Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / It's a Wel-fraud Wonderland, Industrial-Scale Theft in Minnesota & GDP Boom vs. Media Gloom Week In Review

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It's a Wel-fraud Wonderland, Industrial-Scale Theft in Minnesota & GDP Boom vs. Media Gloom Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Week in Review Ben
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Ferguson with you, and here are some of the big
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: stories that you may have missed as you were celebrating
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Christmas with your family and your friends. First up, Wall
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Street Journal is now reporting there's massive fraud in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: US government, Like we didn't see that coming, but they're
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: even admitting now it's worse and you could ever imagine.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We'll have the details of that for you in just
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a moment.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Also, Minnesota fraud costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: And what we're.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Also being told is the fraud, well, it's not going
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: away anytime soon, so how do we stop it. We'll
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: explain that as well. And finally, the media and the
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: liberals got it wrong. Economic data looking great for the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: GDP report, and the media is now downplaying it, trying
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: to act like it never even happen. It's the Week
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: in Review and it starts right now, all right, So
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I want to move to another part of the story,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: and it's bigger than Minnesota. We were talking about the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: fraud there, but the Wall Street Journal came out with
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a very interesting report and I think it's worth as
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: taking a moment to talk about it. It's the biggest
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: fraud in welfare and it just talks about how much
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: abuse there is in the welfare system. It's costing hundreds
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of billions of dollars to American taxpayers.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Well, and in particular what it talks about is is
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: bogus bookkeeping that covers it up. And this is an
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: op ed that was written by Phil Graham and John Earley.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Phil Graham was previously senator from the state of Texas.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: He's an economist. Phil is a good friend of mine,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: and it's an important op ed that he wrote December
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: seventeenth in the Journal. It's entitled the Biggest Fraud in Welfare.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: The government gives tens of thousands of dollars in benefits
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: to the poor, which it doesn't count as income. And
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: so this is in some ways an accounting story. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: please don't go to sleep right now, particularly if you're driving.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Don't go to it is an accounting story that matters.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: So here's what Phil Graham wrote. Something is profoundly wrong
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: with the US welfare system, a problem that runs far
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: deeper and is more dangerous than the shocking fraud in
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Minnesota that has been making headlines. Across the past half century,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: America has seen what in any other country would be
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: considered a golden age, in which lower income households have
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: made incredible progress. Despite the end of our post war
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: economic dominance around nineteen seventy five, the country's real per
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: capita gross domestic product grew by one hundred and forty
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: two percent from nineteen seventy four to twenty twenty four.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: More than two thirds of US households have inflation adjusted
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: incomes today that would have put them in the top
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: one fifth of households in nineteen sixty seven. So used
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: to be the top one fifth of households in nineteen
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: sixty seven. Today, more than two thirds of US households
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: have inflation that would put them there. Sixty two percent
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of all children who grew up in the poorest fifth
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: of all households in the seventies and eighties worked their
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: way up to a higher income bracket as adults, some
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: all the way up to the top quintile. Yet, even
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: as our economy has experienced broad based growth, real federal
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: welfare spending has soared by what do you think the
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: number is.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to guess seventy percent.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Seven hundred and sixty five percent, more than twice as
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: fast as total federal spending, and now costs one point
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: four trillion dollars Annuallyble We're that were that money simply
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: to be doled out evenly to the nineteen point eight
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: million families the government defines as poor each household. How
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: much you think each household would receive a year if
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: you just took all the welfare payments and sent a
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: check to each household directly?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to guess in the thousands.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: More than seventy thousand dollars a year.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Tell me about me, I mean, tell me that's not
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: a perfect example of government waste when you could just
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: send direct checks of seventy grand a year to people.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: The source of this dramatic mismatch is a fraud built
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: into how various programs determine welfare eligibility. The government doesn't
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: count any refundable tax credits or benefits that aren't paid
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: in cash as income to the recipients. Some claim this
