The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Inflation, Regulations, and the Fight for Small Business in America

Summary

Summary of "The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Inflation, Regulations, and the Fight for Small Business in America"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
• Episode: The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Inflation, Regulations, and the Fight for Small Business in America
• Release Date: May 9, 2025

Overview: In this insightful episode, Tudor Dixon engages in a profound discussion with economist E.J. Antoni and former Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, at the Job Creators Network Freedom Fighters Summit. The conversation delves into the multifaceted issues of inflation, governmental regulations, and their profound impact on small businesses in the United States. Through a blend of statistical analysis, personal anecdotes, and expert opinions, the episode offers a comprehensive examination of the current economic landscape and the critical role small businesses play in fostering a robust economy.

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1. The Crucial Role of Small Businesses in the U.S. Economy

Tudor Dixon begins the episode by highlighting the significance of small businesses in America. Celebrating Small Business Week, he underscores that small businesses constitute 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, emphasizing their role as the backbone of the economy. This segment sets the stage for understanding the broader economic discussions that follow.

Key Points:

• Economic Backbone: Small businesses are pivotal, making up nearly the entire spectrum of U.S. enterprises.
• Job Creation: They are primary drivers of job creation and innovation.

2. Inflation and Its Impact on Everyday Americans

The conversation shifts to the pressing issue of inflation, with E.J. Antoni sharing personal struggles with rising grocery bills and the broader implications for American families.

Notable Quote:

• E.J. Antoni [11:34]: "My grocery bill has gone up from when? Before Biden took office, it was pretty standard that I would spend $300 at the grocery store. I am between $450 and $500 every week now. And that to me is a massive blow."

Key Points:

• Cost of Living: Rising prices are eroding the purchasing power of American households.
• Economic Anxiety: Persistent inflation leads to financial strain and uncertainty among consumers.

3. Government Regulations: Beneficial or Burdensome?

Tudor Dixon passionately argues that government regulations exacerbate inflation by increasing the cost of goods and services. He emphasizes the necessity of reversing "bad public policies" to mitigate rising prices and improve the standard of living.

Notable Quote:

• Tudor Dixon [12:15]: "We've great macro statistics, but I really want to know things like what can the average American actually buy with their weekly paycheck."

Key Points:

• Price Reduction: Deregulation can lead to lower production costs, thereby reducing consumer prices.
• Standard of Living: Allowing incomes to grow faster than prices enhances living standards.

4. The Dichotomy of Job Creation: Private Sector vs. Government

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the nature of job creation under different administrations. Alex Acosta provides a detailed analysis of job statistics, revealing that a large portion of new jobs under the Biden administration were government or government-adjacent roles rather than in productive private sectors.

Notable Quotes:

• Alex Acosta [35:44]: "900,000 is what I'll call government adjacent jobs."
• Tudor Dixon [38:19]: "They stifle the economy."

Key Points:

• Job Quality: Jobs in government sectors often add to bureaucracy without stimulating economic growth.
• Private Sector Growth: Emphasizing private sector job creation leads to sustainable economic development.

5. Energy Prices and Deregulation

The discussion delves into the critical role of energy prices in the broader economy. Tudor Dixon explains how deregulation in energy sectors can lead to reduced costs across the board, from gasoline to manufacturing inputs.

Notable Quote:

• Tudor Dixon [16:26]: "Energy is an input not only as energy, it's an input in terms of products. We forget that most of our synthetic fertilizer today actually comes from natural gas."

Key Points:

• Cost Reduction: Lower energy prices decrease production costs, benefiting multiple industries.
• Supply Chain Impact: Reduced transportation and manufacturing costs can lead to significant savings for consumers and businesses alike.

6. The Negative Effects of Over-Regulation

Tudor Dixon provides tangible examples of how regulatory requirements hinder both consumers and businesses. He discusses appliances’ energy-saving regulations and their unintended consequences, such as increased upfront costs and reduced functionality.

Notable Quote:

• Tudor Dixon [22:43]: "The appliance has to be built in such a way to try to use half the water it used to and less electricity than it used to. And so the result is a much higher up-front cost."

Key Points:

• Consumer Burden: Regulations often lead to higher costs for essential goods without corresponding benefits.
• Business Constraints: Increased compliance costs can stifle innovation and expansion for small businesses.

7. Government Spending and Fiscal Responsibility

The conversation touches on the inefficiencies and waste in government spending. Tudor Dixon highlights organizations like Doge that scrutinize government budgets to eliminate waste, emphasizing the importance of fiscal responsibility.

Notable Quote:

• Tudor Dixon [28:52]: "They're finding all these crazy examples of why are we wasting taxpayer dollars on A, B and C? There's no reason."

Key Points:

• Budget Scrutiny: Vigilant oversight is essential to ensure taxpayer money is used effectively.
• Spending Cuts: Reducing unnecessary expenditures can free up funds for more critical areas like education and infrastructure.

8. The Role of Unions and Leadership in Economic Policy

Alex Acosta discusses the complex relationship between unions, government policies, and economic outcomes. He critiques union leadership for aligning too closely with political agendas that may not always benefit their members in the long term.

Notable Quotes:

• Alex Acosta [48:40]: "The problem is that the union leadership, the AFL CIO leadership in Washington is to a large extent, an arm of the Democratic Party."
• E.J. Antoni [42:19]: "We don't see these special interest groups... spending that kind of money."

Key Points:

• Political Alignment: Union leaders' political affiliations can influence their priorities and strategies.
• Member Interests: Ensuring that union actions genuinely reflect and benefit their members is crucial for sustained support.

9. Future Predictions and the Path Forward

In the concluding segments, Alex Acosta offers optimistic forecasts about the economy's trajectory under continued deregulation and reduced government interference. He predicts that private sector growth will lead to a broader economic boom, benefiting communities nationwide.

