BUCK: The Biden economic situation’s not good, folks. We’re all very aware of it, and you can see that they’re not going to change, they’re not gonna answer based upon the numbers. Here was just a couple days ago when the inflation numbers came out. CNBC’s Rick Santelli reacting in real time. Remember he was actually the guy — some folks might recall this — who called for a “tea party” because of the out-of-control spending.
And all the outrage about the bailouts and Wall Street and all that. It was Rick Santelli who said, “We need a tea party,” and then people actually formed the Tea Party movement. I don’t know how many people even recall that at this point, but I thought it’s interesting part of history. Here he is reacting in real time to the skyrocketing inflation situation.
SANTELLI: On CPIs, holy cow! Hot, hot, hot! Even the headline is hot. Up nine-tenths of 1%, up nine-tenths of 1%. And, of course, that really is much bigger than the six-tenths expected. Year over year CPI, 6.2% — 6.2%! That’s the highest since October of 1990 when it was at 6.3%, and it’s the sixth month in a row of 5% or higher that began in June with a 5.0! You know, you could call it temporary, but it certainly doesn’t appear that way in the real world.
BUCK: You know, Clay, it doesn’t feel temporary to people that are paying more for gas, for food, for rent, for housing, for everything. High gas prices, high cost of living, savings be eroded, this is the Biden tax on the middle class, on working folks across the country. And here’s what’s amazing about it. It’s not gonna get better. Their response to inflation… Here’s Joe Biden actually saying their response to inflation is more spending.
BIDEN: On other plans that I’m advancing this bill is gonna reduce the cost of goods to consumers, businesses, and get people back to work. Helping us build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out where everybody’s better off. You know (sputters), I’m tired of this trickle down economy stuff.
BUCK: He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
CLAY: No, he doesn’t have any clue what he’s doing. We’re gonna play a clip for you, unfortunately, of Biden getting his tongues all tied from the veteran ceremony at Arlington cemetery today. I went back and looked, Buck, ’cause I was like, “What was going on in October of 1990 that would actually make inflation have started to surge there,” and that’s the Gulf War.
That’s when the whole situation with Iraq and Saddam Hussein and oil prices. For people who remember, oil hit a record on October 11th back then — it sounds incredibly cheap now. But the record on October 11th, I was looking back historically, ’cause I was like, “Why would this number be so high going all the way back to October of 1990?” Oil hit a record high then.
Energy costs skyrocketed. That’s why inflation went up so much in October of 1990, because Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and there was a fear that there was going to be a massive issue going forward as it pertains to the cost of energy. So that’s why those numbers went up so high as you think about why we are at a 31-year high going back to then. But look, Buck.
I know sometimes I get made fun of for this ’cause I’m old school and I still read the print newspapers. I get the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal delivered to my house every single day. Front page of the New York Times today, they’re not even ignoring it. It has — going all the way back to 1985 — what the rates of inflation have been.
And the point on October 1990, Buck, was that almost immediately inflation came back down after we invaded Kuwait, after the uncertainty in the Middle East disappeared in the first Iraq Gulf War. Otherwise, there’s nothing like we have seen in most of our lives going all the way back to Jimmy Carter.
I want to hit with you some of these different prices. I did this yesterday. This is on the front page of the New York Times. These are how much prices have gone up compared to a year ago. Fuel is up 59%, fuel oil. Gas is up 50%. Car and truck rentals? Buck, have you heard people talk about how hard it is to rent a car right now?
BUCK: I’ve actually looked into it myself at different times recently. It’s wildly expensive.
CLAY: Almost impossible to do. Car and truck rentals compared to last year up 39% in cost, which is unheard of. Utility and gas services which is really gonna start to hit a lot of people as it gets colder, up 28%. Used cars and trucks up 26%. Hotels and motels, if you are out there trying to find a place to stay maybe for the holidays, up 26%. Beef and veal up 20% and — a lot of people are gonna see this as they get ready for Thanksgiving — bacon and breakfast sausage up 15%. Living room, kitchen, dining furniture, 13%. Bathroom furniture, 12%. Eggs, 12%. Televisions, 10%
BUCK: A lot of stuff is more expensive. Pretty much everything you need is more expensive.