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: is appropriate because the beneficiaries aren't free to spend non
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: cash benefits on whatever they like, But that is a
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: specious argument, because money is fungible receiving Medicaid, for example,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: freeze up cash that would otherwise be spent on healthcare,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: allowing the recipients to spend the newly freed cash on
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: other things. Non Cash benefits aren't, in the end that
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: different from income, except that salaries are taxed while government
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: benefits aren't, and if individual welfare programs often don't even
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: count benefits paid in cash as income for the purposes
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: of gauging eligibility, the government's failure to count its largess
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: as the recipient's income allows welfare households to blow past
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the income level above which a working family no longer
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: qualifies for government help. Take a single parent with two
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: school aged children who earns eleven thousand dollars annually from
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: part time work. The government considers this household in poverty
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: because its income is below twenty five thousand, two hundred
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: and seventy three dollars, But this family would qualify for
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: benefits worth fifty three thousand, one hundred and twenty eight dollars.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: It would receive Treasury checks of three thousand, four hundred
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: dollars in refundable tax credits and four thousand, four hundred
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: dollars in refundable earned income tax credits, would also receive
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: food stamp debit cards worth nine thousand, two hundred and
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: sixteen dollars a year, nine thousand, four hundred and seventy
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: six dollars in housing subsidies, eight hundred and seventy seven
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: dollars of government payments for utility bills, sixteen thousand and
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: thirty three dollars to fund Medicaid, three thousand, one hundred
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: and two dollars in free meals at schools, and six thousand,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: six hundred and twenty four dollars in temporary assistants needy families.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: All this puts the family's income at sixty four thousand,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty eight dollars, or two hundred and
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: fifty four percent of the poverty level. And look, the
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: point Phil Graham goes on on this, But the point
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: is when they're measuring income, they exclude all the welfare
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: and benefits that are going down, and then they measure
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: income and said, look how poor people are without counting
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: the money that is going out out the door. And
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: by the way, this also contributes to the massive fraud
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: we saw in Minnesota because because the Democrats, and the
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: federal government and state government are just focusing on shoveling
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: cash out the door, and they're not focusing on how
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: do you how do you actually ensure any accountability or
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: even more importantly, how do you get people off welfare. Look,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite phrases is that the social safety
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: net should be a trampoline and not a hammock. And
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: by that what it means is is, listen, many people
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: get down on their luck. They need help. But the
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: entire focus should be to get you back on your feet.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: The entire focus should be to spring you out of
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: the safety net and get you where you're working, where
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: you have a job, where you're providing for your own family.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: You know, there's a dignity to work. You look at
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: families that are trapped in generational poverty one generation after
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: another after another, and you lose the self respect.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: One of the amazing successes of welfare reform, one of
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: the amazing successes of the first term of Trump that
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: saw over seven million people go off food stamps and
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: go into the workforce, is that seven million people that
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: get to experience the dignity of work. I mean, that's
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: literally a single mom who comes home from her job
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: and is carrying two bags of groceries and puts those
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: growth trees on the kitchen table, and she looks at
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: her kids and she has the self respect of knowing, Hey,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I'm providing for you, and the kids look at her
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: and know that my mom is providing for you. Look, look,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: God created mankind. I believe to work and to be
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: productive and to make a difference, to provide for your family.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: And this welfare machine that the Left is so invested
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: in traps people in dependency. And you're not doing anyone
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: a favor by making them dependent on government. Instead, you're
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: sapping them of the path to the American dream.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two. Senator,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: There's another big story that I want to get to,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: and that is the out of control fraud. We have
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: now got a number, and it could go higher. At
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: least nine billion was looted from the Minnesota medicaid programs.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Plus there was welfare fraud as well.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: In a bombshell report coming from the Wall Street Journal,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: This does not look good for the governor there, and
