The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 512 Is it Time for a Third Party?
Episode Date: July 27, 2017In this episode I ask the question, "Is it time for a third-party in politics?" With the Republican Party consistently letting voters down, is it time to move on? https://shar.es/1TYpVQ  The Republi...can Party better get its act together because we may be looking at another recession. This piece sums up the reasons why. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/why-soaring-assets-and-low-unemployment-mean-its-time-to-start-worrying-1499247003  Here's another troubling reason the economy is sputtering along and you're not getting a raise. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-slow-wage-growth/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Dan Bongino.
I owe you. Who owes who? You owe me. I owe you. There's no money.
The Dan Bongino Show.
Anything run by liberals will be run into the ground, burned, stepped on, gasoline poured on it, and burned again.
Get ready to hear the truth about America. They're arguing about things and debating how quickly they can deconstruct the
greatest country in the history of mankind and all of the ideas and norms that have gotten us here.
On a show that's not immune to the facts with your host Dan Bongino. All right welcome to the
Renegade Republican with Dan Bongino. Producer Joe how are you today? Glad to be here Dan. Ready to
go. Yeah ready to go too. A lot of news to cover. Let's get right to it. By the way, just on a personal note, no deal
yet on the Ford Raptor, but I
cannot thank you enough, my
awesome, terrific, fantastic
audience for all of the feedback.
You guys are great. And ladies, I ask for
feedback on the Ford Raptor truck.
I get about 100 emails from people
telling me about everything from the
how it can run a little hot in the air
conditioning to how wonderful it is in the desert. So thank you very much. It means a lot to me. Hey, today's show
brought to you by our friends at BrickHouse Nutrition. Big fan of these guys. They've been
with me from the beginning. One of the best young, hungry nutrition companies on the market. They
have two great products. One product I want to focus on today is Dawn to Dusk. Terrific product.
For those of you like me, I had to get up early this morning to do Fox and Friends who have eternal days that never, ever end. Boo hoo, poor me. I say that sarcastically,
just kidding. I got long days though. I really do. And it helps to be able to have Dawn to Dusk.
It's a 10-hour energy supplement, 10 hours of time-released energy. You're not going to get
the ups and downs. You're not going to get the crashes. Go give it a shot. It's great for people who work out, for working moms and dads,
for people who have really busy lives, CEOs, military folks. This is fantastic. Cops and
firemen, people who need to be alert for the entire day. I have a pilot who emails me a lot
about it, who loves the product. Go give it a shot. It's called Dawn to Dusk. Dawn to Dusk.
It's available at BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan. That's BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan.
All right.
So yesterday, Joe, as predicted, the Republicans sold you out.
Again, if you're a binge listener, and I love the dichotomy in the show between the binge listeners and the daily listeners,
because I get emails for both, and I can tell right away what you do if you binge listen or if you listen every day.
because I get emails from both, and I can tell right away what you do if you binge listen or if you listen every day.
I said yesterday the Republicans were going to sell you out on a clean repeal of Obamacare.
The vote came up yesterday.
So just to be clear, for those of you who missed it, who have busy lives,
a vote was held in the Senate to repeal Obamacare clean.
Just get rid of it.
And what happened, as I predicted yesterday, I said it would fail because the Republicans have no guts.
They have no cojones.
It did fail because seven Republican turncoats voted against the bill.
So it didn't even, like, fail by a sliver, Joe.
You know, we have 52 Republican senators.
We did not get anywhere close to 52 votes.
And, folks, sometimes you just hope and pray that you're wrong. But sadly, we very rarely are
on the show because the Republican Party will take every opportunity to sell you out. And I
ask you again, as I said on Fox and Friends hit this morning, for those of you see it,
you know, what's the point? What's the point? You know, the Republican Party, you know,
I tweeted this out yesterday and I meant it. And I want this. Well, think about what I'm about to
tell you. the Republican Party
is useful when you don't need them and useless
when you do, you know you need
a post office named after someone
they're great, you need a resolution out there
about how you know
infants are adorable and puppies are cute
they're perfect, they'll send that out for you no problem
you need a resolution
praising our veterans
you know thank god for
our vets right and our military servicemen yeah they'll do the resolution but folks frankly those
things are all easy everybody loves our veterans and our military men because they deserve it
everybody thinks babies are cute you know why joe because they are right everybody thinks puppies
are cute you know why because they are okay, that's useless stuff. You need a post
office named after, you know, Jackie Robinson or, or whatever. They'll do it. Great guy. He was a
brave man. He gets a post office named after him or something. You'll see a resolution out of
Congress. No problem. But things that actually, you know, really will make a difference in your
lives. Those things are all great. There's other stuff, but things that will make a difference in your life.
Tax cuts, repealing the dreadful Obamacare,
getting your kid a decent education,
that stuff, they abandon you every time.
They can't decide on a budget.
They can't decide on tax cuts.
They can't decide on Obamacare.
So what's the point?
So, you know, I complained a lot yesterday.
Let me just get to some solutions
instead of whining about it,
because I'm so pissed off right now
that we could go on for the entire show complaining about how the suck level of the republican party
which is off the charts i'm gonna ask you a question this goes to you or my cost all right
bonjino is it time for a third party now okay go ahead wait before i get before i set this i want
to give you the pros and cons.
