บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ The Decisions Shaping America with Katie Harbath, Kip Herriage, U.S. Senator Jon Husted & Gary Gygi

And then after twenty sixteen, really helping to coordinate all of our election integrity work at the company. speaker-2: I in terms of so you've been there from the start and sort of helping invent what a digital campaign is, how social media interacts with politics. what were the two or three biggest lessons you've learned along the way? And and then I wanna get into how you think that's shaping the country. speaker-0: So I think the lessons on the campaign side are you've always gotta be ready to pivot because there's always new tools, new platforms, new like new vectors that you have to think about, right? Back in the day, it used to just be cable TV and newspapers and radio. And now it's so many different platforms, audio, video, right? Like that you have to do and it's a lot of work. And the thing too is like the still number one rule is you need to be authentic, right? You can't you've gotta be authentic to you. throughout the entire thing, but also only having an online strategy is not gonna help you win. You gotta have both online and offline, right? Like you gotta have the right blend of the two. speaker-2: So I I think that the point about authenticity is interesting because it seems like on one side that's shifting right now, like for the last decade, ⁓ fifteen years, I I agree a hundred percent it's been critical to be authentic and candidates like a, for instance, Hillary Clinton that couldn't really do that got punished for it. And Republicans, that's still the case. Is that really continuing to be the case on the Democrat side? 'Cause you see a lot of their sort of front leaders and I view them and maybe maybe my view is skewed, but I view them and I'm like, Man, these people are just full of it and they're spinning a web. speaker-0: Well, and that's what's gonna be interesting as we go into the midterms and the twenty-eight cycle, right? ⁓ but I think we also have to realize the authenticity is not just with the candidates themselves, but it is with people who have their own newsletters, who have their own followings on Instagram, who have their own YouTube shows, who have their own podcasts that the candidates are now needing to go on instead of just sitting down with let's say meet the press. speaker-2: And and that's a much more dangerous land I mean, that's a minefield of a landscape for a candidate, right? 'Cause you you kinda know what you're gonna get, even with a if you're a Republican going on meet the press and you get a hostile, you know, hostile panel, you know the limits of what you're about to run into. speaker-0: Yeah, and I think that ⁓ but that also requires ⁓ either the candidate, but you know, more likely the if you're a political staffer ⁓ and your job, particularly in communications, is to help advise the candidate, you need to be a part of this world. You need to understand who these people are, you need to be familiar and listen to them just like back in the day. The reason you knew what to expect on Meet the Press is you watched Meet the Press every week. Right. So you knew sort of like what this was gonna look like. You knew the people that were on the panel, you were not you were watching them on cable. all throughout the week. So you kind of knew what their angle was going to be. I now try to make a a concerted effort to make sure I'm following all sorts of different people ⁓ across Instagram, TikTok, Substack, podcasts, all of that. So that way when I do go on a show, I have a general sense of where the host is going to go. speaker-2: Do you think the focus on this type of really granular, obviously, outreach and and social media engagement for candidates, do you think that there is a limiting aspect of that in terms of their ability to broadcast a wider message? speaker-0: Hmm. Yes and no. I think this is where you it's also gonna really depend on the candidate, right? Like, are you a nationwide candidate? Are you just in one state? Are you just a member of Congress? And like who the other lesson too that we've always said, right, is who's your audience? Know who your audience is, know who you're trying to reach. And I think that one thing that candidates can do, yes, there's whose shows you're going on, but then who is the candidate? What are you portraying on your own channels? How are you building up your own audience? How are you able to and it's also staying consistent on your message from platform to platform to platform that you're talking on. speaker-2: Moving to a l a little bit of a broader subject here, how mu how has this change in digital campaigning, all the new technologies, how has that changed politics underlying it? I and I know that's a broad question, but but it seems like i it because I've been in this business ⁓ you know, starting in the late nineteen nineties and and through now. So I went through that transition you were talking about in twenty ten. ⁓ and and I guess I a thing that's sort of disconcerting to me is that it seems to have narrowed policy debates to inanity. speaker-0: yes, I agree with you on that. I I see some of the biggest changes. One, because the internet allowed for fundraising across the country in a much easier way for these candidates. You started to see this a lot starting in 2010 with the Tea Party. ⁓ right? ⁓ where they were able to not ha be like, we can buck the national committee. We don't need your help. We're gonna do small dollar fundraising. all across the country, which meant they no longer had an incentive to work with the broader party. And the way that they raised that money was by n by being more extreme as well, which I think caused that policy ⁓ break that you were saying as well, ⁓ around it. speaker-2: So going i in terms of the last fifteen years, I I felt like Republicans have been behind the the ball a little bit on this throughout that period. ⁓ Democrats obviously tend to have a a bit of a younger cohort that is more digitally savvy and ⁓ adopts the newest platforms very

quickly. And then you kind of compare so you look at like the explosion of TikTok and the move, you know, Instagram, Facebook becomes Instagram becomes the big avenue, then it's TikTok. ⁓ YouTube obviously has developed in a different space. There's gonna be all of the there there will be more disruptions in the future. do Republicans need to get better at adapting to those changes? Because it seems like we're always one step behind, or maybe that's just where our audience is. speaker-0: Well, actually what I've seen over the last twenty five years, and I thought about this a lot with the book, is there always tends to be this leapfrogging, right? Like coming out of 04, it was Republicans using micro targeting. Like they were seen as ahead. And then the Democrats tried to catch up. And then ⁓ eight and twelve, Republicans were behind, at least at the presidential level. I actually argue at lower level races in many ways. I think Republicans were better than than Democrats in some of all of this. And then like I'd be curious how you think about this, but like One of the things about the Trump campaign, and I write about this in the book too, because I was at Facebook. Like the Trump campaign was asking like any ideas, any new things we were doing, we were offering in both campaigns. The Trump team was like, yes, come in, let's test it. Like they were very much about, like, all right, let's put it out there, see what works and you know what doesn't. Whereas the Clinton team was like, Don't call us, we'll call you. We know what we're doing ⁓ when it comes to all of this. ⁓ I think too, the difference between It's really hard to compare the Democrats and Republicans because frankly, we're kind of like we're apples and oranges with how the media ecosystem is around us. And on the Republican side, ever since the advent of talk radio, it has very much been building up its own ecosystem and also around influencers, right? Like you have a lot of folks, turning point USA, all of that, that have a lot of ⁓ right-leaning influencers that the Democrats are frankly quite jealous of ⁓ when it comes to when it comes to all of that. ⁓ and so I think that there is a real battle right now. If you talk to people on the left, they feel like they're behind. You talk to people on the right, they kind of feel like they're behind. And everyone's trying now trying to figure out where do we use AI and where what does that look like and what is gonna be acceptable versus not acceptable. And so it's kind of a tale as old as time. It's just a new technology now that the campaigns are trying to figure out. speaker-2: We have just one minute left in this segment. We're gonna we're gonna come back ⁓ with another segment here with Katie Harbath in just a minute, folks. You can follow her on Facebook at Katie Harbath. You also wanna definitely check out her her ⁓ anchorchange.substack dot com, ⁓ where you can get the newsletter that she puts out there. ⁓ this is this is interesting it stuff and it's obviously gonna have a very big impact on the future of campaigning and politics and everything else that goes around it. ⁓ and I really want to get into when we come back, Katie, what you were talking about with AI, because that is going to, I think, change the game in in really dramatic ways. So we're already seeing some of the deep fakes, we're seeing different contests there. Breaking battlegrounds, we'll be back in a moment. Yeah. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. We're continuing on now with Katie Harbath. She is the founder of Anchor Change and the author of Disrupting Politics, a Front Row Seat to the Collision of Technology and Democracy. When we left off the last segment, we're talking about the transition to AI. Katie, tell us a little bit about, you know, what is the impact of this transition first to a social media driven landscape? And now how does that affect the transition into this new AI universe that we're looking at? speaker-0: Yeah, one of the things I realized in writing the book was that, you know, the first, let's say, fifteen-ish years of social media world, we were we were very much looking at it all through rose-colored glasses. We were not necessarily thinking about the risks. that we were gonna see like what we were amplifying, what was gonna happen when you do this stuff at scale, what was gonna happen when you're giving people all these metrics of knowing how many people are clicking and engaging and commenting and and all of those types of things. And it really was the 2016 election and just the year of 2016 that really opened a lot of people's eyes of holy smokes, there's a lot of different things happening from Russians trying to interfere, Macedonian teenagers trying to make money. all of those things that we've been trying to deal with ⁓ since then. And I think that's one of the biggest differences when you look at it as we go into AI. And we can talk about how AI is going to change the information environment because I think that's another important aspect to this. But like from a we're we're now seeing all this right as we're recording this, all this talk about AI doomerism, all these risks. And on one hand, I'm very glad we're talking about those now because we didn't do that in the social media age. But we also have to understand that that can instill fear and fear can paralyze people. And I don't want us to be that. And I have this phrase that I coined back in 2023 to panic responsibly, which means that like we need to be aware of what the downsides can be, understand what the upsides can be, and also just be taking the steps that we can to try to think about how we mitigate those harms and be ready to pivot as we see different use cases come out, because there's no way in the world that we're gonna be able to understand or dream up. every possible way that somebody might try to use this technology. speaker-2: I think that's a really critical point you just brought up

because if you look back obviously to our response to COVID, I think we panicked irresponsibly. And and there was a path to to do it right and to address, you know, you you have to take a public health concern like that, a international worldwide concern, seriously, but we didn't do it responsibly. We did it out of panic. And what worries me in this transition to AI is that. we as a population and and populations across the globe showed that we are too vulnerable to that sort of irrational panic rather than a more thoughtful approach to calamity. speaker-0: Yes. And I think that that's one of the things too that bore came out of social media, right? Was that the breathless panic is what gets you views and gets you attention and even the media, right? If it bleeds, it leads. Like they want that. They want that too. And one of the things I write about in the book is that us as individuals, like this all is not just happening to us. Like we have agency over the decisions that we make, the what we consume. What we like, I recommend people, I try to do this every six months of like take a week and consciously pay attention to how what you're consuming and does it match what you actually want to consume? Do you like it or not? And I think with AI too, like I think a lot through and on my newsletter, I have a huge disclosure statement of how I use AI because one of my values is to be transparent about that for people to know how I'm using that tool. But I also have to think about and I encourage people too. Think through which tools you wanna use, what you wanna be putting into them, like what values do you have, because you can at least control that ⁓ in this world as as we're going through all of this. And that's gonna help you to just have a better life, but then also to make sure that you're getting accurate information. speaker-2: Yeah, that's interesting because I whether it's this is something I've been doing maybe for the last two years or so very consciously is I obviously I like always to explore new subjects and new topics. I I think anyone who's intellectually curious is gonna do that. one of the things I've done is repeatedly sort of retrain my algorithms on the things that I'm interested in to learn more about a specific subject. So if I want to really get into the discussion around AI, I can do that. A few years ago I I really started focusing on water issues here in the southwest and just making sure that I was getting all that info. So there's a way to make use of these technologies to inform yourself really, really deeply on specific subjects, isn't there? speaker-0: Yes. And I think you made a really great point there, which was you can retrain your algorithm. I think people need to remember that the algorithm is just responding to what you're watching, what you're clicking on, what you're searching for, all of those things. And so if you're like, I don't really like what's in my feed right now, I think I know TikTok does. I think Instagram does now too, where you can actually completely wipe your algorithm if you want and start over. I didn't know that. ⁓ or Or yeah, or you can also like most of them have the option, like if you see a piece of content, you can hit the three dots and say you don't want to see that kind of stuff. You can offer up different topics you want, or just like you did, you can search for new things. So you can search for those topics that you're interested in. And then the algorithm will very quickly start to realize that's what you want and start to feed that to you more than the other thing that you are getting. speaker-2: And and AI offers kind of a i it's a scary landscape for a lot of people. I look at it very hopefully, but I tend to come from the the camp, as Chuck does, that vie that says ever you know, the better days are still ahead of us. Even if in we're dealing with lots of of doomerism and gloomerism in and many areas right now, I I truly believe the best days of this country and the world are still ahead of us. What is the best case? We we have just about two and a half minutes left. What is the best case for AI going forward? speaker-0: Best case for AI going forward, I think, is that it just makes our lives easier. Right. ⁓ we're able to not spend as much time on the stuff none of us wanna spend our time on. Like I've been having it help me draft emails and things of that nature, ⁓ helping me to go find, you know, what restaurants are in this town and and stuff like that that speaker-2: I I am loving Super Grok for PowerPoints. I stink at putting together good looking PowerPoints so I can just dump in all the material and be like, Here, do it ten minutes later. speaker-0: There's also gonna be there's also gonna be really big breakthroughs in healthcare. There's gonna be really big breakthroughs, I think, in ⁓ just how we you know, even how we learn and how we consume information. I think we're still in the very, very early days of AI. Like I remind people of the early days of the internet. Like it was not that great. It was not that relevant to you. Even in twenty tens, we had the clickbait problem. And I liken that right now to the AI slot problem we're having. But ⁓ And I think we're gonna be able to better better we are we have so much information overload is that my hope is that AI helps us to manage that a little bit more. speaker-2: I I certainly hope so. ⁓ in terms of last word, how do people get a hold of ⁓ your book and keep following you? Because I think this is a topic people if folks, if you're to retraining your algorithm, maybe retrain it to make sure Katie Harbath and her stuff's in there because this I think is is gonna be a really fascinating next few years. speaker-0: It really is, and I really appreciate you having me on. But Disrupting Politics, my book comes out on October sixth. ⁓ my newsletter, anchorchange.subsack dot com. I write at least once a week about these topics, particularly looking at how tech is