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of mayors have now sent him a letter
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: saying we are in trouble and it's your fault.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Look, the level of fraud we're seeing welfare medicaid fraud
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: in Minnesota is staggering. It is an order of magnitude
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: greater than we've seen. And here are the basic facts.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Federal prosecutors alleged Thursday that Minnesota may have lost billions
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: of dollars to fraud in its medicaid program. The latest
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: development in an ongoing investigation, as much as half, half
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: fifty percent of the roughly eighteen billion dollars Minnesota has
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: spent since twenty eighteen on fourteen medicaid programs, particularly vulnerable
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: to abuse, may have been siphoned off by fraudsters, according
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: to Assistant US Assistant Attorney Joe Thompson, and made the
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: remarks as prosecutors announced to additional charges in the ongoing
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: investigation of the staggering industrial scale fraud engulfing the state. Quote,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: the fraud is not small, It isn't isolated. The magnitude
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: cannot be overstated. What we see in Minnesota is not
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: a handful of a bad actors committing crimes. It's a staggering,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: industrial scale fraud. It's swamping Minnesota and calling into question
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: everything we know about our state, the level of it.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Half of medicaid for years, that's in Minnesota. By the way,
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: if you watch the corporate media, you've seen very little
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: about this. They don't want to cover this at all
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: because it is the complicity of the Democrats in office.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: And understand, Minnesota is a one party state. It is
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: governed by Democrats. Democrats are in charge. They looked the
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: other way. Why did they look the other way? Well,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: much of this fraud was carried out Somali's We covered
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: the previous verdict how the single largest contributor to al Shabab.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Al Shabab is a radical Islamist terrorist organization in Somalia.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: The single largest contributor to al Shabab are the Minnesota taxpayers.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: That's the level of the of the the theft that
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: went on and Democrats elected Democrats in Minnesota. They happily
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: look the other way. Why because they were buying votes.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And you know what if they actually watched the taxpayer
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: dollars and didn't let the criminals steal it, Well, somebody
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: might be upset if they if they had even the
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: tiniest modicum of scrutiny. It is shocking.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Well, and you know what you mentioned like a moment ago,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and that is that the media has not been touching this. Luckily,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: local media has CBS, for example, locally UH in Minnesota.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: They did a report on this that was just kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: of throwing their hands up in the air, like this
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: is so egregious. We need you to know the now,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: social media completely silent, no accountability for the governor. There
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: are those in leadership under him. I want to play
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: this for people. This is again the local CBS affiliate.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: They're talking about the fraud crisis. Take a listen.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: Minnesota's fraud crisis is growing today. Prosecutors charge more people
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: for billing the state for social services they did not provide.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: The federal prosecutor says it's possible half or more of
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: the eighteen billion dollars billed to fourteen programs since twenty
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: eighteen is fraudulent. We have team coverage started with Jona
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: Kaplan with more on what we've learned about these latest charges. Jonah,
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: So we've gone from maybe a billion dollars to possibly
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: nine billion or more well.
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: We've heard from the new US Attorney, Frank that we're
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: not even at the end of the beginning of this investigation,
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: and now we know why Feeding our Future was just
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: the tip of the iceberg.
• 12:51
  Speaker 7: The fraud is not small, it isn't isolated. The manitude
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: cannot be overstated.
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: Prosecutors on Thursday indicting six people, including one already charged
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: in another case. The five new defendants are all accused
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: of defrauding a state program meant to provide housing assistance
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: to the disabled and those dealing with addiction. Two people
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: charged aren't even from here. According to officials, Anthony Jefferson
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: and Lester Brown came from Philadelphia to Minnesota looking for
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: an opportunity to make money. They set up two fake
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: companies and collected three point five million dollars.
• 13:25
  Speaker 7: This is an instance of what essentially fraud tourism. Mister
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: Jefferson and Brown were residents of Philadelphia. We had no
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: connection to Minnesota except for they heard that Minnesota and
• 13:38
  Speaker 7: its Housing Stabilization Services program was easy money.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: The state already cut off the housing stabilization program because
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: of suspected fraud, but it's one of fourteen social programs
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: now under federal investigation. Together, they built eighteen billion dollars
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: since twenty eighteen. We asked how much could have been fraud.
