The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 603 Justice Isn’t Blind Anymore, It’s Political

Episode Date: December 1, 2017

The Kate Steinle verdict is a disgusting travesty of justice.  https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2017/11/30/awful-dan-bongino-lays-out-maddening-mockery-of-justice-timeline-in-kate-steinle-death/   Mike Flynn is going to plead guilty to lying to the FBI, when is Hillary Clinton going to prosecuted for her deception? https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/01/court-schedules-plea-hearing-for-flynn-at-1030-am-et.html   Debunking major liberal myths about tax reform. https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/blowing-up-the-major-myths-about-the-gop-tax-reform-bill   The “score” on the senate tax cut bill is a scam. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/conservative-groups-criticize-flawed-score-for-gop-tax-bill/article/2642241?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Examiner+Today&utm_source=StructureCMS   Read this piece about the community development block grant scam. http://reason.com/blog/2017/03/16/the-community-development-block-grant-pr   No more block grants! There’s a better way. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-big-white-house-flip-flop-on-community-development-block-grants/article/2642190     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the kitchen to the laundry room, your home deserves the best. Give it the upgrade it deserves at Best Buy's Ultimate Appliance Event. Save up to $1,000 on two or more major appliances. Shop now, in-store, or online at BestBuy.ca. Exclusions apply. Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. All right, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.

Producer Joe, how are you today, sir? Well, let's get this show on the road, Dan. Yeah, man, a couple technical difficulties today. We're doing like road shows now. I'm finally back in Florida in the home studio. I'll be back in New York and D.C. next week. We're rolling around, moving and shaking, things going on. It's just

so busy over here. And thank you for your continued loyalty and listenership to the show, folks. I really appreciate it. All right. Too much content for any small talk today. Let's get right to it. You know, I titled the show today is Justice Blind Anymore. Is it just political? And

you know, I get i get it titles of shows are obviously as joe well knows designed to hook you in folks this is a business as well i want you to listen to the show and if it's a boring title um you know like today's show is about the mechanics of paint drying and how exactly no one's gonna listen but being very serious for a moment, that title, a lot of times I have to think this through, the titles. Today's title just came naturally, instantaneously to me. Because there's a couple of things I want to get to, other stories as well. This tax bill thing, there's some massive debunking that needs to go on.

But what happened in San Francisco last night and this morning with Mike Flynn pleading guilty should have every American, regardless of your political stripes, although I know it won't, rightfully concerned. Now, first, in San Francisco, what am I talking about? For those of you who may have missed it last night, the Kate Steinle case was, there was a verdict in the Kate Steinle case last night. The Kate Steinle case, for those of you who are not familiar with the case, Kate Steinle was a verdict in the Kate Steinle case last night. The Kate Steinle case, for those of you who are not familiar with the case, Kate Steinle was a 32-year-old woman. She was walking in San Francisco on a pier with her father, an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times, who was a known felon, in possession of a stolen Bureau of Land Management government firearm. A firearm I'm intimately familiar with, the Sig Sauer

.40 caliber. That's the weapon we used in the Secret Service just in.357 Sig, but it's essentially the same weapon. Fired the weapon. The illegal immigrant disputes how it was fired, of course. He says, you know, I had it wrapped in a cloth. Then he said he stepped on it. Then he said he was shooting at some sea animals or whatever.

Regardless, the weapon fired while in his possession. Severed the aorta of Kate Stein steinle an innocent bystander hit her in the back and she died and her last words to her dad is her god bless this man i don't know how he has the strength to even i can't even imagine what he's going through right now. She dies in her father's arms. And apparently, the last words that she's reported to have said to her father, she said, you know, help me, Dad. Now, to those of you out there who have kids and daughters specifically, although I have no doubt the love for your sons

is that but i only have two daughters i don't have a son you know when when when my daughter's hungry because her last meal was three hours ago not three days ago and i see just a little bit of pain in her eyes a little bit of me dies every minute. I mean, when my daughter had her finger caught in a door one time, someone slammed the door in her finger, for days, I swear I felt that pain, albeit maybe not physically, but mentally worse than she did, my little one. You know, a little bit of you dies every minute when you feel that pain of your kids, and there's nothing like it.

Now, Joe, I know little Joe, I know you know what it's like to have a son. I know you feel the exact same way. I mean, as I notice even when I talk to Joe, even about like little things, there's always a little Joe angle, because that's Joe's life. I'll talk to him about like Brick House. He's like, yeah, little Joe's growing in the gym. You know, I'll talk to him about radio.ick House he's like yeah little Joe's growing in the gym you know I'll talk to him about radio yeah little Joe loves the show I mean this man Mr.

