America's Talking - Episode 74: Former President Trump Reinstated to Twitter but Refrains From Tweeting

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Join The Center Square’s Executive Editor Dan McCaleb and D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss former President Trump being reinstated to Twitter but refraining from tweeting. AGs demand health-care worker COVID vaccine mandate ends. Trump refrains from tweeting despite receiving account back. National debt to GDP ratio worse than CBO estimates, group says. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the America in Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. American Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square NUrower Service. To support great podcasts like this one, please donate by clicking the link in the show description. Joining me today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. How are you, Casey? Doing good, Dan. How are you? Doing well, Casey, it's Thanksgiving week.

Because of that, we are recording this podcast a little earlier in the week than we normally do. Today is Tuesday, November 22nd. Casey, I know you and I both have lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week. Well, Dan, besides, you know, of course, first and foremost, my relationship with you in this podcast, there's many things that I have thankful for. I mean, I'm thankful. I have a wife who's due to give birth in late January to a son, first son, which is very exciting. Congratulations, yes.

Thank you. So I'm very thankful for. that. I don't know. We have a new place to live, good friends, good church, family's healthy. I don't know. I do have a lot to be thankful for. All good points there. Both of my children, my son, Matthew, and my daughter, Alia, are both in college. They both decided to choose colleges about a thousand miles from home, but they're both back with us this week. So I'm thankful to have them back and that they're healthy and that you're doing well in school. Definitely thankful for my wife, Allison, and all of our good health.

Thankful that we're plotting through this recession with no real pain. I know a lot of Americans out there. I've had a tough year plus with the cost of everything going up. But I'm thankful for you, Casey. In Cole McNeely, the producer of American Focus Podcasts and all the great podcasts at America's Talking Network and the entire staff of the Center Square, I'm thankful I get to work with a great group of people. Man, you beat me to it.

Now I'm the one who didn't say I'm thankful for the whole staff. That's why you're in charge. You are not, and I'll point that out in our morning meetings. Is you one more topic before we get to the week's news. Do you have the fever? I have a fever. It's like a 99-degree fever. It is not over 100.

That's not the fever I'm talking about, Casey. I'm talking about the World Cup. I know what you're talking about. about. I'm saying I am a tepid fan, but I am intrigued. I'm interested. I'm very patriotic. Always pro-America, you know, best country and, you know, in the world right now. Participating in the greatest sporting event in the world. U.S. played on Monday, as I said, we're taping this on Tuesday, November 22nd. U.S.'s first match was Monday against Wales. They took an early 1-0 lead, but gave that lead up on a dumb penalty.

in the penalty box. So Wales scored on a penalty kick to tide at 1-1. They got the draw, not a bad result. Now they face England one of the favorites to win the World Cup on Black Friday. Will you be watching? I will be watching that game, assuming you don't make me work, you know, a 12-hour day on a holiday. We'll see. But I will be watching that game.

I think here's my question to you did. So I think a lot of people are like me. They're pro-America. They want America to win the World Cup. They're not going to have time to follow all the games, but they want to keep in touch with it. So I don't know if you can do this, but can you chart our course? Like, what do we need to do? What do we need to get our defense in shape and win these two key games to have a chance?

Like, what is the path forward for us to win the World Cup? To win the World Cup overall, that's going to – the U.S. is no doubt a long shot. But at this point, we have to focus on getting out of the group stage. There are three other teams in the U.S.'s group, Wales being one, which they played yesterday. They got the draw there, 1-1. They play England, which is going to be their toughest match on Friday. I think they'll be in good shape if they can get another draw, another tie with England. England's certainly going to be the favorite.

But the U.S. can play up with England, excuse me. And I think a draw is possible. If they can get a draw Friday, then all they have to do is go out and beat Iran next week. Iran's the fourth team in the group. And England just pounded Iran yesterday. The final was 6-2, but it could have very well been like 9 to nothing. So Iran is a very winnable game for them. They just have to perform well against England.

Yeah, see, Dan, that's one of the difference between America and the world stage. All this tie nonsense. Listen, we will play until we're passing out to find a winner here in America. The NFL has ties. That's a common misconception. Common misconception. All right. Let's actually get into the news.

It's early in the week, so there's not as much news as we normally have to talk about, but there is news. And let's start with what's been going on at Twitter since Elon Musk took over. He, after doing a, not a scientific survey, after doing a Twitter survey, Elon Musk reinstated the former president to the social media network. As of this morning, though, the former president has not tweeted yet. Is that correct? That's correct. So, yeah, I mean, you're right that it's not a scientific survey at all.

