WarRoom Battleground EP 675: 80th Anniversary Of The Battle Of The Bulge

Summary

WarRoom Battleground EP 675: 80th Anniversary Of The Battle Of The Bulge

Release Date: December 19, 2024

Podcast Information:

• Title: Bannon's War Room
• Host: Stephen K. Bannon, WarRoom.org
• Description: WAR ROOM: Pandemic is the first and most comprehensive program to bring the most up-to-the-minute information on the news of the day. Stephen K. Bannon brings medical experts, politicians, business leaders, and those on the front lines for a comprehensive look at the latest news from all and provide their insider insights.

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1. Commemorating the Battle of the Bulge

Introduction The episode marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most significant and grueling battles in American military history. Host Stephen K. Bannon, along with guests Patrick K. O'Donnell and Dave Brat, delve into the historical and contemporary relevance of this monumental conflict.

Historical Insights

• Patrick K. O'Donnell begins by reflecting on the chaos during the Battle of the Bulge, highlighting the severe shortages and harsh conditions faced by American soldiers. At [00:45], he states:

  "During the Bulge, command broke down, supplies broke down, morale broke down, communications broke down, everything broke down. It was every man for himself."

• Dave Brat provides a detailed account of the battle's strategic failures and heroic stands. At [03:20], he explains:

  "It was a surprise attack that shouldn't have been a surprise attack. It was a massive intelligence failure... Hitler launches his last great counteroffensive of World War II."

Valor and Sacrifice Brat shares personal anecdotes from veterans, emphasizing the extreme valor exhibited by units like the 509 Parachute Infantry Battalion. He recounts:

"That unit went in with 850 men, and by the time it was done at the Battle of the Bulge, there were 55 men walking."

Strategic Importance The discussion underscores the battle's critical role in hindering Nazi Germany's efforts to split Allied forces and secure vital territories. O'Donnell draws parallels to contemporary political struggles, urging engagement against authoritarianism.

"This is what you're fighting for. If you continue to look the other way and shut up, then the oppressors, the authoritarians, get total control and total power." [05:45]

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2. Contemporary Political Parallels

Engagement Against Authoritarianism Patrick K. O'Donnell connects historical resilience to present-day political activism. He emphasizes the necessity of civic engagement to prevent the erosion of democratic values.

"This is why this audience is going to have to get engaged. As we've told you, this is the fight." [07:00]

60-Year Analysis Dave Brat further elaborates on the strategic missteps during the Battle of the Bulge and draws analogies to modern political challenges, advocating for strong leadership and preparedness.

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3. Current Affairs and Ukraine

NATO and Eastern European Dynamics The conversation shifts to current geopolitical tensions, particularly regarding NATO's role in Ukraine. Ben Harnwell discusses Poland's stance and the broader implications for American security commitments.

"America's leadership over not just the last four years, but over decades has encouraged and indulged the Eastern European countries to see America as their defense meal ticket." [18:00]

Economic and Military Dependencies Harnwell criticizes the reliance of Eastern European nations on American military and financial support, advocating for a reassessment of America's role in European security.

"When you hear the words NATO, they're talking about the US... let America not be committing a single dollar or a single troop to underwriting Ukraine's security territorial integrity." [22:00]

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4. Budget and Government Spending Analysis

Deficit Concerns Dave Brat and Richard Stern analyze the federal budget's alarming deficit trends, attributing excessive government spending to long-term economic instability.

"If this spending level continues... we come up $624 billion short in only the last two months, the beginning of the fiscal year for the federal government." [27:00]

Impact of Federal Deficit They discuss the repercussions of the growing deficit, including rising interest rates and inflation, warning of a potential economic catastrophe.

"Interest rates right now on mortgages are about three times what they were... because of this ticking time bomb, because of the pressure that the federal debt and deficit put on money markets." [35:00]

Inflation Explained Stephen K. Bannon offers an economic perspective on inflation, clarifying common misconceptions and attributing inflation primarily to monetary policies rather than government spending alone.

"Milton Friedman said inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon... The Federal Reserve... they are accommodating this disaster." [44:00]

Historical Context and Future Outlook Richard Stern draws historical parallels to the fall of the Roman Empire, emphasizing the dangers of elite-controlled governance and unchecked fiscal policies.

"The Roman Empire and Republic got formed around landholders, farmers who were really small business owners... the elites come in who get their profit not through merit..." [47:45]

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5. Call to Action

Civic Engagement and Accountability The hosts urge listeners to hold their elected officials accountable, emphasizing the importance of voting and political participation to counteract fiscal mismanagement and uphold democratic principles.

"Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years." [42:00]

Economic Responsibility Listeners are encouraged to educate themselves on economic policies and advocate for responsible government spending to safeguard the nation's financial future.

