Ep. 600 A Pending Constitutional Crisis You Must Know About
There is a serious constitutional crisis brewing which should concern every American.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454059/richard-cordray-consumed-partisan-politics-mick-mulvaney-cfpb-sick-sad-joke
Here’s some terrific economic news.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-needs-a-tax-cut-companies-are-spending-anyway-1511370560
If you’re a supporter of Net Neutrality and government control of the internet then you must read this.
https://www.cnet.com/news/netflix-admits-throttling-video-speeds-on-at-t-verizon/
Some positive developments in the school choice debate.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/school-choice-a-path-forward-out-of-failure/article/2641409
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Get ready to hear the truth about America with your host, Dan Bongino.
All right, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Up and at them, Dano.
All right, and what could be?
I feel super bad.
I teased this segment yesterday, this, uh, excuse me, this, uh, this sound clip yesterday, and I didn't play it, and I was like, oh!
What did I do?
And I'm just gonna get right to it.
In what is easily, Joe would you agree, the worst soundbite we have ever heard from a lunatic liberal in American history thus far.
Unreal.
Play this It's any surprise that the party that is pro-pay-for-play, pro-Putin, and now with Roy Moore, pro-pedophilia, the fact that they're anti-children, is that any surprise?
I don't think it is.
And I think, Joy, this is emblematic, this chip scenario where you mention 9 million children, children without health insurance.
I think if you take a step back, one has to ask themselves, and I think the American people should ask themselves the broader question, What has the Republican Party in the last 10 years done to help the American people?
What have they done?
This is not a political party.
This is a domestic terror group.
Holy moly.
Now, folks, Joe sent this to me yesterday, and I said at the end of yesterday's show I was going to play it.
What's that guy's name, Joe?
Amandi or something?
Yeah, Fernando Amandi or something like that.
It was on MSNBC.
Folks, I do cable news hits all the time.
What the heck was that?
Is this?
No, I'm not kidding.
Is that guy insane?
Joe sent me this.
Yeah, I did not see that.
He sent me it early Monday morning because you were at work, right?
WCBM.
He's like, dude, listen to this.
And I said, oh, we got to get to that on the show.
The problem is it was so crazy.
That I almost didn't know, like, what segment to fit it in because the crazy is run so deep with that, right?
Yeah, he was Fernand Amandi.
Oh my gosh, the GOP is a domestic terror group.
Man!
That is for pay-for-play, pro-pedophilia, and they hate children and they've done nothing to help you.
Okay, so I have some stories today I'm gonna cover that are, I mean, I don't even really know, sincerely, folks, how to address that kind of stupidity.
But it's interesting that he's talking about that the GOP is now pro pedophilia because they support Roy Moore.
Keep in mind this is from a party, the far-left extreme democrats show, that actively support men being allowed in the women's room.
They said nothing about Bill Clinton despite my show yesterday where I said, what are the Clintons hiding?
And I gave you enough hints where you could probably figure enough of this out on your own.
Really?
Pro-pay-for-play?
You mean from the party that supports the big government?
Big government, by the way, that only believes in the power of yes?
Remember that line I told you, Joe?
Chuck Eckert, the old Howard County executive?
One of the greatest lines I ever heard, folks.
By the way, this is going to completely refute the fact that the Republicans are the party of play-for-play.
We got into a conversation at this event that had a chocolate theme.
Everything was made of chocolate.
You had to eat chocolate.
They had chocolate statues.
It was some kind of fundraiser.
I forget what it was called.
But I was there.
I was running for office.
You had to go and kind of grip and grin and shake hands.
And the old Howard County executive, a guy named Chuck Ecker, who's a super smart guy, was talking about government.
And he said, Dan, you know why government grows and grows and grows and never stops?
And I said, why, Chuck?
He said, because there's no power in yes.
He said there's no power in telling people yes.
You have to grow government into every sphere of people's lives so they can tell them no.
You want to build a lake in your backyard?
You got to go to the government.
You want to paint your fence a certain color?
You got to go to the government.
You want to get a license to carry a firearm?
You got to go to the government.
You want to protect yourself?
You got to go to the government.
You want to put an extension on your home?
You got to go to the government.
You want to park in a certain spot in your neighborhood?
You got to go to the government.
The power's in yes.
I mean, there's no power in yes.
Excuse me.
If you tell people yes, they can do stuff, they don't have to go to you for permission.
