December 18, 2025 • 38 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, listen now to President Trump. He addressed the nation
last night, growing economic anxiety among many, that cost of
living is still just too high, and Republicans now are
down in the polls. Democrats have now won multiple special elections,
(00:20):
and the fear is now it could be a bloodbath
next year in the November mid terms. Trump is now
telling the country, I am fixing what Biden had destroyed,
peace by peace, by peace, and now wait till the
Big Beautiful Bill kicks in next year. You're gonna have
(00:40):
more money in your pocket, and you're gonna be able
to spend more, and the prices of everything are gonna
go down. It takes time, but we're getting there. Roll
cuts six a Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead.
Our country is ready to fail, totally failed. Now we're
the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said
by every single leader that I've spoken to over the
last five months. Next year, you will also see the
results of the largest tax cuts in American history that
(01:21):
were really accomplished through our great, big Beautiful Bill, perhaps
the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress. We wrapped
twelve different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes
no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no
tax on social security for our great seniors. Under these cuts,
(01:44):
many families will be saving between eleven thousand and twenty
thousand dollars a year, and next spring is projected to
be the largest tax refund season of all time.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Bring it on, baby, Bring on that big mother tax refund.
I'm waiting. I can't wait. Six one seven two six
six sixty eight sixty eight. Jim in Boston, Thanks for
holding Jim, and welcome, Hey Jeff, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I know this might bother some people.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But boo freaking who listen. We sound like a bunch
of liberal socialists this country. What made this country great
and what Trump's trying to do is we need to
work harder, We need to work smarter. Our parents work
three four whatever damn jobs.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
They didn't complain, they didn't ask for these.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Corrupt democratic programs like medicaid, medicaid unemployment.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Again, don't probably bother a lot of people, but I'm.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I'm sick of it. Everyone's like, help me, help me.
It's this lazy mindset. You know what happened to It's
not what your country can do for you.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It's what you can do for your country.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Our president's example of that. He works hard, he works strong.
This man never sleeps, He literally never sleeps. Follow his example.
Stop following the liberals and.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Saying, oh, we need this, we need that, I.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Can't afford it. Well, guess what if you can't afford it,
you move. That's what That's what happens. You don't. Nothing
is guaranteed yet. I'm sorry. You're not guaranteed college, not
guarantee you a car, get a bike. Sorry, I know
that sounds harsh, but you work hard, you work smart.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
It's not for the ground up. I didn't come for money,
and I've made a lot. I did very well, you know.
I did what I had to do, and I did.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well for my children, and everyone can do that. I'm
sick of these complaints and this weakness. You know, this
is why the countries are getting ahead of us, whether
it's China or name your country. At this point, I mean,
it's just this mindset of.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Like help me, help me, Oh, just help yourself, help yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm sorry, and I know it comes harsh.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
But people do it, and people do all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Jim, let me ask you, for you and your family
the last eleven months, how would you grade Trump just
on the economy? Has your life improved? Has your standard
of living improved? Are things cheaper? Is your cost of
living going down? In other words, how would you rate
him just on the economy and on the issue of affordability?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Great? I mean attack of the comment. It's it's literally
not even been a year yet. So the tax that's coming,
I think that's gonna be fantastic. Gas prices have gone
down a little bit, which is wonderful. You know, there
was a sky high with a five plus.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
A gallon for for for gas. Oh yeah, you know
I run a business that relies a lot on that.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, and it's it's uh so yeah, I mean, is
it this dramatic effect. But we don't need that.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Like I said, I'm not looking for, you know, this
government to keep it handing everything out. I'm looking for
people to start, you know, grab the grab the bootstraps
and get to work.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But uh yeah, I do think. I do think it's
definitely been improved. It's only going to get better.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Jim, thank you very much for that call. I really
appreciate it. Well, no, look, Trump was adamant on this
point that he wants to take us away from the
socialist welfare state model that was being pushed hard by
Obama and Biden, and to liberate people from being on welfare.
And you know, he said that explicitly, I want to
(05:01):
cut government. I want to have more people in the
private sector. I want everybody to have a job. I
want them to be able to achieve the American dream.
He also said he wants a country now that really
values hard work, entrepreneurship, a new technology, really make America
(05:22):
now the most competitive, prosperous, business friendly country in the
entire world. And he says that's why he's cutting all
these trade deals, that's why he's bringing in all this
foreign investment. That's why he wants to sell as many
of our products to countries all over the world. He
wants an economic renaissance. And he says entrepreneurship and the
(05:47):
private sector very importantly.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
There are more people working today than at any time
in American history, and one hundred percent of all jobs
created since I took office have been in a private secture.
Think of that, one hundred percent of all jobs have
been in the private sector, rather than government, which is
the only way to make a country powerful and great.
(06:13):
This historic trend will continue.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's just a little bit from Trump's speech yesterday. Again
my assessment to me, and I'm more convinced of it
now than even two and a half hours ago when
I delivered my opening monologue. I thought it was a
very powerful speech, a very high energy speech, a very
strong speech, and clearly a very important speech. He is
(06:39):
now setting the tone for what he expects next year,
and he is taking on the Democrat media narrative that
somehow he's to blame for the affordability crisis and that
Trumpanomics has failed. Trump is saying it's the exact opposite
who created all this inflation, Biden and the Democrat who's
(07:00):
fixing it, me and my policies, and they are starting
to work. Agree, disagree. Eight thirty two on the Great
WRKO Jeff Kooner Liberalism's worst nightmare. Let's go right, Let's
go back to our phone lines. Tanya in Boston. Thanks
(07:22):
for holding, Tanya, and welcome.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
Hi Jeff, Hi Tanya.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
So I want to make a comment because I think
you've brought this up a couple of weeks ago, and
here we are again with the Republicans a handful of
them not being confident. And the first thing I want
to say to these Republicans that have this this I
don't know issue, they really need to watch the documentary
(07:50):
of the Truth about Communists, narried by Ronald Reagan in
nineteen sixty two, and it's on YouTube and it's free,
because after they watch that, they'll understand exactly where we
were headed because it talks about Lenin, it talks about Stalin,
it talks about Marx, and it talks about how they
(08:11):
made all these promises to the civilians. Meanwhile they're doing
all these backdoor deals with other countries China, from O
Peace and all this crap. It was all just garbage.
But then when they're leaders there there's there people didn't
agree with. Like with Stalin, didn't agree with him, he
(08:32):
had them killed. So what is happening here? Now We've
got democrats, We've got democrats that are you know, we're assuming,
but that seems to be the similar thing. We've got
Republicans just suddenly killed by who most of them were
a Democrat or someone that was an anti trumpler. And
(08:53):
then if you go back to Stalin, and we talk
about sorry, I'm losing transs. We go back to Salin
and he talks about how he's going to make all
these promises and talks about how he's going to do
all this stuff. Next thing, you know, Russia and they're
all killing off the Poles. It wasn't as bad as
the Holocaust, and they do compare the two, but Stalin
(09:17):
and Hitler are kind of one the same. That said
Hitler was much worse because he was starving those Jews.