"The American people need to start voting straight... we need to spread the war room, spread the word." [44:30]

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Conclusion

The episode of WarRoom Battleground intertwines historical reflections with pressing modern-day political and economic issues. By commemorating the Battle of the Bulge, the hosts draw powerful lessons on resilience and the necessity of active civic engagement to combat contemporary threats to democracy and economic stability. Through insightful discussions and compelling arguments, Stephen K. Bannon and his guests call listeners to action, emphasizing the critical need for informed participation in safeguarding the nation's future.

Notable Quotes:

• Patrick K. O'Donnell on the Battle of the Bulge:

  "During the Bulge, command broke down... every man for himself." [00:45]

• Dave Brat on the intelligence failure:

  "It was a surprise attack that shouldn't have been a surprise attack." [03:20]

• Stephen K. Bannon on inflation:

  "Milton Friedman said inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." [44:00]

• Richard Stern on the DC Cartel:

  "They wield power... steal more and more for the working class." [47:45]

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Note: Advertisements, promotional segments, and non-content sections have been excluded to maintain focus on the episode's key discussions and insights.

Transcript

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

During the Bulge, command broke down, supplies broke down, morale broke down, communications broke down, everything broke down. It was every man for himself. We were inadequately clothed, we didn't have rubber over shoes, we didn't have overcoats, we didn't have gloves, we didn't have scarves. My boots were so bad I would strip newspapers and drapery off of these bombed out houses and wrap my feet in it. You were having trouble breathing because the snow was suffocating you. And consequently we lost a lot of men who frozen, froze to death. This is what you're fighting for. I mean, every day you're out there, what they're doing is blowing people off. If you continue to look the other way and shut up, then the oppressors, the authoritarians, get total control and total power. Because this is just like in Arizona, this is just like in Georgia. It's another element that backs them into a quarter and shows their lies and misrepresentations. This is why this audience is going to have to get engaged. As we've told you, this is the fight. All this nonsense, all this spin. They can't handle the truth. War Room battleground.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Okay, thank you for hanging with us. Obviously, very eventful first hour for the second on the late afternoon early evening show on Wednesday 18th December, year overlord 2024. A couple things I've got to get to. We're going to get back to. Dave Brat's going to join me at the bottom of the hour for continuing coverage of all this fiasco on the finance side and with Sears, all of it. So, Patrick K. O'Donnell, normally we do this on Christmas Day when we talk about the combat history of Christmas, one of the battles we talk about is Battle of the Bulge. But since it is the 80th commemoration of it started, I guess on Monday, I wanted to get everybody up to date, had Senator Tuberville on this morning. One of the reasons I wanted to have him over, his father fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Talk to us about this because I think today more than ever we're seeing pure cowardice on Capitol Hill by many people supposed to be leaders. What was the Battle of the Bulge and why is it so important for us to commemorate this?

[Dave Brat]

Sir Steve this is one of our greatest battles in American history. It was a surprise attack that shouldn't have been a surprise attack. It was a massive intelligence failure that occurred where it was kind of almost a second Pearl harbor, the United States, the oss, for instance, had men that were in that army group, but they were taken out because of political reasons. So they were basically blind. And the Germans hit a sector of the line that was kind of, quote, a quiet front. And there were a number of divisions, American divisions, that were resting and rehabilitating there. And it's here that Hitler launches his last great counteroffensive of World War II. And they assemble at the beginning about over half a million men, thousands of tanks and armed personnel carriers and planes and artillery pieces. And they hit the American line on December 16th in the morning hours. There's a mist that occurs then, and the tanks start to roll. I've interviewed thousands of World War II veterans, and some of my favorite interviews were with the men of the Battle of the Bulge. It was the airborne in particular that I focused on, as well as the Rangers. The 18th Airborne Corps was the only strategic reserve that the Allies had at the time. And this consisted of the 82nd Airborne, 101st and 17th Airborne. But within that group were a lot of independent units. And many of the men that I interviewed were with those independent units. This medallion that I'm wearing around my neck was worn by a member of the 509 Parachute Infantry Battalion. They went in with about 850 men, and they met head on the SS, an SS Division, Panzergrenadier Division, and they stopped it at a place called Sadzo. That unit went in with 850 men, and by the time it was done at the Battle of the bulge, there were 55 men walking. That's how severe the combat was. They were going up against the best of the German army at the time, the Waffen ss. They had some of the best weapons, best equipment, but they were also battling the winner. Steve, this is the coldest winner on record at this time in Europe.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Let me the surprise what Hitler. Because the Russian army people have the strategic context. The Red army is virtually unstoppable and the Germans are fighting rear guard actions. But they get the fact that, you know, this thing could be over, that the Red army is going to get to Berlin. This was a roll of the dice by Hitler to try to break through the Allied lines because the Allies have been on kind of a roll since Patton took over the breakout in Normandy in the hedgerows back in basically July and August, they. This was a roll of the dice for Hitler to try to get to Antwerp, but to give such a hammer blow to the Allies and create so many casualties prior to Christmas that they might do a negotiated deal and then he could turn and really focus on the Russians. So this was a huge risk for him, was it not?

