Mayor Glenn Jacobs on How Democrats Ruined the Economy

BUCK: He is the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, and the former WWE superstar known as Kane, our friend Glenn Jacobs joining us now. Glenn, thanks for calling in.

JACOBS: Hey, thanks for having me, Buck. Appreciate it.

BUCK: So, when you hear all this stuff, the back-and-forth about the Biden bill, how it’s supposed to — they’re calling it like the reduce-inflation act. What do you think about that? As a guy who follows monetary policy closely and probably is aghast a lot of the time at it.

JACOBS: Yeah. I think it’d be more aptly titled the Somehow Reducing Inflation By Causing More Inflation Act because that’s exactly what it is. What causes inflation, rise in the general price level, is printing money. And they’re printing even more money, and the government’s spending more money. So, the idea that this is somehow going to reduce inflation is preposterous.

BUCK: And how are things going — you know, in, what, eastern Tennessee, right, Knox County? I thought it was so interesting to read this morning that there are — that job hiring, I think, is slowing a little bit. There are millions and millions of open jobs across the country. But I keep hearing from individuals who either work at businesses or own businesses who say, finding workers right now is really hard, and more and more people it seems don’t want to leave if they have a job, the job they have, ’cause they’re afraid of a recession. What’s the economic picture like in Tennessee these days in your neck of the woods?

JACOBS: Ours is great. We’re doing really well as far as our economy is growing and all those sort of things, but we experience the same problems with workforce, with inflation, as the county. You know, we have capital projects that we’re trying to do, build roads and buildings and those sort of things. And, of course, they’re all taking longer and costing more than we project. So, there are a lot of issues. And, yeah, workforce is something that I think all of us are kind of scratching our heads about. You know, there’s a lot of jobs out there and great opportunity and high pay rates right now. But —

BUCK: So, what do you think’s going on with that, Glenn? I keep asking them and I’ve asked famous economists this, and they give me a couple of different things to think about, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has the answer as to why it is that demand for workers has fallen according to the Wall Street Journal to the lowest level in nine months?

JACOBS: Right. I don’t have an answer, either. I mean, I wish that I did. There are a number of factors. The cost of child care, it does hurt things. You know, the fact I think that people got used to staying home through the pandemic. You know, the government was paying people to stay home, which I think was a huge mistake because that basically, you know, hey, great, you get to stay home and can earn a living, but that’s not how the real world works. But now that some of those welfare payments have gone away. Not all of them, though, but some of them. So, it is a bit of a head scratcher of why this is happening. Because as we see the economy contract, you will see the workforce tighten up, you know, which is unfortunate way of dealing with the issue. You always want to have plenty of opportunities for people. But I talk to businesses, like small businesses that are tired, say a restaurant, of having to cover every shift. So, they’re just done. You know, I think we’ll see a wave of that across the country as the economy worsens and slows going forward.

BUCK: Speaking to Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. And he is running for reelection. Glenn, when is the election?

JACOBS: It is Thursday, actually. We just got done with our early voting here in Tennessee. We have a two-week period of early voting. That ended Saturday. And Election Day is August 4th; so, it’s coming up quickly.

BUCK: Top priorities for you if you spend four more years as mayor of Knox County. What are you gonna get done? You know, Tennessee is near and dear to the heart of this show because obviously Clay is a born-and-raised Tennessean so I’m holding up the Tennessee flag in his absence today.

JACOBS: Well, across the country we’re seeing a historic realignment of economic and political power. And we’re seeing folks flee the blue states and, frankly, the covid tyranny that we saw in many places, they’re coming to a place like Tennessee where we’re free, you know, and people are voting with their feet. So, one thing we have to do is, we’re growing, and we have to be able to deal with that and accommodate that. And then also I think that when we look at our workforce and our economy, we have to be aligned with the twenty-first century, which is an innovation-driven economy. So, we have to do some things with our workforce so that they’re better trained to compete in the global economy, which more and more is a high-tech economy.

BUCK: Do you think, Glenn…? Before I let you go, I just want to know, do you think…? Right before you came on, we played Fauci telling everybody to mask up indoors again, and then he’ll talk about, like, the blue and the orange and the magenta and the chartreuse zones or whatever like we’re all supposed to pay attention to these color charts about when we’re supposed to mask. In your part of Tennessee, I mean, are people just done with this? Are you still seeing — ’cause I do — people walking around…? A lot of masks here in New York City.

JACOBS: I think people are done with it here. And Fauci is an example of a bureaucrat who got power and just doesn’t want to relinquish it at this point. And I think more and more people are seeing through that. People should be allowed to make their own decisions. And certainly, you know, health experts giving their opinion is one thing. But people demanding that folks do stuff is something different. And I think that we’ve all here in Tennessee have had enough of that.

BUCK: Glenn Jacobs, folks, running for Knox County mayor again. He’s in office, running for reelection. Get out there and vote. Glenn, appreciate you joining us, man. As always. Thanks.

JACOBS: Thank you so much.