Brian Mudd (2:58)
All we want's the greatest country we can handle. We know how we got here, we know how we gonna stay here and how we're gonna grow. And it isn't running around talking about collectivism and having the public get veto rights over pay. I'll tell you what made the country great. It's the people who make this country work. I don't care that are rich, middle class, third or fourth quintile. It's the people that make this country great, not government and not government policies and not government regulations. It is the freedom that we all acknowledge we have that allows us to pursue whatever our dreams and ambitions are, as unfettered as any people in the history of civilization have ever been. Amen. Amen. Timeless wisdom from the late, great Maha Rushi that happened to be from May 31st of 2007. And producer Ali. She was going through suffering through in New York City, the Kami Mamdani speech. After being sworn in, she said, you know what reminded me of Rush saying that it's true. It is the people that make this country great. The reason why the 80s were great, because you were allowed to keep more of what you earn. You are allowed to be successful. The reason why things ended up being really great during Trump's first term, right before the nonsense of the pandemic, was because we had great policy being put in place. Again, great policy being we had peace, we had lower taxes, we had next to no inflation, things were great. The problem that we tend to get ourselves in is that we take so much of this for granted, and then we don't do the most basic things that we can do to make a difference, to permanently make our lives better. Hey, there it is. Brian Mudd in for Clay and Buck. The guys will be back on Monday ready to rip and be looking forward to them as much as you. And as we're taking a look at this New Year, I was thinking about all these successes, so many of them that I, I broke down in, in detail on New Year's Eve for you. And I was thinking about what went into that and what we are set up for going forward. But then you take a look at the political analysis that's out there and everybody, Republicans are set to get waxed and we had a color last hours like Republicans are going to get waxed. It's going to happen if you, if you let it. It'll happen if you let it. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. And there's a really instructive point with something that he said, well, what have Republicans in Congress done? Exactly what Donald Trump wanted them to do. It is so easy to take things for granted. You know, if they ended up passing. Let's just say as a matter of exercise, you had 30 different bills that the one big beautiful bill did not exist. It was just 30 different bills to pass all of the Trump agenda. What do you feel like a lot more was accomplished because they passed 30 individual pieces of legislation to get there. That's why it was such a big deal. That's why there was so much that went into that. It was the Trump agenda. And so, yeah, you can find things to quibble about. Yeah, there are plenty of rhinos out there. And the other thing I'll always remind people is, look, you're never going to agree with anybody 100%, even if you're the politician. Something I've always said, I today will probably not be the exact same person I am in about five years. I, five years now would probably not agree with me today on everything. It's all part of being a learning, thinking, growing person. Right. Life's irony. The more you know, the more you realize how little you actually know and you go out there and you learn more. And so this is what the left has always had over us on the right. It's that they are not worried about altruism. It's the means justifying the end. It's the rules for radicals approach. You know, it's the, the Weather Underground, it's the heirs, it's the Obama that's learning under them and playing the long game. Getting all of his people in place, then getting his puppet Biden in place and getting Team Auto Pen and then getting the socialist Obama agenda in place over the prior four years. That's the kind of game that the left always plays. Republicans go, yeah, but, yeah, but Pam Bondi and Epstein or something, okay, and so now you're going to let Marxism take control of the country going forward. Not a good idea. Not bright. So what I am doing, going through so many of these successes from year one, in many cases that have barely been felt and won't be felt until this year, in some cases, won't fully be felt until next year, just like was the case during Trump's first term, as a means of conditioning not to make the same mistakes that we did in 2018, not to let Democrats end up waxing Republicans in the midterms and having Trump's final two years spent with impeachments and just trying to destroy this country doesn't need to be that way. We are set up for unprecedented success if we appreciate it, if we do our part. Now, one of the things that was accomplished with that one big beautiful bill act, the tax cuts, right? So just kind of going through the high points and things that are better and have yet to be felt for just about anybody. You know, the average employee who earns tips going to be saving about $2,000 annually in federal taxes. Kind of a big deal. The average employee who works overtime at any point during a given year, going to be saving about 1400 bucks in federal income taxes. 