President Trump in Davos

Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at HU for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome back, America. I want to introduce

Losing only two votes. Can it be done, mister chairman.

Do?

It's great to be with you.

I said all along that we needed to do one big, beautiful bill to put as much of the items we could possibly get in to deliver the president's campaign promises for the American people. It is very very difficult, very very difficult to do two reconciliation bills, and when you can only lose two people, and one member of our conference is going to be a no on you know, whether you support oxygen yes, that that creates a very get.

Is his name Massy? Yes, go ahead.

I won't be saying any names, but I will just say that the records on the voting records speak for themselves. But it is so important that the American people know what we have delivered in the big beautiful bill.

Have I have folks all.

The time when I travel across the country that's like, I didn't know that there was these investment accounts that are for new children born in America. Or I didn't know that you could do one hundred percent expensing on new machine sheds that's built in America. I mean, there's so many things that people don't know about. We need to do a better explaining what was in the first Reconciliation Bill before trying to debate of whether there should be a second one.

Well, there is the debate. So I just want to test some things out on you. Because you remember when they have the crossed axes and Robin Wood has to shoot the arrow through the crossed axes, so you got to get the arrow through about twenty cross access. What do you think about a tax credit for first and last month's rent Because we're talking about an affordability issue. We got to hit young people. We got to hit

You know, we've been working with the administration on all kinds of different tax ideas and proposals about housing affordability. This is one of the items that I've heard people discuss. Tax credits though are not very popular. Tax deductions, they're a little bit more doable. So it's different items that we can look at. But I mean, just even looking at the depreciation schedule that could have a huge impact

Oh, that's not going to give you any more wins.

They're not. Because I've gone through the tides of House seat losses. In the second term of Republican President Eisenhower lost forty nine seats in nineteen fifty eight. Ford lost forty eight seats in nineteen seventy four, regularly lost five seats in nineteen eighty six, but w lost thirty seats in two thousands. So the tides are not with you right, So to deliver something to the youngs would be big.

So part of the discussion, too, Hugh, is when I was referring to the four oh one case, some of the discussion that's going on is allowing parents to utilize part of their four oh one K for down payments for their kids, you know, to try to get more home ownership. Think first time home ownership went from thirty two years old when Trump was last president to today it's forty years old. Is the average age of a

Let me suggest one on that I used to be a land news lawyer, mister chairman, so I know that in certain states like Florida, New York, California, the appreciation of houses that have been held for twenty years is

You're hitting all kinds of different tax provisions that our committee members have been discussing along with members who's not on the Ways and Means committees. So it definitely is of interest to a lot of people. Of course, that hasn't changed in decades. Like you pointed, out and a lot of times you have to update the tax code.

All right, last thing I want to talk to you about, and this has to be bipartisan, and I think you're right to go out and talk about all the good things. That's what the President did at Davos for an hour and a half today, did at the press conference yesterday for two hours. California, I've only been back here for a couple of weeks. I've got a few more weeks to go. They're bankrupt, they don't know it. They're they're a zombie state. They have unfunded pension liabilities are through

That is not something within the Ways and Means Committee jurisdiction. But I have not had any I have not heard myself any conversation in regards to going after that approach. I just wish that states would get their fiscal house in order. Un Fortunately, we see a lot of them spin like drunken sailors. But it's just it's crazy.

It's not recoverable in California.

I did the math when I got out here, and it's actually they can't do it given the contracts that they've entered into at their public employee unions.

So, mister Chairman, when will you make the decision?

Go no? Gos figures got to come back from London and take a victory lap for his great speech in front of the Parliament. But when do you sit down and decide go no, go on a reconciliation Try realizing you can lose one member.

That's impossible, Wow, one member.

Yeah, that's a decision, Hue of leadership. Before a reconciliation package can even start being crafted in my committee, the Budget Committee has to pass a budget resolution laying out the parameters of the reconciliation and so that is the first step throughout the process before it can even come to us. So I just don't believe, though, Hugh, that there's a path way.

I'm glad here you say that.