All right. Because I don't know. I honestly don't know where Joe stands on this. I've never had this conversation with him.
Nope. I've never I've never I don't preface the content.
I don't talk to Joe about the content before the show intentionally because I want the show to sound like a natural conversation that it is.
Here are the pros and cons of this. And let me be clear on it too. In my second book,
The Fight, I wrote an entire chapter telling you how bad of an idea third party is. Having run for
office a number of times and having repeatedly been exposed to the machinations that go on
behind the scenes, I always thought third parties were a bad idea, and here's why.
Okay.
First, let's lay down the markers here.
Why do we need political parties in the first place,
and why do we need specifically, in this case,
the Republican Party?
Let's talk nuts and bolts.
Well, number one, you need it for ballot access.
Folks, in states like where Joe lives in Maryland,
where I live in Florida,
the Republican Party, they have ballot lines.
In other words, on every single general election, because of the number of votes that party gets,
not the person, but the number of votes the party gets,
because the person will change on each ballot.
Obviously, it's not the same person running every time.
They will have a dedicated ballot line.
Now, you may say, what are you talking about?
That means in a general election,
whoever wins the nomination by that political party, in this case, the Republican
party, Joe, will be on the general election ballot. I don't know if you know this, but you
can't just get on a general election ballot in a lot of states. You have to get a certain number
of signatures. And you know, Joe, why do you think that is? I mean, it's pretty simple. Because
let's say you have a
let's say you had a, you may say, well,
that's not very democratic. Well, folks, really? Are you
sure? Because let's say in Maryland,
right? They had a, and Maryland's one of the
where I know the Maryland election laws pretty well.
To get on the primary ballot,
I think it's like a $270
fee or something like that, which is
well, you may say, well, anybody should be able to get on a primary ballot.
Are you sure?
Because if that's the case, Joe, Maryland is 5.6 million residents.
If there was not some barrier to entry for credibility.
Oh, yeah.
You could see 100,000 people on the ballot.
In that case, that's not democracy at all.
Because what happens?
You go in the booth.
You see 100,000 names.
You're like, oh, my God, I have no time to sort through all this.
So what states do, and I agree with, by the way, is they set some barrier to entry for credibility.
They'll say, let's say it's money.
So in Florida, it's a 10,000, I think it's 10,000.
You have to put $10,000 in some form of like donor money up front.
Folks, that's not a lot.
Honestly, if you can't raise $10,000 and you want to run for Congress or the Senate or the governorship, seriously, you're not serious. I mean, can we
both agree on that, Joe? Yeah. In a race, a congressional race, it's going to cost a million,
two million to win because you're going to need to put together, it's a business, getting elected.
Sadly, politics have become a business too, but getting elected is a business.
You have to open up a very serious operation. To get on there, you need to spend about $10,000 to get on the ballot in
Florida. In Maryland, it's $200, but the problem with $200 something, it may have gone up. But the
point is that in Maryland, anybody and their mom can get on the ballot and it creates these really
long primary lists. It's not democracy at all. So having a Republican party that in a general
election, at least, already has a ballot line that in a general election at least already has
a ballot line makes it real easy
because then what happens, Joe, you have a primary,
you have an entry fee to get
in at a primary, which shows you're serious,
you have credible candidates, and
then you have a winner, and then you have a spot in
a general election ballot, which guarantees
at a minimum, when someone
goes to vote, the Republican Party will have
a name in the pot. Easy peasy.
Easy peasy.
Easy, what is that?
Easy as cover, was that a CoverGirl commercial?
I forget.
But I always get the pop, I constantly get the pop culture stuff, right?
I just have no time to watch TV or commercials anymore.
But that's, yeah, easy peasy, beautiful, CoverGirl.
That's got to be it, right?
If not, just email me.
People always do.
They always correct me anyway.
So they have ballot access.
Okay.
Number two.
So the Republican Party is beneficial because they already have a line in the general election.
Number two, money.
After you win the primary.
So let's just talk generals for now.
Let's move along from the primary. I told you about the money to get on the primary ballot, which is a barrier to entry for credibility.
Now in the general, you have a ballot access.
You also have money.
So once you win the Republican primary, you're going to get the support of a lot of Republicans
who don't know you, don't know you from Adam, but know you are a Republican because you won
the Republican primary. And folks, let me be completely candid because I want to give you
the pros and the cons. I don't like people, oh, let's get a third party and don't think of the
ups and downs. When I won the Republican primary for Congress
and the Republican primary for the United States Senate
in the state of Maryland,
there are Republicans who donated to me
who didn't know me,
but they knew I won the primary.
They knew they were Republicans
and they figured because I had that label in front of me,
that was the imprimatur from the party
that I was good to go.
And they donated money.
So I'm not going to see anything.
I did not benefit and I still don't benefit in some respects,
from being aligned with the GOP brand, okay?
So again, just to put out the positives.
So ballot access money.
Also, there's voter lists.
There's other things that come along with being a Republican Party nominee.
When you win the nomination, they have access to voter data
and other things that you probably wouldn't get
if you were an independent candidate.
So those are the pluses.
That's why we need.
That's why we need a Republican Party.
Sorry, I'm going to move on to the next topic.
Also, another downside for a third party, to be clear on this, is we could split the vote in local elections without name ID.
Now, here's what I mean by that.
