RADIOApril 21, 2022

Economist BREAKS DOWN the Fed’s ‘BOGUS’ plan for inflation

Steve Forbes, Economist & Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, joins Glenn to break down several economic concepts that may be hard to grasp: What IS inflation, is it calculated correctly, and how did it get SO bad today? Plus, Forbes describes the 'gimmicks' used by today's Federal Reserve that are furthering America's current economic crisis: '[The Fed] wants a slowdown, and they just hope they can avoid a recession. It's bogus thinking.'

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Welcome, Steve Forbes. How are you, sir?

STEVE: Good to be with you, thank you.

GLENN: So I'm really interested in hearing your take on what we are headed for with inflation. So let's --

STEVE: What --

GLENN: Let's start here. Explain what inflation is. You know, some people. You are so used to hearing, we're going to have 2 percent inflation. Oh, that's good. No, it's not. Is it, Steve?

STEVE: No. Just as you don't say, reduce the size of a gallon of gasoline, and that's good for you. No, it isn't. Keep it the same. So inflation. That's why we did this reader friendly book. No jargon. Straightforward.

There are really two kinds of inflation. One is a nonmoney kind. Nonmonetary kind. One you say, you have bad weather. Commodity prices go up. Wheat prices go up. Or you get the kind of shutdowns we have the pandemic, which disrupts the supply chain all over the world. We're still suffering from that. That sends prices up.

And then you have the money kind, where the government reduces the value, in this case, of the dollar by creating too many of them. And we know the government has been spending on a spree. How has that been financed, a large part of it has been the Federal Reserve. Buys those bonds. How does it get the money to buy those bonds? It creates it out of the thin air. The ultimate ATF. Now, unfortunately, Glenn, on the nonmonetary inflation, normally, if you just leave the economy alone, those things will heal themselves. We did it after World War II. And we converted from a wartime economy, to a peacetime economy. Disruption. But we did it. But unfortunately, the Biden administration is putting obstacles in the way. Starting with the role on fossil fuels. A lot of other the crazier things they've done. Seventy-seven executive orders. $200 billion of new regulations. So they're making the problem worse, instead of letting the economy heal. And the Federal Reserve, they've been printing a lot of money. They've been producing gimmicks to try to keep that money from flooding the economy. But that's going to run out. So if they don't get their act together, we're in from a rough time. Let me conclude on this. Unfortunately, this is where we have a real danger now. The fed believes, the way you cure inflation, is not by stopping the printing press. And making the dollar whole again. Making it stable again. They believe you do it by slowing the economy down. Throwing people out of work. And that's what they're up to now.

GLENN: So, Steve, first of all, the -- the idea of inflation, we say it's now at 8.5. That's just because we measure it differently.

If you look at shadow stats that measure it the way we did under Reagan. It's at 17.1. Is that fair to do, or not?

STEVE: Well, this gets to the whole thing of, how do you measure prices? The whole labor department. It has a whole bureau devoted to it. What do you put in the index. One of the crazy things is when people's buying patterns change. Let's say you have meat prices, which they have. So instead of having steak. You might go for cheap hamburger. Well, they don't account that as inflation. They just say, the patterns have changed stop, yes, you can manipulate these things six ways to Sunday. But the bottom line is price are his going up. The cost of living is going up. Part of it is the pandemic, and the Biden administration making things worse. We can cure that, hopefully with a new Congress.

But the Federal Reserve, they have to get over this notion, that when we do work, when we're trying to be prosperous, they got to slow us down. That's really bad stuff.

GLENN: I don't know that anybody really understands the fed balance sheet, and what they've done, and the money that they have loaned out. Trillions of dollars, that they have bailed banks out all around the world.

If you can't -- you know, theory trying to sell off the stuff, they have on their balance sheet. But every time they try that. And/or raise interest rates, the economy stops. And so not sure they're going to be able to do either of those. How do you pull this money back in, to be destroyed?

STEVE: Well, what -- what you do. First of all, which they won't do this part. Is you leave interest rates alone. Let the market set interest rates. Controlling interest rates is like rent control, which as we know, hurts new construction. This is trying to control the price of money.

Affect the price you pay for renting the money, so to speak. So they should just leave that alone, and let the market sort it out very quickly. On your point about what the balance sheet, when you say balance sheet, people's eyes start to glaze. Just think the fed is sitting on a pile of bonds. And too many of them. And so what they should be doing is letting those bonds mature. Not buying new bonds. Let the money supply go down. And if they do that in a responsible way, we'll avoid a huge slow down.