And I thought, I've said this on the show so many times, regular listeners have heard it before.
I thought that was a genius thing to say.
It's why the government keeps intruding into your life.
But this is a liberal and rhino platform.
This is not a conservative platform.
We believe in individual freedom.
So what's staggering about this is this guy who's a big believer in bigger government and the power for them to tell you no on what kind of energy you can use in your house, where you can put a solar panel, what kind of gasoline you can put in your car, if you could build a lake in your backyard, that these are the guys who are talking about pay for play?
The very essence of big government is having to pay people off so you can get to yes.
Because there's no power in yes without being paid off to get there.
I found that really offensive.
But some of my stories today, which some of them I couldn't get to yes or really good, I just wanted to fit that in to show you how crazy they've gotten.
The liberals have just lost their minds in the Trump era.
Pro-pedophilia.
Is this guy insane?
Story number one, folks, the tax cuts.
Again, I know I keep talking about this, but this is going to be a super hot issue up until it gets passed.
If it gets passed.
If this doesn't get passed, by the way, any GOP lawmakers listening, we are in deep trouble.
2018 is going to be a complete bloodbath.
Joe, I think you can agree.
I mean, even heavily weighted Republican districts, R plus threes and fours, are going to lose.
That's the Cook PVI, the partisan value index, how weights the partisan lean of a congressional district.
You know, a heavy Republican district would be like R plus six or above, but I think anything three plus four, which is leaning Republican, but not heavily Republican.
I don't know, folks.
I think you're going to be in a whole world of trouble if we don't get this through.
But, I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, again, refuting this maniac in that sound clip there, talking about what have the Republicans done for America, or what have they done to help Americans.
What do you mean, like economic growth?
You mean like the Reagan years?
You mean like that kind of thing?
You mean like getting red tape out of your lives and getting government out of your lives so you can get to yes without having to pay people off?
You mean that kind of stuff?
There was an interesting piece in the journal about some research, and it's written by I'm always hesitant to put these in the show notes because they're subscriber only, but it's a letter written in an op-ed form by some prominent ringer economists, written to basically the DC folks contemplating tax reform.
Folks, these are big names in economics.
These are credible people.
Some of them are really not highly partisan actors, and it talks about how this tax cut A couple quick points on this.
So we're talking about the same thing with our liberal friends.
They mentioned that lowering the cost of capital, right?
and stuff like that. A couple quick points on this. So we're talking about
the same thing with our liberal friends. They mentioned that lowering the cost of
capital, right, through lowering the tax rate and expensing, can add potentially
0.4 percentage points of growth per year.
Now you may say, well what the heck is that, 0.4?
That doesn't sound like a lot.
Folks, that's $270 billion of growth over a decade.
The point on this...
Oh, that's per zero, 270 per 0.1.
So you're to multiply that by four.
You're talking about over a trillion dollars in growth over a decade.
If this thing passes, that is just, just due to the corporate tax cut and the lower cost of capital.
Meaning if there's corporate tax cuts, one first, you're going to have more, uh, more capital sloshing around because if you're not paying a 35% tax rate and you're paying closer to a 25, 20% tax rate, uh, depending on how your business is organized, Joe, obviously that's more money for you to spend.
So we're talking about, with that, and expensing, the ability to write off a lot of equipment.
In other words, to buy, say, what do we use for the podcast?
We have uninterrupted power sources here, we have computers, a Focusrite, we have some cameras for my studio.
If we were to buy that and we were a business and those were legitimate write-offs, we could write those off and expense them off our tax bill right away.
Right.
Joe, they're saying that that lowered cost of capital, in other words, your ability to go out and buy that stuff, the equipment you need to build your factory, your studio, whatever, is now a lower cost because you get to write it off your tax bill.
A lower cost of capital, that's what that means, could lead to potentially a trillion dollars or not more, if not more, of growth over 10 years.
Folks, that's a huge number.
That's a huge number.
This is written by more than credible economists.
Again, these are big names in the field, and a lot of these people are nonpartisan actors.
Second, that one of the concerns, and I'm using the air quotes for concerns, Joe, because when liberals say they're concerned about something, that typically means they're just making it up to make, you know, to make hay out of nonsense.
Liberals now all of a sudden are concerned about the debt and deficits.
Come again?
So liberals are concerned about the debt and the deficit now, allegedly, which you know is nonsense.
They're just trying to squash this tax cut bill.