The Poles just got shot, killed and put in a grave.
But regardless, I mean, well.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You put your finger right on it. I mean, Stalin
was one of the great mass murderers, one of the
most horrific mass murderers of the twentieth century. He's up
there with Hitler, there's no question, along with Mio, along
with Lenin. This is what the left does. And I
you know, I think people are forgetting now on in
November twenty twenty four, we dodged as a nation and
(09:52):
as a people, we dodged a bullet. There's no other way,
a communist bullet. That's what we dodged. And I hope
we never forget that. And the Democrat Party hasn't changed.
It is now, for all intents and purposes, a communist party.
You can call it social democratic, democratic, socialism, far left, progressive,
(10:15):
put whatever term you want on it. It's fundamentally now
a Marxist communist party. And look, this is what Kamala
Harris vowed to do. These was her explicit campaign promises
that she was going to continue to keep the border
wide open, so we were going to get another twenty
to thirty million illegals poring in that all the illegals
(10:39):
were going to be given amnesty amnestyl, which means not
just that they would all become automatically American citizens and
be legalized and be able to vote, which would guarantee
a Democrat one party regime for one hundred years, but
then they could all legally beyond welfare. This alone would
(11:04):
have financially bankrupted the United States. But she wasn't finished.
The Green New Deal, check socialized medicine, check a twenty
five dollars an hour across the country, national minimum wage.
She would have wrecked the economy she talked about. It
(11:27):
was in her platform, the collectivisation of agriculture. You speaking
of Stalin, That's what Stalin did in Ukraine, and it
starved to death five to seven million Ukrainians and led
to a chronic, massive famine. By the way, Lenin did
it as well. It led to a famine. Mao did it.
(11:49):
It led to a famine. Castro did it. It led
to a famine, Chavez and Maduro. I've done it in Venezuela.
It led to a famine. Paul Pott in cam it
led to a famine or or mass hunger or mass starvation.
When I saw that proposal that she put out saying
she wants to collectivize agriculture, I said, this woman is
(12:14):
bat You know what, I can't say it bat crap crazy.
The one thing you don't do is you don't play
with the food supply, like do you understand, like you
can you want to do your stupid DEI initiatives. I
think they're horrible. I think they're very bad. But okay,
we can survive. But when you start playing around with food,
(12:39):
when you start even talking about quote collectivizing agriculture, you
are insane. Okay, your satanic. You have no business going.
By the way, South Africa now was toying with that idea.
Zimbabwe did it. They threw out the white farmers and
they tried to collectivize. It led to mass im and hunger.
(13:03):
So I think people like everybody that's all calmed down
a little bit. Do you believe me? It could always
be so much worse and we were right there now.
You know, look, I want Trump to achieve his goals.
(13:26):
I'm not going to give him a pass if he
doesn't deliver. But give the guy a break. I mean,
I'm pleading with people almost like, come on, give him
some time. I mean, look, is he not working his
rear end off? I mean, just that alone, how many
vacations did Biden take? The guy was looking if he
(13:47):
worked two days a week. Trump is working twenty hours
a day, seven days a week, literally twenty hours a day.
His staff. You want to know, the biggest complaint that
he's going to drive himself to a heart attack. And
look at him lately. He does look tired. He looks tired,
(14:08):
he looks a bit exhausted, he looks he's got so
much on his plate. So you know, is he not
working his rear end off? You better believe it. Is
he not putting out fire after fire, You better believe it.
All This guy does is deal with problems, and he's
got no help from congressional Republicans. He's always being stabbed
(14:31):
in the back, even by his own I don't want
to get into it. Look what Susie Wilds did to
him as chief of staff. She runs to Vanity Fair
and gives them eleven interviews over eleven months, Vanity Fair
one of the most rabbid anti Trump outlets, and then
(14:53):
she cuts him down by saying he's got an alcoholics
personality Trump, a guy who never touched a drop of
with alcohol in his life. She then bad mounts JD.
Vance and says, Oh, he's.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
A conspiracy theorist and just a shameless political opportunist. She
makes fun of Russell Vote, the Office of Management director,
who's trying to cut a lot of fat waist and fraud,
and says he's a quote unquote right wing zealot.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I could go on. She insulted Rubio. I mean, just
one after another after another after another. And then she
comes out and says it was a hit piece. It
was disingenuous, and I'm thinking, what did you expect? Even
if I accept your story, which I don't, By the way,
I think she's a snake, and I think she's been
(15:46):
leaking against Trump, and I think she showed her true colors.
But let that go. Say I'm wrong. Okay, just for
the sake of argument, this is my question to her,
what the hell were you thinking giving an interview to
Vanity Fair, unfettered access to your office, unfettered access to
(16:09):
my administration for eleven months behind my back, to one
of the most anti Trump outlets there is. I mean,
there's them, and there's The New York Times. You don't
get more vile than that. Do you think they were
going to give you a fair shake? No, you wanted
that glossy cover. That's what you wanted. You wanted to
(16:32):
be on the cover of Vanity Fair and to have
pictures of you inside with your you know, five hundred
dollars sunglasses, and she wears this dress and she wears
that outfit. That's what you wanted. And they wanted dirt,
and so you gave it to them. Okay, very quick reset.
(16:54):
I want to ask all of you, did you watch
Trump's address to the nation last night? And what did
you make of it? What did you make it of
it as a speech? Did it persuade you? Did it
move you did it leave you cold? He says he's
been tackling the affordability crisis. He says he inherited it
(17:15):
from Biden. He's doing everything he can. Things are turning
around and it's only going to get better and by
next year everything will be clicking. Agree, disagree six one
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight. And let
me ask you the question I've been asking all morning.
(17:38):
It's now been eleven months. It's the year in review. Economically,
your standard of living, cost of living for you and
your family. Has it gotten better or worse under Trump?
Is it better than it was under Biden? Is it
(17:59):
the same or is it actually even a little bit
worse Six one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight. Personally,
I think the economy is clearly improving and much better
than it was under Joe. But that's me Jack in
(18:20):
New Hampshire. Thanks for holding Jack, and.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Welcome, Thanks Jeff, and welcome to the land of the
media gratification. Right push the keyboard in a box, and
I think that's what's happening in theory some of your
callers that've been taking exception to his approach. Here, I'm
going to say that we're probably born at the nineteen
ninety so it was probably good fifteen twenty years before
(18:43):
they began actually say economically conscious. They had to actually
pay bills. I'm sixty eight years old, right, and We've
been around a long time to see economic upturns and downturns.
We had a stock mircro crash in eighty seven, et cetera. Right,
so we have to just you know, I don't think
anyone's ever heard of a You don't hear belt tightening anymore,
do you. You don't hear cutting coupons anymore on the
(19:05):
home front. But I've got some data of some stats
that usually sends the moon. That's fine, and this is
what Trump is dealing with. The Inflation Reduction Act will
end up forcing has ended up working, forcing working class
Americans to pay billions of dollars in new taxes. According
to the non partisan CBO, number one, we moved down
(19:28):
in twenty twenty three. Business bankruptcies serve to fifty eight percent.
