The Economic Landscape: A Deep Dive into Energy and Affordability
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It is frustrating to me in terms of, you know, the Democrats trying to push this narrative of, quote, affordability when they made everything worse in terms of the economy.
But, you know, that's who they are.
That's what they do.
And, of course, the ultimate goal is to persuade you to rely on them, depend on them for every want, need, desire you have in life.
They will take away all of your fears, all of your anxiety, the stress of life to go out, work hard, dig deep, produce on your own.
And it gets frustrating.
And then the big lie is that, you know, Biden said earlier this week, which is unbelievable, that we lowered the price of everything.
No, but if you paid for gas, you saw how high gas prices went.
You saw how inflation went to 9 plus percent, you know, decades high numbers.
Home prices, you know, went up a whopping 38%.
We have a home crisis affordability issue in large part because of the unvetted illegals that came into the country.
And they were competing for apartments.
And in terms of demand increased significantly, and as a result, that raised prices.
Supply and demand crisscross, and that dictates the price.
And grocery prices went through the roof.
The president addressed this.
He said, I inherited the mess from the Biden administration.
He's right.
The highest gas prices in our country ever that we've ever seen.
And he's right.
He said affordability 13 months ago was an unmitigated disaster.
And now things are coming down.
Prices are coming down.
Energy prices, oil prices, gas prices, the lowest in five years.
Inflation, the lowest in five years.
And the stock market, for those of you that use that as a barometer, okay, it hit an all-time record high again yesterday.
I think like the 45th record high under Donald Trump.
And he's asking, when am I going to get credit for anything?
No inflation.
Greatest economy now is emerging.
And when you factor in all that we have talked about on this program, and a lot of that has to do with trillions of dollars in manufacturing, which also is good for national security because we will produce our own pharmaceuticals.
We'll produce our own semiconductor chips.
We're bringing back automobile manufacturing.
And the president has opened up energy-dominant policies, which we already are seeing an impact on because of the low price of energy in the country.
That's the lifeblood of the world's economy.
It's incredible.
And, you know, the president is saying, when will people understand what is happening?
I think people will begin to see it in the new year.
And while Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, thinks that this is probably going to hit or infuse the bloodstream of our economy sometime by the end of the first quarter of next year.
I think it's probably the end of the second quarter, if what Reagan and Trump did in their respective times in office previously are any indication.
And I think that it's just frustrating because if you improve the economy by 20% and the president before you reduced the economy and growth, et cetera, by 46%, it's hard to get credit when people are still underwater from where they initially were.
And that gets frustrating for people, and I totally understand it.
Anyway, here is the Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, talking about the success of the president's energy policies in the first 10 months.
Pay attention to this, because this is the lifeblood of the world's economy.
This is what every single family is impacted by.
The biggest determinant of the price of energy is politicians, political leaders, and policies.
That's what drives energy prices.
Under your leadership, what we've seen in the United States is just a steady drop in the price of gasoline, a huge consumer cost for Americans.
As you mentioned early on, well below $3 a gallon right now and trending downwards.
There are a number of stations in the heartland of America with $1.99 signs flying today.
That's simply impossible without the leadership and changes you've brought.
Now, of course, you can go to California, where the average price of gasoline is between $4.50 and $5 a gallon today in California.
That's just bad political leaders there and bad policies in California.
And taxes.
And taxes.
They charge you gasoline are just insane, terrible.
And electricity prices is a very parallel story, but it's a bigger moving ship, so the changes are a little bit slower.
But Americans are outraged at a roughly 30% rise in the average price of electricity across this country.
But everything we are doing together is going to reverse that.
Not just stop the rises, but start a downward trajectory in electricity prices.
We're going to stop closing power plants.
We've already done that, of course.
Stop closing the coal power plants and natural gas plants that were shut down.
We've got over 30 gigawatts of generators just sitting there today, not allowed to run.
Well, of course, we're fixing that immediately.
All right, so gas prices now plunge to a new multi-year low, and they are trending lower.
Here to discuss all of this, Tim Stewart, he's the president of the U.S. Petroleum and Gas Group.