[Dave Brat]

It was. This is a roll the dice. They took some of the best units, the Waffen ss, off the Russian front and moved them to the west. And they wisely recognized that signal communication was essential. So they kept all their wireless communication secret. They used messengers and such. They suspected that their codes were broken potentially. So they really maintained a level of secrecy that was extraordinary. And they built up a massive force in this quiet sector. The. You know, for me, the book the Battle Begins actually a few days before the 16th, when the 2nd Ranger Battalion was in the Hurricane Forest. In their objective is a place called Hill 400. In Hill 400 was important because it was the highest hill in the forest, but it also overlooked the assembly areas. And I wrote Dog Company, which is one of the last. It's a book on the 2nd Ranger Battalion, specifically Dog Company. Dog Company and several other companies actually launch a bayonet attack on the hill on the morning of the 6th and 7th. And it's an extraordinary story. They seize the hill after this bayonet attack, and then the Germans throw everything that they can against it. Fifteen battalions of artillery and several assault guns, multiple companies, parachutists, anything that they can to dislodge the Rangers on the top of the hill, because they realize that the hill overlooks the assembly areas and it might blow the greatest secret of World War II at the time. They don't dislodge the Rangers. They hold the ground for three days, miraculously. But like many things in war, there's an intelligence failure. The proper intelligence doesn't get to the right place. And the greatest secret of World War II at that time, the Battle of the Bulge, then kicks off on December 16th.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Well, this is talking about holding ground. I mean, we'll get to it later because we're going to do kind of day by day coverage of this. But at Bastogne, I mean, this is why the legend of Patton is just not North Africa or Sicily, and it's just not blown across France. But it's really the relief of Bastogne and the 101st Airborne that I think if you had to rate rank in rank order, Patton's heroism and where he became a mythical figure to the American people, because, like I said, people were trained to hit the beach, but people up front about the training of troops and combined arms was not the best. This is why we got so chewed up in the breakout acrossout of Normandy and across France. If he hadn't come we were getting chewed up because the troops were not particularly well trained in the Battle of the Bulge, if memory serves it correctly. I think there's two regiments, kind of infamous regiments, that have virtually surrendered without almost not fighting. And one of the reasons was the junior officers, the field commanders, junior officers and the troops, they just weren't trained that well right this late in the war. They just have time because you're throwing them into the charnel house, because everything was. You got to get to Berlin. And that's why you talk about holding the ground. Second Rangers, the 101st Airborne, these people were surrounded by, you know, crack German troops and are holding out for dear life, where Hitler's trying to draw as many casualties as possible to break the will of the American people.

[Dave Brat]

Patrick One of the great, you know, I mean, one of the great stories is how the 82nd and the 101st are on a moment's notice, literally. They were on leave in and around Paris, in that area, and they round up their men and then they put them on open trucks, any kind of truck that they can find, and then they race to the Bulge. And this is really an epic story. Many of the men don't even have all their weapons or all their ammunition. They just. They load up on the back of these trucks and they race to Bastogne first. But the real critical area is up north, the northern shoulder, so to speak. And it's here that the ss, under Yocum Piper and his task force are trying to break through. They have some of the best weapons in the German army in the SS, and they're punching through, and it's the 82nd, and specifically even these independent units that I mentioned, like the 509, the 517 and the 551st that race up there and are the critical men that stem the flow of the essence. And they're positioned in small villages and hamlets in and around places like Sadzo and Valsteum and others, and they hold the line. It's an epic story. These are light infantry guys that have bazookas, grenades, thermite grenades, you know, little things like that. But they're still holding out against, you know, superior arms of the Waffen ss. And they're. They're. They're stopping them with their, you know, grit and valor. And, you know, I also interviewed. Some of my best interviews are with the men of the Waffen ss. And, you know, I. I try to always interview both sides. And that was an extraordinary story, too, where they. I'll never forget the one interview I had with a guy who was in the 9th SS. He just talked about how they had been sort of defeated for the last several weeks, several months after Normandy. And he had fought on the Eastern front as well. But he talked about how they had the super weapons. You know, I mean, he had he was rolling by a Tiger 2 tank and he remembers looking up into the sky and seeing an ME262 German jet. And he just looked at me and the expression on this guy's face was, yeah, we were back. And that's how they felt. I mean, they had this, this, this elan, this esprit de corps. These were really tough guys on both sides.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Tough, tough to we're going to go through this in the days ahead, of course, we're going to do the combat history at Christmas. Patrick O'Donnell, how do they get to all your writings? You're our best combat historian, particularly you take it down to the small unit level. And I want people to get access to Dog Company, so where they go.