If you were to run a candidate as an independent,
right? So you have a Republican running, Joe, a Democrat running, and an independent,
but the independents are conservative, but he's running as an independent.
What you will have is, and this is what I warned against in my second book,
is you have a coalesced Democratic party, which even in swing districts, let's say it's 45% of
voters. Okay. So let's say it's a swingy
district and you may say, well, it's a swing district. Why isn't it 50% Democrat voters?
I'm being nice here to try and make the case. Say it's 45% of the voters will vote Democrat,
no matter what. You now have 55% of the voters left. So you'd say, okay, great. We're a Republican
candidate. You know, we could win or 45% vote Republican and 10% are open for, you know, open up for
grabs.
Right.
So you have, you know, 45, 45 and 10 in the middle.
Well, what do you do?
You split that, that basically at 55%, you split them in half.
Yeah, they're gone.
We have no chance of winning because half of 55 is not greater than the 45% that are
going to vote Democrat.
You follow what I'm saying?
Sure do.
So you split the vote.
That's always been a problem.
But, but here's the problem. Here's problem. But here's where we overcome this. So now we have why we need the Republican Party,
why it would be technically a quote, good thing. Okay. Ballot access, money,
and you'd split the vote otherwise. But if you had, and this is where I'm going to,
I'm almost refuting my own second book. So if you bought my second book, go line through that chapter and say, Dan Bongino's changed his mind.
Because I'm starting to slowly change my mind in this third party thing after we were sold out by Obamacare.
That's the genesis of this whole thing.
And the tax debate, which we're losing on.
Because we're just not winning on anything.
So there's no purpose to having a party that loses all the time and sells you out, right?
I'm a little hesitant to say this because i don't know who's listening and i
have a have a feeling someone in the trump administration does a friend of mine because
i get some strange emails after my shows you'll find out yeah i'll find out today i think trump
should leave the republican party i know this sounds crazy i know a lot of you may be shaking
your heads i'm expecting some viewer, listener email on this.
Maybe some positive, maybe some negative.
I think Trump should lead the exit from the Republican Party.
I say that because, Joe, this is why I set this up strategically the way I did.
Go ahead.
I got you.
You see where I'm going with this?
Yes, I do.
All of those things I told you are assets are completely wiped out if Trump leads the exit from the Republican Party.
All of it.
Let's go down the list.
We needed the Republican Party.
I don't mean to sound all over the place, but we needed the Republican Party for the
reasons I laid out.
The reasons we don't need the Republican Party anymore because they're absolutely useless
on the ideological and legislative front.
They can't do anything on tax cuts. They can't do anything on spending. They can't do anything
on the deficit. They can't do anything on federal funding for abortion. They're nothing. They can do
nothing. They can't get anything done. So we don't need them. Trump, if he were to lead the exit from
the Republican Party, ballot access is guaranteed. He's the president of the United States.
That's what I knew. Yeah. He's the president of the United States. That's what I knew. Yeah.
He's the president.
Are you folks?
If Donald Trump dumps the Republican Party today and runs for reelection as an independent,
I promise you his name will be on the ballot.
You tell me what it takes to because remember each state just so we're clear about how federal elections work.
There is not a national standard for ballot access,
even in a national election.
Digest what I just told you.
There is no United States standard
for ballot access.
Every state has its own
standards, even for the presidential
race. So for Maryland,
it may be, whatever, $270.
So Trump,
I am pretty sure, I don't think we need Jay Zabacus for this.
No.
But I'm pretty sure Trump can afford $270 in Maryland to get on the ballot.
You think?
I'd help him out if he needed it, yeah.
Listen, Joe and Amarkas and I aren't rich, but Joe, we'll split it.
Joe, we'll split it.
Good deal, Dave.
So I'm throwing that off for, we'll throw it out as a donation.
I don't even know if that's legal, by the way, but we'll try it, okay?
So Trump can get on the ballot in Maryland, no problem.
In Florida, I think it's $10,000 or whatever it may be.
Forgive me.
It's been a while since I've ran.
Thank God.
I'm not running again ever.
But I still think Trump can win the wing to $10,000.
A little bit more than $270,000, but I'm pretty sure Trump's okay.
In other states, it's a certain amount of signatures.
So let's say, whatever, in Ohio.
I have no idea what Ohio is. just let me be clear enough but say it's 200 and 200 000 signatures
trust me when i tell you that's no problem for trump they'll get that in two weeks easily so
trump will have no problem getting on the ballot as an independent okay so ballot access we don't
need them no point go move up move along okay okay secondly money i'm
pretty sure trump's okay with money uh number one trump is a billionaire now what level of
billionaire you can we can all dispute that but nobody disputes that the man is tremendously
wealthy and has been a business success okay he's had some failures but he's had obviously a lot
more successes than failures money's not going to be a problem. Also, Joe, outside of his own self-financing,
Trump is an extremely prolific fundraiser.
I know that sounds crazy,
but the RNC and the Trump campaign
are raising boatloads of money.
Yes, they are.
A lot of people, and you know this, Joe,
from Callers in Your Morning Show there at WCBM,
they're very passionate about Trump.
I'm sure you hear it all the time.
He will have zero problem raising money.
And finally, voter data, again, a total non-issue.
Trump had a really tremendous voter data operation,
despite the fact that the Clintons painted his campaign
as a bunch of technological idiots.
