Ray as far as let me ask you
about that. The idea that these two people that are
now going to be the candidates for the major parties
running for president are people that we've seen in polls
most people don't want as their candidates. That must weigh
on how people view the state of the country right
now as well.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Oh sure, and I think some of these perceptions will Sharpen.
As we approach November, and you may have a lot
of people sitting it out, and how the two parties
manage that and respond to that and try to make
an counter argument to that, We'll be fascinating to see
because it's not just I'm for this person and I'm
(20:16):
against this person. A lot of people are going to
be alienated from the process altogether.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Let's go to Roberto, who's calling from Houston, Texas. Roberto,
welcome to the middle.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
Go ahead, thank you. I'm seventy five retired teacher. I'm
very proud of the gen Z for bringing up for
having as an issue the Israeli Palestinian situation. I call
it Genna sag and as such, I think the reparation
(20:47):
should be brought up, and it should be we should
persist in that. Unfortunately, United States since War One has
been the mall leader or why, and we're losing that
leadership because of this issue. In particular.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You're one of you, Yeah, ROBERTA, let me ask you this.
So you're saying we're losing the moral issue, but you're
also very proud of gen Z the future of the
United States. So how do you feel when you put
those two things together about the state of the Union.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
Well, unfortunately gen z have no power other than demonstrating
the streets and of course without committing violence. But their powerless.
And I'm not sure how many there are as far
as when it comes to voting, because I also know
(21:42):
that both Trump and Biden. See Biden came too late,
I think, to have this moral leadership role. Yeah, he
was very impressions tonight. Don't get me wrong. It took
him five months. Five months.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Sorry, but let me let me stop you there, because
I want to go to ra As far as on that,
I'm sure we're going to hear about that. We've been
hearing about this on other shows as well. The issue
of Israel Gaza, it is certainly top of mind for
a lot of people, and how the US and how
the Biden administration responds to it.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
You know, this is one of the United States' oldest alliances.
The United States was one of the first nations on
the planet to recognize the existence of the State of
Israel when it was proclaimed in nineteen forty eight. Through
the Wars nineteen forty eight, nineteen fifty seven, nineteen fifty six,
nineteen sixty seven, nineteen seventy four, the United States was
(22:35):
stalwart in backing Israel. So it only follows that a Democrat,
especially is not going to call out this country in
a publicly humiliating way, even though there's bad blood and
a bad history between Benjamin Nataniehu and Joe Biden. So
you get behind the scenes pressure, but that's not enough
(22:56):
for Americans who were watching and saying, why are we
making Israel stop? And so Joe Biden, the inheritor not
of one year or two years, but seventy years of
American policy now is kind of stuck with it. And
we're seeing only now that tens of thousands of civilians
(23:17):
have died, that the United States is starting to show
its teeth on this issue again.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Our number is eight four middle, that is eight four
four four six four three three five three. We're taking
your calls asking you what is your state of the Union,
And let's go to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and Mike is joining us. Mike,
what's your state of the Union?
Speaker 12 (23:39):
Thanks Jeremy. Yeah, I feel hopefully optimistic, although I know
that there's things that I can't control, with the price
of food, the price of gas, insurance rates rates, take
out a mortgage, a loan, credit card rates. I don't
know if Biden was able to get at those fees
(24:01):
on those credit cards for over overdrafts and late sees fixed,
but they have made hundreds of billions. I'm sure these
collective companies in his state of Delaware that you mentioned
a lot. You know, I feel like thirty years ago
he might have had a shot here. And it's it's tough.
(24:22):
I mean, politics was much different, but.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
You're saying that you're having still a very difficult time
just affording things, making ends meet because of the higher prices.
Speaker 12 (24:34):
Construction services, price of gas or hitting me just today.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, does it feel like it's getting any better? As
you see the numbers of the overall numbers of inflation
come down, does it feel like it's getting better.
Speaker 12 (24:48):
It doesn't feel like it's coming down, though I don't
know where it's coming down. I haven't felt it yet.
And the prices are I just did some looking at
old books and during the meantime of COVID, it's the
same price that I'm saying right.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Now, Mike. Thank you so much for that call. Philip Bailey,
you know it sounds like we've heard it from a
couple of people that they want Biden to be successful here,
but they're not seeing it.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yeah, and think about again, folks who had to dip
into their savings right during you know, the height of prices.
Think about folks who maybe had a kid who they
wanted to send to a certain program, you know, to
learn play the violin, and they couldn't let them do that. Right,
Like everyone, something was taken from folks in this time period.
And even if prices and things are getting better, people
(25:40):
don't feel like, why haven't been made whole from that
last situation that I suffered from? And I think that
is Joe Biden's big task here is plugging into this
narrative talking about student loan debt relief, talking about the
credit cards, talking about the price of insulin. But also
think they're worry for the Biden campaign because I think
they're going to have a pretty actually easy time for
(26:01):
Biden to frame Donald Trump in some of the comments
he's made, some of these very draconian, almost authoritarian policies
that he's advocating for the real problem for the Biden
campaign I'm waiting to see here is how are they
going to do with these third party candidates, because in
poll after poll, Biden and Trump are pretty much even.
In fact, I think over these past couple of days,
since the primary is now basically over, we see Biden
(26:21):
scooting just a little bit ahead of Trump for the
first time in months, even though he's still very unpopular
in a lot of like he swing states. But when
you put these other third party candidates in Robert F. Kennedy, Junior,
Cornell West, Jill Stein, then you begin to see President
Trump's numbers do better. Not because necessarily those voters are
going to Trump, but a lot of those younger voters
who have more progressive, hardboiled progressive politics, they're going to
(26:43):
these alternatives, saying I don't have affinity for either party
real quick. Belle Townsend, a young woman who I interviewed
wh grew up in Western Kentucky, Ryal, Western Kentucky, is
a Southern Baptist. Never heard of the Palestinian crisis growing up,
actually learned about it via One Direction Right as a
bad team, right, they'll band One Directions one Harry Styles
and them. And she says that like she would never
(27:05):
vote for a Donald Trump, but she says, you know,
blood Joe Biden has too much blood in his hands,
And I do wonder to Ray's point, has too much
blood been spilled for Joe Biden to clean it up
with any policy or cease fire.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Let's go to Dan in Fort Worth, Texas. Dan, go ahead,
what's your state of the union?
Speaker 13 (27:22):
Hey, I just I feel like our union is divided
all the way around. Just in general, it's divided. I
feel like we have a lot of fake problems that
we are dealing with, and the real problems, the underlining problems,
we're dancing around.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
What would you consider a fake problem and what's a
real problem?
Speaker 13 (27:45):
A fake problem? A woman takes her son to a
veterinarian because he identifies as a cat, but she's not
going to press charges because a veterinarian won't treat him.
But that's not fair to the child.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I haven't heard about that one. But what's real? What's
a real problem?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Dan?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What do you think we should be focused on?
Speaker 8 (28:06):
Uh?
Speaker 13 (28:06):
We should be focused on homelessness. We should be focused
on water conservation. We should be focused on not just
generating food, but feeding hungry Americans. There, I get it.
You know, we talk about immigration, we talk about all
these different things. We have an immigration process, and I
(28:27):
don't think that's the issue. I don't think anybody has
an issue with people coming into this country. I think
people have an issue with people skipping line. There are
families who have gone through the process in weigh of
their turn, and now there's other people claiming asylum, which
there are probably some who qualify, but the vast majority
(28:47):
of people, it's a it's a quick check and you
know there's you know, I get it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yeah, well, Dan, Dan, let me let me take that
to Ray Suarez, because one thing you said at the
beginning there is that we're very divided, which is something
Ray that you know, does make you think about the
state of the union. And if we're divided, there's not
much of a union.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Look, I've been covering politics a long time, and I've
been a reporter a long time. I was even old
enough to be in college when Gerald Ford gave that
speech that Tolliver played the ass.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So I've been.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
At this a long time and I've never seen the
country as divided as this since the Vietnam War. And
you know, it's discouraging. It's discouraging in part because the
practice of politics, it seems like we've lost our civic muscles.