[Dave Brat]

Dog Company and another book, Beyond Valor. Steve, thank you for that compliment. And it's always an honor to be on the War room. Best place to go is as at combat historian on Getter or on or my website, patrickodonnell.com and the book is a bestseller. The latest book, the Unvanquished, is the front of the store at Barnes and Noble nationwide. In fact, they've signed many of the books in many of the stores around the country. You able to get a signed book that's amazing for Christmas presents. Always a good thing. The Unvanquished.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

And Where they Go what's your site where they go again?

[Dave Brat]

Just Amazon.com or barnes and noble.com for the unvanquished and beyond valor or dog company are the books that revolve around.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

I think we're now three or four I think you're three or four mega hits in a row. The War and Posse can't get enough of you.

[Dave Brat]

Posse and you know, just tremendously amazing and I'm very grateful to them and you as well. Steve.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

They love history. They love history. They're patriots. So it's a natural fit. Patrick, love you, brother. See you Christmas Day.

[Dave Brat]

Love you too. Thank you.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

The Combat History of Christmas. We do it every year. I think Patrick and I have done it now, I don't know, 12 years along or did it break radio Tage Gill joins us. Taj, you've been in some cold, tough places before, some hot, tough places too. But coming out of the military, coming out of your service As a Navy seal, you said, hey, I want to make a coffee as good as the equipment that we fight with. That's Warpath. And, brother, I gotta tell you, I don't have a lot of time to catch up with you all the time. But, man, I go around the country, people say, Steve, that Warpath coffee is the best coffee I've ever had. And I said, hey, just go to the site. 6,000 five star reviews. Tasia Gill, what do you got for us, brother? Yeah, we're doing a Christmas sale. We got 20% off for the War Room Posse. As usual, use promo code War Room. That's for the posse. And the website's Warpath Coffee. Just recently we dropped these Mrs. Claus Christmas mugs and then a Mr. Claus Christmas mug. And then also we have peppermint mocha up on the site. That's a new blend. We've never done that before. We just dropped that, I think last week. It was up on the site.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

And then we've got the Christmas mugs out. So 20% off for the War Room Posse. And if you haven't tried Warpath Coffee yet, you've got to try it. It's, it's. It's the best coffee. It's. I'm not just saying that because we run the company. It's actually, it's an amazing coffee. People love it. Just check out the reviews on the site and try it. We roast it on a perforated drum. That's how we get it so smooth. Because we don't burn the beans at all. It's perfectly roasted. And most coffee roasters, they actually burn their beans. We don't. So that's what sets us apart. And it's incredible coffee. Please try it. Merry Christmas. And get a Christmas bug, brother. We're going to have you on the next couple of days. I want everybody to order this so you can get it by Christmas. We're getting up on Christmas morning with these different gifts. You can give from Warpath one more time. Where do they go today to order? I want to make sure everybody can get it and get the big discount where they go. Taj, the website is Warpath Coffee and use promo code War Room. And you'll get 20% off. We're running that sale through Christmas. And like I said, try the mugs. The Christmas bugs. We have a Mr. And Mrs. Claus Christmas mug and then we have a brand new blend. It's Peppermint Mocha. And that's for Christmas. Thank you, brother. Thank you, Taj.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Appreciate it. Thank you.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Steve Warpath, Coffee. Check it out. Today. I'm a coffee aficionado and worked a long time with these guys. This stuff is amazing. You will love it. Ben Harnwell, I've got to get you up. We got about nine minutes, maybe about eight. I gotta jump into another sponsor, but. Very disturbing. You've been on this, and I think we're the only guys to be emphasizing this. But I'm warning people, they're boxing in President Trump right now. This thing in Ukraine, I got into it yesterday with one of the top financial reporters in the world who is a, who's a European and just was, you know, agreed with me on the financial issues facing us and these countries. The government's being turfed out for finance, totally disagreed on Ukraine and had all these just ridiculous arguments about it. And I said, quite frankly, your arguments, all the ones we heard before the war, and look how many dead they are. And they couldn't answer that. When you get up in their face about the casualties and what's happening to the country and where we are negotiating wise, they shut up. But, Ben, you've nailed this. You're getting down to the receipts and these discussions are going on. It's about an American security guarantee. Tell me what you're reading, how you're seeing that, and what does that mean to the people that are talking about it.