How do you recover from that? Not overnight? The federal
government ran a nine hundred somewhat trillion dollar deficit in
his first seven months. I'm talking about Joe initially the
US employment records, you remember his reports, they were overstated
(19:50):
by half a million jobs in some train right. Inflation
Reduction Act ended up forcing working class Americans to pay
billions of dollars in new taxes, according to the CBL,
as I said to his here's some of the impacts.
It's okay, bi nomics right that he said he was
working Wisconsin people were paying more than ten thousand dollars
(20:10):
a year more annually, Ohio ten thousand more annually, Pennsylvania
almost ten thousand more annually, in Montana twelve thousand more,
and Nevada twelve thousand more. Everything under him cost more
when they when he was supposed to stop the Ppe loans,
you remember the moneies that were sent out, He didn't
(20:33):
stop it. He flooded the market with so much cash
that eighty percent of the cash that was in circulation
or in circulation during Joe Biden's term was printed during
his term, which was a had a monumental impact on inflation.
So any time you present all the facts in the
data to the people that just absolutely you know, with
(20:54):
TDS et cetera, they run the other way and start
nan calling. So I just wanted to this point these
out that I have a long memory. I've looked to
a lot of different presidents and different economies. This is
not any different in many respects, and people just have
to tighten it belts and just kind of foregoing media
gratification for like maybe six months. And thank you for
taking my call, and thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Merry Christmas. Jack, all the best to you and your family. Look,
I'm not going to be here and stand on my
high horse or sit on my high horse and say, oh,
you know, Cooner Man's a big belt pipner. Look, I
don't know what's happened. It's not just the United States,
it's Canada as well, in North America in general. Jack
(21:36):
is right, we tend to want instant gratification. We're different
than our parents, We're different than our grandparents. Look, I
just compare my life to my parents. I have it
much better than they ever had. And I'm just being honest.
My father, I mean, I work hard. I'm not saying
I don't work hard. I work very hard. But you know,
(21:57):
my father would often work seven days a week. My
father would go on these business trips for months and
months and months on end. He never complained my mother
cut coupons. She did. My father would often say, no, no,
we got to tighten our belts. No, no, we got
to you know, like my family, especially my kids. God
(22:18):
bless my kids, but they are really typical American kids,
like they want everything, and they want it now, you know.
I mean, of course we say no. But what I'm
saying is, you know, there's no there's no sense of
deferred gratification. They just know it's you know, come on, daddy,
(22:40):
You're gonna buy me this toy for Christmas. That's all.
There's nothing else to say, you know why, because all
my friends have it. So what I'm saying is we
were not accustomed anymore to sacrifice.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I remember my professors. This was in the nineties when
I was doing my PhD work. Professor Charles Alexander brilliant men.
And he wrote a brilliant biography on Eisenhower and anyway,
in the nineteen thirties he also became a great baseball historian. Anyway,
he's just just a brilliant man. And you know, out
(23:12):
of the blue, he just said this. We were in one
of his classes and he said, look, I'm gonna be
honest with all of you. And he didn't mean it
as a criticism of us. He just said in general.
He goes, look, i've you know he was like in
the sixties. Then he goes, we could never go through
the nineteen thirties or World War Two ever again as
a culture, as a society, he goes, you know, people
(23:35):
had to ration food during World War Two. They had
ration cards. No one's got a ration now, he said,
you know, they had ration even rubber, meaning for tires
for cars, so a lot of people couldn't drive cars
because they couldn't get access to the tires. He goes, now,
now it'd all be on the black market. In other words,
(23:55):
every nobody can sacrifice for the country anymore. The way
as a society, the way he goes, we did even
sixty seventy years ago. Now gotta have it now. Everything's
gotta be now, he said, even the way we eat,
Look at the way we eat. We'll go to fast
food restaurants. I mean, not everybody, but you know his
point is, look how Americans have become addicted to fast food.
(24:18):
I'm addicted to fast food. Just to give you I'm
not I'm not you know, I'm not preaching. I'm just
I'm studying the truth. My mother my father did never
want the mean nonalds. The idea of fast food was
repulsive to them. A food should not be fast food.
It is. You know, you gotta get healthy food. You
gotta make the food. You got to cook the food
(24:39):
to have good food. It takes time. So the notion
of taking your car, you know, drive through. I'll have
a big Mac. Actually in my case, two big Macs,
if you want to know the truth. Extra sauce, always
extra sauce, by the way, unah, large French fry. And
because you know, I'm trying to watch my way a
(25:00):
little bit, I'll go a large diet coke. My mother
would always say that's garbage. My father would say that's garbage,
like you're putting garbage in your body. But just the principle,
you mean, what the meal is made for you in
two minutes, like what you can't go home even though
you're hungry, I don't know, grab an apple or have
(25:21):
a banana, hold you over and make your own meal,
you know. Or the rare and it was rare that
you go out, you go to a place where you
sit down, you order the food. It's a decent restaurant.
You eat with a forkin a knife. You actually eat
(25:42):
stuff that's had a bowl this fast fast now fast
go go, go go, you know. Or again. My parents
they saved. What I mean by that is if they
bought a television. Nothing on the payment plan, nothing, you know. Yeah,
I'll make monthly payments on it. Here, here's my credit
(26:04):
card or whatever, my debit card or whatever. Yeah, one
hundred bucks whatever a month, whatever until I pay it off,
or fifty bucks a month. No, my parents were you save.
Say the TV costs it. I'm just giving you a number,
one thousand bucks. You get the thousand, then you go
to the store and you buy the TV. And by
(26:27):
the way, they were like most people never had TVs.
The fact that you can buy a TV and eventually
own a TV that was huge. That's a high a
massive increase in your standard of living. Not today today.
I don't have the money, but let's go get a
flat screen TV. Yeah yeah, just put it on the
(26:49):
payment plan, you know, bang me up, put some interest
on it, and bang me up. Every month. My parents
wash my mother's first washer and dryer. I'll never forget it.
My dad's saved for two years. My mom said, I
want to I need a washer and dryer. She used
to wash or clothes, but my hands, you know, with
their hands. It was hard work. And she said, look,
(27:12):
you know Jack, his name was Jack Jack. I need
a washer and dryer please, and he said okay, And
from his check they took money, and you know, every
month saved in a special account until they got the
money for an actual washer and dryer. My mother practically
cried when they brought it to our house and installed it.
I remember I was a young boy. So this idea
(27:35):
that you buy appliances and it's just you know, yeah,
you pay it off in five years. My parents would say,
why you're putting yourself in debt. You got payments up
to your neck. You're choking on these payments. They're adding
interest to it, so they're actually paying even more for it.
Why do you have to have it now? Everything is now? Now.
(27:58):
I want a TV, get it now, I want appliance, whatever,
a car now. My parents were like, you want something,
you save, you buy and then when you have enough money,
you buy. And my father and mother always said this
it's not really yours. I mean, once you pay it off. Yes,
(28:18):
like the bank's own everything, or your credit cards own everything.