Daniel Turner is the founder, executive director of Power of the Future, a national nonprofit organization.
They advocate for American energy jobs.
Those are high-paying career jobs.
Faith Burns is a fellow for energy policy at Americans for Prosperity.
And at the federal level, she served as a legislative counsel on a U.S. Senate staff handling of energy and environmental issues.
Welcome, all three of you.
Let me say, Daniel, I'll start with you.
I mean, this is a dramatic, this will have a dramatic impact long term on the economy.
I think people do feel it in the short term, unless you live in California where you're still paying, you know, $4 plus a gallon of gasoline.
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
And Sean, in addition to Run and Power the Future, I have a sheep and cattle farm in Shenandoah, Virginia.
And so one of the things that people complain about are the price of beef, for example.
And I tell people all the time, you know, the beef you're eating today on average in America is four years old.
And that beef or that cow was fattened on grain that was harvested at $7 a gallon diesel under the Biden administration.
So it took four years for beef prices to actually be felt.
Now gas is getting cheap.
Diesel is getting cheap.
And so you will see food prices come down, but it takes a little while for that to be felt in the market.
And that's what happens when you tinker with energy outside of your wheelhouse.
And that's what the Biden administration did.
And President Trump is catching the blame for it.
Yeah, good point.
Let's get your take, Tim Stewart.
I agree with Daniel.
You know, Sean, compared to 2008, the percentage of household costs on energy has decreased by 10%.
That's because of the shale revolution.
What that's done is overall it's saved American families, I think, probably $2,500 a year for a family of four in energy costs that have been limited or reduced over time, again, thanks to the shale revolution.
But as you know, four years ago, like Dan, you know, I come from a ranching family as well.
Four years ago, my brothers were paying $7, $8, and $8 per gallon for diesel based on COVID and then the Biden administration horrible energy policies that constrained the refining and the production and the use of fossil fuels.
We're finally catching up to that, but he's exactly right.
We're paying the price now.
Americans are still paying the price now of bad ideas and decisions that were made four years ago.
You know, and Faith, when you really look at it, I mean, people don't fully understand the impact on their lives.
That means it costs less to heat and cool your home in the winter and summertime.
That means that when you get on a commercial airliner and they're paying less per gallon, a lot less per gallon for jet fuel, that means airlines can lower prices and offer discounted prices.
That means less money for you to get back and forth to work if you're commuting every day.
So, I mean, it impacts every aspect of our life.
That also means, you know, whatever you're paying in your house, you know, for gas, oil, whatever you happen to use, that is going to be like a massive tax cut for most families.
You're exactly right.
And I would echo what the two gentlemen have said before me.
And I would also point to what you had indicated previously, that President Trump had a mess to dig out from.
And we don't need to underestimate the gravity of the mess he had to dig out from.
And from day one, his policies have been to unleash domestic energy production.
And that's what has been occurring every day since his administration has been in office.
Oh, I agree with all of that.
Look, you're advocating for American energy jobs.
We had a program on this.
We did something when we had the last energy boom during the last Trump administration is we partnered with energy companies in North Dakota, in Oklahoma, in Texas, and we would put out there that the jobs that were available for people if they were willing to move and get up and change their lives a little bit because they wanted opportunity.
But at that time, they were paying people that they would train to be truck drivers or to work in the oil fields.
They start them close to $100,000 a year while they were training them all the overtime they can handle, often housing them.
And it helped people go from $30,000, $40,000 a year dead-end jobs where they couldn't make ends meet into a point where they could buy their own home and get a nice pickup truck or whatever they wanted to drive, and it would transform their lives.
Tim, let me get your thoughts on it.
Yeah, the U.S. oil and the industry supports 3.6 million jobs.
It's almost a half a trillion dollars in GDP to the economy.
And you're exactly right.
These are jobs that cut all across the education spectrum and all across socioeconomic value, socioeconomic families.
And frankly, in rural communities.
You know, I spend my weekends.
I'm from Utah originally.
There's a little town called Richmond, Utah, population, 3,000.
And I was talking to somebody.
I asked what they were doing.
And he says, well, I work for the oil and gas industry.
And he out of that little town in Richmond, Utah, runs a $250 million a year business in Texas that he manages out of Utah.
And what that business is, is in the construction industry, building pipelines and fences and roads and sheds for the oil and gas industry.
It's astounding the supply chain and the reach of the employment capacity of our industry all across the country in the states and in communities of different sizes.
It's something that we are really, really proud of.
Now that the President, Daniel, has put these jobs online, gotten these policies in place, he's basically said to energy companies, that means oil, gas, coal, to go, you're not being regulated, and you don't have the, you know, the high heel of government on your neck preventing you from growth.
What does that mean for job creation for Americans?
Again, going back to partnering with energy companies around the country and high-paying career jobs that they will train you in.
And that was transforming lives at the time.
And I'm hoping that we might be able to do it again.
Absolutely.
And it shows the power of freedom in free markets.
And President Trump believes in that.
It was not very long ago that you had Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders hauling all the oil and gas executives before them, screaming at them about price gouging and profiteering and greed.
Suddenly no one's greedy anymore, right?
The oil and gas industry is now a bunch of devout Christians all of a sudden.
Well, no, nothing has changed, right?
What's changed is that the president is allowing freedom to operate.
And when you allow freedom to operate in free markets, you get more of a product at a lower price point for a greater number of people.
And all those accusations of greed, all that was was deflecting for the fact that Biden's policies were a boot on the neck of the industry.
They're a disaster.
Yeah, and everybody suffered.
Last word, Faith Burns, we'll give it to you.
Well, first of all, everybody doesn't need a PhD.
There is still a place in the American economy for folks, men and women, to go out and work with their hands and work hard and make a decent living.
And President Trump is providing the opportunity for folks to do that.
All right, Daniel Turner, Faith Burns, and Tim Stewart, thank you all for being with us.
We'll talk more on this on the other side.
We'll get to more of your calls this Friday, 800.
You know, I'm going to tell you some things that really, really pissed me off, Linda.
I'm in a bad mood today.
In case you're not going to be able to do that before.
Yeah.
What do you mean you could hardly?
What does that mean?
You always say, I like when you're mad.
I like when you're pissed off.
You do a better show.
You do.
I'm pissed off.
Good.
Let me ask you.
I'm going to go to the last segment, too.
I'm going to tell you why, because I'm sick and tired.
You know, gas prices were nearly $5 freaking dollars a gallon, and nobody even notices.
Oh, gee, but it's below $2.
You know, in some cases, in some states, it's below $2 a gallon of gasoline in freaking Colorado.
Who would ever expect Colorado?
You know, it's going to be with you.
No, $1.69 a gallon is low in some places.
But now we have the average price of gas.
It used to be under Biden over $4 a gallon.
Now it's below $3 a gallon.
That is a massive, massive drop.
That's a massive tax cuts for people.
That's 37 states.
And it's below $2.75 a gallon in 22 states and below $2.50 a gallon in five states and below $2 a gallon in four states.
The only thing, and I'm paying next to nothing.
I have one gas-powered vehicle and I have a Tesla.
And for a while, I thought, oh, this is an added benefit, although you still use energy to power up your Tesla.
Well, yeah, because you need fossil fuels to fuel the electric, which most of our go-green folks out there don't actually understand.
You think you're going electric?
Lovely.
Good for you.
Plug in all you like.
But at the end of the day, it's still fossil fuels that are powering your electric.
All right.
So I saved one cut for you just because I wanted you to be in as foul, and I shouldn't be this way.
We're heading into the holidays, but for you to be in a foul mood too.
It's Gavin Newsom talking about trans.
And I am telling you, I promise you, if he does become the Democratic nominee in 2028, he's going to regret saying this.
Contradictions, but then I think I can explain.
Perhaps the evolutions that we didn't get into trans sports.
That's an issue no one wants to hear about because 80% of the people listening disagree with my position on this.
But it comes from my heart, not just my head.
It wasn't a political evolution.
The position being that I don't think it's fair.
I want to see trans kids.
I have a trans godson.
There's no governor that signed more pro-trans legislation than I have, and no one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ minute.
But you have to accommodate the reality of those whose rights are being taken away as we advance the rights of the trans community in terms of the fairness of athletic competition.
Okay, if he wants to run on that in a national election, let him run on it.
You see, I think right now he's at the point where he wants this nomination so bad, he will say anything to get it.
And he knows that if he wants to get it, he has to go hardcore, leftist, radical, extremist to satiate the insanity of the base of the Democratic Party.
Yeah, well, I mean, I think the larger picture, and you're saying it in a roundabout way because you're polite.
I'm not.
I can't stand him.
I don't like anything about him, is that he doesn't have any strong positions.
Oh, I hate him.
Absolutely.
Oh, yeah, I got a hate list.
Absolutely.
All of us have fallen short, you know, and I'm no exception.
I've talked at length on this program, how you've become a Christian.
First of all, I did not become a Christian.
I have always been a Catholic.
No, no, no.
Then I went non-denominational.
Now I'm a Catholic.
You renewed your faith.
When did you go back to being a Catholic again?
About four years ago.
Fex News.
About how long?
About four years.
I just like the Mass.
I like the structure.
I'm a big fan.
Still super close to Pastor Tim.
Love him.
Love his church.
But I love the structure.
Wait a minute.
That's what it was.
Listen, I didn't make sure that, you know, it didn't blend.
No, I decided I wanted to be a Catholic again.
That's what I'm doing.
I like it.
Big fan of it.
I can't stand the Pope.
I do love.
I'm a Catholic, but I can't stand the Pope.
I can.
I bash him every day as much as I can.
Can't stand him.
The bishops do.
They can all go fly a kite.
Listen, the Mass to me is beautiful.
It really is.
Exactly.
It is.
Okay.
And communion, when you talk about, you know, the Last Supper and Jesus, you know, broke the bread, blessed it, gave thanks, you know, take this, all of you, and eat from it.
This is my body, which will be given up for you.
And after supper, he took the cup again.
He gave thanks and praise.
He gave the cup to his disciples and he said, take this, all of you, and drink from it.
This is the cup of my blood, the new and everlasting covenant, and it will be shed for you and for all men for the forgiveness of sins.
That part is beautiful.
What bothers me about the Catholic Church is that it has institutionalized and never dealt with the corruption.
It was on the parish level, the diocese level, the priests knew, bishops knew, cardinals knew, Rome knew, and they never did anything about it, and they never ended it.
And I take issue with the idea that priests can't be married.
And that may sound Hannity, you've gone liberal on us.
No, I haven't.
Because 11 of the 12 apostles that Jesus chose ended up being married.
11 of the 12.
I'm not saying that this is a perfect religion by any means.
But when it comes to the first time, the first 1,100 years of that church, maybe 1,200, my math is off a little.
They allowed priests to marry.
And the only reason they changed it was financial for fear of losing property in the case of a priest getting divorced.
Am I factually accurate or not?
You are.
I don't have anything to say as far as what has happened in the history of Catholicism or what has happened with the church.
The church has a history of pedophilia, but there are plenty of other religions that do as well.
The problem is that the Catholic Church and the people that run the Catholic Church, it's a corporation.
They have charities.
They're siphoning money.
They're allocating money to things that their parishioners do not believe in, including me.
But I go to a certain parish here.
I really like the way they run their church.
I like what they do in their community.
They're conservative.
They're not liberal.
And we believe in the Bible.
We follow the Bible.
We read the Bible.
We have the gospel.
It's a very nice service.
And they are not beholden to the liberal ideology of Pope Leo and the bishops, which I love.
All right.
Now that we got Linda's religious issues resolved, let's get to our busy phones.
800-941 Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program.
Chris in South Carolina.
What's up, Chris?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
I'm doing pretty good.
First, I'm calling in.
Amazing everything that you're doing.
But I just want to get right to the topic about the trans issues.
Do you agree with Gavin Newsome?
Partly.