[Ben Harnwell]

Good evening, Steve. Let me start off with an article today from Reuters, one of the three great press agencies whose articles you'll read carried in any major newspaper around the world. This is a point here repeating something that Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, had said a few days ago. But here's the repetition of this point, very, very interesting and important. I quote directly, Steve. Tusk reiterated that Poland was not considering sending troops into Ukraine in the event of a negotiated peace, but said his country, one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters, would do everything in its power to make Kyiv's NATO membership a real possibility. Obviously, they're punting. If we're talking NATO, folks, if you hear the words NATO, they're talking about the US Basically ponying up either the funds or the troops. But contrast that, Steve, that was Poland's prime minister. Contrast that with what his finance minister, a guy called Andrej Domanski, said last week. Poland will make joint defense financing a priority during its presidency of the eu given alarm over matters from the Ukraine war to the return of NATO skeptic Poland, NATO skeptic Donald Trump to the White House. Now, what he's saying there, the Polish finance Minister, is that he wants to pull the responsibility here of defending Ukraine in addition to NATO, but also to the eu. So on the one hand you have Poland saying, look, he said this. Is that because Poland's going to take over the presidency, the rotating presidency of the European Council on January 1. He's saying, Poland saying is that one of their strategic objectives is joint EU defence funding. And then what does Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, admit? We're not actually think, actually we're ruling it out. We're not going to send Polish troops ourselves. That is the joke, Steve, that the Eastern European countries are doing. And it is amazing to me as a person living here in Europe, but obviously a great friend and admirer of America. It's amazing to me that America's leadership over not just the last four years, but over decades has encouraged and indulged the Eastern European countries to see America as their defense meal ticket. The European leaders, including Zelensky, are only doing exactly what America has trained them to do over many decades. And here when they say, oh, look, you know, this is really a job for NATO, we don't want to send in our own troops, they're saying quite explicitly, let the Americans pay. They're rich, they're dumb, they'll come in, they'll pick it up, they'll pick up the tab. We don't have to. We, for our part, will conduct an ever more escalatory and ever more incendiary policy towards their number one threat, which is Russia, knowing that America will come in and stand as the ultimate security guarantee via NATO. It's absolutely appalling. I have more to say on that, but I know time is short, so I just want to come back here to this point here, which I'm going to mention this every day now that I come on the show, so important. This is the article from Foreign Policy magazine yesterday. Again, it's not Gateway Pundits, not National Pulse, it's not Human Events. This is the Most, along with Foreign affairs magazine, these are the two most sedate news organizations within the international Rules Based order community. Reading these magazines, Steve, you're listening in to how these international policy wonks are talking amongst themselves. This is their article. Yesterday, European countries would agree to send their troops only if they had, and I quote, an ironclad guarantee from Washington that the United States would intervene if they were attacked. So what? The debate is shifting in terms of security guarantees to Europe. What's actually happening behind the scenes is that it's America who's going to underwrite Europe's underwriting of Ukraine, always America there, always America in the background, American troops, American money are expected to come up and save the day. And this is there's no disengagement here. There's no decoupling. You're ever more being bound in. What I would like to see from the House of Representatives on this occasion with this article in mind, Steve, are questions in the House. Right. First act for President Trump on January 20, let me suggest, is to order the State Department to reveal to him exactly what these ironclad guarantees have been. Because I think President Trump should start saying now that from January 20, European countries should take note. From January 20, any ironclad guarantees that have been offered are null and void. America will not be committing a single dollar or a single troop to underwriting Ukraine's security territorial integrity. Plus, when it comes to the reconstruction of Ukraine, America will not commit a single dollar. These things cannot be repeated more too often, Steve. They cannot be repeated too often.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Unbelievable. 1000% Ben social media where do people get you?

[Ben Harnwell]

Thanks. Get Arnwell. That's my social media platform of choice, folks. I've got some brilliant posts at the top of my feed waiting for your consideration as we speak.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Thank you, brother. Appreciate you.

[Ben Harnwell]

Thanks, Steve.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

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[Dave Brat]