So I ask you this then, Joe.
All right.
Now, because I asked you a question beginning of the show
and it's now 15 minutes,
you still haven't been allowed to answer.
And I've been thinking about it.
Okay. Given what I told you the pros were to the show and it's now 15 minutes. You still haven't been allowed to answer. And I've been thinking about it.
Okay.
Given what I told you the pros were to having a Republican Party.
All right.
And the pros are to having Trump leave the Republican Party and run as an independent.
Do you think it's time for a third party?
Well, I'll preface what I'm going to say by telling you I'm a registered unaffiliate in Maryland.
I'm unaffiliated.
That's independent.
Yes. I think I would likeated. That's independent. Yes.
I think I would like to have the Republican Party hang around.
I would like to keep it simple and have two parties, but they haven't done a damn thing for me.
They're not doing a damn thing for me or anybody else that votes Republican.
So what's the sense in having them?
What's the point?
That's the point. So, yeah, it's probably time.
And Trump can bring a whole bunch of folks with him. And that's a great time to start a third party.
And by the way, it's a good point. People who voted for Trump in the last election, a lot of them, a good swath of them, are not Republicans, Joe. You and I both know this.
Yes, sir.
They're either Democrats or like, Joe, in Maryland, you can't register independent't register independent he's right right you have to register unaffiliated right a lot of unaffiliated voters folks they couldn't give a damn about the republican party but they do care about trump
now let me let me add another and i'm going to move on in a second because this is important
this is a very serious conversation we need to start having if we need to start dumping the
republican party i don't take this casual, this conversation casually or lightly.
If Trump's going to do it, though, he can't do it alone.
Well, he can, but I wouldn't invite, let me rephrase that.
He can do it alone.
I don't think it would be smart.
Now, a lot of you are going to laugh at this when I say this, I'm sure.
But hear me out again.
I think these things through.
I promise you, I put a lot of homework into this show for you.
My audience is my world.
You're everything to me.
Outside of my wife, kids, and the Lord Almighty,
well, he comes first.
I mean this.
You are everything to me.
I say this to my wife every day.
I put in hours and hours of show prep to make sure I never waste your time.
I've thought this through.
He shouldn't do it alone.
He should go grab Mike Lee.
He should go grab Rand Paul.
And he should go grab Mike Lee he should go grab Rand Paul and he should go grab Ted Cruz
and say it's our turn
to start something new and fresh
now I know a lot of you are left and going you're insane
and I know exactly what you're
going to say
you're going to say well why Trump's not really a conservative
and Mike Lee is
unquestionably a conservative
Ted Cruz is unquestionably
a conservative and Rand Paul is unquestionably a conservative. Ted Cruz is unquestionably a conservative.
And Rand Paul is unquestionably a conservatarian.
Actually, he's more of a libertervative?
Libercervative?
What would that be?
I say that because conservatarian is,
which I would describe myself as,
a conservative with libertarian tendencies.
Rand Paul is more of a libertarian with some conservative tendencies.
Make sense, Joe?
Yeah.
Can someone email me?
I love my audience.
You guys are great.
Is it a liber-servative?
Can someone give me something that makes sense?
Because that sounds ridiculous.
No, seriously.
Daniel at Bongino.com.
Send me something because maybe I'll send it over to the Rand Paul campaign.
A liber...
You can't say
you know what I'm saying? You need something that
flows off the tongue. Conservatarian
flows off the tongue. Maybe libertarian. Who knows?
But Paul is a libertarian conservative.
I get it. I know your complaints. You're going to say
well why would any of them go along with that?
Folks, I'm here to tell you as well
knowing some of these guys personally
that they like each other. They're very nice guys
all of them. They've been very good to me and they're very loyal and good people.
But I know they have differences too amongst themselves.
What I think Trump should do is come out tomorrow and be honest.
He should say, listen, I'm a business guy.
I am now sadly in the business of disgusting politics, which I hate.
I'm not used to this.
But during my time in the business of politics, the broken of disgusting politics, which I hate. I'm not used to this.
But during my time in the business of politics,
the broken business of politics,
I have come along and figured out that conservative values are the best way to advance the country forward.
I understand some of you don't agree with me,
but that's where I'm going.
Now, I don't agree with these three senators on everything,
and I know they don't agree with each other on everything,
which they don't, folks.
They don't believe me. Lee, Paul, and Cruz do not agree on everything. Just look know they don't agree with each other on everything, which they don't, folks. They don't believe me. Lee, Paul and Cruz do not agree on everything.
Just look at that last Obamacare debate and the Cruz amendment. Right. Yeah. But I'm telling you
as a businessman that these three senators have a model for success going forward. I agree with
80 to 90 percent of the time the Republican Party is lost. I don't agree with them even 50
percent of the time anymore. Me and these three senators are going to go forward. We're going to
found the Freedom Party, the Liberty Party, whatever it may be. And we are going to be we
are going to advance good, solid conservative values, advance the economy, the health care
system, fix the education system. And if these other Republicans want to leave that shell of
a party and come along, you're welcome. But here's our platform. And they lay it out. They lay out
five or six things they all agree on, say there are other things here we each individually we
agree on. But this is the core stuff we're going to move on taxes, school choice, pro-life,
Second Amendment, bedrock principles. What do you think, Joe?
