EJ Antoni - Economist, Heritage Foundation Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So ten years ago, according to the study USA Today did,
the price tag on the American Dream for a family
of four was one hundred and thirty nine hundred and
eight dollars a year. Now thirty six percent higher ten
years later, and I have additional forty seven thousand dollars
required to live that dream. Let's find out what it means.
Ej Antoni is an economist with the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
AJ good morning, oh good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Good to have you. So everybody says, let's keep pursuing
the American Dream and let's make it reachable and available
to everybody, both sides of the of the political ais'll
say that. But who's most responsible for a forty seven
percent or excuse me, a thirty six percent and forty
seven thousand dollars increase in a decade.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I'd say the big spenders are. It's amazing how
every time they tried to do something which they say
is going to make the American Dream more affordable, it
does exactly the opposite. It makes things worse, it makes
it unaffordable. And frankly, this latest idea, we're going to
give tens of thousands of dollars to potential home buyers
in order to have a larger down payment. That's just

(01:06):
going to make it worse. It's going to drive up
home prices even further.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Everything is on super super speed now moving forward. I mean,
we've already got a debt, we're spending money we don't have.
We can't have a we kind of get people to
borrow against, we can't find people to borrow from. So
when do we hit the wall or go over the cliff?
I mean, where are we now in terms of this country?

(01:33):
Just absolutely dissolving.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh that's a great question, Neil. Unfortunately, what we're looking
at is not so much a question of math. It's
more so a question of psychology. In other words, it's
not really a matter of when do we run out
of money. It's a question of when do people stop
being willing to lend the government money? When do people
say things like treasury bonds, for example, are no longer

(01:58):
a good investment. Once that happens, that's when the wheels
really come off the bus.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
So you look at some of these prices. Home prices
are one thing, but they're taking into account everything they're
talking about, you know, meals, they're talking about healthcare costs.
They're talking about the cost of automobiles and the cost
of energy and everything else there. That's what really seems
to be on that super speed that Share was just
talking about. If and I know this is a big if, EJ.
And maybe you can even do it on both sides.

(02:25):
If Trump wins and if Harris wins in the next
four to four years or maybe over the course of
the next decade, how much does that shift?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Oh goodness, Unfortunately, it's just going to depend a lot
on what each of those two candidates can get done
in a potential administration. You know, let's not forget that
much of the Trump agenda wasn't really implemented until, you know,
his third year in office, essentially because he was stymied
by the people in Congress. And so I can tell

(02:57):
you this, at least, the things that Trump his proposing
are very similar to what he did during his first term,
which was very successful and made the American dream more
not less affordable for the American people. We've seen exactly
the opposite under a Biden Harrison administration, so I can
only assume we would get more of the same.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And last question for EJ. If I can this is
not necessarily about the story about the American dream, but
just you being with Heritage Foundation and speaking about President Trump,
who has been very vocal in opposition to Project twenty
twenty five, or technically saying look, it's not mine, I
didn't do it. It kind of disappoints me to hear that,
to be quite frank, because I've read a lot of

(03:37):
it in summaries of it, and I like it. I
think it's a great roadmap to help this country. So
how do you feel, as working with the Heritage about
that disconnect with the President?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, I have to say I have a lot of
sympathy for the former president here because he's right, it's
not his product. It's a product not actually not just
a Heritage but of many many conservative organizations. And so
you know when people try to say this is Trump's project,
it really isn't. He's correct about that.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, I realized that I'm just talking about the content
within it, because by saying it's not mine, he is
almost disavowing it. Do you see it that way?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
No, I don't really, to be honest, and again, it's
not his. This is something that we are providing to
literally every presidential candidate and I love that.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
By the way, and that's it, and I've I think
it's been made very clear by you and all of
the leaders, Kevin, Robert, everybody has said, this is not
the president's, this is ours, and this is our advice
and our suggestion. But like I said, there are a
lot of conservatives who agree with almost every single bit
of what they have learned of Project twenty twenty five.
So I just thought I would throw that part in there, EJ. Antoni,
Thank you for the great nower have ever.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Enough time to talk to you, EJ.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thank you for having me. Guys,