I.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

All right, everyone, welcome to the War room. Dave Bratt sitting in for the great Stephen K. Bannon. An honor to. What a day. I'm going to try to bring you up to speed on all the breaking news with respect to the cr, the continuing resolution. Usually the War room is against all of these things, but as Stephen K. Bannon has said over the course of the past few days, we were willing to take that on the condition that it was sane and that it would bring us kind of just a clean bill to bring President Trump and his agenda into play in 90 days or about 60 days after President Trump takes office. But to bring you up to speed, President Trump just weighed in with the vice president after Elon Musk also weighed in earlier today and sent tremors through Washington, D.C. i think when Elon and Vivek both sent the memo that was probably close to ending it. But then the president, the vice president weighed in and just said it's time for the Republicans to lead and to grow a spine. And so we've been going over this forever, right? I had a win over Eric Cantor. Then we had Speaker Boehner Then we had Speaker Paul Ryan and then we had McCarthy a speaker and all of them. It all had to do with a failure to listen to the American citizens. MAGA Make American great in America first in American citizens first is what we always try to emphasize. These leaders did not pay attention to the voice of the American people. And so right now, the American people are crying out pretty loudly. After the Trump win across the board, this country wanted to see some good news spending going down. Instead, it went way up. I'm gonna have Richard Stern in, in a minute to cover some of this. I'm gonna go over some charts, but I first wanted to read you a few notes that capture the news of the day pretty well from a few friends of mine, Thomas Massie and Dan Horowitz. This one from Dan Horowitz, who's been great on the budget for 10 years, going way back. Just so you know, this is a continuation of the Nancy Pelosi budget bill, right? It basically continues the 7 trillion woken weaponized budget that we all had heartburn over and then extends it with even more Democrat giveaways. Ten to one, Right? Ten Democrat giveaways to one Republican Ask. And our asks are minor. So here's Daniel Horowitz. Just keep in mind that every single budget bill proposed under GOP House control since 2017 has been passed with a greater percentage of Democrat votes, often with unanimous or near unanimous Democrat votes. So what happens is that many bad Republicans can quietly hope yes and vote no because the Democrats take care of the business. That, in a nutshell, is what's going on, right? That's a lot to take in. Let me just read his first sentence. Just every single budget Bill proposed under GOP Republican House control since 2017, I was in back then. I was 2014-18. I was not happy with the budget. And I ran on this and a lot of this. You know, you can blame the politicians to a point, but after a decade, the American people, some of the fault lies. The American people need to start voting straight, right? When you have endless wars and a border invasion and inflation and then this horrendous debt that threatens our very existence economically going forward, it's on us. So we need to spread the war room, spread the word. Next, any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who is leading an advisory commission to cut government spending, posted on X, the social media platform he owns. Have you ever seen a bigger piece of Pork Vivek Ramaswamy weighed in equally strongly. Donald Trump Jr. Seized on a provision highlighted by Trump cheerleader Benny Johnson. And this is written by the lame stream medium would purportedly allow offices, congressional offices to block the disclosure of House data. That means House congressional data, something Johnson tied to potential probes of the panel that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol. That's in this bill. So Donald Trump Jr. Spot on. Blocking the disclosure of House congressional data tied to probes of the panel that investigated the January. I'm sure you've all followed the Cheney news breaking yesterday and today. They wanna block and hold themselves up to non transparency after running on a pro democracy panel. I won't touch Ukraine right now. That'll take us too long. House Republican leaders also weighed in on several other issues defending the bill and especially the farmers and the small farmers. We all got a heart for that. But they linked the farmer piece to national security. And if it really is, if there really is a link between the farm aid and national security, well then that deserves a government shutdown. Let's have that debate. If you're really going to invoke that argument that national security is linked to the farm aid. Hey, if that's true, let's shut her down and have that debate. And the American people will certainly side with US border security. Johnson could easily have tied HR2 in with the other foreign aid bills. Why not? Dan Horowitz, another quote. Yeah. 4.7 trillion in debt over 18 months without a major war or official recession. No way that could lead to inflation. Exclamation point. Sarcasm, Dan Horowitz. I completely agree. Denver, why don't you haul up the chart? This is the chart Steve Bannon has been drawn all of his calculations on. Right. If this spending level continues. Right. What this is showing the receipts by sorts on the left side, the money we take in the individual income taxes up at the top then. So social insurance, corporate income tax, excise taxes, et cetera. And then the outlays by function are on the right hand side. Of course, the outlays are much bigger than the taxes coming in. Social Security, Medicare, national defense. Steve's been covering the NDAA a trillion bucks in order to trumpify the budget to keep Trump from making any inroads. Keep Doge, Elon and Vivek from making any inroads on efficiency with the Department of Defense. Steve always says we're for a strong national defense. China has declared war against us. We're currently launching missiles into Russia. We're all in favor of strong national defense. But the inefficiencies, when we're throwing gazillion dollar bombs after drones, everybody knows we got a national strategic defense catastrophe on our hands. So, net, if you take the left side, the total receipts, and then compare it with the right side, the total spending, we come up $624 billion short in only the last two months, the beginning of the fiscal year for the federal government. So if you extrapolate from 624 billion over two months, that leads to a $4 trillion deficit in one year. So that's why Steve Bannon's been saying in. In over a year, a year and a half, instead of being at 36 trillion in debt, we'll be at 40 trillion. Debts growing exponentially. The bond market vigilantes will kick in, interest rates will go up, inflation will go up, because the Federal Reserve will accommodate. They started lowering the interest rate again. They're preparing Wall street and the rich for a safety net once again. When things collapse, there's clearly bubble, right? Warren Buffett has gone from billion cash to 300 billion in cash over the past month or so. And when Warren Buffett goes into cash, he did that before the 0708 financial crisis, and he bought the whole lot, as they say, after the collapse. So he knows what he's doing. And so a cautionary tale right there. I want to bring in our good friend Richard Stern from the Heritage foundation to cover some of the incidentals, the details that will infuriate you when you hear them. Richard was head of the Budget Committee staff in the House, so he knows his stuff. He served his country for many years. Thanks for being with us, Richard. Take it over.