They couldn't care any less about debt and deficits, trust me.
They're saying now that, well, if these tax cuts go through, it's going to cause an increase in the national debt and in annual deficits and our interest rates are going to go up because of it.
So it's going to be harder for Americans to get loans.
So therefore, Joe, any cost of capital benefits that I just told you from the corporate tax rate cut and from the ability to expense are going to go away because loans will be more expensive because the United States will have more debt.
Ladies and gentlemen, two quick points on this.
Number one, As I've said to you 10,000 times if you're a regular listener here, if not more.
A little hyperbole, but you get the point.
Yeah.
Show me a tax cut, an income tax cut in American history that led to either long term or over that president who was involved when it happened, over his timeline.
Over that time a loss in federal tax revenue.
Just show me a tax cut that led to a loss in tax revenue at the federal level.
Show me!
Email me, Twitter me, Facebook me.
I'm so confident I know you can't do this that I'll put it out there in our show even though we have a pretty decent size audience because I know you'll make it up because I know it's not true.
We have not had a major tax cut in American history that's led to an end loss of revenue over time.
It hasn't happened.
So if you're going to say, Joe, that the tax cut is going to lead to a loss in revenue, the loss in revenue is going to lead to increased debt.
Increased debt is going to lead to higher interest rates, and that's going to wipe out any benefits of the corporate tax cut.
First, you have to show me, Joe, where the loss in revenue happens.
And you haven't been able to do that, and you can't.
Second, as these economists, they don't make that point in the piece, but they make this point, which I'll add on.
The economists in the piece I'm talking about that's in the journal.
They say what the left fails to anticipate here, Joe, is where the heck is international money gonna go?
In other words, like, even if the debt in the United States were to go up because of this tax cut package, which again, I think the debt's gonna go up as a result of government spending, it has nothing to do with this tax cut package, right?
But, even if you stipulate their point that debt and deficits will rise due to this tax cut plan, which I don't, but if we did, they make the point in the piece The Economist, Joe, which is a brilliant one, isn't it right?
Where the heck is international money gonna go?
We're in $20 trillion worth of debt now, Joe.
And what are interest rates?
What are home mortgages?
4%?
Folks, why do you think that is?
Because the United States, despite absolutely, and point stipulated, horrendous fiscal management under Republicans and Democrats, granted, you are absolutely correct, Republicans and Democrats have run this country's fiscal situation into the ground.
I totally agree with you.
We are 20 trillion dollars in debt.
It is disturbing how much money has been run up in debt and deficits every year.
I absolutely, categorically agree with you.
Point stipulated, let's move on.
The point is, there's nowhere else to go!
Where are you going to invest?
Zimbabwe?
No, I mean, I'm dead serious.
Where are you going to put your money?
The reason right now And I'm not saying this is a badge of honor that we're the least of the worst right now.
Because understand, that is the argument I'm making, Joe.
That yeah, this really sucks.
But everywhere else, it's even worse?
I understand that's not a great argument to make.
And the economists in the piece, John Taylor's in there, Bob Barrow.
These are, again, really big names.
But they're basically saying that too.
That, where are you going to go?
Japan?
They're in a worse debt for GDP ratio than we are.
Where are you gonna go?
I mean, the United Kingdom's probably viable, but they've got a debt problem as well.
You get where I'm going with this, Joe?
The interest rates are low because despite all of our problems, we are still the United States of America.
We are still an economic powerhouse.
Right.
One of the other points they make in this piece, and I'm bringing this up to You know, to give you some good news after opening with that absolutely dreadful sound clip from that guy on MSNBC who is just a maniac.
I don't even know how to describe that guy.
Total, complete loose cannon.
You know, we cover a lot of macabre stories.
I'd like to cover some good news.
They also say in the piece, so a good reason number one, again, for the tax cut package, cost of capital is lowered, investment, potentially a trillion dollars investment.
By the way, they say that's just from conventional analysis.
In other words, they're pretty clear in the piece, Joe, that the analysis they're using to get to that 0.4% growth and one trillion over a decade additional growth, They're very clear that that's not even some far-right crazy analysis.
That's conventional analysis accepted even amongst some left-leaning economists.
Secondly, where is international money gonna go?
If it's going to lead to an increase in interest rates, where is the international money gonna go?
It's got nowhere to go but here!
That's why interest rates are still low even now.
One final point they make.