Steinle cradled his daughter's head as she died literally in his arms and you know I read it I mean I read this the first time I know about the story as many of you do and I'm sorry

I don't mean to sound a little discombobulated but please just roll with me for a minute here because this is not going to be as planned as it usually is on the show because it's a very emotional topic for me and I'm trying to be delicate and balance this the right way but this morning I did a Fox and Friends hit from my home studio.

And right before going on the air, I'm sitting there in my chair. It's the same studio I do the podcast in. Camera's on, the camera operator. He drives up and comes into the house in the early morning. It's about 6.15. I read that for the first time. The portion, Joe, where Steinle tells the father right before, Kate Steinle tells the father before she dies, help me, dad. And even though it was six o'clock in the morning and I was dead tired, I mean, I was tired, folks. I've had a long couple days. I started welling up.

I mean, I'm an emotional guy. I don't run from it. I'm not shy about that kind of stuff. Yeah, me too. But as Joe knows, being in this business too, when you connect to Fox, you connect early. You don't... The hit time for me, the appearance time

on Fox & Friends this morning was 6.40 or so Eastern. But what they call the window, whereas Fox buys a window from a camera company, it doesn't open up at 639. You know what I'm saying, Joe? They buy a block of time because, you know, the commercials and everything, you never know exactly when you're going to hit.

The window opened early. And I can only imagine what the Fox people who were watching me in their control room, what they were thinking. And I remember that going through my head, like like do they know that i'm welling up right now or they think this is due to allergies or me being tired now it's a little embarrassed to be candid because i'm like why they must be saying in the control room well what's wrong with dan and that's what was wrong i was reading on my phone help me dad and i just couldn't get out of my head like my gosh what if this was my daughter i mean folks can you imagine the the you can't i mean let's just be candid this is unimaginable

pain thankfully unimaginable thankfully i mean it's hard for you to imagine because most of you thank the lord and that is not using his name in vain. I mean, it will never experience that. But this woman was killed by an illegal immigrant, admittedly, a admitted drug user with a stolen gun, fired the weapon.

Then Joe is on video fleeing the scene. It's not in dispute. It's not like Joe, he fired the weapon and went, oh my God, I made a mistake. What just happened? Sir, I can't believe I just did that. No, he's on video fleeing the scene, running away. And it's also been reported that he threw the gun in San Francisco Bay. He did not surrender. He didn't go up to the cops and say, hey, here's the gun. Look what I did. And to finish up the story, after the weapon discharges while in his possession,

severs the aorta and penetrates the back of Kate Steinle and kills her in her father's arms as she says, help me, dad. The jury comes back with a verdict and says basically not guilty on every serious charge other than possession, possession of the weapon. Joe, he even skates this illegal alien who should not have been here. He even skates on an involuntary manslaughter charge.

He's basically given nearly a free pass. Dude. What do you even say? I mean, what did San Francisco, where this trial happened, what did you tell the world last night? That, again, justice isn't blind. It's totally political in your locality, in your city. What did you tell the world last night?

That apparently you can enter the country illegally, Joe, multiple times. Be deported multiple times. Be a known drug user. Be a felon. You can find yourself in possession of a stolen government, high-powered handgun, by the way. That's a pretty powerful round, the.40-caliber SIG round. It's actually.357 SIG, but the.40-caliber round is a powerful round

in the SIG Sauer firearm he used. The gun discharges in your possession, even if you take him at his word that he was playing around with it. You were playing around with it on a pier full of people? Are you an idiot? How is that not involuntary manslaughter? Joe, if you were in a baseball dugout with a bunch of kids swinging a bat around and the coach tells you, Hey, Joe, that's a really bad idea.

You're going to hit a kid in the head. And you keep swinging and hit a kid in the head and kill him? I promise you're probably going to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter. hit a kid in the head and kill him, I promise you're probably going to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter. This guy was a felon playing with a loaded high-powered handgun on a crowded pier and severed the aorta of a 32-year-old woman and he gets off on everything but a possession charge? Folks, if this is not a rallying cry to spike amnesty and all of this other garbage associated with a false immigration debate. I don't know what is. Now, you may say, oh, you're making it political.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Life is politics, ladies and gentlemen. Politics is life in many respects. I mean, you see, you know, I'm not doing a Socrates, Plato moment. I'm being absolutely candid. Politics of tax cuts are about your wallet and your livelihood. The politics of health care could mean life and death for you. The politics of an, I say, faux immigration debate are absolutely, in some respects, relevant to your daily life as well.

Because this isn't about immigration, Joe. This is about illegal immigration. Those are two different things. Immigration is a process. You want to come here? There's a way to do it. How do I know that? I lived it. My wife is an immigrant to the country legally. Immigration is a well-documented process. Illegal immigration is law-breaking, plain and simple. This is not about immigration. You want to talk about immigration? Talk about the process. Well, we don't like this. We don't like that. We can take it with that. We can move that. Fine. That's not what you're saying. This is an amnesty program sanctioning an illegal activity. DACA and DAPA and all this other stuff.

