[MUSIC] >> This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create Cloud-connected mobile experiences, and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com. and sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today. Ryan Reynolds here for I guess my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. No. No. Honestly, when I started this, I thought only I'd have to do like four of these. I mean, if unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month, how are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save, whatever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of city tales. Hello folks and welcome to Cudlow. I'm Larry Cudlow. First up tonight, soaring U.S. debt is a spending problem that threatens higher inflation and higher interest rates and a whole bunch of financial problems. And that's the subject of the riff. U.S. government finances are an absolute mess, not according to the latest Congressional Budget Office report, across the board, spending, deficits, debt, all moving in the wrong direction. There is no excuse for it and there is certainly no economic justification for it. This is big government socialism on a tear. And at some point you have to ask, with all this spending and borrowing, will the Federal Reserve be forced to enable the government's faltering finances by creating too much cash and thus reviving inflation? And you also have to ask, when will government borrowing rates in the bond market start heading back up? So, listen to this, just in the last four months since February, the new CBO scorecard shows $2.6 trillion in higher spending over the next 10 years. For this fiscal year alone, 2024, spending has been re-estimated $400 billion higher in just a couple of months. A good chunk of this is Joe Biden's student loan cancellations, some of its Medicaid expansions, some of its the badly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act subsidies for EVs and the Green New Deal. It's not a revenue problem because revenues are holding nice and high. It's not a defense spending problem because defense is still underfunded and expected to hit a post-war low of 2.8% of GDP. Overall spending, however, is expected to go to 5.6% of GDP within a decade. That's almost 4 percentage points higher than the average of the past 50 years. And with all that spending, the CBO expects $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see, culminating in a get this $52 trillion total debt in public hands, which will come to 122%. These are outrageous numbers for an economy that's close to full employment. There's no pandemic. There's no war. So far, there's no recession. What there has been, however, is a 20% rise in the level of consumer prices during Mr. Biden's term and a 2% drop in real weekly wages over that period. What we do have is over $1 trillion of federal interest payments, which is crowding out defense and entitlements. And the Biden treasury is financing these massive deficits at the very short end of the maturity spectrum, which also happens to be the costliest place to fund borrowing. Go figure. It is a huge mistake. The Wall Street Journal estimates that if federal spending as a share of the economy just remained at its pre-pandemic average, the deficit would be $890 billion lower this year and 13.4 trillion smaller than the CBO's 10-year projection. Meanwhile, even spending all this money, the economy only grew at an anemic 1.8% according to the budget office. So, how about repeal in the entire phony inflation reduction act? How about stopping student loan write-offs? How about stopping the pandemic era welfare expansions? That's a start. Meanwhile, keep the Trump tax cut so we can grow the economy at 3%. That'll throw off plenty of more revenues, trillions more in revenues without any tax hikes. One reason Joe Biden's economic polls are at rock bottom is that people look at numbers like these. They also search their own shrink and pocketbooks, and then they hear he wants more of the same, even bigger government with even more over regulation. In other words, there's no confidence in the current White House. It is time for a change, and that is my riff. Alright, let's get on with it. It's kind of a gory tale. Joining us now, Brian Riedel, senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, and David Malpass, former president of the World Bank Group. So, Brian, I know you wrote about this in New York Post today. I mean, you know, I don't remember the exact phrase, but the late economist Herb Stein used to say, "You know, if something is unsustainable, it won't be sustained, or if something is bad, it can't keep going on, or something like that." My point here, Brian, is with these horrendous numbers, without a control federal finances, without a control big government spending and borrowing and regulating, they're going to be consequences. We may not see them right this moment, but they're going to be consequences. There's inflation risk, there's interest rate risk, there's default risk, there's all kinds of risk. What do you think, Brian? The interest cost and the interest rate risk is enormous. Even under low interest rates, interest costs have gone from 350 billion when Biden took office to a trillion dollars by next year, when it'll be the second biggest item in the entire budget after Social Security. And interest costs are going to two trillion dollars a decade from now. Now, that's the low interest rate scenario. If interest rates go up one point, the deficit goes all the way up over $4 trillion from a 3.8 trillion at current interest rates under current policies. And a decade from now, you're looking at 37% of all federal taxes just going to pay interest on the debt. That means all the taxes you pay Washington for the first four months of the year will be paying interest, because it will come to dominate the federal budget. The danger is, when you run up a $50 trillion debt, you become extraordinarily sensitive to interest rates, or even one point adds hundreds of billions per year. Which is possible, which is very possible in the current environment with all this federal borrowing. And then they're doing it to show it ends of the curve. They're doing it for the 91 day treasury bill. I'm not sure I understand why, but it's the highest borrowing cost. You can do it 100 basis point lower. I mean, they should issue 100 year bonds, but that's the subject of another segment. David not passed out. You know what? As troubling as any of these numbers, David, this is like the growth of government, the command and control of government, the government regulating the economy, the size and scope of the government, regulating the economy, whether it's taxing or ordinary regulations, or DEI, or WOC, or ESG, or any of these other left wing nostrums that we've had to live with for the past four or so years. This is big government socialism to use Newt Gingrich's term, and I don't think it's going to turn out well if it doesn't change, David not pass. That's right. It's already not turning