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Oct. 26, 2023 - The Charlie Kirk Show
36:08
Dana White Explains the Bud Light Deal with Dana White and Stephen Moore
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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The Anheuser-Busch Controversy 00:08:43
Hey everybody, it's Anthony Charlie Kirk Show.
Dana White joins us to address the Anheuser-Busch controversy.
And then we have Steve Moore to talk about the wonderful Biden economy.
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Joining us now is Dana White, president of the UFC.
Dana, thanks for taking time.
Dana, there's some big news you want to share with the audience.
It's been going viral, and I'm 100% behind you.
Dana, share it with our audience and let's dive into it.
Yeah, how are you?
Thanks for having me.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
We just did a we just, you know, our beer deal was up with the UFC and we just renewed a deal with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light.
They were our original sponsor a few years ago when we first got our first big beer sponsor.
And we are back together again.
Yeah.
And so here's my take on this, Dana.
Is first, you know, we complain very loudly when companies funnel money to woke stuff, right?
They put all this money towards garbage.
So it follows that we should be happy and thrilled when they do the opposite.
Talk about the core values at UFC, Dana, and kind of why you came to this decision.
Well, you know, as you get into negotiating a new big sponsorship deal, you know, where you're going to be in long-term business with somebody, I always want to be, I'm at a point in my life, I'm going to point in my career where we're going to get the money no matter who we do the sponsorship deal.
You know, everybody's like when they start talking about being a sellout and you did this.
I'm going to get money from whoever I end up with.
It's a sponsorship deal.
That's how it works.
I want to be with somebody that I am aligned with.
And I know that, you know, obviously all the controversy that's gone on with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light over the last, however long it's been.
But when it comes to core values and what they really are as a company, and then the reason that they've been this unbelievable, powerful, American-built business, a lot of their core values align with mine.
As far as military, I'm a big supporter of military and law enforcement.
I love their, you know, their thing that they do.
Folds of honor.
Folds of honor.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Where they have spent like $44 million over the last however many years for scholarships for fallen heroes, you know, whether it's military or first responders.
And I could go on and on for days about how much I am aligned with Anheuser-Busch.
Hey, whenever there's a big natural disaster in the United States, they turn the plant into a water bottling factory and they've done like 100 million bottles of water for people in need during natural disasters.
So as we got down to it, we started to talk and I met with the CEO of Anheuser-Busch.
It was a no-brainer for me.
Yeah.
And so, look, you know, a lot of people in the last couple of months, you could see that the effort against, you know, Anheuser-Busch was very, very successful.
The question is, what does success look like?
Right.
And we, as conservatives and our audience, need to ask ourselves the question, right?
And I consider it pretty amazing and awesome that they want to partner with you, Dana, at UFC.
And by the way, we played that hype reel.
You were the best on COVID.
You've been great for Trump.
You've been great for the country, great on conservative values.
And so, so, Dana, I want also you to build this out that value alignment, but this is a good thing to all of a sudden say, wait a second.
So, Anheuser-Busch, they made a mistake with this Dylan Mulvaney thing, no doubt, right?
But it was a one-off can influencer thing.
But isn't this a big, isn't this a movement in the right direction and a win and a success that they want to do business with you, Dana?
And also, you've had your pick of the litter, right?
There's no lack of companies that want to do business with UFC.
Right.
And, you know, this isn't, again, like I was saying, you know, you got everybody out there creating their own narratives.
This is a sponsorship deal.
There were people at the table.
You know, I could have picked anybody.
I picked Anheuser-Busch and I picked him for all the reasons that I laid out for you.
And yeah, there's no doubt that, you know, the fact that Anheuser-Busch wants to be in business with me, they know exactly what they're getting.
They know who I am.
They know what I stand for.
And not just me personally, but the UFC.
If you look at, you know, I could do a fight in San Francisco, okay?
And Trump could walk in and the place is going to erupt.
Our fan base is very conservative.
Yeah, they love the country.