Notable Quote:

• Alex Acosta [53:44]: "We desperately need to make those tax cuts permanent... the job numbers offer an interesting view into what deregulation means."

Key Points:

• Sustained Growth: Continued focus on deregulation and private sector incentives can drive significant economic improvement.
• Tax Policy: Making tax cuts permanent is essential to maintain momentum in economic growth and job creation.

10. Concluding Insights

Tudor Dixon and his guests wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of empowering small businesses, reducing regulatory burdens, and fostering private sector growth as foundational elements for a thriving American economy. They call for a collective effort to reverse detrimental public policies and prioritize the needs of everyday Americans.

Notable Quote:

• Tudor Dixon [26:44]: "Taxes cause you to pay for what you're buying, what you're selling for property that you own. What regulation does is it prevents any of that from even happening."

Key Takeaways:

• Economic Empowerment: Policies should aim to empower individuals and businesses rather than constrain them.
• Balanced Growth: Achieving a balance between government oversight and free-market principles is essential for sustainable economic health.

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Conclusion: This episode of The Tudor Dixon Podcast provides a compelling analysis of the intertwined issues of inflation, regulation, and the vitality of small businesses in America. Through expert insights and candid discussions, the episode advocates for deregulation, fiscal responsibility, and the prioritization of private sector growth as pivotal strategies for combating inflation and fostering a resilient economy. For listeners seeking a deeper understanding of these critical economic issues, this episode serves as an informative and thought-provoking resource.

Transcript

[Tudor Dixon]

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[Tudor Dixon]

Back to the Tudor Dixon Podcast. This week we are celebrating Small Business Week. It's a time where we get to recognize the Incredible impact of 33.3 million Small businesses across the United States. That is a little known fact not everybody's aware of, but small businesses make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, so they are truly the backbone of our economy and we wanted to celebrate that. We just got back from the Job Creators Network Summit Summit. It was an awesome experience. While we were there, we had the opportunity to sit down with two fantastic guests, E.J. antoni. He is a super sharp economist from the Heritage foundation, and the former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta. We talked about the current state of the US Economy, what we should be watching for in the near future, and why small businesses are absolutely critical to building a strong and prosperous future. You won't want to miss these conversations, but first, Mother's Day is coming up so I want to highlight an organization that cares deeply for moms. That's Preborn. Preborn's network of clinics exists exclusively to offer love, life and support to pregnant moms who are feeling scared and alone and are being pressured to make the ultimate choice that will not only sacrifice the life of their preborn baby, but take a piece of their heart as well. When a distressed mom comes to preborn, she is welcomed with open arms and is offered a free ultrasound to hear and see the precious life inside of her. The majority of the time that mom will choose life and this Mother's Day you can help bring life to both a mom in need and an at risk baby with an ultrasound. One ultrasound is only $28 and five ultrasounds are $140. Every penny goes towards loving mothers and babies. Well, and when you become a monthly sponsor, you will receive pictures and stories of the lives that you help to save. So to get involved, simply dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 baby. Or visit preborn.comdixon that's preborn.comdixon and this is sponsored by Preborn.

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[E.J. Antoni]

We are here at the Job Creators Network Freedom Fighters Summit. And I have E.J. antoni with me. He is a public finance economist. I can't even speak today, and a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. To tell us a little bit about. We're seeing some interesting things. We've been talking a lot about the jobs report, but we're seeing some interesting things because the leftist media is saying that we're going to have an economic crisis on our hands. What is your response to that?

[Tudor Dixon]

I would love to know where the sense of alarm has been for the last four years when we actually have had an economic crisis. Right. There's all this talk about recession because we had a temporary dip in GDP or gross domestic product. That's one of the statistics we use to try to measure the size of the economy. Meanwhile, they completely ignored the fact that you had two quarters, consecutive quarters under Biden where you had the exact same thing. You had negative GDP growth. But somehow we completely ignored that and changed the definition of a recession. But all regardless, if we talk about how are people actually doing in the economy, which is what I care about, the macro statistics are great. That's meaningful. But I really want to know things like what can the average American actually buy with their weekly paycheck? Right. What is their standard of living and what's their cost of living? Those are the things that I think we should track that are important.

[E.J. Antoni]

Can that really be improved? I mean, we keep hearing people saying that once the inflation has occurred, the prices aren't going to go down. I mean, I hear people here at the summit today talking about there is a chance that you can actually get the prices down. Is it getting the prices down? Is it that we're going to raise, we're going to be able to raise salaries. There's going to be an over overall economic boom. Because that's what I'm hearing from people on the ground. Like my grocery bill, I have four kids. My grocery bill is. It has gone up from when? Before Biden took office, it was pretty standard that I would spend $300 at the grocery store. I am between 450 and 500 every week now. And that to me is a massive blow.

[Tudor Dixon]

Absolutely. And, and so what's the solution to that? We got to reverse the bad public policies that caused it in the first place. And if you reverse those policies, you'll reverse those effects.

[E.J. Antoni]

Okay.

[Tudor Dixon]

And so it's not just a matter of slowing the increase in prices, but it is a matter of actually getting those prices down. And at the same time, we want income to keep growing so as long as people's incomes keep growing faster than prices are, that's good, right, because you're getting ahead. But we want it to be even better where the prices are going down. We want prices down, we want interest rates down, we want people to be able to afford a home again. I mean, this has been an absolute deadly combination where you have not only the skyrocketing of home prices, but also the doubling or tripling in a lot of markets of interest rates.

[E.J. Antoni]

Right.

[Tudor Dixon]

So now all of a sudden you just can't afford a home because those two things together have doubled the monthly mortgage payment on a median price home.

