BIDEN: I’m not gonna answer any more ah…ah…ah… (sputters) questions on Afghanistan.
REPORTER: (questions)
BIDEN: Look. Fourth of July.
REPORTER: Are you concerned…?
BIDEN: I’m concerned that you guys are asking me questions that I’ll answer next week, but on… This is a holiday weekend; I’m gonna celebrate it. There’s great things happenin’. Economy’s gone faster than any time in 40 years.
We’ve got record of new jobs. Covid deaths are down 90%. Wages are up faster than any time in 15 years. We’re bringin’ out… bringin’ our troops home. All across America, people are goin’ to ball games and doing good things. This is a good… I’ll be… I’ll answer all your negative questions — not negative, your legitimate questions.
BUCK: Thank you for being with us here on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. You had the president there, Joe Biden, kind of mumbling through the end of a press conference, and he’s saying there’s great things happening. That was one of the big themes of it. And you may have seen this.
And if you haven’t, I’m here and Clay’s here to make sure that you feel the necessary gratitude for this incredible achievement of this White House. They put out from the official White House Twitter account today — this is a public communique — “Planning a cookout this year? Ketchup on the news.”
CLAY: (laughing)
BUCK: According to the Farm Bureau…”
CLAY: By the way “ketchup.”
BUCK: Yep.
CLAY: This is all like plays on words. This is really, really ridiculous. It could be funny but it’s getting better. I just want people to understand, “ketchup” means the condiment, not “catch up.”
BUCK: “[T]he cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year.”
CLAY: (chuckling)
BUCK: “Hot dog,” yeah, that’s what they wrote, “the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish.”
CLAY: (laughing)
BUCK: Now, Clay and I, we like the jokes.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: We like funny time. We like funny stuff here for sure, especially going into a holiday. We’re hanging out with all of you. We’re so blessed that you are a gonna spend some of your early holiday hours with us. We like the jokes, but there’s a serious point they’re making here.
The cost of a Fourth of July cookout in ’21, the White House wants you to know, is down 16 whole pennies from last year! Okay? You could stack them up and, you know, maybe save them up, and who knows what you could do with those. Clay, here’s the problem. If you were to drive to that barbecue —
CLAY: Well, it’s a good point.
BUCK: — you would be losing money based on their analysis just on the cost of gas, which, as we know, is much higher now than it was a year ago. But also, this is part of the overall economic narrative that they’re pushing when, yes, we see the jobs numbers — we get it — 850,000 jobs in June. But unemployment increased from 5.8 to 5.9%, and there are a record 9.3 million jobs open across the country.
They’re trying to tell us all, Clay, that things are great because you can save 16 pennies from last year’s Fourth of July feast per person. But, one, they’re comparing it to a point in time where there are a lot of supply chain issues because of covid, right? There’s a year-to-year trick they’re employing, and, two, everyone knows inflation is real and things are getting more expensive! Why play this game? Why lie? Well, we know the answer.
CLAY: And there’s still 6.7 million fewer people employed right now than were employed in February of 2020 when the economy was at its greatest success level probably in the history of American life, and that economy was roaring because of the 2017 tax cut and economic plan that was put in place by Donald Trump.
And so the idea that people are now gonna be ecstatic about the fact that there are 9.3 million jobs out there, Buck, we started off this week talking and taking calls from a lot of listeners out there about the small businesses that, frankly, can’t find employees because there’s still too much of an unemployment benefit.
And so there’s a fundamental failure to allow this economy to be functioning in the manner that it should be for the vast majority of Americans out there that are seeking jobs. Now, the people who are wealthy and fortunate, as we talked about earlier this week as well, we didn’t really have a recession, Buck.
There are $13.5 trillion now in increased wealth in this country compared to last year, and when we had the last slow down, the last true recession, we lost $8 trillion in value. So all of this ties together, and I think ultimately — we were talking when we went to break — the big issue here is, most Democrats don’t understand business.
We were talking about how dumb most journalists are. They don’t understand business, either. That’s less problematic. An entire half of the political equation not understanding basic business? It’s kind of a big deal.
BUCK: Let me just have the president himself jump in here, Clay. Because he has some really erudite analysis of the jobs numbers to share with everybody. Here he is, President Biden mumbling on through.
BIDEN: Our recovery’s created an average $600,000, uh… (sputters) Six… Dollars. I wish they… They probably wish those 600,000 jobs paid $600,000 a year. But 600,000 jobs per month.
BUCK: Look, what they’re doing is — and I really mean this — straight out of the Obama playbook. Because everything for the first two years of the Obama administration was, “We were in a recession and now things are getting better.” That can’t be the metric by which you judge this administration’s policies. The U.S. economy, when you don’t have everyone, as you point out, staying home, all this, the artificial pandemic recession, right? Not that the pandemic was artificial but the artificial recession.
BUCK: That’s right. The lockdown created a recession, and now that lockdowns are, well, not entirely over, but are largely ending, of course there’s gonna be more jobs! Of course there’s gonna be more growth than there was during the lockdown. But really be it should be a comparison between where are we now versus where we were.
Look at the trillions of dollars of spending, and this is why inflation is such a concern. Versus where we were in November of 2019 under the Trump administration, right? Before the pandemic hit, what was America looking like economically? And when you see it through that lens, you say, “Okay. So everything that Biden is doing…”
Why are there so many jobs that are open that are unfilled? ‘Cause they’re paying people to stay home. Why is everything getting more expensive? Because they’re spending trillions of dollars. Why is business a little up and down in different places? Because of either lockdowns or the threat of increased taxes and Biden regulations. They’re just making everything slower than it should be on the economic side and then saying, “Well, we’re not still in a lockdown,” so…
CLAY: I agree with you 100%, and this, to me, is one that Republicans should be hammering all the time, Buck. You can’t compare the numbers now with the numbers at the height of the pandemic lockdown response, which is what the White House is doing. The numbers need to be compared with February of 2020.
The numbers that came out then, lowest black unemployment rate of all time, lowest Hispanic unemployment rate of all time, lowest unemployment rate pretty much of all time in the modern era, wages increasing. I mean, this is what gets me more fired up than almost anything is if we hadn’t had covid, the Trump economy, by the election in November of 2020, was going to be the strongest economy we’d ever seen for an election in any of our lives.
And instead, now Biden, with 6.7 million fewer workers employed right now, with 9.3 million open jobs out there, gets to trot out and compare the numbers right now with the numbers at the height of the pandemic, which is not a fair comparison at all, and the media is either too stupid or intentionally lying in the way that they convey that news to most of the public.
BUCK: The White House is gonna be a little upset with you, Clay, for not being grateful enough for the 16 pennies they’ve thrown your way.
CLAY: (chuckling)
BUCK: Well, actually it’s more than that ’cause you got numerous family members. You might have… Based on their analysis you might have saved a dollar this year, but again not if you drive anywhere —
CLAY: Which I’m going to Atlanta. I’m gonna spend a lot more driving to Atlanta this year than I did last year.
BUCK: Or if you use electricity to keep your home cool or any of those things? No, that’s all more expensive, but don’t worry. You’re saving 2%! I’m serious. This is from the White House official communication: 2% on lemons, 1% on sliced cheese. That’s right. Be grateful, peasants of America. Biden has saved you 1% on your cheese slices, though we all know this White House, everyone in there is eating camembert. They’re fancy French cheese eaters in this White House.
CLAY: What I love about that tweet — and, by the way, I don’t mind the relish puns and the ketchup puns and everything else.
BUCK: Agreed. Agreed.
CLAY: It’s July 4th. Let’s have a little bit of fun. Who okayed that, the 16 cents saving? Right?
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