When you create a sanctuary city that says we are going to ignore the law and sanction a law breaking, this is not immigration. This is law breaking. We are going to sanction it. People like this illegal immigrant who is involved in the death of Kate Steinle gravitate to places where they know the law won't be enforced, Joe. This is obvious to anyone who engages in reason. Folks, this is a really deeply troubling case.

I know I don't cover a lot of immigration stuff on the show. And sometimes I'm sorry I don't do that. There's just so much breaking news daily. Joe and I honestly have a hard time getting to you in 45 minutes to an hour the information we think you need for your commute to work. And we have to kind of triage our needs. But this is a devastating case. And I just encourage you to, if you can, and you feel the need to, and I mean, I don't want to pressure anybody, but take a look at the hit I did on Hannity last night and on Fox and Friends this morning. They're on my Twitter.

I'll try to get one of them on the show notes today show notes today i just feel really awful about the whole case folks it's just dad that helped me dad thing is just uh yeah i know brother it's just devastating i mean you can't as a parent imagine that scene you know you know they tell you i i my, my, my, the whole credo I've lived by in, in, in, in content production here for you has been to, you know, paint a picture and ask a question, right? To paint a picture for you all when I need to, and to ask a question to probe your minds. That's why I think we try to make the show interesting. And that's one of the, the, the tenets we live by. But this is one of those things where it's really disturbing for me to paint that picture because it really hurts thinking about that. Really awful. All right, folks, moving on a bit.

It's hard. There's no convenient segue from that. But additionally, you know, I opened up the show with, is justice blind anymore? Is it simply political? Because what is going on

with the Flynn case? Now, listen, Mike Flynn, who was the appointed national security advisor over Trump, who left the position shortly after being on the job, is now going to plead guilty this morning, apparently to false statements to the FBI. If he's going to plead guilty, that means he did it. I mean, he's pleading guilty, right, Joe? There's nothing in dispute here about him pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI. And I'm certainly obviously not encouraging anybody to do that. But, folks, if I can just – and I get it.

I mean, I know a lot of the liberal listeners to the show say, oh, you're doing whataboutism again. Yep, you're right. I mean, you're point stipulated. I am. This is going to be whataboutism because the whole idea of a fair justice system that is blind, like I titled the show, Joe, we should never have to ask what about questions, right? I mean, if justice is blind, Joe, and you and I, let's say you and I, Joe, both rob a bank, and you're a Democrat and I'm a Republican.

I get prosecuted, you don't, and you escape. I think it's fair living in a constitutional republic for defenders of me to say, okay, well, Dan did it, he's guilty. I just admitted, Flynn does, in fact, plead fact plead guilty he's guilty he said he was guilty something for me to uh to dispute about that but it's a fair point if i admit to robbing the bank to say well why isn't joe armacost in jail for robbing the bank too right is it not yeah now i get it that you can say oh that's what about ism but why are we even engaging in an affair system joe gets locked up to me and him are both in jail. The problem I have with this case,

folks, is not Flynn's pleading guilty. If he did it, he did it. That's the way justice works. Conservatives don't do convenient justice like liberals. The problem I have with this whole thing is where are the charges against Hillary? Now, folks, you may

say, okay, well, she didn't technically lie to an FBI agent. Oh, technically, you're right. And we do have the charges do have to absolutely fit the crime. But my gosh, how many lies did Hillary tell? There was no classified information on the server. We don't know what happened. Emails. They were emails about yoga. I mean, the litany of lies that folks, it just goes to show you again that when you want to find, when a criminal justice system that is polluted by cronyism and potential corruption, like I think sadly we have now, what do you have, Joe? You have a justice system that targets people and not crimes. You had a potential crime in the Clinton case. potential crime in the clinton case the the forfeiting of u.s information classified secrets kept on a private server that may have been accessed by a foreign government according to

sources of mine and what happened zippo nothing happened yet in this other case where you target a person trump and his team you'll find a crime anywhere oh lying to federal agents we got him folks he apparently he's going to plead guilty again that's what they're saying this morning Trump and his team, you'll find a crime anywhere. Oh, lying to federal agents. We got him. Folks, apparently he's going to plead guilty. Again, that's what they're saying this morning. I get it. But I'm asking you, like, how do we proceed forward as a legitimate constitutional republic and not some third world justice system if this is the way it's going to be? If you have a democratic presidential candidate

the winner of the democrat primary for the presidency and a known political operator and hillary clinton who can lie so seemingly seamlessly and effortlessly over and over about a serious incredible case right she gets off completely with nothing and yet flynn is now like i see now he's walking into the U.S. District Court in Washington and he's apparently about to plead guilty I I I just I'm flabbergasted folks between Steinle and Flynn this morning I'm wondering what what's left of our once proud justice system I I really am man frustrating today's all right uh no I didn't want that scrap that all right so today's uh show folks is brought joe was telling me yesterday but can i you know what this is funny joe because we had a conversation