[E.J. Antoni]

What do you think is the public understanding of economic, like their own economic situation? Because I do. I mean, I hear what you're saying. I've had other people kind of counter that with saying the, the youngest generation that is out there buying homes is spending beyond their means right now as well. So you think that is because, I mean, there is certainly an increase even in what we spend because everything has kind of changed. The way we consume television has changed because now you have to pay for streaming and there's different. And I'm not saying those are have to's, but it kind of is how society is now. So how do young people look at this and go, how do I manage my finances so that I can get into that home?

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, one of the reasons why we're seeing more spending in certain categories is because people have literally given up on savings. So why is it people are willing to spend so much more in rent today? Because people are. Young people are looking at homes and saying, I can literally never afford that. The only chance I have of owning a home is when. Is when unfortunately my parents pass away and hopefully leave the asset to me because I will never actually be able to save enough to have a big enough down payment to get the monthly payment down where I can afford that home. And so if I'm never going to be able to afford a home, well, I'm just going to take all that money in rent, which means I can rent a bigger place than I would have if I was still trying to save for that down payment. So this is one of the reasons why inflation is so deadly to the long term growth prospects of an economy. It incentivizes people not to save and to just spend their money today because that's the only way to protect yourself from inflation.

[E.J. Antoni]

So then what happens in 20 and 30 years when these people all get out of the workforce and they have no savings? I mean, what is going to be the economic crash we see at that point?

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, it's going to be all those people now reliant on social services. But, but at the same time, that's the individual level. What's happening at the macro level, the productive base of the economy is gone. Because where do you get the investment? Where do you get the plants and equipment? Where do you get the computers and AI? All these things require investment which comes from savings. Well, if nobody's saving anymore because it's not worth it to save, what happens? All of the. Again, the investment that creates the long run economic growth that we so desperately need more of goes away.

[E.J. Antoni]

What are the biggest things that you can have an impact on? Quickly, when we see President Trump out there talking about making life better for Americans, are we talking the gas prices? I mean, when I see this is something we talk about quite a bit in the state of Michigan because the governor feels that she can raise the taxes on gas and then pay for roads with that and pay for other things with taxes on gas. That to me is. It's the kind of the nastiest tax you can have. Right. Because everybody has to buy gas. Regardless of who you are, what your economic condition, your situation is, you have to buy gas. So what are the areas where like a President Trump can come in and immediately start to lower prices? We saw the egg prices. That was a big conversation. Are there other opportunities with ag, Is there, is there anything else with energy? What are the places he can have the biggest impact?

[Tudor Dixon]

Yeah, absolutely. Gasoline is a great example because even if you're not buying gasoline, you're buying gasoline. In other words, you go to the store and you grab an item off the shelf. It got there on a vehicle. Right. And so some of the cost of what you're paying for is the fuel, is the gas, is the diesel a lot of times. But whatever the case, getting those energy prices down therefore reduces prices throughout the economy. So what we're seeing with Trump is through, through the epa, through ag, through other departments and agencies, they are bringing down energy prices. A lot of that is through deregulation. And so again, as you bring down those energy prices, you reduce prices throughout the economy.

[E.J. Antoni]

That can lead to the biggest factor. And because that's something that we've talk about a lot. I know that was always something that was a big factor in our factory when we had to add on surcharges because the cost of transportation was so expensive, the logistics portion of it. And that's where I don't think that people are always calculating when you are restricting the ability to move trucks and charge them more, that ultimately gets passed on. And that's the funny thing to me is that you hear the Democrats go, oh my gosh, these tariffs, they get passed on to the consumer. Every time they raised energy costs, every time they talked about EV mandates, there.

[Tudor Dixon]

Was that sense of alarm.

[Colby Ekowitz]

Right.

[E.J. Antoni]

That is immediate in everything. And it's immediate and it is on every product because every product moves to get to your house.

[Tudor Dixon]

Exactly. And it's such a great point tutor. And I would go one step further and say energy is an input not only as energy, it's an input in terms of products. We forget that most of our synthetic fertilizer today actually comes from natural gas. We synthesize all that urea and other products too from natural gas. And so if you bring down the price of natural gas, you will actually bring down one of, if not the biggest cost input in our food supply. And so all of a sudden you've started bringing down food prices not just because you've reduced the cost of getting the food to the consumer, but you've reduced again, one of the key inputs.

[E.J. Antoni]

That's something that we also don't talk about enough is the amount of use petroleum has. The, whether it's your toothbrush or your suit there, every manufacturing process, so many have used oil in some way, use that petroleum in some way. And that's something that people are like, we've got to get away from all of this. I mean, I think that the famous story of was it Patagonia, which or North Face, which company was. It was like, we're going to do nothing with big oil anymore. And they're like, how do you think you make your.

[Tudor Dixon]

Exactly. Now you have poly. Where do polyester fibers come from? Sorry, but you don't find those in nature. Right. We need to take these petrochemicals to create that. Absolutely. And, and you know, this goes back to what you were saying about, about deregulation where regulation has imposed such severe costs on the economy. And if you can repeal those regulations, you reduce those costs essentially without having to do anything. It is all gain as opposed to other areas of the economy where you can make an argument that look to bring these prices down is going to require, let's say, a lot of investment. It's going to require some short term pain for long term gain. When you deregulate, there's basically no pain at all.

[E.J. Antoni]

It is permanently deregulate because we've seen the president and he's been executive Orders, all of this stuff. But how do you convince the government, And I say this because this is on the Republican and the Democrat side where we see lawmakers like to make laws.

[Tudor Dixon]

Yes, very much so.

[E.J. Antoni]

They don't seem to like to get rid of laws as much as they like to make them.

[Tudor Dixon]

Sure. And look, there are no. If you're looking for a permanent perfect fix, sorry, it just, it doesn't exist. I wish it did. We gotta wait for it to get on the other side of eternity to see that. Right. To see any kind of permanency in terms of these good things. But we can make a lot of moves today that will make it more difficult to regulate in the future. You know, things like get scared by.