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: You know, I don't make these generalizations in a hasty way.
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: So when I say a significant a mount, I'm talking
• 14:02
  Speaker 7: in an order of half or more. But we'll see.
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: One of the new indictments accuses of fraud ser of
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: exploiting a program to help children with autism. Court documents
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: say Abd Najib Hasan yusef use some of the six
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: million bucks he stole to buy a freightliner semi truck.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: Governor Walls, in a statement said he applauded the new indictments, saying, quote,
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: this is exactly the type of strong action we need
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: from prosecutors to ensure fraudsters are put behind bars. Frank,
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: this is not going away anytime soon.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: That I love the end there, Frank, this is not
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: going away anytime soon. Well, if Democrats have their way
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and the governor this will just be like a one
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: time reporter.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Then we just move on.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: And hey, if it goes from nine billion to twelve
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: billion or fifteen billion, who knows where the number could end.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And that was what they were referring to there at
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: CBS Local, They're like, hey, we went from one billion
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: to nine billion, and that may not be the final number.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Well, and Tim Waltz says he applauds the indictments. Well,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: my question is where was Tim Waltz. Where was the governor?
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: He was like, where's Waldo? He was popping up everywhere
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: he could. He was following Kamala Harris on the campaign trail,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: but he was not actually doing his job as governor.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: And listen, there is a political reason. And Ben, I'm
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: going to make a prediction right now.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I love it when you do this because usually you're right.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: So pay attention to everyone.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: As horrific as this fraud is in Minnesota, and it
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: is staggering, it is historically bad. I'm going to make
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: a prediction that it is worse, that there is even
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: more fraud in New York, California, and Illinois.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: So you don't believe this is an isolated instant to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the I followed my money, I do not.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: I think in bright blue states where the Democrats control
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: all of the levers of government, all of the machinery,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I think the same incentives that cause the Democrat politicians
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: in Minnesota to try to buy votes by allowing people
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: to rob the taxpayers blind. I think those exact same
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: incentives are playing out in New York. I think those
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: exact same incentives are playing out in Illinois. And I
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: think those exact same incentives are playing out in California.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: So I'm calling on the Trump administration to audit, audit
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: every state, but start with the big blue states, because
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I think that is where you were most likely to
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: find find the fraud, where the pattern is the same.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: And I gotta I gotta tell you, people like Gavin
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Newsom are sweating right now. They don't want anyone looking
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: at the fraud in California because my the incentives are identical,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: and I suspect you're going to see the very same
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: pattern playing out over and over and over again.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: You know you mentioned they don't want you looking. There
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: was a very interesting playbook. When Democrats get in trouble,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: they usually just start playing the race card, throwing down
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: the race card. Tim Malts had a press conference and
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: he was asked about the fraud in this my community,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: the money going back to the terrorist organization Al Shabab,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: and how much just just total pure corruption. There was
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: and then he was asked about ice raids in Minnesota.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: He's obviously against that.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: They are a welcoming state, as he describes it, they're
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: a sanctuary state. And what Tim Waltz had to say
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: back it really did kind of make me laugh because
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: it's so predictable, and yet it's the classic playbook they've
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: been using. You question them on anything they get wrong,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: they're like, oh, well, your racist, a big at, homophobes,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: enephob the list goes on't on, well, now it's white
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: supremacy if you actually enforce the law of the land
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: with the legal immigrants in the state. Here's how he
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: put it, Tim Waltz in Minnesota.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: So this is what happens when your own federal government
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: wages war against you. This is what happens when they
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: target communities for their own benefit. This is what happens
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: when they scapegoat, And this is what say happens when
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy. When
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: you hear the Vice President of the United States talk
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: about now white people won't have to apologize for being white.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: That's never happened once in my whole damn life. And
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: I think everybody in this room knows what they're doing.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: So we're here today to say enough of this. We're
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: here today to stand that Minnesota will protect their neighbors.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Minnesota will protect their neighbors. And this is what happened.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Robbed them blind, Yeah, and rob them blind nine nine
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: billion that we know of right, And he says, we're
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: not gonna We're know we're gonna allow them to hide
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: the idea of white supremacy. When you hear the Vice president,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is the classic democratic playbook.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Don't look at what I'm doing. I'm gonna yell you're
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a racist.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Like he has literally overseen the biggest recorded fraud in
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: US government history, not just a fraud on the taxpayers
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that defrauded the taxpayers of Minnesota, that defrauded the taxpayers
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: of every state, federal taxpayers, but also that saw the
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: federal tax dollars diverted to illegal immigrants to Somali's who
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: sent it to Al Shabab, a radical Islamic terror organization.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: So it's fraud funding Islamist terror. And what is Tim