after so joe's been a radio pro for a long time and joe's like listen i love your ads but he's like you really should incorporate them better uh you know into the show and he was telling me about this radio terminology and how like in radio, you've, you've heard radio rush and Glenn and Sean and Mark and stuff and how they see me seamlessly read an ad. And he goes, I think it would be better for the companies. If you do it now, Joe never intended on me using that speech to seamlessly incorporate, right? Is that an island or what? How did we do? That is like, Joe's like, they call it an island. That's the weirdest island ever. But it works for the purposes of this, because I am in my home office right now, and I am

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By the way, I really appreciate everybody who supports our sponsors. You guys have been great on FilterBuy, too. They love us. Go to FilterBuy.com today. Get the best price on top of quality filters shipped within 24 hours plus free shipping. FilterBuy.com. That's FilterBuy.com. I really, really appreciate it, folks. You make us look like rock stars. I'm not kidding. Joe knows, man. It is like, you guys are great. I just ask that you check them out, FilterBuy.com. Okay. So moving on to a lighter topic today, given the tragic news yesterday about that horrendous verdict. Dan Horowitz from Conservative Review, where I work, has an incredible piece.

I strongly, strongly encourage you to read it in the show notes. I'm always candid with you. It's a little long, about 1,800 words or so. But it's good. It's really good. It's at conservative review. I'll put it in the show notes, available at bongino.com. And if you subscribe to my email list, as always, I will email you these stories every day. But it's a wonderful piece. And it's a thorough debunking of a left-wing media, I think it was a New York Times story and a bunch of tweets about how the tax bill right now is going to inflate the tax liability, Joe, middle-class families.

In other words, the New York Times kind of headline overall to it is, this isn't the exact headline, but you get the gist of it. It's like, oh, middle-class people are going to get screwed over this tax reform. And Horowitz does, in my opinion, a masterful job of dismantling the scam. Because, Producer Joe, as you always know, there is always, always a scam. Do you have Randy Macho Man? Oh, yeah, Handy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's always a scam. And Horowitz does a great job. So let's get right to the scams and the debunkings, because this is really genius. So let me see. I think I screenshotted a couple things here, because it was so good.

I'm like, good for you, Dan. That was just terrific. Let's see. All right. Yes. So at one point, a New York Times reporter gets in a back and forth on Twitter. It's a respectful one. It's not particular. If it was me, it'd be different. You know me. I tend to go at it with people. But get into a back and forth about how exactly this tax bill is going to hurt the middle class.

And Dan asked some very compelling questions. And here's the scam this guy used, Joe. This is incredible. At one point, the guy tweets back to him, well, we're just looking at some data. And when you look at a $75,000 adjusted gross income earner, 75,000. So, you know, upper middle class, right, Joe? Pretty much. So, let me set it up. The premise of the New York Times report is, well, you look at the data, you have this $75,000 adjusted gross income earner. Who is claiming, follow this, folks, because this is ridiculous.

This is how he's claiming that this guy's going to lose money. All right? Are you following the premise, Joe? The New York Times guy is saying that this family or this dude that makes $75,000 a year is going to be screwed by the tax bill, okay? All right. I'm with you. You're with me.

Here's the conditions he sets up for this guy to lose money and making this out like this is a standard case all over the country. He's like, well, if he claims $33,000 in deductions and a $10,000 mortgage deduction, what? Folks, folks, who the heck at $75,000 a year seriously I mean this is the average

is claiming $33,000 in deductions listen to me if you're a listener of my show and you make $75,000 in adjusted gross income

right and you are claiming $33,000 let's say it's like $25,000 in charitable donations. Hey, brother, sister, you got a big round of applause. You are the most generous human being I have ever met on the planet. And the back and forth is in the piece in more detail.

I don't have time to read through the whole thing. It's in the piece. But this is the gist of it and the takeaway of this. He also claims, by the way, a $10,000 mortgage interest deduction for this guy at 75K. $10,000 mortgage interest deduction? Well, I mean, what does this guy own like that Richard Branson of Ireland? Folks, come on. Do you understand what these people... And you and you may say well what is the average mortgage deduction for that income range and roughly the 15 tax bracket it's about 5 000 folks so it's about half clearly the new york times tweeter in this case is using extreme numbers

to say this well if he claims 33 000 in deductions, which is absurd, and a $10,000 mortgage deduction, and he loses that because yes, those deductions, some of them will go away. He's saying, look, he's going to, in the end, lose a couple hundred dollars. In other words, he's going to have to pay a couple hundred dollars more in taxes because the tax cuts, Joe, won't be enough to supersede the benefits of those deductions he had in the past. Folks, who the heck is claiming $33,000 in deductions? And Horowitz says, he's very self-deprecating and clever about it. He's like, hey, I'm a religious guy.

