Can Team Biden Turn All Their Messes Around?

BUCK: Today just starts with, I think, the recognition from all the Biden staffers and all the Democrats out there — including CNN anchors and New York Times writers, et cetera — that we are in July. We’re back from the holiday weekend, Independence Day — which, I know Independence Day, for a lot of libs, sad! Fourth of July, sad! I don’t know if they still wish that we were subjects of the British crown, but they get a little sad on 4th of July. Too many American flags for them.

Those American flags, a little triggering, can be a little bit upsetting to some on the left. But now they’re coming into this period, this July period, and Clay yesterday was talking about running out the clock. The clock is running out. That is the reality they all face. How are they gonna turn this around? The sentiment polling, the party affiliation, generic Republican-versus-Democrat, Biden-support polling, all of this stuff, it’s looking like a stock market crash from 1929. Did I get the date right?

It’s pretty rough. And, Clay, the quote that I think more than any other that is gonna stick — you know how sometimes there’s a quote? (chuckles) You know, Obama, “You didn’t build that”? That one, people remember that one. An anonymous Democrat here calls the Biden administration — just random Democrats they’re talking to. CNN reported on this. The quote is “rudderless, aimless, and hopeless.” I think that may be the most perfect three-word encapsulation of this White House I’ve ever heard.

CLAY: Doesn’t mean, Buck, that they are not desperately working behind the scenes as we speak. I got texted this morning by a buddy who works on Capitol Hill, and he said, “They are trying to pass a massive tax increase before the end of this month, because they know that they are going to lose Congress,” and once they lose Congress, nothing is getting passed for two years, and they have suddenly realized what the reality is, that basically all they did was come in book and throw money at covid and then pass an infrastructure bill.

Otherwise with control of the White House and control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, they have not managed to implement anything that is going to last at all, and so my concern right now is everybody who is on the right side of hit here, everyone who is a Republican, needs to be aware that this is the Biden administration’s last stand, and they are going to try to push through a massive tax increase, a further expansion of prescription drugs.

They’re trying to spend a trillion more dollars before the clock runs out on Biden’s ability to pass legislation without real Republican involvement — and we talked about this, Buck, whether it might happen? It has, and it’s a recognition of what you just read about the rudderless nature of the Biden administration. They’re basically saying, “Screw it! We’re gonna pass bills while we can. This is our last chance.”

BUCK: There may be… This is straight out of the Democrat playbook. This is Democrat 101: “When in doubt, spend more of the public’s money and then tell everybody what a great job you’re doing,” and that often, unfortunately, works. Bring out the money hose and just spray it everywhere and tell people, “Look at all the great stuff we’re doing!” That may be a little more problematic as a sell when you have the worst inflation you’ve seen in 40 years because people realize, ’cause they’re feeling those…

The thing about inflation is that people with dealing with it. It’s not a theoretical, right? It’s not, “Oh, well, there’s crime in other cities but not my city.” Wherever you are, you’re dealing with inflation. You’re dealing with this monetary policy disaster unfolding that’s really making people feel that they can’t afford their basic bills and they’re certainly not saving, they’re not getting ahead. And with all of that going on, the, “Let’s spend more and tax more” may be less effective than it would be during a time when things feel a little bit more normal, at least on the inflation front. And then again, Clay, you look at who is in charge here — and we always say, “Who would you draft” right? Who?

CLAY: Yep.

BUCK: Who is your top draft pick from the Biden administration? You say, “You know what? We’re gonna bring somebody into a future Republican administration. Make your choice now.” I can’t think of anyone in the Biden White House on the economic side, on the policy side that I would think, “That person really knows how to get it done.” But then again, there is Kamala Harris, for example, who’s out there telling everybody, “We’re making all the things with the prices go down” or something.

HARRIS: So we’re working on bringing down basically the cost of what life requires for people.

BUCK: What does that even mean, “the cost of what life requires for people”?

CLAY: It’s such an awkward phrasing, Buck. I know Joe Biden is old and not very good at speaking. But Kamala Harris was supposed to be the future of the Democrat Party. She can’t even speak. She makes Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep seem like it’s not satirical enough. Every time I see her speak I’m left just shaking my head over how incompetent that is. It’s crazy. And did you see, by the way…? We didn’t mention this yesterday. Did you see Biden’s tweet demanding that gas prices come down over the weekend?

BUCK: Yes. Yes.

