← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
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- [00:00]
Clay Travis
You're listening to an I Heart podcast.
- [00:05]
Buck Sexton
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- [02:27]
James Blair
Some ladies like Granddad Bod, what can I tell you?
- [02:31]
Buck Sexton
72 year old Belichick, 24 year old Jordan Hudson. The heart wants what the heart wants. Buck. Um, but we begin, we begin with the big beautiful Bill Trump is up on Capitol Hill. Here is my prediction before we go through all this different audio. The bill's gonna pass. This reminds me a bit of the speaker count votes, everything else. Eventually there is going to be a speaker and it reminds Me of the debt ceiling. Oh, my goodness. What's gonna happen? The government's gonna shut down. Oh. Oh, no. And then the debt ceiling resolved. Nothing ever really changes. It's all posturing and negotiation. So that is my prediction of where we are, where we are headed. But let's listen to what Trump said this morning on Capitol Hill before the meeting. He said, this is a big, beautiful bill and we're going to get it done because it has tremendous tax cuts. Cut one.
- [03:29]
Donald Trump
Well, it's not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party. I don't think we've ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don't like or that they're not going to get, but I think we're going to have tremendous. Not luck. We have tremendous talent. This man has done an incredible job of speaking. So I think we're going to. I think we're a very unified party. The Senate's doing great. John Thune is doing fantastically. He's a great guy. And we're going to have a bill, the one big, beautiful bill. I think it's going to be. It's the biggest bill ever passed, and we got to get it done. Tremendous tax cuts for people, tremendous incentives, tremendous regulation cuts. All these regulations that are so horrible.
- [04:11]
Buck Sexton
Okay, so that was before the meeting. Speaker Johnson, after the meeting, and then I'll play some Trump. Here's Speaker Johnson after the meeting of what happens if they don't pass this bill.
- [04:21]
James Blair
They love this president. The people back home love what he's doing. It's historic. And everybody understands the scope and the meaning of this. If we do not accomplish this mission, every one of you, all the American people, are going to have the highest tax increase that you've ever had. Among the debt ceiling cliff that's approaching and all the other problems, this is the bill to do it. I think we're going to get it done, Mr. President.
- [04:42]
Buck Sexton
Okay, and then Trump, after the meeting, one more cut five. And then, Buck, you can weigh in on all the drama on Capitol Hill.
- [04:49]
James Blair
How big it is, how beautiful it is. So beautiful, I can't stop looking at it.
- [04:53]
Buck Sexton
Trump says it was a meeting of love. Cut five.
- [04:56]
Donald Trump
That was a meeting of love. Let me tell you, that was love in that room. There was no shouting. I think it was a meeting of love. There were a couple of things that we talked about specifically where some people felt a little bit one way or the other, not a big deal. And I covered them and Wasn't so much a speech. I covered certain points, and I think there was. I'd be very surprised.
- [05:19]
Clay Travis
No, I didn't tell.
- [05:19]
Donald Trump
Who told you? I said I'm losing.
- [05:21]
James Blair
What we heard inside the room.
- [05:23]
Donald Trump
Who's told you that?
- [05:25]
Clay Travis
You heard from people inside the room.
- [05:28]
Donald Trump
It's totally true. I never use the term. I didn't say losing. I didn't even talk about it. In fact, it's the opposite. I think we're going to get it done. I'm not losing patients. We're ahead of schedule. Anybody that told you that he's a liar.
- [05:40]
Buck Sexton
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
- [05:42]
Donald Trump
I never mentioned the word losing patience, because I'm not losing patience. We're head of. Well, why don't you go back to your source and tell them they're liars? If the source even exists.
- [05:53]
Buck Sexton
All right, so there is Trump getting into it with reporter, Capitol Hill. Buck, your take on all this.
- [05:58]
James Blair
Well, one thing, I'll get into the substance of the bill in just a second. I just want to hear Trump with the reporters. I do think, you know, you and I, we know. Don, Jr. And Ivanka. Could you imagine Trump as your dad, like, trying to tell him why you broke curfew or something? Like, excuse me. Excuse. Like, just. He's, he's very tough to argue.
- [06:17]
Buck Sexton
When we had Junior on at the rnc, if I remember correctly, and he had gotten permission to have a few people over, and Trump got home and there were, like, he said, 100 people at the house, and he was just like, all of them have to be gone. Can you imagine being at that party as a high school kid? Trump walks in and he's like, you're all gone. Like, he's not the dad.