[E.J. Antoni]

That because they think that regulation is safety. There's a confusion between regulation and safety because they, the Democrats have been very good at telling people, if you're not regulated, then you're doing something to hurt the environment that terrifies people. But these regulations, so many regulations now, they have nothing to do with that. It is, and oftentimes it's a group lobbying to make it harder for the little guy so that, you know, like big sugar, it'll all go to them. It won't go to the other guy there. There's so much behind the scenes of government. Can you kind of like break that down a little bit? Sure, sure.

[Tudor Dixon]

Yeah. So, so often when we talk about cutting regulation, we're talking about cutting burdensome regulation, Right. As you know, we're. We're not talking about getting rid of the regulations that are going to protect the consumer. The problem is the vast majority of regulations don't protect the consumer. Right. When we look at, for example, the whole push to break up Google today, that is coming from Google's competitors, not from any kind of consumers group or consumers union or anything like that. It's because they all wanted, the competitors want to divide up Google so that they can buy the pieces. Right. People want to buy Chrome, they want to buy the browser, they want to buy the search engine, they want to buy the data from Google Maps, et cetera. So again, when we talk about cutting regulation, we're talking about getting rid of the rules that don't actually protect the consumer. They're there to supposedly protect the consumer, but they don't fulfill that mission. A lot of things like the energy requirements on home appliances are a very good example of that. There's a reason why you need to wash your clothes two, three times. Why you need to run your dishwasher two, three times. Same Thing with your clothes dryer.

[E.J. Antoni]

I found out something interesting about the dishwasher, which I just want to share because it has changed my life in the last week. So apparently the dishwashers, they have to have these energy saving requirements on the normal wash. So if you use any of the other washes on your dishwasher, it. Because I was complaining to one of the guys that his kids go to our school and they do appliances and I was like, my dishwasher never dries my dishes out of the way. It's so annoying. I have to bring them out and dry them. And he was like, that's because of these energy efficient requirements. He said, but we don't have to put them on the heavy wash or the light wash. I never have to dry them. I mean, I'm totally shocked by this, but how stupid that you have this small regulation, right? That makes, I mean, not that I can't dry my dishes, but it's just like you expect a machine to work a certain way and then I find out if I just push a different button, it's gonna happen. Crazy.

[Tudor Dixon]

But you're still stuck paying the higher cost for that appliance. So the appliance has to be built in such a way to try to use half the water it used to and less electricity than it used to. And so the result is a much higher up upfront costs. So even if you do have those kinds of workarounds that you're, that you're talking about, again, the consumer is still stuck paying that higher upfront cost. And when we look at the four years of the Biden administration, the regulatory compliance costs average out to about $10,000. Actually, it's over $10,000 for a typical American household. That's absolutely insane. And so you're stuck having to do all these kinds of workarounds that you're describing. Tutor to try and reduce your cost.

[E.J. Antoni]

Per income when your car shuts off at the stoplight and you have to what? It reminds me, I'm like, that's a metaphor for annoying regulations. You know, like, why do I have to do this every time to get my car?

[Tudor Dixon]

But it's, it's worse than annoying because in instances like that, what you're doing is you're constantly allowing the engine temperature to drop slightly. That actually hurts the long run life of your car because you now have, you're now constantly putting the engine back into condition where it's not, it's not operating at peak efficiency, believe it or not. And also it's increasing wear and tear.

[E.J. Antoni]

So again, it's benefit to the company. Like, are we wearing out cars faster? I mean, everybody says nothing lasts as long as it used to, but it's really true. Nothing lasts as long.

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, because. Because we're trying to meet all these insane emissions requirements. Right. That's the reason your engine can't idle at a, at a red light anymore. It's because you're. You need to be able to essentially cut any emissions anywhere possible. It's why cars don't accelerate as well as they used to. Right. We can't have the same performance that we did in years past because the manufacturers are doing anything and everything they can to reduce those emissions. It's also why so many vehicles are going hybrid today. Which, you know, you can make the argument that's good for the consumer because you're using less fuel and everything to more efficient. I get that. But it's a much higher upfront cost that a lot of families just can't afford.

[E.J. Antoni]

Right.

[Tudor Dixon]

So a lot of families are having to keep older cars longer. And the scary thing there is you're keeping a car on the road longer that's less safe than the cars we make today. Right. They don't have all the new standards when it comes to safety. But for the sake of emission standards, you're stuck.

[E.J. Antoni]

But also for years, like in Michigan, you get so many rebates if you buy an electric vehicle. So for years, the people who are struggling along with their older car, their taxpayer dollars, are to pay a rich person to go up. Because even, even with the rebates, you can't afford it. I mean, you can't afford to go out and buy one of these cars even with the rebates. So the person who is struggling along with their old car is paying for the rich person to drive their brand new ev. It's crazy to think that this is what these are, the Democrat policies. But why don't people this?

[Tudor Dixon]

I, I think because conversations like this don't make it into the mainstream media. Right? The mainstream media, they have their talking points from the left and they run with it. And it is good. I think that podcasts and alternative media is really gaining steam against mainstream media. And that really is a dying medium. Which again is good because it means there isn't the same stranglehold on the truth anymore. Or lies, I should say. Right. And now the truth can actually get out again through conversations like this.

[E.J. Antoni]

How can reducing these regulations just. Let's. This will be my last question. But as we see President Trump kind of increasing the jobs. And we're seeing these small wins that are going to turn into big wins. How does this really free up the economy?

[Alex Acosta]

Good.

[Tudor Dixon]

Good question. I like to say that taxes are a penalty on economic activity that's happening. Regulations are a penalty on economic activity that never gets to happen. In other words, taxes.