impacting our elections, how it is impacting our politics, what it looks like from a from a policy angle. ⁓ I'm also on all the social media platforms. Just search for me, Katie Harbath, and you'll find me. speaker-2: Perfect, Katie Harbath. Thank you so much. We really appreciate having you on the program today. ⁓ Folks, before we go to this break, I have to tell you, if you aren't downloading our podcast segment, you are missing out on some of the best content we have. Today we have a U.S. Senator, Senator Houston. You do not want to miss this interview with Chuck. It is absolutely brilliant. So make sure you're going on there and give us a five-star review when you do it and help share this with some of your friends. Breaking Battlegrounds is driven by you, and we appreciate and love each and every one of you out there. We're coming right back with more. speaker-1: To run a successful business, you need one thing, customers. And how do you get customers? You get them through advertising, you get them through lead generation. But what happens if the leads don't exist or they don't have valid contact information? This is a familiar story all businesses deal with. Then they call these leads who don't exist, or they're bad numbers, or they're not in their service area. Argus 101 verifies every lead before your team picks up the phone. It's a real person in your area and a neighborhood that matches your ideal customer. Your team only calls people worth calling, thus saving you money. Free trial at Argus101.com. That's arguing.com. Help your business expand today. to argus101.com. A-R-G-U-S-101.com Hello Breaking Battlegrounds listeners. Did you know that private student loan debt in the United States totals about $300 billion? That's with a B. About $45 billion of that is labeled as distressed, which means people are behind on payments. Why ReFi, who is a proud sponsor of our show, refinances this distress or defaulted private student loans that others won't touch. They don't even care what your credit score is, they provide you with a custom loan payment. Based on your ability to pay, YReFi is not a debt settlement company. They work with each borrower individually to tailor a loan that meets your specific financial situation and helps you pay this loan off. So, folks, if you would like to learn more how to put your mind at ease and your budget back on track, call YReFi at 877-400-9989 and tell them Sam and Chuck sent you. You can go and look into them at YReFi. refy.com to get more information. They will help you reduce your monthly payment and guarantee interest rates under 6%, ensuring financial relief to you as you pay off your private student loan. Jump on that website or call them today. speaker-3: Okay. speaker-0: Dear political candidate, listen up. I'm talking to you. Your name.vote should be the starting point of every campaign. It's memorable, looks great on signs and mailers, helps voters find you online, and gives AI tools a direct path to your campaign website. Why send people to a complicated web address when your name can be the address? Visit name.com today and claim your.vote domain. speaker-1: Sam and I are always talking about being prepared, whether it's hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in California, flooding in Arizona, or supply chains disruptions. speaker-2: Exactly, Chuck. When pharmacies shut down, it does not matter how tough you are, you still need access to critical medicine. speaker-1: That's why we trust Jace Medical. The Jace case comes with five life-saving antibiotics and key over-the-counter meds so you're covered when things get disrupted. speaker-2: And Jace goes beyond just the Jace case. They also offer first aid kits, daily prescriptions, and long term nutrition with Jace Pantry. Don't wait for the next hurricane warning or natural disaster. Take control of your health and peace of mind today. speaker-1: Visit jace.com and use code FUTURE at checkout for $10 off your order. That's FUTURE at J-A-S E.com. speaker-3: In today's digital world, standing out is more important than ever. Whether you're running for office, leading a cause, or hosting a vote for the cutest pet in town, you need a web domain that's simple, memorable, and action oriented. You need a.vote web domain. It's clear, impactful, and establishes a lasting presence for your campaign. Don't wait. Head to godaddy.com or name.com, type in your name.vote, and get started today. Because after all, every pet deserves a web. address that's as special as they are. Nerf mysteries, secrets untold. The truth gets set free when bee gets a hold. Crimes where killers from are free. There even ones where they get caught in the scene. From co-case files to headline news. She's breaking it all down just for you. So come take a seat. Don't miss a bee. ⁓ The stories go deep. speaker-2: All right, B, what are you breaking down for us today? speaker-3: ⁓ this is such a good one. It's like a movie. So, Stephen Causey, a Florida attorney, went missing March twenty first, twenty twenty three, and his body has not been found. The plastic surgeon, Dr. Thomas Kosowski, is s supposed to be charged with first degree murder. It's currently pending. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty because they think he's guilty. Now it starts where Kazi represented the people involved in a l i a lawsuit with the doctor. speaker-2: Okay, so someone sued this doctor and this lawyer Kazi represented. speaker-3: Used Steven as the lawyer, Stephen Causey. So Stephen Causey went missing on a meeting, on the day of a meeting that he was supposed to have with this doctor. The doctor ended up not having legal representation anymore. So he took it over himself. He was representing himself. And he's a doctor. He studied at Ivy League School, but not that still did not like ⁓ meet the bar of standard because he didn't take the bar. So speaker-2: Which actually means you're not a lawyer. speaker-3: Exactly. So he had been scouting

out this law firm. He was f like driving around it. He got this car specifically to go firm. He was surveilling the law firm. He had some rub with this lawyer and did not like him, constantly said, get him off this case. He ended up the day of this meeting where the Kazi ended up being missing and missing this meeting, which was completely out of character, he was circling the law firm again. And this was before another day he had been in the law firm walking around and he had an altercation with Kozzy in the bathroom where he followed him in and said, You're scum, like I I hate you pretty much. Like I'm getting you off this case. Now this meeting happens. They see the doctor arriving at the law firm early in the morning. The lawyer leaves his desk mid email to go to the bathroom. He doesn't leave the bathroom. Now the doctor bought three carts on Amazon, a red one, a yellow one and a blue one. They never found the blue one and the blue one was show on surv like was shown on surveillance going into the law firm. Now on the way out of the law firm, that that cart was also taken out and put in the back of this car that had no license plate. So he bought this whole extra car to be able to stock it. Uhhuh. He and there were also speaker-2: It looks like he killed this guy in the bathroom. speaker-3: The law firm owner and one of their colleagues that was on the case when they were looking for him 'cause they're like, This w he was literally here this morning. His car's here. His coffee's still here. His mid email is literally still typed out and not sent. The bathroom reeked of like that isopropyl smell, that medical cleaning supply smell. The paint on the walls was faded and eventually DNA ended up being His, the doctor's, and Stevens, and that DNA also was found in his car. Now when they finally got the doctor, because he ended up taking this meeting and they pinned his phone location in the office of the law firm, which also proved a lot too. He was sucking his fingers to get rid of DNA evidence and like scraping his teeth on his fingers because he's he's this classic smirk. speaker-2: Yeah, no, I mean he's he's a doctor, so the DNA side of it, he th mostly thought this out, but it doesn't sound like he knew speaker-3: In the back of the car to get Yep, yep. And so they found no body. He dumped the body at a d like a dumpster. So they cr like obviously daily they land eighty six thousand pounds of pressure is constantly put on trash in those landfills, meaning that there's not gonna be any way to recover that body. Even though there's no autopsy, no body, there is still so much evidence tracking this man to being guilty. speaker-2: And Phil. Wow. And so where's the case now? speaker-3: It's in court and this man still doesn't have a lawyer and they they're going for death penalty and I mean everything lines up perfect. speaker-2: And this doctor does not I mean, 'cause he can have a public defender. Mm-hmm. speaker-3: For some reason he's just he's ⁓ he's speaker-2: This guy sounds like he completely snapped. speaker-3: Crazy. Yeah. He's very like and it seems like he just found his rub with this man and lost it. speaker-2: Well, look, as someone who has had been involved in lawsuits, and anyone who's involved in politics and business for long enough, you're gonna do that. I may have at one time or another had a thought about ending a lawyer or two. Yeah. So I could understand the initial temptation, but I think most of us have to be smart enough to just say no. ⁓ my goodness. Like also, I I gotta be honest, like for a doctor, someone who is ⁓ of high native intelligence. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-2: It seems like he has not watched enough true crime shows. He hasn't listened to enough obese speaker-3: He let his ego win on this one, I think, and really got aggravated when that lawyer constantly corrected him when he just didn't know how to lead his himself in a case. He's not a lawyer. speaker-2: It's sloppy though. Yeah, that's a my h that's the thing. He isn't he he I don't know if this doctor is a good doctor, but he's clearly not good at this thing he just did because the evidence, the whole the stock like he left a mass trail of evidence and now he's too stupid to get his own speaker-3: They're a nasty trail here. speaker-2: Crazy. Breaking battle rounds will be coming back with more in just a moment. All right, welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. We're continuing on now. Our next guest, Kip Harriage, has worked on worked on Wall Street for 15 years, including taking seven companies public, raising several hundred million in venture capital. In 2003, Kip founded Vertical Research Advisory LLC. ⁓ from its founding, they've outperformed the market in 19 of 22 years, which is is pretty darn extraordinary, ⁓ along with averaging 38%. Percent a year returns after calling the bear market bottom on 101322. So you're talking about someone who really, really understands the working economy ⁓ and how that affects people. So we wanted to talk to him about some of the things that have been going on with the Fed and other economic issues. He has one of the most engaging Twitter feeds you can ever find. You definitely want to follow him on X at K Harriage, H-E-R-R-I-A-G-E. Kip Harriage, welcome to the program. speaker-4: Thank you, Sam. Appreciate that nice intro. Great to be with you. speaker-2: Yeah. Absolutely. So you had you're talking about this recent Fed red rate ⁓ hike. You had a post I I we Chuck and I both kind of caught on. What Walsh did today was important. He's caught up and taken control of the narrative. He's not just a lit legitimate Fed chair, he's a full hawk. Owning the narrative was key for Warsh. So tell us what you're talking about there, because I agree with every word in that tweet that you put out. speaker-4: Yeah, it's so important. Look, Wall Street, which is basically the the deep financial state, they were praying and hoping that that Walsh wouldn't have hiked

rates, right? Right. That he would have ⁓ c really commanded the rest of the ⁓ twelve ⁓ feding ⁓ voting members ⁓ to ⁓ to to to go to acquiesce and go with them. So they could really start a silent cue with the Fed. That's what they wanted. So when he came out and said, Yeah, we're it's unanimous, we all voted for a Fed rate hike and now we have a rate hiking cycle in place, and ⁓ we all agree on that. And he came across as hawkish. I I recognized it right away as a brilliant, brilliant move. This is a master class in political strategy from Kevin Warsh because if they had not, if he had not hiked rates, they would have crashed the market, not just that day. It would have gone on for weeks, probably into the midterms. That was the excuse they're looking for. And ⁓ you know, then they can paint the picture that of course we told you he was Trump's puppet. You know, look at what he's done here. So this is a smart move and I I think a brilliant move. And I think it put a floor in the bottom. It certainly did yesterday with a big move higher. And I think that's I think we're gonna have a big move higher into the midterms because we only have we have one reason, just one reason, one reason only, that rates aren't lower, and that is the war, and it's oil prices. And these economists hate to admit that. You know, they absolutely hate they wanna they wanna paint the picture that inflation is everywhere and it is just not. speaker-2: No, it's n it's not at all. And in the war, this is something I find very interesting because geopolitically and in terms of the global economy and oil trade routes, this war has potential to reshape them and is apparently, from what I can see, reshaping them underneath the surface in ways that will benefit the United States or could benefit the United States tremendously long term. Am I right or am I off base? speaker-4: No, y you are a thousand percent right. And again, the media, ⁓ this is again, we're getting close to the midterm. So i you kind of expect the media ⁓ to be this anti Trump. But this is about as bad as they get because even even the conservative allies don't like to admit this, that what Trump is doing is working, that Iran played their Trump card. They had their Trump cards, they played it. It was a straight or whore moves and now they have no other cards left. And so this business of of of of all the oil shipments around them, ⁓ various new trade routes that are popping up. is gonna destroy this country. And you just have to wonder, is there a single sane person left in Iran or in the certainly in the IRG C because I think we all have a pretty good idea after the midterms, it's game on. Trump's gonna probably finish the job and I think most people want that to happen. speaker-2: Well and and and I think they do and also and and I think Trump has been smart about this in in not escalating the conflict right now, right? Like obviously if he put boots on the ground, which is the way you're going to have to do

it to some extent, th the Republican Party would be slaughtered in these midterms. I mean they would be slaughtered because public public perception is just not there. But in terms of ⁓ the Fed action Obviously, this is a much slower basis cut than we saw in 2024, ⁓ when the Powell Fed cut, as you you noted, ⁓ or zero hedge noted, and you called it get Trump. ⁓ they cut the the cut the rate 50 basis points two months before the presidential election with core CPI at 3.3. In 26, the Fed hikes 25 basis points two months before the midterms with core CPI at 2.4. So they are clearly and and this appears to have been kind of you sort of common since Alan Greenspan, they've been playing a lot of politics with the rates for a few years now. speaker-4: ⁓ if it if if it's Trump, the i there i it's it's gonna be a full on attack and that's what we've seen here. ⁓ you y you made a great point. You know, core PCE was a full one point lower in twenty twenty four than it is now. Excuse me, one point higher in twenty twenty four than is now. And yet all now two or the midterms they're hiking instead of cutting fifty basis points. So I think I think a rational person, someone that's just even handed, can look at this and see what it is. This is ⁓ the Fed is is a as political a creature as we have in this country. And they love to paint themselves as something other than that. But one of my ⁓ great long-term friends is G. Every Griffin, ⁓ author of the Creature from Jekyll Island, and he taught me ⁓ 20, 25 years ago that there are seven cartels that rule the world. And the most powerful of those cartels is the banking cartel. It's central banks. They run the world. And so when they when they're challenged, and that's what Trump is, a challenge to their power base. I think also Bessent and and Wars, we call them the three amigos. I think these three guys are gonna revolutionize what's taking place financially speaking in this country. And ⁓ we just gotta get through the midterms. I I am hopeful. ⁓ I I can't imagine I can't imagine anyone that's a common sense person that loves this country that would want the other side to win in this election. It seems insane to me. speaker-2: ⁓ you know, yeah, you had a tweet kind of about that where you said, Hey, I'm a lifelong independent, but watching what Democrats are doing right now is is insane when they're running you know, running down the path to Marxism, when they are ⁓ allying themselves i I I really think they're just kinda going wrong on everything because partially because Trump has been on the right track on a lot of this stuff if you look at it long term. speaker-4: You know, ⁓ I hear from people ⁓ all day long really that say, you know what, I think I'm gonna stay home. You know, I just I I've turned on Trump. And I always ask ⁓ what's the one thing? What's the one reason? And there is no one reason, right? I think the media is still so powerful, the propaganda machine. You would think that after the pandemic,

you know, where everybody was s just snookered about complete lies about what this really was, including taking a vaccine that the experimental. What are you are you crazy? speaker-2: It's it was a completely irrational panic in in every way. And it led us down the worst paths imaginable. And and you're right, I think the press continues to push this this narrative. And I think and Chuck has brought this up on the program before, people are just ready for for quiet, for peace, for a lack of change. And we're in this period of extraordinary change, and that's difficult. And I think that's hurting Trump. But a lot of it is just this this echo chamber in the media, which is just pounding on it, pounding on it. Boy, if you go back to the news thirty years ago, it is a totally different beast, right? Where they had actual policy discussions and now it is just absolutely fact free. speaker-4: And they want us afraid, let's not forget, you know, when when when people are living in a fear-based kind of a state, they're they're very easily controllable, they're malleable. And that's what they want. You know, they want us ⁓ and that's really kind of the communist manifesto. That's how you take down a ⁓ one of the final stages of taking down a democracy is ⁓ make sure everything's everything's upside down. What was left now seems right. Nothing makes sense, right? They're doing away with just common sense things and they're they're taking down all this and again the propaganda that's the thing that surprises me. ⁓ and we'll see with these midterms. I actually think Republicans win. But if this if this propaganda machine continues to work with all the lies that we've been told, you have to have some serious concerns about the people, the state of the mind of people in this country. speaker-2: I y you know, the fear thing is I think I this country and and the entire world, the fear thing is critical because I think what's hurt Trump in this midterms is a couple of very specific quite frankly, they appear to be very organized and and well funded ⁓ misinformation operations where they are pushing all this noise about data centers, which people don't understand and are fearful of big tech and you can get people on, ⁓ my God, they're driving up my water bill. I they're taking away my water, they're they're poisoning the ground. These are all lies. same thing with them increasing, you know, rates ⁓ for electrical ⁓ supply and all that kind of thing. There really isn't that downside to a data center, any of it. But that campaign hit home. And then we've seen this around Iran and the narrative, which is incredibly dangerous, that that somehow the the regime there is a victim. and I think they've managed to play those things into broader fears and used really targeted scare tactic campaigns to do it. And and you're right, that concerns me a lot. How do we how do you think we push back on that? speaker-4: What a great question. You know, this is what, frankly, what we