I like to tithe, which is where you give a certain percentage of your income to charity. Joe knows what it is. He's like, but I don't always get to do that. I wish I was giving $33,000 a year. I really do. But folks, most people aren't doing that, giving roughly half of their income away. And it's not all shit, to be fair. Deductions could be other things as well.

The point is, those are not realistic numbers. That's the way these New York Times folks are constantly screwing you over. Now, there's a, by the way, I'm not a huge fan of this child tax credit. I think it's a, it's a, the child tax credit, I'm afraid that they're making it refundable is basically another handout and it's going to turn into a welfare program over time. But Horowitz just gives you some simple numbers and he's candid in the beginning of the piece that I'm not really a supporter of this bill. That's him talking. But this is just ridiculous. Like, this needs to be debunked.

The tax bill for... Let me just read you a quote from the piece because this is a particularly good portion of it. This is from Horowitz's piece, Conservative Review. He says, first, anyone with children will clearly come out ahead. He's talking about the tax bill, Joe. He says, remember, in the current 15% tax bracket, parentheses, the bracket opponents of the bill are saying would get hit. In other words, the people paying the 15% bracket, the middle class, Joe.

The personal exemption, which is eliminated under this bill, is only worth about $600 per person. Whereas the expansion of the child tax credit is worth $1,000. person whereas the expansion of the child tax credit is worth a thousand so between the lowered marginal rate and the doubling of the standard deduction of twenty four thousand dollars there's no way itemized deduction at the income level this guy's talking about joe the middle class and the lifestyle it would it would uh it could sustain would be substantial enough to cancel out the tax benefits folks it's a scam again i'm not here to to bsu you, to obfuscate the facts. I don't do that. I've said to you, just like Horowitz does, and what I think is a very good piece, this is not a perfect bill. On the income tax side, they could have done a lot more. On the reconciliation side,

where they got to fit under this, and I'll get to that in a second, on the new score that came out yesterday, but they got to fit under certain debt i'll get to that in a second on the score the new score that came out yesterday but they got to fit under certain debt projections it's nonsense it's garbage i think they could have done a lot better i would have liked to seen the top rate come from 39.6 back down to 28 where it was under reagan none of that's being done but i agree with horowitz in the beginning of the piece he says on net joe compared to what we have now this is a far better tax plan going forward than what we have now in the status quo. And I agree wholeheartedly.

And I just find it offensive that, me as a conservative, that I can come out and tell you honestly, here's what's going on. Here are the pros, here are the cons. You all are very smart and listen to my show. I read your emails, they're very intelligent. You all can make an opinion

and formulate an opinion on your own. I had a guy who emailed me the other day, and thanks for the email, saying, hey, listen, I'm trying to explain a way to my graduate students are going to lose a certain waiver on the deductibility of hours and deductibility of student loans. And listen, you're not wrong. There are people who are going to lose. And that's a decision you have to make. I've said repeatedly, I think people need to get big. I'm going to lose some things under this that I don't think I'm going to benefit at all in this tax plan. But I think on net for the United States, Joe, for this country I love, this is a better

plan going forward. But that's a decision you have to make. If you say no and you vote people out, that's your decision. That's a great part about living in a republic. But know know this i'm not going to lie to you on the show and i'm sorry not getting into detail on the student loan stuff and the deductibility of you know graduate students workloads and and the uh the uh the endowment tax that's going to hit some of these institutes i can but those are like separate shows altogether too i'm just kind of addressing the email.

My point of the whole thing is not everybody comes out a winner all the time on this. But I think on net, it is far better for the economy. Over the long term, the growth rates are going to more than make up for what you're going to lose temporarily in potentially a bit of a higher tax bill for some people, Joe. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I'm just really aggravated that liberals

can never tell the truth. 33,000 in deductions on a $75,000 income? I'm sure that happens. But is that really the case you want to use to put out on social media to indicate that the middle class are going to be hurt by the tax bill? Come on. Come on. Just be honest. Another point

they make, the New York Times. And to be fair, not just the New York Times, but a number of other left-leaning outlets, and I mean NBC and CBS and those other places as well, Joe, is they say, well, a larger amount of money is going to go to wealthy earners as a result of this tax cut than will go to the poor. Folks, that is the dumbest point I have ever heard.

Do you understand basic math? Folks, if you have the upper earners, the top 20%, depending on how you calculate payroll taxes, I'll be generous, anywhere from 70% to 90% of the tax load. Again, it depends because you're factoring in payroll, state, and local as well. But let's be generous. Say they pay 70%. The figure is actually much higher.