But 15 million people took this poll, which is a lot of people. And it's far more people than normally take any poll. I mean, a survey that can be considered scientific may have like, you know, 5,000 people take it and it's weighted. And, you know, there's some randomness to it. So that is a scientific, but this one has 15 million. So it's pretty interesting. There's also kind of a tight window on when you could take it. I'm not sure what the reason for that was.

But, yeah, a lot of things are happening at Twitter right now. Elon Musk is, I think he's taking the Donald Trump approached in, which is cause, controversy every day and just get the ratings up, which is how Trump became president in 2016. Every day, Elon Musk is trolling even his own company, his own employees, the media. He is posting very edgy memes and he's posting things about Trump. He's mocking the mainstream media. He's replying to these famous people's accounts and trolling them.

And, you know, there's a certain, you know, segment of people who would say this is unprofessional, this is bad business. But I'll tell you, I'm on Twitter a lot more. I mean, I'm on Twitter every day for work, but Twitter has become a lot more interesting, a lot more fun. Since Elon took over, there's something that actually might be happening besides just kind of the day-to-day news. There might be some new controversy.

It feels like back in 2016, when you never knew what Trump was going to say, and Twitter was the first place to find it. And so, you know, I think from a business strategy, this is something Elon's trying to do. He's pretty good to get media attention. And I think he's taking the Donald Trump strategy. But he did reinstate Trump to his Twitter and he has not tweeted. So Trump did, though, posts on true social, which was kind of the counterside that he got after being kicked off several social media sites following, you know, January 6th and all on all that went on there. But he basically told his people on true social to go vote now to get him back on Twitter.

But he said, but don't worry, we aren't going anywhere. True social is special. So I don't know what do you make of that, Dan. I mean, he told people to go vote for him to be reinstated, but he didn't get back on yet. I have yet to launch a truth social account. I suppose I should just for the news value of it. So I do not follow the former president on that social media outlet. It has been fascinating to watch Twitter over the last few weeks where Elon Musk has just been shaking things up.

thousands of people have threatened to leave Twitter since Elon Musk took over, particularly since he reinstated the former president's account. Isn't that like the people threatening to move to Canada when Trump was elected? I don't think they really did. Exactly. That's what I was going to say is, I do know that too many people actually have. It's like, I don't know, it's like driving by a car wreck. You have to watch.

You have to look, right? You can't take your eyes away from what's going on there. Anyway, so whether the former president tweets again or not, who knows, we'll be following it at America in focus because I know you'll be following it. Yeah, that's right. I'll be following it again. You're at one-stop shop for all the news of the day. That's right. Let's move on, though, Casey.

Some news broke over the weekend. that the Pentagon is using taxpayer dollars to fund things like critical race theory training, gender ideology training, things like that. You wrote yesterday about Republicans' response to it. What are they saying? Yeah, this actually, this broke Monday morning. I was able to get a hold of this report from Rubio's office, and which it came out from Senator Mark Rubio and Representative Chip Roy.

And I also reached out to the Pentagon and they got a response. But, you know, this report from lawmakers lays out, although, you know, not all, but many of the ways that the military or armed services have gone all in on the, you know, the gender ideology and critical race theory, you know, teachings that have become so controversial. You know, the things that Ron DeSantis, for example, has taken on so explicitly said that, you know, Florida is where a woe goes to die. And I think that helped propel him to victory, to a resounding victory in Florida, focus on the economy, keep you coming up and take on some of the more radical ideology stuff. Well, and I think if he runs again, if he runs for president, it's going to be center of his campaign because it worked for him before. What we're seeing is that regardless of who's in charge in Congress and everything,

these things are just steadily infiltrating every level of the military. And so in particular, you know, for example, the military academies, The report gives a lot of examples of different slides and training materials that they got through records requests, where it showed cadets that these academies were being lectured on their white privilege, for example, as a main teaching point. And this is a quote from the report. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff defended teaching CRT at U.S. Service Academies and testified to Congress about his desire to understand why.

white rage. He argued that American taxpayer money should be spent to ensure cadets and midshipmen, learn what cost thousands of people to assault the Capitol building and try to overturn the Constitution of United States. The Biden administration is choosing to focus on and fund the study of racial extremism, even when this group showed it is a virtual non-issue in the military. My question for you, Casey, is how does that build camaraderie among our troops, and how does that better prepare them to defend our country, whether at home or abroad, against our enemies? Yeah, I think that is one of the main questions on this. And that's one of the main questions that lawmakers raise, which is, hey, this stuff is divisive. But what you are going to do is

introduce a lot of political partisanship, division into these units. And unit cohesion is a really important part of military readiness. I mean, it is, you know, morale and unity are fundamental strategic needs to be successful out in the field. And that's one of the main critiques of this from these lawmakers is that you're introducing these gender ideology stuff, this racial stuff. You're trying to create even like hierarchies racially. You're trying to push certain races down and lift others up. It's creating division.