So, Dana, your critics are saying that you're reading a script.
If anyone knows Dana White, they know that you're not.
You had a response to that last evening.
Do you mind repeating it for our audience?
Yeah, I saw some people saying, oh, look, it sounds like Anheuser-Busch wrote a script for him.
Nobody writes scripts for me.
Nobody tells me what to say.
Nobody tells me what to do.
I mean, for instance, going through COVID was absolutely positively the hardest thing that I have ever done.
I built the UFC from zero to where it is today.
Going through COVID was harder than any of that.
It was the toughest thing I've ever done.
And you think people weren't telling me, don't do this.
You can't do this.
You're going to kill people.
This is irresponsible.
I mean, the list goes on and on.
The bottom line is: if you know me or you know anything about me, nobody tells me what to do.
Nobody tells me what to say, especially when it comes to things like this that I really believe in.
I love this country.
Love this country.
I built a global brand.
I have fighters from all over the world.
I let everybody represent their country.
Everybody be proud of their country, their religion, who they are, where they come from.
Freedom of speech for everybody.
It's the fight business.
If people hurt people's feelings, too bad.
This is the business we're in.
And nobody speaks for me and nobody tells me what to say.
Well, yeah.
And this is what's important, right?
Is that it's lead, follower, get out of the way, as General Patton would say.
And, you know, Dana, you're admired by so many people because you really don't care what people have to say or the pushback or the nonsense that you have to receive.
And as a leader, you have to make decisions.
It's very easy for people, a spectator, to say, oh, you know, to kind of play, you call it Monday morning quarterback or all that kind of nonsense, right?
But here's the thing is you've been proven to be a patriot, been proven to be an entrepreneur.
And by the way, in a business that is not easy to run, you know, I haven't run something your size, but I've run about a $100 million deal here with Turning Point, Turning Point Action, and what we have going on here.
And there's a lot of people that think they can always tell you what to do and they know what to do better than you.
But, you know, Dana, I think it's important that people understand, though, that, you know, the attitude that you bring to the UFC, the attitude you bring to this country is one that has always pursued excellence, has been good for the country, good for your fans, good for your fighters.
And honestly, you know, there are many other forks in the road, Dana, that you've been through where people were overwhelmingly giving you negative feedback.
And it turns out your gut instinct was right.
And as an entrepreneur and a leader, I'm sure you could, you know, reflect on those situations.
So I just, I find it funny when people that have never built a darn thing in their life are willing to go sit on their tail and run their mouth against entrepreneurs and people that have worked 20-hour days for 30 years to build something beautiful and excellent.
Your thoughts, Dana?
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think that everybody's always going to, you're always going to have people out there that are going to have opinions.
And the problem today is they all get to voice them on social media.
Beyond Just Money 00:04:50
So we got to listen to everybody.
But yeah, I've always been a person that, you know, I love my country.
I love my family.
I love my business.
And I'm always going to like, I'll give you the best example is when COVID happened.
The world's losing their mind.
Everybody's going crazy.
I said, here's what I need to do.
I need to focus on my people.
It was a time when people were getting laid off.
Scariest time ever in our lifetime.
People are getting laid off.
People don't know if they're going to die or what's going to happen.
We all stuck together, me and my crew, my family, my employees, my people that are close to me, and my fighters.
So they believed in me that I said, we're going to go through this and we're going to figure it out.
And we did it and we did it together.
And that's the way I feel.
I'm always going to go, like you said, with my gut, with my heart, and with common sense is how I lead.
Yeah.
And I mean, it's also, you've had to manage insane issues.
I mean, the Russia-Ukraine thing, Israel-Palestine thing, through your talk about that, Dana.
It's not as if you've been immune to controversy, but you've proven that you can do that in a way with freedom of speech issues, you know, threading the needle, having both sides equally respected and still producing an excellent type product.
And I just want to reiterate this for people that are just tuning in, you know, because some people are emailing us.