CLAY: Even Jeff Bezos said, I basically have to take aim at this — and good for Jeff Bezos at Amazon, who obviously owns the Washington Post. But when Jeff Bezos is calling out the White House — and there’s so much misinformation out there. I know there was supposed to be a misinformation czar. But when Jeff Bezos is calling out the White House for their inability to actually speak… Here’s what Joe Biden said. This was over the weekend.

“My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: This is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product and do it now.” Buck, your average gas station owner is making a couple of pennies on gas, and I understand. I just filled up my tank of gas on the way into the show today, over $130 to fill up.

I understand why people are angry about that. But the gas stations, by and large, make their money off what people buy in the convenience store, not off the price of gas. And this is where Bezos responded, Buck, “Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s he read straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.” That’s Bezos.

BUCK: Just take an example here of at this point in the Trump presidency versus the Biden presidency, ’cause we’re supposed to believe that Trump doesn’t know anything and he’s so ignorant and all this. The media was all saying this. Trump not only held the line on this against the Democrats, a lot of the policy consensus on China and trade was, “Oh, my gosh! If he pokes China over this, then we’re gonna have a trade war! It’s gonna be terrible, and all these awful things are gonna happen!” And then people realized, “Hold on a second. China’s already in a trade war with us. It’s just a one-way trade war.”

CLAY: Yeah, that’s right.

BUCK: We just get slapped around in this country — and American workers and American productivity suffer — and China gets away with it. Trump came in and said, “I actually understand this dynamic. Let’s do it my way,” and just to be clear, the Democrats haven’t really reversed much of the Trump approach.

CLAY: They’re talking about doing it now, but so far, they have not changed the tariffs at all.

BUCK: Right. They talked about it, but they haven’t done it because they realized than on tariffs, Trump was right, and Trump was right even against some “conservative journals of opinion” and everything else. Joe Biden comes in and sounds like somebody who would fail a high school economics class —

CLAY: Yeah, it really is embarrassing.

BUCK: — every single time he opens his mouth about the economy. What he is telling gas stations in this tweet, what he’s telling them to do is, “Please start to go bankrupt so that Democrats win.”

CLAY: Yeah: Sell your product for less than you are paying for it.

BUCK: Yes. That is what he is telling them. “Please sell it at a loss and maybe you’ll make it up on volume,” as the old joke goes. It is outrageously stupid. But — I mean, Kamala says she’s bringing on the prices stuff. Karine Jean-Pierre. Here we go. She’s the White House spokesperson. She also is trying to tell you, “Don’t worry. We’re not in a recession.” Sure.

BUCK: Clay, this approach that they have of, “Guys, things are really good in the economy. You just don’t understand,” they are hitting the accelerator in the car as it is going toward the brick wall of this election.

CLAY: I’ll be very surprised if we aren’t already in a recession now that we’re through the second quarter. The Atlanta Fed has now lowered their forecast to a negative GDP growth in the second quarter as well, and typically recessions are defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Now, they officially announce inside of the Fed, “Hey, here we are in a recession.” But I believe we’re there.

What the Biden administration is trying to avoid and why they’re so desperately saying we’re not in a recession is because once people become aware that they’re in a recession, their buying habits change; and since two-thirds of our economy is effectively spending, right, what people do in terms of consumer behavior does in fact go a long way towards determining whether we’re in a recession. The psychology of recession eventually leads to recession. But we’re already there.

BUCK: I just want to throw in as well: On the one hand, you always know when somebody has a crap argument when the argument changes every day. Right?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: And this is true about anything, right? I mean, you know, you see this on a range of the — of the way that they try to defend CRT in schools, right? “There is no CRT in schools!” “You don’t know what CRT is!” “Oh, actually CRT is great.” That’s just one example. There are tons of examples of this.

And they tell you on the one hand the economy is good. It’s great. Best job creation since World War II, they tell us, right? They have these lines. And everyone kind of goes wait, hold on. What? They’re just gaslighting us, right? And of course they are. And then you find out they say, “Oh, we have no problem with energy. We have no problem with the oil companies> We’re not overregulating!”

You see this? The latest here from a number of business groups — this was up on Fox Business this morning — is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is out of control under Biden’s director and just running around harassing, fining, and regulating businesses left and right for nonsense. That’s what’s actually going on. People just don’t hear about it ’cause the media doesn’t want people to know the story.