90% of Social Security recipients going to have no federal income tax liability for Social Security. That'll save them an average of about 1500 bucks per year. I mean, this is huge money, but again, hasn't even been felt by these people for the most part because next to nobody took a look at the new law having been passed and made adjustments to their withholding. And so that's why you're going to see the record refunds once people file their taxes. It's all part of what is going to be felt down the road. All part of why we are set for unprecedented success. That much more money in people's hands. All the peace that is out there and talk about the, the negotiated peace that even a lot of Trump supporters, they were not familiar with, you know, here are the eight different wars and like Azerbaijan in Armenia, not a lot of people up on the conflict there, but Trump brought peace. And Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, massive one. The Gazans in Israel and Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Serbia, Kosovo, and all of that ends up bringing a benefit along with it. And it also brings credibility as President. Trump is looking to put an end to the Russian, Ukraine war. Lots of constructive meetings over the past week as he was working through the, the holidays on all of that, as he continued to apply pressure on Venezuela that is resulting in Maduro saying, you know what, I think it's probably time to go ahead and, and negotiate. We're ready to, to talk to, to the United States. We, we would like to, we'd like to come to some kind of agreement. Yeah. Trump continuing to put policies in place daily. It will continue to pay a benefit down the road. Crime. Crime was a huge benefit over the past year. Homicide, 17% lower than a year ago today. Robberies 25% lower. Thefts 25% lower overall. Violent crimes, 11% lower. Property crimes 12% lower. Now that kind of stuff doesn't just happen, but do we necessarily appreciate it, do we take it for granted? Are we going to put politicians back into place that support the higher crime? The support of the Biden administration that went along with all the nonsense that are going to run things like they are set to run New York City? Is that the way to go? Because we're mad that Republican didn't do what I wanted to in Congress on this particular thing. Is that better? You want to have more crime? One of the other untold things that most people have not realized the benefit of and it's all part of why, for example, inflation is coming in lower than the experts, the so called economic experts thought the regulations. Trump getting rid of over 640 regulations over the past year means that Life is about $600 cheaper this year than it was this time last year. Heading into this year, just due to not having a bunch of regulations that you didn't even really know existed, life's going to be about $600 cheaper per household this year. Not bad. All part of how every single household is in a better position today, if for no other reason. So many of these things, you know, by the time you take a look at how many households can benefit from the tax policies, how many households can benefit from reduced consumer expense, that's everybody, by the way. How many households can benefit from a lower rate of inflation, which is everybody. One of the big reasons why these so called economic experts have been dead wrong about economic growth and about inflation coming down over the past year has been because of the immigration policy that wasn't fully accounted for and how inflationary that was. But then also all of the impacts that are associated with better energy policy and all the impacts that are associated with fewer regulations and all these things, you know, less government equals more money in your pocket every time. And we are going to See the benefit of it now. And one of the big things, the biggest of all actually, and it was just a remarkable deal. The total round trip investment that President Trump secured last year for the United States was $9.6 trillion. And at some point, it's just numbers, you know, it's like a trillion dollars. What is that to put that in perspective for you? Total foreign investment into the United States over the entire prior 10 year period. If you take a look 2015 to 2024, how much new investment came in from outside the United States into it, it was 2.2 trillion. Okay, so let me put this in perspective. What Trump was able to secure in 11 plus months was the equivalent of what in today's dollars we would have secured in about 44 years of policy previously. He did in 11 months what we were pacing 44 years to achieve. And again, so much of this is just going to start to be realized. And so the short list, the abbreviated list of incredible accomplishments is I think, taken for granted. But it does equal unprecedented success in our lives going forward with a lot of the impacts that are going to be felt. Like a time release thing, you know, it's like taking that time release pill, not going to feel it two minutes after you take it. It's going to take some time. But we already have the roadmap. We're not telling you something that you haven't already lived because this is exactly what happened during Trump's first term, only it's that on steroids because he's been able to accomplish so much more and by the way, had a Congress, even with slim majorities, that was far more cooperative than it was during Trump's first term as well, when Republicans were not ready to govern because the boobs that were leading the party at that point in Congress, oh, didn't think that Trump was going to win either. And so then they kind of bumbled their way into it. That was not the case this year. So we are set up for a really good level of success here. So the question comes down to whether we are going to seize the opportunity we have or are we going to have a repeat of 2018. Are we going to get frustrated? Are we going to stay home when it's time to vote because Trump's name is not on the ballot? That is really what this gets down to. I'm Brian Mudd, in for Clayne, Buck, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton telling it like it is. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.