EJ Antoni - Economist, Heritage Foundation Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
It feels so good to keep hoping we're going to
do it in Texas, Harris County City, Houston. Ej Antoni
joins this economist at the Heritage Foundation. Do you care
how much money does you saved this so far?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
EJ?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Does it really matter if it's thirty billion or sixty
five billion or one hundred billion dollars? We know it's
going to be hundreds of billions of dollars when they're done.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, exactly like you just said, Jimmy, I mean, they've
been on the job only a few weeks, and we're
gonna quibble over whether or not, like it's it's ten
billion or thirty billion or one hundred billion. Give me
a break. This is a team of only a handful
of people and they're finally doing the work that should
have been done years ago, and it is literally saving

(00:40):
us billions of dollars every day. This is absolutely incredible.
I applaud them, and I can't wait to see what
they continue finding as they go forward and as they
get better and better at this.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
What is what is kind of sad about this, though,
in a way, is how easy this waste has been defined.
I mean, they didn't have to look that deep that's
going to be dealt with a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Exactly, Jimmy. That's spot on. And this is why it
has been so frustrating for years when you have people,
whether it's Republicans or Democrats, say that they're going to
look into cases of abuse, of fraud, of waste. There
are countless clips all over the Internet of people, whether
it's George W. Bush or Barack Obama, you name it,

(01:24):
all these past presidents saying they're going to do exactly
what Trump is finally doing today with the help of
Musk and Doge.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, that's what happens. I think when you put a
businessman in charge, you know, you can maybe take the
businessman out of a business, but you can't take the
businessman out of him. And I think he's always going
to approach these things with a business solution. You know,
we're a company. As a company, the United States is bleeding,
redding to the point where we're going to have to
declare bankruptcy unless we do something. So let's get to

(01:53):
do something. And he's getting it done again.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Spot on, Jimmy, It's exactly right. This is what happens
when you have somebody who's not a career politician who
doesn't just think, oh, well, we've always done it that way,
so it's perfectly acceptable. No, you are a custodian of
the American people's tax dollars, and it's about time you
act that way. It's about time that you realize this

(02:17):
is not your money that's getting thrown around. This is
other people's money and it deserves to be treated with
that level of respect. And again, that's finally what's happening.
It's not that it couldn't be done before. It's just
that people didn't have the spine, they didn't have the
business acumen, they didn't have the other traits that were
necessary to make it happen. But Trump does Now.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
I will say this, I think the American people care
about at least saving a trillion dollar or maybe two
trillion dollars because I think they think that the idea
of that five thousand dollars doze dividend check relies on
that much in savings, So they're going to be encouraging
those to turn up one to two billion dollars worth
so they can get some money back themselves.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, certainly, and you know part of the reason why
there's a despair right now, Jimmy. Between these different estimates
of just how much Doge has saved is because sometimes
they're finding money that has already gone out the door
and they're able to claw back, and so some people
will only count that as savings. But if there's money
that was going to go out the door next week
that Doge flags and says, hey, this is not a

(03:19):
legitimate payment, you know, you can count that as savings too.
But other people will say, well, the government didn't technically
spend that money yet, so we're not going to count
that as savings. I mean, that's the ridiculous nature. That's
the kinds of things that we're quibbling over today. But
to your point, I think it's absolutely possible. In fact,
I think it's likely that they are going to save

(03:40):
over a trillion dollars.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I think you're right about that.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
EJ.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Always a pleasure to have a great day. That's economist
at the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
EJ.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
And Tony