They say, oh, my goodness, you know, I have an issue with this.
Let me just say, hold on.
So this, first of all, shows the power of the conservative base.
Look at the last six months.
The message has been received.
So then what is, what do you want?
Would you rather have Anheuser-Busch go and sponsor some insane left-wing lackadoodle thing?
Or what do you say, hey, we're going to go sponsor the most patriotic conservative sports league out there and say we want to make good for a mistake we made.
Dana, just rationally, it's like, actually, it's a move in the right direction, isn't it?
And let me say this to the people that are listening.
Okay.
Now, I get it.
You can lose your minds and go, oh, they did this, they did that.
Let's break it down and look at it like this: 65,000 Americans work for Anheuser-Busch.
These are your uncles, your fathers, your brothers, your neighbors.
You know, these are Americans here in America.
65,000 of them work there, right?
They spend, Anheuser-Busch spends almost a billion dollars a year with U.S. farmers for their products to make the beer.
Okay.
Why would you want to put a bullet in that?
Why would you want to hurt this company?
They get it.
You're pissed.
Message received.
Okay.
They got it.
Now they're going to do a sponsorship deal with me.
I am aligned with everything that they are about.
All these things.
Look at all the good things that Anheuser-Busch has done and the time that they have been in business.
Look at all the good they have done.
Now, you didn't like what they did with the can and all this other stuff.
Okay, message received.
Let's move on.
What are we going to do?
We're going to hurt all these American farmers that make the products to make the beer.
We're going to make sure that 65,000 Americans get laid off.
Thousands of them are vets.
Come on.
It gets to a point where now it's just, it's getting silly.
It's getting ridiculous.
I'm very aligned with Anheuser-Busch.
I'm excited to be in business with them for the next six years.
And we're going to do some cool stuff together and we're going to take care of a lot of people with this relationship.
Well, it's also, let's understand that Dana White spoke at the Trump convention.
He's been a huge MAGA donor and guy that other brands would consider Dana White too toxic and they want to try to align with you.
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Sponsors, Sports, and Faith 00:06:29
So, Dana, I don't want to go too deep into private conversations, but it is true, though, that other sponsors in the past have sometimes gotten angry with some of your political statements.
Is that fair to say?
Is that there have been other people tried to muzzle you?
Our sponsors have been, our sponsors have been solid, man.
Listen, I'm at a point, like I said earlier, in my life and in my career, I want to be with people that I'm aligned with.
It's not about money anymore for me.
It's about being with like-minded people that, you know, feel the way I do, look at things the way that I do.
Not everything is going to be perfect all the time, but I've had a great history with my sponsors.
You know, I think when we're talking about, you know, the beer deal, when I was saying this was based on way more than money for me, so for people to come out and say, oh, it's all about the money, I already make money.
We're making money.
Sponsor, when you talk about what sponsorship means, guys come in and they give you money to have to be aligned with your brand.
They come in and they pay you to be aligned with your brand and put their logo wherever it is.
The logo goes.
And everybody that comes into the UFC knows what this business is about.
It's and what I'm about and what I stand for.
And, you know, I don't have problems with sponsors these days.
You know, I'm not going to say that everything has been perfect or whatever, but for the most part, this decision to go with Bud Light was based on anything but money.
So, Dana, there's been a fair amount of criticism from just general people towards sports in general.
How have you navigated, you know, staying loyal to your audience and delivering excellent products and not pandering to all of this like end racism?
I can't watch an NFL game anymore, Dana, without kind of the virtue signaling stuff.
How have you allowed UFC to rise above it?
I mean, Donald Trump comes to your events.
It's as if he's walking into a MAGA rally, as you mentioned, even in downtown San Francisco.
And it's one of the few sporting events I can watch where masculinity is elevated, where I don't feel as if there's all these external pressures.
How have you really allowed UFC to be immune from all of these different pressures and infiltration campaigns that we've seen with these other sport leagues?
Well, it's common sense.
We stay out of politics.