out well in that you look at the inflation rate, which is high, and the growth rate, which is low. You know, in the CBO numbers, they're showing 2% per year out into the future. And that's part of what's driving up that national debt. The economy is just not growing. So two things that stand out to me in the CBO numbers are the lack of growth and also the hammer blow on young people in the country. The government borrows the money, it spins it, and young people will end up having to pay it. So it goes into this affordability crisis that they're facing. I think that's an important point to affordability crisis, and David, just as a follow-up, you know, all these government programs, I mean, a lot of these are pandemic-related programs that the Biden's continued. A lot of these are climate change, electric vehicle programs that the public doesn't want. Some of them, you know, these student loan estimates, okay, they just tacked on, I think, a $400 billion loss. Some people have estimated that if Biden got what he wanted, which the Supreme Court had deemed illegal, but if he ever got what he wanted, it would be a $1 trillion loss over 10 years. That's also what... But David, you know what? Who's running the ship here? Whatever happened to free market capitalism? In other words, my point is, this is a big government-run economy. And when you experiment like that, where it's socialist or quasi-socialist, this is not the animal spirits, this is not innovation, this is not free enterprise, this is just frankly not prosperity. And you see what I'm saying? This is the triumph of government, and I don't want the triumph of government. I want the triumph of a free enterprise system. The numbers are staggering. They increased by $400 billion. This year's fiscal deficit just since February, and as the government spins more, it plows it into making more regulations that strangle business. So as we look out over 10 years, these new CBL numbers, it looks to me like have $120 trillion of spending by the government, $90 trillion of taxes, which is the historical average. So it's not a tax problem. It's that spending is completely out of control, and the more they do, the bigger it makes the government, and it slows the economy down, that's what shows up in the numbers. Now, Trump can change that, but Biden's budget is more of the same. It looks for slow growth and very large increases in spending. It's more of the same. It's higher taxes. That's why there's no confidence. But Brian Riddle, my former boss Ronald Reagan used to say, "Okay, you've shown me the manure. Now where's the pony?" So I want to figure out a way to get out of it. I don't want to leave our viewers and listeners completely depressed. I don't want anybody jumping off a cliff. I don't want that on my conscience. How do we get out of this, Brian? Give me a couple of, for instances. Well, the first rule of hold is stop digging. And so the first thing Congress can do is stop passing big spending bills, and coming up next year, we are going to have the discretionary spending caps coming up. The infrastructure bill is going to expire. The debt limit is coming up. The 2017 tax cuts. There's going to be so much expiring for renewal next year. Congress will have a chance to set the course differently. But ultimately, the main drivers of long-term deficits are Social Security, Medicare, and interest. And I know a lot of viewers don't want to hear about that, but it's going to be really hard to bring back the budget deficit to normal levels without addressing Social Security, Medicare, and interest shortfalls. Well, without addressing the big entitlements directly, I would just say growth would help. I mean, the difference between 1.8% growth and 3% growth is enormous. I mean, many trillions of dollars over a 10-year period. But the other thing is, David Malpass, you know, how about getting rid of the entire inflation reduction act? Just get rid of it, right? Now, I'm not saying it's easy, but you're going to have a reconciliation budget deal next year, all right, if Republicans take the Congress and the White House. Get rid of it. It's over a trillion dollars. Get rid of it. Go back and start cutting into some of these other bills that were passed. The Chips Act was way too generous. The infrastructure bill was way too generous. What are they doing? $50 billion of Internet broadband for poor communities. Not a nickel has been spent because it didn't meet all the DEI qualifications. I mean, there's a lot of garbage that could be paired back, okay, plus some pro-growth tax cuts. A lot could be done, David Malpass. That's right. And so I have an idea, which is when you're over the debt limit, the President has more authority to impound money and to do line item veto. So I think we need change in the process that when the debt-to-GDP ratio is too high, that it punishes Washington. Right now, what Washington does is punish the whole country when they spend money. And so there needs to be a change, I think, in the checks and balances so that the whole system works better. Otherwise, what we're facing is a perfect storm next year. You named it. The debt limit comes due. The spending runs out in the tax. The taxes go up automatically. And so that the President should be talking, President Biden should be talking about that all the time, how he's going to fix that problem, but he doesn't have any answers. No, no, he has more of the same. It is time for a change. I know a fellow who was President once who is just getting ready to become President again, and he's got some very clever ideas about how to stop all this stuff before it really gets bad anyway. Brian Riedel, thanks ever so much, David Malpass. Appreciate it. Coming up here on Cudlow, folks. One week until the CNN presidential debate, can seven straight days of practice save Joe Biden? I'm asking an open and honest question. We're going to talk about it with Lawrence Jones, right here. Next, on set. Remember, folks, you can catch Cudlow money at the Friday at 4 p.m. Right here. It's a great business. For some crazy reason you can't, just text your favorite nine-year-old. And she will show you how to DVR the show. And you will never miss a single tax cut. I promise you, I'm Cudlow. We'll be right back. [Music] So, as you can see, we've got a wonderful view of the three different spring ponds. This is the hottest. This is typically 106. So, the water is actually flowing down here. All of the green that you see on the rocks, that's really a result of all of the minerals that are in the water. So, this one is the warmer. Most of the time people stay in that one, probably about 15 minutes. Then this one is a little bit less in temperature. 