- [06:40]
James Blair
He's not the dad that you wanted to be rolling kegs in when he wasn't looking. I'm just throwing that out there. Like, I can tell, you know, I met him when I was 13 or 14 for the first time. And, yeah, he was. Nobody was messing with him then, and nobody's messing with him now. Okay? The big beautiful bill. It's huge. It's beautiful. Let's get into it. The biggest thing in this clay. And, you know, I spoke to, and you can check it out. It's on the Clay and Buck podcast network. In the buck brief, I spoke to the head of the National Economic Council, and I just said, my friend, you are. Respectfully, he's a PhD from Harvard in economics. And I said, you are an econ guy. I didn't want to say Nerd. But I mean, I think econ nerd would be respectfully said here. I said, take me through the whole thing. And so we just sat there and I went through it. I'll give you some of the highlights of it and what is in this that really matters to people and why Trump is so excited about it. The first thing is it's one of those, if you don't do it, really bad things are going to happen, meaning the tax raises that would kick in because the 2017 Trump tax cuts are made permanent here. So I know it's confusing, but if the stuff, if you don't do this, they would expire and you would go back to much higher tax rates. So that would be a shock to the system in a bad way, right? Yeah, that's one part of it. You're extending tax cuts. You're extending tax cuts really across a whole, a whole range, whether it's for, for businesses, for individual filers and the average American family on an annual basis. And again, this is from the chairman of the National Economic Council. And I said, let's nerd out, buddy. Let's get the. It's something like 7 to $12,000 of additional money in the bank for you at the end of the year for the average American household. Okay. That's not. I think that's such an important. Because they're going to say it's for the rich, it's for the billionaires. The Democrats who rely on their plurality of billionaires to fund their party are always so upset about billionaires. Right. This has nothing to do with the billionaires. This is about the average American household. And you're going to have think about that. If someone told you, hey, you're going to have an extra ten grand next year at the end of the year, you'd say, wow, that's great. Well, that's what this does for the average household. So I think that's really important. It's also there's the salt deduction component of this. So there's the cap for this is going to be changed. They're going to deduct more of the regional taxes from the federal tax bill. That's actually good for blue states. And I think that's probably for some blue state Republicans or, or purple state Republicans, something they're happy to see the big one, Clay. And I said, wow, they're actually doing this. No tax on tips. That, that is a real thing. I remember that was so popular and cool when Trump said it on the campaign trail that Kamala, for Whatever campaign she was running, she was like, yeah, I think we should have no tax.
- [09:38]
Buck Sexton
She just blatantly copied it. It was very lucky.
- [09:41]
James Blair
Yeah, totally lifted it. She was plagiarizing Trump. One thing that I'm going to say people on the right are annoyed about is the green energy tax credits part of this. The bill's initial tax eliminates tax credits for electric vehicles within two years, phases out credits for low carbon electricity, including wind and solar. New requirements on these credits, but doesn't totally zero. There are people that are criticized. I'm just going to tell you what's getting criticized. They're criticizing this for not getting like, there should be. The whole Green New Deal scam stuff should all be completely root and branch taken out. Some Republicans are saying, ok, we had Ron Johnson on yesterday talk a bit about this. They tighten up SNAP benefits, which is food stamps, I guess we don't like to call it food stamps anymore. They're tightening that up so they think there'll be some savings there. Limiting funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had been Elizabeth Warren's little fiefdom that didn't actually help consumers, but was a good way to harass disfavored businesses by Democrats, increases the debt limit $4 trillion and then some substantial funding boosts for Pentagon priorities and deportation. So, Clay, I think those are the big top lines of where this, where this thing is, where this thing stands. And the biggest critic, it's over a thousand pages, eleven hundred pages. Just remember that when somebody's like, I've read the bill. Really?
- [11:07]
Buck Sexton
Have you really?
- [11:08]
James Blair
Yeah, you know, yeah, they've read the section of the bill that their lobbyists wanted included, I'm sure. But this is 1100 pages. And the part of it that I think people on the right, conservatives are a little frustrated on is just that it's extending the debt ceiling $4 trillion and doesn't really have the big meaty cuts that from Doge you would have liked to see. That's the part of it that's. But if you're talking about, if you're talking about juicing the economy, I mean, this thing, I think is going to be rocket fuel for the economy. So that's why Trump's so excited about it.
- [11:42]
Buck Sexton
Look, it's not a perfect bill. And the big issue, which if you're around our age, meaning if you're 40s or younger, that you're going to have to deal with over the next two generations, is the national debt's out of control. And the only real way we've told you this before, the only real way to fix the national debt is to address Social Security and Medicare. And if you look, I believe Social Security, Medicare, defense and the interest, I believe that's 86% of the entire federal budget. I think that's the number. So even if you eliminated every other part of the federal government, 86% of it would still exist just based on those four things. And unfortunately, as our debt grows, the percentage of interest that we have to pay on that debt grows massively, such that we now pay more, typically, unfortunately now for the debt than we do national defense. And there is an argument that if you look at history, as soon as the debt expenditures exceed the defense expenditures, your country, your civilization, has begun a decline. So first segment on Tuesday, no one in the Democrat Party, no one in the Republican Party really wants to address Social Security and Medicare. And until those issues are addressed, then there is virtually no opportunity to balance a budget. That's the reality. Now, I agree with Ron Johnson when he says, like, hey, we should be going back to pre Covid baseline spend expenditures. That's way better. That's the better solution here in my mind because we basically have embedded the cost of a growing government from COVID and we're continuing. And by the way, when you have 21% inflation, your expenses are going to go up substantially just to keep pace with the cost of goods. But this is the reality in which we live.