do here at the VRA. ⁓ be like, we're we're we're investment guys. So our our job is to beat the markets, help our subscribers and clients beat the markets. But we do, especially in this, in this, in this time, a couple months before the bit turns, we go there. And ⁓ we we lose we lose subscribers. They just don't want to hear the political side. I don't care. I think my job here is to try to be a voice of reason and ⁓ really that's our audience. They love the fact that we go there. And so we just believe that you know just keep telling the truth, putting it out there. and and confront the lies that the media is putting out there. And you gotta do it, you know, day after day, one by one. ⁓ I again I cannot imagine that red states are going to vote for these ⁓ far left socialist Marxists. I that makes zero sense to me. So I'm optimistic. And I think ⁓ I think it's also important to to remain optimistic and and again not fall for the for the fear based environment they want us to fall for. speaker-2: A hundred percent. And you know, one of the things that I think is interesting about this this Marxist movement, if you will, or communist movement that that that's been percolating through the Democrats is it's an exceptionally well-funded movement. There are clearly very large geopolitical financial interests at play in this, and some of them right here in the United States. So, like you see, for instance, right now, a couple of AI leaders really pushing for regulatory systems that would lock in their position in that market, right? How much does the financial industry as a whole need to start having honest conversations with their investors and saying these politics are going to affect your bottom line in really big ways? speaker-4: ⁓ obviously they should, but that's just not gonna happen. Again, we're we're we're battling here what is really a a takeover attempt of the country. And it's ⁓ it is all throughout the media. They're not gonna be honest. It takes guys like you, you know, out there every day telling people the truth. And again, that's why you have such a big audience, because that's that people are flocking because people are hungry for the truth and they know they're being lied to. So I don't I don't have a crystal ball and an exact answer on on how we combat this. I just know that ⁓ it's it's not like these where you gotta remind people, you know. Like this is the best country on the planet. There's not a close second. ⁓ w where would you rather live? You know? And I think it's to your other point about it the the funding is taking place. Look no look no further than our southern border. Look at Mexico, these cartels. Right. They're funding so many of these Democrat ⁓ movements, right? And now and China as well. Yep. And this AI scare tactics that they're using again, completely unfounded. People are just scared shitless over this now. There's just no reason to be. speaker-2: No, there's none. I mean it's a psyop. It is absolutely a psyop. And I tell people all the time, so I have a very large data center that was built about a mile from my house. It's literally across from the convenience store that I stop at and get a cup of coffee most mornings. People scream about, ⁓ my God, they they ruin the environment. It's boiling hot around them and you can't hear a thing because they're so loud. Yeah, I get my coffee there and I sit outside most mornings and I drink it and like it's no different than before that place was built. It's actually more peaceful because they tore down a bunch of ⁓ raucous, horrible apartments to build it. So I mean these things are just not the boogeyman. looking forward, ⁓ obviously one of the reasons you came to our attention was was some of your comments on the Fed and Kevin Morse. What do you see coming? We have just a minute and a half left. What do you see coming from the Fed ⁓ going forward? Because I I think that's gonna be critical for the next ⁓ twenty ⁓ heading into twenty eight. speaker-4: Yeah, it's ⁓ it really boils down again to one thing. It's the war, it's oil prices because we don't have inflation. Without oil at a hundred, we have ⁓ pure disinflation in this country. They will be get back to cutting rates. And that's what Wars did. I think again, taking control of the narrative. ⁓ Wars knows this. Trump's like, just just give me a couple months. We're about to end this thing. And then now all of a sudden you're gonna go from rate hikes to rate cuts and it's gonna happen overnight. Because ⁓ again, what's happening with this innovation revolution is so much more than just an AI boom. It's innovation revolution. It's a multi decade ⁓ growth area we've never seen in this country. We're gonna have more growth in two decades than we've had in the entire history of this country. Stock market's gonna go parabolic. People are making more money than the markets have ever made before. And I think Kevin Walsh, Besson, and Trump have got this. We just gotta get one thing, gotta get the worvel with, and we're golden. speaker-2: I I a hundred percent and I don't care where anyone on politics is, I would love to see Bissent and Morse continue on past this administration and have Trump be a you know succeeded by someone who will keep them in place because I think they are two of the best leaders this country has had in those positions in a long, long time. ⁓ Kip Harriage, thank you so much for joining us, folks. Follow him on X at K Harriage, H E R R I A G E. Kip, any other way for folks to stay in touch with you? speaker-4: ⁓ that's the best way. ⁓ Twitter. You can go to our website V VRA Letter dot com. That's our website, VRA Letter dot com or Twitter, reach out. We'd love to hear. speaker-2: Fantastic. Kip Harriage, thank you so much for joining us today. Folks, if you're not already, I tell you all the time, download that podcast. You don't want to miss it. We got a U.S. Senator coming up for you if you do. Bringing Battlegrounds back next week.

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They work with each borrower individually to tailor a loan that meets your specific financial situation and helps you pay this loan off. So, folks, if you would like to learn more how to put your mind at ease and your budget back on track, call YReFi at 877-400-9989 and tell them Sam and Chuck sent you. You can go and look into them at Y ReFi. Y-R-E-E-N-E-E-N- FY.com to get more information. They will help you reduce your monthly payment and guarantee interest rates under six percent, ensuring financial relief to you as you pay off your private student loan. Jump on that website or call them today. speaker-2: Mm. speaker-1: Welcome back to Breaking Bowgrounds. I'm your host Chuck Warren today. We are lucky to have with us from the great state of Ohio, Senator John Hoosted. He is running for reelection, but currently he's in the Senate offices and we're gonna talk about what he's doing on the U.S. Senate and his hope for America. Senator, welcome to the show. So I was reading this morning some of the most expensive hotels this weekend are LSU versus Mississippi, which brings me to college sports. And I know used to be a college ⁓ your your football guy. speaker-5: Great to be with you. speaker-1: ⁓ you you have gone and proposed a bill regarding college sports and it talk to our audience about what you hope the bill will accomplish. speaker-5: Well, if you're talking about LSU, ⁓ the Lane Kiffin situation there has ⁓ helped encourage Congress to act to s quote save college sports, right? We have NIL, we have transfer portals, we have ⁓ you know pro athletes trying to transfer back in and play college athletes. So Congress is being asked by college at ⁓ college institutions to save college sports by putting guardrails around this whole thing. But I want to make sure that we're looking out for American student athletes because there's been a growing number of roster spots and scholarships that have been taken by student athletes from other countries. ⁓ you look at tennis teams and golf teams, you'll s you'll see soccer, hockey, roster rosters full of foreign athletes taking away opportunities from American citizens. You you take the Paris Olympics of twenty twenty four. ⁓ of NCA affiliated athletes per participating in in ⁓ the the ⁓ Paris Olympics, sixty-three percent of those NCA affiliated athletes represented other countries in the Olympics. Only thirty-seven percent were actually Americans. So this is getting out of hand. And if you put more money in the system as we're talking about doing with NIL and other things, and Congress pr providing those protections, you're going to see a greater flow of foreign athletes in American sports taking away roster spots from American citizens who go to these taxpayer-funded colleges and universities. So I want to put a cap on it at 20%. We're not banning foreign athletes. We're just saying You can limit it at 20%, 80% of the roster spots have to go to American student athletes. And that's what I'm trying to get in the bill because the American government should look out for American citizens, just like the French government should look out for French citizens. And right now, we're not doing a very good job of that when it comes to college sports. speaker-1: That seems like a great common sense bill. You also have another common sense bill that passed the House with a huge margin yesterday bipartisan called the Rate Payer Protection Act. Will you please discuss to our audience what that does and how it protects consumers? speaker-5: It would require data centers to pay for all of the electricity infrastructure that they use to power their data centers. So if you need more generation, you need more transmission lines, the data centers pay for it. Simply says that the states will will put rules together to make sure that that happens in their respective states. It passed the House of Representatives 417 to 3. All right. Nothing passes the House of Representatives by that kind of margin these days unless you have strong bipartisan support. So I have