CLAY: The point on all this is the Biden administration is giving everybody a default tax, and the tax is hitting people who have to spend their money to live. Most significantly, your wages relative to inflation are declining. This is a real tax on the people who can least afford to have their taxes go up.
BUCK: And their response to this, which is what’s so remarkable — ’cause, yeah, you could argue these things. There are so many factors in the economy and they’ll say, “Oh, well, there was a lot of money spent under Trump, too,” and they’ll trying to diffuse the blame for this in different ways. They’re deciding to spend a whole lot more money at this point.
They’ve already spent the $1.9 trillion earlier this year. There’s been trillions of dollars the federal government has considered automatic spending; so this is additional spending. They want now a $3.5 trillion spending package on top of that. And they’re obsessed with this idea of making energy — which is the lifeblood of our modern economy — more expensive, and that will affect everybody.
So when these things are more expensive — when refining is more expensive, transport is more expensive — that makes everything worse in terms of the economic drag that we’re all going through, people have less money to spend. But here’s John Kerry going around doing the usual, “Oh, we need to get rid of those coal plants.”
KERRY: By 2030 in the United States, we won’t have coal. We will not have coal plants. By 2035, President Biden has set a target that we will be — in our power sector — carbon free.
BUCK: Clay, they want to make your dollars worth less, and they want to make your energy more expensive with your less potent dollars. This is the Democrat plan.
CLAY: Not only that, they’re making us dependent on other countries for our energy. That’s what taking away our ability to create energy that is in this country does. We were energy independent under Donald Trump. And so this is a failure of basic economic understanding. If you were in high school and you were trying to argue what the Biden administration is arguing, you would fail your economics final.
Because one of the tried-and-true rules is that cost increases get passed along to the consumer. McDonald’s has had to increase its prices. The Dollar Store cannot afford to call many of its product “dollar pricing” anymore. They’ve had to increase their overall cost structure because of how much they’re having to pay to get the product into place.
I’ve been on the road, Buck, and I’m fortunate. I get to eat in a lot of great barbecue places. Been talking to some of these barbecue owners… They’re having to increase — I noticed a lot of them have — their prices, and they’re put like they change the pricing on the wall, right. You know, what’s it gonna cost for pork, what’s it gonna cost for baked beans or whatever they’re making? They keep having to raise the cost.
My step father-in-law, he owns a meat packing plant in Michigan. The amount that he is having to pay in transportation, in costs is through the roof. That immediately gets passed on to consumers because of what it costs for him to produce his product. And I think a lot of people who may not pay a lot of attention to this, Buck, for Thanksgiving, you may not go in a lot and buy a big meal that you’re gonna prepare for a lot of people.
This is going to be the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner that almost anyone out there listening to us right now has ever had to get and prepare in their entire life. This Thanksgiving, the costs are gonna be through the roof and you’re not gonna be able to find, unfortunately — I really believe this — some of the things that would traditionally be a part of your Thanksgiving mean.
BUCK: And isn’t it remarkable that it’s happening when we’re supposed to be enjoying the great Biden economic recovery. This is worse somehow, it’s worse than when Donald Trump was still in office —
CLAY: By far.
And when they do know what they’re doing is actually bad but certainly don’t know how to create efficiency and prosperity. The American people suffer. Clay, the only good news from this is that there’s so much bad news that people are feeling about the economy, this is politically toxic for Democrats, and they know it. Inflation, high gas prices, high food prices, high rent prices. They can’t run from this ’cause people know, ’cause they’re paying the price.
CLAY: I hope Joe Manchin is gonna be willing to stand up and not allow this multitrillion-dollar Bernie budget bill to go through. They’re certainly… He’s been warning about inflation. I think he’s been prescient; he’s been proven correct.
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