[E.J. Antoni]

Cause write that down. I'm going to have to record this. Oh, wait, we aren't.

[Tudor Dixon]

There you go. Taxes cause you to pay for what you're buying, what you're selling for property that you own. What regulation does is it prevents any of that from even happening. Right. It prevents the job from being created. It prevents you from selling a product. It prevents you as the consumer from getting that product or service in the first place. And so as you start to not only reduce taxes, which increases economic activity, but reduce that burdensome, ineffective regulation that causes an even bigger increase in economic activity.

[E.J. Antoni]

Now, you made me think a couple of years ago, we, our taxpayer, state, taxpayer dollars went into the budget and there was a county in Michigan that got a cricket field. I don't play cricket. I mean, I don't know a lot of people that play cricket. This is something that a certain community apparently wanted in this county. But instead of having the county pay for it, instead of going to the county and having the, you know, because then it's like more obvious, you know, what it's going to. The county has to get their community to go, yes, we want this. Even though we're never going to use it. It gets kind of sneaked into the state budget. Then we're all paying for a million dollars for a cricket field that could have gone into education, that could have gone into roads. These are the things that I think are also. You have to be aware of and you have to have. And this is kind of what Republicans are exposing right now. There's a massive amount of waste. It's just. I know I said I wouldn't keep going, but that's okay. No, just keep reminding me of things.

[Tudor Dixon]

And Doge has been absolutely invaluable here. So in the last GDP report we saw, government spending fell by about a quarter of a percentage point, which I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's progress that. That's huge. After the explosion in government purchases that we saw under Biden, government purchases have now declined. And about 97 or 98% of that decrease is directly attributable to the cost savings from Doge in the first three months of this year. I mean, that's phenomenal. This is a group of what, a dozen people. And they're identifying all the kinds of waste that you're talking about, Tudor, whether it's the abuse, the corruption, the fraud, the waste, whatever the case may be, they're finding it. They're going through the budget with a fine tooth comb and they're looking at all these crazy examples of why are we wasting taxpayer dollars on A, B and C? There's no reason.

[E.J. Antoni]

Back and say a quarter point. That's nothing. No, it's, we're talking billions. When you're in this kind of, this kind of money, when you're talking trillions of dollars even. I mean, you have to start somewhere. And that's what frustrates me with people when they are just like, this is not enough. It is. We just got to keep going. You got to start somewhere. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate having you on today. It's been a great conversation and it's been great to be here at the Job Creators Network Freedom Fighters Summit. It's been amazing. E.J. antony, thank you.

[Tudor Dixon]

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Many thanks to EJ Antony for joining us. And coming up Next is the 27th Secretary of Labor for the United States. Alex Acosta will join us to discuss the state of small business in the U.S. stay tuned.

[Molly Roberts]

Did you know that just like here in the U. S, Israel has their own Independence Day? In case you missed it this year, Israel's Independence Day was a few days ago on May 1. But for the people of Israel, freedom is nothing more than a daily struggle to survive. There's no real peace, only terror. No joy, just suffering. The Israeli government relies on the international Fellowship of Christians and Jews for ongoing help to make sure the elderly, the sick, the wounded, soldiers and impoverished families don't fall through the cracks. That's why your gift to the fellowship will provide such important life saving aid, medicine, hearty meals, safety and comfort. I believe that when you bless the people of Israel, we unlock God's blessing in our lives as well. So to show your support for Israel's independence, you can make a life saving gift today. You can call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888488, 4325. You can also go online to IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org I'm Molly Roberts.

[Drew Goins]

And I'm Drew Goins. Each Friday on Impromptu, we talk through the questions we can't stop thinking about.

[E.J. Antoni]

Do we need to rethink how much we drink?

[Drew Goins]

Why are companies really asking workers to come back to the office?

[E.J. Antoni]

Does boycotting a business actually work?

[Drew Goins]

Should we quit social media?

[E.J. Antoni]

We're here when the news gets personal and the headlines hit home.

[Drew Goins]

Join Molly and me every Friday on Impromptu from Washington Post Opinions.

[E.J. Antoni]

Find impromptu wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[E.J. Antoni]

We are here at the Job Creators Network Freedom Fighters Summit, and I have Secretary Acosta with me. You are the 27th labor secretary. This is a very interesting time we're at in the United States.

[Alex Acosta]

It's a wonderful time.

[E.J. Antoni]

It is a wonderful time. And so I'm so glad that you're here to talk to us about it, because this is your expertise. Obviously, today, this where we are recording this ahead of time. But today, here at the summit, while we're here, the jobs report came out, and I was like, you know, Secretary Alex Acosta, he, this is the guy, he will know about this. And then you were like, you said.

[Tudor Dixon]

That to me and you must have.

[E.J. Antoni]

Heard what I said. I didn't. So I'm really excited to hear what you have to say about it because I think it's very interesting.

[Alex Acosta]

So we're just talking about deregulation and how much President Trump is doing in deregulation. And, you know, I think sometimes Americans have a hard time understanding what it means to save 10 billion versus 20 billion versus, you know, half a trillion, because it's just, those are so big. The numbers are so big. What does it mean? And so I wanted to break it down because the jobs numbers just came out this morning, and I think the jobs number offer an interesting view into what deregulation means. And so last year, our economy generated one and a half million jobs, which is good. But let's talk about what that meant. 400,000 of those jobs were government jobs. So out of the one and a half million, 400,000 were government jobs.

[E.J. Antoni]

It's like a third of the job.

[Alex Acosta]

900,000 new government jobs, new net new government jobs.

[E.J. Antoni]

Good, great.