[Richard Stern]

Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me on. Look, I think the mo. The first thing I would tell everybody is it is 1547 pages long. And if that sounds like you couldn't read that if you had a month of Sundays, trust me, that's part of the design. They want to make sure they can cram as much through this as possible so that there's as little transparency as little real debate about it. You know, we keep hearing about this as a cr. As you were bringing up, you know, continuation of government spending, only eight pages out of 1547, right around 2% of the entire bill is the actual CR. The table of contents on this bill is 14 pages long. So the table of contents walking through all of the swampy stuff that the D.C. cartel has packed into this bill, that table of contents of their goodies for themselves and their Friends, is longer than the part of the bill that is actually what the title of it is. You can't make this stuff up.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, no, thanks. Give us a little bit of the political background. You were on the House, you know, the politics as well. I think that's probably the most important piece here. Right. Trump just won a huge electoral college victory and the popular vote for the American people. We have black, brown, Hispanic, blue collar workers coming our way. Everybody wants to right the ship and get on, get it, get us going in the right direction. The speaker is in a hard spot to an extent, but what's going on here? Right? The House leadership, they've got to know they have to respond to that overwhelming electoral victory. People want to see success, they want to see the beginning initiatives going in the right direction. A cut in spending, they could have offset a lot of this spending for disaster relief or farm relief, et cetera, with something else. And so what gives on the politics here?

[Richard Stern]

So, absolutely, you know, in the last generation, we have seen this massive explosion of the debt. You've always been an amazing ally of those of us who are fighting to let you keep the money that you've earned, not have the government suspended away and squandered the debt. And, you know, the statute showed earlier that half of the spending of the government the last two months has been from deficit spending. All of that turns into inflation. It's the government crowding at everything you would like to do. Now, how did we get here? We got here because Congress and the White House for a generation have sought to give favors to their friends. They've used the national credit card to do it because they know that it sets off an inflation time bomb that takes years to really show itself. You know, the lack of affordability of housing, the spike in interest rates. Interest rates right now on mortgages are about three times what they were when Trump left office the first time. And that's because of this ticking time bomb, because of the pressure that the federal debt and deficit put on money markets. So it's a, it looks like free money because the hangover comes well after the buzz on this one. And so the politics, of course, is for more than a decade or so, Congress is used to this. And in fact, they tried doing the same thing this year. The fiscal year actually runs at the end of September. What did they do? They passed a CR to conveniently put the next vote in the middle of the lame duck. They knew what they were doing. They wanted to get through the election, promising whatever you wanted them to hear. Wait, before Trump could take office and then pass this, an 8 page CR with another 15, 30 pages of their giveaways. And, you know, part of this is 70 pages for pandemic response preparedness. Who knows they're giving themselves a 40% pay raise in this bill and $110 billion strewn across every account you can imagine.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah. And I just want to highlight a point. We haven't made enough on the war room. You know, Milton Friedman said inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. And then the American people get confused because people say, well, this government spending causes inflation, or oil shocks cause inflation, or if Trump does, tariffs, that'll cause inflation. That is not true. None of that's true. The reason it appears true is because whenever government does the spending, the Federal Reserve accommodates that spending by printing more money. Now, if they didn't print more money after the government spends $2 trillion, you would have interest rates going through the roof. Right? And so that's why they do it. But the Federal Reserve, they're big adult people with big brains and they know what they're doing. They are accommodating this disaster. And so I just want to make that point clear to people. When you get confused about inflation, Uncle Milty was not wrong. Now, I want your response to this. We got about six minutes to go, Richard. So when I was in Congress, I always called the budget. And the speaker, by the way, has ultimate power. That's why we've had problems over the past five speakers. They really get to set every spending. When I was on the budget committee, they would set the number and say, you guys have fun twiddling your thumbs. Here's the number. And so the reason that is, there's what's called the giant Excel spreadsheet in the sky that is like the holy of holies or the unholy of holies up in Congress. And so what that means is they have to pay attention that Excel spreadsheet in the sky. And leadership has to pay attention to their donors and the donor class and the money, the money's coming in. And so it's the exact opposite of what America first means. When you hear what the speakership has done in our budget process, let's just go over the top three numbers, right? Economics, take care of the middle class, take care of the poor, et cetera. What do we do after, oh, seven, oh, eight, you always protect, according to the giant Excel spreadsheet in the sky, you protect Wall street and you protect the bankers at all costs. If the middle class has to pay taxes and suffer. Sorry, too bad. Immigration, border invasion. The rich class wants cheap labor. So when you walk into the holy of holies up there in the Congress again, the American people get short, shorthanded, right? Instead of supporting the American people and increasing wages, the cheap labor crowd gets their way. Finally, endless wars. The American people are sadly against this Ukraine funding. We love the Ukrainian people, great Christian folks there, but the U.S. and our CIA and State Department have been poking the bear the red line and the American people want no part. And now Germany's falling apart, France has fallen apart, England's falling apart. Who do you think is going to end up paying all the bills for this if we don't get this right? And so, right. So when you go up to the giant XL spreadsheet in the sky and the speaker walks back into that secret panel, they go in with good intentions. Paul Ryan, he was a heritage guy. Mike goes in. But then they're told or sold a bill of goods and they are told to turn around. So you got about four minutes. Richard, give me your commentary on why in the world is this happening to every speaker over the past 30 years, as you just said.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Absolutely.