(29:48):
Our leaders don't know how to talk to us about
any of our common problems in a realistic way, so
they talk about them as one of our callers noted,
in a fake way, right, and it's it doesn't get
to the core of the issue, and it doesn't give
the people.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Any feeling like they've got skin in this, you know, Tulliver.
There are always promises in the State of the Union address,
but actually sometimes they do get fulfilled.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, this is actually the nineteen sixty four addressed by
President Lyndon Johnson, and.
Speaker 8 (30:19):
This administration today, here and now declares unconditional war on
poverty in America.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Johnson debuted that term war on poverty during the speech
and followed it by creating the food stamp program, of
Medicare and Medicaid, all of which survived to this day,
and all of which my family have used.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Look at that, all right, Yeah, that's that's great, and
we will be back with more of the middle. This
is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. If you're just joining us,
we're asking you what your state of the Union is.
How do you think the nation is currently faring with jobs? Inflation,
or any of the major issues we face. You can
call us at eight four to four for Middle that's
eight four four four six four three three five three,
(31:03):
or you can reach out to us at listen Toothemiddle
dot com. Our guests are Philip Bailey, chief political correspondent
for USA Today, and Raceuirez, longtime journalist and author of
the upcoming book We Are Home, which is about immigrants
in the twenty first century. Let's get to the phones
and Gail, who is in Atlanta, Georgia. Gale, welcome to
the Middle. What is your state of the Union.
Speaker 14 (31:26):
I felt that President Biden did their well. I'm an
African American woman and I'm a moderate Democrat, and I
felt that he he spoke invigoratingly on a host of
their important topics.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And are things going well side you? How would you
describe your How would you describe your state of the Union.
Speaker 14 (31:53):
My state of the Union is I'm more hopeful today
than I have been in a long time.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Great, well, Gail, thank you so much for that call. Yeah,
that's that's good to hear. And let me get to Mike,
who is in Indianapolis. Mike, what's your state of the Union?
Speaker 7 (32:13):
It's night. But my wife and I are both senior citizens,
so we both have a pension and social security and
so our state of the union is pretty good, especially
since that insulin got capped and other medicines are being capped.
So that's the good thing. But what I'd like to
ask your specialist there, your commentator, I'm sure he has
(32:39):
talked to senior citizens everywhere that own their own homes.
And one of the big issues is when gentrification, when
there's development in our area, it makes the surrounding existing homes,
not the new home they build, but the homes they're
already there before the new development. Your property value up,
(33:00):
so your property tax go up, but you're in a
fixed income. And what I don't understand is when they
use federal dollars or federal programs, tax breaks, whatever they
get credits, why doesn't the federal government say, okay, developer,
we're giving you a tax break, so you have to
(33:20):
donate money to the local Community Development Corporation so that
they can have money to help pay for all the
uh when whatever the difference and the tax goes up,
that or senior citizens and longtime residents, that money will
go to pay that difference you don't have to pay
our taxes, but the difference that that new development is created.
(33:43):
And there's so many senior citizens, I'm telling you, if
you talk to them, that's one of their top three issues,
but it never comes up on the national right well
things when I'm talking about it about you, and so I
wonder what, mister.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm glad you brought that up, the question of race.
Noirez people that are on fixed incomes, the senior citizen
who really benefited from the insulin cap and is worried
about costs of living going up because of all kinds
of things, including gentrification.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
A lot of senior citizens also got a sizeable cola
bump on their Social Security checks because of high inflation,
but it didn't keep up with everything. Obviously, in a
lot of jurisdictions around the country, there's something called homestead credit,
so senior citizens get a little bit of a break
on their real estate taxes. I guess in Indianapolis they
(34:36):
don't have that. So yeah, when there is gentrification, it
becomes more expensive, but you know the value of your
house is going up too, So you know, you lose
on one in one place and you gain in another.
That house is worth more money now, and all the
surrounding real estate is as well. So I don't know
(34:56):
unless you unless your rents got to come up with
that tax every six months.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Sure, right, right, Let's go to Laverne, who is in
Huntington Beach, California and southern California. Laverne, welcome to the middle.
What about you? What's your state of the union.
Speaker 14 (35:10):
Well, my state of the Union is I'm I'm a
senior citizen and.
Speaker 15 (35:17):
You retired.
Speaker 14 (35:19):
College and.
Speaker 15 (35:23):
I suddenly, with my decreasing kain had my Social Security
benefit that I'd been receiving cut off because I allegedly
was earning too much. Can't even get through the Social
Security phone system to try to find out why that is.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Philip Billy another call there, talking about the cost of
living and the difficulty with just sort of interacting with
the government.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Look at it into both spectrums, right, since we're talking
about age so much in this presidential cycle. On the
old older end, you're hearing an Americans say, look, I'm living
on Social Security. Costs of things are still going up
and I lived on a fixed income. Where is my
relief go down sixty years To the other end of
our generations younger Americans, saying, the cost of college, the
(36:16):
cost of basically starting a business. I'm not even going
to get acts. I don't even believe I'm going to
get Social Security right. I'll tell you this, Jemy that
I think the Biden campaign is going to sell a
certain story over the summer and really leaning to some
of these issues and talk about some of the policies
that they've adopted and some of the wins that they've accrued.
And I say that because I have a friend who's
(36:36):
the civil rights attorney and his sister in law gave
him a phone call and she's on the phone crying,
weeping because her student loans were forgiven. I don't know
what that amount was, but it certainly was enough to
engender that emotional response. There's an issue there that I
think the Biden administration is going to really lean into.
And I think on the other end, for President Trump,
the question is, other than the anger part, can he pivot?
(36:58):
He's never had to really pivot to middle of the
road voters. We see here that NICKI Haley was able
to rake in a significant portion of moderate old school
George hw style George hw Bush style voters in the
Republican Party. Can Trump get those people? So, just like
Biden has a problem with Gaza and younger people and
a lot of folks, I see a lot of people
(37:19):
responding here who didn't like his comment of calling the
gentleman illegal right, using that phrase during the State of
the Union speech, that certainly has gotten a lot of
left leaning congress people and others upset. Well, guess what,
Donald Trump also has a problem too, So when he
comes to these economic issues, who can.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Sell that issue?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Who can sell voters, particularly unplugged voters who are feeling
the same way your colonies are.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Or voters in the middle. Let's go to Kenneth who
is in Chicago. Kenneth, what about you? What's your state
of the Union.
Speaker 16 (37:50):
Well, after listening to President Biden's speech, you know, as
a pretty young guy myself, I don't really lean left
or right, but after listening to it, it kind of
gave me like a sense of hope for the country
going forward. You know, I know it like times are
tough right now, but I just like, after listening to him,
it might seem kind of silly, but like I feel
(38:13):
like he made a lot of good points and you know,
I don't really feel that he's just out of touch.
As Senator Katie said, I thought that was a little
silly when she brought up TikTok, how that was like
deemed the point like to swindle young Americans and corrupt us.
I just think that's kind of silly to say, especially
like with the information that is available on tiknock. And like,
(38:36):
you know, it's up to the people of the United
States to inform themselves and just develop a better like
state of mind. And I feel like, you know, tikknok
can be a very good platform for that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
We actually did an entire show about TikTok. And by
the way, you're talking there about Yeah, Tolliver, you love
that one because I.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Can't get enough.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
You love talk. He's talking, by the way about he said,
Senator Katie, you talking about Senator Katy Britt, who is
the Republican from Alabama who delivered the Republican response to
the State of the Union. Let's get another caller in here.
Katie is in Denver, Colorado. Katie, welcome to the middle.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Go ahead.
Speaker 17 (39:14):
I guess I would just like to add that as
a Yester voter who's registered independent, I don't necessarily vote
on politics. I vote on the representative. So I think
it's going to be more important as younger generations like
myself vote hopefully that we don't vote based on party politics.