As far as the UFC goes, the business, we stay out of politics.
Donald Trump has been a fan of this thing since day one.
When this first started, arenas didn't even want the UFC.
Trump and I started a relationship 20-something years ago because he actually picked up the phone and reached out to us and said, hey, bring it to the Taj Mahal.
And, you know, we'd love to have you.
We did our first two events there.
And ever since then, he and I have been friends.
So he has always been a fixture inside UFC anyway.
So, but other than that, like if I have support politically, I do that on my own personal social media.
I do that on, you know, my own stuff.
I don't integrate politics into the UFC, even during COVID.
When we were putting on events, we never talked about COVID during the event.
You didn't see people wearing masks if we didn't have to.
We were inside the bubble.
And, you know, we didn't talk about any of that stuff.
Sports is supposed to be an escape away from all the other, you know, crap that's going on in your life.
You get to sit down on the couch, whether it's with your family, your friends, whoever, and enjoy a sport without any of the nonsense.
You want all that other nonsense?
Turn on any other channel.
You know, turn on the radio, the TV.
It's coming at you 50 different ways.
It should not be involved in sports.
No, it's exhausting and it deteriorates the product.
So, Dana, I just want to say in closing, you've been an amazing American patriot.
You stuck your neck out for Donald Trump when other people ran to the hills.
I was there in 2016 in Cleveland, and you gave one of the most powerful speeches about loyalty, about friendship, about your love of this country.
And you have personally, you know, been attacked by the media time and time again, but you always rise stronger.
And a lot of different ways people have compared you and Trump together.
And I know that friendship is as tight as ever.
And that was really, really admirable to me.
Any closing thoughts, Dana White?
No, I appreciate it.
And thank you.
Yes.
Obviously, I run a global business.
And like you were saying earlier, I love this country.
And I love these kids that fight for me who love their countries, whether you're from Russia or you're from wherever in the world.
When we're talking about the Russian thing, I didn't shut down and boycott my Russian fighters.
They don't determine what happens in their country.
They're just trying to make a living and live their life just like everybody else.
And, you know, the world has lost its mind.
And I'm just trying to run this business with a little bit of common sense.
That's it.
You've been doing a great job.
Dana White, thanks for joining us.
And thanks for taking a stand for our country and always having our presidents back.
Thanks so much, Dana.
Thanks for having me, buddy.
I know there's a lot of emails people are saying, you know, what you would expect, but I just want to ask a very simple question.
Okay.
Just email me this.
What is the best outcome that you would like to see happen with Anheuser-Busch?
When do you declare victory?
I'm just, I'm curious.
I'm not even stating that I know the answer to this question.
So you might say, we want to bankrupt them into oblivion and destroy the company.
That probably won't happen.
They'll probably still exist.
They have tons of capital.
Would you rather see them go sponsor like the most radical, like Drag Queen Story Hour or UFC?
That's a serious question I want you to think about.
Okay.
Putting capital behind Dana White, one of the most outspoken conservatives and MAGA supporters out there.
Is that a success?
Looks like they're trying to win over the people that they upset the last six months.
Something to think about.
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We're told that the economy is better than ever.
It's 4.9% growth, GDP growth.
They say it's the greatest number ever.
It reminds me of a newspaper clipping from Pravda, which means truth in Russian, where they would send out all these announcements.
And it was in the midst of a famine.
And they'd say, greatest harvest ever.
And the Kulaks would say, there's no food.
It's a greatest harvest ever.
If you disagree, go to a gulag.
Joining us now is Stephen Moore, co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Stephen, 4.9%, greatest economy ever.
Your reaction.
Yeah, I would, rather than calling it GDP gross domestic product, we should call this government domestic product.
Because do you know what the fastest component of the growth was?
Yeah, it's spending of the $6 trillion of the federal budget, right?
Yes.
Yes.
This is basically a house of sand we've created.
We've created a $33 trillion national debt, about $6 trillion, which was added just in the last two years, Charlie.