You miss a couple payments, your car is repossessed, your
appliances are gone. Whatever you have, it's gone. So my
father and mother always took pride in the fact that
what we have, we earned, we own, it's ours, and
(28:42):
it's all paid for. Now if you go to wait
deferred gratification, you gotta wait, and you're still for them.
You know, you think their parents had TVs, washer and dryer, dishwashers.
I mean to them, they're like, this is incredible. It's
(29:03):
just like it's like heaven. So you got to save
up and wait and you know, until you can earn
earn enough and save enough to buy it. What's the
problem now, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know if
my TV's paid off. I don't know. I mean, I'm
just you know, I have appliances, it's on the painting plan.
(29:26):
I don't wait. I'm just I'm being honest. My cars,
I don't know how many years it's gonna take for
me to pay down my cars. I mean, it's just I'm,
you know, a typical American in that way. So comparing
myself to my parents now now I want it now.
It's just I don't know. That's just how it is.
(29:47):
And my children, God bless them, my two American adopted children,
one from Minnesota, one from Utah. They're even worse because
they're always on the computer whatever. Not always, but you
know they're on a computer, they're on a laptop or
this or that. It's it's like press button. Everything is
press button. So you know, their expectations are also much higher. See,
(30:12):
I think that's also what's changed. Like I know, compared
to my parents, you know, like stuff that I complain about,
they would never complain about. You know, my parents would
often say, you guys have it very well. And I
don't think you realize how well you have it, Like,
don't complain. Believe me, you don't know what it was
(30:33):
like to go through the Great Depression or World War Two.
Where I remember, just very quick. It was the two
thousand and four Republican Convention in New York. Long story short,
that was Bush's he was running for a second term.
And there was an Irish guy. We were in New York.
I was there, and there was a I mean he
was an American but of Irish descent. But He immigrated
(30:55):
from Ireland, and he came right after the Second World War,
and he said Ireland was poor back then, he said,
but even here in the United States. He was talking
to me and a couple of other my colleagues from
the Washington Times, and he said, you know, he was
driving us to the convention. He said, you know, I
grew up in New York in the nineteen fifties. He goes,
(31:16):
do you guys have any idea what life was like.
Even in the fifties, He goes, you know, we didn't
have freezers like to refriger to freeze your food. We
had they call them ice boxes, very small refrigerators. He goes,
you know, we have to have to buy blocks of ice,
(31:38):
literally blocks of ice, and if you bought some meat
or whatever, you would throw it on these blocks of ice,
like packaged to keep it cold and frozen. He goes,
especially in the summertime, it was horrible. He goes, like,
you take so many things for granted. You know, centralized
(32:00):
air conditioning. We had no air conditioning in the fifties.
He goes, you don't know what it was like June, July, August,
dog days of summer in these tenement apartments in New
York City. It was sweltering. You couldn't sleep at night.
The windows are wide open, you can hear every sound
on the street, and it's still a sauna in your apartment.
(32:22):
He goes, you take so many things for granted, he
wasn't criticizing. He was just like, do you realize how
good you have it? He goes, it's hot, you get up,
you crank up the ac you go back to bed,
because God forbid you should be hot for an hour
or two. So his point was they had to always
(32:44):
put up with the lot. They had to defer gratification.
There was much more suffering, much more hardship. Now that
was two thousand and four, he says, I'm talking now,
like nineteen sixty it was. That's just forty at the time, right,
that's just forty years ago. You guys got it? Good
(33:07):
man like, don't complain, and that's all we stayed with me.
But really, I'm being honest. We want everything, and we
want it now. We're a very impatient people. And you know,
(33:28):
after all the destruction that Biden the Democrats have reeked,
let's give Trump eighteen months. I think the man's earned it.
I think the man deserves it. I don't think it's unreasonable.
Eighteen months is not forever, but that's me six one
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight agree, disagree.
(33:53):
Lee in Waltham, Thanks for holding Lee, and welcome.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Good named Jeff.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
I did watch. I watched last night, every minute, and
I have about three comments here. First of all, I
thought it was an excellent speech. It's right to the point.
I really wish all his speeches would be like that
and not an hour an hour and a half. It
(34:23):
becomes almost tedious to watch. But he made his points.
He was right on target on many of our issues.
And I want to say something the gentleman from the
Hanshaw that you know he was correct. I mean, you
work for what you have. I'm a seasoned citizen. I
(34:44):
don't call myself a senior citizen. I call myself a
season citizen because I watched what my parents did and
how they provided for us back then, and how they
tried to make ends meet. Well, you know a lot
of people are doing that today, so it's not so different.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
But here's my take.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
He only missed, in my opinions, one issue, and that
is the issue at the grocery store in department stores.
Now if he had said, I am going to announce
tonight that starting January first, I will give a tax
(35:29):
incentive to every major grocery stoes, not the Little Mum
and Puffs, but the major grocery stores will have a
tax incentive if they bring their prices down at that
end of the chain. That will affect me in a
positive way and many other seasoned citizens and families trying
(35:53):
to make ends meet. Now, in addition to grocery store
department stores, tax incentive to all the stores in Simon
laww the Macy's, the Targets, the Walmart a tax incentive
to bring their pricing down, because that's where the problem lies.
(36:16):
We are used to they're used to getting two ninety nine.
For example, to eggs. Five years ago twenty twenty, there
were ninety nine cents eighty nine and ninety nine cents
a dozen. Today they're two ninety nine. The cheapest you
can find is to ninety nine. That's a two one
(36:37):
hundred and two percent jump in five years. Milk ninety
nine cents in twenty twenty a dollar fifty nine on
the average for quarter milk. Now sixty one percent more
since twenty twenty. So the gentleman that said we should
(36:57):
stop complaining, it's not complaining. We're consured.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
Consured, well, yeah, not.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Only concerned, I would say, even to be frankly. Look,
I'm getting a lot of text and a lot of emails,
and I'm very sympathetic, believe me, you know. Yeah, Okay, Jeff,
sure we're willing to tighten our belts. Yeah, sure, we're
willing to be patient. But Jeff, our backs are against
the wall. I mean, we're living hand to mouth. That's
what for a lot of people, that's what they're saying.
(37:25):
And I understand, we're barely making ends meet. We're working
and working and paying taxes, and everything is still very expensive.
You know. It's it's easy to say be patient, but
you know, you've got to put food on the table
and feed your family, and everything has just become so
(37:46):
exorbitantly expensive that you know, you're barely making your rent,
you're barely paying your bills, you're barely putting food on
the table. It's it's very stressful. I I understand, I
really do. That's why I'm not saying, you know, give
the guy forever. That's why I'm really been urging Trump
(38:07):
for a while. You've got to focus on it like
a laser beam. And in particular, remember what they said
during the nineteen ninety two election campaign. It's the economy stupid. Okay,
it's the affordability stupid. If it was like one line,
that's the issue. You've got to get prices down, you've
(38:31):
got to get more money into people's pockets. You've got
to ease this affordability crisis.
Okay, listen now to President Trump. He addressed the nation
last night, growing economic anxiety among many, that cost of
living is still just too high, and Republicans now are
down in the polls. Democrats have now won multiple special elections,
(00:20):
and the fear is now it could be a bloodbath
next year in the November mid terms. Trump is now
telling the country, I am fixing what Biden had destroyed,
peace by peace, by peace, and now wait till the
Big Beautiful Bill kicks in next year. You're gonna have
(00:40):
more money in your pocket, and you're gonna be able
to spend more, and the prices of everything are gonna
go down. It takes time, but we're getting there. Roll
cuts six a Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead.
Our country is ready to fail, totally failed. Now we're
the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said
by every single leader that I've spoken to over the
last five months. Next year, you will also see the
results of the largest tax cuts in American history that
(01:21):
were really accomplished through our great, big Beautiful Bill, perhaps
the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress. We wrapped
twelve different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes
no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no
tax on social security for our great seniors. Under these cuts,
(01:44):
many families will be saving between eleven thousand and twenty
thousand dollars a year, and next spring is projected to
be the largest tax refund season of all time.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Bring it on, baby, Bring on that big mother tax refund.
I'm waiting. I can't wait. Six one seven two six
six sixty eight sixty eight. Jim in Boston, Thanks for
holding Jim, and welcome, Hey Jeff, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I know this might bother some people.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But boo freaking who listen. We sound like a bunch
of liberal socialists this country. What made this country great
and what Trump's trying to do is we need to
work harder, We need to work smarter. Our parents work
three four whatever damn jobs.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
They didn't complain, they didn't ask for these.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Corrupt democratic programs like medicaid, medicaid unemployment.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Again, don't probably bother a lot of people, but I'm.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I'm sick of it. Everyone's like, help me, help me.
It's this lazy mindset. You know what happened to It's
not what your country can do for you.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It's what you can do for your country.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Our president's example of that. He works hard, he works strong.
This man never sleeps, He literally never sleeps. Follow his example.
Stop following the liberals and.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Saying, oh, we need this, we need that, I.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Can't afford it. Well, guess what if you can't afford it,
you move. That's what That's what happens. You don't. Nothing
is guaranteed yet. I'm sorry. You're not guaranteed college, not
guarantee you a car, get a bike. Sorry, I know
that sounds harsh, but you work hard, you work smart.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
It's not for the ground up. I didn't come for money,
and I've made a lot. I did very well, you know.
I did what I had to do, and I did.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well for my children, and everyone can do that. I'm
sick of these complaints and this weakness. You know, this
is why the countries are getting ahead of us, whether
it's China or name your country. At this point, I mean,
it's just this mindset of.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Like help me, help me, Oh, just help yourself, help yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm sorry, and I know it comes harsh.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
But people do it, and people do all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Jim, let me ask you, for you and your family
the last eleven months, how would you grade Trump just
on the economy? Has your life improved? Has your standard
of living improved? Are things cheaper? Is your cost of
living going down? In other words, how would you rate
him just on the economy and on the issue of affordability?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Great? I mean attack of the comment. It's it's literally
not even been a year yet. So the tax that's coming,
I think that's gonna be fantastic. Gas prices have gone
down a little bit, which is wonderful. You know, there
was a sky high with a five plus.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
A gallon for for for gas. Oh yeah, you know
I run a business that relies a lot on that.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, and it's it's uh so yeah, I mean, is
it this dramatic effect. But we don't need that.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Like I said, I'm not looking for, you know, this
government to keep it handing everything out. I'm looking for
people to start, you know, grab the grab the bootstraps
and get to work.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But uh yeah, I do think. I do think it's
definitely been improved. It's only going to get better.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Jim, thank you very much for that call. I really
appreciate it. Well, no, look, Trump was adamant on this
point that he wants to take us away from the
socialist welfare state model that was being pushed hard by
Obama and Biden, and to liberate people from being on welfare.
And you know, he said that explicitly, I want to
(05:01):
cut government. I want to have more people in the
private sector. I want everybody to have a job. I
want them to be able to achieve the American dream.
He also said he wants a country now that really
values hard work, entrepreneurship, a new technology, really make America
(05:22):
now the most competitive, prosperous, business friendly country in the
entire world. And he says that's why he's cutting all
these trade deals, that's why he's bringing in all this
foreign investment. That's why he wants to sell as many
of our products to countries all over the world. He
wants an economic renaissance. And he says entrepreneurship and the
(05:47):
private sector very importantly.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
There are more people working today than at any time
in American history, and one hundred percent of all jobs
created since I took office have been in a private secture.
Think of that, one hundred percent of all jobs have
been in the private sector, rather than government, which is
the only way to make a country powerful and great.
(06:13):
This historic trend will continue.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's just a little bit from Trump's speech yesterday. Again
my assessment to me, and I'm more convinced of it
now than even two and a half hours ago when
I delivered my opening monologue. I thought it was a
very powerful speech, a very high energy speech, a very
strong speech, and clearly a very important speech. He is
(06:39):
now setting the tone for what he expects next year,
and he is taking on the Democrat media narrative that
somehow he's to blame for the affordability crisis and that
Trumpanomics has failed. Trump is saying it's the exact opposite
who created all this inflation, Biden and the Democrat who's
(07:00):
fixing it, me and my policies, and they are starting
to work. Agree, disagree. Eight thirty two on the Great
WRKO Jeff Kooner Liberalism's worst nightmare. Let's go right, Let's
go back to our phone lines. Tanya in Boston. Thanks
(07:22):
for holding, Tanya, and welcome.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
Hi Jeff, Hi Tanya.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
So I want to make a comment because I think
you've brought this up a couple of weeks ago, and
here we are again with the Republicans a handful of
them not being confident. And the first thing I want
to say to these Republicans that have this this I
don't know issue, they really need to watch the documentary
(07:50):
of the Truth about Communists, narried by Ronald Reagan in
nineteen sixty two, and it's on YouTube and it's free,
because after they watch that, they'll understand exactly where we
were headed because it talks about Lenin, it talks about Stalin,
it talks about Marx, and it talks about how they
(08:11):
made all these promises to the civilians. Meanwhile they're doing
all these backdoor deals with other countries China, from O
Peace and all this crap. It was all just garbage.
But then when they're leaders there there's there people didn't
agree with. Like with Stalin, didn't agree with him, he
(08:32):
had them killed. So what is happening here? Now We've
got democrats, We've got democrats that are you know, we're assuming,
but that seems to be the similar thing. We've got
Republicans just suddenly killed by who most of them were
a Democrat or someone that was an anti trumpler. And
(08:53):
then if you go back to Stalin, and we talk
about sorry, I'm losing transs. We go back to Salin
and he talks about how he's going to make all
these promises and talks about how he's going to do
all this stuff. Next thing, you know, Russia and they're
all killing off the Poles. It wasn't as bad as
the Holocaust, and they do compare the two, but Stalin
(09:17):
and Hitler are kind of one the same. That said
Hitler was much worse because he was starving those Jews.
The Poles just got shot, killed and put in a grave.
But regardless, I mean, well.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You put your finger right on it. I mean, Stalin
was one of the great mass murderers, one of the
most horrific mass murderers of the twentieth century. He's up
there with Hitler, there's no question, along with Mio, along
with Lenin. This is what the left does. And I
you know, I think people are forgetting now on in
November twenty twenty four, we dodged as a nation and
(09:52):
as a people, we dodged a bullet. There's no other way,
a communist bullet. That's what we dodged. And I hope
we never forget that. And the Democrat Party hasn't changed.
It is now, for all intents and purposes, a communist party.
You can call it social democratic, democratic, socialism, far left, progressive,
(10:15):
put whatever term you want on it. It's fundamentally now
a Marxist communist party. And look, this is what Kamala
Harris vowed to do. These was her explicit campaign promises
that she was going to continue to keep the border
wide open, so we were going to get another twenty
to thirty million illegals poring in that all the illegals
(10:39):
were going to be given amnesty amnestyl, which means not
just that they would all become automatically American citizens and
be legalized and be able to vote, which would guarantee
a Democrat one party regime for one hundred years, but
then they could all legally beyond welfare. This alone would
(11:04):
have financially bankrupted the United States. But she wasn't finished.
The Green New Deal, check socialized medicine, check a twenty
five dollars an hour across the country, national minimum wage.
She would have wrecked the economy she talked about. It
(11:27):
was in her platform, the collectivisation of agriculture. You speaking
of Stalin, That's what Stalin did in Ukraine, and it
starved to death five to seven million Ukrainians and led
to a chronic, massive famine. By the way, Lenin did
it as well. It led to a famine. Mao did it.
(11:49):
It led to a famine. Castro did it. It led
to a famine, Chavez and Maduro. I've done it in Venezuela.
It led to a famine. Paul Pott in cam it
led to a famine or or mass hunger or mass starvation.
When I saw that proposal that she put out saying
she wants to collectivize agriculture, I said, this woman is
(12:14):
bat You know what, I can't say it bat crap crazy.
The one thing you don't do is you don't play
with the food supply, like do you understand, like you
can you want to do your stupid DEI initiatives. I
think they're horrible. I think they're very bad. But okay,
we can survive. But when you start playing around with food,
(12:39):
when you start even talking about quote collectivizing agriculture, you
are insane. Okay, your satanic. You have no business going.
By the way, South Africa now was toying with that idea.
Zimbabwe did it. They threw out the white farmers and
they tried to collectivize. It led to mass im and hunger.
(13:03):
So I think people like everybody that's all calmed down
a little bit. Do you believe me? It could always
be so much worse and we were right there now.
You know, look, I want Trump to achieve his goals.
(13:26):
I'm not going to give him a pass if he
doesn't deliver. But give the guy a break. I mean,
I'm pleading with people almost like, come on, give him
some time. I mean, look, is he not working his
rear end off? I mean, just that alone, how many
vacations did Biden take? The guy was looking if he
(13:47):
worked two days a week. Trump is working twenty hours
a day, seven days a week, literally twenty hours a day.
His staff. You want to know, the biggest complaint that
he's going to drive himself to a heart attack. And
look at him lately. He does look tired. He looks tired,
(14:08):
he looks a bit exhausted, he looks he's got so
much on his plate. So you know, is he not
working his rear end off? You better believe it. Is
he not putting out fire after fire, You better believe it.
All This guy does is deal with problems, and he's
got no help from congressional Republicans. He's always being stabbed
(14:31):
in the back, even by his own I don't want
to get into it. Look what Susie Wilds did to
him as chief of staff. She runs to Vanity Fair
and gives them eleven interviews over eleven months, Vanity Fair
one of the most rabbid anti Trump outlets, and then
(14:53):
she cuts him down by saying he's got an alcoholics
personality Trump, a guy who never touched a drop of
with alcohol in his life. She then bad mounts JD.
Vance and says, Oh, he's.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
A conspiracy theorist and just a shameless political opportunist. She
makes fun of Russell Vote, the Office of Management director,
who's trying to cut a lot of fat waist and fraud,
and says he's a quote unquote right wing zealot.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I could go on. She insulted Rubio. I mean, just
one after another after another after another. And then she
comes out and says it was a hit piece. It
was disingenuous, and I'm thinking, what did you expect? Even
if I accept your story, which I don't, By the way,
I think she's a snake, and I think she's been
(15:46):
leaking against Trump, and I think she showed her true colors.
But let that go. Say I'm wrong. Okay, just for
the sake of argument, this is my question to her,
what the hell were you thinking giving an interview to
Vanity Fair, unfettered access to your office, unfettered access to
(16:09):
my administration for eleven months behind my back, to one
of the most anti Trump outlets there is. I mean,
there's them, and there's The New York Times. You don't
get more vile than that. Do you think they were
going to give you a fair shake? No, you wanted
that glossy cover. That's what you wanted. You wanted to
(16:32):
be on the cover of Vanity Fair and to have
pictures of you inside with your you know, five hundred
dollars sunglasses, and she wears this dress and she wears
that outfit. That's what you wanted. And they wanted dirt,
and so you gave it to them. Okay, very quick reset.
(16:54):
I want to ask all of you, did you watch
Trump's address to the nation last night? And what did
you make of it? What did you make it of
it as a speech? Did it persuade you? Did it
move you did it leave you cold? He says he's
been tackling the affordability crisis. He says he inherited it
(17:15):
from Biden. He's doing everything he can. Things are turning
around and it's only going to get better and by
next year everything will be clicking. Agree, disagree six one
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight. And let
me ask you the question I've been asking all morning.
(17:38):
It's now been eleven months. It's the year in review. Economically,
your standard of living, cost of living for you and
your family. Has it gotten better or worse under Trump?
Is it better than it was under Biden? Is it
(17:59):
the same or is it actually even a little bit
worse Six one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight. Personally,
I think the economy is clearly improving and much better
than it was under Joe. But that's me Jack in
(18:20):
New Hampshire. Thanks for holding Jack, and.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Welcome, Thanks Jeff, and welcome to the land of the
media gratification. Right push the keyboard in a box, and
I think that's what's happening in theory some of your
callers that've been taking exception to his approach. Here, I'm
going to say that we're probably born at the nineteen
ninety so it was probably good fifteen twenty years before
(18:43):
they began actually say economically conscious. They had to actually
pay bills. I'm sixty eight years old, right, and We've
been around a long time to see economic upturns and downturns.
We had a stock mircro crash in eighty seven, et cetera. Right,
so we have to just you know, I don't think
anyone's ever heard of a You don't hear belt tightening anymore,
do you. You don't hear cutting coupons anymore on the
(19:05):
home front. But I've got some data of some stats
that usually sends the moon. That's fine, and this is
what Trump is dealing with. The Inflation Reduction Act will
end up forcing has ended up working, forcing working class
Americans to pay billions of dollars in new taxes. According
to the non partisan CBO, number one, we moved down
(19:28):
in twenty twenty three. Business bankruptcies serve to fifty eight percent.