[Alex Acosta]

A third of the jobs, give or take, you know, were new net government jobs. 900,000 is what I'll call government Adjacent jobs. And what by government adjacent? I mean health care services and educational services. We didn't get a lot more new teachers. We didn't get a lot more doctors and nurses. We got more hospital administrators. I was talking to someone in the audience that said, you know, that's fascinating because I worked at a hospital and we had to hire an army of compliance specialists to comply with new insurance rules. And we actually had to fire health care staff because of the regulations. So 900,000 jobs to comply with health care and education oversight.

[E.J. Antoni]

So that makes sense because in Michigan, after Covid, the governor enacted this racial bias testing that had to occur in all of our hospitals.

[Alex Acosta]

Right.

[E.J. Antoni]

So then you had to hire a lot of people to administer the racial bias testing. And then people did get fired because they had to spend so much money on the racial bias testing. And then these people took these tests and they said they were incredibly insulting because they said, we don't, we don't judge whether or not we are going to treat somebody based on their race. This is ridiculous. What a waste of money.

[Alex Acosta]

You treat them because they're a person.

[E.J. Antoni]

That's right. Yes.

[Alex Acosta]

Right. And so they're, they actually let go of nurses and healthcare staff to hire compliance and regulatory folks and cult bureaucracy. Right. So 900,000 of those jobs went to healthcare and education bureaucracy. And what that meant was only 200,000 net new jobs where, like folks doing things like, like making things right, you know, not, not government workers adding to bureaucracy, not, you know, bureaucrats in the hospitals, but, you know, actual doctors and nurses and teachers and manufacturers.

[E.J. Antoni]

And that's what I was going to say. When you think about people who make the. I come from the foundry world, so I was a maker of things, you know, and there's a certain pride in making things. And that is what we keep hearing from Donald Trump is we've got to get back to. He said just in Michigan this week, he said those three beautiful words I love to hear Made in America. You know, that's what we want and.

[Alex Acosta]

That'S what we wanted. So out of the one and a half million jobs created last year, only 200,000. We're outside of government or government adjacent sectors.

[E.J. Antoni]

That's shocking.

[Alex Acosta]

Now, let's talk about this year. So far since President Trump took office, the new job numbers were out this morning. 177,000 better than expected. That's good news. That's great news. But here's what I love about it. We've already created 200,000 since government. Some President Trump took office. Thousand Jobs making things and doing things and doing something that's not a government job. Right, right. We've only created. And when I say government, I mean federal, state, and local. But federal, state, and local. This year, we've created 20,000 jobs, not 400,000 jobs. Right. And so the jobs that are being created are the private sector jobs that pay really well, that increase our economy, that increase our lifestyle, that make us happier. Right. That. That make us healthier, that make us better educated. That's what we want in this economy.

[E.J. Antoni]

I heard Senator Ernst saying that these are the types of jobs that free up the economy, and I thought that was. That was something that was very profound because we don't think about the government jobs.

[Tudor Dixon]

They stifle the economy.

[E.J. Antoni]

That is, if you are creating more government, it is to stop business from being free. If you are creating manufacturing, if you're creating jobs where people do things, if you're creating actual jobs for nurses and doctors, that is freeing up the economy.

[Alex Acosta]

To take your hospital example in Michigan, you know, the hospital's purpose is to make people healthier. You're not making them healthier by creating more compliance specialists and letting go of nurses. You're making them healthier by hiring more nurses to take care of all people.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the question is, though, why did the Biden administration make so many government jobs? I think that's what people don't understand, and they don't see it. This is one of the things that we're going to talk about, the economy later and whether or not we need to raise taxes or we're overspending, which obviously we are overspending. But the American people don't necessarily see that every day because they don't see these special interest groups that are like, oh, we're going to spend for, you know, to make sure that people are having diversity in the workplace in Serbia. Why are we spending that kind of money? So how do you get. How does this translate into talking to the American people?

[Alex Acosta]

So I think there are a few things on the table. First, it's easiest to create a government job because all you have to do is write a check. Right. And so, you know, if you're worried about how the economy is doing, you're going into an election and you're worried about how is the economy doing. And you're President Biden. You can say, let's create a bunch of government jobs. And now all of a sudden, the job numbers look better. All of a sudden you have government workers that are going to vote for you. Because you just gave them a job. The country's not healthier, it's not the right thing to do in the long run. But it's the easy fix, it's the sugar fix. It's sort of like, you know, we have kids and sometimes you're trying to do five things and, and you know, your child wants to have some cake and you're like, okay, go ahead and have that cake. That's not the right move, that's not the healthy move, but it's the easiest. We've all done that, right? You know, I have a six year old and so, you know, it's the sugar fix. And I think that's part of it. The other part of it is I think genuinely there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans and how they look at things. I think Democrats genuinely believe that the government should tell you how you know how to do things. You see this, for example, with the vaccine mandate, you see this with so many other things where, you know, they want to empower government workers to come up with rules to govern your life. And I think conservatives will say, look, it's my life, you know, I know, and I should know what's best for me and if not, I'm going to learn from it. And so I want to make my own decisions. And that creates a whole different, you know, approach to how big government should be.

[E.J. Antoni]

So it's interesting because I posted something about AOC and how bad her policies are and the amount of comments that I got back saying government should take care of us. She is there to make sure government takes care of us. I'm like, how did we get here where there's a vast amount of the population that believes that government is there not to make sure that you have the necessities like roads, that you have the necessities like police and fire, that you have the necessities like education is actually they should care for you. That has never been the thought process of the United States, but we're going.

[Alex Acosta]

That direction, we are going that way and we're replacing the role of family with government. Right?

[E.J. Antoni]

That's right.