- [13:57]
James Blair
There's also on the good side of things. So I can give you the quick negative overview, not of the bill, but just of the US Fiscal trajectory is we are not stopping this train at all, really. And the next, I think four years on the train are going to be awesome. So there's that. Right. I think the Trump administration, you're going to see everyone's going to be doing great. And that's fantastic. And you know, that's nothing to sneeze at. But the other side of it is we haven't, we haven't suffered enough as a country from the overspending. When we've suffered enough, people will want to do something about it. And we, this is, I almost think it's a waste of time to get into beyond that right now, Clay, because every time we could say we're spending too much money, look at the math. You can just line up, we'll just get calls all day from everyone saying, you absolutely cannot touch my Medicare. Yeah, okay. That's where we are.
- [14:50]
Buck Sexton
And that's what Trump has said. You can't trust if you can't touch Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, basically, there's nothing to talk about.
- [14:57]
James Blair
People are just saying we haven't suffered enough as a country from the fiscal profligacy. And that means that we just got to keep going and keep on hoping that we grow and grow and grow this economy. We got hundreds of billions coming in from the tariffs, by the way, which you're hearing. You're not getting a lot of conversation about that right now in the media because the tariffs are going to bring in additional revenue to the government. Remember, we used to fund, until the 20th century, we funded this country's government on tariffs overwhelmingly. I mean, that was, that was the primary source. So it is a thing. But yeah, hopefully we can grow, grow the economy much faster and, and find, you know, greater efficiencies that we'll be able to kind of keep riding this thing out. But yeah, I'm with you. It's not even worth the debt bomb. The debt bomb is ticking. Nobody wants to fix it, so why whine about it? Trump is doing the best thing he can do for the economy this year and hopefully that means we lead into better things in the years after it. But yeah, that's, that's kind of where I am on this. It's also like having the debt ceiling fight. No, it's not even fun to talk about anymore because they're just going to raise the debt ceiling. If I'm wrong, let me know. Trying to stir the pot a little bit. 800-282-2882. Look, we admire Pure Talk for a lot of reasons here, and not just because they provide the single best wireless service. They also happen to be led by a military veteran. Every member of the Pure Talk team believes that every man and woman who faithfully served this country deserves to proudly fly an American flag made in America. And that's why Pure Talk is on a mission to give an allegiance flag, the highest quality American flag, to 1,000 US veterans in time for Memorial Day. Just switch your cell phone service to Pure Talk this month and a portion of every sale will go to provide these high quality flags to deserving veterans. With plans from just $25 a month for unlimited talk texts and plenty of data, you can join America's most dependable 5G network while cutting your cell phone bill in half. The average family saves over a thousand dollars a year. Just dial pound250, say the keywords clay and buck, and PureTalk's US customer service team will get you switched hassle free in as little as 10 minutes. Again, dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck. Dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck. To support veterans and switch to America's wireless company, PureTalk. Clay and Buck kicks off right now. Thank you for being here with us all across this great land. It was quite a post on X from Alina Haba, the interim US Attorney for New Jersey. She wrote on her X account that Congresswoman Lamonica Mickey Iver had been charged for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement when she visited the detention center. A couple other members of Congress back on the 9th of May in New Jersey, and then put out a statement from her office. Clay, no one is above the law, politicians or otherwise. It is the job of this office to. To uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work. She had sought a resolution without bringing criminal charges, according to the New York Times. But Ms. McIver declined. She says now, this is Congresswoman McIver, that the ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation. These charges are entirely political. Of course, we knew she was going to say that. But you can see body camera footage released by the Department of Homeland security shows Representative McIver getting into it. Clay tussling with members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One might even say, Clay, obstructing, perhaps obstructing an official proceeding or official law enforcement activity, something that all the cops listening know. Yeah, if they're trying to make an arrest and you're like, no, that's my buddy, and you hip check the cop so that he can't actually put the cuffs on, you're going away, too. That's not okay. Now, there's a lot, There's a lot going on here, Clay. Right. There's the law and there's the law and order angle of this. The no one is above the law, which Democrats certainly are familiar with as a phrase because they used to say it with such frequency to justify their absurd prosecutions. Four of them, one year, never been convicted or charged with the crime in his entire life. Almost 80 years Trump goes without ever committing a crime. And then four in one year that also happened to be the same year he's running for reelection to be president. Gee, what a coincidence. Almost like finding out Biden's cancer after the election that they had to know about before. Quite a coincidence. But for me, this is. They created this environment. And I'm happy we can talk about the immigration piece of this, too. Clay. Like, really, they, they're, they're willing to throw their, physically throw their bodies in front of ICE agents to stop deportations from happening. Members of Congress, people that write the laws, or at least pretend to write the laws, but the law is the law. No one is above it. Democrats made us all believe, or rather made us all hear from them, that they believe this, and now they have to live with it. And I don't think they're going to like the consequences because the Trump administration has decided, you know what? We'll take you up on, that your terms are acceptable. Democrats.