We've got government spending out of control.
The biggest employer, the biggest industry that's added workers this year, you know what that is?
Government.
So this is all this kind of phantom recovery that's all built on government debt and government spending, when in fact we want government debt and spending to be falling, not rising.
If you look at the domestic side of the business side of the equation, it's not looking very good.
Look, when you have 70% of Americans, Charlie, who've been telling pollsters for the same thing for the last two years, whether it's the Fox Poll or the Gallup poll or the MSNBC poll, when you have 70% saying that the U.S. economy is headed in the wrong direction, and another 70%, maybe the same 70%, saying that their own personal finances are worse today than they were three years ago, that's telling you that Americans are onto this gambit.
They get it, that this is an economy that feels like it's running on fumes right now.
And I think that happens to be true.
So Politico.com says this is a quote stellar economic report, stellar economic report.
In my experience, Steve, in life, if you have to tell people something is stellar, then it rally isn't that stellar, right?
Usually just kind of know it, like, hey, my wages are going up.
Everything is more expensive.
And it is a, I think we would agree, Steve, it's a goofy economy, right?
It is, it is strange with the stock market, asset prices.
But the most important thing that I hope people highlight is that this is not actual small business, entrepreneurial driven economic growth.
This is largely driven by deficit spending, isn't it, Stephen?
Yeah, yes, absolutely.
And look, it is true that a 4.9% economic growth rate is a really good number.
And there are jobs out there.
So that's the good news on the economy.
The bad news is, as you just said, that it's all built on debt.
And by the way, not just government debt.
And absolutely, that's the main driver.
But if you look at what's happened with the, and this is shown in the report, that consumers spent a lot of money.
And so it's basically government spending and consumer spending that created this good number.
But guess what, Charlie?
Where are the consumers getting the money?
They're going into debt themselves.
We now, did you know we now have $1 trillion of credit card debt?
This thing is going to bust up.
It's going to blow up.
Well, it's almost as if they want it to blow up.
And so let's talk about the inflation number.
You know, they're saying inflation is 5%.
You know, I talk to any business owner.
Costs are up anywhere between 15 to 20%, Steve.
What is the actual inflation number and how do we calculate it?
Well, you're raising another good point is that, you know, if you look at the official forecast numbers right now, they say inflation is 4% to 5%.
By the way, remember, I want to remind your listeners and viewers that when Trump left office, the inflation rate was 1.9%, or I mean, less than that.
I think it was like 1.8, 1.7%.
Then we went to, remember, we went to 9.2% this time last year.
Now it's come down a bit.
Thank God it's come down.
But the fact is, when I literally, when I'll be walking down the street and somebody will recognize me from being on the Charlie Kirk show or being on Fox News, and people will accost me and they'll say, why do you keep saying inflation is only 5%?
They say to me exactly what you said, Charlie.
They say, my groceries are up by 20%.
My gas is up 50%.
My mortgage is up 40%.
The things that people have to buy are way, way higher than this official number.
Yes.
And I mean, you look at one thing in particular.
If you are a young millennial, 28 to 30, you know, 25 to 35 years old, and you want to buy a home, it is harder than ever for two reasons.
Firstly, asset price is super inflated and it's not going to come down.
Secondly, no one wants to buy, no one wants to build new inventory because it's so expensive, right?
So therefore, prices go up.
And then the price of money is really high.
And so just a very basic thing.
Can your young people buy homes and be invested in the American?
Talk about that, Steve, because a huge part of my audience says, Charlie, what American dream?
I'm renting for $3,800 a month.
I'm renting for $4,200 a month.
Steve, that's really bad for the country.
It's actually bad for our politics, too.
It creates almost many socialists if you don't end up owning property.
Yeah, again, well put, Charlie.
And you get an A in economics today, my friend, because you're hitting all the right buttons.
And the fact is that if you look at what happened, again, I like to go back to Trump.
As you know, I worked for Trump.