We vote representatives in that will reach across the aisle
(39:36):
in order to get stuff done, because I feel like
that's where a lot of the stalemate is nowadays. It's
Democrats versus Republicans, not necessarily voting across the aisle in
order to get issues. And Bill's moved through to fix
our country.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
So you'd like to see people work together. But what
about you personally right now? How are things going for you?
Speaker 17 (39:58):
As someone who is called were educated in Denver, Colorado,
It's been hard for me to find a job, hard
for me to afford living with one job, hard for
me to afford healthcare, just general cost of living. Friends
paying off their student loan still when they have six
figure incomes. It's just kind of ridiculous to me. How
(40:21):
as a you know, an economics major, even I understand inflation.
Speaker 14 (40:24):
And all of that, but it's.
Speaker 17 (40:26):
Pretty bad to me that as someone who works two
jobs and is educated still cannot afford to live.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Katie, I really appreciate your call. Thank you so much
for calling in and Race Suarez. Yeah, I've been thinking
about that. The pandemic was so difficult for everybody. But
it's that that younger generation that was either in high
school or just getting out of college or in college
and you know, had to be at home and away
from their social setting and all of that, and then
has now got a difficulty getting a job and getting
(40:57):
an income. It's very difficult for that group of people
in this country.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
My youngest daughter did the last year and a half
of her college education on a laptop, and by the
time her bizarre college graduation came as we sat distanced
scattered out along an enormous football field, she was pretty
pissed off and very very discouraged about the state of things.
(41:22):
She's angry, she's a little disaffected. I'm trying to well
encourage her, not just because I want an encouraged young daughter,
but because I think optimism is better than trashing everything
the way it is. It doesn't give you much traction
on making anything better, but I hear you. I mean,
(41:43):
when you're paying literally ten times what your parents and
grandparents paid to go to college, and then they're condescending
to you and saying, come on, suck it up. If
you borrowed money, you ought to pay for it. Yeah,
college costs eleven times as much as it did forty
(42:04):
years ago. It's not really a response to what they're
going through. It's not a realistic response.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
And Jeremy, especially coming, I mean, think about what your
average twenty four year old American has gone through, not
just a one hundred year pandemic, right, but now there
are these existential crisises that they're facing, not just you know,
our basic institutions in the fate of democracy, but climate change,
and for conservative minded young.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
People, the debt.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
So you know, Ray is right lecturing to these younger voters,
my baby cousins basically and telling them, oh, you should
pay your debts. And they look at the older generation say, wait,
baby boomers, you put everything on a credit card. Every
war and every tax cut, everything that you ever wanted,
you put on America's credit card. And again, having an
eighty one year old president and a seventy seven year
old former president running against each other, a lot of
(42:51):
younger voters tell me, Jeremy, neither one of these men
is going to.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Have to deal with the consequences of these issues.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Ten twenty fifteen years from now, it's going to be
your twenty year old who's gonna be thirty five, forty,
et cetera. So that's the I think there is a
generational rebellion here. It could be in the form of
a third party, it could be in the form of uncommitted.
But these younger folks, and maybe this is a conversation
that'll be delayed until twenty twenty eight. But the gen
x on down American voter and activist has a reckoning
(43:16):
with this country. And there he owed is not the
word that I hear from them.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Let's go to Frank, who's in Houston. Frank, go ahead,
welcome to the middle. What's your state of the union?
Speaker 10 (43:27):
Oh well, you gentlemen have just said it for me
to me. The issue is debt, starting the student debt,
and President Biden several months back Kada's proposal for forgiveness
of student debt, and the Supreme Court struck it down,
and then President Biden came back with an amended proposal
(43:49):
of some sort, which I'd be quite interested to see
how that fares during this election year. And he also
made another statement about occurred late fees. They are up
to thirty dollars and he's talking I don't know by
what means, but to bring them down to eight dollars.
But to me, this is the big issue faced not
(44:10):
just young people, but the reproduction of American society itself.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah, yeah, thank you cholesterol. Yah, right right, thank you
for that. By the way, on the issue of the fees,
I do remember President Biden saying in a previous State
of the Union that he was going to get rid
of those fees at the hotels for the resort fee
and the hotels that aren't even resorts. But I will
tell you they're still there. They're still there. Right now,
let's get to one more here, Alexi, who is in Louisiana. Alexi,
(44:38):
go ahead, welcome to the middle.
Speaker 18 (44:41):
Hey, So my sit of the Union as a young voter,
I think right now it's super important that we look
at this state of the Union as this is what
we're going to see for the next four years, right
and so as somebody who's recently graduated college and like
looking at you know, the economy and like I again
can't afford to live on the money that I'm making
as a college educated person. It's so important to look
(45:03):
at the economy, but also like, can we find a
president who's going to be able to reach across the aisle?
That's been echoed so many times, and as a young voter,
I'm like, I just need some sort of some ounce
of hope of I feel like my optimism hasn't been
crushed yet as a young person, so hopefully, hopefully, hopefully
we can get that in the twenty twenty four elections.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
And do you feel like you're hearing that now from
from either Biden or Trump, of somebody who's willing to
work across the aisle.
Speaker 18 (45:31):
I think I'm I think so yes. I think we're
seeing more of that with President Biden. But that's just
maybe that is his like young person, like I want
to say swagger, but like not really, but he I
think he is able to appeal the young people more.
But maybe it's just that President Trump comes across Marsher.
Speaker 6 (45:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 18 (45:51):
I associate a President Trump with like my parents' generation,
so maybe that's the sort of the cross there. But
I think President Biden has that whole that a lot of.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Young people like LEXI thank you so much for that call.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Ray, That sort of brings me to something that I
wanted to ask you about, which is we've been hearing
the candidates as the campaign has been going on, going
after their bases. Now we're getting into the general election,
are people going to be appealing to the middle talking
about working across party lines and getting things done.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Well, if you've been watching President Trump's speeches, it doesn't
look like it. It looks like he's running a base
strategy and not really working very hard on increasing the
appeal or the range of appeal among Americans. Joe Biden,
(46:44):
with this speech tonight, you heard him trying to hit
a lot of different points. If you were foreign policy heavy,
you got what you wanted there. If you were worried
about the price of insulin or college loans, you got
what you wanted there. Union members heard some encouragement. It
seems like he's trying to broaden the argument in a
way that we haven't heard from his Republican opponent yet.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Okay, we have time now, Tolliver for a quiz for
our guests.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
That's right, all right? Which President gave the most State
of the Union addresses? Reagan, Madison, F D R or
Truman jump in when you're ready.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
Well, have to be FDR No.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I thought it was gonna be a trick question there.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
That's why I hesitated.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That's why I hesitated.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
The early presidents just sent a letter.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, didn't give a congratulations.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Well, could we end on a on a high note there?
And of course people can still call in at eight
four four four Middle eight four four four six four
three three five three, or go to listen to the
Middle dot com. Leave us a message if you didn't
make it onto the show and we'll play some of
that next week. I want to thank my guest, Rayarez,
host of On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez and author
of the upcoming book We Are Home, Becoming American in
(48:05):
the twenty first Century. Ray, thank you so much for
being on the show. Great to talk to you and
Pullitzerprise winning USA Today Chief Political correspondent Philip Bailey, thanks
as always.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Philip, jay Man, thank you and Tolliver.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
What do we have planned for next week on the Middle, And.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
We'll be tackling a topic that we've heard time and
time again from our own listeners. Is it time for
a strong third party in the United States. You can
reach out at eight four four four Middle that's eight
four four four six four three three five three, or
you can write in at Listen to the Middle dot com.
Or you can also sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Middle is brought
to you by LONGNOK Media, distributed by Illinois Public Media
in Urbana, Illinois, and produced by Joanne Jennings, Harrison Patino,
John Barth, and Danny Alexander. Our technical director is Jason Croft.
Our theme music was composed by Andrew Haig. Thanks to
our entire team for doing a special late edition of
(48:59):
The Middle this week. Thanks to Nashville Public Radio, iHeartMedia,
and the more than four hundred public radio stations making
it possible for people across the country to listen to
The Middle, I'm Jeremy Hobson. I'll talk to you next week.