102, 98 to 102. But the minerals, what do they do for you? Well, lithium is a good example. Magnesium. Lithium is pretty well known for people that maybe have anxiety to get them in a relaxed state. And we have guests that will tell us that it's been very, very beneficial for them. Really? Yes. And people with arthritis when they soak in the springs, you will also notice there is no sulfur smell to this water. It's very unique, very special. How beautiful is this? And then you get all the benefits. Absolutely. People come up here and really enjoy it because from here, you can also see the stars. There's stars. And, you know, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's like God's country. It's just blue skies. It is. Yeah. It's very, very special. So, that's our water. And then the tubs that we mentioned in the other accommodations that is transferred down to the lower area by the resort with a pipeline that is underground so that it doesn't get contaminated. Fantastic. Oh, my gosh. This is unbelievable. Well, thank you. And the cactus, I mean, on top of it, it is just nature at its best. And who first found this? Well, the indigenous tribes used to come here and soak. And then the Calvary probably in the mid 1850s area. Yeah. And then it was 1896 that it was transformed into a private spa area for guests to come and enjoy it. And Teddy Roosevelt was in the Calvary. I mean, was neat. Well, there's rumor that the Roosevelt's, the Rockefellers, all of the people, the wealthy people from the East Coast, they used to travel by train, get off in Wickenburg. And then from Wickenburg to here, it was a seven to eight hour stagecoach ride. That far back, they knew where to go. I mean, it's not like they'd go online. We're going to take care of myself this week. Yeah. This is amazing. Yeah. That's very true. I think word of mouth worked pretty effectively back then. I can't wait. I'm getting in this. You have to. You have to. And I will. So there. The other one that we drove by, that's where we do paddleboard yoga. People love it. That one is 86 to 90 degree temperature. And there's also an area that's shaded so that we do watsu massages. Watsu is you're in the water. You're totally relaxed and somebody is massaging your body. It's very popular. These are the table in the water. You just float. No, you're floating. You have floaties on your ankles and your arms. Oh, I don't usually float in the water. No. And the therapist is very good about making sure that the guest is very relaxed with that. After that, after you're all relaxed, what might you do after that? Well, we do have a number of outdoor activities and I think that maybe archery would be right down your alley. Yeah, I'd love to do archery. I'm going to change and we can go shoot some bows and arrows. Let's do it. All right. You don't shoot the bow. You shoot the arrow. If you're in Israel, thanks for watching Fox on Yes. For the latest headlines, check out foxbusiness.com and foxnews.com. The consumer is strong. The balance sheets are strong. Breeze you America's business news. There's so much going on. And what it means for you. We want to get some breaking news to you right now, Fox Business Alert. Like Fox Business, keeping you ahead of the curve. All the insiders selling by some of the richest people on earth. With insight into the impact of US and global markets. That's where the recipe for inflation comes from the people you can trust. Let's have some fun with this. Fox Business, America's business network. All right. We're just a week away from the CNN presidential debate here in New York. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Ducey live at the White House with lots of wisdom on this subject. Peter, what you got? Lots of wisdom, Larry. We look at these new polls. President Biden is under water on the issues that typically decide presidential elections. But he was starting from such a place of weakness on the economy and inflation that if you look at the numbers, 41% approval for the economy, 37% approval on inflation, that's actually his highest in over two years. And his 35% approval now on immigration is actually five points higher than it was a month ago. And that's part of the way that you get to this. For the moment, a two point Biden lead over Trump in this new Fox News poll. It's 50 to 48 within the margin of error. Independence had been breaking for Trump by two in the last Fox poll. Now they're breaking for Biden by nine and that raises the stakes for both men in next week's debate with Trump, the early favorite 50% half of all voters in the Fox poll say that Trump is going to beat Biden in this debate. But as Biden preps, he's about to be sequestered at Camp David, the Biden inner circle is split about which Trump they need to prepare Biden for. I'm so happy that the mics will be shut off when you're not speaking and you won't have audience members and mega members in the audience screaming and yelling. I think the Donald Trump is going to show up next week is going to be the most disciplined version of Donald Trump. I'm somebody who actually thinks the muted mics probably helped Trump. And we got a sneak peek into what the campaign priorities are. So the Trump and the Biden people had a coin toss with the CNN hosts. The Biden people chose tales. They won and they got to pick. Do you want to have the last word in the closing statements or do you want to have the podium of your choice? And the Biden people chose the podium on the right. That was their priority, which means that Trump is going to get the last word next Thursday. Larry. All right, Peter, this is very interesting. I don't know if I would have made that choice, but thanks for that report. For a bit more on this and maybe some other things that's bringing Lawrence Jones co-hosted Fox and friends. Lawrence, thank you for coming on. So would you have chosen the podium instead of the last word or why do you think Biden did that? Well, so remember, he didn't want a podium initially. Some of the reports said that he wanted to sit down. He didn't want to stand. Right. And so he was kind of suckered into the CNN and go along with this. But the bar is set so low for the current president that he doesn't have to do much to win the debate. But if I'm Donald Trump, I'm standing in the pocket. He's just a great football analogy. He could throw the touchdown, but he should. Because it's like Donald Trump is, he's like in an NFL and Joe Biden is in high school. And if you stomp on him, you're going to look bad because everyone already expects you to stomp on him. So he just has to keep the ball right here. And the touchdown is there, but he doesn't throw it. He has to be merciful with the current president because he's, the speed of which they go is not the same. There's no crowd, which is a great thing for Donald Trump because he's an entertainer. He plays into the crowd. He doesn't need to do that to them. And with the mics being off, cut off when you're not speaking, this is going to allow. The current president to really dig himself a hole. And that's great for Donald Trump. Stay on message. It is the economy. It is the border, which he has a record to run on. And it's peace to shreds. Remember, they accused him back in 2016 of going to use the nuclear clothes on day one. Now we got wars breaking out everywhere. And Joe Biden is nowhere to be found. So this