Partly.
You partly agree with them.
Okay, explain.
The questions that I have is why every team has equipment managers or support staff, the water boys, the towel boys, the ball boys, the bat boys, the kids that sit on the side of the tennis matches that catch the balls.
Why can the trans people not be allowed to be quote unquote on the team, but only relegated to those positions?
I don't even want to discriminate in any way in terms of if people are trans.
I think Caitlin Jenner labeled this best when she said, I don't really care what somebody's testosterone levels are.
I care when it's puberty and it impacts and dramatically changes their body.
And if they are biological men, they are, by definition, physically stronger than women.
And she rightly identifies.
Do you realize she can drive the ball nearly 300 yards?
I mean, she's that great an athlete as Bruce Jenner when Bruce Jenner won the decathlon.
What an incredible athlete you must be to achieve that.
It's remarkable.
And she even said to me, I don't know if it was public or private, but she could play all these golf tournaments that she wanted, and she'd win every single one of them because she can drive the ball that much further than any opponent and happens to be a great athlete.
But she says it would be unfair.
And the question here is, if somebody in a free society chooses to identify as, quote, trans, that's up to them.
You cannot have biological men competing in women's sports.
And it has been shown that physically they dominate and expect that to be considered fair because it's not.
There are biological differences between men and women.
That is not to suggest that men are better than women.
That is not to be in any way discriminatory.
However, there's certain biological realities that I think we have to face.
Is that fair?
Oh, yes.
And even to that point, it's those water boys, those towel boys, the hydration technicians are not playable athletes.
They're on the team.
You can dress up just like everybody else, but you're just not allowed to be on the field in the middle of the game.
Listen, let me make it even more simple.
I don't think biological men should be playing in women's sports or be in women's locker rooms.
I don't.
I don't agree with Kamala Harris's position that taxpayer dollars ought to be used to pay for illegal immigrants and surgery or convicts.
I don't believe with Tim Walz that trans people, you know, and the illegal immigrant, you know, I don't believe we should be putting tampons in boys' bathrooms in Minnesota.
Anyway, I appreciate the call.
Quick break, right back.
More of your calls this Friday, 800-941-Sean.
Our number, if you want to be a part of the program as we continue.
The final hour of the Sean Hannity Show is up next.
On for Sean's conservative solutions.
Let's get back to our busy phones.
800-941-SEAN if you want to join us.
Bill, in my free state of Florida, what's up, Bill?
How are you?
Good, sir.
How are you doing?
Thank you for taking my call.
Happy Friday.
Thank you, sir.
I was going to call and try to make a point and then a suggestion.
I'm going to go to the suggestion first.
These blue-ridden cities that don't want Trump's health, you know, that's just full of crime, full of crime, instead of forcing themselves in there and the rest of the population in that city, because of the liberal media, doesn't really know what's going on, why can't they erect billboards throughout the city saying, welcome to like Chicago, welcome to the Hunger Games in Chicago.
2025, murder rate was this.
Shootings were this, this, this, and then have a count up for 2026 showing them this is what you're continuing to get into.
And then everybody reads a billboard.
The media can't hide it.
Well, you want to put up a billboard saying what?
Welcome to the Hunger Games.
Current crime rate is this.
And however they want to do it, break it down.
Sort of like the lottery.
You know, the mega million is this much now.
So shootings are at 355 to date.
Murders are 75 murders.
Listen, I love the idea.
It's sort of like the debt clock that we had for so long, by the way.
Our debt is going way down.
Deficits going way down under Donald Trump.
He doesn't get credit for that either.
I think everybody in the country kind of knows if you're on the south side of Chicago or in Chicago in general, that the odds are significantly higher that you may be a victim of crime.
My advice to people is don't live in high crime areas.
It's not good for your health.
And, you know, you have to assess what your own, you have to make an assessment of what your threat tolerance is.
That's what I would say to people.
And in many of those very same areas, you can't protect yourself.
It's unreal.
Appreciate the call, sir.
God bless you.
Have a great weekend.
800-941-Sean is a number if you want to be a part of the program.