They say that the income tax cuts in there, although they're not great folks, the income tax cuts granted in the tax cut package out there with the GOP right now on the personal side are not great.
They're not mind-blowing like in the Reagan years where they went from 70 to 28 percent.
I totally give you that, right?
But there are income tax cuts in there, especially for middle-class families.
They say the reward for labor is going to go up.
Now, Joe, this is very simple.
It doesn't require, you know, an economics degree to talk about this.
If you're working, you're getting paid at a certain rate, and your income tax rate goes down, that means you get more take-home pay.
It's not complicated.
We don't need Jay Zabagas for this one.
So they just leave with that simple point, I don't need to expound too much on it, that the reward for your labor goes up.
Your pay is a reward, it's compensation for your labor, your time, your services, the products you produce, whatever it may be.
If your tax rate is lowered, which it is in many cases for folks in this income tax cut package as well, that the reward for labor goes up.
Therefore Joe, unsurprisingly, you'll probably get more labor.
Now again, this is not mysterious folks.
Now, one more thing I want to put on the economic side.
I got a couple stories I want to get to today, because there's so much going on right now.
It's just insane.
I mean, Al Franken gave a press conference yesterday, and of course he gets a pass on everything.
Conyers gets a pass.
There's so much going on.
It's like I got to prioritize my stories.
But I feel like over the course of the week, you should be able to listen to the show and have a good idea of what's going on in our international and national affairs.
So that's why I get these broad topics.
Another piece in the journal yesterday, some really great economic news out there that Justin, it's an article by Justin LaHart, L-A-H-A-R-T.
He says, listen, capital spending on equipment is up, what, 7.3% in an annual rate.
Non-defense capital goods outside of aircraft, shipments are up 0.4%.
The ninth gain in a row, the longest streak of spending and investment and shipping of non-defense capital goods since 1994.
Folks, The economy is moving again.
People are investing.
They're investing in shipping products.
They're buying products.
They're investing in their product lines.
They're investing in their employees.
This is real.
This is happening.
This is not a joke.
This is not made up.
This is happening right now.
I don't want to spend too much time in it, get too wonky.
I just wanted to leave you with that thought on the economic side before I move on to other stories to let you know that if this tax cut goes through, we could be looking at another four years of Trump after this.
If you're a big Trump fan, a small Trump fan, or a fan of Republican politics, or frankly just a fan of good solid economic growth and good jobs, we're there!
You get this tax cut through?
Capital, like I said, capital spending on equipment's up now!
Shipping's up now!
You get this tax cut through and we get that trillion dollar bump?
Folks, the sky's the limit.
So just some really good news for you after the holidays.
I'm telling you, be optimistic.
And not to mention, Joe, that doesn't even talk about if they can get rid of Obamacare, which has been a major pox on the American people, and the court system, which Trump has been cleaning up, and his unbelievable battle against bureaucracy and red tape.
He's cutting the federal register down by the day.
The cost of doing business in America, this, you know, as Reagan said, it's morning again, man.
It's happening right now.
We're going to have a really good holiday season.
This is solid news.
This is good stuff.
Put a smile on your face.
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Okay, so that's the good news about the economy.
Just a bit of bad news, because I've got to give you kind of a broad-based perspective of what's going on.
I don't want to be too Pollyanna-ish today, but I'm in a good mood.
I had a good holiday, got my stem cells going on here, so I'm getting back to normal.
What are you going to do?
Getting back in fighting shape?
Folks, there's a story that may sound a little wonky to you, but I can't emphasize to you in strong enough terms how important it is that you pay attention to what's going on right now.
There is a government entity called the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
We've discussed it before on the show, precisely because it was an Obama creation in conjunction with Elizabeth Warren, and it is, in my opinion, one of the most dangerous federal entities out there now.
It is unaccountable.
It gets its budget based on, not congressional allocations, but on percentages of... It's meant to bypass the entire appropriation process on percentages of the Federal Reserve.
It's done to buy the director the way the director was appointed.
It's just a total scam.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is really a racket, in my humble opinion, to control the financial industry.
People hate it, it's been a mess, and the director over there has been a complete disaster, Richard Cordray.
Now, why does this interest you?
Why should you care?
Because Cordray resigned.
Almost unannounced on Friday night.
This guy was a far-left Obama acolyte.
He did everything the Democrats wished.
He turned out to be a total disaster.
Political animal.