- [20:36]
Buck Sexton
I think this was and is, and this will not surprise you, Buck, but Lamonica McIver, the arrested congresswoman, texted no one is. I mean, tweeted, no one is above the law after Trump was arrested. So, you know, this. This talking point that they all had of no one is above the law. Clearly they thought they were above the law, but it's not a good position to be in when you are arrested to have on the record called your political adversaries out as being. As no one is, being above the law. Now, do I think that this is some massively violent behavior that she engaged in? No. But I do think that there are countless people who were involved in January 6th that engaged in less than what she did on that day that were charged with crimes, that were hunted down by the FBI, that had to plead guilty to minor misdemeanors and received massive punishment as a result. So if you put it in that context, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, which is probably a phrase that I've never used before in the history of radio, but seems apropos here. And I think what it represents is there have been a lot of you, and I am among them, and Buck is among them, that said, the only real way we can end lawfare in this country, one Trump winning, I think, showed Democrats that their idea of putting him in prison for the rest of his life and bankrupting him and trying to use the full apparatus of the Department of Justice against him, as well as other state governments in Georgia and New York, was not a way that was going to be politically beneficial to them. And I think the results of the 2024 election were wildly important for that reason. But the second part of this is they have to feel the danger themselves of Lawfare redounding at them as the paying the consequences here. And I'm curious how aggressively the Democrat Party will come out and defend her. Because I will say this, Buck, remember the judge in Milwaukee that they were saying, oh, like this is an unprecedented act. And then people looked into it and then a grand jury in Milwaukee indicted her. That story's kind of vanished. They tried to make a lot of hay of that. I don't think that the average person, because it's on video, is going to watch this and say, hey, you know what? This woman seems like she's being treated unfairly.
- [23:21]
James Blair
You know, who's not going to all of a sudden cry big tears for the situation? Tom Holman, I think we could just call it. I think if he had a nickname, like if this was professional wrestling, it would be the Enforcer, because I think he is the enforcer of immigration law. Here he is saying that she broke the law, this is cut 10, and she's going to be held to account. You can push back against President Trump's immigration agenda, whatever. You can protest, but you cannot cross that line. You can't knowingly impede a law enforcement officer, ICE officer. It's a crime. You can't knowingly conceal and harbor an illegal amen from ice. You cannot commit criminal trespass to our facilities and endanger our employees. And you certainly can't put hands on an ICE agent. So, you know, she's, she's going to have to pay the consequences for doing what she did. She broke the law and we're going to hold her accountable. This is where we have to be reminded that the Democrats, despite whatever they may say as a party publicly, and I think even that you could argue has trended in this direction, but they really don't believe that illegal immigration is a crime. They don't believe that it's illegal. And so to them, anyone who's being held in a detention facility for immigration related issues is essentially a political prisoner. And therefore, whatever they have to do in order to bring attention to or even impede what's going on is morally justified. They, and this is what, what. As more and more Americans figure this out, we have greater clarity on this issue and we can handle this better. The Democrats do not believe that anyone should be punished for being in the country illegally. And I mean anyone. They fundamentally do not believe that if someone is here, it doesn't matter. If they're a mass murderer on behalf of Ms. 13, doesn't matter. Those crimes, sometimes Democrats will agree with this, are bad. Like the killing of all the people. Ok, they'll say that's bad, fine. But the crime of status in the country is not a crime to them. They do not believe that there is any infraction worthy of punishment that comes from breaking immigration laws. And that is why you have Members of Congress who will throw their bodies in the way and scream about this and, you know, all this mayhem that they will cause around it. It's because fundamentally, once you understand their view of it. Yeah, of course. Like, if you and I were sitting here, we're talking about people who are being locked up for absolutely no reason whatsoever in our minds, we'd say, well, that's a huge problem. Like, we got to address this. That's what they think about illegals.
- [26:02]
Buck Sexton
Yeah. And look, I think the ultimate question here is why Democrats are still floundering to such an extent. They're getting arrested to fight for the rights of illegal immigrants. They're getting on airplanes to fly to El Salvador to advocate for wife beating, human trafficking, gang members who should never have been in this country. And I think a lot of regular, everyday Americans are asking the question, why are Democrats willing to fight so hard for people who are not citizens of this country to continue to be able to illegally break the law here? And I also think that a lot of people are saying that this is indicative of them picking issues that the average American does not agree with. And the only reason this makes sense, the only reason this makes sense is they have a plan to one day make all of these people citizens of the United States, and they believe it will benefit them. That. I mean, is there any other explanation that remotely makes sense for their behavior right now? And let me just point this out. This is a black congresswoman from New Jersey, right? This is where Lamonica McIver is from. Do you think the average black constituent? Because I bet her district is a majority black district. That would be my guess. Team. You can look that up and I'll correct it. If Lamonica McIver has been representing a largely white area of the country, I tend to think that's probably unlikely. Do you think Black constituents of Lamonica McIver feel as if they are being strongly represented by their congresswoman when she is being arrested outside of an ICE detention center? Is that advocating for their best interest? I think there are a lot of black residents. We saw this happen, certainly with more black residents in inner cities starting to vote Trump. We saw this. New York City, we saw it in many parts of the country, but New York City in particular. But, Buck, remember all the Chicago inner city residents who were saying, wait a minute, you're taking over our gyms, our sports fields that our kids are supposed to be able to play on, to give benefits to illegal filling their kids.