[Alex Acosta]

And that, and that's so dangerous, you know, and so a lot of these regulations that the liberals come out with is to replace family. It's, you know, it's to, to replace community. Caring for someone with the government check. But that's really not caring. That that's another form of that sugar, you know, high. Instead of us going through the effort of, you know, yesterday one of the guests here was sitting on the Floor and someone brought a chair to her right away. Right. And what's interesting is someone actually went through the effort of going and finding a chair and coming back and saying, sit on the chair, not the floor. It wasn't, let's call the hotel staff and let's engage the hotel bureaucracy, you know, to help this woman. And so I think at a big picture, the difference is the Democrats want to have a safety staff that will then find the right, you know, the right safety mechanism for the woman to get off the floor. The conservative view is an older lady just felt, let's get her a chair so she's not sitting on the steps.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yes, yes, so. So this is interesting because in high schools right now, there is a push in at least in the state of Michigan to put these health clinics in high schools so that it's whole of care, whole of child care. So the child goes to the school, they at some point are dismissed to the health clinic for their annual checkup. They get their vaccinations there. That's all of a sudden something that to me is very family personal that now is going to be at the school. You've got a lot of administrative work to manage the check. And in Michigan, we don't have control of our child's healthcare record after the age of 12 at all. They have to sign medical proxy over to their parents. And I can still only see a certain amount of their tests and their results because they get total control of their healthcare after 12, which is outrageous that now this is like we're going to take, take all of that out of the, the family. We're going to put that on the schools. But the interesting thing to me is that there is no, there is no accountability in the schools for actual education. We're 41st in the nation for literacy and for education. So we're a disaster, right. When it comes to actually holding the schools accountable for what they are meant to do. There is no push to see that these kids can do school extracurricular activities like, like football and basketball and those things. And yet there have been many studies that have shown that if kids are engaged in a sport or a club and that it requires them to do well in school, that will lift the entire school up. Because if you see the jocks having to actually attain a certain gpa, when did we get to the point where we take away the things that are the core part of, of what we provide to students and we try to create the family around the kid in the, in the school? This is scary.

[Alex Acosta]

Well, I, you know, I, I wasn't aware of the Michigan statute, and I think it's frightening because what's happening there is the, the school is replacing the parents. The school. What, what you're telling me is that parents, literally after 12, have no control over the child's health care unless the child. And that the school wants to take over that child's health care. And, and that's just wrong. It's another form of the government replacing the family.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yeah.

[Alex Acosta]

Right. And, you know, it's quite literally a step toward a brave new world where, where, where the schools become the, the parent. I, I think one of the problems, one of the issues is. And, and I'll say, you know, I think, I think folks that go into teaching love children and they want to do the right thing, but we've lost humility. We've lost the sense of our job is to teach. And it stops there. We've lost the humility to say we are not the all.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yes.

[Alex Acosta]

We've lost the humility to say we need to respect parents in this. Right. Because they were the parents. They are the primary educator and caregiver and moral teacher. And our job is to support the parents by teaching math and writing and English.

[E.J. Antoni]

The idea, the Hillary Clinton statement of it takes a village to raise a child went to a different level. She took that to we want your child, and it needs to not be the family. That's the scary thing.

[Alex Acosta]

That is scary. And, you know, let's start with family first. Right, Right.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yes.

[Alex Acosta]

You know, and if you look at all the studies, the family. A family structure is the most important thing for a child, and the schools cannot replace that. And having health clinics, you know, having the schools control a child's health care cannot replace that.

[E.J. Antoni]

So I want to jump quickly to the unions because that's something that I'm sure you dealt with heavily. That's something that Donald Trump, when he was on the campaign trail, he was talking to the unions quite a bit. The interesting thing is, I just want to know, Donald Trump just announced that he's going to bring new fighter jets to Selfridge Air Force Base, that we're going to make sure that that continues in the state Michigan. Joe Biden had that opportunity. He flew into that base just to go walk the picket line with the uaw. But the auto workers didn't actually come out and vote for him. The uaw, the leaders were not fans of President Trump when he was running. Suddenly, they're changing their tune. They kind of like the tariff situation.

[Alex Acosta]

Well, they're changing their tune because their members are changing their tune. Let's.

[E.J. Antoni]

So they should listen to their.

[Alex Acosta]

They need to listen to their members or they can be voted out. You know, look, I mean, the problem is that the union leadership, the AFL CIO leadership in Washington is to a large extent, an arm of the Democratic Party. And, you know, the President Biden went and he walked the picket line and all that. And it was a political stunt. That's what it was. Let's call it. It was a political stunt.

[E.J. Antoni]

Of course it was good. It was a good picture for someone who couldn't go out and give a speech.

[Alex Acosta]

Yeah. And it was a good picture for someone that wanted to say, you're a union person, you should vote for me because I walked to picket line. But. But ultimately, you know, if you've been around President Trump, you know, he, you know, he grew up at construction sites. He grew up talking to workers. He understands the worker. You know, I like to sometimes say he's a billionaire that understands more about most American workers than many millionaires do. Right. You know, he could isolate himself, but he doesn't. I've seen him go and give, give talks. You know, I've seen him go to a Vegas hotel to give a speech. And on the way he'll stop and he'll talk to the restaurant workers. You know, he'll talk to the guys in the elevator. He likes it. This is who he is. And you can't fake that. Right. And, and when he goes, you know, I was with him when he visited a Caterpillar site. I think it was a Caterpillar site there, a bunch of Caterpillars, tractors there. The, the men and women sense that. They sense how much he likes talking to the workers and he cares about the workers. And that translates for the UAW and for Michigan in that he wants cars made right here in America. You know, if he was here, he'd say those big, beautiful cars made right here, you know, with American hands. And, and he gets that, that. Why did we send them out? You know, we're making them abroad not because we can't make them here, but because the regulations make it so hard and expensive to make them here. We were talking inside about how we will mine ore in the United States. You know, because of environmental regulations, we can't process it here. So we'll put it on a boat that uses a lot of. Of oil to ship it to China to process it in a factory in China that is certainly not a green factory in the same world. Right. To then put it on another boat, to ship it right back to the United States as processed steel.

