Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Grassroots Engagement Director of Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee Grant Henry and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to discuss the irresponsible and cyclical spending of Democrats in Washington.
(Joe Biden clip plays)
Leahy:Â We hear that from Sleepy Joe, the legal but not legitimate current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We are here with Grant Henry of the Americans from Prosperity-Tennessee and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles.
Andy, I saw the eyebrows raised just a bit (Ogles chuckles) on that claim by the somnambulant Joe Biden that, oh yeah, this was expected and temporary. Really?
Ogles:Â As an economist, I’ll tell you that he’s full of … Do you have a bleep button?
Leahy: He’s full of bleep! Scooter is now saying, oh, no, we can’t do that. (Laughs)
Ogles: You tell me that these home builders that pre-sold lumber packages a year ago who are now building homes at a loss – it was anticipated?
You tell me that these car manufacturers who now have tens of thousands of cars sitting on the lot without chips, that that was expected?
And again, just go through all your commodities, and your base commodities that go into everything else are more expensive today. And to say that it was expected or predictable, it’s almost criminal. I’ll be honest with you.
Leahy: It’s so dishonest. Grant Henry, we were talking a little bit about Fiat economies. Fiat standards. in other words, where there is no actual valuable item for which currency can be converted.
The gold standard, long gone. There were – for many years conservatives were railing about the budget deficit and the increasing debt.
And that’s not been as much on the forefront of late because there have been other battles. But the reality is, if the government just prints money, what is inevitably going to happen is inflation.
Henry: Yes.
Leahy: That’s the bottom line, right?
Henry:Â I don’t think you need a degree in economics to understand that either. I think even a baseline understanding, I mean, look at what’s happening in world history any time that any country prints money, especially to the extent that we are right now, you see a coupling inflation rate.
Look what our Founding Fathers told us, too. To preserve their independence, we must not let our rules load us with perpetual debt. One of the worst things we can do for future generations is shackle them to the debt of the current generations.
Leahy: It’s reckless and irresponsible. But that is exactly what Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are doing. And, Andy Ogles, not a lot of Republicans have been what you might call budget responsible in Washington.
Ogles: I think you look back to what set up a situation or an environment where someone like Obama could get elected. That was because you had reckless spending. From the “right,” the Republicans, as they controlled three branches of government.
And so the pendulum shifted. And hopefully, there’s a lesson learned.
We’ve got to get this debt and our spending under control because there is a point of no return.
And we’ve labored and we’ve toiled and we’ve done these things and created all this spending with this assumption that, well, our currency is the supreme currency for the world. But that could change and it could change quickly.
Leahy: China wants to change as soon as possible.
Ogles: That’s right. Absolutely.
Leahy: They’re undermining us at every level. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer has a bill that has no content in it yet. And we’ll come up with all sorts of crazy spending ideas and reckless spending.
That – really that’s all the Democrats can do is spend, spend, spend. There’s no indication that they have any desire to cut the national federal debt. Grant Henry?
Henry: Here’s a headline from Reason, by the way. Magical Thinking of Bounds in New Budget Deal Proposal. Here is the quote from the article:
“Democrats insist that whatever that spending is about, it will be paid for in full.”
That’s dubious at best. The big idea is that the spending itself will generate economic activity which can then be taxed to pay for the already spent or budgeted programs.
Do you understand how circular this logic is? And it’s inherently self-refuting, right?
Leahy: Inherently self-refuting. That’s a great phrase Grant.
Henry: I bring the best here.
Leahy: That’s a very good phrase. We appreciate clever and accurate phrasing. Andy Ogles, so when I’m listening to what Grant says about the fantastic concepts, shall we say, these anti factual ideas of economics from the Democratic political leaders, I think of the exact opposite of this, which is Art Laffer and the Laffer curve and his ideas.
If we were to have him in here how would he respond to these things? Because, you know, you used to work for him.
Ogles: Yeah, I can’t speak for Doctor Laffer. But I think there’s this. If you have a certain rate of growth, you can sustain greater levels of spending or borrowing and spending.
But the flip side of that or how the only way that can be successful is you have policies that are stimulating business growth and stimulating an economy.
Now, I’m not for exuberant spending. But that being said, so you now have Democrats kind of acting under that same premise.
However, they’re anti-business and they’re doing things that restrict business.
Leahy: Here’s my view on that. I think they’re in particular, anti-small business. When you say anti-business, there’s a business that they like and businesses that work with them.
Like, I don’t know, Facebook and Google and that crowd that is the high Fortune 500 companies that have big lobbyists and they have all these compliance of people, and they follow the rules and regulations. They set the rules and regulations.
Ogles: And those large businesses, and because they are so big, because they have so many resources, they can skirt most taxation.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Listen to the third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