- [28:19]
James Blair
Classrooms with correct kids who have a tremendous amount of trauma from the, the journey often and speak no English, by the way, overwhelmingly.
- [28:29]
Buck Sexton
Look, we have a limited amount of resources that we have to provide support for underprivileged American citizens. And if your community is feeling like it's underserved, are you looking over your shoulder saying, hey, these people who've only been here for a couple of months, my families have been here for generations, for decades, and we're struggling to stay ahead. And you're going to give resources to all these illegal immigrants? I mean, just honestly, I can't imagine that Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, that her average constituent says, hey, this is what I want you out fighting for. This is why we sent you to Washington D.C. and at some level, and I think the left has really hard.
- [29:12]
James Blair
Here, the Marxist left in this country. I mean, I repeat myself, right? But the, the, the hard left, the true left in America has replaced, you know, the modern Marxists have replaced class solidarity with race solidarity. And so the, the street disruptors, community organizers, Social Justice Brigades, if you will, they, they now view issues. Remember we talked about this even in the context of Israel, Palestine, like what, why, why will you have black members of Congress who are over, you know, generally speaking, overwhelmingly pro Palestinian? I mean, you know, make a case if you have solidarity with people who have suffered persecution. The Jews have suffered more than their share of persecution historically. But why do black American congressmen identify with Palestinians? Because Palestinians are considered brown, even though there are Palestinians and I've met them because I've been to the west bank, et cetera, as has Clay now, who have red or blonde hair and blue eyes. That's a whole other thing. Okay? And you know, very, very much you would think white or Caucasian, there's a. But put that aside. They think Palestinians are brown. Therefore black members of Congress have a Marxist solidarity, but it's based on race with the Palestinians. Same thing with the illegal immigrants. At some level, what you're pointing out is what you would think black Democrat members of Congress would focus on first and foremost, which is if they are, and a lot of them are in a predominantly African American, black American district, are illegal immigrants generally making the daily lives of black Americans better in their neighborhoods, in their school, are they helping the resource allocation that those communities get, or are they a competition for that? And of course, we know the answers to this. But for the cameras, racial solidarity with the nonwhite illegal immigrants is where the left, the Marxists, the social justice construct in this country goes.
- [31:18]
Buck Sexton
Here's the breakdown, by the way. 48 and a half percent black district, 21.4% Hispanic, 18.8% white. So just shy of a majority black district, but a massive, substantial overall number of the population is black. And it is a overwhelming Democrat district by she won in the last congressional race based on what I'm looking to here, 81.4% of the vote to 15.6% to the Republican representative. So I mean, again, we're talking about, in my opinion, someone who is not representing remotely the majority of the citizens of her district. And I would think that would not be favorably received. Maybe some of you are out there listening to us right now in that New Jersey 10 congressional district and want to weigh in on whether you think she is representing UL 800-282-2882.
- [32:24]
James Blair
Yeah, definitely. Give us, give us a call. I've been an investor in gold for a long time.
- [32:30]
Buck Sexton
We are joined now by James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff, AKA the Oracle, joining us now. All right. So that's a pretty cool nickname. And, and I imagine that doesn't stink to be the White House chief of staff. That is the known as the Oracle. So let me ask you for your predictions, Oracle on how the big beautiful bill is going to go and what should this audience know about it from your perspective?
- [33:01]
Clay Travis
Appreciate that. Good to be with you guys. I think that the big beautiful bill will get out of the House this week. I think that obviously if it gets out of the House this week, then it will go over to the Senate. They'll work on it for a few weeks. And the goal is to get it on the president's decks by July 4th, which I think will happen. Look, we've got to get this done. This bill has so much to love, guys. First of all, let's talk about the border first and foremost, which nobody's talking about anymore because the president has driven illegal border crossings to zero since he came into office. But this bill funds Border enforcement, adds 10,000 new ICE officers, gives them pay raises, gives us everything we need logistically to not only keep the border secure for the president's entire term in office so we don't have to come back and do this again, but also to deport people and get millions of illegal immigrants out of this country, which is something that a majority of the American people support. Secondarily, it gives us the funding we need for our military. You know that the president is involved in complex negotiations across the globe to bring peace that's backed up through strength. And it gives us the funding to modernize our military and make sure it's the most lethal fighting force in the world for the foreseeable future. But then the big thing that is does it everyone's talking about is the tax cuts. This renews the President's historic tax cut from 2017 that was the biggest in history, and then adds more taxes on top everything he campaigned on. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime pay. It will be the single largest tax cut for middle and working class Americans in the history of the country. And it will do that while still generating more than a trillion dollars right now, $1.7 trillion in savings for the American taxpayer, which is twice as much savings that has ever been delivered by Congress in the last 30 years, and that was almost 30 years ago under Bill Clinton. So we're getting the country's fiscal house in order, we're giving people money back in their pocket that they earned. We're deregulating, we're unleashing energy, we're securing the border, we're rebuilding the military. We're doing what President Trump campaigned on, plain and simple. So there's still some little issues being worked out with a few guys at the edges. But in the big picture, I think we're right on track and I think we'll get everybody there.
- [35:18]
James Blair
James, appreciate you being with us and certainly a lot to be excited about. That is in, in this bill, for those who are concerned about the debt, who want the, the spirit and action of Doge to be enshrined in some way in, in this bill, what do you say to, to them and what can we point to that deals with getting that fiscal house in order, not just for this year, but in the longer term?
- [35:46]
Clay Travis
Yeah, great question. Well, first of all, it' note that this is by far the biggest savings which I mentioned a minute ago. But let's put some points on it back in back when Bill Clinton was president, Congress passed a package that saved like $800 billion in spending cuts. Okay. This one's looking like 1.6, 1.7 currently, and they'll still be iterated on a little bit as it goes through the Senate and everything, but more than double. Okay? Congress literally has not done anything like that in over 30 years. So right there, those are the biggest savings that we've ever seen. We're doing something called rescissions, which is the stuff that Doge has found, this bad stuff. We go out, the Congress votes on it, and what's called a rescissions package, that's actually separate from this bill, but then it permanently Pulls out that stuff out of the budget, okay? There's savings and then in that. And then, you know, what's not counted in this bill, and it's just a stupid quirk of how legislative scoring works, is tariff revenue. The President is bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars of tariff revenue right now. And that money's not spent, okay? That money's not being spent in the big beautiful bill or anything else. That's just money in the treasury that goes straight to deficit reduction. So sometimes, you know, when they call it the Congressional Budget Office, which kind of puts out the church, they're not being honest because they don't add in the tariff revenue and some of the rescissions and the different things that are happening. So you're not really seeing the full picture. But the fact is, this is a huge step in the right direction for getting the country on a better fiscal footing, and we're unlocking growth. You know, there's three things we have to do, really, to get to a balanced budget, which the President hopes to achieve at some point before he leaves office. But, you know, at least in the foreseeable future, we've got to grow, okay? We've got to unleash our economy. We do that through tax cuts. We do that through deregulation. We do that through getting government out of the way. We're doing that. Right. That's partly the President, partly Congress, partly Doge. All of those things combined. Second, we got to do spending reductions. I already told you the historic nature of those spending reductions that we're doing. And then the third thing is we've just got to deregulate and we've got to bring more jobs in. And ultimately, you know, in 2017, we actually collected more money in taxes, which improved the fiscal picture as a result of the tax cuts than we would have if we didn't have the tax cuts. That's because more jobs were created, more people were paying taxes. So we've got to add revenue. The tariffs are doing that. We've got to cut taxes. We've got to cut regulation, unlock the economy through growth. We're doing that. And then we've got to do spending reductions. It's going to take all three of those things, concerted effort over a period of time. But if we just stick through it here and we are able to do it for four years instead of two, which means we have to win the House majority back in the midterms, then we'll be able to really be on a great, sustainable fiscal path. So I think we're on the path, but, you know, it's not all going to be done in one bill. We're going to have to do a couple. And this is a monumental first step, way bigger than anyone expected months ago. So we're really proud of that. And we just got to get it done.
- [38:50]
Buck Sexton
We're talking to James Blair, White House Deputy chief of staff. You mentioned the border. I also think this is important. And the tax cuts expire. So for people out there who don't realize this, what happens if the bill doesn't pass?
- [39:05]
Clay Travis
Well, if this bill doesn't pass, first of all, economic forecasters are said we're going into a recession because taxes are going to go through the roof. All of these tax cuts we passed in 2017 will go away at the end of this year. Okay? So the average family is going to pay thousands more in taxes. If the bill doesn't pass next year, businesses are going to pay thousands more in taxes. We're not going to have the money to secure our border. Okay? All of these terrible things are going to happen. It'll be the largest tax hike in history if this bill doesn't. So that's just not an option. Right. If we don't extend the debt ceiling, the country is going to default on its debt, which could drive us into a global depression. Right. This is not our fault.
- [39:45]
Buck Sexton
Fault.
- [39:45]
Clay Travis
This is Joe Biden's fault. We're just here cleaning up the mess, and that's what we have to do. It's not anything anybody wants to do. It's something that we have to do. The country can't default on its debt or people would pay the price in a massive way I don't think any of us can even fathom. And then on the border, look, we've got to ultimately have money to pay for planes and law enforcement to get people out of the country. And that money is coming in this bill, and that is such a critical piece. Everyone needs to understand that illegal immigrants in this country level that Joe Biden brought in are a huge drain on our system. When you talk about the spending, I mean hundreds of billions of dollars being caused by illegal immigrants being in this country and being on public programs are in place for American citizens when we get them out of the country, that's actually gonna lower our spending levels massively without doing a single thing. One of the changes in the big beautiful bill will be getting millions of illegal immigrants off of Medicaid. O they're costing Medicaid billions of dollars a year. So these open borders that we have. We have to not only have the border secure, but we got to get these people out so they stop draining our public resources. All of this stuff has to work together to get our country on the right fiscal path forward.
- [41:03]
James Blair
Appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much for giving us some of the details on the big beautiful bill. What can you give us a sense as to what you what this announcement is supposed to be about? The golden do.
- [41:17]
Clay Travis
I'm going to let the president break that news, but it's very exciting stuff. Look, the president and something he's talked about for a long time. The president wants to make make sure the homeland is secure. He wants to make sure that other countries are deterred from ever thinking about even even remotely thinking about attacking our country. So it's all part of his vision of having the most lethal fighting force in the world. And that is what really gives us the leverage to sit at the table and demand peace not only for and our allies, but everywhere across the globe. And the world has been better off when America has been strong in the world. And that is part and parcel having a strong military is part and parcel of that effort. Peace through strength.
- [41:59]
Buck Sexton
Thank you so much for the time. Keep up the good work and we'll talk to you again soon.
- [42:04]
Clay Travis
Thank you. Guys.
- [42:05]
Buck Sexton
That's James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff. We are joined now by James Blair, White House Deputy Chief Chief of Staff, AKA the Oracle, joining us now. All right, so that's a pretty cool nickname. And and I imagine that doesn't stink to be the White House Chief of staff Deputy. That is the known as the Oracle. So let me ask you for your predictions Oracle on how the big beautiful bill is going to go and what should this audience know about it from your perspective?
- [42:41]
Clay Travis
Appreciate that. Good to be with you guys. I think that the big beautiful bill will get out of the House this week. I think that obviously if it gets out of the House this week, then it will go over to the Senate. They'll work on it for a few weeks. And the goal is to get it on the president's decks by July 4th, which I think will happen. Look, we've got to get this done. This bill has so much to love, guys. First of all, let's talk about the border first and foremost, which nobody's talking about anymore because the president has driven illegal border crossings to zero since he came into office. But this bill funds Border enforcement, adds 10,000 new ICE officers, gives them pay raises, gives us everything we need logistically to not only keep the border secure for the President's entire term in office so we don't have to come back and do this again. But also to deport people and get millions of illegal immigrants out of this country, which is something that a majority of the American people support secondarily. It gives us the funding we need for our military. You know that the President is involved in complex negotiations across the globe to bring peace that's backed up through strength. And it gives us the funding to modernize our military and make sure it's the most lethal fighting force in the world for the foreseeable future. But then the big thing that it does, that everyone's talking about, is the tax cuts. This renews the President's historic tax cut from 2017 that was the biggest in history, and then adds more taxes on top everything he campaigned on. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime pay. It will be the single largest tax cut for middle and working class Americans in the history of the country. And it will do that while still generating more than a trillion dollars right now, $1.7 trillion in savings for the American taxpayer, which is twice as much savings that has ever been delivered by Congress in the last 30 years. And that was almost 30 years ago under Bill Clinton. So we're getting the country's fiscal house in order. We're giving people money back in their pocket that they we're deregulating, we're unleashing energy, we're securing the border, we're rebuilding the military. We're doing what President Trump campaigned on, plain and simple. So there's still some little issues being worked out with a few guys at the edges. But in the big picture, I think we're right on track and I think we'll get everybody there.
- [44:58]
James Blair
James, appreciate you being with us and certainly a lot to be excited about that is in, in this bill. For those who are concerned about the debt, who want the, the spirit and action of DOGE to be enshrined in some way in this bill. What do you say to them and what can we point to that deals with getting that fiscal house in order, not just for this year, but in the longer term?