legislation on this in the Senate. I'm going to take it to the floor this afternoon to try to get it done. And hopefully the Democrats will not block it. speaker-1: Explain to our audience d that simple tactic. Why would Democrat Democrats why would they block it? How can they block it? Because people will look at them say, This is just such common sense. Why can't Congress just get this done? So why would they block this today? speaker-5: Well, we'll see if they do. I think a lot of them, frankly, just don't want to see Republicans get credit for solving the problem. I I mean, i that's the bottom line. speaker-1: How frustrating is that? You have this great idea. You're going to protect the American citizens, which you know, they've all gone back and swore that's what they want to do. How frustrating is that coming up with such a great commonsense solution and having some pushback? speaker-5: ⁓ i it is the ways of Washington. That's why we gotta we gotta try ⁓ it i it it is ⁓ it's just common sense. Look, sometimes like why can't we have a bipartisan win? Four seventeen to three in the House, right let's move it to the Senate, let's get a bipartisan win, let's go forward with it. Tell the American people we're actually doing things to solve problems that they care about. speaker-1: Do you know just by chance how many of these data centers are actually providing their own utilities and energy and things of those nature right now? Is there a percentage you know of or is this something that you're gonna speaker-5: More and more more and more of them are doing it all the time just because it's it's how you avoid the pushback at the local level. If you tell your local the local community, hey, we're gonna build our own generation and any excess we have, we're gonna put it back on the grid to lower your energy prices, then you're much more you're much more inclined to be welcomed by the local community than rejected by the local community. And so data centers are doing it out of their own vested interest in many cases. Now we just need to ensure that families, small businesses, senior citizens aren't having to foot the bill for the data center's new energy and infrastructure demands. Put that on the data centers. They will build their own power. They will do it in the most efficient, effective way possible. speaker-1: you with Senator Bernie Marino have ⁓ sponsored a bill that bans licenses for undocumented migrants. And there's a personal story to that regarding Ohio. Can you tell our audience what is the genesis of this bill? And I can't believe there's seventeen states that actually provide licenses. speaker-5: Yeah, well we've had we had three Ohioans in nine days get killed by illegal aliens on our road legally not allowed to be in this country that came in under the Biden, ⁓ Sherid Brown in my case when he was a senator, ⁓ border invasion. And even though under President Trump we've cut off the inflow, I think we're sixteen months without a illegal border incursion. but now speaker-1: ⁓ my goodness. speaker-5: You have t you know, millions of people in this country illegally, and you have sanctuary states like Connecticut who issued ⁓ these and this is to get to the point of your question, the drive only licenses. There are nineteen states in the District of Columbia that issue drive only licenses for illegal for people who are in this country illegally. Okay. I I didn't know that was happening at the scale that it is. Sure. It's happening. And one of those states, Connecticut, issued a driver's license to someone in the country illegally and then drove to Ohio and killed an Ohio resident. So what I'm saying is no more. You're in this country illegally, in these sanctuary states, no more issuing these driver's licenses. And if you do, you lose your highway funding. And if you remember back a couple decades ago, Federal government has the ability to do this. They said, hey, states, raise your drinking, raise your drinking age to twenty-one, or we're going to cut off your highway funds. Supreme Court upheld that. So if you're going to have states, sanctuary states, they're going to issue driver's licenses to people who are in this country illegally, endangering the lives of Ohioans and Americans across the country, then you should get your highway funds cut off. And maybe with that step, we can get them to stop. ⁓ basically sanctioning illegal activity and dang endangering the lives of American citizens. speaker-1: Have you have you got much do you have many co sponsors for this? speaker-5: Senator Moreno and I just unveiled it. I I hope that others will join along. You know, we did it because th I mean three Ohioans dead in nine days from ill from illegals driving on our roads. I mean I mean, I'm saying we don't issue these drivers licenses in Ohio. It's illegal to do that in Ohio, but they come from other states that get sanctioned to do this, and then they end up killing people in our state. And I bet a lot of your listeners in their states would be pretty frustrated by this too. But if you and and it's happening all around the country. I'm just giving you the Ohio example. speaker-1: ⁓ as you meet with constituents at town hall meetings, letters and so forth, what is an issue that one or two issues that seems to be of paramount concern to them besides a basic constituent service? speaker-5: Well, of course, you know, they're they're worried about they're they're always worried in a place like Ohio about the economy. And and that's why it's you know, that's why I'm f I'm fighting for things like ⁓ lower utility rates, l lower gas prices. One of the ways that we do that is permitting reform, right? That's one of the things that I'm trying to work on. People say that they you hear people say they want to make things more affordable. Well, how do you make things more affordable? I can tell you one of the ways you don't do it. You don't restrict supply. And that's what Democrats did

when they were in charge. ⁓ Sherrod Brown and the Democrats, when they were in charge, passed passed radical climate change rules that shut down 23 power plants in the state of Ohio. 23 power plants that produced half the electricity that we used on a daily basis. Ohio used to be a net. im ⁓ exporter of electricity, now we're an importer of it because of these crazy policies that that shut down power plants and drove up and drove up prices. You know, we're the party of ⁓ drill baby drill, right? Right. More exploration, more supply so that we can lower prices. The Democrats are about restricting all of those things. And then they actually say they care about affordability. They don't care about affordability. They they they they they care about their radical agenda more than they care about affordability. and that's why we have, you know, higher prices. If you wanna if you want lower food prices, produce more food, right? Right. You want lower energy prices, produce more energy. ⁓ to meet the supply to so that the supply is consistent with the demand, so that prices don't increase. speaker-1: you have introduced a bill to streamline the permitting process and that will helpfully boost American innovation. Tell our audience about what the bill does and why it's needed. speaker-5: So ⁓ permitting reform is the most underdiscussed yet important piece of legislation that Congress can pass to lower prices because it's about lowering the input costs of everything from ⁓ heating our homes to growing our food to building our roads and bridges, and permitting reform would streamline the process for building things. If you wanna the last bridge to be built over the Ohio River took thirteen years. And ten years to permit and three years to build. Okay? You're seeing this with the the bridge in Maryland. You remember the ship hit the bridge down. Like they're a terrible time trying to get this get things going. And by the way, if you're on the political right or political left, you should be pre for permitting reform if you care about affordability. Right. Because you delay If you if you delay the building of a road or bridge, who pays for that? The taxpayer, because you're just running up the cost. If you delay ⁓ the construction of a power plant or a pipeline or a wind farm or a solar field, who pays for that? The ratepayer, because you're going to drive up the cost of building all of those things? ⁓ let's take if you're California. If you want to build high-speed rail, why can't they build high-speed rail? Because of the bureaucracy and the lawsuits and all of the things that delay all of that. You want to build a reservoir ⁓ for water, you need permitting reform. Like whether you're on the right or the left in terms of your ⁓ your desire to ⁓ build things, permitting reform is an essential part of building on time and affordably so that we don't pass on higher costs to the taxpayers and consumers. That's why permitting reform is so important. speaker-1:

I love your bridge example because I believe the Golden State Bridge took four years to build and that's in nineteen thirty three. I imagine our technology's better now, our know how's better. Why did it take eleven years to build a bridge? How much of that was based upon lawsuits, permit reform, bureaucracy? How much speaker-5: It's all about it's all about the permitting process and in litigation that holds things up. It it's it's it's the it's the big part of it. w no one wants to do things recklessly. Right. But what happens is it's like what happens is is you like you say, well you have a you have a year to to file ⁓ litigation or an appeal. So what do people do who want to stop things? They wait until the eleventh and a half hour and they fire They file their appeal and then that drags it out longer and longer and longer. And they ever so the people that oppose projects just try to run out the clock on you and just drag out the time that it takes to build things. If we care about affordability, then make it quick, make it faster. Time is money. If you're building, let's just say you're a developer of a housing development and you buy the land, it costs you $10 million, okay? ⁓ speaker-1: Okay. speaker-5: And somebody drags out the permitting process for a year. You're financing that say at eight percent. What does that do? That drives up the your it drives up your cost. And who ultimately is paying the price for that? The home buyer does. You're not the price of that. You're just gonna pass the cost along to the home buyer when somebody drags something out. Time is money. We need to understand that. Going faster with you know. reasonable guardrails around the process is something that is essential to making life more affordable, building things more affordably. speaker-1: Senator, we have a poverty trap and I think a lot of people there's AEI put out data points today that even the working class people don't like socialism, but they feel like they're falling further behind. They feel like they're unable to achieve the American dream in a lot of ways. But we have a true poverty trap. Explain to our audience how you view what the poverty trap is and how do we get out of it. speaker-5: Yeah. Well, this is really one of my personal passion projects. I want to end the poverty trap that's been created in this country over the last fifty years. Think about this. If you're ⁓ i ⁓ many of your listeners may not have ⁓ some of them may know about the benefit cliff. You talk to any any ⁓ entry level employer and they'll tell you, Hey, I have somebody working at my restaurant. ⁓ I offered them a raise, they told me no, they told me they didn't want more hours because they would lose more in benefits than they gain in pay. So they don't take the raise, they don't take the job, they don't take more hours. And that's by design. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-5: The federal government designed this system to trap people. And there's a simple way out of it. as you're maybe a single single parent with two children, ⁓ and you get ⁓ a certain number of benefits. And and you know, for largely for your children, you might get food assistance, things like that. As you earn more, we can gradually reduce benefits until you get yourself stabilized. And and and then we can. slowly move you towards full-time work, get you benefits, 401k, health insurance, things like that. And then after you get your life stabilized, then we can reduce your benefits and put you to work and give you a path towards self-sufficiency. This this this is a I'm going to give you a great example of of this. I had a I had a business owner tell me that he's having a hard time competing because China is subsidizing their workforce. And and then it occurred to me in that conversation that I said, Well, they're smarter than we are, because they're paying people to go to work, we're paying people to stay home. Yes. Think about that. Yes. That's how our system works in America. And I want I and I believe if if one in ten people trapped in poverty t use this use this upward mobility act that I've sponsored, I sponsored something called the Upward Mobility Act to end this. ⁓ process. If one in ten did it, it would be the equivalency of adding three million people to the American workforce. And I know at least one out of every ten people on these poverty programs wants a way out. I think it's a lot more than that, but at least one out of ten want want a way out and we got to give them that way out through passing the Upward Mobility Act. And that's something I'm very passionate about because I want people to have access to the American dream, but if you're trapped in these poverty programs and you never get out and there's no way to get out, ⁓ you can't set a good example for your children. You can you don't have the hope ⁓ of getting ahead. speaker-1: Well, life becomes very depressing when you're stuck in the mud. And that's what seems to happen with this benefit trap. ⁓ you just sort of get stuck and just think this is what life is supposed to be and it's not. You're supposed to because you'll find greater satisfaction and upward mobility and providing for your family and being part of your community. And the current system right now does not speaker-5: help with that. Yeah. You may be trapped in a 20 hour a week job because you you have you need childcare for your s your children, you need to have snap benefits to help pay, and you need health care. But the only way you're ever going to get that i earn enough is if you get to 40 hours a week. But you can't do it just overnight because you're going to lose all of these other services if you're that that individual. So if we let that person move to 40 hours a week speaker-2: Do that. speaker-5: Work maybe the 90-day probationary period they need to get the 401k and their and their health insurance. And then let them do that and then gradually reduce those benefits as they get ahead. We will save