How do you recover from that? Not overnight? The federal
government ran a nine hundred somewhat trillion dollar deficit in
his first seven months. I'm talking about Joe initially the
US employment records, you remember his reports, they were overstated
(19:50):
by half a million jobs in some train right. Inflation
Reduction Act ended up forcing working class Americans to pay
billions of dollars in new taxes, according to the CBL,
as I said to his here's some of the impacts.
It's okay, bi nomics right that he said he was
working Wisconsin people were paying more than ten thousand dollars
(20:10):
a year more annually, Ohio ten thousand more annually, Pennsylvania
almost ten thousand more annually, in Montana twelve thousand more,
and Nevada twelve thousand more. Everything under him cost more
when they when he was supposed to stop the Ppe loans,
you remember the moneies that were sent out, He didn't
(20:33):
stop it. He flooded the market with so much cash
that eighty percent of the cash that was in circulation
or in circulation during Joe Biden's term was printed during
his term, which was a had a monumental impact on inflation.
So any time you present all the facts in the
data to the people that just absolutely you know, with
(20:54):
TDS et cetera, they run the other way and start
nan calling. So I just wanted to this point these
out that I have a long memory. I've looked to
a lot of different presidents and different economies. This is
not any different in many respects, and people just have
to tighten it belts and just kind of foregoing media
gratification for like maybe six months. And thank you for
taking my call, and thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Merry Christmas. Jack, all the best to you and your family. Look,
I'm not going to be here and stand on my
high horse or sit on my high horse and say, oh,
you know, Cooner Man's a big belt pipner. Look, I
don't know what's happened. It's not just the United States,
it's Canada as well, in North America in general. Jack
(21:36):
is right, we tend to want instant gratification. We're different
than our parents, We're different than our grandparents. Look, I
just compare my life to my parents. I have it
much better than they ever had. And I'm just being honest.
My father, I mean, I work hard. I'm not saying
I don't work hard. I work very hard. But you know,
(21:57):
my father would often work seven days a week. My
father would go on these business trips for months and
months and months on end. He never complained my mother
cut coupons. She did. My father would often say, no, no,
we got to tighten our belts. No, no, we got
to you know, like my family, especially my kids. God
(22:18):
bless my kids, but they are really typical American kids,
like they want everything, and they want it now, you know.
I mean, of course we say no. But what I'm
saying is, you know, there's no there's no sense of
deferred gratification. They just know it's you know, come on, daddy,
(22:40):
You're gonna buy me this toy for Christmas. That's all.
There's nothing else to say, you know why, because all
my friends have it. So what I'm saying is we
were not accustomed anymore to sacrifice.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I remember my professors. This was in the nineties when
I was doing my PhD work. Professor Charles Alexander brilliant men.
And he wrote a brilliant biography on Eisenhower and anyway,
in the nineteen thirties he also became a great baseball historian. Anyway,
he's just just a brilliant man. And you know, out
(23:12):
of the blue, he just said this. We were in one
of his classes and he said, look, I'm gonna be
honest with all of you. And he didn't mean it
as a criticism of us. He just said in general.
He goes, look, i've you know he was like in
the sixties. Then he goes, we could never go through
the nineteen thirties or World War Two ever again as
a culture, as a society, he goes, you know, people
(23:35):
had to ration food during World War Two. They had
ration cards. No one's got a ration now, he said,
you know, they had ration even rubber, meaning for tires
for cars, so a lot of people couldn't drive cars
because they couldn't get access to the tires. He goes, now,
now it'd all be on the black market. In other words,
(23:55):
every nobody can sacrifice for the country anymore. The way
as a society, the way he goes, we did even
sixty seventy years ago. Now gotta have it now. Everything's
gotta be now, he said, even the way we eat,
Look at the way we eat. We'll go to fast
food restaurants. I mean, not everybody, but you know his
point is, look how Americans have become addicted to fast food.
(24:18):
I'm addicted to fast food. Just to give you I'm
not I'm not you know, I'm not preaching. I'm just
I'm studying the truth. My mother my father did never
want the mean nonalds. The idea of fast food was
repulsive to them. A food should not be fast food.
It is. You know, you gotta get healthy food. You
gotta make the food. You got to cook the food
(24:39):
to have good food. It takes time. So the notion
of taking your car, you know, drive through. I'll have
a big Mac. Actually in my case, two big Macs,
if you want to know the truth. Extra sauce, always
extra sauce, by the way, unah, large French fry. And
because you know, I'm trying to watch my way a
(25:00):
little bit, I'll go a large diet coke. My mother
would always say that's garbage. My father would say that's garbage,
like you're putting garbage in your body. But just the principle,
you mean, what the meal is made for you in
two minutes, like what you can't go home even though
you're hungry, I don't know, grab an apple or have
(25:21):
a banana, hold you over and make your own meal,
you know. Or the rare and it was rare that
you go out, you go to a place where you
sit down, you order the food. It's a decent restaurant.
You eat with a forkin a knife. You actually eat
(25:42):
stuff that's had a bowl this fast fast now fast
go go, go go, you know. Or again. My parents
they saved. What I mean by that is if they
bought a television. Nothing on the payment plan, nothing, you know. Yeah,
I'll make monthly payments on it. Here, here's my credit
(26:04):
card or whatever, my debit card or whatever. Yeah, one
hundred bucks whatever a month, whatever until I pay it off,
or fifty bucks a month. No, my parents were you save.
Say the TV costs it. I'm just giving you a number,
one thousand bucks. You get the thousand, then you go
to the store and you buy the TV. And by
(26:27):
the way, they were like most people never had TVs.
The fact that you can buy a TV and eventually
own a TV that was huge. That's a high a
massive increase in your standard of living. Not today today.
I don't have the money, but let's go get a
flat screen TV. Yeah yeah, just put it on the
(26:49):
payment plan, you know, bang me up, put some interest
on it, and bang me up. Every month. My parents
wash my mother's first washer and dryer. I'll never forget it.
My dad's saved for two years. My mom said, I
want to I need a washer and dryer. She used
to wash or clothes, but my hands, you know, with
their hands. It was hard work. And she said, look,
(27:12):
you know Jack, his name was Jack Jack. I need
a washer and dryer please, and he said okay, And
from his check they took money, and you know, every
month saved in a special account until they got the
money for an actual washer and dryer. My mother practically
cried when they brought it to our house and installed it.
I remember I was a young boy. So this idea
(27:35):
that you buy appliances and it's just you know, yeah,
you pay it off in five years. My parents would say,
why you're putting yourself in debt. You got payments up
to your neck. You're choking on these payments. They're adding
interest to it, so they're actually paying even more for it.
Why do you have to have it now? Everything is now? Now.
(27:58):
I want a TV, get it now, I want appliance, whatever,
a car now. My parents were like, you want something,
you save, you buy and then when you have enough money,
you buy. And my father and mother always said this
it's not really yours. I mean, once you pay it off. Yes,
(28:18):
like the bank's own everything, or your credit cards own everything.