He's the one, Joe, that went after car companies.
Remember this story?
He charged car finance companies with racism in their lending.
And you may say, well, how did he gauge racism in lending?
Well, they went by the names.
Well, what do you mean the names?
Like, what if it was a name like John Smith?
Folks, I'm not making this story up.
Look this up, CFPB Cordray Auto Lending.
They took what they thought were ethnic names and they just determined you were black.
Folks, I'm not kidding.
I'm not making that up.
So if you had an ethnic sounding, whatever, I don't, folks, keep in mind, I don't even know what that means.
Yeah.
I really, I don't even know what that means.
I mean, what does that mean?
What if you're Leroy Jones?
Yeah.
No, I'm serious.
Does that mean you're white or you're black?
Or does that mean you're yellow or green or blue or you're a Martian or you're a space alien or a Jupiterian?
What does that mean?
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
They went, I'm not kidding, they went by names.
And if the name sounded like it was black, and again, I don't know what that means.
So don't say, oh my gosh, what do you mean a black sounding name?
I don't know!
Ask the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
They charge companies with racism in lending because the name sounded black or sounded ethnic.
Remember this story, Joe?
Yeah, yeah, I do, yeah.
That was a Richard Cordray special.
Cordray resigned.
Cordray hates Trump.
Cannot stand Trump.
Cordray has been a disaster.
So what happened on Friday?
Folks, what happened on Friday is turning into a legitimate constitutional crisis, which you bet your caboose you better be concerned about.
Cordray walked out the door and Trump, who trumped him, pun intended, said, okay, you're out.
I'm going to name an acting director.
And according to the Vacancies Act, I had to take some notes on this to make sure we get this whole thing right.
According to the Vacancies Act, the president is entitled to do that.
He can name an acting director from someone who is Senate-confirmed, Joe.
So he picked Mick Mulvaney, who has already been Senate-confirmed.
He picked Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Now you may say, well, what's the problem?
Whoa, what's the problem?
The problem is Cordray on his way out the door, folks.
Cordray said, well, I'm just going to do my own thing and appoint an acting director myself.
Oh, oh, you're going to do that?
Oh, that's cute.
That's how that works.
Now he says, well, in the CFPB manifesto that established how the CFPB is going to operate, it says that absence or unavailability of the director allows the director to appoint a replacement.
Not over the President of the United States and the Vacancies Act!
So Cordray appointed his chief of staff, Leandra English, that's her name, trying to, and again, his guy is trying to provoke a constitutional crisis because now what's going to happen, and the journal wrote about this on Monday and they're right, what they want is they want the Trump people to come in and escort this lady out.
She's not the acting director.
That is not how this government works, it's not how it functions.
The president, there are multiple ways to appoint people into these positions, and the court system has already ruled the Vacancies Act, the president takes priority.
Even worse, Joe, the general counsel, the lawyer for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Joe, listen to this here, appointed by Obama, Has already said that Trump's probably right on this one.
Okay.
So let's just be clear what we're talking about here.
We're talking about Trump-hating liberal maniacs who are now taking over offices of the government themselves and appointing their own people.
Despite court rulings, despite their own internal legal guidance, they are now officially taking over the government.
You think I'm joking when I've said to you repeatedly on shows from yesterday to two years ago when we started that liberals love the idea of discretionary non-rules-based government?
They love the idea of making up the rules as they go along because they can pull off things like this.
They don't care about rules.
Rules?
You have a woman, Leandra English, occupying a seat right now in the government that has no legal or constitutional eligibility to be there.
And the liberals have just said, no, we're good.
No, there's no outcry, Joe.
There's no mass call by the left to get her out of there.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a legitimate constitutional crisis.
This is not a joke.
I'll put the article up at the show notes at Bongino.com.
Check it out.
I'm not kidding.
This is liberals at it again, just completely crapping all over the Constitution, throwing the rules out the window, and literally occupying the government.
Okay.
Oh, man.
Frustrating.
Frustrating.
All right, I got a lot to get through here.
Another story.
This one's from 2016.
So I know it's 2017, I get it.
But there's a story from 2016 that someone sent to me, a listener, and forgive me, I'm getting so many emails from you all and I read them all, I just, I'm really sorry, I'm having a tough time remembering the names.
Listener sent it in, Joe.
And remember we talked about net neutrality, biggest scam ever.
Often.
By the way, Limbaugh was all over this yesterday on his show.