Joe, you have two out of 10 people paying seven of every $10 in taxes, and that's being generous. How is any tax reform package not going to benefit the people who pay the taxes over the people who don't? How? It doesn't make sense. Joe, if you have a $5 million a year earner

who's a very productive member of society who hires 20 or 30 people in a relatively large, I know it sounds oxymoronic, but a larger small business, you know what I'm saying. They don't have two workers, they don't have 10, maybe they have 50. You're doing $5 million a year, but you are a net positive to the community and you're generating a million dollars in tax revenue between your

corporation, your business you run, and your income tax. Any tax cut's going to benefit you. Of course it's going to benefit you on a larger nominal scale. Even if you get a 10% tax cut, on that bill, what's 10% of a hundred thousand, $10,000. If one of your workers is making 50 and he gets a 10% tax cut and he's only paying $10,000, what's 10% of that, Joe? $1,000. Of course, the $10,000 to $5 million earner is going to get a larger chunk of it. Joe, is there a way to get around that math no i don't i don't think so dan that's your you gotta i know that's not one of your many characters we've incorporated into the show but it is funny it's like you're sarcastic i don't think so dan voice using the joe boy you

know what i'm talking about we don't have we don't have a name for that cat but i like that dude i'm glad you like that i do i do you are you're a man of you you're like that guy uh in the m night shamalan movie i just saw a split he's got like 16 different personalities although you're the sane one it's all deliberate i don't think that guy could control it in the movie by the way cool guest spot the end of that by uh bruce willis if you ever haven't seen the movie i saw it on uh on uh hbo or something it's actually pretty good there's a cool guest wait till the end i won't give away what happens, of course. But of course not. You're not going to make that math work out. If you have two out of ten

people paying the overwhelming majority of the tax load, and these happen to be very successful people who employ people, of course they're going to get a benefit. So showing a chart to go, well, look, rich people are going to get $10,000, and people in the middle class are only going to get $1,000 back. Uh... Yes, that's called arithmetic. Why is that shocking? How do you even with a straight

face put that out as a talking point? Oh man, is it frustrating reading this crap? All right. On the score, by the way, it just came out last night, the Senate bill. It was scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation. The score came out and said, surprised everyone last night and said, Joe, uh-oh, now this plan is going to add one trillion more to the deficit. And everybody now is scrambling because, as you've heard on this show many times, they're using this reconciliation process. I get why. I wish they didn't. But the reconciliation process basically says to pass this in the Senate with just 51 votes, Joe, which would escape the filibuster, right? Right.

It needs to be over the budget horizon. It needs to be budget neutral or less. It can't add to the deficit. Now, how do they know that? Well, it's based on scoring. What is scoring? It's a crap way of doing business. These people are never right.

The joint committee on taxation. Oh, you think I'm wrong? You think I'm wrong about that? The joint committee on taxation on the Bush tax cuts, Joe, they were just, they were off by a little bit, Joe, on their estimate of what the Bush tax cuts, Joe, I'm air quoting here, would cost the government. I love that. Like, you get to keep your money and it costs the government.

That's like comical. Cost the government, right? They were off by a little bit, Joe. Half a trillion bucks. They were off by just a tad. Joe, they missed it by a little. Just a little bit. They were only off by a half a trillion dollars.

Now, here's the joke of the whole thing. The score that came out last night. Now, remember, under reconciliation rules, now the Senate squeezed a bit because now they're going to have to somehow scramble to get, you know, more, you know, more, more blood from a turnip because they've this one trillion dollars in anticipated debt, which is going to be a total nonsense and crap. Now they have to scramble a bit to make up that number. But Joe, here's the kicker. This is where even the tax foundations pointed out this is absurd. The Senate bill, which has a corporate tax rate in it of 20%, in contrast to the House bill, which has a higher corporate tax rate of 25%, this Joint Committee on Taxation, which was off by a small half a trillion dollars on the Bush tax cuts, has now said that the Senate bill with a lower corporate tax rate is going to result in less growth than the House bill at a higher one.

Folks, if you're scratching your head saying, Bongino must have said that wrong, I did not get that wrong. It makes no sense. The Joint Committee on Taxation should be thoroughly disregarded at this point. Should be scrapped. This is a waste of time. They should say, okay, great, thanks for your advice

and move along. This is a waste of everybody's time. You ever see Star Trek III, The Wrath of Khan? Yeah. Remember when they put those little bugs in their ears? And they're like, ah! You remember that part that Khan puts those little...

I swear I have my cans on, my headphones. Joe calls them cans. I have my headphones on. I'm back in my home office where I can hear better now. And I swear I just felt like one of those things was crawling in my ear. That's why. I was like, is this the... Am I going to have to get one of those?