But let me give you something. A gimmick that they've been employing the past year. When they were creating $120 billion a month. Pulling money out of thin air. Let's walk your listeners through on this.

When the Federal Reserve creates money, they call up a dealer, a bond dealer like Goldman Sachs. And say, we want to buy a billion dollars of bonds. So Goldman says, fine. They give the fed the bonds. How does the fed pay for those bonds? They credit Goldman's bank account. Where does that money come from? No place. The fed just says, voila, you have it. And that's how they create the money out of thin air. So they're doing that last year, at a rate of $120 billion a month. To help finance the government's debt. And so what they did, to try to keep it from an even worse inflation, than we've been experiencing. They then create the money. And then borrow it back from the banks, and money market funds, overnight. If you want to get technical, if people want to look at this stuff, they go to (inaudible), they'll find a thing called reverse repurchase agreements. In effect, the fed is pouring money -- pouring a bucket of water at one end of a pool, and then taking it out at the other end of the pool.

Now, that gimmick can't go on forever. You know, a year ago. A little over a year ago, they had zero of these reverse repos. Now they have $1.7 trillion. That's the game they've been playing. Huge damn of money ready to flood the economy. So we are now also by turning the -- taking the money, and saying, oh, no. You're a central bank. Your dollars are no good, to Russia. A lot of countries around the world are going. Jeez, if I get on the wrong side of America, all of a sudden, what I have as gold is no good. That's not safe for me. We are destroying the dollar at the same time we're inflating the dollar. How is this going to end, Steve?

STEVE: Well, ultimately, and this will sound very strange, and you shouldn't say it in polite company. All the -- in a few years, we're going to do again, what we did for the first 180 years of this country's existence. And that is tie the dollar to gold. What it means is that gold for a variety of reasons, keeps its intrinsic value. What it means, it's like a measuring rod. Not perfect. But it keeps the dollar stable in value. If we maintained the growth rates we did for that 180 years. Which was the greatest in human history. And then we went off the gold standard in the early '70s. And since then, the average growth rate for the United States economy, has gone down by at least one-third, from about four and a quarter percent to two and three-quarters. That doesn't sound like that much, but you do that over 50 years. Let me just give you a number.

The average -- the median household income today is about $68,000. If we had maintained our historic rates of growth, which we did for 180 years, through depressions, wars, civil wars, you name it, we would maintain that average name of growth. You know what the median income would be? $110,000.

That's what we've lost over half a century of funny money. It's bad stuff.

GLENN: Can you explain -- you just said that the fed is going to destroy jobs. Or they're -- you know -- how are they doing it?

STEVE: Yes. They have this theory, called the Phillips curve. It's not a baseball pitch. It's named after an economist who said, if you want low unemployment, you have to have higher inflation. If you want lower inflation, you have to have higher unemployment. They believed prosperity causes inflation. They don't realize devaluing the dollar causes inflation. But they can't grasp that. So as a result, you hear this talk about soft landing, what they mean is, can we slow the economy down enough, without going into a full-fledged recession? Usually, their attempts at soft landings is a crash landing. They are trying to slow the economy down. Create unemployment because they think the economy is too prosperous. That's why they think they have this inflation. So they won't say that, explicitly. But you've pressed them on it. Yes, they want a slowdown. And they just hope they can avoid a recession. It's bogus thinking. Experience disapproves it. But if the fed, the Philip's Curve is wholly writ.

GLENN: By the way, we're talking to Steve Forbes. He's got a new book out called Inflation. What it is, why it's bad, and how to fix it.

Steve, when you look at the money printing that we have done, you immediately think of Weimar Republic. I mean, idiots know that, hey. You can't keep doing this for very long. And at huge sums of money. Okay?

Everybody learned that. Weimar Republic. Zimbabwe. Et cetera, et cetera.

STEVE: Venezuela today.

GLENN: Venezuela. So do we know -- or have a guess on -- on how close we are to that?

I mean, is there a possibility we go into hyperinflation?

STEVE: You can't rule anything out with these people. But I think the answer is, no. I think even some people at the fed are realizing, they're on the -- they're in the danger zone. And so they're trying to figure out, they got themselves into this mess. And they were doing this, by the way. Undermining the value of the dollar. Before the covid crisis. This was starting in 2018. So they can't say, oh, we did it because of covid. No, they were doing it before covid. So I think they're trying to figure out now, how do we get ourselves out of it, without getting a disaster? So I think they're going to slow down the money creation. But what they should be doing now, is instead of trying to manipulate interest rates, just let their -- just let the bonds mature. And the size that they hold of those bonds, go down. Nature will take -- nature will take care of it.

Treat the -- keep the dollar stable. And then let the bonds mature. Run off.

And we'll -- we'll get through this. But the other side of the coin, is even if the fed starts to behave itself, then you have a government that is doing everything it can to slow the productive part of the economy. You know, the genius of Ronald Reagan was, when he cured the inflation. At the same time, he cut taxes, deregulation. And that's why we roared in the '80s. After those tax cuts went into effect.

GLENN: We're doing the exact opposite.

STEVE: So we'll have to wait until 2024, to get that done. But with 2022, hopefully with the November elections, at least we can put barriers in the way of the Biden administration, from putting new burdens on the economy. And also start questioning the fed. What in the world are you guys doing? Why do you think prosperity is bad for us?

GLENN: Steve, can I hold you for one minute?

I have about five more minutes, if you have time. Hang on. Sixty seconds, and we're back with Steve Forbes.

Sometimes we send people out to do our bidding. Sometimes we send them out to protect us in our own communities. We send firefighters out to fight our fires. We send soldiers out, and they don't come back. Or they come back forever different, as a person.

This is where Tunnel2Towers Foundation comes in. Tunnel2Towers was started right after 9/11. And they have been supporting America's heroes. And their families. The first responders, or military service member, when they don't come home. And children are left behind.

They pay off their mortgage to lift the financial burden. This really is a great organization. For catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Tunnel2Towers, built mortgage-free smart homes, enabling severely injured heroes to live more independent lives. And now through operation home base, Tunnel2Towers is gifting tiny homes to homeless veterans. You can help. Donate $11 a month. Just $11 a month. T2T.org. T2T.org.

Do it now. And let's start -- can we just take care of our own, and stop looking to the government to do these things? T2T.org. Ten-second station ID.

(music)

GLENN: Steve, I know this is off the inflation path, a bit. We're talking to Steve Forbes. The book inflation. What it is. Why it's bad. And how to fix it. But I'm really concerned about these ESG programs. You know, going and switching our economy to a stakeholder. Capitalism. Which is just bullcrap. In my opinion.

And -- and -- and the way we are letting BlackRock and others come in and just buy us all up. They're buying in every seven homes, for sale. Going to BlackRock.

STEVE: Well, this -- and the nice -- the good thing about a free economy, free country, and free speech, is when these things start to happen, you can arouse the public. They won't say it publicly. But Coca-Cola, and Delta, really reversed course after they did what they did last year. When they booted the all-star game out of Atlanta. Because they didn't understand what Georgia did with the voting laws. Which are more -- more liberal than they were in New York City.

Hello. And they got burned on that. They got real pushback on that. Disney is getting pushback on it.

So the way -- the way you answer this stuff, is you push back.

And one of the things I think you're going to see happen after the November elections, is looking at ideas on how, if you're a shareholder in a fund, or a group, BPF or something, how can you have a voice on how your share of the shares, so to speak, are voting at these annual meetings? It's complicated. But I think you're going to see a real thinking on that. So it's not just a group of people. You know, decades ago, there was a great business guru called Peter Drucker. And some schools still read his book. Business schools. But he warned of what he called pension fund socialism. He noted the rise of pension funds, owned by the state. And by -- by endowment funds. And he said, they can end up buying the economy. The government doesn't have to do it. They're doing it for them.

So I think you're seeing real pushback, on that. But they get to what you might call, modern socialism. The modern socialists recognize, you don't have to take over a company or an industry. You just have to regulate it, so its survival depends on your whims. And that's what the Biden administration is doing. Practicing modern socialism. And pressuring the BlackRock and others. BlackRock and others, go along. With the pushing that kind of agenda. That has to be resisted. But modern socialism, different from our mind, you have the regulators to do it. You don't have to take them over.

GLENN: Would you -- would you say that we are now doing modern monetary theory in Washington? We have one minute.

STEVE: They're doing a form of it. Modern monetary theory. Is simply modern gash on the old idea of devaluing money, by creating too much of it. You know, in Roman times, they did it by reducing the precious metals in a coin, and putting that tin and junk in it. In modern times, we do it by printing up a lot of paper money. With now ellipses on your handhelds.

And it's the same thing. And what you see unfolding now -- we discuss this in the book, inflation is the old response of government. They scapegoat.

You know, in Roman times they blame Christians. In able times, witches. Now today, we blame company executives, with the same old movie.

GLENN: Okay. Steve Forbes. Thank you. Hold on for just a second. Steve Forbes. His new book is out today. You want to pick it up.

Inflation. What it is. Why it's bad. And how to fix it. More in just a second.

This Russian nuke warning is HORRIFIC… for an UNEXPECTED reason

Glenn Beck reviews a video of Aleksandr Dugin, known as “Putin’s brain,” warning that nuclear war is inevitable. But this warning from Russia is absolutely terrifying for another reason: it’s NOT REAL …

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Operation Fast and Furious: The TRUE Story of How the Feds were Running Guns into Mexico

The Border Crisis has been ongoing for years, and one of the biggest scandals was the ATF “gunwalking” scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious which occurred during when Barack Obama was President. Glenn Beck talks with John Dodson, the whistleblower who revealed the scandal to get the facts about what happened and why it was a flawed operation from its inception.
Watch the FULL Interview HERE

Glenn Beck & Piers Morgan REACT to Trump's Iran Strike & What Comes Next

Glenn Beck joins Piers Morgan to react to President Trump's decision to strike Iran's Nuclear Facilities and what could come next with the conflict. Is this just the start of a larger conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States, or will this move by Trump put at least a temporary end to the brewing tensions?

Meet the pro-Intifada candidate NYC Democrats just elected

New York City Democrats just elected 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a "socialist Muslim", as the Party's candidate for mayor. But Glenn Beck argues that his radical beliefs are actually communist and Islamist.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

VOICE: Z10852. Something weird is going on. The World Trade Center is on fire.

VOICE: Seriously the top of the building. We're trying to get information.

VOICE: Top level of one of the --

VOICE: To unfold from New York City.

VOICE: A plane crashed just --

VOICE: My sister is in that believe. I hope she's okay. I have to come to New York.

VOICE: It's pandemonium.

VOICE: It's raining papers.

VOICE: Wait a minute! Stop just a second. Why are we -- why are we -- I've got breaking news. Breaking news, yesterday. New York City just elected as their mayoral candidate for the left. And the Democrats, a -- a Muslim radical, who is also a communist!

So, you know, it only took you 25 years. It only took you 25 years, New York, to go completely insane.

Somebody who is -- well, I mean, if I might quote Michael malice today. I am old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.

But you've got a -- you've got a communist jihadist apologist now.

Who was -- you know, well, CAIR put $100,000 behind his bid for New York City mayor.

So you have somebody who is endorsed by CAIR. That's really good.

He also was somebody who said, you know, he was -- he was for the shooting of the United Health Care CEO.

Said he was looking forward to driving down magnum Joan avenue. I don't know. Sounds like supporting people in the streets. Maybe it's just me.

Then he also said that he was going to globalize the intifada, which I think that's -- maybe -- maybe that's just me.

I mean, what do I know?

Tim Miller who is a podcaster. Asked him a few weeks ago. Asked him about his pro Palestinian slogan. Globalized the intifada. And he said, for me, ultimately, what I hear in so many, is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights, in standing up for Palistinian human rights. Oh, is that what you hear, Mr. CAIR?

Really? Huh, that's interesting.

Right. So globalize the intifada.

I mean, I mean, sure, that's -- I mean well, let me go on.

Because I don't want to take him out of context.

He then delved into the semantics of the intifada, citing the United States Holocaust memorial museum's use of a word for a translation for uprising, in an Arabic version of an article, a museum published about the Warsaw ghetto.

Oh!

So this is just a comparison, about the -- the armed rebellion against the Nazis!

I don't know if that makes me feel better!

I mean, if we're globalizing that.

We're the Nazis in this scenario.

Because I don't think it's the Palestinians.

I certainly don't think it's anybody who is like, hey.

Global jihad. I don't think it's those guys.

Or the Nazis. Who are the Nazis in that?

And it seems, if that's what you mean, then it's not just a harmless kind of slogan about human rights. It is a call for violence on the streets.

Because I don't know if you know, that's what happened when the Jews had their uprising against the Nazis.

I'm just saying!

But, hey, hey, free Palestine.

Oh, that's not what that means, gang. That is not what that means, but don't worry about it. He's just going to be possibly the new mayor.

And that's great. By the way, the Columbia faculty members signed a letter defending Hamas.

They were also among the donors to his mayoral campaign.

So, you know, you don't have anything to worry about.

And his father, who used to work at Columbia. Do you know, Stu?

Is his Dad -- is he still a professor at Columbia University?

He said that -- this violent terror thing of Islam, is not a part of Islam. Now, I've read the Koran, and much of the hadith.

And I'm pretty sure the violence is a part of that. But no.

No. This is something entirely new.

And his father while at Columbia university, wanted everybody to know, that this is actually -- this is something that came out of America!

America is really responsible for this.

And, you know, it really started with the Reagan administration, you know, when he started -- when he started with his very religious terms, to finish the war against the evil empire.

So, you know, that's where -- that's where 9/11 came from.

Is what -- don't worry about it! Don't worry about it!

Because who am I? I'm clearly just -- am I an anti-Semite today, or am I an Islamophobic? I can't remember which one.

Oh, it's probably both. Anyway, Islamophobia. Let me just explain Islamophobia. I haven't even gotten to the Communist part of it. Which is really, really -- New York, you're in one for hell of a ride. Buckle up.

It will be a fun rollercoaster for you. My gosh, I've never been happier that I've been away are if New York.

Anyway, I just want I to know, there is Islam. And then there is Islamists. Now, an Islamist is somebody who really wants Sharia law.

That's political Islam!

That's not a faith. That's political Islam.

Now, let me make really -- something really clear. Criticizing Islamism, is not Islamophobia. Pointing out the dangers of, oh. I don't know.

Political Islam. The ideology that seeks to use the tools of democracy, ultimately to destroy democracy, is not an attack on Muslims.

No. Uh-uh.

You know why?

Because Muslims are often the first people in line.

The first victims of the ideology.

So let's draw a bright, bright line between Islam as a faith, millions of people can practice that faithfully and peacefully.

It's mostly peaceful, okay?

Then there's the Islamism.

Islamism is something entirely -- that's a political project.

A theocratic political -- oh. Left loves theocracies. They love it.

Of course, you never see a problem with it.

See it when an Islamist is touting it. Anyway, it's not about prayer. It's not about fasting. It's not about spiritual life.

It's all about power. It's about merging of mosque and state. It's about implementing Sharia, not as a personal code of conduct. But as a governing legal system.

And it's -- it's supremacy.

Absolutely. Faith.

Religion.

It's -- there's one thing that's supreme.

It's misogynistic.

Deeply intolerant of all kinds of things.

Descent. Secularism. Other faiths. Even competing interpretations from inside the faith itself.

It will behead them too.

So let's -- let's be honest here for a second.

You know, CAIR should be labeled an international terror organization.

In my opinion. In my opinion.

Oh, does that make me -- that makes me an Islamophobe. I'm sure. I'm sure they will start a campaign against me on being an Islamophobe.

Stand in line, guys. You've been doing it since 2001, okay?

I don't really care. And I don't think the American people. I think that record, all the grooves are worn-out on that one, okay?

This is not a religion we're talking about. When we're talking about Sharia law. And we're talking about globalize the intifada. What does that mean, actually, to globalize it?

Does that mean we now want to do what is happening to Israel? All over the world?

Has the Palestinian plight become our plight you now, as Americans?

That there has to be an intifada here!

Because it's the kind of the same. You know. It's kind of the same over, you know, with what the Palestinians are going through.

Well, it's very much like what the Jews went through with the Nazis.

That's a weird one. That one makes my head hurt. It's very much the same as that. And very much the same as the fight against Donald Trump.

Oh, this is going to be fun. It's fun!

Really fun. You know, the irony here is, the ones that will scream Islamophobia the most, are the ones in the progressive left, the champions of feminism, LGBTQ rights. And secularism.

They're going to -- no. You want -- they're going to stand with the people, who want to kill them first.

See, this is how smart they are!

This is why it's going to work out well, in New York City.

Let me just say. If you have an ounce of common sense, you run a business, you have an ounce of wealth. And I don't mean wealth like, you know, hey, Lovey.

Let's get on the boat for a three-hour tour with a suitcase full of cash. I mean you saved anything, anything, get the hell out of New York City.

I mean, this is about survival. This is about free speech. This is about women's rights.
Religious pluralism. Secular legal systems. Liberal democracy.

But it's also about failed principles of Communism. Okay?

First, you have to call out political Islam for what it is. Okay?

And we have to do it with the clarity that we call out white nationalism.

Got to do it with that. Got to -- you know, the Klan. Really bad people.

Really bad people.

Anybody who is shouting for globalized intifada?

Pretty bad. Pretty bad people.

Okay?

Now, let's get to communism.

Because that's another cool, cool angle of the new Democratic candidate for -- for mayor of New York City.

That I just -- I think is cuddly and cute. Sure, it led to 100 million deaths. But this time, New York is going to be radically different. Oh, did I use the word radical?

I didn't mean to use that. What's radical about this guy?

Nothing. He's just like you!

Well, not exactly.

But let's talk about communism, next!

Now, the new mayoral candidate that's running there in New York City. That so many young people rushed to defend and vote for. He's promising free buses.

That's going to work out.

Where are you going to get the money for free buses.

It's free!

City-run grocery stores.

Oh, rent freezes. And finally somebody has done it. A 30-dollar minimum wage.

So under the banner of equity. And, you know, we will tax the wealthy. And the corporations. You know, we're going to squeeze another $10 billion out of them.

Really?

Because they're going to call a U-Haul.

You know, they will call something like U-Haul. There will be a lot of -- there will be a lot of movers that are like, how do I get the truck back from Texas or Florida back up to New York? Nobody is moving up there.

But he's going to do it.

Now, his vision isn't really new. You know, just -- just tax people, so we could have city-run grocery stores. You know, I remember -- I'm old enough to remember those city-run grocery stores in Moscow.

They were great.

The shelves were empty.

But that's just Moscow.

It worked out completely different in Venezuela.

Where, oh, no.

It didn't. That's right. The grocery store.

They were eating the zoo animals.

But it will be different in New York.

Because they have rent controls too.

And that will just choke the housing supply, but don't worry. As a young family.

You know, you voted for it.

You know better.

It will work this time.

So, you know, I like building ideas, I just don't like usually building on the graves of 100 million people.

But, you know, why not? Why not?

You know, use this dogma.

And this time, it will be different. It's not like it was in China. Where the great leap forward, was a gross -- a gross parody of progress. Venezuela, which was oil rich. One of the richest nations in the hemisphere now sees 90 percent of its population in poverty!

Yeah. Darn it. You know what they did?

They decided to take state control of things.

You know, like grocery stores. And it worked out well. How is that free busing working out in Venezuela?

I just want to -- I just want to know.

Anyway, then you've got the globalize the intifada. Which is going to drop a little violence in, and anti-Semitism in with your communism.

Which is weird!

Because violence and anti-Semitism, always happen. When it -- when it comes to -- when it comes to communism.

This is weird!

I've got to play something for you. Because this has talked about on me earlier this morning.

Oh, wow.

Wait a minute. This is -- this is the whole coalition coming together here.

So this is going to be good. New York, this is going to be great.

It's going to be great for you.

No. He's going to uplift you. Then the social fabric of New York City is just going to be -- just one.

It's going to be fantastic. Don't worry about your 120 billion dollars in debt. Or your 10 billion-dollar deficit that you have right now.

You are going to charge the rich more taxes, and they will stay right there.

They will be like, you know what, that 46 percent in taxes that I'm paying, this is just not enough. It's just not enough.

I need to pay 60 or 70 percent to be able to pay my fair share. So that's good. That's good. That's good.

You know, they're not risking 100 million people. It's just 8 million people.

This time, it's just 8 million people.

But, hey. For those of you in upstate New York. That aren't going to be part of this experiment.

Don't worry, you get to pay for it. Because they'll kick it up to the state. The state will have to subsidize everything. And don't you love it?

Really, don't you want to subsidize the really crazy ideas of New York City?

I mean, why don't you have a -- why don't you have a democratic socialist. A/k/a communist mayor.

Why haven't you done that? Are you not progressive enough? Are you not looking into the future?

Are you stuck in the past?

I don't know. I don't know. The graveyard is pretty big. I have a hard time getting past that one. You know, yeah, so I'm stuck in the past. Because I can't seem to pass that graveyard, and get to be down the path with you. But it's going to be a paradise.

Forget arithmetic. You know, or human nature. This time, it's going to work. It's going to work. So all right!

Wish I lived in this morning.

No wait. Nope. I don't. Nope, I don't.

And Ted Cruz, stop it. Stop writing, hey, come to Texas. No. No. Don't come to Texas. Don't come to Florida. Go to California. It's beautiful this time of year. Go there. Go there.