This is the biggest scam ever.
Why you think the government that couldn't handle student loans, that can't handle health care, can't handle anything, they're hollowing out our military?
Why you think the federal government, somehow, is going to be able to, air quotes here, regulate and manage the internet?
You have to be nuts!
How any conservative would endorse this is insane!
It's crazy!
But, I don't want to do the whole show on Hit and Shot again.
A listener sent this in, because one of the main core arguments show, Of net neutrality fans, big government liberals and misguided conservatives.
It's not a knock.
It's not personal, folks.
You probably think I'm misguided too.
I've read some of your emails.
That's okay.
We're allowed differences of opinion.
You know, we're not automatons on this show.
I read your emails.
Matter of fact, I sent an email back to some liberal kid who sent me something about net neutrality.
Thanks for your comments, man.
I'll take them into account.
I just don't agree, you know.
But a listener sent this in and said, one of the big arguments about this was, Joe, that Netflix was the movie and show viewing service you can watch over YouTube.
I'm assuming most of you've heard of it, but who knows?
Some may not.
Basically, you can watch movies on your TV and it's not through the cable system, right?
It's not a cable channel.
One of the arguments was that Netflix's movies streaming through the internet onto your TV screen were being slowed down by internet service providers in a dispute about how much they should be able to charge for what is a lot of data streaming a HD movie live.
Sure.
Well, Joe, let's just use logic here and reason.
If one of your core arguments is, well, the government needs to get involved here and to treat all traffic the same, whether it's a Netflix movie, pornography, or telemedicine, because that's what net neutrality supposedly is.
And your argument is based on the fact that Netflix was getting screwed.
I have Netflix, folks.
I like it.
I'm not knocking Netflix.
But if your argument is that Netflix was getting screwed over because their movies were being slowed down by the ISP providers, isn't a core portion of your argument that the internet service provider actually slowed down or what they call throttled Netflix's traffic?
It's not a trick question.
Yes, right?
Yeah.
That's the argument, right?
Yeah.
The argument is that my movie was slowed down.
Right.
You darn internet companies.
Well, I'm going to put an article in the show notes that's from 2016.
Thanks to the listeners who sent it in.
Netflix admits slowing down and throttling its own traffic.
Wait!
Time out!
Under the hood for review!
Now you're telling me the entire time you've been arguing to introduce the government into internet regulations because Netflix has had their movies illegally slowed down or unethically slowed down, now it comes out that Netflix is actually admitting to slowing its own traffic.
You may say, why would they do that?
Why would they slow down an HD movie?
They don't want it buffering because they were trying to protect customers against data charges.
Folks, folks, no, I'm serious.
You are about to introduce the government into one of its biggest regulatory schemes in American history, in human history, to regulate the internet.
You're doing it on the premise that Netflix's movies were slowed down and now Netflix says, oh, by the way, we did that and you see nothing wrong with this at all.
This isn't even a controversy for you.
This is time for the dude.
Play the dude.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man.
What's the other comeback to that?
Folks, I will put the article in the show notes.
It's from 2016.
And again, thank you to the listeners.
But just read it!
Just read it, it's Netflix.
Like, no, no, we kind of slowed that down.
Um, okay.
How do you come back from that?
That was the entire premise of your argument.
I shouldn't say the, there were some other arguments as well, to be fair.
But most of the millennials out there and younger kids who didn't fully understand net neutrality, that was where this thing started.
Joe, did I explain that well enough?
Like, am I crazy?
Yeah, no, you're good.
All right.
Do you have Macho Man?
I want to hear Macho Man.
Do you?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah!
There we go!
Macho Man thinks we explained it well too.
Listen, I know I'm going to wear these out eventually, but I got to be candid with you.
I love you guys and ladies to death.
This show is literally my livelihood.
I think that's so funny that was too quick that I could listen to that stuff all day.
I could.
So one of these days you're gonna have to send me an email when I drive you all nuts and say okay enough with the dude and macho man because I could listen to that all day it's that funny.
Oh dude, this is good stuff.
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Okay!
Notice the stories today, by the way, I picked, especially the tax story in the beginning, were stories that I wanted to leave you with some kind of sense of that things are going in the right direction and, you know, we should thank the Lord every single day being alive in America, in this country right now, at this time.
Folks, things are, we're doing pretty darn good.
But one of the stories I also want to leave you with today was this Wisconsin school choice program story.