Welcome to a special edition of The Middle. I'm Jeremy
Hobson along here with Tolliver. Hey, Tolliver, Hey, how you
doing doing well? And you know, as we go to
air live, it is even later than usual, So I'm
hoping that any callers that decide to call in tonight
haven't had too much to drink as they listen to
the President of the United States.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I've actually been drinking black coffee all night, so I'm
like ready to rock all right.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know, the hard part about drinking coffee late at night,
as I know doing a show in the evening, is
that it's hard to sleep. So well, hopefully I'm giving
you good vibes for that. But we are not going
to parse the president's words this hour. We're going to
leave that to others because the goal of the Middle
is to elevate your voices. So we are asking this hour,
what is your state of the union. Do you feel
like the country is on the right track? Our number
(00:48):
is eight four four four six four three three five three.
That is eight four four four Middle. And by the way,
you don't have to give a one hour address when
you call in with your state of the Union. But
before we get the fodes. Let's meet our wonderful panel
this hour. Joining us from Louisville, Kentucky. Philip Bailey, USA
Today Chief political correspondent, Phlip. Great to have you on
the Middle.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Again, Jeremy, as always, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And Race Suarez is also with US veteran public media,
a journalist, historian, and author. His forthcoming book is called
We Are Home. It's an oral history of immigration in
the twenty first century. You also hosts the weekly radio
show and podcast on Shifting Ground, Race Suarez, it's great
to have you on the middle as well.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Great to be with you, Jeremy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And before we get to the funds, I wanted to
talk to each of you about a couple of big
issues that I'm sure we're going to hear about tonight, Philip.
For many people, when they think about their personal state
of the Union, it has to do maybe with their
bank account, with employment, with the economy in general. We
know that economic conditions are historically pretty good. The unemployment
rate has actually been below four percent for about two years.
(01:53):
Inflation has come down a lot from its peak. How
central is the economy do you think too, How people
view the state of the country right now.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Well, Jeremy, look when I'm out on the campaign trail
following the presidential race, whether it's talking to folks in
North Carolina, out in Georgia, my home state of Kentucky.
The one thing I think that Trump supporters often say
to me is that, look, when President Trump was in office,
whether you like his personality or not, I had more
money in my pocket. I was doing better. And they
(02:24):
are even Biden voters who acknowledge that. At the macro level,
You're right, the American economy is doing well. The stock
market is up, unemployment is down. We avoided a recession,
remember when that was always on the top of people's minds,
or we can face.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
On a recession or not.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And at the same time, though, at the micro level,
the way people feel about the economy, particularly who's doing
better now at this point, I have seen reports that
lower income Americans are certainly seeing a bounce back from inflation,
but certainly I think there's a lot of emotion behind this,
more so just in facts and figures. A lot of
Americans are feeling that the economy is not where it
(03:01):
once was, particularly pre pandemic.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And how much do you think by the way that
that is how they are actually interacting with the economy
themselves versus the media coverage of the economy, and that
you know, inflation is in the news all the time,
where people are talking about bad things about the economy.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
I think it's real and has nothing to do with
the media. In fact, I think that what we saw
post pandemic was that look, it's not just inflation, rent.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Prices or sky high.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You have stories about gen Xer's professional people who are
moving back in with their parents. I've seen I think
you saw during the Super Bowl some of those commercials
about previous generations.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
You graduated from school, you bought a house, right, your.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Grandparents' generation did that, Your parents generation did that before
gen Xer's older millennials and particularly gen Z voters. There
is the sense of the American dream, whatever that is
historically for people, is beginning to slip away. So I
don't think it's the media the media's fault and covering
the issue. I think that there are Americans who do
feel like look compared to my previous generations, my parents,
my grandparents, I don't have the same foothold that they do.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Economically, race wars, how important do you think the economy
is for voters right now compared with all the other
elections that you've covered in your career.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Well, very important, And the thing is feeling good or
feeling better is always a lagging indicator, because the memory
of what four point fifty gas and five dollars gas
was like is very present. The fact that it's not
four fifty now it takes a while to go away,
and I think that's what Joe Biden is up against.
(04:33):
But when it is a lagging indicator, it doesn't lag forever,
and by later this year, more Americans may be feeling
what those macro numbers are telling us right now.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Interestingly, though, a lot of people don't seem to remember
what things were like at the peak of the pandemic,
when unemployment was in the double digits, when you know,
it was just a terrible economic situation at that moment.
I think we all kind of want to forget.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Hungresswoman least Phonic got up in front of a watery
ence the other day and said, are you better off
now than you were four years ago? And just that
same day, popping up in my hey, remember a year
ago social media thing was a picture I took of
empty shelves.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
At my local target.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
There were thousands of people a day dying from COVID
during much of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Did we forget?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I don't know if running against four years ago is
really the play for those guys.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Let's get to the phones and hear from some Americans
who are listening and who've got their ideas. Alan is
calling from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. Alan, welcome
to the middle. Go ahead. What's your state of the union.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Thank you for taking my call. The state of union
in small business America with my own is utter depression.
We have Jerome Powell with the target of inflation of
two percent. Miss actually Gate, uh, Wall Street go ahead.
(06:12):
Wall Street Journal just supported the Wall Journal that real
inflation was as high as eighteen percent in twenty twenty
two and is now at nine percent. When number spoke
your panel and other people, I don't know that you
realize that the people realize that the numbers you're using
(06:36):
are wrong. When you go to buy a sleeve of
chicken today in the store that used to feed four
people to the same amount of money in your own
it doesn't matter what the CPI number is.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You're feeling. You're feeling it. You're saying, Philip Bailey, Uh,
just exactly what you were saying. Alan is feeling the
pain in the economy right now, right.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And I think this is the piece of the economy
story and the economy narrative that Trump and Biden are
going to be having to dive into.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Here.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
It's going to be the most potent for folks, right.
It's all where we enter the economy. Sure, inflation has
gone down at the macro level, and we can talk
about those numbers and figures and statistics, But if you're
a small business owner and the costs of certain products
have not gone down, right, If you're a low wage
person you haven't gotten a raise in the past five
or six years. If you're a middle class person and
(07:33):
you haven't gotten a raise an x amount of years
those price increases, maybe you put away money certain places,
Maybe you don't go out certain times or do certain
things you used to before. There's an emotional part here
that I think the President and Democrats are going to
have to lean into. As much as they talk about statistics,
but when you talk about the information and you don't
talk about the emotion, that's very triggering I think to
(07:55):
a lot of people who've gone through a lot of
personal turmoil, and not just economically, not just with rick costs.
But again, as Ray mentioned, the pandemic had an emotional
toy on people as well. It took an emotional toll
out of us, the loneliness that President Biden spoke to
in the State of the Union, So there was an
emotional piece to this where people feel they didn't just
lose economically, they've lost, you know, a lot of social connections.
(08:17):
A million people died, we faced one hundred year pandemic.
So I think your caller is expressing what I hear
oftentimes when talking to voters in the real world, in
real America, which is that there's an emotional piece to
this that neither party is really speaking to, but that
maybe President Trump tries to explain I think more so
than people give him credit for.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know, race war is speaking of emotion. One of
the issues that has brought out the most emotion in
the last several months has been the situation in the
Middle East, in Israel, in Gaza, and I wonder in
your experience, do you think that an issue like that
as emotional as it is for people on many sides
in the United States that that is going to be
(08:54):
something that people think about when they go into the
voting booth eight months from now November.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It depends on what's happening in October and November. If
election Day was tomorrow, I think it would be still
a pretty salient issue, and the President trying to thread
the needle tonight, both speaking to the concerns of people
who are worried about the number of civilians dying in
Gaza and people who worry about the safety of Israel.