I'm proud of what we did.
I mean, it's so interesting.
Even when I talk to people who hate Trump, I say, okay, maybe you don't like some of the things he says or some of his actions or January 6th, but you've got to love what he did, his policies.
And then they say, yeah, I kind of like his policies.
Well, the policies worked.
And one of the policies was to, you know, obviously produce American energy to bring inflation down.
And we did.
Inflation rate and the more here, let me give you another one.
The mortgage rate when Trump left office was 3%.
Now it's 8%.
Now, this makes your point.
So if you want to buy an average price home today, which is about $450,000 to $500,000, you used to have to pay about $1,500 a month mortgage payment.
Now you're going to pay $3,200 a month.
So in other words, the mortgage payments have doubled on a house for 30 years.
Who can afford that?
No one can.
No.
And yet what's amazing though, Steve, is that you're not seeing home prices go down dramatically.
They are going to go down.
Okay, I think that's what I'm saying.
Charlie, I have to do, right?
I don't always make predictions, and it's always tough to figure out what's going to happen with energy or housing.
But I'm going to make a prediction on your show.
Housing prices are going to have to come down because people, and just even in the area that I live, and I live in Washington, where we're recession-proof, right, in Washington, D.C. Even in Washington, D.C., the home prices are starting to come down because people can't afford it any longer.
Those higher mortgage rates hurt the home buyer because you have to pay more in mortgage interest rates.
And they hurt someone like myself who owns a home because guess what?
Biden has depressed the value of my property.
Yeah, it's just kind of a chicken and the egg thing.
In certain markets, I see that.
But, you know, for example, here in Phoenix, which is one of the fastest growing, if not the fastest growing market, there just isn't inventory enough to then depress home prices, right?
So can you talk about that?
If you're a developer, you're an entrepreneur, you say, hey, I'm going to go build 800 homes, right?
Like Del Webb did in the western part of Phoenix.
Well, the price of money is so much.
Why would I go take that risk?
Meanwhile, you have labor issues, supply chain issues.
You have people that would say, I'd rather sit on the money than go deploy $100 million in equity and $200 million in debt.
It's not worth it.
So I agree, Steve, in certain markets where there is oversupply, but in some of the hot markets that are hot as a pistol, Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, and Phoenix, Denver, I don't know if that's going to happen.
So again, you make a good point because America is really like two countries right now.
You know, I've talked about this over the last, it's red state America and it's blue state America.
So blue state America, where people moving out of, you're seeing a big, big decline in housing values.
But you're living in Arizona, which is a red state, mostly a red state.
You got to keep it red.
Will you please make sure that Arizona is don't shame me into that?
I'm waiting on it.
But, you know, Arizona is a hot market.
So you're going to probably see a lot of demand because you got all these blue state people moving in.
But I'll give you an example of how fragile the housing market is right now.
This week it was reported by Bloomberg that the number of new mortgage applications has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.
Wow.
That's not a good harbinger for things to come.
Can you just say that one more time for our audience?
Just repeat that really quick.
Yes, the number of people, Americans who are applying for a mortgage to buy a house, that number has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.
Steve Moore, by the way, the CNN article is so proud to ask.
We are living in the Soviet Union.
Why Biden's strong economy feels so bad to most Americans?
Really?
If it's so great, why does nobody think it's great?
So Steve Moore is with us.
So Steve, let me just play devil's advocate because during the Trump administration, I remember one time there was a big celebration when Trump said, you know, almost 4% growth.
I think it was like 3.8%.
What makes this different than the actual material economic healthy growth that you helped engineer and you helped pioneer under President Trump?
Well, first of all, I'll say that even Donald Trump spent and borrowed too much money.
And I tell the president that when I see him.
So, you know, politicians like to spend money.
And I'm not going to just blame Democrats for this, you know, $33 trillion of debt we have right now, Charlie.
I mean, unfortunately, it's both parties to run up this debt.
And it's immoral.