I, what is it? They, they pulled, remember they, they put the little tweezers in and they pull them out. That scene was, when I was a kid,

I was totally freaked out by that. I know it was crazy. All right, folks. So that's my, I got one more thing on the tax thing. I just, I know we've been all over the tax thing,

the tax bill, but it's, it's just, it's the same Democrat playbook all the time. And I feel an obligation to put out to you the appropriate and appropriate information so you can make an informed decision. And the Democrats just refuse to do that. They just refuse. And it's really sad what's going on because you have people voting.

Even my own brother, who's, you know, I love to death, but he's up in New York, and he's like, hey, is this true? We're going to get screwed by the tax bill. I'm like, oh, my gosh, you buy this, too? It's really upsetting. I mean, apparently all his buddies are saying that. Do I get screwed? You're not going to get screwed by the tax bill. Read'm like, oh my gosh, you buy this too? It's really upsetting. Apparently all his buddies are saying, do I get screwed? You're not going to get screwed by the tax bill. Read the Dan Harwoods piece. Today's show also brought to you by

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So one more. Wall Street Journal today, Alan Blinder, who's become a favorite target for me. I bring him up often on the show, Joe. He writes in the journal, and that's great. He's clearly a far-left politician who disguises himself as some kind of economics expert and he writes about things which are just ridiculous. I mean, he says stuff that's just nonsense.

So he has a piece in the Wall Street Journal today that is, even for him, I think, surprisingly vindictive, petty, and just downright silly. And the gist of the piece is this, Joe. He lists out how this tax cut bill, what he thinks is a bad thing, the bill, because it's going to benefit Trump. So he's like,

and it'll benefit Trump here, and that's why it's bad. And it'll benefit Trump here, and this is why it's bad. And it'll benefit Trump here. Who cares? Number one, I mean, that's not the point I want to leave you with is who cares, because I actually have something a little more intelligent to say about it than I think he does.

But just seriously, like, so what? I mean, I live in the United States of America. If I was the president of the United States and enacted a major income tax cut, I don't know what bracket I'm in. I'm assuming it's going to be the top one soon. But, Joe, that would benefit me too. So what? We're supposed to scrap the whole thing because I would benefit too? I mean, folks, is that a serious talking point? You know, I haven't said it in a while, but for those of you who have even a cursory understanding of economics and are

interested in more, I highly recommend you get into the field and read some Friedman, some Schumpeter, Thomas Sowell. These are really, really terrific books on larger economic theories. But I'm fascinated by economics. And one of the things that's always kind of poked my interest is this idea of Pareto maximization, or the idea that a good policy, Joe, will help at least one person without on net hurting anyone else. That's the measure of good public policy. Right. What I don't understand is how this guy almost reverses that argument in this piece. Blinder saying, well, if it benefits one person, it's subsequently bad for everyone else.

Is that the dumbest thing? You know, Joe, I'm being serious. Like Joe is not an economist. He doesn't pretend to be he likes the topic he tells me after the show sometimes he found c is like hey that was really interesting whatever but can we both agree joe just using reason forget about fancy wonky econometric theories that that is the dumbest thing you've ever heard yeah that's pretty dumb mr blender it is right it benefits trump although it may benefit the rest of the country we got to throw

it out now what really kills me about the piece is he acknowledges in some of his subsets he talks about the estate tax the pass-through tax the s corp lowering of the s corp tax he talks about this stuff and he says a couple times and this is is a quote, now it's true that, and he said, well, what do you mean now? He'll go, now he says about the pass-through thing, about the cut in the tax rate for S-Corps, right? He says, well, it's true that this tax court may benefit a lot of small businesses,

but it's going to benefit Trump, so screw the tax cut. And you're like, wait, this guy's serious? Folks, this is a piece in a Wall Street Journal. I'm not making this up. Not some rinky-dink outlet. You know? It's not Joey Bagathona's blog factory. This is the Wall Street Journal where the guy legitimately writes a piece panning the tax bill,

ripping it to shreds, only because it'll benefit Trump, while simultaneously acknowledging that a lot of other people will benefit from it, too. I hesitate to put it in the show notes because it's a subscriber only piece. I'm telling you what's in there. But he opens up with, now it's true that this will benefit other people, but it benefits Trump and screw it. We got to throw this out. If this is not an example of stage 62 Trump derangement syndrome, I don't know what is. That is literally insane. It is reverse Pareto maxim.

It's Pareto minimization. It will benefit one person. So forget everybody else. Throw everybody else overboard with you. I mean, I don't know Alan Blinder, but his name may be Alan Blinder, but the guy is, I don't know how you credibly write a piece like that

and maintain your reputation in academia. I don't know how you doibly write a piece like that and maintain your reputation in academia. I don't know how you do it. We were thinking the same. I was going to say Blunder. Yeah, Alan Blunder. Exactly. It's a good one. He will be referred to at this point by the moniker Alan Blunder.

