Tag: free trade

15-21 Bigger than the Big Beautiful Bill

15-21 Bigger than the Big Beautiful Bill

Show 15-21 Summary: Trump knows what he’s doing long-term with America’s economy and has a strategy to get there. The Big Beautiful Bill is one step toward it. He has other strategies outside of Congress. We discuss the “BBB” and the bigger picture of how Trump is reshaping the whole of America’s economy.  Moody’s downgrade, the not-serious-enough spending cuts, and whether DOGE’s work has all been for nothing. We’ll help fill in the gaps of what you’re not hearing in the left-stream media — and help you better understand what you’re hearing in more reliable media.  Like, why did so many on the right completely miss what Trump was doing with tariffs? Plus some truly worrisome responses to a recent survey of Oregon’s businesses. Hint: everything Oregon’s Democrats are doing will make it worse.

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Air Dates: May 24th & 25th, 2025 | Guest: Jonathan Williams

This Week – Bigger than the Big Beautiful Bill 

What’s bigger than the Big Beautiful Bill? Fixing America’s economy itself.

But there are a lot of hurdles to get there. Not least of which is dealing with Republicans in the House and Senate. Not to mention Democrats (and a few Republicans) who would and will do anything to sabotage Trump’s attempts to fix America’s problems.

At the top of the list is America’s massive spending problem. Both parties got us here. And Moody’s recently downgraded America’s credit rating because of the exploding debt. In 2019, In 2019 we spent $4.5 trillion—the last year we had some fiscal common sense. That blew up in 2020 with covid. By 2024 that exploded even more to $6.9 trillion. An increase of over 50%.  In just five years. Worse, we borrowed $2 trillion to spend that $6.9 trillion.

Right now, we borrow every dollar that we use to pay just the interest on our $36.8 trillion national debt. Interest payments alone eat up 20% of all federal income and by 2030 that will rise to 30% of all revenue. Thirty percent. Right off the top of our income. Just to pay interest.

Washington, DC? We have a problem.

And you’re not serious about fixing it.

Fixing the Bigger Problem

While it is true that the Big Beautiful Bill does not go nearly far enough to cut (slash) spending, it is just one step of many to get us to the Big Win. We’re getting there.

We have to remember that this will take time. There are no magic silver bullets. Four years of Biden left the US economy on the brink until Trump was elected, and his approach is backing us away from the economic cliff we were about to go over.

I mean, can you imagine if Kamala and the Democrats would be doing to us right now?

We’ll fill in the gaps of what you’re not hearing in the left-stream media and help you better understand what you’re probably hearing in more reliable media. Trump knows what he’s doing long-term with America’s economy and has a strategy to get there. The BBB is one step toward Trump reshaping the whole of America’s economy.

We welcome back Jonathan Williams, the president and chief economist of the American Legislative Exchange Council. We discuss Moody’s downgrade, the not-serious-enough spending cuts, and whether DOGE’s work has all been for nothing. We’ll fill in the gaps of what you’re not hearing in the left-stream media — and help you better understand what you’re hearing in more reliable media.  Like, why did so many on the right completely miss what Trump was doing with tariffs?

And we can’t have Jonathan on without at least one segment about Oregon. The business image Oregon is projecting to the nation is not good. Plus, you’ll hear some truly worrisome responses to a recent survey of Oregon’s businesses. Hint: everything Oregon’s Democrats are doing will make it worse. Far worse with Far Left policies.

Democrats never learn. Perhaps that’s why Oregon ranks so low in education outcomes.

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Show Notes: Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Note: Articles/videos/sites/etc. specifically mentioned during the show are marked with a red flag 🚩

  • 🚩 Jonathan’s organization is the American Legislative Exchange Council, Visit them at ALEC.org. He is also the co-author of ALEC’s , Rich States, Poor States, an annual report on the 50 states’ economic competitiveness and outlook.
  • 🚩 A great website to find the brutal truth on our nation’s spending, yearly deficit, and total debt is: USA Debt. Look, if you dare.