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Waltz's response to scream white supremacy, white supremacy. At some
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: point those talking points get a little tired, and it's
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: a clear and transport parent effort just to avoid any
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: accountability and to be avoid being held responsible for what
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: he allowed to happen.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: As before, if you want to hear the rest of
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: dow the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: entire thing. I want to get back to the big
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: story number three of the week. You may have missed center.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: There was a Christmas gift that was given to all Americans.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: It didn't matter if you're rich or poor. It didn't
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: matter if you were black or white, or Hispanic or
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: anything else in between. We got some new economic data
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: and it was.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I tell you what.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: If there's anybody that had colon their stocking, it was
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: the media. There was an article that came out by
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: the New York Times predicting the complete opposite of what
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: GDP report showed. Of course, they're not going to retract it,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: but they do look like idiots. And again you got
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: to ask yourself this question, are they really willing and
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: wanting to hurt Americans? They want Americans to suffered just
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: so Donald Trump looks bad, because that's what their reporting
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: seems to look.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Like well, listen, the news that broke just this week
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: is the economy is booming. That the latest GDP numbers
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: show four point three percent GDP growth, which is terrific
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: GDP growth. And let me read from the Wall Street Journal,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: consumers power strongest US economic growth in two years. A
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: long delayed government report shows third quarter GDP grew at
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: an annual four point three percent rate. Robust spending by
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: US consumers drove greater than expected economic expansion in the
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: third quarter and the strongest growth rate in two years.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: produced across the economy, rose at a seasonally and inflationally
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: adjusted four point three percent annual rate from July through September,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: the Commers Department said Tuesday. The report was delayed nearly
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: two months by the government shutdown and looks back at
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: the period before the shutdown was in effect. It does, however,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: offer a snapshot of an economy that has managed to
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: keep humming along for much of the year. Growth picked
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: up from three point eight percent in the previous corner
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: and easily beat the three point two percent forecast among
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. It was by
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: the way, it's over a point higher than expectations. That's
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: a big deal. As the journal said, it was the
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: strongest expansion since the third quarter of twenty twenty three.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Rising consumer spending was partly driven by healthcare, including outpatient
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: services and at hospitals and nursing homes. International travel, legal services,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: and spending on products like personal computers and software also contributed.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Artificial intelligence related spending helped too, though the pace of
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: growth appeared to cool from the second quarter. Overall business
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: investment grows slow to two point eight percent in the
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: third quarter from seven point three percent in the prior
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: three months. This is great news. And listen, when GDP
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: is booming, what that means is it means there's more jobs.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: It means there's more productivity. It means the stock market
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: is going up. It means people four oh one k's
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: are going up. It means wages are likely to rise.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: And so GDP growth, it's not always immediate. Are there
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: still people struggling, Yes, But GDP growth is driven And
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you one of the things we're seeing is
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: the Christmas spending numbers are very, very strong, and so
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: that's one of the signs of consumer confidence that you know,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: if you're worried, if you're scared about not being able
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: to pay your rent or your mortgage, then you don't
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: necessarily go out and do some big shopping for Christmas time.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: We sell the record breaking numbers on Black Friday and
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Cyber Monday. And that was as the Democrats are saying
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: that we were in a tail spin and this was
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: a disaster of an economy, and they were trying to
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: say Donald Trump is ruining your Christmas.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, the data says that people, as.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: You just mentioned, they're going out and spinning at record
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: numbers on Black Friday in Cyber Monday.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: So that tells me that someone's lying.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. And here I want to show you.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: You talked about the press being dismayed, and I got
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: to say that the corporate media is utterly corrupt. They
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: are dishonest. I just want to read to you two tweets.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: The first tweet is from October thirtieth, twenty twenty four. Now, now,
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: what was happening right after October thirtieth, twenty.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Twenty four the election presidential There.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Was a presidential election, and who was president oft October
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, at least nominally.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Well, the auto pen but if you're what an actual
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: person with a heartbeat, we'll go with Joe Biden.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, So here's what ABC News tweeted tweeted October thirtieth,
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, one week before the presidential election. Just in,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: the US economy grew at a robust two point eight
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: percent annualized rate in the third quarter, slowing slightly from
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: the previous quarter, but continuing to dispel any concern about
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: a possible shutdown. This report comes just ahead of the
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: presidential election. All right, so that was a year ago.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Now that was two point eight percent. What do you
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: think ABC News said about four point three percent?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: What was it?