That is going to be his name because it's just a silly, dopey piece. And by the way, his takedown of the repeal of the estate tax is just dumb, folks. Just remember with the estate tax, the death tax, the money's already taxed. So to all the liberal buddies out there, oh, what do you want? Generational wealth? What do you mean generational wealth? It's already

been taxed. When Joe the farmer, right, earns his money, he pays income tax, he pays corporate taxes if he's incorporated. He pays capital gains taxes on capital gains. He pays property taxes, local taxes. He's already paid taxes on that property. What are you talking about?

When I pay my mortgage, folks, I don't pay it with pre-tax dollars. Now, there is an interest deduction for that. But once the interest is gone, there's not a principal deduction on it. You're paying taxes on that. Give me a break. This is just silly. Estate tax, generational wealth. Oh, no, so we should give it to the government instead.

That's a much better idea. Let me not be able to give it to little Joe or my daughters, Isabel or Amelia. Let me give it to the government. That's a great idea. Wow, here's some breaking news by the way conveniently timed joe senate republicans set to pass sweeping tax bill as soon as today after a flurry of deal making won over skeptics nice folks that's good news again i'm not a huge fan of the bill but i'm telling you on net please trust me on this i have analyzed this thing i've picked through everything in it that is relevant

to you 99.9 of the people listening to this you will be better off on that with this bill it's not the greatest thing in the world we can do more later but this is a good step forward okay one final story because it's another example from that file drawer i open once in a while joe liberals just like try you're pretending they're doing the right thing and actually kicking you in the teeth as you get up. It's not that they don't help you. It's like they actually hurt you. So we'll pop that file drawer open today

and have an interesting story from both the Washington Examiner and an older story from Reason. I think it was from May. I'm really starting to like what they put out, Reason Magazine. But they're interrelated, and it's about these community development block grants.

Now, this has come up again because Mick Mulvaneyaney of omb and the trump administration and pan these things these are basically cash handouts to communities to build stuff and the guise of it uh it's under the guise of oh we're helping out these communities that need development hence the term community development block grants the program's been a disaster folks and they panned it but there's some talk now of using that particular program to benefit people in these flood and hurricane zones, of which I'm in one in Florida. This is a bad idea, folks. There are other ways to help people with state incentives and working with state and local

governments. And I'm not averse to that. This is not it. These community development block grants have been a disaster. And you think I'm making this up? Here's some numbers, and it'll be in the reason piece, which will be in the show notes today. Joe, a quarter of the money, a quarter, that's 25% for the liberals out there, a quarter of the money gets lost in administrative charges.

I will guarantee you that's an underestimate. I will guarantee you it's closer to 40%, that they're being generous administer in other words let's just say government waste because that's what it is also this is crazy these were designed to help poor lower income communities joe the largest chunk of the community development block grants go to wealthier communities not poor communities and where wait wait let me give you this is a quiz joe now this is not a trick question but i'm going to set you up and i promise this will be a bun for you all right not only does the largest chunk of the community development block grant money go to wealthier communities but it goes to communities this i'm going to ask you what the area is in a minute but i'm going to

set you up here okay it goes to an area of the country. Here's a hint. I'll give you a couple. This area of the country contains the United States Capitol. You're not done yet. Get ready. You live close to it. The White House is in this area. There are also a tremendous number of government lobbyists who live around this specific area.

Now, the initials for the area are W. You ready? There's more. D. You writing this down? C. What area do you think gets the majority of community development block grants? I will give you a moment to contemplate this very difficult question. Well, Dan, I'm going to say Washington, D.C.

Oh, dude. Folks, is there a smarter executive producer anywhere in the radio industry other than Joe Armacost? Of course not. The guys. Who else would have figured that out? That was genius. Of course the money goes to Washington, D.C. This is a huge scam. I'm sorry. It's a bad idea. I get what the administration's trying to do. Again, I'm not averse to help. I'm kind of joking around a little bit. It's not really funny, but the flood's up. But that part is because it's just, again, liberals, oh, we're helping poor people. What, in wealthy communities around Washington, D.C.? Give me a break. Stop smoking us all up okay cut the crap let's get to the point but this is a bad idea there's better ways to do it you don't have to do

this stuff get away from the community development block grants it's not a good idea at all Joe you really are a genius I must say you were one of the smartest executive producers in the business how you figured that out I just I don't I just don't know thank you Dan maybe we'll have to talk off the air I'm gonna give this guy an IQ test and we'll publicly report it on the show later on. I guarantee you

it's about 145. All right, folks, thanks again for another great week of listenership. I deeply appreciate it. Please subscribe to my email list at Bongino.com and I will send these articles right to you. I'll see you all on Monday. 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.