You miss a couple payments, your car is repossessed, your
appliances are gone. Whatever you have, it's gone. So my
father and mother always took pride in the fact that
what we have, we earned, we own, it's ours, and
(28:42):
it's all paid for. Now if you go to wait
deferred gratification, you gotta wait, and you're still for them.
You know, you think their parents had TVs, washer and dryer, dishwashers.
I mean to them, they're like, this is incredible. It's
(29:03):
just like it's like heaven. So you got to save
up and wait and you know, until you can earn
earn enough and save enough to buy it. What's the
problem now, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know if
my TV's paid off. I don't know. I mean, I'm
just you know, I have appliances, it's on the painting plan.
(29:26):
I don't wait. I'm just I'm being honest. My cars,
I don't know how many years it's gonna take for
me to pay down my cars. I mean, it's just I'm,
you know, a typical American in that way. So comparing
myself to my parents now now I want it now.
It's just I don't know. That's just how it is.
(29:47):
And my children, God bless them, my two American adopted children,
one from Minnesota, one from Utah. They're even worse because
they're always on the computer whatever. Not always, but you
know they're on a computer, they're on a laptop or
this or that. It's it's like press button. Everything is
press button. So you know, their expectations are also much higher. See,
(30:12):
I think that's also what's changed. Like I know, compared
to my parents, you know, like stuff that I complain about,
they would never complain about. You know, my parents would
often say, you guys have it very well. And I
don't think you realize how well you have it, Like,
don't complain. Believe me, you don't know what it was
(30:33):
like to go through the Great Depression or World War Two.
Where I remember, just very quick. It was the two
thousand and four Republican Convention in New York. Long story short,
that was Bush's he was running for a second term.
And there was an Irish guy. We were in New York.
I was there, and there was a I mean he
was an American but of Irish descent. But He immigrated
(30:55):
from Ireland, and he came right after the Second World War,
and he said Ireland was poor back then, he said,
but even here in the United States. He was talking
to me and a couple of other my colleagues from
the Washington Times, and he said, you know, he was
driving us to the convention. He said, you know, I
grew up in New York in the nineteen fifties. He goes,
(31:16):
do you guys have any idea what life was like.
Even in the fifties, He goes, you know, we didn't
have freezers like to refriger to freeze your food. We
had they call them ice boxes, very small refrigerators. He goes,
you know, we have to have to buy blocks of ice,
(31:38):
literally blocks of ice, and if you bought some meat
or whatever, you would throw it on these blocks of ice,
like packaged to keep it cold and frozen. He goes,
especially in the summertime, it was horrible. He goes, like,
you take so many things for granted. You know, centralized
(32:00):
air conditioning. We had no air conditioning in the fifties.
He goes, you don't know what it was like June, July, August,
dog days of summer in these tenement apartments in New
York City. It was sweltering. You couldn't sleep at night.
The windows are wide open, you can hear every sound
on the street, and it's still a sauna in your apartment.
(32:22):
He goes, you take so many things for granted, he
wasn't criticizing. He was just like, do you realize how
good you have it? He goes, it's hot, you get up,
you crank up the ac you go back to bed,
because God forbid you should be hot for an hour
or two. So his point was they had to always
(32:44):
put up with the lot. They had to defer gratification.
There was much more suffering, much more hardship. Now that
was two thousand and four, he says, I'm talking now,
like nineteen sixty it was. That's just forty at the time, right,
that's just forty years ago. You guys got it? Good
(33:07):
man like, don't complain, and that's all we stayed with me.
But really, I'm being honest. We want everything, and we
want it now. We're a very impatient people. And you know,
(33:28):
after all the destruction that Biden the Democrats have reeked,
let's give Trump eighteen months. I think the man's earned it.
I think the man deserves it. I don't think it's unreasonable.
Eighteen months is not forever, but that's me six one
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight agree, disagree.
(33:53):
Lee in Waltham, Thanks for holding Lee, and welcome.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Good named Jeff.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
I did watch. I watched last night, every minute, and
I have about three comments here. First of all, I
thought it was an excellent speech. It's right to the point.
I really wish all his speeches would be like that
and not an hour an hour and a half. It
(34:23):
becomes almost tedious to watch. But he made his points.
He was right on target on many of our issues.
And I want to say something the gentleman from the
Hanshaw that you know he was correct. I mean, you
work for what you have. I'm a seasoned citizen. I
(34:44):
don't call myself a senior citizen. I call myself a
season citizen because I watched what my parents did and
how they provided for us back then, and how they
tried to make ends meet. Well, you know a lot
of people are doing that today, so it's not so different.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
But here's my take.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
He only missed, in my opinions, one issue, and that
is the issue at the grocery store in department stores.
Now if he had said, I am going to announce
tonight that starting January first, I will give a tax
(35:29):
incentive to every major grocery stoes, not the Little Mum
and Puffs, but the major grocery stores will have a
tax incentive if they bring their prices down at that
end of the chain. That will affect me in a
positive way and many other seasoned citizens and families trying
(35:53):
to make ends meet. Now, in addition to grocery store
department stores, tax incentive to all the stores in Simon
laww the Macy's, the Targets, the Walmart a tax incentive
to bring their pricing down, because that's where the problem lies.
(36:16):
We are used to they're used to getting two ninety nine.
For example, to eggs. Five years ago twenty twenty, there
were ninety nine cents eighty nine and ninety nine cents
a dozen. Today they're two ninety nine. The cheapest you
can find is to ninety nine. That's a two one
(36:37):
hundred and two percent jump in five years. Milk ninety
nine cents in twenty twenty a dollar fifty nine on
the average for quarter milk. Now sixty one percent more
since twenty twenty. So the gentleman that said we should
(36:57):
stop complaining, it's not complaining. We're consured.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
Consured, well, yeah, not.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Only concerned, I would say, even to be frankly. Look,
I'm getting a lot of text and a lot of emails,
and I'm very sympathetic, believe me, you know. Yeah, Okay, Jeff,
sure we're willing to tighten our belts. Yeah, sure, we're
willing to be patient. But Jeff, our backs are against
the wall. I mean, we're living hand to mouth. That's
what for a lot of people, that's what they're saying.
(37:25):
And I understand, we're barely making ends meet. We're working
and working and paying taxes, and everything is still very expensive.
You know. It's it's easy to say be patient, but
you know, you've got to put food on the table
and feed your family, and everything has just become so
(37:46):
exorbitantly expensive that you know, you're barely making your rent,
you're barely paying your bills, you're barely putting food on
the table. It's it's very stressful. I I understand, I
really do. That's why I'm not saying, you know, give
the guy forever. That's why I'm really been urging Trump
(38:07):
for a while. You've got to focus on it like
a laser beam. And in particular, remember what they said
during the nineteen ninety two election campaign. It's the economy stupid. Okay,
it's the affordability stupid. If it was like one line,
that's the issue. You've got to get prices down, you've
(38:31):
got to get more money into people's pockets. You've got
to ease this affordability crisis.
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