- [45:26]
Clay Travis
Yeah, great question. Well, first of all, it's important to note that this is by far the biggest savings, which I mentioned a minute ago. But let's put some points on it back in. Back when Bill Clinton was president, Congress passed a package that saved like 800 billion doll spending cuts. Okay. This one's looking like 1.6, 1.7 currently no still be, you know, iterated on a little bit as it goes to the Senate and everything, but more than double, okay? Congress literally has not done anything like that in over 30 years. So right there, those are the biggest savings that we've ever seen. We're doing something called rescissions, which is the stuff that Doge has found, this bad stuff. We go out, the Congress votes on it, and what's called a rescissions package that's actually separate from this bill, but then it permanently pulls out that stuff out of the budget, okay, Their savings. And then, you know, what's not counted in this bill, and it's just a stupid quirk of how legislative scoring works, is tariff revenue. The President is bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars of tariff revenue right now, and that money's not being spent, okay? That money's not being spent in the big beautiful bill or anything else. That's just money in the treasury that goes straight to deficit reduction. So sometimes, you know, when they call it the Congressional Budget Office, which kind of puts out the charge, they're not being honest because they don't add in the tariff revenue and some of the rescissions and the different things that are happening. So you're not really seeing the full picture. But the fact is, this is a huge step in the right direction for getting the country on a better fiscal footing, and we're unlocking growth. You know, there's three things we have to do, really, to get to a balanced budget, which the President hopes to achieve at some point before he leaves office. But, you know, at least in the foreseeable future, future, we've got to grow, okay? We've got to unleash our economy. We do that through tax cuts. We do that through deregulation. We do that through getting government out of the way. We're doing that. Right. That's partly the President, partly Congress, partly Doge. All of those things combined. Second, we got to do spending reductions. I already told you the historic nature of those spending reductions that we're doing. And then the third thing is we've just got to deregulate and we've got to bring more jobs in. And ultimately, you know, in 2017, we actually collected more money in taxes, which improve the fiscal picture as a result of the tax cuts than we would have if we didn't have the tax cuts. That's because more jobs were created, more people were paying taxes. So we've got to add revenue. The tariffs are doing that. We've got to cut taxes. We've got to cut regulation, unlock the economy through growth. We're doing that. And then we've got to do spending reductions. It's going to take all three of those things, concerted effort over a period of time. But if we just stick through it here and we are able to do it for four years instead of two, which means we have to win the House majority back in the midterms, then we'll be able to really be on a great sustainable fiscal path. So I think we're on the path, but, you know, it's not all going to be done in one bill. We're going to have to do a couple. And this is a monumental first step, way bigger than anyone expected months ago. So we're really proud of that. And we just got to get it done.
- [48:31]
Buck Sexton
We're talking to James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of staff. You mentioned the border. I also think this is important. And the tax cuts expire. So for people out there who don't realize this, what happens if the bill doesn't pass?
- [48:45]
Clay Travis
Well, if this bill doesn't pass, first of all, economic forecasters are said we're going into a recession because taxes are going to go through the roof. All of these tax cuts we passed in 2017 will go away at the end of this year. Okay? So the average family is going to pay thousands more in taxes. If the bill doesn't pass next year, businesses are going to pay thousands more in taxes. We're not going to have the money to secure our border. Okay? All of these terrible things are going to happen. It'll be the largest tax hike in history if this bill doesn't. So that's just not an option. Right. If we don't extend the debt ceiling, the country's going to default on its debt, which could drive us into a global depression. Right. This is not our fault. This is Joe Biden's fault. We're just here cleaning up the mess and that's what we have to do. It's not anything anybody wants to do. It's something that we have to do. The country can't default on its debt or people would pay the price in a massive way I don't think any of us can even fathom. And then on the board border, look, we've got to ultimately have money to pay for planes and law enforcement to get people out of the country. And that money is coming in this bill, and that is such a critical piece. Everyone needs to understand that illegal immigrants in this country level that Joe Biden brought in are a huge drain on Our system. When you talk about the spending, I mean hundreds of billions of dollars being caused by illegal immigrants being in this country and being on. On public programs are in place for American citizens. When we get them out of the country, that's actually going to lower our spending levels massively without doing a single thing. One of the changes in the Big beautiful bill will be getting millions of illegal immigrants off of Medicaid. Okay? They're costing Medicaid billions of dollars a year. So these open borders that we have, we have to not only have the border secure, but we got to get these people out so they stop draining our public resources. All of this stuff has to work together to get our country on the right fiscal path forward.
- [50:44]
James Blair
Appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much for giving us some of the details on the Big beautiful bill. What can you give us a sense as to what you. What this announcement is supposed to be about? The Golden Dome.
- [50:57]
Clay Travis
I'm going to let the President break that news, but it's very exciting stuff. Look, the President and something he's talked about for a long time. The president wants to make. Make sure the homeland is secure. He wants to make sure that other countries are deterred from ever thinking about even. Even rem Thinking about attacking our country. So it's all part of his vision of having the most lethal fighting force in the world. And that is what really gives us the leverage to sit at the table and demand peace, not only for ourselves and our allies, but everywhere across the globe. And the world has been better off when America has been strong in the world. And that is part and parcel. Having a strong military is part and parcel of that effort. Peace through strength.
- [51:39]
Buck Sexton
Thank you so much for the time. Keep up the good work and we'll talk to you again soon.
- [51:43]
James Blair
Soon.
- [51:44]
Clay Travis
Thank you, guys.
- [51:45]
Buck Sexton
That's James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
- [51:52]
James Blair
Made in America means something to us.
- [51:55]
Buck Sexton
When you invest 700 billion annually in.
- [51:58]
James Blair
American companies and the 13 million workers and families they support, you're investing in.
- [52:03]
Buck Sexton
The success of Main Street.
- [52:05]
James Blair
That's money powering growth in manufacturing, tech, industrial energy and innovation. And it starts with private equity backing American ambition. Learn how private equity keeps American businesses growing at investmentcouncil. Org paid for by the American Investment Council.
- [52:22]
Clay Travis
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.