I like it. I mean mean he needs some help he could
use some help it's going to be tough to do it alone yeah of course and and and i spent more
time on this i wanted to folks but it's critical we start to move the ball on this going forward
i'm willing to evolve my own positions when i think i made a mistake and i really think i made
a mistake not calling for a new party i really do and there is no better person on the planet right now, none, to make a
deal about the platform of a third party going forward than Donald J. Trump. None. Go grab Lee.
Go grab Paul. Go grab Cruz. Go into the house. Grab a few members of the house, some Louie
Gohmerts, some other people looking for something different, and make it happen. Make it happen
yesterday. All right. I got a lot more to get through, so let me move on.
Hey, today's show also brought to you by our friends at My Patriot Supply.
Hey, thank you for all the feedback
on the products, by the way.
I appreciate everybody going out
and buying their one-month emergency supply of food.
I know, listen, I get it.
In a really wealthy country,
you hear about a one-month emergency supply of food,
and you're like, well, I'm probably not gonna need that.
Well, are you sure?
No, seriously, I mean, I don't mean to be silly, but are you sure?
Like, do you really want to be sure?
Is that the kind of thing where you're so sure of it, you're not willing to spend $99
to ensure a month's supply of food?
And one of the listeners who bought it sent me an email, which was, he was right.
He said, listen, remind your listeners that that one month's supply is just for one person.
Folks, my humble opinion, as I said, the last time I did this read, I have a couple of boxes of emergency food.
I need more.
I have four people in my family.
I got to get two more.
I'm going to reach out to Patriot Supply sometime maybe this week.
I've been so much going on.
But I strongly suggest you go out there and do it.
It contains enough emergency food to get you through one person for a month.
You never know when you're going to need it.
It has breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
You just need to add water. It's person for a month. You never know when you're going to need it. It has breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You just need to add water.
It's good for 25 years.
Peace of mind for 25 years.
Better to have it and not need it
than God forbid you need it and don't have it.
We're only four missed meals away from chaos
has been said many times.
I think I read that in one of Thomas Sowell's books.
Go out and get it today.
Go to preparewithdan.com.
That's preparewithdan.com and pick up your emergency supply of food today. It's one month. Folks, one month. It's a small
price to pay for some peace of mind. Okay. Now, just to kind of reset the show a little bit as
well, one of the reasons I opened up today with the topic of should we all consider a third party and here's how it should happen is because it's not just the Obamacare
thing yesterday, although that was, in my humble opinion, the biggest political sellout in, I don't
know, 50, 60, 70 years. I can't think of a bigger sellout than a Republican party that ran for, since Obama, you started the
Obamacare debate on repealing Obamacare. They all ran on it, Joe, and then failed to do it yesterday
when it was right in front of them. I mean, it was right there. You had one job. You had one job.
I was messing with my friend yesterday. I got this cop friend of mine down. We were police
officers in the academy together. We've known him forever.
And he called
me. And on the Florida Turnpike down here,
I live off the Turnpike. And the thing about the Florida Turnpike
is down in southern Florida, you miss an exit
show, you might as well go to Miami.
Because the next exit is
literally 18 miles away. So
he missed the exit. He called me. He's like, it's just
added 40 minutes on my trip.
I said, you had one job.
You had one job.
Get off the right exit.
That's one job.
The 122, there you go.
Just get off the exit.
How do you miss the exit?
With GPS, it's like,
you are approaching the exit in one mile,
in 0.9 miles, in 0.8 miles,
in 0.5 miles, in 100 feet,
in 50 feet, in 2 feet.
Get off, you idiot, right now.
You can't miss the exit.
You had one job.
Just one.
He missed it.
Well, GOP, you had one job.
Repeal Obamacare.
That was it.
You had one job.
One job.
You couldn't even do that.
By the way, a guy emailed me yesterday.
He said we should start a ringtone it was great it was
funniest thing ever he goes you need dan bongino ringtones you know when we go he loves when we
say what he thinks that's funny he wants a dan bongino ringtone what that would be good good
idea maybe we should start that but here's another broken promise the republicans and i'll put this
in the show notes today it's an article in Bloomberg. The Republican Party can't even agree on the tax cuts.
Oh my God, Joe.
Joe, this is a bunt.
For those of you who don't play baseball,
you know what a bunt is?
A bunt is when you don't even have to swing the bat.
As it was described by my baseball coach, Coach Stan,
who I haven't mentioned in a long time, a long time ago.
That was the last time I mentioned Coach Stan.
He's a great guy.
All you have to do is catch the ball with the bat.
You don't even have to hit it.
It's a bunt.
Everybody supports tax cuts in the Republican Party, even moderates.
They can't even get that done.
So there's an article in Bloomberg today, and here's a quote from the piece, which is
going to blow your mind because it describes the absolute futility of the pathetic, disturbing,
broken, feckless, spineless, cowardly Republican Party.
Talking about Paul Ryan, who, by the way, is a very nice guy personally, but I don't
get it anymore.
What's going on with him?
It says about a tax cut.
It says, Ryan has insisted that a tax overhaul must happen in 2017 since 2018 midterm elections
could complicate the task.
Now, why am I reading that quote?
You're like, well, that's rather mundane quote.
No, no, no.
Oh, there's a lot in there.
You may not have picked up on it,
but oh, there's a whole lot in there.