Now you may say, oh gosh, what's that mean?
Folks, this is important.
It's a story on a Washington Examiner, I'll put it in the show notes, and it's about school choice in Washington and, excuse me, did I say Washington, Wisconsin?
Wisconsin school choice, correction there.
The results are just staggering.
Now, I bring this up because if you listen to that guy in the beginning, that deranged guy in MSNBC talking about how Republicans are pro-pedophilia and they hate kids and all this other stuff, I want to say to him, respectfully, to anyone who knows him, we got enough listeners, I'm sure someone will come into contact with him, how do they defend this?
Democrats, Joe, are adamantly against school choice.
Now, think about the why here, the why matters.
Remember what I've told you, it's all about the flow of funds.
Think about the argument Democrats make against school choice.
In other words, the ability for parents to take their kids out of a public school, put them in a charter school, put them in a magnet school, homeschool them, and still have access to funds they paid into.
Public taxpayer funds, right?
That's in essence what school choice is, okay?
Why would Democrats hate that?
There's a ground ball, Joe.
Ground ball.
So let me get this straight.
I get to pick where my kid goes to school?
There's nothing controversial about that.
No one argues about school choice in universities, right?
Right.
No one goes, no, no, you got to go to the local college.
Meanwhile, if you said that to Democrats, right, Joe, if you said, no, no, I want to institute a bill that says every parent has to send their 18 year old to a local college, the government picks, you'd be like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
What do you mean?
You mean like we do it in K through 12?
Um, uh, No, yeah, maybe?
I don't know.
How am I supposed to answer this?
Let me go check my focus group.
This is a flow of funds issue.
It has nothing to do with caring for kids because liberals generally, when it comes to education, care about power, not kids.
When I say flow of funds, I mean this.
Think about where the money goes, right?
Your taxpayer dollars.
But let me set up the argument a little better first.
The argument liberals use for healthcare, right, is what, Joe?
We spend too much money, right?
Oh, we spend too much money on healthcare, look at the, we spend too much money on healthcare, we gotta control the money spent on healthcare.
Okay, so money's the problem with healthcare, money's problem, too much money in healthcare.
Yeah, when it comes to education, a service that follows the exact same rules of economics, there are two rules of economics, supply and demand work regardless of the product or service, right?
When it comes to education, Joe, what do liberals say?
We spend too little!
Well, what is it?
Is money the problem too much or too little?
Now, why is that?
Why do liberals make the exact opposite argument about two different services, but services albeit which follow the same rules of economics?
They do that because in the healthcare sphere, Joe, what happens?
It's largely free money, free market money, people's money, spent in hospitals and amongst doctors, even if it's through insurance companies and third-party conduits.
But it largely, not all of it, the government is still involved in about 35-40% of healthcare, it largely stays in the free market sphere.
Again, some of it flows through government, Medicare and Medicaid, we get that.
But it largely flows through the free market sphere and not, pay attention, this is important, not into Democrat politicians' pockets.
It can.
Some healthcare lobbyists and things like that, but it largely doesn't.
So therefore, we spend too much money.
Now, we spend too much because it doesn't wind up with them.
If it did wind up with them, we'd be spending too little.
How do I know that?
Because that's exactly what they say about public schools!
Despite a 400% inflation-adjusted increase since 1974 in education funding at the federal, state, and local level, the Democrats will continue to insist we're not spending enough money despite them not producing any results for all that money, but why?
Why?
Because that money flows from taxpayers into the public education system.
Public education teachers pay teachers union dues.
Teachers union dues largely go into the pockets of Democrat lawmakers!
Shocker to no one but our liberal listeners out there.
That's why we spend, the liberal talking point is we spend too little.
Because it winds up in their pockets, therefore we need to spend more.
When it doesn't wind up in their pockets in healthcare, oh we spend too much in healthcare.
It's the exact opposite argument!
But the same rules of economics.
This is what I tell you, liberals never make any sense.
When you dismantle their argument, it's so easy with them.
Now, you finally have this school choice thing in Wisconsin that is dramatically helping people.
Joe, here are some numbers for you.
It's in the Washington Examiner piece.
These are stunning numbers.
I said it again.
Wisconsin.
Wisconsin.
Gosh.
Clear your head out.
Yeah, and I didn't catch it.
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
Wisconsin School Choice Program results.