I don't want to waste time on the majority. That's very useful. You were the and thank goodness you were out there arguing for one big beautiful bill because it's it's only gotten harder. You need a majority of twenty or so to get two of them done, and it's not there. But thank goodness, you're here to sell the rest of it and to make sure the tax code. Maybe you can get the housing thing through. Who knows,

Yeah?

It is.

But you know what, We've defied the ads to this point.

Right.

I'm an optimist by nature, and I think we're on the right side of things. We're right, we are on the right side of the policies, and it's incumbent upon us to go out and do shows like yours and correct the truth with the other half of the truth. Right, I think Americans vote with their pocketbooks and with the work that we've done in the working families tax cuts. I think people are going to see real relief. They're

I mean, just compare and contrast the two parties.

Goodness gracious, Now, Congresswoman, I went to Michigan Law School at University of Michigan Law School, So the Michigan is deep within you. I hear it in your voice. How's that state looking in the off years? Up there in the governor and Mike Rogers comes on a lot and we talk about Mike, how do you feel about it?

You know, again, I feel pretty good.

And I feel pretty good because we're doing everything right and we're getting out to vote, and if you take a look at the governor, I think we have a real shot of winning the governorship.

For the first time.

We've uh, we have good you know, we have good candidates at the top of the ticket and a law we have we have that, not to mention that we have a pretty strong independent. It's the he's the mayor of Detroit, and we're all betting that he's going to take more votes from the Democrats than he's going to take from the Republican So I'm optimistic about that. I'm also very optimistic about Mike Rogers winning the Senate. Look, we've cleared the field in Mike Rogers is our candidate.

I added a couple of new affiliates in Michigan on January one. They're up in just on the Lake Way up north, not on the up but on the other side. So we're talking to all of the state. It's really a red state with a couple of blue dots, right.

Michigan, You got that, right, that right?

One of those blue dots is Ann Arbor. And so what do you do about a play the college campus of the United States where they apparently don't teach economics anymore.

Well, the University of Michigan just got a new president, so I'm a little bit hopeful on that. It's their board of regents really that are more left wing and they need to really focus on educating students on how to think, not what to think. And my hope is that they will get back to doing just that. But I think you'll see a different, different landscape up there too with the unfortunate death of Charlie Kirk or murder

Well.

Let me turn over to the redistricting wars.

I was reading one analysis today that says the Democrats, if you add it all up for everything that's been done today, they're plus one. Assuming that California doesn't get thrown out by Scotus and then we don't get the voting rights decision and we don't see anything out of Florida and we don't see anything out of Indiana. Is that your math.

If all of those things happen. But those are pretty pessimistic.

So I think at the end of the day, we.

As Republicans will probably pick up two because I don't think all of those things will go in the democrats favor. I think what we really need to focus on. Quite frankly, we are on the right side of the issues. He We are on the side of lawn or we are on the side of lower taxes for every American. We are on the side of common sense. For goodness sakes, that's what really is going to prevail. And the Democrats are just going so far to the left.

I mean, we.

Elected a socialist mayor in the city of capitalism, New York. I mean, let's give New York the world. Let's give them a real experience on what socialism or communism really looks like, and let's remember that one that doesn't work, and they come begging for Congress for more money because at some point in time, people want to get paid. So free buses, I think the bus drivers want to get paid. Gee, free grocery stores, you think the farmers want to get paid that sells their goods and services.

Life very young people. Though I mentioned this to Jason Smith, Chairman Smith was on with me earlier. How about attack credit for first and last month the rent that's really a rifle shot aimed right at the twenty one to thirty year old demo? Have we done anything for them for the twenty one to thirty year olds that you can point to?

Yeah, I think we're doing a lot of stuff right now with interest rates with home purchases, and the President is really.

Focused on that.

We haven't done a ton legislatively to do that, other than if you look at the no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. That will have a big effect on those young people as well, because you look at a lot of those young people they work while they're going to while they're going to college, or you know, they work, and they usually work bartending jobs or waitressing jobs. That will have a major effect on them as well. To keep the more money in their pocket and give less money to Uncle Sam.

Lisa McClain share Women of the House Republican Conference. Always good to talk to you, great to have a Michigander on although Ohio State did beat Michigan today, I do you have to point that out this year.

To bring that up? Bring that out?