Our Ballooning Debt and Moody’s Downgrade of America’s Credit Rating

  • 🚩 Moody’s downgrades United States credit rating, citing growth in government debt (CNBC, May 17, 2025). See paragraph 9. Yikes!
  • 🚩 Watch this: 4 stunning (and painful) charts from Dave Brat. Interest on the U.S. national debt is now 20% of total federal revenue and rising. We borrow every dollar just to pay interest. (Citizen Free Press, May 17, 2025)
  • Explaining the national debt and deficit: “What is the national debt?” (Fiscal Data, No Date)

DOGE and Spending

  • Vought taking over DOGE from Elon (Daily Mail, May 12, 2025)
  • Why Musk flopped (Globe Opinion, May 18, 2025)*Despite all the hoopla surrounding DOGE, federal spending is actually going up not down. 
  • The Recession is off! Trump economy defies ‘gloom and doom’ expectations (Just the News, May 13, 2025).
  • House Republican plan would force states to pay for a portion of SNAP (Capital Chronicle, May 13, 2025) *This will hit Oregon and California hard.* Entitlement Reform: The first rule of entitlement reform is not mention entitlement reform

The Fight for Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

Oregon

Related Stories

 

Why Trans Pacific Partnership is a Bad Deal for America

Why Trans Pacific Partnership is a Bad Deal for America

Show Summary: The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is Obama’s final nail in America’s coffin. If you thought Obamacare and the Iran Deal were bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. In an explosive interview, we dive into why it’s bad and why our Congressmen vote for such atrocities. And not just why but who is supporting this? Plus, could one of the presidential candidates, who publicly says he’s against it, might actually be for it?

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Air Dates: Apr. 16 & 17, 2016 | Crista Huff (former Morgan Stanley VP

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One of the questions we consistently try to answer here on the I Spy Radio Show, is why. Why does a government agency do this or why does a politician do that? But uncovering “why” requires digging deeper into motivations and a lot times those motivations are hidden away, lurking in the shadows where you don’t know what happened behind closed doors or what’s been promised.

On this week’s show, we’re talking about the monstrosity better known as the TPP – the Trans Pacific Partnership. This is Obama’s magnum opus for weakening America. And it must be stopped. The TPP is a major trade deal involving 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam and others. China is not a signer, yet, because after the agreement is signed China can come in later through a back door.  Why, do you ask? Oh, you’ll find out why.

Trans Pacific Partnership = Anti-American

It’s amazing that anyone who calls themselves an American is backing this agreement. Foremost it represents a stunning loss of U.S. sovereignty.  But beyond that, common economic sense says this will harm the US economy–especially given that even its own supporters say it will result in only a 0.13% increase in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product by 2025. (See links, below, for citation.)

But even that less -than-rosy projection is based on the assumption of the U.S. being at full-employment. (How’s that worked out the last seven years?) So why take a huge gamble and throw our economy into upheaval for not even 1/50th of a percent increase per year over nine years?

It boggles the mind why would anyone in the U.S. support this. And not just why, but who is supporting this? Tune in to learn the answers, including whether one of the presidential candidates might be misrepresenting their position on the Trans Pacific Partnership. And find out why, if this goes through, it really could be the end of America as we know.

Links Mentioned During Show

  • Crista Huff’s terrific website, Good Fellow, LLC. Be sure to check out her fantastic TPP blog page, frequently updated with the latest info
  • Check out Crista on Kerry Lutz’s Financial Survival blogtalk podcast
  • If you want to stop the TPP, CALL the Capitol Switchboard! (202) 224-3121. Ask to be transferred to your Congressman’s office and tell them you want them to vote no on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal; do the same for both of your senators.
  • The Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee is Rep. Kevin Brady (TX).
  • Article via Drudge: New Balance publicly calls the TTP a bad deal (Apr 13, 2016)
  • Robert Zoellick and The Trilateral Commission and Robert (via FreedomWorks’ SourceWatch)

Related Links

We’re impressed with a number of articles from Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Here are a few of them: