
Episode 5242: America Is Closing In On A Fiscal Cliff ...
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A
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Reasons I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big lie? MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Banner. Okay, Tuesday the 24th of March, year of our Lord 2026. Thank you. For the second, stick around. For the second hour, first hour, we did oil markets, commodity markets, and these negotiations President Trump's trying to get rolling. I want to pivot now to something that I think just like artificial intelligence, kind of the big issues that don't get taken head on. Neil Irwin joins us from Axios. Neil, I remember coming first acquainted with your writings back in the financial crisis of 2008 and things have only gotten worse and the political class have really not ever addressed what the situation is with our fiscal crisis. As you talk about, you talk about a fiscal cliff. Now Scott Bessant, when Scott came in and you know, he was a contributor here for years at the wharm and he used to talk about, hey, my plan is, you know, I can't this whole debt, and the debt sprang out of control. But if I can get the annual deficit, the 3% of GDP through cuts in revenue increases, then somehow I think we've got something manageable we can go forward. As we look through the first year, given a whole host of reasons, it looks like we're not going to hit that. So what is your concern? Your article, just walk people through it. Why America appears to be with the pedal to the metal driving over the fiscal cliff, sir.
B
Yeah. So we're running deficits about 6% of GDP. That's the largest we've ever seen other than in major wars, financial crises, depressions, recessions. So what's unprecedented is to be running 6% deficit of GDP in a time of, of not having those huge one off expenses. And Scott Besant is exactly right. You got to 3% of deficit to GBP. That would be a manageable target. That would be sustainable given the growth path the US is on. What's not happening in Washington is any sense of urgency getting there. Look, if the tax law from last year unleashes amazing growth, deregulation, all these great things create the kind of rapid growth that people in the administration want to see. That's fantastic. That would help solve the problem. But what we're seeing so far is those numbers are not coming in that way. We're seeing numbers more like 6%. And you see it on both sides of the aisle. Democrats wanting to kind of cut taxes for their base. So there's not a lot of incentive and urgency around in Washington around the idea that these deficits are unsustainable. And Social Security is going to hit a point in the early 2000-30s when its finances are strained.
A
That's what I think it was the Wharton center, they have this budget center and the guy came out the other day and said, hey, look, I know Everybody talks about 38 trillion and 100 days later, or 180 days later, we're 39 trillion. But he makes the calculation that our number is really 100 trillion and that's what we have to be focused on. Do you believe that? That. And we just had this article. I'll get it up and put it up after the show of another take on things that says, hey, America's insolvent. It kind of does our balance sheet. Right. And it's maybe not totally accurate because it looks like it's government accounting. Maybe not gap accounting, but there are a lot of smart people coming out right now and saying, hey, this time we mean it. It looks like we could hit the wall. How would you break all that down?
B
Yeah, so think about it. Of entitlements, Social Security, Medicare. We know because you can project these things out pretty accurately over long time horizons. By 2032, 2033, those trust funds are empty. Congress has to do something. It either has to cut benefits. That's what happens automatically. If they don't do anything, nobody really wants to see that. Or they have to find some way to make those programs solvent and pay for them. And then you have Social Security and Medicare in competition with the rest of the budget, the Defense Department, everything else the government does. And so that's not that far away. That used to be this distant problem. But the people being elected to the Senate this coming November are going to be dealing with that problem at the end of their six year term. So this is not some far off problem. This is a here and now kind of problem. And again, the discourse wouldn't reflect it. We're about to have a $200 billion Defense Department request for the Iran conflict. This is a situation where you wouldn't guess that we're facing this real cliff, this real difficult situation from the way people talk about financial options in Washington.
A
You know, Scott had said before he became Secretary Church and then after he said, hey look, this is our last chance for a supply side tax cut. And whether you believe that theory, supply side or not, but the theory was hey, we get a tax cut to bring jobs back, increase manufacturing, we have to grow our way out of this. We get growth of 5% or more, I get the deficit down to 3%. That's the way you start chipping away at this thing. The is one of the reasons that you see the lack of urgency. I mean the bond market now the 10 year treasuries are what, four, four or four, three. It's kind of popped since this war, particularly since it shifted to the Persian Gulf away from Tehran. But is it the bond market and is it because we're still the prime reserve currency and people just have to hey, suck on this. No matter what the brics nations say or whatever the alternative like you see right now, as soon as the guns start firing, they all come to the US Dollar is the lack of urgency of the political class because the capital markets really haven't forced their hand here.
B
I think there is a lot of that. Look, we're still historically, as you say, 4, 4% and change on the 10 year treasury, nothing to that's not a crisis. That said, those numbers are going to creep. The debt service costs are going to be creeping up year by year as we run these $2 trillion deficits every year. That increases the total stock of debt. And so whatever rate the US is paying, the government's paying is coming out of everything else. So forecasts 10 years from now, 2035, 4.6% of GDP, nearly 5% of GDP going to just pay interest on the debt. That's going to squeeze everything else. Again, whatever you care about, whether it's on the defense side, whether it's on retirement benefits, things like that will be squeezed by these interest costs if we keep rising total debt on the path we're on. And that's assuming there's not a fiscal crisis, there's not a reset of rates significantly higher. That's assuming they stay in the kind of moderate range they've been in the last couple of years. And there's no guarantees. That's the case. If the bond market starts to freak out and say we're afraid there's going to be financial repression, we're afraid there's going to be inflation, that the US Is going to try and inflate its way out of this crisis.
A
What do you think it's going to take? Because we've had commissions last year when McCarthy got tossed for cutting the deal with Biden, people talking. We have to have another commission come together. We've had a series of commissions. They've made reports that have implemented, might have helped to stave this off, but they were just, they were, they were never taken seriously. They didn't become part of any political action plan of either party. What do you think it's going to take absent a fiscal crisis, where then you have to go into crisis mode to get not just both parties but any one party to take it seriously right now? Because the Democrats, their spending thing is out of control. Of course they want to, they want to tax the wealthy, but their spending is really the problem. That's what Scott Bessen keeps saying. But on Capitol Hill we see this at every appropriations process. The Republicans just kind of tap this along and these commissions don't work because people have done it for years, done it for decades. They come out with these good results and they're just put into the file. What do you think it's going to take to get the political class to focus on something has to be done here.
B
Yeah. Do you remember Erskine Bowles and the Simpson bowles commission in 2010? In the last 20 years that's kind of the closest there was to a big deal on entitlements. But ultimately then as now, if there's not a crisis moment, if there's not a sense of urgency, why would you make that unpopular vote? If you're a Democrat looking to having to cut benefits, if you're a Republican looking to raise taxes, those are not votes you want to make unless something forces your hand. And that's why I think, look, there are different forms of crisis. Crisis doesn't have to be something like 2008 where it's a catastrophe. But if rates rise even a couple hundred basis points, if we get the 10 year treasury up to 5, 6%, that might be the thing that forces attention. And if not that, look, once again, Social Security trust fund is up in 2032, 2033. Something must be done in order to keep there being if you don't do anything, there's a 25% cut to Social Security benefits. That would be catastrophic. That would be bad for a lot of retirees. That would be Unpopular in both parties. So that may be the thing that forces a deal absent a fiscal crisis of the types you see in emerg markets.
A
You see right now, I think when the rates popped over four, four three four four, mortgages went to seven. I think you're saying, hey, if these go to five or six, not saying it is, but if it does, mortgages popped at 9 or 10%. That's when the folks back home are going to say, start burning up the phone line saying something's got to be done here. That's when you may see some movement on this.
B
I do. I mean, we saw a little of this in the fall of. It was fall of 2024 when yields did rise. The 30 year got to 5%, I believe. And that really did. Actually, no, the 10 year got to 5%, the 30 was higher than that. And you did see a focusing of attention. You saw a lot of people saying, maybe this is the thing that is the bond market telling us we need to reset the finances going forward. Look, there are ways out of this that don't involve the AI revolution. If there's a productivity surge, you could see things on the revenue side. That's what you mean when you say a supply side burst, that really helps solve this problem. And it'd be great to see some of that, great to see supply side improvements that really help.
A
But if we cut. But if you cut through it, this is what I say all the time. We're like a leveraged buyer. We're a highly leveraged play on artificial intelligence right now. I mean, is that not the business model of our country? And even the executives in the country that had Dario on for Anthropic. I'll play the clip later. It says 50% of all entry level, which we have said here, all entry level, white collar, managerial jobs, legal, all of that are going to be wiped out in the next couple years. Aren't we just right now a highly leveraged bet on artificial intelligence. And if artificial intelligence doesn't come in with productivity, which means young generation wiped out with their jobs when they need them the Most, in their 20s, when they're learning their craft or the profession, that's essentially the business model. It's a dice roll of a highly leveraged company making a bet on a new technology that could turn their business model around, Is that not where this country is right now?
B
Yeah, I think there's something to that. If you look at the GDP numbers, if you take out investment in software, investment in data centers, it's basically flatline we're treading water. The growth we're having is coming from this AI investment surge. And look, that's good in terms of the GDP accounts. If you're a white collar worker worried about losing your job, that's more worrying. The question is, is this set of advances going to play out similarly to the invention of the personal computer? The electricity rollout is the kind of thing that generates broad benefits and higher wages, higher incomes or is the job loss so rapid? It's more like the China shock. It's more like you have a situation where lots of people lose their jobs, the reallocation process is slow, it doesn't happen rapidly. People are not able to recapture the income they once had. It hollows out certain communities, certain industries. That's the fear is that this is less the personal computer, less electricity, less the railroads and more like the China shock in the early 2000s.
A
Thousands, last thing, as long as we can sell the bonds. I mean, Scott's got to refinance a third, I think of the national debt every year. As long as the dollar, even though it's had a massive drop in purchasing power during the inflation, the Biden years and then some. As long as people have to need dollars. As long as the dollars are prime reserve currency. Can we stagger through this?
B
I think so. There's no reason to think this is going to flip overnight. I mean, one thing I'm watching with this Iran situation is does this acc the pursuit of alternatives for other countries for trade in oil and other commodities? If you're China and the US is in a war with Iran, does that make you all the more add urgency to trying to create alternatives to the dollar and does that weaken the dollar's role in the global economy? That's speculation at this point. The dollar's holding up reasonably well on currency markets. It's actually up since the war, so that's not happening today. But it's something around the corner that I think we're all watching for.
A
No, that's a flight to safety. And you're right that alternative to the petrodollar, particularly the Chinese, these long term contracts they did in their own currency with people hedging, the risk is key. Neil, where do people get you over at Axios? What's your social media? You've been doing this for a long time and been pretty accurate in those years. Eventually people are going to listen to the warning. Where do folks go?
B
Go to axios.com, axios Macro is a daily newsletter I write with Courtney Brown on global economic trend. It's free every day at noon.
A
Thank you sir. Appreciate you. Appreciate the reporting and the thinking. I want to make sure everybody gets that. It's free at Axios. I want to make sure everybody gets this article today about going over the fiscal cliff and everything's associated with it. Also, I'm going to put up right after the show this Yahoo Finance article about insolvency. Like I said, it's not totally correct because I'm kind of looking at the balance sheet. I think unlike you would do it if you're using gap accounting. But the point they're trying to make and the point that the Wharton. I'm trying to get the Wharton guys on. If you can't do it this week at CPAC next week to say there's maybe the 39 trillion is just what's the iceberg above the water? The part of the iceberg above the water. If you don't want to be the Titanic, you got to understand the entire part of the iceberg, particularly under the water. As you know, we've tried to use this to walk you through. That's what the end of the dollar empire is. It's now in print. The Patriots edition. You can get it by going to birchgold.com promo code Bannon. You can get this. Seven installments now bound. It's taught at a major university. I shouldn't say it's taught. It's one of the textbooks they use because it makes it accessible to understand capital markets and the strains on the US dollar. Think about this. In 2006, $20,000 equaled roughly 33 ounces of gold at spot prices. At today's prices, those 33 ounces of gold will be worth $165,000. Smart Americans diversify a portion of their savings into precious metals. And that's why you need to consider buying gold from my friends at Birch Gold Group. For thousands of years gold has been a store of wealth and today it is a crucial part of any balance strategy. Even better, Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered retirement account in gold. Just text my name, Bannon B A N N Owen to the number 98989 to receive your free info kit on gold. There's no obligation, just useful information with an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers. Let Birch Gold help you diversify with gold. Now that's peace of mind. Text Bannon to 989-898. Again, my name Bannon. B A N N O N. To the number 989-898. Do it today. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Okay, The President Trump just reposted moments ago as we were talking on the fiscal situation. Shabazz Sharif, a tweet. Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the war in the Middle east in the interest of peace and stability in the region and beyond. Subject to the concurrence by the United States and Iran. Pakistan stands ready and honored to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict in the President of the United States, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Forces. Reposted that. I think, folks, we ought to get that out to the Warren Posse and just put that in your, in your file about this war because like I said today, and that's why we open up with Kurt, all these different alternatives. Just once again, the. The president is very close to Field Marshal. I think it's Murin. He was at the White House when I was back there in June. He was at the White House with the president. Spent a lot of time with him. President, he's the chief of staff of the field marshal and chief of staff of the Pakistani army armed forces. And President Trump thinks very highly of him. And I think that may be one of these paths that President Trump is pursuing. Michael Kunstler, the founder of All Family Pharmacy. So we had war, the rumor war, global oil markets which ain't looking great. Then the physical cliff. Oh, that by the way, we're driving off of with the pedal to the floor. You're my upside, baby. You're the sunlit uplands. And the reason is, Michael, you know, we, we monitor the feedback of the Warren Posse and once they go to your site and learn a little bit, but really talk to one of your customer service reps. The feedback's been tremendous. So just walk us through the company. What's the idea behind it and why and why should people go today and start to get involved and talk to your customer service reps? Sir?
C
Yeah. So All Family Pharmacy is a pharmacy here in Boca Tone, Florida, based on medical freedom, giving access to patients on medications that are essential to their whether it be a cosmetic medication or emergency medication or just a traditional maintenance drug. We're going to give you access to all of the different medications, a physician to guide you in that direction of safety and effectiveness, as well as a pharmacist to help you in that return as well. So you could go directly to our pharmacy allfamilypharmacy.com website, Backslash Bannon. And today we're going to have a 25% off coupon. It's Bannon 25. We're actually going to extend this to the end of March due to all this war talk, energy pricing going up, all the negative in the world. We're going to try to bring a little bit of positive light to it if you want to stock up on essential medications. Because if you're worried about this war in Iran, now is the time to do it. 25% off the entire order. Whether it's ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, whether it's a thyroid drug, a maintenance medication, or maybe it's a weight loss drug or NAD plus or methylene blue, one of our anti aging drugs. We're going to give you access to it. 25% off. We'll give you access to the physicians and the pharmacist as well. Please give us a call if you have questions or if you need assistance. Our customer service reps are ready, stand by all day long to help you, to walk you through the ordering process. They can even take the order for you, submit it over to the physician on your behalf.
A
And you've got physicians and pharmacists that approve this and make sure people get the medicines and drugs that they need. When I first met you and we were doing due diligence, you told me something that stuck with me. It was very powerful. I want you to explain it to the audience. You say, hey, look, Steve, as much as people bitch them on about big pharma and all this, you don't have true medical freedom until you have the ability to deal with a pharmacy that you can actually talk to people about what you need, that the pharma, the, you know, the McKesson's of the world, the big, you know, distribution companies and then the individual pharmacies, all these big chains work against your medical freedom. Explain that to me for a second because I think as I talk to people and we talk to you talk about all family pharmacy during the week, it resonates with people. What do you mean by that?
C
Yeah, when you walk into your doctor's office, when you walk into one of these chain pharmacies was the last time you had an in depth conversation with a medical professional that you're essentially paying for. Right. And so here at all family pharmacy, you have full access to what we have, pharmacists, customer service, pharmacy technicians, as well as medical providers or Physicians who are licensed in every state here in the United States. So we push medical freedom because we want you to come to us with questions, with concerns, because we want to guide you in the direction that's going to have your medication safe and effective. It's not going to hurt you. It's only going to help you. So having access to a pharma pharmacy that is willing to have a conversation, I don't know when the last time this people have been able to walk into a chain pharmacy and have a conversation outside of vaccines. You go to Publix, you go to CVS, you go to Walgreens or Walmart. 90% of the conversations the pharmacist is going to bring up is, have you been vaccinated recently? That should not be the topic of conversation. The topic of conversation should be, how's your health? What's going on? What do you need? How is this drug helping you? Are you seeing side effects there? There are more questions that need to be asked other than do you need updated vaccines? Kind of infuriating to see that when you walk into a pharmacy.
A
No. This is what the people that have made contact with you guys are so enthusiastic about. So where do people go right now if they want to do this? What's the phone number, what's the website? And what do they do?
C
Phone number is 561-717, 6794. And the website is allfamilypharmacy.com backslash Bannon again. Use the Bannon 25 coupon code. You can save 25% off your entire order. Place the orders now up until March 31st. The coupon will be effective. We're giving you 25% off. It's a great time. It's travel season. Summer's around the corner. Allergy season is here. I suffer from allergies, so it's a great time for those who need medications, who want to stock up for a peace of mind so they don't have to worry, now's the time to do it. And use the coupon code. So you save 25%.
A
25% off because of oil in the war. Thank you, sir. And interest rates popping. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate you doing that for the war in posse. 25% off. So let's hit it today. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Holly Kessler. Okay, so there is some good news. There's good news all over. Number one in Virginia. The grassroots in Virginia are hammering. I think it's the 21st of April, this special referendum we're Going to have Jeff Rey hopefully on in the next couple of days. The grassroots there are hitting new poll out. Paxton up by 8. In Texas, that follows, I think polls maybe internal 17, 17, 18. But PAX now there's a trend. Ken Paxton's up. Folks are fighting all over the place. There's a lot of good news out there where people have been so grim about the midterms and guess what? The midterms are going to be brutal and going to be tough and going to be a fight. But in Georgia, Holly Kessler joins us. Holly, you've been recommended by Caroline Jeffords. And so many people is like somebody's got their hand on the pulse in Georgia. We have a huge hearing on Friday on the evidence because you know, the Abbey Lowell's the world and the MSNBCs and the Mark Elias says gotta get that evidence back. So we're gonna be covering that. We're gonna get all the experts on that. But what is happening in Georgia, it seems like are the Kemp guys not on board with this? Because the situation down there is pretty dire, not just for the 2020 elections, but what happens going forward, Ma', am, It is.
D
You're right. And we do have the evidentiary hearing coming up on Friday in Fulton County. That's in regards to the FBI raid. We are in a very critical emergency situation because we had passed a bill back in. Gosh, what was it, 2022, 2023. It was making the QR codes illegal. They're illegal. Part of Burt Jones, you know, in the Senate that did that. Senate Bill 189. And so now we're coming up to July 1st of 2026 and we still don't have effects. And so, yeah, you talk about Camp Raffensperger, AG Carr, I mean, all of them. It's the entire executive branch minus the lieutenant governor. He's the only one that's actually been fighting for it, you know, and trying to help on the election front. But we have a big problem here. And so now all they're wanting to do is get continue to kick the can down the road. And I don't know what it's going to take. It's very frustrating. You know, we had Es and us on the ground the other day and they were, you know, given their little demo and and of course, I'm sitting here thinking, okay, so we're getting rid of one and we're going to get another. You know, the machines really, they just, they got to go. President Trump wants it. You talk about the grassroots we have a very active grassroots group here in Georgia. We've been pushing it. We've shown them all the issues. They've seen it complaint after complaint. And again, the Secretary of state just acts like everything is wonderful. And Chris Carr's, you know, he's, he's just silent and, you know, missing in action half the time. So, so he doesn't really do anything when it comes to election integrity. But there are clear issues, and one of the biggest concerns is Fulton County. You know, we keep seeing what they're doing, and they keep trying to hide information, cover up information, delay, giving the state election board information. And, and they've had problems forever, you know, so they're, they're pretty consistent in the clown show that they have going on. But, but, yeah, we have a problem, Mr. Steve. And, and I don't, I don't know how we're getting out of this, but like you said, the midterms are, midterms are coming up, and we've got to get this thing figured out and figured out quick.
A
Holly. Holly. The leftist sent a flare out. I'll get to what's going on with the tsa, because this has been a resounding success with, with ICE there. But they sent a flare up. They wouldn't send Norm Einstein, Norm down there, and they wouldn't send Abby Lowell, two of their biggest top guns, to have this massive fight. Norm Eisen and Lowell have this massive fight over getting the evidence back of the stolen 2020 election, right. And President Trump's made this a priority. You've got Tulsi Gabbard's made it a priority. Kash Patel has made his priority. We know that the grassroots and the grassroots in Georgia kind of dominate the situation, and they're pure maga. What is the political class? Why are they holding back on this? What is it? Is it because elections have been won in the past and they're part of that? Did they not want the scandal? It's just shocking that you got Bert Jones and one or two others, but it just seems to be quiet when this is an issue that's on fire at the grassroots level, ma'.
D
Am, it is. And here's the deal. You know, we, we're pushing, we're educating. I get it. Some people don't want to touch it, but when it comes to those that are not willing to actually do something about it and stand up and fight for it, there's only one thing that I can think of at this point because, you know, Mr. Steve, we've been doing this for how many years? And so it's the COVID up. It's part of the COVID up, I think, you know, when you really start looking at things and tying it all in together and look at it from a timeline perspective, it's very interesting to see. And just like you said, they would not bring in the big dogs, you know, to fight this fight if there wasn't more to it. So, and those guys, they're, I mean, they're good, you know, we've got good, good counsel on our side, too. But, you know, they're, they're crafty and creative. Although I will say Garrett Ziegler beat Abby Lowell.
A
Hang on one center. I want to give the punchline on the other side. Holly Kessler with us on this situation in the great state of Georgia. I've got a question for you. How do you usually get your medication? Let me guess, you call the doctor, you wait for an appointment to get a prescription, sit in a waiting room, then you stand around in line at the pharmacy hoping they actually have what you need. That's not convenient. That's a system that doesn't work. There's a better way. And that way is where all family pharmacy comes in. They take the hassle out of the process. You go online, select what you're looking for, complete a short medical form and a licensed physician reviews your request. If it's appropriate, they write the prescription and your medication is shipped straight to your home. They've got essentials like antibiotics, antivirals, ivermectin, NAD and hundreds of other prescription medications. It's simple, it's efficient and it puts you back in control. Stop dealing with the old way. Get your medical freedom and do it today. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Bannon and use promo code Bannon10 to get 10% off your order. Get your medical freedom today. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Bannon and use promo code banded10 to get 10% off your order. War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Banner. Okay. If you want to look at positive developments in politics, it's grassroots. It's you, this audience that are making things happen. We got The Sharia law Prop 10 passed in overwhelmingly in in Texas. And there's going to be so many more developments this week in cpac. Big part of CPAC is going to be talking about that. What's going on in Texas. Ken Paxton's up, I don't know, eight points in the latest poll, 16 at 17. I think in other polls so the grassroots making a difference there. I cannot compliment enough the grassroots effort in Virginia and the Commonwealth overwhelmed with money spent, they've self organized. Jeff Ryer. I think it's just such a great thing to see where they get a grassroots guy into the chairmanship of a Republican party and great things happen and we're gonna spend more time on that. And of course we're hurtling towards this evidentiary hearing. Georgia, I think is the key that picks the lock here. You've had John Solomon on, we know Tulsi's on it. This stinks to high heaven. This 2020 election was stolen. There's no doubt about that. Holly, we're gonna have you back on. I just once again wanna give a shout out to the Patriots have been fighting this for six years now against threat of jail, bankruptcy, all of it. You guys are the best. And the reason we even have a fighting chance here is not the political class down in Georgia that somehow something's fishy why they haven't stepped in here, why they're avoiding this. And I think when everything's revealed, there's gonna be a lot of accountability that's gonna have to happen. Holly, your social media, where do people go and get you? Ma'?
E
Am.
D
So I'm on X Facebook substack. I've been whipping out some sub stacks lately, but yeah, my ex account probably is the easiest and the best, but it's all the same. Holly Kessler, same picture and everything. So yeah, I would appreciate the follow and I'll keep everybody updated.
A
Thank you, man. Appreciate you coming on here.
D
Thank you.
A
Okay, the Chinese Communist Party, their active participation in the media's cover up of their torment of Lao Beijing in China, but also the United States. Ying Chen joins us this morning. And Levy, Brody, Yang, tell us first off, what is your position? How do you fit in this story? Because the New York Post, it was the lead for a while yesterday. Kind of a shocking development of the Chinese Communist Party trying to shut down this classic kind of ballet, opera, dance that's gone throughout the nation with seven or eight troops that talks about China before communism. And the CCP can't handle that. So they're taking active measures to torment you all and to shut it down. Can you explain to us what's happening?
F
Yes. Thank you, Steve. So my name is Ying Chen. I'm a conductor and vice president with Shen Yun Performing Arts. And Shen Yun is actually an American company created in New York in 2006. And our mission is to revive our authentic traditional culture which has been suppressed by the CCP for decades. We want to really show the world the beauty and wisdom in this amazing culture. At the same time, our performances always also present the human rights atrocities that are still ongoing in China. Shen Yun was actually created at the time when many of our family members, myself included, and our friends in the Falun Gong community were severely persecuted in China. And actually that persecution is still going on. So for the last 20 years, this year, Shen Yun is celebrating our 20th anniversary and, and we've grown tremendously from one troop to eight troops that are performing simultaneously in, you know, the major continents, everywhere, basically in the world seen by over a million people every year. But because of what we talk about in the show, we, we are not subjugated to, subject to the CCP's censorship. We definitely talk about the issues in today's China as well. So we have been under attack for the last 20 years. We have faced bomb threats for, for so long that we've almost gotten used to it, which is not right. Right. And this year, the last two years have been especially crazy. I think recently, six states, heads of state, including Canada, Denmark and Australia have received bomb threats and basically saying, if you allow Shayun to perform, we'll blow up your residence. And something like that. And as a result, the Australian Prime Minister was forced to evacuate from his, his residence. So. But these things have been. I, I feel like the Shen Yun story is truly a coincidential story of how Beijing tried. Tries to dictate what stories are told here, what the narratives, try to impose their narratives on the American people.
A
Hang on for one second, because if you look at the histories have been written by a lot of fellow travelers about everything came out of the Chinese Communist Party. China was just a backward run by corrupt emperors for thousands of years. The peasants were abused. That the reason you have this modern industrial middle class that's building every year is all because of the Chinese Communist Party. In Shen Yun, which has all this beautiful traditional dance and music. Your tagline is China before Communism. What do you mean by that? And how do you counter them when they say, look, everybody was starving, it was oppressed, the emperors were the worst people on earth. And we, we essentially gave freedom or chance for freedom to the Chinese people. To Lao Bajing, ma'. Am.
F
Yeah, because I think when the Communist Party wanted to impose communism on people, they had to do away systematically with all the real culture of China, all the, all the spiritual foundations. You know, you're talking about Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, that those have been the Pillars of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. So in order for them to impose Marxism on people, they had to do away with all these. Both of my parents were with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing for 30 some years. So they were first class musicians in China. However, we, we know, we knew firsthand that everything is censored and basically, or even all these performing arts company in China were propaganda tools for the Chinese, for the ccp. So it was not until I came to this country and gradually realized, wait a minute, this is not our true culture. I grew up in China and I had no appreciation of the Chinese traditional values and culture when I was there until I came to this country and learned the truth about our true history and the spiritual foundation of all of that. So with Shen Yun, we're trying to revive all of those amazing heritage and share it with the world.
A
And that's why the. Yeah, yeah, that's why the CCP hates it. I mean the Cultural Revolution was to destroy any connection with the Chinese people. Was that the five bads to any connection to their traditional culture. Hangers Levi There's a film coming out tonight. You guys are going to be part of the premiere. You've got this story in the New York Post and it's by Chadwick Moore, who did the great biography of Tucker Carlson we had on the show a year or so ago. The story in the New York Post. It also implies that American media companies, particularly some big American media companies, have not. Because we do this story a lot and we know it has huge traction with the War on Posse, particularly as they have these strong feelings for Lao Baijing or kind of the, the War Room Posse of mainland China. But major media companies have actually gone out of their way to suppress this story. Is that true?
E
Absolutely. And this, unfortunately, this goes back to the beginning of when Falun Gong was first persecuted. Falun Gong, the Buddhist based spiritual practice that Yingen mentioned. One history that people forget. Is it widely popular in China? Tens of millions of people were practicing. It was ubiquitous around the country. It was sort of their renaissance in many ways, their spiritual and cultural renaissance. And it wasn't until 1999 that the dictator at the time, Gen Zamin, ordered it eradicated. And one of the really sad chapters of the last 26 years. Aside from the atrocities, rampant detention, torture, death by torture, and of course forced organ harvesting, one of the real tragedies has been American media. And Western media by and large have really dropped the ball or in some cases seem to behave in a way that's complicit taking Beijing's propaganda points and using that to frame the story, ignoring the forced organ harvesting atrocity almost entirely. And so a lot of the problem of the world not understanding what has happened to Falun Gong and why that's very important for understanding the CCP really, I think, lies at the feet of Western media, unfortunately. And the movie tonight, as you mentioned, is this very deep investigation. I mean, it's both a human story, looking at the artists of Shen Yun and how they go through going on tour facing bomb threats, facing Chinese spies that have been put in jail by our government because they've tried to bribe US officials to open up an investigation against them, how they've faced all that on a human level. But then also looking at the failures or the really probably worse than failures on some of the major media, including the New York Times, and this entire campaign that now Xi Jinping, it appears, is behind trying to sabotage and destroy Shenyan on the world stage.
A
Do you think the New York Times went out of their way with their Moscow correspondent back in the 1930s when in Ukraine you had this massive thing, it's called the Holodor. Five million people starved to death in essentially what is Kansas of Europe? Do you believe it's at that level? The New York Times has gone out of the way with certain reporters to actually suppress the reality of the brutality of the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, particularly against Falun Gong, but broadly against all of Lao Beijing.
E
Sir, I think it's approaching that. I mean, here's one thing that's undeniable. And look, I'm not in the back rooms of the New York Times when making these decisions, but what is crystal clear is that they have achieved, wittingly or not, the propaganda goals of Beijing. And I think if I were at the New York Times and my newspaper had done that, I think there needs to be some real soul searching. How did we get here? How is that now the end result that we're having on the American readership and the global readership? But if you look more broadly at the Times coverage, this wasn't just a Schengen issue or in the last few years we did. My nonprofit did a huge study studying every single article from 1999 to the present on the New York Times coverage of human rights issues, Falun Gong issues, And the results are shocking. They're shocking in terms of how many times they frame things in terms of from Beijing or standpoint, on the victims, how they've just rewritten some basic facts of the Falun Gong History, how they've completely swept under the rug the forced organ harvesting atrocity in the face of overwhelming evidence. And so there is a systemic failure at the New York Times and to some extent some other medias, but particularly the New York Times when it comes to Falun Gong specifically. And that, that is undeniable. That's crystal clear that that's happened.
A
Well, this goes back to the New York times in the 1940s when the United States of America handed to the, to these, to this, this small group, the Chinese Communist Party, China, when it didn't have to happen. I mean that's one of the great scandals of the 20th century. I want to have you guys back on about the premier to now. We'll get in a second. But Chen Yang just before. And I want you guys to hold through the break. Everybody I've sent to Shen Yun comes out with kind of a glow. It's a beautiful evening. The music is beautiful. The dance is unparalleled. People just have a great feeling about it. Why is the Chinese Communist Party so obsessed with destroying what really gives, I think people a really good feeling about China overall. And the Chinese people.
F
That's right. When people see this show, they're like, oh, I'm so proud of your culture. And it's so amazing. We are too. We just by sharing this with the world, it gives me so much joy and inspiration to be part of this process. So it's unthinkable, you know, why somebody would hate this show. But the pure fact that in the show that we are, we're not shy about telling people that people of faith are still being persecuted in China to the extent of taking organs from live people and to make money from it. It's just unspeakable crime. So we do talk about that. And of course it's not, you know, we've been on the side of the CCP for all these years as a result, but we have, you know, continued undeterred and we really, I think it only strengthens our resolve to share these stories with the world's people and, and they need to see what the true nature of the ccp.
E
But just if I can interject when
A
we look at it is Levi, leave out. Levi, hang on one second. I'm just take a short commercial break. I don't want to run you guys up against a hard out. We'll have you back here in a minute. Just stick around. The Chinese Communist Party evil always hates the good. And the Chinese Communist Party maybe the most evil of all. Short break If a major disruption happened and you couldn't get to the store, how long do you think you could last with what's in your house right now? If it's anything less than a month, you need to check out our friends at My Patriot Supply. They're America's number one preparedness company with over 3 million satisfied customers. And right now, when you go to preparewithbannon.com their best selling 4 week emergency supply food kit comes with an additional week of free food that you get the best selling four week emergency food supply. And it comes with an additional week of free food kicked in. This is the best long term storable food you can find. You're getting at least 2,000 calories a day, real meals made with real ingredients, no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and a shelf life measured in decades. Look, we all need to know that we need food stored for emergencies. Look around your house right now. How long would you last? Why not get it from the most trusted folks in the business? Get a free week of food thrown in. While you're at it, go to preparewithbannon.com to get your free week of emergency food today. That's preparewithbannon.com America's number one preparedness company, my Patriot supply with over 3 million satisfied customers. Make sure you're one of them. War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Banner. Okay. If you want to look at positive developments in politics, it's grassroots. It's you, this audience that are making things happen. We got The Sharia law, Prop 10, passed overwhelmingly in Texas. And there's going to be so many more developments this week. And cpac, big part of CPAC is gonna be talking about that. What's going on in Texas? Ken Paxton's up, I don't know, 8 points in the latest poll, 16 at 17 I think in other polls. So the grassroots making a difference there, I cannot compliment enough the grassroots effort in Virginia in the Commonwealth, overwhelmed with money spent. They've self organized Jeff Ryer and I think it's just such a great thing to see where they get a grassroots guy into the chairmanship of a Republican party. And great things happen and we're gonna spend more time on that and of course we're hurtling towards this evidentiary hearing. Georgia, I think is the key that picks the lock here. You've had John Solomon on, we know Tulsi's on it. This stinks to high heaven. This 2020 election was stolen. There's no doubt about that. Holly, we're gonna have you Back on. I just once again wanna give a shout out to the Patriots. Have been fighting this for six years now against threat of jail, bankruptcy, all of it. You guys are the best. And the reason we even have a fighting chance here is not the political class down in Georgia that somehow something's fishy. Why they haven't stepped in here, why they're avoiding this. And I think when everything's revealed, there's gonna be a lot of accountability that's gonna have to happen. Holly, your social media, where do people go and get you, Ma'?
D
Am. So I'm on X Facebook substack. I've been whipping out some sub stacks lately, but yeah, my X account probably is the easiest and the best, but it's all the same. Holly Kessler, same picture and everything. So yeah, I would appreciate the follow and I'll keep everybody updated.
A
Thank you, ma'. Am. Appreciate you coming on here.
D
Thank you.
A
Okay, the Chinese Communist Party, their active participation in the media's cover up of their torment of Lao Beijing in China, but also in the United States. Ying Chen joins us this morning. And Levy, Brody, Yang, tell us first off, what is your position? How do you fit in this story? Because the New York Post, it was the lead for a while yesterday. Kind of a shocking development of the Chinese Communist Party trying to shut down this classic kind of ballet, opera, dance that's gone throughout the nation with seven or eight troops that talks about China before communism. And the CCP can't handle that. So they're taking active measures to torment you all and to shut it down. Can you explain to us what's happening?
F
Yes. Thank you, Steve. So my name is Ying Chen. I'm a conductor and vice president with Shen Yun Performing Arts. And Shen Yun is actually an American company created in New York in 2006. And our mission is to revive our authentic traditional culture, which has been suppressed by the CCP for decades. We want to really show the world the beauty and wisdom in this amazing culture. At the same time, our performances always also present the human rights atrocities that are still ongoing in China. Shen Yun was actually created at the time when many of our family members, myself included, and our friends in the Falun Gong community were severely persecuted in China. And actually that persecution is still going on. So for the last 20 years. This year, Shen Yun is celebrating our 20th anniversary. And, and we've grown tremendously from one troop to eight troops that are performing simultaneously in, you know, the major continents everywhere, basically in the world seen by over a million people every year. But because of what we talk about in the show, we, we, we are not subjugated to, subject to the CCP's censorship. We definitely talk about the issues in today's China as well. So we have been under attack for the last 20 years. We have faced bomb threats for, for so long that we've almost gotten used to it, which is not right. Right. And this year, the last two years have been especially crazy. I think recently six states, heads of state, including Canada, Denmark and Australia have received bomb threats and basically saying, if you allow Shanghun to perform, we'll blow up your residence. And something like that. And as a result, the Australian Prime Minister was forced to evacuate from his, his residence. So. But these things have been, I, I feel like the Shen Yun story is truly a quintessential story of how Beijing tried to, tries to dictate what stories are told here, what the narratives try to impose their narratives on the American people.
A
Hang on for one second because if you look at the histories have been written by a lot of fellow travelers about everything came out of the Chinese Communist Party. China was just a backward run by corrupt emperors for thousands of years. The peasants were abused. That the reason you have this modern industrial middle class that's building every year is all because of the Chinese Communist Party in Shen Yun, which has all this beautiful traditional dance and music. Your tagline is China before Communism. What do you mean by that? And how do you counter them when they say, look, everybody was starving, it was oppressed, the emperors were the worst people on earth and we essentially gave freedom or chance for freedom to the Chinese people to Lao Beijing. Ma'. Am.
F
Yeah, because I think when the Communist Party wanted to impose communism on people, they had to do away systematically with all the real culture of China, all the, all the spiritual foundations. You know, you're talking about Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, that those have been the pillars of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. So in order for them to impose Marxism on people, they had to do away with all these. Both of my parents were with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing for 30 some years. So they were first class musicians in China. However, we, we know, we knew firsthand that everything is censored and basically, or even all these performing arts company in China were propaganda tools for the Chinese for the ccp. So it was not until I came to this country and gradually realized, wait a minute, this is not our true culture. I grew up in China and I had no appreciation of the Chinese traditional values and culture when I was there, until I came to this country and learned the truth about our true history and the spiritual foundation of all of that. So with Shen Yun, we're trying to revive all of those amazing heritage and share it with the world.
A
And that's why the.
F
Yeah, yeah.
A
That's why the CCP hates it. I mean, the Cultural Revolution was to destroy any connection with the Chinese people. Was that the five bads to any connection to their traditional culture? Hangerside Levi There's a film coming out tonight. You guys are going to be part of the premiere. You've got this story in the New York Post, and it's by Chadwick Moore, who did the great biography of Tucker Carlson we had on the show a year or so ago. The story in the New York Post. It also implies that American media companies, particularly some big American media companies, have not, because we do this story a lot and we know it has huge traction with the Warren Posse. Do you owe back taxes or you haven't filed your taxes in years? Now is the time to resolve your tax matters. With the national conversation around abolishing the income tax, the IRS is fighting back and proving it's here to stay by becoming more aggressive than ever before. They're sending out more collection notices, filing more tax liens, and collecting billions more in recent years. If you owe, the IRS can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, seize your retirement and even your home if you owe or haven't filed. It's not a question of if the IRS will act, it's a question of when it will act. Right now, Tax Network USA is offering a completely free IRS Research and Discovery Call to show you exactly where you stand and what they can stop before it's too late. Their powerful programs and strategies can save you thousands or even eliminate your debt entirely if you qualify. Don't make a costly mistake. Representing yourself or calling the IRS on your own waives your rights and cost you more money. They are not, and let me repeat, the IRS is not on your side. Get Protected the Right Way with Tax Network USA and start the process of settling your tax matters once and for all today. Call 1-800-958-1000. That's 1-800-958-10000 or visit tnusa.com Bannon for your free discovery call with Tax Network USA. Let me repeat, 800-958-1000. Tell them Bannon sent you. Don't let the IRS be the first to act. Take advantage of first mover advantage. You move.
Bannon’s War Room – Episode 5242: America Is Closing In On A Fiscal Cliff
Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Notable Guests: Neil Irwin (Axios), Michael Kunstler, Holly Kessler, Ying Chen (Shen Yun Performing Arts), Levi Brody
This episode of War Room centers on America’s impending fiscal crisis—often referred to as the "fiscal cliff"—and explores the political, economic, and social ramifications of unsustainable federal deficits. Stephen K. Bannon is joined by economic journalist Neil Irwin, who outlines the dangers of entrenched government debt, lack of political will to solve it, and the risks facing Social Security and Medicare. Other sections dive into grassroots activism in election integrity (Georgia and Virginia), the suppression of traditional Chinese culture and Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party, and the media’s complicity.
Guest: Neil Irwin (Axios) Timestamps: [00:02] to [13:36]
Guest: Holly Kessler (Georgia grassroots activist) Timestamps: [24:15] to [31:33], [46:42] to [47:03]
Guests: Ying Chen (Shen Yun), Levi Brody Timestamps: [32:21] to [43:12], [47:06] to [52:27]
Fiscal Cliff Reality Check:
“We’re about to have a $200 billion Defense Department request for the Iran conflict...from the way people talk about financial options in Washington, you wouldn’t guess that we’re facing this real cliff.”
—Neil Irwin ([03:56])
Roots of the Debt Crisis:
“The discourse wouldn’t reflect it… this is a here and now kind of problem.”
—Neil Irwin ([03:56])
Betting on AI for Rescue:
“We’re like a leveraged buyer…on artificial intelligence right now.”
—Stephen K. Bannon ([10:12])
Grassroots Power:
“I cannot compliment enough the grassroots effort in Virginia and the Commonwealth…overwhelmed with money spent, they’ve self-organized.”
—Stephen K. Bannon ([25:30])
CCP’s Attack on Cultural Truth:
“We have been under attack for the last 20 years. We have faced bomb threats for so long that we’ve almost gotten used to it, which is not right.”
—Ying Chen ([32:21])
Media Complicity on Human Rights:
“There is a systemic failure at the New York Times...they have achieved, wittingly or not, the propaganda goals of Beijing.”
—Levi Brody ([41:25])
Listeners’ Takeaway:
This episode provides a vivid warning about America's mounting fiscal peril and the danger of inaction, elevates the voices of grassroots activists challenging the political status quo, and exposes international repression and media complicity in covering up both China’s cultural crimes and US vulnerabilities.
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