Of course I do. After the year before it, Yes, after four in a row. Yes, of course I have to do that. And now we just go back and reset. We'll talk about again next year after the game again. We'll play up from the Big House next year. Lisa McLain, good to talk to you. Don't go anywhere, America. I'll be right back on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Mary Katherine Ham is with me. Mary Catherine Ham as the host of the Getting Hammered

Yes, I do.

The thing about being an SEC fan is that we don't need to ask Big Ten fans or Northwestern fans to constantly affirm us.

Well, we do because after all the years we've been beaten up by the SEC because of the reps of ESPN.

We need to remind you people level the blading field.

I just go, we'll see you next year.

Well, we'll see you next year, and I hope I think we open with Texas next year. The Buck guy only were going to do it in Texas, so we'll start right away. Mary Catherine President was at Davos today, gave the longest press conference in history yesterday. Well, maybe Chris Christie still holds that title. Put it all together, it comes down to we're not going to use for us to take greenland. Markets are happy. He thinks we have a great economy. I tend to agree with him.

I'm with you on Iran.

I thought it was interesting to watch everyone go gaga over the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Karney, who's certainly a cut above Trudeau. But it feels very much like Obama nostalgia. They listen to this pretty cynical speech. If you actually listen to the meat of it, but given this sort of lofty intellectual tone as compared to a Donald Trump speech and press conference.

Which is a very different animal.

But what he was saying really was like, us middle powers, we're going to get together, and we're going to tell everybody, you know, we're going to become powerful somehow. We're not going to militarize or do the things we need to do or create the things we need to create. America will still do that, and then sort of like falsely equivalent, making false equivalents of China and Russia and the US

This old, this old thing that we all understood as the world order was kind of fake.

And now I'm just going to tell you that we're exiting it now that it's convenient for us to exit it.

It was convenient for us.

The whole time, and now we've decided we don't like Donald Trump, and so we're out and we're going to say hi to China.

And I just found the whole thing very off putting.

I have to be very careful here because my daughter in law is Canadian. Was born in Montreal, and my my in laws are Canadians, so they have naturalized Americans now and now I say bones are high because they're from Montreal. But I want to point out I didn't read Mark Carney's beach, I didn't watch Mark Carneie's speech because I love Canada, love maple syrup, I really do. I don't think they matter much to us. We like

Well, yeah, I think a lot of this is about reality is that Europe and Canada don't like the tone of Donald Trump.

But the tone of Donald Trump is.

The only thing that's gotten any of them to spend money on defense, as the Secretary General of NATO pointed out at the World Economic Forum. And so even when I'm annoyed with Donald Trump's tone or saber rattling, I am reminded that I was incorrect about him and NATO the first time around, because that is what got people to take care.

Of their busines and to spend more money on defense.

So I'm sort of of two minds about his strategies on these things. And I think on the Greenland thing, this might be, you know, heading towards attempting to get a deal by making a bunch of noise, as often the case with him.

Now, tell me about Carney, whether or not he mentioned Operation Midnight Hammer or Operation Absolute Resolve, both of which helped the West, both of which helped Canada, the first one of which helps the world. Actually, we don't want now that we know what Iran is capable of, we really are glad that they don't have a nuclear weaponry, Catherine. Did he mention that.

I don't think he mentioned that.

No, All right, so let's go back to Iran. What do you expect? And I know we're all guessing here. I think he's going to do something. I think we're going to see it because he does not want what is already surfaced online, because the right thing to do, but be he's also had to have seen online the taco stuff is already out. Yeah.

No, I think he is interested in protecting his own threat credibility.

Right.

That is what he is powerful about him is that people think he will act when he says he will act. He also was material in getting some folks out into the streets in Iran who paid the ultimate price.

No doubt.

And so I think, you know, it is morally incumbent on him to do something. And I have a lot of faith that there's plenty of stuff going on behind the.

Scenes that we're not seeing.

But I think you're right, Hugh, that it would do the West and everyone a lot of good to take action and to make sure that that threat remains credible for all the other people who are watching.

I'm going to ask your grizzly math ability. There's a math question. Iran's got ninety two million people. If the Iranian style execution of Stado Scenry in the streets occurred in the United States, how many Americans would be dead?

What is it? Was it like ten percent of the population or something.

No, it would be sixty eight thousand Americans. We're using three hundred and forty million Americans as the non nominator. In ninety two million Americans, fifteen thousand in the exit would be above three sixty. I've worked it out for you there. You can go home and do the master. But that's what I like to point out. People call Trump a fascist people who call him dictorial. This is

Page there's there's very little, and I think it's because they don't know how to frame this. It's not part of the narrative that they want to tell, because the narrative they want to tell.

Does not want to put what is you know.

Ice raids in American cities next to actual fascism and what actual totalitarian societies look like, or Venezuelan's talking about what actual totalitarianism looks like.

I don't think that's a story that they want to tell.

I think it's complicated, and I think the idea that Trump would be full to both of these citizen reies is uncomfortable too many who cover the networks.

And by the way, you know I went to the SEC. Don't ask me math questions.

Right now. I want to finish with Barry White. I want to tell the audience again. I've talked to with Barry. Once in my life we tried to write a piece together, like ten years ago. It didn't work. And Barry's I think center left may be very slightly left, but center left. She's a good journalists. There's a story in Variety today that ten people from CBS News think she's ruining it.

Look, I think it's so silly, this whole campaign to tell me that CBS News hiring a New York Jewish lesbian who just moved from la is too far left for there's too.

Far right for these people. How far left do you have to be?

I'm sorry, No, Barry is a curious, interesting, smart person, and the audience had already fled, and I am interested in what she's doing.

So my and I hope she goes to I like Ed Whittaker, I met him, I like Ed, I worked with him. But I hope she goes and just turns over sixty minutes into something completely new. That's the next stop. She's done. Tony dekoppole, how'd you like Tony with the President? Did you watch it?

I like Tony a lot, and I've liked Tony since they dogpiled him over asking ton of He's coats one hard question. So I think anyone who can do that and stand up to his network should stick around and do the hard work.

Well, said Mary Catherine Ham getting hammered and normally are her podcasts. She is unfortunately an SEC gal, but we'll talk about that next year as the end as the Big Ten begins its third year reigning a top all of college football. Thank you, imk H. I'll be right back, America. Stay tuned to the Conquet Show. I call up my hotbeddy with Washington Examiner to Hewitt. Google it. Welcome back, America.

He is a Jacksonville Jaguars fan.

And I'll get to the serious stuff at first seasons over the Cleveland Browns have the Jaguars twenty fourth pick in the draft. We're going to take an offensive lineman with that. I'd be willing to bet my life.

Are you happy with the trade a year later?

Yeah?

I think so.

I didn't expect it to go thirteen and four, which was a reversal of the previous year, which was four and thirteen. So I'm pretty sure the Browns didn't expect that either. If you told me that at the beginning of the year, I'd have been astonished. Of course, I was upset when we lost in the wild card, but it was to the Bills, and Josh Allen is a pretty good player.

And McDermot shouldn't have been fired. I'm actually happy with twenty four because we were so bad. We have six and four so we can get a wide receiver and an offensive lineman in the first round. So everybody went.

Now. I don't want everyone to win in Iran.

I have a column in the Examiner day should President Trump hit Iran? Willie?

And I think he.

Should because to murder fifteen thousand people low end estimate in the streets by the regime, not to go unpunished.

What do you think, Charles, Yeah, that's certainly one way of looking at it. I don't disagree with you if the aim is merely to be punitive, I worry that we would not be able to affect the change that we want. I also worry a little bit that we promised that we would help in Iran. Then all those brief people went out in the streets, and then we didn't for whatever reason, and then fifteen thousand of them were murdered. I'm not against hitting them for what they

You know, Charles, I'm going to put the argument forward that we can't put the people in the streets who got shot on Trump's promise because their internet was down. I think they went to the streets like they did in twenty two in two thousand and nine because they hate this regime. They've just been They've never been met with machine guns and weapons of mass destruction this way, and I want a punitive I don't think you can do regime change from the air, and we aren't sending

What would you blow up?

Well, I don't know. I don't know about how this works. I think that our last target was over due out obviously being the Iranian nuclear program. I'm not a military strategist. As a sort of foreign policy question. From a perspective of a citizen, I'm quite happy to make them squeal for what they've done. I think you make a good case. I'm not blaming Trump, just so we're clear. I'm just saying that I hope that's not what happened.

Oh, I get you.

I hope that there weren't people who went out there and thought, you know, if we push over the top this time, there will be support coming from the United States and then there wasn't.

I don't think, you know, Trump can be.

Blamed for that, but I just hope that there weren't people who thought there was helpcoming that wasn't.

And I want him to follow through on a spoken promise because other people will hear other things in the future. He said it to me, he said it to Sean Hannity, he said it to Tony ducoppole, he said it online eight times. I think he said help is on the way or some variation. So I think he had to follow through.

Now, Greenland.

We began yesterday with the demand and a promise of a tariff that was reiterated in the speech. It was walked back in the pressure, and then it was definitively walked back in the president's exchange with Joe Cernham, which you and I listened to off air without specifics. What do you think that Trump walk himself back or did he have a real deal.

No, I think he walks himself back. I'll take this from the beginning. I think that the notion that the United States would benefit from acquiring Greenland is solid. Yes, It's been in American mind since the mid nineteenth century when Seward was doing the Alaska deal. He also wanted to take Greenland, and Harry Truman famously tried to buy

Is a good idea.

Is a reaction to the bond market and the economic fallout from these threats, rather than to a real change in diplomacy.

Okay, my prediction is going to be the Danes are growing to agree that he can interpret the military Treaty and Existence expansively extended for many, many years, and commit to the United States the protection of the exclusive economic zone of two hundred and thirty miles around their twenty seven thousand miles of shoreland, so we can keep the Chinese fishing fleet out from destroying the Arctic fishing ponds.

Yes? I think I am. How are we measuring that anyway?

I just put it to the audio. I just got a call from a guy in Orlando who's an importer of toys from China and greeting cards from around the world, and he had to lay off eight employees. He's crushed. That's actually somebody. I believe. He spoke like a guy. I really believe him. But if you buy gasoline and you're a trucker, you're better off today than you were a year ago. So I usually think of economic terms.

Yeah, I have been and continue to be outspoken against the tariffs. I think, with the exception of those on China the counterproductive. I don't believe the president has the legal authority to impose them. I don't know the Supreme Court will uphold that or not. But I am of the view that the interpretation of AEPA is wrong. And as a non delegation guy, I'm not sure YEPA is constitutional. So I do believe that your interlocutor is suffering as many are.

But yes, I am better off.

I'm also better off because I can plan better for my future given the renewal of the SAX cuts from twenty seventeen.

Yes, and that was not just important.

Financially, you cannot have the largest tax increase in American history, which was the alternative, but making those permanent and also adding in things like full expensing for businesses just allows a level of economic planning and assumptions.

That are really important.

Add into that the deregulation that the president's been engaged in, which is good. Yeah, I think I am better off. I think he's made a lot of mistakes, but overall, I think I am.

And have you listened to yesterday's argument before the Supreme Court, we're in Justice Jackson and Brown. Jackson introduced the black Coach as history and tradition relevant.

To the Okay, well you did listen.

What did you think I had fun with it yesterday?

Well, at Hawaii's law here is crazy, and Hawaii's crazy because whenever Hawaii is challenged on Second Amendment issues that it's Supreme Court at the state level puts out things like, oh, we have the spirit of Aloha is supreme.

But yeah, that was crazy.

I never thought I would hear a Supreme Court justice say that, you know, Jim crow Law has justified gun control.

I know it's a moment.

It's a moment for people who follow gun law and mark down and say I read nobody saw that one coming and they didn't get that question. At the mock oral arguments for the Court, Charles c. W.

Cook call, you's got to talk to you. Follow him on x at Charles c. W. Cook with an E at the end of you. Right back with Sarah Bedford on the New Yaler Show. Hi you, Hewett. You've heard me talk a lot about Consumer Shlller, how you can switch your care save money without sacrifice. That's because Consumer Cellular uses the same towers as the major carrier. You'll save money every month on your bill without having to sacrifice the quality of coverage. Right now, you get your

Listen? I already loaded up my grocery cart last night. I've got soup, I've got water.