And it's going to blow up and really bankrupt our country if we stay on this course.
But look, the growth under Trump was private sector growth.
We had too much government, but most of it was driven by investment, new technology, increases in manufacturing.
And we saw big Real income gains for median income families.
So from the four years that Trump was in office, according to the Census Bureau, so that's the gold, you know, gold standard of economic data, they found that the average family income rose by $6,400 when Trump was president.
That's a lot.
You know what the number is for Biden so far?
Negative 2,000.
Wow.
Wow.
So, Steve, another question our audience has is about the stock market.
Why is it that the stock market, it went down a little bit earlier in the year, and then we had these bank failures and they were posting 400, 500-point losses on the Dow.
And then it kind of almost went up.
The working theory that makes sense to me is that the Fed quietly expanded its balance sheet back in the spring when all these bank failures occurred.
And when the Fed expands its balance sheet, cause and effect, you're going to see asset prices go up.
We see hyper-inflated price to earning ratios continuing.
I think that 33,000 on the Dow is still so ridiculously overpriced, considering how crummy the economy is.
And how many dollar bills are still on the sidelines, Steve Moore?
Well, first of all, let's talk about the stock market because, you know, we've seen from the time that Ronald Reagan was president through the end of the Trump administration, we saw the biggest boom in the wealth of American households in the history of the world, where the Dow went from 1,000 to 33,000.
And so, you know, you never bet against the American economy.
You never bet against the U.S. economy and American businesses.
We're the best in the world.
Now, that being said, now, since Biden's come into office, the Dow was roughly, I don't remember the exact number, it was around 33,500 when Trump left office, and it's about 33,500 today.
So you'd think, oh, it's being leveled.
But no, it's not level because of 18% inflation.
So in real terms, the stock market's down by 18 to 20% since Biden came in.
And that's killing people's 401k plans.
That's such a great point that if the stock market does not keep up with inflation, then you're actually losing.
So you can't just look at the chart and say, oh, okay, we're doing all right.
And this is what is so frustrating to everyday Americans.
And it puts unnecessary, I think real inflation is near, again, 15 to 20%.
Forget all this nonsense, right?
Is that therefore, if you're, let's say you have a Schwab account or TD Ameritrade, whatever, or you have a wealth advisor, if you're, at the end of the year, when you get your reports, if you are not posting a 15 to 20% return on investment, you're actually getting poorer, aren't you, Steve?
That's exactly right.
We estimate that the average 401k plan, and I've got the vast majority of people watching or listening to this show have a 401k plan, has lost about $30,000 since Biden came into office.
So that's a big loss in people's wealth and their retirement income.
In closing, Steve, it's really simple.
We need to cut spending.
And so if we don't dramatically cut spending, I'm talking about trillions of dollars of immediate and long-term spending, then we are going to live through a perpetual new normal of structural inflation of 10 to 15% annually.
Cut Spending Now 00:01:25
Yes.
So I want to, I know we're running out of time.
I want to mention two things related to what you just said.
Because Charlie, you know, that now Congress wants to spend another $100 billion, well, Biden, on these aid packages.
Now, people may have different opinions on whether to do it or not.
I'm against it.
But even if we do spend that money, I think it should come with two conditions.
Okay, ready, Charlie?
Yes.
Number one, that every single penny of any of this aid that goes to Ukraine and Israel should be paid for by cutting other government spending.
So simple.
I totally agree.
Yes.
Okay.
Number two, ready for number two?
Yes.
All of this craziness that's going on in the world, what's happening in the Ukraine, what's happening with Hamas, all of this is a direct result of Biden's war on American energy.
If I were in Congress, I would say, if I were Republican, and this is what I want you to help me on: Republicans say, We're not giving you one dime of more money for this until you open the spigots and produce more American energy.
That's the best way to stop it.
And also opening up the financing.
That's the problem: oil and gas entrepreneurs can't get access to capital.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
Email us as always: freedom at charliekirk.com.
Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.
For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.
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