[Tudor Dixon]

Yeah.

[Alex Acosta]

Right. Now, is that really green? Are we really helping the environment? Are we just pushing jobs out of America?

[E.J. Antoni]

Right. And then that's the thing, like I said, that people can't. They can't break that down in their heads. But you said something. I have not thought about this in two years. There is truly a difference between Donald Trump as a leader and as a business owner than other people. And I come from, like I said, we had a foundry, and I was on the shop floor every day because it was, you know, my job was to communicate between the customers and the shop floor. I had to be down there, had to be helping to move parts. You know, I was interacting every single day. I met an owner of a company when I was campaigning.

[Tudor Dixon]

You know, you meet with all these.

[E.J. Antoni]

People who are interested in who's the governor. Then he looked at me and he said, I go to my factories once a month and I walk on the shop floor and all the people look at me and they feel so good to think that I'm willing to step out on the shop floor. And I was like, no, they don't. Because that attitude is so different than Donald Trump. And I think that is what people see you. Right. And I've never really put my finger on it, but that is what. When they see President Trump, they know he actually cares. When you're around him, if you are with him in person, you see it. That was the key to him being successful, was continuing to go back.

[Alex Acosta]

And in his heart, he's not a politician. In his heart, he's not someone that went up through the elected system. In his heart, he's a businessman that knows that, that the folks that worked for him, that built his buildings, actually built them.

[E.J. Antoni]

Yes.

[Alex Acosta]

And he gets that. And it translates into how he relates, and it translates into how he thinks. And that's why, at the end of the day, so many men and women, even though the union leadership did not endorse President Trump, so many men and women of labor actually voted for him because they know he will have their back.

[E.J. Antoni]

So give us a prediction before you go of what happens in this presidential term and how does that change the country? Because we're seeing him with a lot of executive actions. We're seeing him lowering costs and taking out regulations. But can we get the Congress on board to make that permanent?

[Alex Acosta]

So I think the Congress will come on board. I think we're going to see, you know, we don't talk nearly enough about the upcoming tax bills and how important it is to make those tax cuts permanent, because the last thing we need now is the taxes going up because the tax cuts weren't made permanent.

[E.J. Antoni]

Right.

[Alex Acosta]

And so we desperately need that. I think you're going to see that happen. You know, I think the biggest challenge right now that we have is the economy is shifting. Right. We see this in the jobs numbers where we started. You know, so far this year, we've already created more private sector jobs than all of last year combined.

[E.J. Antoni]

That's crazy.

[Alex Acosta]

Which is great news. Right? But. But you see that shift away from, you know, a lot of the other jobs, away from the government jobs, away from the government adjacent jobs. And that creates disruption and the tariffs create disruption. And you're starting to see that a little bit in the GDP numbers and there's pushback on that. And we just need to realize we're going through a transition and we did a little bit of patience. And I think once it's done, you're going to see the economy boom. Because these small business jobs that have been created are the ones that last and the ones that are right there in your community, they're not the ones that get shipped overseas.

[E.J. Antoni]

That's interesting because there is a lot of pushback right now. And I think there's a lot of fear surrounding some of these news reports that like, oh, this is crazy. The stock market's fluctuating. This is a problem, but you see a positive outcome.

[Alex Acosta]

Well, look, I'm just looking at the data. We've created more private sector jobs. You know, it's like the science. It's a science. You know, it's not the science. It's day. It's just numbers. Right? I'm not. It's not opinion. The bottom line is 170,000, 177,000 net new jobs. And for the first time in a long time, you know, government jobs weren't a big chunk of that was a really small chunk. And that's good for all of us in the long run.

[E.J. Antoni]

I love it. Well, thank you so much, Secretary Alex Acosta. I appreciate having you on today.

[Alex Acosta]

I appreciate your time.

[Tudor Dixon]

Thank you for joining me on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others, go to tutordixonpodcast.com, you can find subscribe right there or head over to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And join us next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have a blessed day.

[Colby Ekowitz]

We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story. Or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz, co host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from the Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture. Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need. Find Post Reports now wherever you're listening.

[Drew Goins]

The wait is almost over. Get ready for the NFL season like never before with the highly anticipated 2025 NFL Schedule release. Every rivalry, every rematch, every rookie debut, every game revealed, the dates will be set, primetime matchups will be known, and the road to the super bowl starts here. The full NFL schedule release Wednesday, May 14th. Get all of the [e-mail] ScheduleRelease Online.

[Colby Ekowitz]

Education is convenient, but sometimes it can be lonely. Sometimes the extra help you need can only come from someone else. At American Public University, they make online education personalized, affordable and memorable. With 24. 7 mental health support available in multiple languages, access to career coaches who are industry professionals and lifelong career services, you'll never feel alone on your path to success. APU Digital by nature, human by design. Learn more at apu Apus Edu.

[Drew Goins]

Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Xumo to stream music from iHeart 90s radio is easy. Or play Iheart country or hip hop beats your choice. All for free. Stream Easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle. This may stay in and binge American Hustle starring Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence, Layer Cake with Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller and Snatch with Brad Pitt. All streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard. Zumo is easy.

[Alex Acosta]

I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway. Hi.

[E.J. Antoni]

Welcome to the Wealth Break podcast, a.

[Alex Acosta]

Real conversation about finance. Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.

[Tudor Dixon]

I feel like sometimes being broke is.

[E.J. Antoni]

A cycle and that we might have to revisit that.

[Alex Acosta]

And we're not stopping at success stories.

[Colby Ekowitz]

What happens when it doesn't go right?

[E.J. Antoni]

How do you cope with it?

[Alex Acosta]

Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same.

[Drew Goins]

Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartradio app.

[Lisa Booth]

You're listening to an iHeart podcast.