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Just in, the US economy expanded more than economists expected
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: over a recent three month period, recording robust growth despite
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: concerns about sluggish hiring and cash strap shoppers. Federal government
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: data showed, So two point eight percent is robust and fantastic,
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: And yeay, four point three percent, Well, we're really worried
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: about sluggish hiring and cash strap shoppers. And yeah, okay,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: I guess it is like almost twice as high, But
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: damn it. We don't like those numbers. That is not news.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: And I literally whoever wrote that tweet should be fire.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Like if ABC pretended to be a journalist, you'd say, Okay,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: go work for the DNC, because you want to be
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: a partisan parrot. That's who they are and it's why
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: people don't trust the news. Now, I want you to
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: listen to Kevin Hasset. Kevin Hasset is the head of
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: the National Economic Council in the White House. Listen to
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Kevin talking about these recent GDP numbers.
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: No, it's a fantastic report. Four point three percent. That's
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: just about as good as GDP numbers get, and especially
• 25:29
  Speaker 8: coming on the heels of the CPI report consumer Price
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: Index report we got, which you actually showed some interesting
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: data that's consistent with this, showed that quarter inflation is
• 25:39
  Speaker 8: all the way down to one point six percent. And
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: so I think that these numbers are showing the President
• 25:45
  Speaker 8: Trump's trade policy and his supply side policy, which is
• 25:49
  Speaker 8: really increasing new factory production and so on, is having
• 25:52
  Speaker 8: a big, big effect, as is his trade policy. So
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: if we abstract from the reduction of the trade deficit,
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: then the four three percent number would only be two
• 26:01
  Speaker 8: point six percent. So Trump's trade policy is really working
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: as well.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: You know, as they mentioned trade policy, because that was
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: one of the other big lies this year in twenty
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: twenty five, which is the shelves are gonna be empty
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: at Christmas, the toys you wanted for your kids were
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: gonna be note on those shelves. You're not gonna be
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: able to afford basic things. Half of the store is
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: gonna be gone at Walmart and Target and Costco and
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Sam's Club.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: None of that happened.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: And they said there was gonna be massive spikes and
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: prices for everything that you couldn't afford.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Again, that didn't happen either.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: While we collected record number of tariffs and cash, the
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: presence trade deals seem to actually be working and the
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: leverage seems to be working, and they don't want to
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: admit that this has not been a disaster.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Well, listen, there's still some volatility when it comes to
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: trade policy, and I you know, I'd been advocating that
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: the president uses trade policy as leverage to open up
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: forward markets, and he's been doing that that has been very,
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: very successful. This also underscores basic supply side principles that
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: when you cut tack as we did, and when you
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: repeal job killing regulations as President Trump is doing, it
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: results in more investments, more jobs, and the economy is booming.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: This is basic cause and effect.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.