is a good time for him, but he has to stay in the pocket. Don't throw the touchdown. So using this somewhat overused metaphor is just created, but I'll play along with it. Mr. Biden is going to stay in the huddle for the next seven days, actually longer than that. Yeah, about seven days, eight days. Do you think that's wise? Do you think he needs that? And by the way, do you expect Trump to be in preparation for the next week? Well, the current president needs rest. Right. He has to prepare for this. He has to do whatever strategies that they use before the state of the union. They have to do the same thing all over again. Now, the question is, if he comes in jacked up on the debate, Donald Trump just got us to let him go. Go. And I know the former president, if he's challenged, he's going to meet you right there. But he just got to let him burn out because he's going to be out by the second round. The B12 plus World War II. It is 90 minutes. It's not going to go too long. The current president, he doesn't need much prep. Okay. It is the policy, the policy. And he can talk. Remember, the current president uses note cards, but he doesn't write on the note cards. He uses the prompter, but he's not writing the speech on the prompt. The current president, I mean, you work for me. You know, you can give him all the advice you want. You need a former president. A former president. Yeah. You can give him all the advice you want. He's got to say what he wants to say. And that is the hard way. I know, man. I hit about 265. That's my batting average. Every now and then you get something across. But it is interesting to me that they're putting Biden away for a week. Now, maybe they're going to arrest him for a week. Or maybe they're going to try to brief him. And maybe they're going to explain to him what his White House policies really are. He may not know. I mean, I don't know. Any of the above is at all possible. I just -- you see these numbers changing around. I was looking at some other numbers, though. The betting markets, right? You've got to pay to play, all right? The betting markets are giving Trump right now a 20-point advantage in the presidential race. And also, Lawrence, I think almost all these polls of the swing states show Trump. It's almost Trump's to lose at this stage of the game. What do you think? It makes me nervous. That is that way. Because sometimes when the scoreboard is that way, some people don't show up to vote. Okay? So that concerns me. But I can tell you why they're betting this way. When you look at the core demographics of the Democratic Party, people that typically voted for Democrat, they have essentially told the pollsters either they're going to cast or vote for Trump or they're going to stay at home. I mean, if you get Donald Trump that gets 30% of the black vote, that's game over. There's just never happened in modern time for a Republican. You've got Hispanics that are breaking. Do you see his numbers among women? I don't mean anyone. Women as well. I mean, I was just looking, it was up on Breitbart, but it was a New York Times, Sienna, poll, or survey. How Trump has gained with women and how Biden has lost with women. It's extraordinary. You know what it is. It is the grocery store. Trump bombastic approach. But when they weigh the bombast versus them going to the grocery store every week, they say, I'll take the bombast and get lower prices. And so, look, we saw this during the primary that the number one issue was the border. But as we're getting closer to the election, the number one issue is becoming the economy. And I think it's going to end that way. The election is going to be based on people's circumstances. When you talk to black voters today, you go to the barbershop and you're going out there in the mall. You talk with folks, they say, listen, life is just better on the Donald Trump. That's just what it is. You know, I may disagree with them on some things. People are choosing the things that impact them on the day-to-day basis. And the White House has done themselves a disservice. I understand it is the White House press secretary job to be the chief spinner. But to deny the reality of people on the day-to-day basis, it's just not smart. And you know, interestingly, one of the ministers in the Detroit meeting said, Obama and Biden never came to the neighborhood, quote, unquote. And then Trump is actually the guy that's done that. He did it in the South Bronx. He's doing it in Detroit. And I guess he's going to do it several more times. It may be symbolic, but I think it matters. I think you're going to notice that. Well, I think it matters. I mean, I went to the Bronx rally. I've never seen so many demographics that a Republican event. See, Biden thinks he can get away with Obama did. Obama has something different. He had the charisma. But he also was a historic figure within the community. And although sometimes people disagree with him, they voted for him because of historical reasons. Biden doesn't have that. No. And he doesn't have that relationship. And the one asset as, you know, as someone that's been in politics since I was fifteen years old, the one thing we remember Joe from is being able to communicate with people. He's not out there. You know, you have the quotes and everything. He's not out there. He can't do it. They got to shield them. He's in the middle. He has no connection with him. He's in the middle. I mean, I hated to see it. You couldn't even get into his SUV. No. And I didn't take pleasure out of that. I mean, I just, you don't want to see that it's an American president at some point in time. We have China, Russia, and a one on our heels. We don't want those pictures. We can't have a president this week, even if he's a part of a different part. No, no. I'm on it. Lawrence Jones, terrific stuff. This is the first time you've been on this set, I can't believe it. Did I meet the Cutlow stand? Are you kidding? You threw the long bomb and you scored every time. I just loved it. Terrific stuff. Don't forget you can catch Lawrence along with this co-host, Steve Ducey. Ryan Kilmeade, Ainslie Earhart on Fox and Friends, weekdays, 6 a.m. Eastern on Fox News. Of course, we'll have you back. I think I have you left stuff. Coming up here on Cutlow, Biden's green climate agenda is making our military reliant on China, a very disturbing report coming up. We're going to talk about with Senator Kevin Kramer next up and remember, folks, Cutlow is available as a podcast. We've got episodes every weekday right after our show. We're on Spotify. We're on Apple and foxbusiness.com, a podcast. Can you believe it? Thank you, Lawrence. Appreciate it. Here we are, Yellowstone River, Montana, the cane boys, and the mediator, Steve Grinnella. You can feel it, that's the wind, it's going to mess up the fly fishing a little bit and these guys are nervous. Are you nervous? Yeah. It's going to be rough. You ready? I'm ready. All right. Let's catch the fish. Come on, Charlie. Is this a good time of year? Weather. No. Ripper level. I love. Why is this good? Going around. It's beautiful. I'm chilling. Man, it's really windy. I wonder why. No one else is out today. Can't figure it out. It's only trying to get in trout. He's trying to keep his line. It's pretty much a parable. Even his boat. Life's working with him as a team. Keep that line just right. He's watching that bobber. You can see if it goes on. They have a lot of faith that there are fish behind that rock. That rock right there. It's confident. There's some fish sitting right behind that rock. You can see if we can make something a little more enticing for it. Like that fish almost lays somewhere where he doesn't need to exert much energy to hold his position, but food's going to get washed by. So they'll use boulders to lay down and get in the current break and let the river bring food to them. Yeah. Giant. With this wind it's hard to get over to it. We were fishing very close to the boat. Giant from just trying to do what we can to keep something in the water and not getting to go crazy. It's not like any kind of river runs through it just more like that. We're flailing the water, but just trying to keep something in the water. Look at that sucker. I don't think we'd catch one like that. Big smile. One of the things we're always kind of looking for is that color change. That spot that they got that fish out of, looks like we've got little bucket. We end up calling them. We've got a little bit deeper water areas. It's usually more green. So as we're going down, we're looking for like that green water to try and cast into. Whoo! What's the way to do this? We're taking home to make it the best meal. Nine out of ten throughout the camp in my kitchen I suppose we've got to be going to catch them too. Smoke. Who's winning now? Who's winning now? It's an under-appreciated, out-of-e-celebrating fish. That's a good one. No! Right fish. Smoke. Smoke. You're very good. Let's go. Got him! That was a fun day. Thank you, man. Seriously. That was a lot of fun. Did you guys enjoy it? A part of some browns, some white fish, almost a rainbow. You've got so many. No such things a bad day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You guys enjoyed it. Thank you so much. You brought in some browns, some white fish, almost a rainbow. I caught it. You caught so many. No such things a bad day. It was once said that oil is almost as vital to human existence as water, and whoever said it wasn't kidding. Americans alone consume more than 800 million gallons of it every day, and up to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than a thousand times over. Yeah, that's a lot. It fuels our cars, heats our homes, and can be found in any number of everyday items from cell phones, to contact lenses, to chewing gum. And believe it or not, more than 80 percent of it comes from smaller, independent companies scattered across the country, companies like Cameron Energy. Here in western Pennsylvania, it's up to a team of 40 oil workers to keep some 2,000 wells pumping across the countryside. Homebuilders getting hit from financing costs to attracting buyers, how interest rates and inflation are impacting the housing market. Plus, is there opportunity to invest in the sector? Get must-see insight on the next Barron's Roundtable brought to you by GlobalX, Beyond Ordinary ETFs. An interesting report coming out of the Heritage Foundation, running on Breitbart, Biden's green climate agenda is making our military reliant on China, or it could, or there's a risk. So let's talk about that with North Dakota Senator Mr. Kevin Kramer, Senator Kramer. Welcome back to the show. I don't know if you had a chance to see this, but I know you know a lot about the main issue here is the mismanagement of the strategic petroleum reserve, which they had knocked down the guidance of the sold off a third, I don't know, 40 percent nearly. And that is something that we might desperately need if worse came to worse and we were in some conflagration and that China was involved in that on the other side as undoubtedly any war would be. So that was the first point that they talked about. The mismanagement of the strategic petroleum reserve and Senator, one hears that they're going to do it again. The Biden's are going to take more out of that stock and know what it's artificially depressed gasoline prices, you know, a few days or weeks before the election. And it's ruining our military readiness. What do you make of it, sir? Well, it's also, Larry, a direct violation of the point of the strategic petroleum reserve. Strategic and reserve, important, right? This is not an emergency. High gas prices are frankly an outcome of Biden administration policies and it's a tragedy and it's, by the way, it's the stickiest part of this have, but what Heritage did is they drilled it right down to the warfighter themselves. The inability to draw on those reserves in just imagine a major conflict with China far, far away, in the Pacific, moving big weapons systems, moving big ships, moving a lot of personnel long distances is going to require a lot of fuel and a lot of energy, unless and of course, they're going to equip Air Force One and B-21s with solar panels. I don't think so. And by the way, even if they did and they could, solar panels come from where China, electric vehicles come from where China, the entire supply chain comes from China, other than, of course, uranium for nuclear power, that comes from Russia. And let's not forget, Larry, while we're on this roll, that China gets its oil at a discount from who I ran. Our former adversaries, our current adversaries, except now they're all allies because we're the common enemy. So I think Heritage, they did an excellent job in drilling down not just to the economic and the supply chain, but to the literal need for strategic reserves at a time when the Biden administration has brought them down at this point, Larry, I think, to a 40-year low and to your point, the strategy they're dealing with now is a campaign strategy because they want to bring the price of fuel down domestically and they're going to use the strategic reserve to do. Yeah. It's just cheap politics. That's all. But it's jeopardizing our national security as well as our energy security. The other point, Senator, is that Heritage makes here is like it or not, the U.S. military is powered by fossil fuels. And so there's a certain insanity to try to put an end to fossil fuels or cut back fossil fuels or curtail future drilling and production and transportation of fossil fuels because that's what our military uses. So in effect, all this Green New Deal stuff is doing is against running against the military. And you know what? We just hit it earlier in the show and they are defunding the military in the first place. At the end of the 10-year CBO window, as you may know, Senator Kramer, the defense spending is only going to be 2.8 percent of GDP. That is the lowest. And you have to go way back. That is basically the lowest we've had in the whole post-war period. So no fossil