(09:21):
But boy, by November, the situation may not be in
the same place.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It must be also a very big challenge for a president,
any president to when they give their State of the
Union address. They're thinking about how things will be viewed
all around the world and the countries that they're talking about,
and also how it's going to be viewed politically at home,
and the decisions that they're making, whether they're good for
the policy that they may believe in versus the politics
(09:48):
at home.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Ray well, you know, the TV cameras cut away to
Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln while Joe Biden was talking
about those issues. Has been doing very active shuttle diplomacy
trying to back channel the Israelis into changing their approach
while not leaning on them as heavily publicly. But I
(10:14):
think that's changed in the last week. Vice President Harris
and now the President himself during the State of the
Union address, leaned on the Israelis a lot more heavily
to change tactics in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And Jimi hit't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I think that that's a piece right there we have
to speak to, which is that that's all should be
credited to those gen Z activists and others involved in
the Gaza ceasefire movement.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Remember, it wasn't too.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Long a period ago where the State Department others were
saying even using the term peace was kind of something
that the United States the administration wanted to back off of.
We saw before President Biden arrived at the Capitol boards
of young people blocking the streets.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So again, I think that I agree with Ray that
we don't know what this issue will look like eight
months from now, but I know for a lot of
young people, this is their Vietnam War, right. For a
lot of younger Americans who are plugged into different social media,
different media outlets, not necessarily reading just mainstream US outlets,
but looking and getting their news from international outlets.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
They're seeing this in a whole different way.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I want to let our listeners know in case they're
just tuning in, you can reach us at eight four
four four Middle that's eight four four four six four
three three five three, or you can write to us.
What's your state of Union? We're at listen Toothemiddle dot com. Tolliver,
we heard President Biden's have plenty of his administration's achievements
during his speech. But then again, it's not exactly uncommon
(11:36):
for a president to give the nation a glowing review
during the State of the Union address.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Absolutely, unless you go back to nineteen seventy five when
President Gerald Ford gave a very blunt assessment of how
things are going.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I must say to you.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
That the state of the Union is not good.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Millions of Americans are out of work, recession and inflation
are eroding the money of millions more. Prices are too high,
and sales are too slow.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, you heard the word inflation there, Tolliver. Back in
nineteen seventy five, the inflation rate was nine percent around
that and right now by comparison. Even though some people
might think it's nine percent, it's actually around three percent
at this point. Yeah, exactly. By the way, make sure
that you are contributing with if you've got any money
left over after the three percent inflation to the middle
at Listen toothemiddle dot com in any amount. We really
(12:28):
appreciate its tax deductible, and we'll be right back with
more of the middle. This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
If you're just tuning, in the Middle is a national
call in show. We're focused on elevating voices from the
middle geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you just want to
meet in the middle. This hour, we're asking what is
(12:49):
your state of the Union? Are things getting better or
worse for you? Or staying the same? Tolliver? How can
people reach us?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You can call us at eight four four four Middle.
That's eight four four four six four three. You can
also write to us at Listen to the Middle dot
com or on social media.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I'm joined by Philip Bailey, chief political correspondent for USA Today,
and Ray Suarez, longtime public media journalist and author who
now hosts on Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez. Before we
get back to the phones, Philip, we did hear in
the speech about immigration from the President and from the
Republican response. The polling shows it is a top concern
(13:25):
for voters. Why do you think that is especially for
voters who are not near the border and aren't in
cities like Chicago and Denver where migrants are being bussed.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Well, I think, first and foremost President Donald Trump and
I was at his get out to Vote rally in Greensboro,
North Carolina over the weekend. President Trump is certainly hitting
the buttons and hitting a nerve. He describes immigration as
this invasion. Right, this has been going on on a
political right for some time now. I think the migrant issue,
in how it affected blue cities, liberal cities where you
(13:58):
had Republican governors sending those folks into those cities, that
really present a wedge issue for Democrats. But again, I
think the immigration is always going to be something that
our country is going to have to grapple with. Right,
we are melting pot. We are a diverse, multiracial, multi
ethnic democracy. And for the first time, Jeremy, I think
you and I talked about this before that twenty twenty
census shows for the first time the white population in
(14:19):
this country is declining. So whatever the founders may have envisioned,
I don't know if they envisioned this sort of country.
We are becoming that multi racial democracy, not five years
from now, ten, fifteen, you know, fifty years from now.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's here.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
States like Georgia are majority minority now city. You know,
states like North Carolina are becoming no longer the Jesse
Hilm's Southern Fried politics.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
They're becoming more diverse.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Right, So the browning of America is here, and I
think that's something that's very alarming to a certain segment
of the population and those who are very supportive of
President Trump.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So race wars, Why do you think it's so difficult
given that this is such a top issue for so
many people in this country, including immigrants, that nothing has
been able to get done comprehensively since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Well, the gears in our politics are totally seized up.
Nothing of any consequence can move through the Congress right now.
But the discourse over this issue is astonishing and bizarre
to me. The Republicans have been on full blast assault
for the last year and a half without a moment's
led up, and the Democratic response to that, I don't
(15:29):
even know what it is. It's not that I don't
know how to describe it. I don't even know what
it is. When Republicans portray the border as out of
control and the country being swamped by millions of new arrivals,
what is the Democratic response, No, it's not. There's a
system at the border. Those people are not sneaking across
(15:49):
in the main They're coming across the border and basically
saying here I am to men in uniform and women
in uniform, getting their names taken down, getting their documents scanned,
getting hearing dates. You would never know any of this
from the way we're talking about immigration right now. You
would never have any idea what's really going on in
(16:10):
the border. So the way we're talking about it right
now is very affecting to people in Ohio and the
Dakotas and Washington State because they are fifteen hundred miles
away from the southern border and only believe what they
hear from people they believe. I think the Democratic response
(16:30):
to the Republican assault on the way the Biden administration
is handling immigration. It's not just inadequate, it's missing in action.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Let's go to Kate, who is calling from New Jersey. Kate,
welcome to the middle Go ahead, what's your state of
the Union.
Speaker 9 (16:49):
Thank you. I'm a seventy eight year old widow of
a World War Two hero. I feel I'm one of
the forgotten Americans today. During COVID, mister Biden told tenants
they did not have to pay their rent, and for
two years, the tenant of the single unit that I
rent out, which is my only support with my Social
Security and a small army pension, during that two year period,
(17:12):
I was not paid any rent or any utilities by
a tenant. All I had to do, the Biden government said,
was apply for a program which would reimburse me. I
applied to eleven of these programs. None of them worked.
One paid less than half of the fifty six, six
hundred and thirty dollars that I'm owed for that two
(17:35):
year period. Ever since then, for the last two or
three years, I've been writing to mister Biden, to Jill Briden,
to mister Schumer, to every Senator and congress person. There
is straight up and down from federal level down to
my local people. I worked in the Senate, by the way,
in the seventies for Sam Irvin on up to the
(17:57):
Watergate hearings, although our Subcommittee on Separation of Powers of
the Committee on the Judiciary was not involved. So I
know how the government works. But this was a screw
up of the worst kind. And like many Americans now,
we're being told everything is getting better. I know mister
Biden's trying, but we're not getting We're not being feel.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Things are not getting better. Things are not getting better
for you, and you're not being treated right. Just quickly, Kate,
are you planning to vote for Donald Trump in the
fall as a result of this?
Speaker 10 (18:26):
Good God?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
No, okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Philip, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Are your thoughts that right there, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Is the emotional piece of this is that, Okay, maybe
things statistically are getting better for some people now, but
at the time, what did I go through the Biden
administration program that was supposed to offset that rit crisis
for not just.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Tenants but also landlords.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
A lot of that just got stuck with state governments
and local governments and never got to the people.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Who actually needed it.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But that comment she made just there, This is what
we're facing. We have two gentlemen, both born before the
United Nations was even formed, who are have their own
issues with unpopularity in their own bases. And when you
ask them, well, you're going to vote for Donald Trump, well,
absolutely not right. And I think we are going to
see a race to the bottom in a lot of
ways in this contest this year. This is the remassage
(19:15):
nobody wanted between two gentlemen who have a lot of
problems with their own respective party bases. And I think again,
not just the policy solution, not just the policy prescription,
but what is the emotional What is the emotional reparation
people who lost their businesses, who haven't been paid in
two three years as a result of not just COVID
but the economic crisis they followed it.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well and Ray as far as let me ask you
about that. The idea that these two people that are
now going to be the candidates for the major parties
running for president are people that we've seen in polls
most people don't want as their candidates. That must weigh
on how people view the state of the country right
now as well.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Oh sure, and I think some of these perceptions will Sharpen.