And also another point they raise is that when you come into the military, I mean, they really reduce your identity down to nothing and then they rebuild you. from the ground up. They break you all the way down. And they kind of remove what makes you an individual in a lot of ways. And then they build you back up as part of the unit as part of the military. But a lot of these policies actually do the opposite. They elevate what's unique about you. They really highlight what makes you different.

But I mean, there's a reason, you know, you get your head shaved. You know, I mean, there's when you sign up, like there's something about just stripping down everything about you so that you can be totally submitted. to the process of training and unity and unit cohesion and self-sacrifice. But when everyone has a different identity and they're getting celebrated for their different identity and then certain people are made to feel guilty for what their ancestors did, you know, 100 years ago, then it's counterproductive to that. And that's what the lawmakers are raising.

I mean, you know, I understand. I mean, the reason they are doing it is the reason they're doing it all throughout society. They're trying to correct some injustices and things. But it just, it seems like the military is a really interesting and controversial place to be doing that because they have potentially, you know, have a conflict with Russia to be worrying about. But right now they're being lectured on things like white rage. It feels like this is all, you know, being done just to accommodate far left wokeism. And then it's, it's doing the contrary to what we're supposed to be doing with our troops, training them up, building that camaraderie, you know, making them brothers and sisters in arms, in case, they have to go to war.

So I don't know. It just, it seems crazy. It's going too far, in my opinion. I know you'll be staying on top of this story because hopefully the Pentagon will respond to these lawmakers. And I just want to bring up, yeah, I agree. And I want to bring one more thing, which is patriotism. I mean, what you want troops who love the country and are willing to die for the idea of how

great America is. And that's what's motivated so many men and women to sign up and risk their lives. America. I mean, is the idea of American greatness, American exceptionalism, that America is a force for good in the world, that we're a city on a hill. That's a big part of recruitment. But when you are actually teaching these CRT things, a fundamental, like, principle of CRT is that America is bad, and it always has been, and it's always been racist, and it's been founded on racism. And so these ideas are also counterproductive to recruitment. How are you, you can't, you know, recruit men and women to die and love their country enough to risk their life for while also

telling them it's always been evil. It's always been racist. And there's a little we can do to change it. Very good point. Casey, but let's move. Let's move on. It feels like most of America has moved on from COVID-19, yet there are still COVID-19 era mandates and restrictions in place. One of them is the federal government's mandate that all health care workers who work for, hospitals or outlets that receive Medicare and federal rhetoric Medicare and Medicaid funding be vaccinated against the COVID-19. Now, attorneys general from 22 states are asking for the Biden administration to end that vaccine mandate. Tell us about this. Yeah, this is an interesting kind of ongoing saga. And if you thought COVID mandates and things were over, you're wrong. I mean, this is still

playing out. So yeah, as you said, AGUs in 22 states are calling on the Biden administration to put an end of this mandate. The mandate is that health care workers have to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they're employed by someone who gets Medicaid and Medicare funding. So if you work for a federally funded employer, then you have to get the vaccine. It was a way, that was a mechanism for the Biden administration to require more people to get the vaccine in a time when getting, you know, putting a federal vaccine mandate in place was still, you know, it was in question. It was questions about constitutional stuff. So this is a way for them to get around it. And so they're saying, hey, you know, why this, we can't still have this. This vaccine mandate, it's not fair. And as

more and more time has gone by, the efficacy of the vaccine has dwindled. I mean, more and more research shows that it's not as effective as we thought. There are side effects. When the vaccine first came out and this, this mandate was put in place, you know, the vaccine. vaccine was promised to be full-proof and have, you know, very few side effects. And since then, now we know that it's far from foolproof and there actually are a lot of side effects, but we're still requiring people to get it, even though COVID is a lot more under control than it was before and a lot more people are vaccinated. So the need for a vaccine mandate is less necessary.

So it would be interesting to see this play out. This is one of many challenges to vaccine mandates. You know, we're seeing this play out in the military where the vaccine mandate for service members is being challenged. other COVID policies that are being challenged legally because these legal challenges take so long to play out. They're still happening now, even though the pandemic feels like it's a little bit behind us. Yeah.