fuels and no money for defense. How about that? Well, for sure, I'm on the Armed Services Committee. We just marked up our National Defense Authorization Act last week out of the committee. Fortunately, Republicans with a couple of Democrats were able to raise that top line number by $25 billion. Otherwise, we're looking at a reduction, Larry, an actual reduction in military spending going forward at a time when the world is on fire in case people haven't noticed. And again, China being the big problem, but Iran, North Korea, Russia, all significant problems for us. And we're reducing, as a percentage of our GDP, the amount we're spending on preparing for the big fight in the Pacific, which we hope will never happen. But the best way to ensure it doesn't happen is to produce more energy, more fossil fuels, be the provider of choice to the world while at the same time having a strategic petroleum reserve that's readily available, that's adequate to the task, and then having the infrastructure to move all of that to where it needs to go. And doing that, Larry, will bring down the price, it'll bring down inflation for everybody. And then we don't have to put solar panels on bombers and hope that they fly. Well, that's right, which is quite a sight. Anyway, Senator Kevin Kramer, thank you, sir. We appreciate it, as always. All right, folks, we've got another story. Hollywood Joe Biden versus working class Donald Trump. How about that? Joining me now is Joe Consha, Fox News contributor, Mark Simone, Hall of Fame, W.R. Radio host, gentlemen, welcome. So the debates are coming up, and the election goes and continues, I'll begin with Mark Simone. Joe Biden, I mean, he's got a lot of Hollywood celebrity friends. Thanks for helping. Well, you need people that aren't that bright to support you. George Clooney, perfect with that crazy wife of his, you know, give Donald Trump credit. He's totally reversed everything. He's going into the bluest places, the Bronx, Detroit. He's talking to a black audience, Hispanic audiences, suburban women. This is his crowd. Biden is just left with a bunch of Jimmy Kimmel's, a bunch of goofy comedians, things have really turned around. Consha, Biden flew clear across the world practically from the G7 where he had, he got lost into seven people there, but he got on the plane and flew to this Hollywood fundraiser. I know he made a lot of money. Obama had to escort him off the stage. Maybe he was tired. I don't know. I don't even want to get into that. But the point is, do you think people resent that if you're part of this working class coalition and you see your president with all these Hollywood celebrities who ain't that popular anyway, folks don't like their movies all that much anymore anyway. What does that do? Well, to Mark's point, Hollywood is popular as gas station sushi at this point, right? It's not the fifties. Anybody that used to be anymore. Getting Sinatra's backing, you know, that was a cool thing now to get Clooney's backing, maybe not so much. And also to Mark's point, when you go to New York City and then you're with Stephen Colbert, the insufferable Stephen Colbert, and then you go to Hollywood and then you're with the intolerable Jimmy Kimmel. Meanwhile, Trump is in Wildwood, New Jersey, right? And he's in Harlem. And Democrats used to be the party, the working man and woman, and especially the party for women. And now it's the party that advocates having biological men compete against biological women in sports like boxing, volleyball, track, swimming. So while Democrats are catering to coastal elites, here you have states like Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, no coast there, not many elites there. That's what Trump is. Yeah. That's why Minnesota's up for grabs. No, it's a great point. All right. I want to move on to another thing. We're going to play a most regrettable, cringe-worthy statement by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Take a listen, fellas. You look at our administration and you were seeking yourself. We got all of this chocolate running the city. All of this chocolate running the city. Now that is cringe-worthy. There's also racist, as most unfortunate that he would say that. Mark Simmel, what's your reaction to that? I wish he knew his history. The last mayor to do that, very similar guy. He was a charming guy, personality well just, but it was Ray Negan, the mayor of New Orleans who screwed up during the hurricane. And he started doing that. He kept saying we're a chocolate city, comedians went after him. But he should study Ray Negan. That guy went down and flames his morality, ended in disaster, scandal, money, corruption. I don't know why he would copy Ray Negan right now. What's your reaction to that? I was stunned. I hadn't heard it and then producers showed it to me. What's your reaction to that? A complete unforced error. Why would you say that? And it almost felt rehearsed. That didn't come out naturally, it felt like, right? So Eric Adams has been just a profound disappointment because when the bar is so low that you are the successor to Bill the Blasio, the worst mayor in the history of any mayor of any city in this country, you can make the argument when you consider where the city was under Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani and then where it went with Bill the Blasio. There was such hope for him and now the slap at white people, I mean, what's he getting at here? He's, I don't, he's, I guess he's pandering, maybe he's an audience. If he said it's a socialist city, he could have said it's a red city, you know, hammer and sickle red city, but a chocolate city, I mean, I'm insulted by that. You should be. And by the way, the correct characterization should be Larry, sanctuary city. That's what it continues, no, no, that's a great point. That's an important point. That's the thing that's really killing him, by the way. Remember, we used to be a mosaic, a melting pot, now look at it. Right, well, that's not, yeah, exactly. And he's just playing to all the wrong fears. All right, Mark Simone, I know you want to talk about the Joe Biden replacement theory. Do you have an update for us? Yeah, actually I do. You know, I just knew that. Don't ask me. Oh, whoever really runs this whole democratic world, they're looking at a couple of people. They've been vetting a couple of people, Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, Westmore, Governor of Maryland, studying these two guys and they're sending them out. All of a sudden, you'll notice they're on every MSNBC, CNN show, young guys, without much of a record, which is important, they can't be tagged with anything. Like Obama. Yeah. You don't have much of a record there for you can really hit him with anything. Yeah. It's not horrible. Look at this bench, Shapiro, Westmore, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, this ain't the 98 Yankees, Larry. It's not that 49 or 51 yet, Willie Mayes either. It's the 62 Mets. 51 games, am I right about that? Yeah. Can anyone here play