You're never gonna regret buying necessities, right, So I am on the panic side, off the spectrum for the storm.

Oh.

I think it's a good idea.

Now, what does Can you work from home? Can you turn in copy from home? Are you able to do that?

Yes?

Unfortunately COVID killed adult snow days, so I will be working from home if that occurs.

COVID did kill adults.

What do you think is the best forecast? What is your operating theory?

Because my daughter and my four grandkids are debating taking a trip. They're on the southern edge of this thing, up to Maine and back to do a little skiing. And I have no opinions because I don't want to get involved. What do you think is going to happen?

I don't know if it's just my social media algorithm that's feeding into all of this fear, But if you looked at my Twitter feed, you would think that this is the storm of the century. The history books will record it, the streets will be littered with bodies like I'm nervous for it.

But also nothing could happen, So who knows that I thought?

I love the forecast. The snow will between one and seventy eight inches, maybe possibly. But what I really hate as a long time in and out resident, is freezing rain. Have you gone through a freezing rain storm yet?

Yeah?

Well, you know, I'm from the South, so a quarter inch of ice just absolutely crippled the city. Ice was actually worse, you know, when I lived in Atlanta than when I lived here.

You were there for that nightmare.

I was.

Yeah, So it's just a youth, But ice, especially in the South, can be much more damaging than snow.

Nobody knows how to drive or do anything when there's ice.

Now, you can't drive. That's the bottom line. You can't drive. And the metro edit work. So Sarah, I had Jason on from Housewaves and Means today and the chairman told me that it basically said there isn't going to be a reconciliation. Is that what you're reporting is as well? Well?

The Republican Study Committee is keeping the flame of hope alive. They put out this sweeping proposal on affordability that they think can be done through reconciliation. I think it'll ultimately depend on whether the White House ends up backing this move, and Trump and the White House officials have play their cards pretty close to the vest on whether this is something they're interested in.

It would be less ambitious than the One Big.

Beautiful Bill Act, the Reconciliation package from last year, but Republicans seem to understand that this is probably their last shot for a few years to get anything done legislatively, given the likelihood the Democrats will retake the House in November.

What Sherman Smith noted is that they can only lose one vote because Massey will vote now, so they have to get it through the Budget Committee. They have to get it through all the committee, they have to get it through the Rules Committee, got chip Roy and the gang over there. I mean, is it worth the effort? Do you think it's worth the lift?

It depends on what it is they're doing. Right.

One of the proposals that has a lot of interest, not just from conservatives, but from a lot of independence, you know, across the spectrum. The potential for broad appeal is allowing Americans to use their retirement savings or their hsas are all kinds of money that they have tied up places tax advantaged money for a down payment on a first time home purchase.

That would be.

Huge for people in my age group who are saving up to buy their first home. Right, if they focus on something narrow that has brought appeal, maybe they can get it through right now. The reconciliation proposal has stuff like eliminating the estate tax, It has healthcare reforms, it has those home affordability reforms, So they might have to pair that back significantly.

If they want to have a shot it consensus.

Yeah, I would like that idea. I think that's a fine idea, and I think Democrats would vote for it. Have you been following the Virginia legislature now it's all democratic state. The very first bill I saw introduced is a death tax of three point eight percent. I will not be living in Virginia if that passes. It's like and make people leave tax right.

And it's not just that the Democrats out they have a trifecta in Virginia put forward a bunch of really progressive stuff, tax on services, all sorts of proposals that really fly in the face of the affordability agenda that Spamberger, the new governor, and a lot of those local Democrats ran on.

It's actually kind of baffling that they chose that as their first move.

Would you think it's fair to say she's gone full mom Donnie, Well, she's.

Certainly leaning that way because one of her the first things that she did unilaterally as the governor was to cancel any sort of cooperation agreements that Virginia had with immigration authorities, which is not something that she ran on, not something that Virginians are even really demanding.

Did she say free busses yet.

Not yet? Give it another week?

I know, because it really is Mom Donnie, a blonde mom Donnie, and we'll follow that space.

Sarah C. Bedford can be followed on. Actually is with the Washington generally the investigative team there, and she's ready for whatever the weather brings, which I've port for recovering after the break were President