And, you know, it was a tough few years for health care workers. Many just left the industry altogether, particularly in rural areas that you hear about shortages of workers in the healthcare industry, shortages of nurses and technicians. and other positions, you know, you would think now, particularly we've learned how to live with COVID, that you'd be more open to ideas that would bring people back into the industry. And let's just face it, there is a certain percentage of Americans who don't trust the vaccines or who object to the vaccines for religious or other reasons. It seems like now, you know, as we're bringing 20, 22 to a close, three years into COVID-19,

that we could be more open to others, and we wouldn't need these mandates and these other restrictions. Yeah, I mean, anyone who wants to be a health care worker nowadays, and my hats off to them, I think we should let them in because there is such a need for it. They've been through so much the last few years, and I think, you know, we could cut them a break. Well said. Time for one more story, Casey. This is about the national debt. The Congressional Budget Office has released projections for what the national debt is going to hit and compared to the gross domestic product, GDP.

What can you tell us about this? Yes, this is another edition in Casey and Dan's ongoing series and just, terrible economic news. So this show, this is CBO. So to back a little bit, CBO release these projections in May that show the national debt will hit 110% of GDP by 2032. So that's 10 years. 110% is, you know, kind of a bad milestone when our debt is, you know, significant. Our debt is larger than our economy, essentially. And 10% larger than our economy, right? So it, and it's, that means it's gaining steam. But the committee for a responsible federal budget, which is a great budget group budget group that does a lot of analysis.

They did an update since the CBO's numbers in May. And they found it's actually going to be 116% by 2032, so more than 50% higher than what was previously projected. And they said it could actually, depending on how things go, it could be as high as 138% of GDP in 10 years. 100%. So it would be a 40% increase over the next decade. And they pointed to costly legislative and executive action.

that have worsened the GDP to debt ratio since that may estimate. And so what's happening here is, well, one, the economy is not growing as fast. The economy is really either, you know, we've seen, you talked about recession earlier in the podcast. We saw a decrease in gross domestic product for two quarters this year. And even when it stopped decreasing, it had a very small increase in GDP. So the economy is not growing. GDP is not growing very much, if at all.

And at the same time, the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to deal with all the inflation. So they raise interest rates to get inflation down. But what that does is that makes all debt much more expensive to hold because the interest rates on that debt goes up. And of course, the U.S. national government, federal government is a huge holder of debt. And so whenever interest rates go up, the cost of the U.S. debt just soars. And so we have so much debt. We have so much debt payments that these interest rates are really making a big impact on us, and they're going to even raise our national debt higher.

I've written in the past about how the annual deficit has increased significantly. It's increased 50 percent since like 2019. Our annual deficit is up much higher despite the Biden administration saying they got it down, which is really disingenuous because it's still much higher than it was in 2019. This has just been a dip since COVID when we passed, you know, several trillion dollars of spending to respond to COVID. So deficit is up 50%. We're going to be potentially 140% of GDP in the next decade. And I'll just say what as a note to our listeners, whenever you hear estimates about, you know, 10 years from now or something,

it's always worse than they say it's going to be. Because the way that they, or when you hear that the deficit this year is good, You always have to have a eye of skepticism because they purposely do things and kind of wiggle the numbers a little bit to make it work. But what they don't say this is that, well, that figure that's not too bad for 10 years now assumes that we have no new spending, no big spending bills over the next two years, you know, that the economy does just fine. And of course, that's not realistic. So I think this 138% is the more likely number. I think it could be even worse. And it's not good.

It's kind of where an uncharted territory when it comes to debt being as large. It all sounds ominous. I'm no economist, Casey, but it seems like there are one of two potential solutions to this problem. One, you can raise taxes on everybody, raise more revenue, spend down the debt without excess revenue. Or you can actually cut spending. stop passing trillion dollar spending bills that are over and above the operational budget for the federal government. And I think right now, as we're likely in a recession or heading into a recession, inflation is out of control. I don't think anyone wants to raise taxes.

So that leaves one solution. Cut spending. Yeah, doesn't it seem so impossible, though? And it's kind of amazing that we had a balanced budget under Bill Clinton. That's not very long ago. But getting a balanced budget now just seems, it feels impossible. Sadly, sadly, that's true. But Casey, that's all the time we have this week.

A reminder to our listeners, you can find all of the Center Squares podcast at America's Talking.com. Take a look. Please subscribe. There is no cost. I hope all of our listeners have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's been a tough few years, but we live in the greatest country in the world, and we all have so much to be thankful for.

This has been the American Focus podcast for Casey Harper. I'm Dan McKeelam. We'll talk to you next week.