the taxpayer dollars, we'll save taxpayer dollars, and we'll help people get ahead and we'll we'll we'll give them hope for the future. That's what I want to do. speaker-1: Last question, we have about a minute left. ⁓ I'm optimistic about America, but I'm always optimistic about America. Do you think America's best days are ahead of us? speaker-5: ⁓ i they certainly can be, but it depends I'm sorry, it depends on who who we elect. Depends if we if we lean towards freedom and free markets or if we move towards socialism. That's a choice that the American people are going to make about which direction they want to go. N no socialist society's best days are ahead of it. speaker-1: True. That's very true. That's very, very true. speaker-5: ⁓ but but societies that lean into freedom and competition, ⁓ their best days can be ahead of it. So if that's the path America chooses, our best days will be ahead of us. But if we chose if we choose the Mandami El Sayed Sherrod Brown way, ⁓ then then we will we will struggle to get ahead. speaker-1: ⁓ last second, thirty seconds. So Hassan Piker's sort of become a spokesperson for the left in a lot of ways and he said that America is basically is worse than Al Qaeda. What's your quick response to that? speaker-5: He's nuts. speaker-1: Yeah, very much so. I mean speaker-5: ⁓ America ⁓ America protects the rights of people who we don't even like because that's what our constitution says. and and ⁓ we believe in freedom and freedom of religion and freedom of speech and f freedom to spend your paycheck the way that you want to spend your paycheck. That's what freedom's about. People fought and died to create this nation two hundred and fifty years ago on the idea of one single concept. Freedom. Freedom. Not socialism, not collectivism, not government control, but freedom. And and so Piker couldn't be more wrong. speaker-1: Well, Senator John Husted from the great state of Ohio, thank you for joining us today. How do people reach your office or learn more about you? speaker-5: ⁓ yeah, you just go to our ⁓ Senate can ⁓ Senate office, it's head dot senate.gov. Hested. speaker-1: ⁓ and folks will also post that on our social media. Senator, have a great day and thank you for taking time to meet with us. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back. speaker-5: Great to be with you. speaker-2: Mm-hmm. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Before we wrap up our show today, we'd like to bring on one of our regular guests, a guy who provides tremendous insight into the financial markets and economy of this country and the world, Gary Gige. He is the president and CEO of Gee Capital. You can follow him on X at GaryGige or go to Geeky Capital.com. That's G Y G I Capital.com. Gary, thanks for joining us again. So I I was you know, I was a little surprised. I want to get your take on what just kinda went down with the Federal Reserve Board ⁓ r rate raise and Kevin Warsh's ⁓ sort of ⁓ hawkish turn. speaker-5: Yeah. I guess I wasn't as surprised, Sam, just because th there is there's been a lot of talk going around that this is what the Fed was gonna do. So even if Warsh s you know, was the sole person that said, I don't wanna do this, he was outvoted. Right. And and so ⁓ I think that the Fed is trying to fix an inflation problem. So they're looking at it through the economic lens. President Trump is looking through this, looking at this through a political lens and saying essentially the US is the best credit worthy nation in the world and our interest rate should be closer to one percent. And so if you go back to the you know early two thousands, Sam, we had exceptionally low interest rates for an exceptionally low a long period of time. That contributed to the real estate speaker-2: Mm-hmm. speaker-5: bubble and the financial crisis that we had in ⁓ eight and ⁓ nine. So I guess I'm a little bit ⁓ skeptical about artificially pushing interest rates down to one percent ⁓ and and hoping for the best. speaker-2: Well and and look, I I think that if you view things politically as Trump does, I I think he sort of has a point in that, hey, the US is still the safest place to put your money in the world, right? speaker-5: For for sure he does. Absolutely he does. speaker-2: However, I I I tend to agree with you a hundred percent. Look, one of the big issues with the inflation that we dealt with the last few years was not just printing money too fast, but that the interest rate rise kind of came a little too late, and then there's been a lot of political playing with it with it, ⁓ it seems like in the years since Alan Greenspan has left. speaker-5: Yeah, you're right. Is is is that ⁓ not the Fed was behind the curve in terms of raising interest rates and then they raised them dramatically, ⁓ almost pushed us into a recession in order to stop the inflation. So in my mind, a couple of things should have been happening. We never should have done the IRA, the inflation ⁓ reduction act that caught that the Democrats did, caused the massive inflation that we dealt with. speaker-2: That that was the second COVID. Yep. And and that one you know what got me about that one, 'cause I remember it at the time is I looked at it and I said, This is the exact type of worst wasteful spending you can have. You weren't actually patching over any holes, you were just stuffing every government in this country full of cash. speaker-5: And we weren't and and and we were not in a war at that point. So usually deficit spending, you know, has come when we're when we're in a war or recession and it was none of those things. And so ⁓ that greatly contributed to the inflation that we're still dealing with today, Sam. speaker-2: Do you think this is the only Reich height we're gonna get, or would you anticipate potentially a couple more? I I don't think it's gonna be a massive series of hikes, but I do see potentially a couple more small hikes over the next, say, six to nine months. speaker-5:

Yeah, so I ⁓ there's a a a meeting coming up at the end of October where a lot of people think the Fed will not do anything. It's 'cause it's just a week or so before the elections and they and they don't want to look political. So I would probably agree with that that we will not get a rate hike in October. There's another meeting in December where most people are expecting a rate hike, but it all depends on what the data is gonna look like between now and then and If the if the if the data comes in and it's hot, meaning that inflation still looks like it's a problem, ⁓ then they probably will. One of the reasons that Worsh gave for raising interest rates this time around was he said the job market and the economy is very solid. It can handle a rate hike. And so the market ⁓ clearly failed the day when this happened and then it rebounded yesterday. Yep. And and and so I think the market can handle this. So Long answer to a question, yeah, I think I do think there is gonna be another rate hike. I think it'll probably come in d in December. speaker-2: Well and and before we move on to another topic about it something Scott Besent said, I I I want to just ask you really quickly. I tend to think that there's an underlying thing going on. Obviously the Iran war and the disruption to the international oil market has a lot to at play in this. But what's happening behind the scenes appears to be a total reorganization of the world oil market in terms of its routing, shipping, all these things that long term is gonna benefit America tremendously. speaker-5: Completely agree is is if if if we can take the Strait of Hormuz out of the purview of the Iranians. And so for the last almost 50 years, there's been a five dollar per gallon per gal excuse me, five dollar per barrel premium on oil, which means gas was artificially higher, diesel was artificially higher, jet fuel, all of that. So if you take that five dollar a barrel premium off of oil, Gas is gonna come down, jet fuel's gonna come down, diesel's gonna come down, it's all gonna come down and not just for a few weeks, but for maybe forever. speaker-2: Absolutely and that's I I see that as well and I I think I think Trump actually has a plan underlying this that makes enormous sense for the future of the US, but we'll see how that plays out. Before you gotta go, I know you got a bit of a time crunch today. You're always very generous with your time with us. ⁓ Scott Bissent said he we can grow our our our way out of the debt crunch. What would that take? speaker-5: ⁓ what he's talking about does have some merit in terms of we do need to, as a country, get our GDP growing at at least three percent a year. And if you do that, then his opinion is with good public policy we can grow out of the debt and deficit spending. ⁓ I'm a little skeptical that we can purely grow out of it. I think there has to be ⁓ spending cuts that go along with that. So the doge efforts that ⁓ we saw early in the second term of President Trump, ⁓ you don't hear much about that, but I'm hoping that that's continuing beside behind the scenes. speaker-2: Well what what I found interesting there was an announcement yesterday I I think by I I believe it it was ⁓ Interior which said, ⁓ yeah, we we took our Doge team and we put them in over here and they're basically still doing the same thing. So I hope so. Yeah. Boy fingers crossed. And and so speaker-5: If we can ⁓ if we can continue to find ⁓ not just billions of fraud, which I think exists, we need to get in the trillion of dollars of fraud and we need to cut spending and and then at that point if you have the US economy that's growing at at least three percent a year, and if you're cutting spending, finding fraud, that I think is our best solution to get out of the financial ⁓ morass that we're that I think we're headed towards. It it really is a c a concern to a lot of people, including people like me. speaker-2: Well, and and Gary, I know you gotta go here. We have just about a minute left, but ⁓ that's gonna be complicated obviously by looming issues with social security, Medicare, Medicaid, all those type of things. ⁓ without a doubt. Yeah, it it's it's gonna be tough, but it is we there is a path, right? There is a path that doesn't involve massive economic damage. speaker-5: Th the there there is a path, but and you just touched right on it, Sam, is that s ⁓ some people in Congress need to have the courage to start talking about the entitlements, which is where the real problems are. And so cutting cutting ⁓ down on Medicaid fraud, reducing Medicaid, ⁓ start talking about Medicare and Social Security in a way that's real but but is not going to scare all of the seniors ⁓ into ⁓ rallying to to stop even the conversation. speaker-2: Absolutely one hundred percent. Gary, always a pleasure to have you on the program. How do folks get in touch with you? Because frankly, you you provide some of the best financial advice of anyone I know. speaker-5: I appreciate that, Sam. ⁓ so the cup there's a couple of ways of doing this. They can ⁓ give us a call at 801-787-0342 anytime. That's eight ⁓ one-seven eight seven zero three four two. They can go to our website, gigicapital.com. That's G-Y-G-I-C-A-P-I-T-A-L dot com. speaker-2: Gary, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us once again. speaker-5: Have good weekend. Thanks. Appreciate it. speaker-2: It you too. Folks, as always, we really, really appreciate all of you following and listening here on Breaking Battlegrounds. And if you're still listening to me now at the end of the podcast, you are one of the 15%. You are the amazing people who stay for every single word that we say on here, and we love you for it. Thank you so much for joining us on behalf of our entire crew today. Have a phenomenal weekend. Every day should be better than the last, and do not buy the Doomer Gloomerism. This country still has a very bright future in front of it. Breaking battlegrounds, come back next week.