So they have to do the tax cuts now
because someone could get elected in 2018
in the midterms or unelected,
and that could complicate the task?
What does that mean?
Let me translate the DC talk.
Thank you.
We're cowardly backing off tax cuts
because Democrats are going to use
the tax the rich class warfare against us.
And if we do it now,
we think they'll forget it by 2018 before the election.
But if we cut taxes right before the election,
someone's going to run an ad
saying we did tax cuts for the rich
and we Republicans may lose our seats.
Why? Why?
Why?
For the ringtone people come again?
Really?
So now let me get this straight.
Now we've already forfeited the argument that tax rate tax rate rate cuts will cost the government cost, quote, the government revenue.
And our is a is a we're throwing we're throwing a bone to the rich?
So we've already capitulated the argument?
How stupid is this party?
Instead of going out and making the case, which is an easy case to make, that money in your pocket, Joe, money in people who are wealthy, money in people who are the middle class, money in people's pockets will eventually filter out into the economy in the form of economic
growth, as has been shown repeatedly over and over. John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton,
over and over and over again. We're already capitulating the argument and we're afraid
in 2018 because it could, quote, complicate the task because there are elections coming up.
because it could, quote, complicate the task because there are elections coming up.
Folks, it's over.
It's over.
No, I mean it.
The Republican Party, it's over.
They've already capitulated two major things, even though they had one job.
Magically, they had one job and they've lost two.
They've screwed up two jobs, even though they only had one.
They screwed up Obamacare, which was a major capitulation to what? To the Democrat idea, Joseph, that the government
somehow has a solution for healthcare. That's all this is, Joe. Is it not? All this is under
Obamacare by refusing to repeal Obamacare is is a capitulation to the far-left Democrat idea
that the government has a solution for healthcare
when the government broke it.
That's all it is.
It's nothing more.
We've capitulated one of our party planks,
that economic freedom and liberty work
and can fix healthcare.
We've already capitulated that,
so a Republican Party has no purpose anymore.
Goodbye.
But even worse, they've capitulated point number two, that tax rate cuts in the economy
will benefit the economy and will benefit the middle class.
Ironically, even if those tax cuts go to high earners, because what do high earners do with
the money, Joe?
Joe, do you think they burn it?
No.
So if you're Joe, let's say let's just let's play rich people for a minute because we're
not.
But let's play that.
Let's say you and I are $10 million earners each.
That would put us in the top 1%, right?
Okay, Dan, I believe so.
Is that your Thurston Howell?
Yes, it is, Dan.
Yeah, so Joe gets a tax cut.
Joe, now, Thurston, if I were to give you, say you pay $4 million in taxes,
and we give a tax rate cut, righturston and you get a million dollars back
what would you do with the million dollars would you burn it I would invest it I would spend it
oh thank you Thurston you don't need Jay's app because Thurston just summed it up folks a lot
of these 10 million dollar earners those evil rich people using the the sick deranged dialogue
of the left are going to go out and invest that money in their business,
which will grow the left just like that.
And they will invest in the business, which will grow the business,
which will make the business more capable to hire more employees,
which will make the employees more capable to pay taxes
and to finance the government that the left loves so much.
If they don't invest it, what else will they do?
As Thurston adequately and correctly said, he will spend it.
Like, but what if he buys a new yacht? Who gives a, who cares? So what? Thurston buys his second
yacht. Who do you think built the yacht? Who do you think built it? There are people who work,
who pay taxes. Who do you think built the damn yacht? What do you care if this guy's got another
yacht? What do you want him to do? You want to kill him? What do you care if this guy's got another yacht? What do you want him to do?
You want to kill him?
What do you want to do?
You want him to burn the money, you idiots?
Oh, my gosh.
Are they stupid?
This is ridiculous.
We've already capitulated the argument.
This is insane.
Now, I bring this up for another.
I'm not even going to get to him.
I have so much stuff.
It's just like, I'm serious.
I'm like even going to get to him. I have so much stuff. It's just like, I'm serious. I'm like, overwhelming material.
There's a great piece about Section 702,
the spying on the government.
I'm going to get to at some point, too.
Maybe tomorrow's show.
But there's so much material out there.
But wrapping up in a neat little ball, this argument.
We don't need the GOP.
Trump can start a third party. He's the onlyP Trump can start a third party
he's the only one who can start a third party
we don't need them because
they have capitulated the ideological
fight on government
on government and healthcare and they've also
capitulated the ideological fight on the economy
thinking that rich people
when they get a tax rate cut will go and burn
the money which is imbecilic
and if you listen to my show regularly I've already quoted to you data from Stephen Moore about how rich people and tax revenue
went up after the tax cuts. Okay. This is the kind of stuff we're already capitulating the facts,
the data. It's really disturbing. So we don't need a party. Trump should get a third party going.
He should start it with Mike Lee and them. We don't need a party because we forfeited the
ideological fights. And why is this important now? Well, here's why. I will put in the show notes today a piece from
July 5th. So it's about two weeks old, going on three weeks old, from Greg Ip, who does really,
really terrific work. He wrote a really great book. Forgive me. I can't remember. Where is it?
I have it somewhere. I don't know. He wrote a really great book I like. I forget the title of it.
But Greg Ip wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal that should really scare the snot out of all of you.
And I don't like to do this on the show.