[Richard Stern]

And I think you hit the nail on the head, you know, so what I always tell people is that if you think of the founding of the United States, we were put together by people who were visionary leaders, who cared about the people who cared about all Americans who wanted to see the middle class that you were talking about grow. And part of this comes back to the understanding of, frankly, back to how did the Roman Empire and Republic get formed? It was formed around landholders, farmers who were really small business owners. They were the middle class. When did Rome collapse? It's when the land was stolen out from under them by elites in the Senate in the city of Rome. And we have seen that time and time again through history where nations rise on the back of their entrepreneurial, innovative middle class, effectively their small business owners. And then you see these elites come in who get their profit not through merit, not through producing goods and services that help everybody and improve quality of life. But they derive their power from the government. They steal the resources produced by that small business, entrepreneurial, innovative class. And they use that to wield ever increasing power. And that is exactly why I like calling this the DC Cartel. It's a cartel of elites who wield power in the fashion that you were talking about, that we're talking about right here. And so yes, they hold Congress, they hold the speaker over the Kohl's and They force them to vote to steal more and more for the working class from those Americans who produce, who innovate. I appreciate everything you were talking about getting into the details of how inflation works. One of the things I always say is that the federal deficit is the bank robber. The Fed is merely the getaway car driver and you are being robbed. And that's exactly what's happening here. When the Fed creates more money, it's not just an inflation steals value out of your paycheck and out of your life savings, but it artificially inflates the value of hard assets. So it becomes this tide that drowns the people who are working to get ahead and repurposes, redistributes that wealth to those who already have wealth. It moves away from a merit based economy that produces prosperity and moves it to something that resembles the kind of feudalistic powers we used to see in Europe. And it is that kind of imperialism that we have to work hard to stop. But those are the forces you're seeing today on show.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, that's it. Let's dig. You got two minutes. Let's dig a little bit deeper in inflation. I don't think the American people understand because the war room and a few other places you heritage might have explained this, but we've had 25% inflation since Biden took over, right? So you know, 22 plus, you know, three lately. So just say 25%. What people don't understand, it's not only your food prices and gas prices and everything else under the sun, but you've lost 25% of the purchasing power in your retirement plan, your pension, your 401k, et cetera. And so 30 seconds. You know, I don't think the American people understand the pain this hidden tax. When you go to spend your million dollar retirement, it's only going to buy 750,000 if you're lucky enough to have one. Half the country doesn't even have one. Richard Stern, close us out.

[Richard Stern]

Absolutely. And that erodes every. Everything else you rely on erodes the value of your home, everything else you've saved. And you know, 97% of the value of the dollar has had a match lit to it by the Federal Reserve since it was formed. And really, as you were pointing out, as Milton Friedman point out, inflation is purely a tax on hardworking Americans, is a quiet tax you never voted for, but it drains everything you have and gives it to the DC Cartel.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yep, you never, never voted for any of this, folks. And so call up your Congress, call up the Senators, both sides, right? We need to the Democrats get away with being Santa Claus. They give away everything, right? Our press doesn't do any due diligence there. Republicans take it on the chops because they mess up too. They're increasing spending, but they're fighting against Santa Claus. It's just accepted that the Democrats, of course, jack up spending. The press never holds them accountable to anything for the endless wars, for the Ukraine funding for the gigantic deficits, for the inflation. They did the border invasion intentionally. They'll tell you that. And so don't just call the Republicans. We want to call the folks that are not making America great and not making you the American citizen. First place in the list of those who need to be supported by this great country. So keep up the fight and we'll see you soon. Over Christmas. I'll be back on God Bless.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

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[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

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