As we approach November, and you may have a lot
of people sitting it out, and how the two parties
manage that and respond to that and try to make
an counter argument to that, We'll be fascinating to see
because it's not just I'm for this person and I'm
(20:16):
against this person. A lot of people are going to
be alienated from the process altogether.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Let's go to Roberto, who's calling from Houston, Texas. Roberto,
welcome to the middle.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
Go ahead, thank you. I'm seventy five retired teacher. I'm
very proud of the gen Z for bringing up for
having as an issue the Israeli Palestinian situation. I call
it Genna sag and as such, I think the reparation
(20:47):
should be brought up, and it should be we should
persist in that. Unfortunately, United States since War One has
been the mall leader or why, and we're losing that
leadership because of this issue. In particular.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You're one of you, Yeah, ROBERTA, let me ask you this.
So you're saying we're losing the moral issue, but you're
also very proud of gen Z the future of the
United States. So how do you feel when you put
those two things together about the state of the Union.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
Well, unfortunately gen z have no power other than demonstrating
the streets and of course without committing violence. But their powerless.
And I'm not sure how many there are as far
as when it comes to voting, because I also know
(21:42):
that both Trump and Biden. See Biden came too late,
I think, to have this moral leadership role. Yeah, he
was very impressions tonight. Don't get me wrong. It took
him five months. Five months.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Sorry, but let me let me stop you there, because
I want to go to ra As far as on that,
I'm sure we're going to hear about that. We've been
hearing about this on other shows as well. The issue
of Israel Gaza, it is certainly top of mind for
a lot of people, and how the US and how
the Biden administration responds to it.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
You know, this is one of the United States' oldest alliances.
The United States was one of the first nations on
the planet to recognize the existence of the State of
Israel when it was proclaimed in nineteen forty eight. Through
the Wars nineteen forty eight, nineteen fifty seven, nineteen fifty six,
nineteen sixty seven, nineteen seventy four, the United States was
(22:35):
stalwart in backing Israel. So it only follows that a Democrat,
especially is not going to call out this country in
a publicly humiliating way, even though there's bad blood and
a bad history between Benjamin Nataniehu and Joe Biden. So
you get behind the scenes pressure, but that's not enough
(22:56):
for Americans who were watching and saying, why are we
making Israel stop? And so Joe Biden, the inheritor not
of one year or two years, but seventy years of
American policy now is kind of stuck with it. And
we're seeing only now that tens of thousands of civilians
(23:17):
have died, that the United States is starting to show
its teeth on this issue again.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Our number is eight four middle, that is eight four
four four six four three three five three. We're taking
your calls asking you what is your state of the Union,
And let's go to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and Mike is joining us. Mike,
what's your state of the Union?
Speaker 12 (23:39):
Thanks Jeremy. Yeah, I feel hopefully optimistic, although I know
that there's things that I can't control, with the price
of food, the price of gas, insurance rates rates, take
out a mortgage, a loan, credit card rates. I don't
know if Biden was able to get at those fees
(24:01):
on those credit cards for over overdrafts and late sees fixed,
but they have made hundreds of billions. I'm sure these
collective companies in his state of Delaware that you mentioned
a lot. You know, I feel like thirty years ago
he might have had a shot here. And it's it's tough.
(24:22):
I mean, politics was much different, but.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
You're saying that you're having still a very difficult time
just affording things, making ends meet because of the higher prices.
Speaker 12 (24:34):
Construction services, price of gas or hitting me just today.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, does it feel like it's getting any better? As
you see the numbers of the overall numbers of inflation
come down, does it feel like it's getting better.
Speaker 12 (24:48):
It doesn't feel like it's coming down, though I don't
know where it's coming down. I haven't felt it yet.
And the prices are I just did some looking at
old books and during the meantime of COVID, it's the
same price that I'm saying right.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Now, Mike. Thank you so much for that call. Philip Bailey,
you know it sounds like we've heard it from a
couple of people that they want Biden to be successful here,
but they're not seeing it.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yeah, and think about again, folks who had to dip
into their savings right during you know, the height of prices.
Think about folks who maybe had a kid who they
wanted to send to a certain program, you know, to
learn play the violin, and they couldn't let them do that. Right,
Like everyone, something was taken from folks in this time period.
And even if prices and things are getting better, people
(25:40):
don't feel like, why haven't been made whole from that
last situation that I suffered from? And I think that
is Joe Biden's big task here is plugging into this
narrative talking about student loan debt relief, talking about the
credit cards, talking about the price of insulin. But also
think they're worry for the Biden campaign because I think
they're going to have a pretty actually easy time for
(26:01):
Biden to frame Donald Trump in some of the comments
he's made, some of these very draconian, almost authoritarian policies
that he's advocating for the real problem for the Biden
campaign I'm waiting to see here is how are they
going to do with these third party candidates, because in
poll after poll, Biden and Trump are pretty much even.
In fact, I think over these past couple of days,
since the primary is now basically over, we see Biden
(26:21):
scooting just a little bit ahead of Trump for the
first time in months, even though he's still very unpopular
in a lot of like he swing states. But when
you put these other third party candidates in Robert F. Kennedy, Junior,
Cornell West, Jill Stein, then you begin to see President
Trump's numbers do better. Not because necessarily those voters are
going to Trump, but a lot of those younger voters
who have more progressive, hardboiled progressive politics, they're going to
(26:43):
these alternatives, saying I don't have affinity for either party
real quick. Belle Townsend, a young woman who I interviewed
wh grew up in Western Kentucky, Ryal, Western Kentucky, is
a Southern Baptist. Never heard of the Palestinian crisis growing up,
actually learned about it via One Direction Right as a
bad team, right, they'll band One Directions one Harry Styles
and them. And she says that like she would never
(27:05):
vote for a Donald Trump, but she says, you know,
blood Joe Biden has too much blood in his hands,
And I do wonder to Ray's point, has too much
blood been spilled for Joe Biden to clean it up
with any policy or cease fire.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Let's go to Dan in Fort Worth, Texas. Dan, go ahead,
what's your state of the union?
Speaker 13 (27:22):
Hey, I just I feel like our union is divided
all the way around. Just in general, it's divided. I
feel like we have a lot of fake problems that
we are dealing with, and the real problems, the underlining problems,
we're dancing around.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
What would you consider a fake problem and what's a
real problem?
Speaker 13 (27:45):
A fake problem? A woman takes her son to a
veterinarian because he identifies as a cat, but she's not
going to press charges because a veterinarian won't treat him.
But that's not fair to the child.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I haven't heard about that one. But what's real? What's
a real problem?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Dan?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What do you think we should be focused on?
Speaker 8 (28:06):
Uh?
Speaker 13 (28:06):
We should be focused on homelessness. We should be focused
on water conservation. We should be focused on not just
generating food, but feeding hungry Americans. There, I get it.
You know, we talk about immigration, we talk about all
these different things. We have an immigration process, and I
(28:27):
don't think that's the issue. I don't think anybody has
an issue with people coming into this country. I think
people have an issue with people skipping line. There are
families who have gone through the process in weigh of
their turn, and now there's other people claiming asylum, which
there are probably some who qualify, but the vast majority
(28:47):
of people, it's a it's a quick check and you
know there's you know, I get it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yeah, well, Dan, Dan, let me let me take that
to Ray Suarez, because one thing you said at the
beginning there is that we're very divided, which is something
Ray that you know, does make you think about the
state of the union. And if we're divided, there's not
much of a union.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Look, I've been covering politics a long time, and I've
been a reporter a long time. I was even old
enough to be in college when Gerald Ford gave that
speech that Tolliver played the ass.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So I've been.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
At this a long time and I've never seen the
country as divided as this since the Vietnam War. And
you know, it's discouraging. It's discouraging in part because the
practice of politics, it seems like we've lost our civic muscles.
(29:48):
Our leaders don't know how to talk to us about
any of our common problems in a realistic way, so
they talk about them as one of our callers noted,
in a fake way, right, and it's it doesn't get
to the core of the issue, and it doesn't give
the people.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Any feeling like they've got skin in this, you know, Tulliver.
There are always promises in the State of the Union address,
but actually sometimes they do get fulfilled.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, this is actually the nineteen sixty four addressed by
President Lyndon Johnson, and.
Speaker 8 (30:19):
This administration today, here and now declares unconditional war on
poverty in America.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Johnson debuted that term war on poverty during the speech
and followed it by creating the food stamp program, of
Medicare and Medicaid, all of which survived to this day,
and all of which my family have used.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Look at that, all right, Yeah, that's that's great, and
we will be back with more of the middle. This
is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. If you're just joining us,
we're asking you what your state of the Union is.
How do you think the nation is currently faring with jobs? Inflation,
or any of the major issues we face. You can
call us at eight four to four for Middle that's
eight four four four six four three three five three,
(31:03):
or you can reach out to us at listen Toothemiddle
dot com. Our guests are Philip Bailey, chief political correspondent
for USA Today, and Raceuirez, longtime journalist and author of
the upcoming book We Are Home, which is about immigrants
in the twenty first century. Let's get to the phones
and Gail, who is in Atlanta, Georgia. Gale, welcome to
the Middle. What is your state of the Union.
Speaker 14 (31:26):
I felt that President Biden did their well. I'm an
African American woman and I'm a moderate Democrat, and I
felt that he he spoke invigoratingly on a host of
their important topics.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And are things going well side you? How would you
describe your How would you describe your state of the Union.
Speaker 14 (31:53):
My state of the Union is I'm more hopeful today
than I have been in a long time.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Great, well, Gail, thank you so much for that call. Yeah,
that's that's good to hear. And let me get to Mike,
who is in Indianapolis. Mike, what's your state of the Union?
Speaker 7 (32:13):
It's night. But my wife and I are both senior citizens,
so we both have a pension and social security and
so our state of the union is pretty good, especially
since that insulin got capped and other medicines are being capped.
So that's the good thing. But what I'd like to
ask your specialist there, your commentator, I'm sure he has
(32:39):
talked to senior citizens everywhere that own their own homes.
And one of the big issues is when gentrification, when
there's development in our area, it makes the surrounding existing homes,
not the new home they build, but the homes they're
already there before the new development. Your property value up,
(33:00):
so your property tax go up, but you're in a
fixed income. And what I don't understand is when they
use federal dollars or federal programs, tax breaks, whatever they
get credits, why doesn't the federal government say, okay, developer,
we're giving you a tax break, so you have to
(33:20):
donate money to the local Community Development Corporation so that
they can have money to help pay for all the
uh when whatever the difference and the tax goes up,
that or senior citizens and longtime residents, that money will
go to pay that difference you don't have to pay
our taxes, but the difference that that new development is created.
(33:43):
And there's so many senior citizens, I'm telling you, if
you talk to them, that's one of their top three issues,
but it never comes up on the national right well
things when I'm talking about it about you, and so I
wonder what, mister.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm glad you brought that up, the question of race.
Noirez people that are on fixed incomes, the senior citizen
who really benefited from the insulin cap and is worried
about costs of living going up because of all kinds
of things, including gentrification.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
A lot of senior citizens also got a sizeable cola
bump on their Social Security checks because of high inflation,
but it didn't keep up with everything. Obviously, in a
lot of jurisdictions around the country, there's something called homestead credit,
so senior citizens get a little bit of a break
on their real estate taxes. I guess in Indianapolis they
(34:36):
don't have that. So yeah, when there is gentrification, it
becomes more expensive, but you know the value of your
house is going up too, So you know, you lose
on one in one place and you gain in another.
That house is worth more money now, and all the
surrounding real estate is as well. So I don't know
(34:56):
unless you unless your rents got to come up with
that tax every six months.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Sure, right, right, Let's go to Laverne, who is in
Huntington Beach, California and southern California. Laverne, welcome to the middle.
What about you? What's your state of the union.
Speaker 14 (35:10):
Well, my state of the Union is I'm I'm a
senior citizen and.
Speaker 15 (35:17):
You retired.
Speaker 14 (35:19):
College and.
Speaker 15 (35:23):
I suddenly, with my decreasing kain had my Social Security
benefit that I'd been receiving cut off because I allegedly
was earning too much. Can't even get through the Social
Security phone system to try to find out why that is.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Philip Billy another call there, talking about the cost of
living and the difficulty with just sort of interacting with
the government.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Look at it into both spectrums, right, since we're talking
about age so much in this presidential cycle. On the
old older end, you're hearing an Americans say, look, I'm living
on Social Security. Costs of things are still going up
and I lived on a fixed income. Where is my
relief go down sixty years To the other end of
our generations younger Americans, saying, the cost of college, the
(36:16):
cost of basically starting a business. I'm not even going
to get acts. I don't even believe I'm going to
get Social Security right. I'll tell you this, Jemy that
I think the Biden campaign is going to sell a
certain story over the summer and really leaning to some
of these issues and talk about some of the policies
that they've adopted and some of the wins that they've accrued.
And I say that because I have a friend who's
(36:36):
the civil rights attorney and his sister in law gave
him a phone call and she's on the phone crying,
weeping because her student loans were forgiven. I don't know
what that amount was, but it certainly was enough to
engender that emotional response. There's an issue there that I
think the Biden administration is going to really lean into.
And I think on the other end, for President Trump,
the question is, other than the anger part, can he pivot?
(36:58):
He's never had to really pivot to middle of the
road voters. We see here that NICKI Haley was able
to rake in a significant portion of moderate old school
George hw style George hw Bush style voters in the
Republican Party. Can Trump get those people? So, just like
Biden has a problem with Gaza and younger people and
a lot of folks, I see a lot of people
(37:19):
responding here who didn't like his comment of calling the
gentleman illegal right, using that phrase during the State of
the Union speech, that certainly has gotten a lot of
left leaning congress people and others upset. Well, guess what,
Donald Trump also has a problem too, So when he
comes to these economic issues, who can.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Sell that issue?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Who can sell voters, particularly unplugged voters who are feeling
the same way your colonies are.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Or voters in the middle. Let's go to Kenneth who
is in Chicago. Kenneth, what about you? What's your state
of the Union.
Speaker 16 (37:50):
Well, after listening to President Biden's speech, you know, as
a pretty young guy myself, I don't really lean left
or right, but after listening to it, it kind of
gave me like a sense of hope for the country
going forward. You know, I know it like times are
tough right now, but I just like, after listening to him,
it might seem kind of silly, but like I feel
(38:13):
like he made a lot of good points and you know,
I don't really feel that he's just out of touch.
As Senator Katie said, I thought that was a little
silly when she brought up TikTok, how that was like
deemed the point like to swindle young Americans and corrupt us.
I just think that's kind of silly to say, especially
like with the information that is available on tiknock. And like,
(38:36):
you know, it's up to the people of the United
States to inform themselves and just develop a better like
state of mind. And I feel like, you know, tikknok
can be a very good platform for that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
We actually did an entire show about TikTok. And by
the way, you're talking there about Yeah, Tolliver, you love
that one because I.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Can't get enough.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
You love talk. He's talking, by the way about he said,
Senator Katie, you talking about Senator Katy Britt, who is
the Republican from Alabama who delivered the Republican response to
the State of the Union. Let's get another caller in here.
Katie is in Denver, Colorado. Katie, welcome to the middle.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Go ahead.
Speaker 17 (39:14):
I guess I would just like to add that as
a Yester voter who's registered independent, I don't necessarily vote
on politics. I vote on the representative. So I think
it's going to be more important as younger generations like
myself vote hopefully that we don't vote based on party politics.
We vote representatives in that will reach across the aisle
(39:36):
in order to get stuff done, because I feel like
that's where a lot of the stalemate is nowadays. It's
Democrats versus Republicans, not necessarily voting across the aisle in
order to get issues. And Bill's moved through to fix
our country.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
So you'd like to see people work together. But what
about you personally right now? How are things going for you?
Speaker 17 (39:58):
As someone who is called were educated in Denver, Colorado,
It's been hard for me to find a job, hard
for me to afford living with one job, hard for
me to afford healthcare, just general cost of living. Friends
paying off their student loan still when they have six
figure incomes. It's just kind of ridiculous to me. How
(40:21):
as a you know, an economics major, even I understand inflation.
Speaker 14 (40:24):
And all of that, but it's.
Speaker 17 (40:26):
Pretty bad to me that as someone who works two
jobs and is educated still cannot afford to live.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Katie, I really appreciate your call. Thank you so much
for calling in and Race Suarez. Yeah, I've been thinking
about that. The pandemic was so difficult for everybody. But
it's that that younger generation that was either in high
school or just getting out of college or in college
and you know, had to be at home and away
from their social setting and all of that, and then
has now got a difficulty getting a job and getting
(40:57):
an income. It's very difficult for that group of people
in this country.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
My youngest daughter did the last year and a half
of her college education on a laptop, and by the
time her bizarre college graduation came as we sat distanced
scattered out along an enormous football field, she was pretty
pissed off and very very discouraged about the state of things.
(41:22):
She's angry, she's a little disaffected. I'm trying to well
encourage her, not just because I want an encouraged young daughter,
but because I think optimism is better than trashing everything
the way it is. It doesn't give you much traction
on making anything better, but I hear you. I mean,
(41:43):
when you're paying literally ten times what your parents and
grandparents paid to go to college, and then they're condescending
to you and saying, come on, suck it up. If
you borrowed money, you ought to pay for it. Yeah,
college costs eleven times as much as it did forty
(42:04):
years ago. It's not really a response to what they're
going through. It's not a realistic response.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
And Jeremy, especially coming, I mean, think about what your
average twenty four year old American has gone through, not
just a one hundred year pandemic, right, but now there
are these existential crisises that they're facing, not just you know,
our basic institutions in the fate of democracy, but climate change,
and for conservative minded young.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
People, the debt.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
So you know, Ray is right lecturing to these younger voters,
my baby cousins basically and telling them, oh, you should
pay your debts. And they look at the older generation say, wait,
baby boomers, you put everything on a credit card. Every
war and every tax cut, everything that you ever wanted,
you put on America's credit card. And again, having an
eighty one year old president and a seventy seven year
old former president running against each other, a lot of
(42:51):
younger voters tell me, Jeremy, neither one of these men
is going to.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Have to deal with the consequences of these issues.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Ten twenty fifteen years from now, it's going to be
your twenty year old who's gonna be thirty five, forty,
et cetera. So that's the I think there is a
generational rebellion here. It could be in the form of
a third party, it could be in the form of uncommitted.
But these younger folks, and maybe this is a conversation
that'll be delayed until twenty twenty eight. But the gen
x on down American voter and activist has a reckoning
(43:16):
with this country. And there he owed is not the
word that I hear from them.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Let's go to Frank, who's in Houston. Frank, go ahead,
welcome to the middle. What's your state of the union?
Speaker 10 (43:27):
Oh well, you gentlemen have just said it for me
to me. The issue is debt, starting the student debt,
and President Biden several months back Kada's proposal for forgiveness
of student debt, and the Supreme Court struck it down,
and then President Biden came back with an amended proposal
(43:49):
of some sort, which I'd be quite interested to see
how that fares during this election year. And he also
made another statement about occurred late fees. They are up
to thirty dollars and he's talking I don't know by
what means, but to bring them down to eight dollars.
But to me, this is the big issue faced not
(44:10):
just young people, but the reproduction of American society itself.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah, yeah, thank you cholesterol. Yah, right right, thank you
for that. By the way, on the issue of the fees,
I do remember President Biden saying in a previous State
of the Union that he was going to get rid
of those fees at the hotels for the resort fee
and the hotels that aren't even resorts. But I will
tell you they're still there. They're still there. Right now,
let's get to one more here, Alexi, who is in Louisiana. Alexi,
(44:38):
go ahead, welcome to the middle.
Speaker 18 (44:41):
Hey, So my sit of the Union as a young voter,
I think right now it's super important that we look
at this state of the Union as this is what
we're going to see for the next four years, right
and so as somebody who's recently graduated college and like
looking at you know, the economy and like I again
can't afford to live on the money that I'm making
as a college educated person. It's so important to look
(45:03):
at the economy, but also like, can we find a
president who's going to be able to reach across the aisle?
That's been echoed so many times, and as a young voter,
I'm like, I just need some sort of some ounce
of hope of I feel like my optimism hasn't been
crushed yet as a young person, so hopefully, hopefully, hopefully
we can get that in the twenty twenty four elections.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
And do you feel like you're hearing that now from
from either Biden or Trump, of somebody who's willing to
work across the aisle.
Speaker 18 (45:31):
I think I'm I think so yes. I think we're
seeing more of that with President Biden. But that's just
maybe that is his like young person, like I want
to say swagger, but like not really, but he I
think he is able to appeal the young people more.
But maybe it's just that President Trump comes across Marsher.
Speaker 6 (45:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 18 (45:51):
I associate a President Trump with like my parents' generation,
so maybe that's the sort of the cross there. But
I think President Biden has that whole that a lot of.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Young people like LEXI thank you so much for that call.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Ray, That sort of brings me to something that I
wanted to ask you about, which is we've been hearing
the candidates as the campaign has been going on, going
after their bases. Now we're getting into the general election,
are people going to be appealing to the middle talking
about working across party lines and getting things done.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Well, if you've been watching President Trump's speeches, it doesn't
look like it. It looks like he's running a base
strategy and not really working very hard on increasing the
appeal or the range of appeal among Americans. Joe Biden,
(46:44):
with this speech tonight, you heard him trying to hit
a lot of different points. If you were foreign policy heavy,
you got what you wanted there. If you were worried
about the price of insulin or college loans, you got
what you wanted there. Union members heard some encouragement. It
seems like he's trying to broaden the argument in a
way that we haven't heard from his Republican opponent yet.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Okay, we have time now, Tolliver for a quiz for
our guests.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
That's right, all right? Which President gave the most State
of the Union addresses? Reagan, Madison, F D R or
Truman jump in when you're ready.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
Well, have to be FDR No.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I thought it was gonna be a trick question there.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
That's why I hesitated.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That's why I hesitated.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
The early presidents just sent a letter.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, didn't give a congratulations.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Well, could we end on a on a high note there?
And of course people can still call in at eight
four four four Middle eight four four four six four
three three five three, or go to listen to the
Middle dot com. Leave us a message if you didn't
make it onto the show and we'll play some of
that next week. I want to thank my guest, Rayarez,
host of On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez and author
of the upcoming book We Are Home, Becoming American in
(48:05):
the twenty first Century. Ray, thank you so much for
being on the show. Great to talk to you and
Pullitzerprise winning USA Today Chief Political correspondent Philip Bailey, thanks
as always.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Philip, jay Man, thank you and Tolliver.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
What do we have planned for next week on the Middle, And.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
We'll be tackling a topic that we've heard time and
time again from our own listeners. Is it time for
a strong third party in the United States. You can
reach out at eight four four four Middle that's eight
four four four six four three three five three, or
you can write in at Listen to the Middle dot com.
Or you can also sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Middle is brought
to you by LONGNOK Media, distributed by Illinois Public Media
in Urbana, Illinois, and produced by Joanne Jennings, Harrison Patino,
John Barth, and Danny Alexander. Our technical director is Jason Croft.
Our theme music was composed by Andrew Haig. Thanks to
our entire team for doing a special late edition of
(48:59):
The Middle this week. Thanks to Nashville Public Radio, iHeartMedia,
and the more than four hundred public radio stations making
it possible for people across the country to listen to
The Middle, I'm Jeremy Hobson. I'll talk to you next week.
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