I don't want to leave you with a macabre topic.
But the piece is a little bit disturbing.
And the gist of it is, is it time to worry about the economy?
And my answer to you would be yes.
And my answer to you would be yes.
And I'm bringing all of this up, third party and all this other stuff, because the GOP is not worried one bit.
They care about one thing, Joe.
And that is reelection in 2018.
Nobody cares.
But here's a couple of data points from you from the Greg at peace, which I think should have you all saying, okie doke.
Stock market's good.
Unemployment's generally good.
I would have my spidey sense going ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding right now.
Okay.
He says the low cost to hedge against what they call major market moves or what's known as implied volatility.
You may say, well, that's not a bad sign.
In other words, people aren't spending money, Joe, right now
to insure themselves against a market downturn.
So you may say, well, I don't get it, Dan.
Like, so what?
If people aren't concerned about a market downturn, why are you?
Well, because when implied volatility or people not insuring against, and basically they're comfortable, Joe.
It's like not insuring yourself against a hurricane risk because you haven't had a hurricane in 20 years.
That's usually when the hurricane happens.
And now you're looking at potential catastrophe. So low volatility or low implied volatility,
or not a lot of insurance out there are hedging against, hedging is a better term,
against major market moves. You don't mistake that for a second for the fact that it couldn't
happen. Just like people in Florida who if there hasn't been a major hurricane down here in 10 years, that doesn't mean we won't have one next week. Okay. Number one,
that's like the weakest argument. That's why I started out with this. But number two,
interest rates can only go up, Joe. I'm going to have to get through these quickly. Interest rates
going up. I don't want to be simplistic like liberals, but can be a bad sign for the economy.
Why is that? It's very simple,
Joe. If you're Joe's t-shirt company,
Joe's t-shirt company wants to invest
in this just wonderful new t-shirt line
he knows there's a lot of demand for,
but Joe doesn't have the capital right now.
Joe has two ways to do it.
He can do an equity finance.
He can go public
and get money from
people who want to buy stock in a company, or Joe can issue a debt. He can go public and get money from people who want to buy stock in a company, or Joe can issue a debt.
He can issue a bond issuance, and they can buy bonds in a company.
Well, when interest rates go up, that means Joe is going to have to pay more interest on those bonds.
And if Joe can't afford to pay 10% interest on a bond, it's a lot.
But you get what I'm saying, Joe?
When interest rates go up, it costs Joe and Joe's t-shirt company more money to finance an expansion of his business. Not a good thing. I don't want to be overly simplistic. Can mean
that that's not a good thing. But interest rates are very low right now and will go up. There's
very little room on the downside. That's bad sign number two. Bad sign number three. And this I'm
getting, this one was not in the Greg Ip piece.
I'm pulling this from another Bloomberg piece.
I'm crossing them over because I want to make sure you get the full picture.
He says, well, listen, what about employment?
We're at full employment right now.
This could get worse.
We're not at full employment.
Here's the problem.
There's another article in Bloomberg I'll put in the show notes right now.
And Ip knows this.
I'm not attacking him. He just doesn't cover this part in the piece.
We're not at full employment, Joe.
Right.
There's a piece in Bloomberg titled,
Why Aren't You Getting a Raise?
And the piece is crystal clear.
You're not getting a raise right now because although the unemployment,
the top line unemployment number is low,
the U6 number, Joe,
which is people not looking for a job
but who would take one.
So they're out of the workforce.
They're not looking actively,
but they take a job if it came up.
It's at 8.6.
We may say, what does that mean?
Folks, that's really high.
The last expansion, it was at 7.9, almost a point lower,
meaning there are a lot more people not working.
So you may say, what does that have to do with this?
Well, because there are a lot more people not working
and not actively looking,
they're not competing for your job. Well, if they're not competing for your job, there are a lot more people not working and not actively looking they're not competing for your job well if they're not competing for your job there's a pool of
people out there who could flow into the workforce tomorrow as wages start to creep up to compete
away your job it's a there's a reserve of workers out there is what i'm getting at joe an army of
unemployed people who are not actively looking but will take a job when the right price comes up, who will immediately compete away your job if you get a raise.
So let's say, Joe, let me make this super simple.
And I always get feedback on this.
I know a lot of people think I'm wrong, but I'm absolutely convinced this is why wages
are not going up in a recovery as they should be.
Joe has a unique talent at WCBM.
Joe is a sound engineer who has a unique skill set.
Let's say, Joe, you walk into CBM tomorrow and say, I want a $10,000 raise.
Right.
Or I'm leaving. I'll tell you right now, knowing Joe's skills, CBM would be in a lurch, big time.
I'd be in a lurch. If Joe said, I want $10,000 per show, I'd be in a lurch too.
In a super hot labor market where there's no reserve of sound engineers on the sideline,
Joe, who aren't looking, but he'll take it at the right price.
Okay.
So in a perfect world, a super competitive labor market where there's no sound engineers
left, what does WCBM do?
They got to pay you the 10K or they have no show.
Now in a hot economy, but a hot economy with a high u6
rate in other words people who are sound engineers who are unemployed but not really looking right
now what does cbm do they go 10 000 armor costs are you out of your mind yeah they put out a job
thing go looking for a sound engineer let's say jo Joe made $100,000. I don't know what you meant,
but let's say he makes $100,000.