They are measuring now growth because one of the talking points, the liberals' talking points, which are just bizarre, is that, well, these school choice programs, these charter schools, Joe, do better because they get to cherry-pick their students.
You'd be completely wrong.
In the Wisconsin program, Joe, The schools that, a lot of these schools that were getting a lot of these students were actually getting students that were struggling.
Not these cherry-picked, you know, gold medal award-winning students.
They were getting students that were struggling.
Some had learning disabilities.
So they measured growth.
In other words, did the student from the baseline grow more in the charter school, school choice program, or at a public school?
These school choice programs show 8% more growth on educational metrics of success.
8%.
That is staggering.
Here, you want an even bigger number?
In Racine, they had 24% better growth in their educational attainment level in these school choice programs.
Tell me again now how fighting these school choice programs, like what Democrats do, tell me how that's pro-kid.
Tell me how that's, you know, pro-low income, pro-poor folks, and you're in it for the little guy.
Don't give me this garbage, folks.
Come on.
You know, Jason Reilly at the Wall Street Journal.
I'm going to leave you with this, because it's always been kind of a sensitive topic with me, because I'm not really a product of school choice, but I went to Catholic school growing up, and they took us on, you know, sometimes it's a charity case.
My mom didn't always pay the tuition on time, if you know what I mean, and they let us stay in St.
Pancras, and then I went to Archbishop Malloy, and I was very proud to have spent a lot of time in really elite schools.
I think, despite the fact that we struggled growing up heavily, It was my pathway into the middle class and upper middle class, and I think everyone deserves a shot at that.
And Jason Reilly had this statistic that always blew my mind.
He said that there were 20,000 public high schools in the country.
Joe, just 2,000 of them, just 2,000 of those 20,000 public high schools produce half of our nation's dropouts.
If you're black, you have a 50% chance of sending your kid to one of those 2,000 dropout factories.
Folks, Listen, I get it.
You know, a lot of liberal listeners will say, oh, he's a Republican.
He doesn't care about black America or anything.
Whatever.
You're just, I don't know what to say to that.
You're just a dope.
Really.
I mean, I don't, you're just not thinking straight.
Shame on you.
Seriously.
I have, you know, I've spent my life, luckily, and I think it's been a really great experience for me, in middle and lower middle income communities that were very diverse in a real way, not in the liberal way.
Skin color, race, creed, income level.
We had rich people in our neighborhood and poor people in our neighborhood.
I've been very, very fortunate to have spent time around a lot of different people.
I've traveled the world with the Secret Service.
I think I've been to 36 plus countries.
And the fact that if you are black in America, that you live in a different country than I do.
You do.
If you're white, you don't have a 50% chance of sending your kid to one of those schools.
And the fact that there are people out there that will prevent you and your family, if you are black, from going to a school that can educate your kid and give him the American dream I was privileged to live, and Joe as well, is one of the saddest things I've seen in American politics.
And the fact that when people like I and Joe bring this up and talk about it, and conservative talk radio who genuinely care.
Again, I know you don't think I do.
That's fine.
I'm not going to convince you.
You're lost in your own political world.
I'm telling you I know what's in my head, and this means a lot to me.
The fact that you can't get out of the way and get your head out of your butt for five minutes and fix what's going on in black America and give these kids a shot is a national disgrace.
It really is sad.
But the good news is, folks, to leave you on a good note, because I said I would, these programs are working.
Not all of the kids in school choice programs happen to be minority black or Hispanic.
You know, they're not.
There are a lot of kids who happen to be white in these programs.
It doesn't matter.
It's not a racial issue to me.
But black kids are suffering inordinately from a poor public education system.
And the good news is these programs are working.
These kids are growing.
They're getting smarter.
Our economy is growing.
We're getting richer.
The stock market is growing.
Folks, we are on a good path.
Smile today.
Really, good things are happening out there.
And please, if you wouldn't mind, if I may ask you, I know it's not a religious show and I'm certainly not your preacher, but for those of you who are spiritual, I wouldn't mind a little prayer today.
I would really appreciate it.
I'm having that stem cell thing done again.
I really need this, folks.
I am in an unusual amount of pain lately.
I hate to complain on the show, but Things are breaking down a lot more rapidly than I thought they would.
It's my fault, but I need to realize I'm 43.
But I could use a prayer, so I appreciate that.
Thanks a lot, folks.
I'll talk to you in a moment.
You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com.
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