this game? That was the book that was written, I believe, with Casey Stengel's name, you've become a student of the Biden replacement theory. Oh, yeah, no, he's... I don't see how he gets through this debate. Even if physically, verbally, he gets through it. He's resting for seven days at Camp David, and we were just talking about this with Lawrence Jones. Well, the problem is when they get him ready, it's that screaming yelling Joe Biden in a room of a thousand people. That's one thing. At a table, in a small room, no, I think you can't yell and scream like that. He's got a problem. Trump should be apprentice Trump. So when we finally get around immigration, right, and he's talking about, okay, three things have to happen. Border wall construction needs to be resumed, remaining in Mexico needs to start again, and catch release needs to end. I'll let Joe Biden now take the remainder of my time, and he can explain what remain in Mexico is, and why he opposes it, along with border wall construction, and you will see someone self-destruct like you've never seen. Actually, I kind of like that. Good advice. But when you said the apprentice, I thought you were going to see it just turn the Biden and go your fire. Oh, well, yeah, I could do that, too. The voters will do that. Just chipping me. Joe Concha and Mark Simone, the best of the best. Moving up here on Cuddlow, turns out Joe Biden's IRS is busy chasing down gig economy workers and waitresses and self-employed people, not the rich, which is why Trump is right. We should make tips tax-free. Anyway, North Carolina Senator Ted Budby here to make that case. Maybe they'll go out in Congress, Biden replacement syndrome, we'll just wait and see. I'm Cuddlow. [Music] Democrats hitting the brakes on EVs as re-election chances hang in the balance are some politicians distancing themselves from Biden's policies tonight on the bottom line. Well, a newly released study unveils where the tallest men in the world live from men born in 1996 coming in at number 10, the Czech Republic, an Iceland, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. In the top five that year, Netherlands takes the top spot, the average guy there, roughly six feet tall. It is followed by Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, and Denmark. Even the United States, men average an inch shorter than males in the top ten. [Music] If we took a rearview mirror look just about all of the Ivy League guys got it wrong when they called for a recession last year, but there is someone else in of all places, the heart of Las Vegas, who perhaps has a better record on economic predictions than the Wall Street economists do. The clayman countdown took a trip to the golden silver pawn shop made famous by the history channels, Pawn Stars, where owner Rick Harrison has his own early economic indicator right from the floor of his family owned, but now world famous business. Rick Harrison, good to see you. Welcome to the world famous gold silver pawn shop. Okay, I need to see something disgusting at first, like a monkey scholar of velvet Elvis. How about a dinosaur skull? Okay, let's do it. All right, this way. That's a mosesaurus, it's like a water animal, like a crocodile-ish. Who needed money for this? You've driven around the country and you've seen all these fossil shops and everything like that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would go out of business. And they need money fast. We got quite a crowd here. Oh my goodness. Hi, you guys. We're Fox business. Wow. You're kind of famous, maybe. A little bit. I get a little bit of everything here. I mean, there's a samurai sword from 1500. Oh, well, by all means, we need a samurai sword in the house right now. That's an NBA championship ring. Over the years, they've gotten crazier and crazier. I mean, that's like 2000. That's what a world series ring looks like. It's almost unwearable. Dodgers. Well, who's was this? That one was a players. I feel sad. I mean, when I do feel sad when people pawn stuff, I mean, this is like an heirloom. At least they have something to pawn. OK. OK. Yeah. And I don't feel any remorse for anybody who made gazillions of dollars in sports and blew it off. Nice. I have a friend who got drafted for the Broncos in 1974 and he got like a $40,000 signing bonus to go. What'd you do with the money? He goes, I bought a fur coat and a van. Oh, the purse section. Yes. Lemon addition, Louis Vuitton. OK. And the first thing you're going to ask, how's we know that it's fake? How do you know it's a stick? OK. Simple. You check everything. The fabrics right, the prints right, the zippers are right, the stitching is right. The tags are right. Everything has to be perfect. And if one thing's wrong, run. Yeah. What do you have here? OK. So the entire front row is Rolex's. Those are Rolex's. Those are Rolex's. Rolex is there. Omega. How about this really glittery one? That's a pretty blunt one. Ooh. This is like two blingy. OK. The purse-- this would have actually been worth more money than it would put the diamonds on it. How many Rolexes have you moved through this pawn shop since 1989? Oh, it's high. I have no idea. I mean, like nowadays I sell at least 100 a month. Plus people will realize right around 20% of the people in the United States can't even get a bank account. Can't get a credit card. They have to use alternative forms of financing. Pawn shops are literally-- it's the oldest form of banking. It's mentioned in the Bible. And it's really simple banking. You frame me collateral. I loan you money. You don't pay me back. I paid the collateral. And I charge interest. What are the terms of the loan? How does that work? You got 90 days to pick it up. I charge 13% a month. But also, you've got to realize the average loan is like $100. So I get $13. OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] I will eliminate taxes on tips for restaurant workers and hospitality workers, and anyone else be lying on tips, no more taxes on tips. All right. There you have it, President Trump's proposal for tax-free tips. Joining us now to talk about it, North Carolina Senate and Ted Bud, Senator Bud, welcome, sir. We appreciate it very much. You know, I want to start with this point. Before we get back to the tips and the tax-free tips, there's a story running up on Fox Business Digital. IRS penalties on American taxpayers surged nearly 300% last year. OK. And guess who? Guess who? Freelancers, gig workers, and others, self-employed individuals. Not rich people. Not rich people in the gig economy, you know, Uber drivers, waitresses, probably golf caddies, as Mr. Trump has said, and other venues. I mean, I thought it was going to be, you know, all this IRS money should just go after rich people. Turns out that's not the case, Senator Bud. He's going after some of the hardest-working folks out there, and this didn't just start recently. This didn't just start when Donald Trump announced that he was not going to tax tips. And, by the way, we're working on legislation, Ted Cruz has