Now he wants $110,000.
What does CBM do?
They put out a job opening for $100,000.
All of a sudden, that sound engineer, Joe,
quote, wasn't looking.
So he says, you know what?
I'll take it.
Goodbye, Joe.
See you later.
Exactly.
In a hot job market, that guy's not there.
They either pay Joe the $110,000
or sayonara, see you later.
They have no morning show. That's the point. That's why you're not getting a raise.
So these are some warning signs on the economy right now that, and you may say, well, why is
that a warning sign? Well, just to kind of double down on that, you have to ask yourself again,
the why. Why is there, and this is where I think this
is a problem for the economy. Why is there an army of unemployed people out there not looking,
but who will take a job if the right one comes up? Folks, it's because the entitlement state
and the safety net has grown to such a point that people don't have to. You get an Obama phone,
you can get section eight, you can get snap, food stamps. You can get unemployment for 6,225 weeks.
You see the point?
The growth of the entitlement state under Barack Obama has forced onto the economy,
one, a cost because taxpayers are paying for all these benefits.
So now, Joe, your raise is being taken up by tax dollars where you're working to work
to pay for people to not work
to frankly not compete for your job.
This is a problem, folks.
This is a warning.
This is not the sign of a healthy economy.
The sign of a healthy economy
is not an army of unemployed workers
who are not taking jobs that are available.
That is not a good sign.
Okay, a couple quick things
and then we'll move on
to a couple other bad signs here.
I'm sorry if that was a little circuitous, but it's a critical point I need you to take away from this show.
Stocks right now are trading at 22 times past year's earnings.
This is from the Greg Ipp piece.
22 times.
That's a near historic high.
Wow.
Here's a big trouble sign.
Corporate debt.
Joe's T-shirt company borrowing money to open up a new T-shirt line.
Corporate debt, Joe, is a share of economic output?
Is it levels last seen before?
The last two recessions.
Okay, here's one more and I'll leave you with this.
Inflation's low right now.
Generally a good sign.
Depends on the reasons, but let's use simplistic liberal thinking just for a second.
Inflation's low, but so is growth.
Now, here's the problem.
Low inflation could be a good thing,
but now liberals, you can tune out
for conservatives and libertarians.
This is the intellectual part of the show.
Low inflation's generally a good thing,
but low inflation's not necessarily a good thing, Joe,
when growth is low, too.
Now, why would that be?
You may say, well, why would we want
inflation? We don't. I am for a stable dollar. That's why I used to do reads for Birch Gold,
because I'm a big believer in it. I'm for a stable dollar. But folks, if Joe's t-shirt company has
taken out a boatload of debt, I just told you, Joe, corporate debt is a share of output. The
money you owe is at the highest levels of spin since the last two recessions. If you owe a lot of money and your company's not growing and inflation's low, inflation would eat
away that debt and would actually benefit you. I'm not suggesting inflation's a good thing. Be
very careful. But I'm saying low inflation with high growth is awesome. I mean, that's the best
thing you could want. High growth, low inflation,
low inflation, low growth with a ton of corporate debt. What does that mean? Inflation would eat away the value of the dollar, but it also would eat away the value of corporate debt. Does that
make sense, Joe? Yeah. If inflation means the dollar you spend is worth less, which is what
it means, it also means the dollar you borrowed is worth less too, which is good for you if you
owe a lot of money, right? Understand. If you have a lot of debt, which companies do right now, and you're not growing to pay
off the debt, and inflation isn't eating away the value of that debt, folks, you're
going to have a lot of companies, if the stock market takes even a little bit of a dip and
the economy turns out, we're not going to be able to pay that debt back.
This is a bad sign.
I'm not trying to scare anyone, but let me just wrap the whole show now up for you.
Those warning signs should be a Paul Revere moment
for the GOP right now to get something done
on Obamacare and taxes.
Because if the stock market crashes
and we go through even another mini recession,
Joe, we are going to lose 30 to 40
seats in the Congress and we're going to lose the presidency. So folks, I'm begging you to anyone
who knows members of Congress, Congress members who listen or the staffers, the warning signs are
there. They are living in an environment now, Joe, where they think, oh, we'll be okay. The
economy's motoring along. People are going to vote for us. It may not be. It is time to head off the impending title
wave of bad news now. Get the tax cuts, get the economic growth, and get all those warning signs
out of the way so companies can grow and the inflation rates won't matter and they can start
making money and we can start moving forward. Man, I have to tell you, the show gave me a little
bit of a headache today because I wrote this thing out to make it legible. And I put little arrows to direct myself where I needed to go because I
wanted to make sure I left you with a coherent thought. Get a third party, time to dump the
Republicans. They forfeited the ideological fight. They're sitting pretty right now thinking
economic growth is going to be terrific and it's going to get them reelected. I just gave you the
warning signs as to why the economy may crash again. Please pass
on to them those warning signs and let them know that they need to do something now to head off a
potential recession around the corner. All right, folks, thanks again for tuning in. I really
appreciate it. Don't miss tomorrow's show. I do want to get to this spying thing because there's
a piece in the Wall Street Journal with a guy, he sounds like an educated guy, very educated guy,
but he has it all backwards on government spying.
I want to give you a little perspective
from the inside how it really works.
All right, I'll see you all tomorrow.
You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com.
You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud
and follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.