started legislation on that, so we're ready to go as soon as Trump is in office. Got an election in front of us, so we have to handle that first on November 5th. But right now, I mean, you can look at the 85,000 IRS employees that Joe Biden hired. These are the folks he hired to go after these hard-working people. If you look at the people who use Venmo all the time, people add more than $600 to transactions in Venmo. That was a year or two ago. This is under Joe Biden. Obviously, you can tell the people that he's going after. Everything Joe Biden has done has made it harder on hard-working people, and everything Trump wants to do, and by the way, he's already done it before, makes it easier on the hard-working folks. And, you know, when President Biden always launches, I bet, his IRS agent was $80 billion for 85,000 IRS workers or whatever, they're going to go after the rich people. Articles like this completely say, "No, they're not." And they never do. They're exactly right. When you get down right to it, they're just chasing waitresses, chasing waiters, chasing golf caddies, self-employed people, Uber drivers, gig economy people. Now, coming back to the tax-free on tips, I think it's a compelling case. Is there any way, Senator, you could get a vote. I know you probably lose it, but you could get a vote on the floor of the Senate before the election. Kind of embarrass those people on, shall we say, the other side of the aisle that want to tax everybody in the gig economy. I sure think we should try. Chuck Schumer doesn't want us in Washington. He doesn't have much time on the calendar. Unfortunately, he's in charge. We're going to make the Republicans in charge come November. I'm very excited about this, but we need to make them vote, because you see the folks that are after. They're after them with 85,000 IRS agents. They're after them going after your Venmo. They're going after your tips, and they're going after you with inflation, because, look, a rich person may not know if you put how much it costs to put gas in your tank or diesel in your truck. But somebody going to work every day, filling up their truck, going to the construction site. They know how much it costs. And here in North Carolina, Larry, it costs $1,100 more per month for an average family. And folks that I talk to, they say they can't afford that, and I believe them. In table issues, I think we're all assuming Mr. Trump will lean on those kitchen table issues in the upcoming debate. Give you a last word, Senator Bud. Well, look, everything Joe Biden's done has made it hard for us. Everything Trump does is makes it easier for us, and he's already proven himself. We got to get him back in office to take our country back. Senator Ted Bud, North Carolina, thank you, sir. We appreciate your time very much. Folks, I'll be right back with my last word. Mega merger news in the events industry, Honeywell International reaching a roughly $2 billion deal to purchase aerospace and technology company Case Systems from private equity firm, Advent International. The Wall Street Journal reporting the deal is all cash. Honeywell's second recent acquisition in the aerospace tech industry in recent months. A new poll shows retail stores are struggling to stay open because of the impact of inflation. It found that U.S. drugstore and pharmacy closures led to eight million square feet of shuttered retail space this year. The study also found retailers have closed nearly 3,200 stores already in 2024. That's a 24% increase compared to last year. And going somewhere for Independence Day, plan accordingly because you will not be alone. More than 71 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more during the week of July 4th, setting a new record and surging past pre-pandemic numbers. AAA predicting 85% of travelers will be driving, 8% will be flying, and 6.5% will take other forms of transportation. A AAA travel executive saying, "We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever with an additional 5.7 million people traveling compared to 2019." That's Business. I'm CJ Papa. This is the original thing. It's the final chapter in the saga of this Higgins Landing Craft that saw combat during World War II and somehow ended up in Shasta Lake in Northern California, exposed two years ago after the drought caused the lake level to drop. Experts say the wooden boat was well-preserved after spending 50 years in the dark cold water. No one knows how it got here, but the boat's history before its remarkable discovery is well-documented. Higgins Boat 3117 was attached to the USS Monrovia, a warship that served as general patents headquarters during the Battle of Sicily. With their iconic drop-down ramps, Higgins Boat's transported soldiers from ship to shore for beach invasions, battles that helped secure the Allied victory in 1945. The last veteran who served with this boat on the USS Monrovia recently passed away, and the Monrovia itself was scrapped in the late 1960s. In all likelihood, Higgins Boat 3117 is all that remains from this particular chapter of World War II. The design, why these boats were so successful, was the design by Higgins and brass fixings in the Hoggany plywood. Just quality construction really gave the Allies the edge during the landings. Since its discovery, local military buff James Dunstan has preserved the Higgins Boat on his property. But now it's headed to its final destination, the National Guard Museum in Seward, Nebraska. The cost to transport the boat there is being underwritten by philanthropist Virginia Cattle, whose late husband served in the Battle of Sicily. She wants to memorialize his service by bringing this rare artifact to their hometown museum, where the contributions of Higgins Boat's and the sacrifice of so many Americans can be studied and honored. In Trinity County, California, Claudia Cowen, Fox News. Hello, this is Foxx. Straight to our friends watching in Canada, thank you for choosing Fox. You can catch both Fox Business and Fox News on Rogers. Keep it right here. And we begin with this Fox News alert, America turns to Fox News. We are feeling the impact all across the country. Stream it now on the Fox News International app. It's the place for top political coverage. It's a very big day here at the White House. With must-see insight and analysis, you won't get anywhere else. We will never be the media mob. And stay on top of the US markets with Fox Business. Watch your favorite shows live or get them on demand. Download the Fox News International app now from the Apple or Google Play stores. Also available on Amazon Fire. Tell you what, the war against fossil fuels and this political management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is badly weakening US security against our enemies like China, Russia, or Iran. And it's... The Fox True Crime Podcast presents crimes on campus, sharing chilling stories of scandal, corruption, and murder. New episodes available every Tuesday this month. You'll listen and follow at foxtruecrime.com. [BLANK_AUDIO]
